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m00d · 05-12-2004, 11:20 AM

Dr. Martin Luther King, On War...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against the injustices heaped upon people of Africa descent, the poor, and those without voices in his day. In this current atmosphere of war hysteria, it is most appropriate that we re-look at his comments about Vietnam and why he was most opposed to that war. We think his comments are just as if not more appropriate in this country?s build up of its war machine against Iraq.

For Dr. King, his conscience provided no other alternative but to oppose the war. He acknowledged that trying to rationalize, identify a scapegoat, create invisible boogeymen, all lead us to what he ?psychological cataracts? which has that blinded us from the truth. He was also critical of the superficial waving of patriotism?how appropriate, since 9-11,when the US flag is seen everywhere, and used to promote consumerism and a blind following to a foreign policy that has reduced us to buying duct tape and plastic to protect us from the impending crisis.

"The hottest places in Hell, are reserved for those who in a period of great moral crisis, turmoil, maintain their neutrality." -Dante

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Excerpts from Dr. King?s speech on ?Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam?. This speech was originally given on April 16, 1967 at Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Atlanta, GA.

?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 in the all our history there has never been such a monumental dissent during a war by the American people. Polls reveal that almost 15 million Americans explicitly oppose the war in Vietnam?

?I come? to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This sermon is not addressed to Hanoi or the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue. Nor to overlook the role they must play in a successful resolution to the problem?I wish not to speak with Hanoi, the National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellow Americans. Who bears the greatest responsibility at ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents?

I have major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision.

?The obvious connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have waged in America?. The Poverty Program was a new beginning?then the build-up for the War in Vietnam? I watched the program broken? I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in the rehabilitation of its poor?We spent 500,000 dollars to kill each enemy soldier?and only $53 spent on the poor?much of that to the salaries of those who are not poor?

?It became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor vat home? It was sending their sons, brothers, and husbands to fight and die in extraordinarily higher proportion [than] that of the rest of the population. Black men? crippled by society are sent away to guarantee liberties in SE Asia which hand not found in SE Mississippi or Harlem. I could not be silent? in this cruel manipulation of the poor.

?I became aware of my experiences in the ghettos in the North in the last three years?especially the summers. I have walked among the desperate and dejected and angry young men. I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my convictions that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent action. And they ask and rightly so, ??but what about Vietnam?? They ask if our own nation wasn?t using is using massive violence to solve its problem to bring about the changes it wants? Their questions hit home. I knew that I could never raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos?without speaking clearly against to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government. I cannot be silent.

They have applauded me?In Montgomery?when my home was bombed?. They applauded the sit-in movement? they applauded us on the freedom rides?when we accepted blows, without retaliation. They praised us in Birmingham?in Selma, Alabama. There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that will praise you when you they you say be nonviolent against Jim Clark, yet condemn you when you say be non-violent towards little brown Vietnamese children. There?s something wrong with that Press.

The burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964?when the Nobel Peace Prize was given to me. It was not just something taking place. It was a commission to work harder?for the brotherhood of man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it was not present, I would have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ.

I must be true to my conviction to be a Son of the Living God? The Father is deeply concerned for the suffering and helpless outcast children. I come to speak for them

To understand the people who have been under the curse of war for almost three consecutive decades?we must hear their broken cries?they must see America as strange liberators.

?The Vietnamese declared their own freedom in 1945. They were lead by Ho Chi Minh, ?they quoted OUR Declaration of Independence in their hahahahahahahaha of freedom. President Truman said, ??They are not ready for independence.? France sought out to reconquer their former colony? fighting 8 long...brutal years? You know who helped France? It was the United States of America. We met over 80 percent of the war costs? In 1954 at [the] Geneva Conference? an agreement reached because France had been defeated at Diem Bien Phu, even after the Geneva accords?our government sought to sabotage the Geneva Accords.

?The US began to support Diem?one of the most ruthless dictators of the world? People were murdered because they raised their voices against the policies of Diem?Increasing numbers of troops to hold back the insurgencies that Diem?s policies had aroused. General Ky fought with the French against the Vietnamese?We supported General Ky.

We increased our troop commitment?we issued promises of peace and land reform?. [The Vietnamese] watch as we poisoned their water? as bulldozers destroy the precious trees?as thousands are homeless with out food, water?as children are degraded by begging for food?as their sisters are prostituted for sex, and drugs. We have destroyed their two cherished institutions: the family and the village their land and their crops?

