Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Martin Luther King fake quote/faked Osama death


martin luther king Martin Luther King said some memorable things in his too-short lifetime, but apparently, a fake quote speeding around the Internet in the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden killing isn't one of them.

Here's the quote attributed to King (shown here in Baltimore in 1964): "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

But The Atlantic's Megan McArdle noted that the opening words came from a recent Facebook post. Time points out that the latter half of the quote is a passage from King's book "Strength to Love."
I'm not surprised that there's confusion surrounding the quote. Folks seem skeptical about everything these days. Is Osama still alive (maybe kept in a basement in the Pentagon)? Is Obama's birth certificate a fake? Did we really send a man to the moon? When did we get so overwhelmed by conspiracy theories?

As for me, I take solace in words attributed to the great philospher Groucho Marx: "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.”

Posted by Dave Rosenthal

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