Mlk

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40 years ago, today, Martin Luthur King gave this speech. We can only imagine how devastated he would be, had he lived, to find that he could give the same speech today. But he would have given it again, and still believed it could make a difference, I think.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war and set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement.

Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under the new regime, which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary. Meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task: while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment, we must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible.

These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.

Now, there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing.

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.
 
Too bad we don't have a person today, with the moral authority and stature of MLK. Thanks for posting this. His oration is a thing of sheer beauty and power.
 
Too bad we don't have a person today, with the moral authority and stature of MLK. Thanks for posting this. His oration is a thing of sheer beauty and power.

I know. You just read it and you get chills. And yes, it is too bad for all of us that we don't.
 
The greatest American of the modern era.

This is right on the money.

On a lighter note did any of you see the Boondocks episode which was an alternate reality in which MLK went into a coma and woke up in 2000? It was amusing yet quite poignant.
 
The greatest American of the modern era.

This is right on the money.

On a lighter note did any of you see the Boondocks episode which was an alternate reality in which MLK went into a coma and woke up in 2000? It was amusing yet quite poignant.

No, I wish I had though.
 
Too bad we don't have a person today, with the moral authority and stature of MLK. Thanks for posting this. His oration is a thing of sheer beauty and power.

are you implying that I'm not that person?

:cool:
 
are you implying that I'm not that person?

:cool:


Stature? Yes, you have that.

Moral authority? Sorry, LadyT. I've heard rumours of your debauched and depraved liberal lifestyle. You don't have the moral authority, I was associating with MLK.

;)
 
I've heard rumours of your debauched and depraved liberal lifestyle. You don't have the moral authority, I was associating with MLK.

Actually MLK had the same rumors about him.
 
good point, if MLK was alive today would the hypocritical moralists tear him down for those rumors of indescretions.

Don't get me wrong now MLK was a great man in my mind, just wondering about the "moral" majority types and what they would do today to him.....
 
good point, if MLK was alive today would the hypocritical moralists tear him down for those rumors of indescretions.

Don't get me wrong now MLK was a great man in my mind, just wondering about the "moral" majority types and what they would do today to him.....

They nearly did it then. Hoover was taping him. The Kennedys knew, and were in fact, complicit. LBJ knew too, but he would never have used it. More difficult to say if Bobby Kennedy would have, had it suited his needs. Of course, all of these men had their own sexual hijinks going on and Hoover probably had the goods on all of those too. LBJ was convinced Hoover had them on him.

If it were an administration like the one we have today, yeah, I think they would leak the tapes, and then deny any knowledge of it.
 
I've heard rumours of your debauched and depraved liberal lifestyle. You don't have the moral authority, I was associating with MLK.

Actually MLK had the same rumors about him.


Yeah, and recall - who was spreading rumours of MLK's alleged moral debauchery?:

J. Edgar Hoover: the cross-dressing, closet homosexual head of the FBI.



Things don't change much, do they?
 
Yeah, and recall - who was spreading rumours of MLK's alleged moral debauchery?:

J. Edgar Hoover: the cross-dressing, closet homosexual head of the FBI.



Things don't change much, do they?

LOL. I totally didn't think of that. Good point.
 
LOL. I totally didn't think of that. Good point.

Hoover was a super freak!

things don't change. Doesn't it remind of politics today, with scumbag and lowlife cons like Newt Gingrich and Ted Haggard pointing the finger of "morality" at Clinton?


:rolleyes:
 
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