Louis Farrakhan, the man you “despise,” is a man who has accomplished much that is good in his life. As head of the Nation of Islam, he has been instrumental in urging and supporting black Americans to make a commitment of family and community. The Million Man march in Washington DC – he played a significant role in that celebration of black adult male responsibility.
       
       I attended that rally for a while and I can tell you it was an impressive showing with many leaders of the black community giving speeches, including Rosa Parks whom I wanted to hear but missed. (I did hear Reverend Wright long before he became famous in the Obama campaign).

      In the late 1980s early 1990s in southeast Washington DC, the projects were a haven for drug sellers, pimps, and murderers. The DC police had largely given up on the poor blacks who lived in the projects and were subject to the brutality of the drug dealers.

     Louis Farrakhan, formed the Fruit of Islam security force, comprised I think solely of Nation of Islam members and sent these young black men to provide security for some of the projects under special contracts with the DC government. These men, generally armed only with radios, dressed neatly in bow ties and blue white uniforms, were the first educated and dignified black men that many young black children of that time had ever seen.  

      Although few know this, Louis Farrakhan is also an accomplished classical violinist who was a prodigy but gave up the violin when he joined the Nation of Islam. Supposedly, he has returned to the violin in recent years and has given concerts of Beethoven and other violin concertos. He is also an avid basketball fan – his grandson was a key player this year for the University of Virginia.

        Like Oedipus, Farrakhan’s faults are substantial. He has a long history of making anti-Semitic remarks and does not particularly care for white guys either. He is a little crazy and has endorsed crackpot theories about the flooding in New Orleans and the swine flu vaccine. Most troubling, some believe he played a role in the assassination of Malcolm X.

    Like Caesar, Farrakhan will likely be remembered by persons like yourself who know nothing about him more for his rhetoric and bad behavior than for his many accomplishments.  But before you lump him in with Oliver Stone and the other “left wing Hitlers” that you have posted about, try to learn a little more about him.