King's Prophetic Call for Peace

[babylonsister]

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/05/kings_prophetic_call_for_peace.php

King's Prophetic Call for Peace
Eric Stoner
April 05, 2007

Eric Stoner is a writer based in New York, who has written for numerous publications, including The Nation and the Peoria Journal Star.


Forty years ago this week, on April 4, 1967, and a year to the day before his tragic assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to the pulpit of New York's Riverside Church to deliver one of the most controversial speeches of his life.

Entitled " Beyond Vietnam," the address was King's first public antiwar speech, and he gave it only after much trepidation and prayer. Believing that silence in the face of injustice is in fact complicity with evil, King wrote in his autobiography that, "The time had come—indeed it was past due—when I had to disavow and dissociate myself from those who in the name of peace burn, maim and kill."

As anticipated, King was roundly criticized at the time for straying from civil rights, not only by the mainstream media, but also by allies such as the NAACP. "It was a low period in my life," he wrote. "I could hardly open a newspaper."

Now, however, history has vindicated the truths that King so bravely spoke that day, and his testimony is rightfully seen as a prophetic masterpiece.

While still mesmerizing, listening to the speech today can also be somewhat disconcerting. It painfully reveals how little has changed and how politicians, both then and now, use the same rhetorical devices to scare the public into supporting misguided policies. By simply swapping the word " Iraq" for "Vietnam," and "terrorism" for "communism" King's speech could be given today, with little need for editing.

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[Iwasthere]

1. WOW!

That speech is chilling! Thank you for that. recommending, ALL should read that!