Remember Malcolm X

With just days to go before the June 2 primary, I am somewhat torn between the desire to comment and the inclination to hold my tongue , as other bloggers have chosen to do.

Meanwhile, WBAI reminded me that Malcolm X would have turned 84 today.

Malcolm's voice on WOR on late-night radio was compelling in the 1960s, even though his message was sometimes alarming. His life viewed in its entirety and the circumstances of his death are testaments to human enlightenment (the former) and the evil that men can do (the latter). There is a mysterious Plainfield link that I have yet to fully comprehend.

Anyway, Wikipedia does a pretty good job of detailing the stages of his life, from dissolution to militance to finding his own direction and purpose before his assassination. Click here to read it.

Now to some just a name in the history books, Malcolm X was a complex being, a seeker who ended up in a higher place at his peril. I will be thinking today about Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

--Bernice Paglia