Things to think about on this very special Birthday/Holiday
This post is about the rash of hackers, stalkers, and blackmailers who have lately spread fear, uncertainty and doubt among sex bloggers. It's also about Dr. Martin Luther King (one of my top-tier heros alongside Henry David Thoreau, Hannah Arendt, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams) who was also subjected to, of all things, intimidation for having a sex life. (Happy birthday big guy, wherever you are.)
Today we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King. He was a genuinely great man. A man who, when I was a boy, when he was still alive, my mother and father taught me to admire, to respect, and to love. Dr. King is most remembered these days as a champion of racial equality. He was. Man he was! Dr. King is remembered less these days as a champion also of ending poverty. And he was. Man he was. Dr. King is remembered even less as a champion of freedom and dignity for all Americans, young or old, poor or rich, black or white, man or woman.
My dad said Dr. King was relatively safe as long as he only pissed off racists, as long as he focused on racial equality. He meant "relatively safe" of course, for the racists of his day were the real thing -- real bull-whipping, axe-handle wielding, school-bus firebombing, child-murdering monsters literally Hell bent on preserving... a frankly incomprehensible way of life.
My dad said much of the racism of the day was incomprehensible to him because most of the racists who opposed King and oppressed the people he represented were also poor, also ignorant, also disadvantaged, also hungry, also frustrated, also exploited, and also marginalized.
My dad said Dr. King stopped being relatively safe when he began saying the real problem wasn't race but poverty, ignorance, disadvantage, hunger, frustration, exploitation, and marginalization, period. He stopped being relatively safe when he in effect turned the other cheek and began to crusade for equality not just for African Americans but for the poor of all races.
My dad said that's when Dr. King stopped pissing off just racists and started pissing off the powers that be. Who had more resources at their disposal than fire hoses and jails and white cloaks.
For instance he began to piss off J. Edgar Hoover, the legendary head of the then nearly unregulated FBI. Hoover spied on King quite a bit. He had him followed constantly. He had his phones tapped. And, significantly, he had his hotel rooms bugged.
And I'm sorry to say he wound up with recordings of Dr. King having sex with women other than his wife.
I'm *NOT* sorry Dr. King had sex. I'm not really even sorry the FBI wound up with the recordings, because that's what they did back then and may still do now.
What I *AM* sorry about is that Hoover evidently decided that gave him the goods on Dr. King. That it gave him a powerful, powerful tool with which he could destroy Dr. King and end his troublesome agitation for racial and economic equality.
Here's a snippet of what they had in mind
...Later that same day--and it would be reasonable to surmise it was in response to Hoover's outburst--Sullivan slipped a piece of untraceable unwatermarked paper into an old, also untraceable, typewriter, and composed and crudely typed a letter to King:
King, look into your heart. You know, you are a complete fraud and a greater liability to all of us [the author was only representing himself as black --fl] Negroes. White people in this country have enough frauds of their own but I am sure they don't have one at this time that is anywhere near your equal. You are no clergyman and you know it. I repeat that you are a colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that....King, like all frauds your end is approaching. You could have been our greatest leader....But you are done. Your honorary degrees, your Nobel Prize (what a grim farce) and other awards will not save you. King, I repeat you are done....The American public, the church organizations that have been helping--Protestants, Catholics and Jews will know you for what you are--an evil beast. So will others who have backed you. You are done.
King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days in which to do (this exact number has been selected for a specific reason, it has definite practical significance). You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy fraudulent self is bared to the nation.
When he had finished typing, Sullivan placed the note in a package containing a reel of tape. Earlier that day, Sullivan had had the FBI labs prepare a composite tape of the most salacious episodes recorded by microphones hidden in King's hotel. The tape contained bawdy conversations between King and his friends, sexual conversations between King and several different female sexual partners, and sounds--mattress creaking, groans and cries--associated with sexual intercourse. The next morning Sullivan handed the package to an agent, told him to fly to Miami, and mail the package to King at his Atlanta SCLC office.
The package was opened, as it happened, by King's wife Coretta. She often received recordings of King's speeches, and assumed that this was another. She listened to part of it, quickly recognizing that this was something different, and then she read the threatening note. She called King. Then she, King, Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young and Joseph Lowery listened to it all. They immediately realized that the source had to be the FBI. Some of King's friends thought the purpose had been to blackmail King into declining the Nobel Prize. Others thought the tapes were intended to goad Coretta into divorcing King. A third theory, and the most plausible, was that Sullivan was trying to put the thought of suicide in King's mind.
