RIP: Rev. Dr. MLK, Jr against the War

[pynchonoid]

>From a speech that galvanized me, and many others who
opposed the war and pushed for civil rights, back in
'67 (and no wonder they killed him; and no wonder
Pynchon looks back, in Vineland, with bitterness and
regret at the Nixonian Reaction that helped kill this
spirit):

"I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight
because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I
join 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 statements 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." And that time has come for us in relation
to Vietnam.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the
mission to which they call us is a most difficult one.
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.
Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as
they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict,
we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by
uncertainty; but we must move on.

And 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 movements 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.

Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the
betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the
burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical
departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many
persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my
path. At the heart of their concerns this query has
often loomed large and loud: "Why are you speaking
about the war, Dr. King?" "Why are you joining the
voices of dissent?"  "Peace and civil rights don't
mix," they say. "Aren't you hurting the cause of your
people," they ask? And when I hear them, though I
often understand the source of their concern, I am
nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean
that the inquirers have not really known me, my
commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions
suggest that they do not know the world in which they
live.

In the light of such tragic misunderstanding, I deem
it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I
trust concisely, why I believe that the path from
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church -- the church in
Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate --
leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight.

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. 

[...]   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 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 South 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 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.

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.
[...]

...continues:

"Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break
Silence"
delivered 4 April 1967  at a meeting of Clergy and
Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City
<http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm>



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