40 Years Ago Martin Luther King said, "This madness must cease."
Read and listen to the Riverside Church Speech
April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King made a speech at Riverside Church in New York City. King understood the death and destruction the United States was causing in Vietnam was poisoning America's soul. "Now it should be incandescently clear that no one who has concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war." This is no less true in Iraq.
As King always did so eloquently, he was able to describe the rights that Black people did not have in the United States, but were fighting and dying in Vietnam to bring democracy to others. He described how the Black and White man could not go to school together in America, but could find solidarity in destroying a nation 3000 miles away.
April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. died on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee - one year after making his speech at Riverside Church. As we move forward in our struggle to end the war and occupation of Iraq, King's words heed just as strong today, as they did forty years ago.
In Vietnam and Iraq we were told we would be seen as liberators. King described a nation struggling to find it's own independence - he speaks of an occupying nation that is destroying land, infrastructure, and lives. The destruction that was being waged on Vietnam has now moved to Iraq. Just as Agent Orange blew through the vegetation of Vietnam, Depleted Uranium travels through the air of Baghdad, poisoning it's land and it's people - leaving devastation for generations to come.
Martin Luther King, Jr. set forth five things that must be done to end the war in Vietnam. Those included an immediate end to the bombings, take immediate action to prevent further battle grounds in Southeast Asia, and setting a date to remove all foreign troops according to the 1954 Geneva Accords.
Forty years later, there is no Martin Luther King, Jr, but his voice and the struggle remains. TODAY, we call for an end to offensive operations in Iraq, we demand that our government not wage war on Iran or any other nation, and we insist that our government immediately pull out troops from Iraq.
There are so many similarities between the words of King in 1967 and 2007. At Riverside Church, King said, "I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered." How true those words are today.
The last lines of King's speech were:
"Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the callling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history."
Forty years ago King set forth this challenge to change America and the world for the better, to..."struggle for a new world." The challenge continues to stand before us. Together we shall face it and overcome.
Read and listen to the Riverside Church Speech