"A true revolution of values will lay hand 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 the veins of peoples 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." - Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., Beyond Vietnam, April 4, 1967
Not sure about the rest of you, but today I am feeling the terrible irony of Dubya's decision to send 21k more troops to Iraq the same week as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It's the oldest saying in the book, but damn it seems to be awfully hard.
I am reminded of a speech I heard by Reverend William Barber last year, about the role of prophets in human society. The quote from my blog post about it: "Historically, Christian prophets have arisen at times when kings and priests aren't doing their jobs. They come to "save" people from thinking that we can be personally religious while oppressing other people. They call broad ethical principals to bear on specific applied contexts and problems in their culture. They hold society accountable."
Dr. King was a prophet. We are again in need of such a prophet. I have a feeling that she or he is already on the move....it can't be long now. In so much as I pray, I am praying.
Some MLK love for my readers to celebrate today right -
Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break the Silence
Full text and audio of one of Dr. King's first anti-war speeches, given in 1967.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project
MLK Online
Includes audio and video clips.
3 comments:
Speaking of Christian prophets...I'm wondering if America is on the brink of calling (conjuring?) one up as it seems that fundamentalism is appealing to more and more folk these days. There's an underlying yearning for commonplace wisdom and glorious redemption, "for both rebellion and authority, democracy and theocracy, blood and innocence."
Check out this Harper's Magazine article to see what I mean.
I don't think history will look proudly on this era, but I'm almost afraid of what a religious revolt might look like in this day and age.
I have really mixed feelings about the numbers of this war. Did you know, more Marines died in 2006 doing nothing (just drivin' around being Marines) than in the last 6 years of war? I read a statistic that 7,000 people died in the U.S. last year because of wrongly filled prescriptions.
21-thousand? No clue what that means.
Am I an ass for not feeling completely outraged?
It is outrageous to me that on Jan 15, 2007, not ONE person in my office appreciated the fact that it was MLK Day.
*sigh* This comment is quickly spiraling downward. I wish I could address some root problem with a great answer, but I just don't know anything these days...
The annual misfilled prescription count is from the National Academies of Science's Institute of Medicine, quoted by TIME. The Marines' statistic was from my sister, a lieutenant at Parris Island. I'll have to ask her to cite where she came up with that.
I think my point was just that, yes, there is so much needless death - in war, in peace, in unrelated freak matters. Death due to enormous mistakes of the government is still death. On the topic of death, which American lives are more valuable than Iraqi lives? Power is abused and people are oppressed at many levels. I won't claim to be have more moral authority to judge which deaths are worse or more outrageous. I really do believe there is some cosmic justice and that humanity isn't all we've got.
So, my struggle with this war stems from knowing people fighting. I can't just agree to disagree about it; I can't say that 'I don't support the war, but I support the troops.' Right or wrong, it is my sister's job as a public servant to be fighting this war, and I WOULD undermine her resolve and confidence and sanity if I spoke out against it. I have before.
The best action I can take right now is to love my family and be here when they need me.
Beyond that, you are totally right that I need to buck up and do something towards social change. I've been moping at a new job and letting everyone else's lack of heart for social justice suck the life out of me. There is plenty I CAN do in my community...countless middle schoolers to help educate and keep from enlisting...
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