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Comment by klyrs | Hacker News Reader

> Nonetheless, it all starts to go downhill when she decides to use the same email where she announces layoffs to celebrate recent employee promotions, reveal good financial results for the fourth quarter of last year, and state that the company expects to end the year strong.

The MLK quote:

> ‘the ultimate measure of a [leader] is not where [they] stand in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where [they] stand in times of challenge and controversy,’

In this round of layoffs, leadership is bragging about standing in their moment of comfort and convenience, but putting challenge and tribulation to their flock regardless. I'm not sure anyone else has been quite so up-front about that juxtaposition. Bravo, Ms Tejada, for saying the quiet part loud.

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The original MLK quote doesn’t actually seem, to me at least, to be much about leadership at all. More about personal virtue or something. The brackets were used to totally change the meaning rather than clarify the context (which is what they are conventionally used for).

This is not really a quote at all, it is a new sentiment written in the general shape of something Dr. King wrote. This makes it seem even tackier, IMO. It is like trying to grab some emotional gravity through osmosis or proximity rather than reflecting on the meaning of the quote.

Thank you for pointing out the brackets. I thought that the HN commenter above added them. No, those 3 sets of brackets are in the original press release.

Reminds me of the Teddy Roosevelt quote: "It is not the [words themselves that count]: [but the status] of the [person who said them]."

Or the words of JFK:

> Ask not [what a historical figure said] — ask what you [want them to have said].

I'm not sure if it's tackier to do this this week or if waiting until Feb 1st* would have been worse.

*For those outside the US, February is Black History Month here.

The beautiful irony of quoting MLK while commending their great leadership is that it shows her complete obliviousness to many of things MLK advocated for, particularly in his later speeches.

Exactly. He spoke about the problems with capitalism and advocated for socialism as a way to achieve equality. This very important aspect of his politics is always conveniently forgotten, and especially when coming from CEOs and other beneficiaries of capital.

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