I just want to say, here, now, that these "revelations" -- that Dr. King was a sexual human being as all other humans are sexual beings -- means nothing at all, alters nothing at all compared to who he was, or what he meant, or why he matters, or how he should be remembered, or whether he deserved to be a leader, or whether he deserved his Nobel Prize, and most of all whether what he had to say was more true than maybe anything else said in the years between 1960 and 1970.
The fallacy in Hoover's way of thinking -- in too many people's ways of thinking -- is that while Gods are false if they have feet of clay, men and women, you and me, Dr. King, Director Hoover, Mother Theresa, Tom Delay, everyone have feet of clay and it neither makes us stronger nor does it diminish us. Not a bit.
My mother and father taught me that Dr. King was a great man, nor were they wrong. We can dream all our lives to be even a tenth as great on our best days. I was a little boy when he died. I was in fifth grade. I miss him.
---
On a tangential note, if we can't be great like Dr. King we can still be subject to sexual blackmail.
The sex-blogosphere is alight right now with rumor of trolls and stalkers and very real bears hacking into our blogs, flooding Blogger with false "this is a spam blog" complaints, finding or trying to find our real names and seeking to out us to our employers or families or communities or, worse, to our partner's employers and families and communities.
Over the last few days I've learned that quite a few very strong even venerable bloggers have pulled the plug due to such pressure or to the perception of such pressure. We succumb, perhaps, because we too forget that feet of clay is part of the human condition. We succumb, perhaps, because we're worried that those to whom we're involuntarily outed will overlook the beams in their eyes for the motes in our own. We worry, perhaps, because some of these trespassers will say "we know where you live."
These are not insignificant worries. These are not insignificant threats.
A bit of perspective may be in order, however.
A blackmailer threatens you with embarrassment. Ok, sometimes acute embarrassment but embarrassment none the less. In so doing, however, they're committing crimes -- sometimes only misdemeanors but other times rather severe felonies. Same with stalkers and others who "only" threaten you. If their activities span interstate or national boundaries then they may be committing further crimes or the penalties for those crimes may be considerably larger.
Unlike Dr. King, who's blackmailers, disgracefully, were officers of the law, you may find the law more sympathetic to your circumstances and you'll find other non-governmental agencies may be interested as well.
If you're contacted by someone of this ilk, retain all records you can, including email messages, server logs, addresses and media used, and please note the time carefully. Chances are that the information you store can be used to identify and sanction the perpetrators.
If an employer or family member or community member approaches you saying "I received an email [or phone call, or IM, or letter] from someone about this "blag" thing of yours" say "I believe the person who contacted you has broken one or more laws in doing so. In particular I believe they were trying to blackmail me. When I contact the police about this they'll want to examine the information you received and may collect it as evidence to be used against the perpetrator. I would appreciate it if you forwarded the message to me and I'd advise you not to delete or otherwise tamper with it as that might incur penalties on its own." (The point of saying this is *not* to intimidate the recipient, though it may have that consequence. The point instead is to preserve the information so it can be gathered and analyzed.)
If you *do* get contacted, and you do feel you need to take your site down (and it's perfectly reasonable to do so and you have my blessing if you choose to) please consider doing what Gigi of did and leave your blog up with a final post detailing everything you know about the person or person who's trying to intimidate you. (Eek! Gigi's now shut down entirely but I'm going to ask if she can restore it.)
Anyway, once again it's important to remember that what you do may be embarrassing (though it really shouldn't be) and that you may be embarrassed if you're disclosed. Remember too, though, that blackmailers, stalkers, spammers, and trolls face embarrassment as well, and depending on circumstances, they may also face prosecution.
Chins up.
Very well said Figleaf.
[Thanks, J. --fl]
I guess I'm kinda lucky. The only people I don't want to know about my blogging? They'll get over it if they ever found out. It would be, at most, a bit of an embarrassment. And nobody ever died of embarrassment. Least I haven't. Very good post, Figleaf. Very VERY good post. Thank you.
[The weird thing is people keep *expecting* you to die of embarrassment. Better to disappoint them than not, eh? Thanks, DN! --fl]
I, too, was in 5th grade when Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed by a man who escaped from the prison in my home town (2 blocks from my house). I, too, grew up in a house that highly revered Dr. King. Great post.
[Yup, he really was something else. Thanks, Red. --fl]