I love the West Palm Beach library's three-story high wall of windows overlooking the Intercoastal Waterway. On my daily bicycle ride to the library (free internet), I pass monuments to Martin Luther King, Jr and Cuban revolutionary and poet Jose Marti.

A few days ago, as I pedaled by the MLK plaza, I noticed a few men setting up chairs. A small sandwich board sign announced the festivities planned for the eight days around Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. None of the events, though, was an anti-war protest.

"Excuse me," I asked one of the men. "Do you know if any of the celebrations for MLK day will voice opposition to the war?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "Why?"

"Because Martin was against the Vietnam War," I responded. "Martin claimed it disproportionately affected blacks and minorities. This war in Iraq does the same. We lost nine of our boys the other day, and this will keep happening until we stand up to it the way Martin did. We need members of the African-American community to protest, and speak out against this war."

"I'll bring it up to the committee," he said.

Fantastic, I thought, and pedaled away.

So, in honor of the late, great Martin Luther King, Jr., I offer a snippet of his speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence." He gave this talk at Riverside Church in Harlem, April 4, 1967 - a year to the day before he was killed. It begins:

"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: ÎA time comes when silence is betrayal.' 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.

"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."

Read the whole speech at http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html

Peace.

1/12/05

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Martin Luther King Jr.

to speak is often a vocation of agony

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A Time To Break Silence

to speak is often a vocation of agony