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 Remembering the Real Martin Luther KingPosted on Apr 3, 2008
(Page 4) This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words, and I quote:
If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict: Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. Number two: Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. Three: Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. Four: Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and any future Vietnam government. Five: *Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement. Part of our ongoing...part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary. Meanwhile… meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible. *As we counsel young men concerning military service, we must clarify for them our nation’s role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is a path now chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover, I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors.* These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. Now there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality...and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing “clergy and laymen concerned” committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. And so, such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. In 1957, a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years, we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which has now justified the presence of U.S. military advisors in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and why American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, “This is not just.” It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, “This is not just.” The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
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By Conservative Yankee, April 10 at 12:30 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
I did comment here, but it seems the censors won’t print it… Check your “private messages”
Report thisBy Crimes of the State Blog, April 10 at 11:22 am #
“A key piece of evidence is, of course, the alleged murder weapon. A rifle was found resting against a brick building which housed an “amusement company” whose owner was on the premises at the time of the shooting.
James Earl Ray’s original lawyer, who investigated the facts of the case, and is today a judge, describes the circumstances:
“The State’s theory was there was a Browning box, a Browning rifle box, that contained some items of clothing, a radio that had James Earl Ray’s Missouri state penitentiary number on it and a Remmington 760 rifle that James Earl Ray had bought in Birmingham.” -Judge Arthur Haynes Jr., the original lawyer for James Earl Ray
It happened that when the box was placed at the amusement company wall, the owner Mr.Canipe saw a man drop it there, near the entrance, and continue walking down “South Main St. on foot” — and this was TEN MINUTES BEFORE THE SHOT WAS FIRED!”
Was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Murdered by the U.S. Government?
http://crimesofthestate.blogspot.com/2008/01/was-dr-ma rtin-luther-king-jr-murdered.html
“After hearing and reviewing the extensive testimony and evidence, which had never before been tested under oath in a court of law, it took the Memphis jury only one (1) hour to find that a conspiracy to kill Dr. King did exist. Most significantly, this conspiracy involved agents of the governments of the City of Memphis, the state of Tennessee and the United States of America. The overwhelming weight of the evidence also indicated that James Earl Ray was not the triggerman and, in fact, was an unknowing patsy… We stand by that verdict and have no doubt that the truth about this terrible event has finally been revealed.” -Statement of King Family on the Justice Department’s “Limited investigation” of the MLK Assassination, January 15, 2007
Report thisBy Conservative Yankee, April 10 at 5:19 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Lowell....I remember it well. Worked in the Night Owl, and had friends on Bridge Street during the Seventies when the Dunkin Doughnuts blew up and took out two other buildings, and just about every piece of glass on the street for half a mile. The explosion rocked the kitchen where I was working across the river, and I thought (having just returned from Alaska) that it was an earthquake!
My mother is Jewish, so in some quarters so am I. I have an answer to your question, but I sure no one will like it.
First the Blacks usually (Cyrena being an exception) see the civil rights struggle, and Dr. King as belonging to African Americans alone. Sometimes they tend to forget that several white folks lost their lives in this struggle also.
In my family (The Jewish side) shares a similar memory lapse about the Holocaust True (as with the blacks during civil rights) the large majority of victims were jewish, BUT there were also others, sometimes these “others” came from a targeted class, but there also were some “good Germans” who couldn’t tow the Nazi line. Hiding a Jew, helping a Jew escape, or even sharing food with a starving Jewish family, as some Poles attempted in Warsaw, was enough to warrant a death sentence… a slow death through labor in one of many camps.
My point being some cross cultural friendships developed.. Cyrena’s point about exposure bringing peace…
I can’t disagree with the thrust of your stereotype. Rev Jackson’r depiction of my home town as “Hymie-town” and Al Sharpton’s continual and outright anti semitic statements cause me to (unfairly?) dismiss some of their good ideas… just human nature.
I hope for a better future, but Knowing the significance of our (humsns) canine teeth, I have my doubts about all races standing in a circle singing Kumbyah
Report thisBy cyrena, April 10 at 1:38 am #
You’re absolutely correct CY, and if I failed to articulate that I perfectly well KNEW this was about the POOR people, then it is my error. (though I’m sure I’ve made this clear a few jillion times in other postings).