05-12-2004, 11:20 AM
m00d So Fucking Banned Join Date: May 2002 Location: Parts Unknown Posts: 3,129	Don?t let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine messianic force Dr. Martin Luther King, On War... Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against the injustices heaped upon people of Africa descent, the poor, and those without voices in his day. In this current atmosphere of war hysteria, it is most appropriate that we re-look at his comments about Vietnam and why he was most opposed to that war. We think his comments are just as if not more appropriate in this country?s build up of its war machine against Iraq. For Dr. King, his conscience provided no other alternative but to oppose the war. He acknowledged that trying to rationalize, identify a scapegoat, create invisible boogeymen, all lead us to what he ?psychological cataracts? which has that blinded us from the truth. He was also critical of the superficial waving of patriotism?how appropriate, since 9-11,when the US flag is seen everywhere, and used to promote consumerism and a blind following to a foreign policy that has reduced us to buying duct tape and plastic to protect us from the impending crisis. "The hottest places in Hell, are reserved for those who in a period of great moral crisis, turmoil, maintain their neutrality." -Dante ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpts from Dr. King?s speech on ?Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam?. This speech was originally given on April 16, 1967 at Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Atlanta, GA. ?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 in the all our history there has never been such a monumental dissent during a war by the American people. Polls reveal that almost 15 million Americans explicitly oppose the war in Vietnam? ?I come? to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This sermon is not addressed to Hanoi or the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue. Nor to overlook the role they must play in a successful resolution to the problem?I wish not to speak with Hanoi, the National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellow Americans. Who bears the greatest responsibility at ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents? I have major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. ?The obvious connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have waged in America?. The Poverty Program was a new beginning?then the build-up for the War in Vietnam? I watched the program broken? I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in the rehabilitation of its poor?We spent 500,000 dollars to kill each enemy soldier?and only $53 spent on the poor?much of that to the salaries of those who are not poor? ?It became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor vat home? It was sending their sons, brothers, and husbands to fight and die in extraordinarily higher proportion [than] that of the rest of the population. Black men? crippled by society are sent away to guarantee liberties in SE Asia which hand not found in SE Mississippi or Harlem. I could not be silent? in this cruel manipulation of the poor. ?I became aware of my experiences in the ghettos in the North in the last three years?especially the summers. I have walked among the desperate and dejected and angry young men. I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my convictions that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent action. And they ask and rightly so, ??but what about Vietnam?? They ask if our own nation wasn?t using is using massive violence to solve its problem to bring about the changes it wants? Their questions hit home. I knew that I could never raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos?without speaking clearly against to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government. I cannot be silent. They have applauded me?In Montgomery?when my home was bombed?. They applauded the sit-in movement? they applauded us on the freedom rides?when we accepted blows, without retaliation. They praised us in Birmingham?in Selma, Alabama. There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that will praise you when you they you say be nonviolent against Jim Clark, yet condemn you when you say be non-violent towards little brown Vietnamese children. There?s something wrong with that Press. The burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964?when the Nobel Peace Prize was given to me. It was not just something taking place. It was a commission to work harder?for the brotherhood of man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it was not present, I would have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. I must be true to my conviction to be a Son of the Living God? The Father is deeply concerned for the suffering and helpless outcast children. I come to speak for them To understand the people who have been under the curse of war for almost three consecutive decades?we must hear their broken cries?they must see America as strange liberators. ?The Vietnamese declared their own freedom in 1945. They were lead by Ho Chi Minh, ?they quoted OUR Declaration of Independence in their hahahahahahahaha of freedom. President Truman said, ??They are not ready for independence.? France sought out to reconquer their former colony? fighting 8 long...brutal years? You know who helped France? It was the United States of America. We met over 80 percent of the war costs? In 1954 at [the] Geneva Conference? an agreement reached because France had been defeated at Diem Bien Phu, even after the Geneva accords?our government sought to sabotage the Geneva Accords. ?The US began to support Diem?one of the most ruthless dictators of the world? People were murdered because they raised their voices against the policies of Diem?Increasing numbers of troops to hold back the insurgencies that Diem?s policies had aroused. General Ky fought with the French against the Vietnamese?We supported General Ky. We increased our troop commitment?we issued promises of peace and land reform?. [The Vietnamese] watch as we poisoned their water? as bulldozers destroy the precious trees?as thousands are homeless with out food, water?as children are degraded by begging for food?as their sisters are prostituted for sex, and drugs. We have destroyed their two cherished institutions: the family and the village their land and their crops?