Dr. Martin Luther King's Words Ring So Loudly Today About Bush's Iraqi War

[David Zephyr]

Hear the words of the great Dr. King which ring with power as our nation is now once again mired within the quagmire of an illegal and unwise war.

Dr. King delivered his speech on 25 February 1967 here in my hometown of Los Angeles.

Dr. King we need you today as much as we did then.

I'd love to hear the reactions from my fellow DU'ers on the these words of Dr. King:

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It is very obvious that our government blatantly violated its obligation under the charter of the United Nations...

Instead we unilaterally launched an all-out war on (foriegn) soil. In the pr ocess we have underminded the purpose of the United Nations and caused its effectiveness to atrophy. We have also placed our nation in the position of being morally and politically isolated. Even the long standing allies of our nation have adamantly refused to join our government in this ugly war. As Americans and lovers of Democracy we should carefully ponder the consequences of our nation's declining moral status in the world.

We arrogantly feel that we have everything to teach other nations and nothing to learn from them. We often arrogantly feel that we have some divine, messianic mission to police the whole world. We are arrogant in not allowing young nations to go through the same growing pains, turbulence and revolution that characterized cur history. We are arrogant in our contention that we have some sacred mission to protect people from totalitarian rule...while we are in fact supporting dictatorships with guns and money

Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids critism of the government when
the nation is at war. More than a century ago when we were in a declared state of war with Mexico, a first term congressman by the name of Abraham Lincoln stood in the halls of Congress and fearlessly denounced that war. Congressman Abraham Lincoln of Illinois had not heard of this tradition or he was not inclined to respect it. Nor had Thoreau and Emerson and many other philosophers who shaped our democratic principles. Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters.

Let me say finally that I oppose the war...because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as the moral example of the world. I speak out against this war because I am disappointed with America. There can be no great disappointment where there is no g -eat love. I am disappointed with our failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism, Extreme materialism and militarism. We are presently moving down a dead-end road that can lead to national disaster.

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The complete text of Dr. King's speech can be found here: http://www.scc.losrios.edu/~bodleyd/tomorro.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. His words ring loudly on MANY issues today, which is sad because

it shows how little progress we have made since we lost him. (Or how we have lost what progress we had made.)

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[YankeyMCC]

2. Proof

That progressive rational values are the true traditional wholesome American values. Nearly 3 decades ago the very ideas progressives are trying to assert today were being asserted by one of the 20th century's greatest men. And his speech makes note of a similar case a century earlier.

Yes it could be taken as proof we are in the same predicament with the conservatives in power but I think it has value to counter the distortion that our progressive, anti-war positions are not traditional American values or somehow unpatriotic. In fact they are the traditional values of the rank-n-file, working class, minority, middle-class American.

[EVDebs]

3. Which is why the family believes the military had a hand in his murder

William Pepper's work shows that the military intelligence units were following MLK closer than the FBI was.

[David Zephyr]

4. They Certainly Weren't Happy With Him

And by the way, I like your DU name!

[wicket]

5. Amen

:kick:

[KoKo]

6. Those words sound like they were written so long ago...given the hell

we've been through. It's hard to imagine the "hope" in those words and that change "did" come...

Don't have folks like that around giving inspiration these days. We seem to be without our "heros and leaders."

But, someone posted that "WE" must be our own Leaders and Media today.

It's a heavy burden but maybe made lighter if shared by all.. I'd like to think that. Or, I would have thought that at one time when I was more optimistic. Maybe it will turn out to be true, though.