In short, I grew up in these times, and from the very beginning of them, (even though I personally was NOT as ‘deprived’ as many) I’ve ALWAYS known that Dr. King’s stuggle was NOT ‘restricted to people of color’. I can’t imagine how ANYBODY could have missed that.
I surely made that clear to the ignorant among my own at the time, when they so ignorantly proclaimed (after his assassination), “Oh well, no great loss.”
They didn’t ‘get’ at all, that the LOSS was one for MOST of us, but particularly for poor people everywhere in this country. This is NOT ‘new’ to anybody that had even an inkling to what Martin Luther King Jr was about.
So, while it’s not a ‘small’ piece of the idea at all, I don’t think I’ve missed it. Nor have I missed the fact that race has continued to be the dividing line in this country, but I’m not taking the blame for that.
And, this ‘dividing line’ (at least among the poor) is perpetrated by ignorance more than anything else, and not ONLY by the ‘rich’ but by what used to be the middle class as well.
Education and exposure leads to tolerance and the acceptance that will cure this. Until we ALL have such access, this will continue.
Report thisBy PatrickHenry, April 9 at 3:30 pm #
http://www.blacksandjews.com/wash.post.html
Report thisBy kath cantarella, April 9 at 2:30 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
and my apologies for the really bad poetry, Dr King.
Report thisBy jimmyjam, April 9 at 1:18 pm #
I do agree with you on the Mass. thing, being from Lowell,and growing up in the projects. there are some people here that would love to label me a racist, because I dont except in it’s entirety that only black were discriminated against. My question though is and this is because of just not knowing,I always heard that the Jews had a lot to do with civil rights for blacks, if so why are so many blacks against the Jews, CY I’m sure I will get a straight answer from you, but to the others that want to be dicks , just don’t bother. thanks for any reply.
Report thisBy Sleeper, April 9 at 8:07 am #
King made some very stinging indictments of our foreign policy. He said “ something is wrong when we send troops 8000 miles away to South East Asia to secure liberties that are not secure in South West Georgia”. “Something is wrong when we spend $500,000.00 to kill each enemy combatant and only spend $53.00 to help the poor and most of that pays the salaries of the ones who provide the aid.”
His plan to march on Washington D.C. in search of an economic bill of rights for the poor (A jobs program) was probably the straw that got him killed. Wars are full of waste and money to be made by the greediest of the greedy. They must keep the masses in line by throwing them to the machinery of death.
Free Speech is not free and it is certainly not guarenteed in the United States. It will be tolerated for a time, but our shadow government is no stranger to supporting the oppressive both in the third world and at home.
Report thisBy Conservative Yankee, April 7 at 4:27 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Cyrena… Ithink you may have missed a small piece of the idea..
“Dr. King the strict constructionist referred to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. He stated, “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned ... Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check - a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.” Again, a clear indictment of America!”
After all, it was “The poor people’s march” not the poor-people-of-color march. The White ghettos in Worcester Springfield, and Lewiston are in the same dark place as the share-croppers of 1960 Mississippi. Their life spans are shorter, their population is beset from without by employers leaving the Northeast, and within by crime,, poverty and a slow-death of “hope.
The blueberry pickers here in Washington County get just $3,000 (on average) for a season (seven weeks)This money is withheld as “traveling pay” until the job is completed. the owners often take the “rent and board” for a one-room shack and beans or potatoes from the gross. Children as young as six work with their parents. They are not “actual workers” but contribute to their parent’s “box count” the basis for pay.
Bob Dylan’s words “I’ve been down so long it looks like up to me” fit these folks.
I’ve seen black poverty too. I spent time in Newark, East St. Louis, and Patterson. Funny thing though, to me, it looks no different from the poverty of Appalachia, Pine Ridge, or parts of Washington County Maine!
The divisions by race have got to end. it is a battle rich vs Poor, and the longer we allow THEM to define conflicts by color-lines, the longer the poor will stay poor!
Report thisBy cyrena, April 6 at 11:58 pm #
Not just a ‘weekend commemoration. Hopefully we’ll all read his words from then, that remain sadly relevant today.
