8/2/2019 Martin Luther King Revisited

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Public Discourse Statement : MLK Revisited

Martin Luther King gave a speech on April 4 th , 1967 - one year to the day before he diedMedia said it sounded like a Ho Chi Minh press release

Forty five years ago Vietnam was the war of the dayDefending America by bombing to oblivion a poor, weak country - 8,000 miles awayMLK begins by giving a voice to the North Vietnamese, representing their point of view

He talks about the need to understand the arguments of those we call enemy Up against full-time U.S. war propaganda & media bombardment - situation nothing new

This is a man whose birthday is a national holiday; government employees get to stay homeMost Americans dont know how passionately MLK attacked U.S. foreign policyIf this is the first youve heard of it - youre certainly not alone School teaches his role in civil rights; Dr. King is revered like Lincoln, Gandhi, JFKIf they taught in school he gave powerful speeches against destroying VietnamI must have been home sick - or my textbook was missing that page

MLK continues his speech by quoting a Vietnamese Buddhist leaderClaiming each U.S. bomb a further guarantee of psychological and political defeat

U.S. image shifting from freedom & democracy to violence & militarismNo honorable intentions found in Vietnam, or Afghanistan - historical pattern of deceit

MLK calls on the U.S. government to remove all troopsHe calls on Americans to get creative in finding ways to protest this illegal warHe says if we truly want to change our nation - people need to put their lives on the lineHe got a national holiday for pulling it off one time before

Where he goes next with his speech left me speechless; MLK once again ahead of his timeWhen I first heard his words, the feeling in my gut - this may be why he shortly thereafter diedMLK says Vietnam a symptom of bigger problems; U.S. exporting violence around the worldHe claims wars for protecting U.S. privilege, pleasure, and profits

Preaching hard truths in the 1960s - easy way to orphan your little girls

Dr. King then calls for a radical revolution of U.S. valuesQuestioning policies prioritizing profit motives & property rights over peopleHis words - A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense

than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual deathDr. King calling it how it is; beacon of light from the Riverside Church steeple

Hard to believe, but sounds like an Occupy Movement speech - same shit were saying today A 1967 warning: if changes dont come soon, extreme materialism & militarism are here to stayMLK warns about income inequality in America & between developing nations and the WestCalling for the pursuit of peace, not the pursuit of war - he actually uses the word lovePromoting policies not produced by fear and greed but guided by the hearts beating in our chests

His words: We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today.We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. There is such a thing as being too lateImagine being 25 years old then? Now youre 70 and U.S. foreign policy is exactly the same?

I heard Newt Gingrich say the 2012 election was the most important of our lifetimesHis spin produces fear for actually moving in the direction Martin Luther King suggestsRepublicans and Democrats arguing about moving inches to the right or inches to the leftOccupy Movement carrying on MLKs legacy - guided by the hearts beating in our chests