What a surprise...

[Tarheel]

So...Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is now a "brand".  I really don't have the words.

This story from "My Way News" and Drudge...as usual, all emphasis is my own:

King family seeks to cash in on MLK-Obama items
Nov 13, 3:25 PM (ET)

By ERRIN HAINES

ATLANTA (AP) - Zealous guardians of his words and his likeness, the family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is demanding a share of the proceeds from the sudden wave of T-shirts, posters and other merchandise depicting the civil rights leader alongside Barack Obama.

Isaac Newton Farris Jr., King's nephew and head of the nonprofit King Center in Atlanta, said the estate is entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees - maybe even millions.

"Some of this is probably putting food on people's plates. We're not trying to stop anybody from legitimately supporting themselves," he said, "but we cannot allow our brand to be abused."

But while Obama's election as the first black president may be the fulfillment of King's dream and could yield a big windfall for his estate, policing his image and actually collecting any fees could prove to be a legal nightmare because of the great proliferation of unauthorized King-Obama paraphernalia, much of it sold by street vendors.
...

The link:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081113/D94E8SC81.html

[Ranger12]

The irony is that I don't believe Obama's election was the "dream" MLK preached. MLK wanted a man to be judged on his character, not based upon the color of his skin. However, how many times have we heard of people that voted for him because of his skin, not because of his political views? Too many if you ask me.

There was a young black guy in my Calculus class that made the statement that he was voting for Obama because it was time for black man to be in the White House. I asked him if I told him I was voting for McCain because he was white, would he think I was racist for doing that and of course he said yes. Then I asked him what did he think he was being if he was voting for Obama because he was black. He tried to say it was not the same, and I just sit there and smiled because you could see it in his eyes that he knew he was exposed, especially when I pointed out that MLK would probably frown on him for his reason for voting that way.