It’s Not the Dream; It’s Our Nightmare
By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 04 April 2008
On April 4, America commemorates the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We will hear those powerful words “I Have a Dream ...” What many of us don’t realize is Dr. King was no dreamer. He was a visionary, not some abstract thinker or philosopher. He was a prophet and a true revolutionary.
The best way to pay tribute to Dr. King and his total sacrifice is to understand what he stood for. Start by reading two speeches. First, read “I Have a Dream.” Second, read “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” Don’t allow others to selectively define Dr. King for you. Read these two speeches for yourself.
The original title of the “I Have a Dream” speech was “Normalcy - Never Again.” Dr. King the realist states, “… we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.” That was no dream; that was our reality and a clear indictment of the social conditions in America at that time.
Dr. King the strict constructionist referred to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. He stated, “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned ... Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check - a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.” Again, a clear indictment of America!
Dr. King the prophet said, “There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundation of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” These are the words of a true revolutionary not a dreamer!
He continued, “We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.” That was the reality then and based upon the events in Florida in the 2000 presidential election, Ohio in 2004, and the disenfranchisement of voters in the Democratic primaries in Florida and Michigan, this continues to be our reality today.
The “dream” reference actually comes toward the end of the speech. As the story goes (and this may be lore), Dr. King was close to ending his nine-minute delivery when the great gospel singer, Ms. Mahalia Jackson, who was seated behind him, said, “Tell them about your dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!” At that point, Dr. King went away from his prepared text. He spoke of the dream in the context of a horrific reality for “Negro’s” and the poor. What makes the “dream” significant is its juxtaposition against America’s reality, failures and oppression of its own citizens.
Dr. King was correct then and proves to be prophetic today. I’ll take some license here ... We must face the tragic fact that, based on the unemployment rate for African-Americans, the racial make up of the majority of those incarcerated in America and the horrific failure of the government’s response in Hurricane Katrina “… the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity ... the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.”
It’s not the “dream”; it’s that vision in the context of a horrific reality!
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040408A.shtml
Report thisBy Bill Blackolive, April 6 at 9:21 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
People like Desertdude fear black guys because Desertdude and ilk got no share from being white and need to feel better than somebody so they buy into superstition and think black guys have bigger penises and stronger muscles because they have less grey matter. Homo sapiens are last report 200,000 years ancient and have larger penises than apes but this is not taught in US silly formal education, when it really should be brought up in first grade but is not because our society of the few riding on the many is ruled by these fat slob farting few. Poor, poor Desertdude. His next incarnation he has got to use his given grey matter.
Report thisBy Harry H. Snyder, April 5 at 11:25 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
PG asks:
“Why is it that Progressive minds are killed -yet Good Ol Boys can walk freely without fear of attack”
Actually because this is not true.
George Wallace was shot in Laural MD (1972)
John Stennis was shot as he opened his front door in Washington DC
AND there is always the Dixie-Chicks friend “Earl” who was a quintessential GOB!
Report thisBy Conservative Yankee, April 5 at 11:18 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
The night Dr. King was shot was also the only time in my life I was ashamed of my white skin. I remember people celebrating in the streets of White Plains, and the words “Martin Lazarus Koon” being shouted.
I remember my boss saying “Thank god that’s over” when the radio announced MLK’s death. The bosses son went out and got us all beers…
We say that over these last forty years things have improved for African Americans. We point to Obama, (currently the only sitting African American Senator, and the third since reconstruction) as proof of change. Illinois by itself, elected two of those US Senators, and Massachusetts elected the other. Heavily populated black States like Mississippi, Michigan, and the Carolinas should have been places where black Governors and Senators thrived, but none of these States have even had a black elected to statewide office. The black representatives from the south come from squiggly lines called Gerrymanders largely devised to keep black representation confined to black areas… sort of like the school-district lines of the Sixties.... In White Plains.
If King returned from the grave, and saw us today.... he would still know who we are.
Report thisBy Austin, April 5 at 9:07 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Actually MLK’s personal life shouldn’t be new information to those who have taken the time to really educate themselves about him. It’s a shame that he would admit this charge to you (which he did to Coretta at one point), while we’ve had a President (whom I would have still voted for over the current one) lied about.
