OMNI
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
DAY, JANUARY 20, 2021.
Compiled by Dick
Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, Ecology.
Omnicenter.org/donate/
Contents
Gerry Sloan, “Wars and
Rumors of Wars”
Robert Weissman, “the giant triplets”
Rashida
Tlaib, Remember His Riverside Church Sermon
Rabbi Waskow, “The
Radical MLK”
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. in His Own Words
Kevin Martin, Peace Action, “Only love can
drive out hate”
WARS AND
RUMORS OF WARS
By Gerry
Sloan
Dr. King
signed his own death sentence
when he
spoke at the Riverside Church
against the
war in Vietnam,
referring
to us as "the greatest
purveyor of
violence in the world."
Fifty years
later things have gotten worse
instead of
better as we leave our bloody
footprints
in the sand, scorch or shred
our enemies
in the name of foreign policy,
misguided
by the greedy and the blind.
the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism'
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On
January 6, 2021, a horde of Donald Trump adherents numbering in the thousands —
incited by the president himself — mounted an armed takeover of the United
States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
It was the most deliberate attempt to overthrow the government of the United
States since the Civil War.
As more and more details emerge about the planning and execution of the
insurrection, it is clear that the seditionists were animated by their
resentment — stoked by Donald Trump and other politicians, amplified by Fox
News and social media — toward changing demographics in America.
Many of us recognize the ongoing reality of white supremacism for the very
real threat it is — as a kind of defect in our national DNA (and going all the
way back to 1492) that we still have not invested anywhere
near enough in curing.
So — on a day when we honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. — I
wanted to share a few of Dr. King’s insightful and inspiring words:
From King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (April
16, 1963):
I have
almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling
block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the
Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to
justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a
positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree
with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct
action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another
man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly
advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.”
From
King’s “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break
Silence” speech at Riverside Church (April 4, 1967):
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 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.
From
King’s speech announcing the Poor People’s March on Washington (December 4,
1967):
America
is at a crossroads of history, and it is critically important for us, as a
nation and a society, to choose a new path and move upon it with resolution and
courage. ... Consider, for example, the spectacle of ... a nation gorged on
money while millions of its citizens are denied a good education, adequate
health services, decent housing, meaningful employment, and even respect, and
are then told to be responsible.
For
justice,
- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
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This MLK Day, let’s answer Dr. King’s
question: “What are you doing for others?”
THE GREATEST SERVICE WE CAN DO FOR KING AND
THE WORLD IS TO REMEMBER HIS RIVERSIDE CHURCH SERMON
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The Radical MLK: “BEYOND VIETNAM: A TIME TO
BREAK SILENCE," April 4, 1967
The
Shalom Report The
Radical MLK: “BEYOND VIETNAM: A TIME TO BREAK SILENCE," April 4, 1967 “Radical”
Means “Deeply Rooted, Going to the Root of Truth.” MLK was a true radical. [Dr.
King gave this speech at Riverside Church, New York City, 4 April 1967,
exactly one year before he was murdered. The first part of the speech
focused on Dr. King’s profound critique of the Vietnam War on political,
social, and moral grounds. Though this analysis bears an important
relation to US wars and militarism in our own generation and to war by all
nations, I have not included most of it. I did this for two reasons --
because the title “Beyond Vietnam” was no accident, as the speech looked
toward the future of America; and because making the long text shorter makes
it easier to read and absorb. I want here to acknowledge what is known but
rarely said: Much of the first draft of this speech was written by Vincent
Harding, a close friend and co-worker of Dr. King. The use of masculine
language where we would use much more gender-inclusive language was
unfortunately still almost universal in 1967. Emphases have been added by the
editor -- AW] I come
to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me
no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest
agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us
together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The
recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own
heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines:
"A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us
in relation to Vietnam.. Even
when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task
of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does
the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of
conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Some of
us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that
the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must
speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we
must speak. And we
must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's
history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to
move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm
dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history.
Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement
well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for
we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close
around us. Now, it
should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the
integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's
soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can
never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world
over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be
are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our
land. ...To
me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious
that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the
war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all
men -- for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black
and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that
my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he
died for them? What then can I say to the "Vietcong" or to Castro
or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death
or must I not share with them my life? Finally,
as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads from
Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I
simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men
the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or
nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I
believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and
helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.. We are
called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation
and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these
humans any less our brothers. And as
I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to
understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of
that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the
junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the
curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too
because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there
until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries. Here is the
true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see
the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of
ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our
own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from
the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition. . The war in
Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit,
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. 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 now has justified the
presence of U.S. military "advisors" in Venezuela. This need to
maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the
counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why
American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia 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
investment. 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 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, 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 is not haphazard and superficial. 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 Latin 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. A true
revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war:
"This way of settling differences is not just." This business of
burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans
and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people
normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields
physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled
with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to
spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is
approaching spiritual death. America,
the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in
this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to
prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will
take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from
molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned
it into a brotherhood. We must
with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity
and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows
and develops. These are
revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems
of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new
systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot
people of the land are rising up as never before. "The people who sat in
darkness have seen a great light." We in the West must support these revolutions.
It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of
communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that
initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now
become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only
Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment
against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the
revolutions we initiated. Our only
hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go
out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty,
racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly
challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when
"every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be
made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places
plain." A
genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties
must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop
an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in
their individual societies. This call
for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe,
race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and
unconditional love for all men. This
oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept — so readily dismissed by the
Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force — has now become an absolute
necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of
some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of
the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is
somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This
Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is
beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: Let us
love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love
one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Let us
hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no longer
afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The
oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate.
History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that
pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says: "Love
is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good
against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our
inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word." We are
now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the
fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there
is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of
time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost
opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at
the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her
passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over
the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written
the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life
that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger
writes, and having writ moves on..." We still have a choice today;
nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must
move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in
Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world — a world that borders on
our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and
shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without
compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight. Now let
us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but
beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of
God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds
are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will
our message be that the forces of American life militate against their
arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be
another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of
commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though
we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human
history.
The
Shalom Center web: theshalomcenter.org/
email: office@theshalomcenter.org tel:
(215) 844-8494 |
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Only love can drive out hate
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END MARTIN
LUTHER KING JR.’S BIRTHDAY NEWSLETTER 2021
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