And while we try to minimize the impact of important individuals, we can’t act like some of the more beloved citizens were perfect human beings. We all know that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves and claimed blacks were naturally inferior in his “Notes on the State of Virginia” (which helped to set the intellectual trend of black inferiority in the US). But even in spite of all of that(and the difference between me and you), as a black American, I can still realize and appreciate the revolutionary precedent himself and others outlined in the Declaration of Independence…
Please don’t be so narrow-minded in your analysis of an individual. That doesn’t help if you’re actually trying to change someone’s mind…
Report thisBy PatrickHenry, April 5 at 8:19 am #
This post is about MLK not Clinton.
Report thisBy Paul_GA, April 5 at 7:39 am #
...that certain people within the US government decided to have Dr. King killed shortly after he gave this speech. I know I can’t prove it, but I still believe it. Why? Because, as a civil-rights icon, Dr. King helped make the US central government bigger and stronger; but by expanding his message into antiwar activism, he became an “enemy of the State”, as States, no matter how much they may claim to be “peace-loving”, love war. War, even more than civil-rights activism, allows governments to expand their powers and justify hanging on to them, no matter how wrong and cruel those powers are. As Randolph Bourne said, “war is the health of the State”.
I don’t know if Dr. King knew of this next quote, from Leo Tolstoy, but I’m sure he would’ve wlecomed it: “The greater the State, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded. Therefore, if we really wish to be what we profess to be, we must not only cease our present desire for the growth of the State, but we must desire its decrease, its weakening, and help this forward with all our might.”
Report thisBy StPauliGirl, April 5 at 5:50 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Womanizer and a thief? and your ‘proof’ is someone told you? Because of what someone else said, you are willing to dismiss everything he did?
The hoopla about a ‘guy like this’ is because that wasn’t the sum total of the man.
Report thisBy Expat, April 5 at 5:23 am #
^ and nothings changed. Dr. King’s speech was defining. I marvel at our lethargy 41 years on. We dishonor those prescient souls who preceded us and those among us today.
Report thisBy Purple Girl, April 5 at 2:58 am #
15 boxes found in Dallas Vault....Last word we’ve heard. I’m Apologizing to all those ‘whacked out Crazy Consipracy theorist’-although I never really called them that, I even had questions about all those ‘Lone Gunman”.JFK< MLK<RFK and even John Lennon. Why is it that Progressive minds are killed -yet Good Ol Boys can walk freely without fear of attack (Mac has declined Secret Service)????Granted Ford & Ronny were shot at - but who was behind them to take up the reins? And why are those who have killed these Patriots such great shots and the others only mediocre?
Report thisLaugh if you will- but I’m fashioning my own tin Hat! maybe it does block out the Mind control air waves. There is a thought that states smoking makes the brain work faster. Why haven’t they gone after the Alcohol industry too? I rarely drink anymore - bu tI think I’ll keep smoking - I enjoy it and considering the way the country is going, I’ll be doing myself & my fellow citizens a favor by not living long enouhg to be a burden on th ehealthcare system for too long. Obama- You have the Right to Smoke, even as president!You are a Free AmericaN Citizen too!
I was too young to comprehend MLK while he was alive- but I can Still Dream and I still Imagine
By cyrena, April 4 at 11:44 pm #
A Nation of Slaves Remains Trapped in a
• “In almost every way, the problems and realities King voiced than are worse today. At the same time, more people are aware of it than ever before but feel powerless in the face of a government that plainly doesn’t care what we think.”
Such an excellent post Jaded Prole, despite the sadness of the truth…we should all be willing to confront it, or at least ACKNOWLEDGE it.
Everything you say here is true, and then some, including the fact that as we speak or right, Americans continue to be fearful of losing their jobs and anything else relative to their survival, by appearing to be ‘troublemakers’ when in fact they are simply acknowledging and attempting to address the realities of an existence that as you’ve said, includes the same problems that Dr. King devoted his life to addressing.
And yes, they ARE worse now. I never thought I’d say it, but it is the truth. And while people may be more aware, we are less equipped to address it. The feeling of powerlessness is all so very real. Anyone assuming more than that is truly living in a different reality.
So, while I’m sad to acknowledge it, it IS the first REQUIRED step to ever dealing with it.
I remember this day so well in my mind…though I’ve only recently had reason to recall it as frequently as I do now. One of the things that stands out so much in my mind from that day 40 years ago, is comment similar to the one posted by desertdude at 146958. It was the day after his assassination, and pretty much what we were all talking about in my first period speech class that day. A very ignorant (HS senior – though I was only in the 9th grade myself) made this comment in reference to his assassination, “Oh well, NO GREAT LOSS, he was just a troublemaker anyway”. (should I mention that this was a Catholic Girls High School, or should that even matter?)
Back then, it brought anger, and now…just a sadness that 40 years hasn’t been able to cure the ignorance.
And no, things haven’t changed, because the ignorant are still so ignorant. The oppression continues, even if it appears in a different form. We’re not much better off now than the Germans of pre WWII Germany, under the worst of a fascist regime.
Is this one (the current gangster regime) worse than all of the others since the days of Martin Luther? I’d say yes, because we’ve had a few good guys. We had, albeit briefly, Jimmy Carter. Even Clinton didn’t do the same level of damage that we’ve been victimized with in the past 8 years. No, he didn’t, and I won’t ever make that accusation.
On the other hand, absolutely ANY gains that may have been seen as such in the era of Dr. King have all been destroyed.
BUT…We ARE more aware. That counts for something.
Thanks again for the reminders of the realities.
Report thisBy liberalwhiteboy, April 4 at 8:07 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
http://homo-sapien-underground.blogspot.com/2007/12 /how-to-become-zionized-negro.html
Report thisBy jamie, April 4 at 7:23 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
The full (original?) and incredibly beautiful version of the Beyond Vietnam speech (the transcript above) was delivered at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 - the YouTube link above is apparently from a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967… it has many of the phrases and themes from the earlier one, but is different. The April 4th version will (should) make you cry - his tone, his choice of words, his voice - everyone living in this country who cares about this concept of being an “American” or is interested in the power/beauty of the English language should hear it at least once in their lifetime.
And the guy talking about him being a “womanizer"… seriously? C’mon dude.
Report thisAre we to assume that you disassociate yourself with every person you know who has strayed? If so, more power to you, but in general “good people” sometimes do “bad things.” (And isn’t the adultery for his wife and his God to judge, as for the rest of us, he tried to make our lives better and shouldn’t we be thankful?)
By desertdude, April 4 at 4:22 pm #
was a womanizer (aka adulter) and also a thief. This from friends of mine while we served together in Vietnam. So why so much hoopala about a guy like this?
Report thisBy PatrickHenry, April 4 at 4:06 pm #
MLK was much more eloquent the Rev. Wright but the meaning was the same.
Report thisBy kath cantarella, April 4 at 2:27 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
His flesh was borrowed and the lease ended, but the words will always be his very own.
Report thisBy dr wu, April 4 at 2:00 pm #
The “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government.” MLKing
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam
Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
April 4, 1967
At Manhattan’s Riverside Church
That’s all there is; that’s all you need to know on this the 40th anniversary of his death.
Report thisBy ElkoJohn, April 4 at 11:04 am #
thanks for the post
Report thisit really helps to hear from true patriots
to hear someone courageously speak the truth
voters don’t like to hear the truth ‘bout ‘merika
they prefer the might-makes-right
my country right or wrong, mentality. . .
but the truth will set us free
or by the lies, shall we perish
wait & see
By Leefeller, April 4 at 5:25 am #
In a local Methodist church, my close friend and pastor at the time, gave the Marten Luther speech during Sunday services, complaints from some of the bigots got him fired.
We have come part way, but have a long way to go. Bigotry and Ignorance is still with us, cutting funding from our schools is part of the master plan. Keep the people ignorant.
Tying it together is easy if one only looks behind the curtain .
Report thisBy Jaded Prole, April 4 at 3:05 am #
In almost every way, the problems and realities King voiced than are worse today. At the same time, more people are aware of it than ever before but feel powerless in the face of a government that plainly doesn’t care what we think.
Also, as a nation of slaves, most people fear losing their jobs for being seen as “troublemakers or radicals” by their employers. This is a very real issue as workers in America have few rights and live tenuous lives without economic security or the safety net whose funds are squandered on militarism and war. I am but one example of a worker let go for “speaking out against the war.” Others have voiced the fear of being seen protesting by their bosses. How then can the class struggle be separated from any other?
Report this