Yesterday, I spent much of the day in silence. Today, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I'd like to share a piece my identical twin Brother Lefty posted at Rambling On with Brother Lefty Smith, S.O.B.* If you haven't heard Dr King's "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" -- delivered at Riverside Church, exactly one year to the day before his assassination, you can listen to it at the bottom of the page.
And Satan's successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips.
Europe today is only nominally Christian.
In reality, it is worshiping Mammon."
For
decades now, the corporate media has celebrated Dr. King's "I Have a
Dream" speech -- and assiduously buried Dr. King's views on
economic justice, materialism, and militarism. Like
Mahatma Gandhi, King's message was essentially Spiritual. They each
saw clearly that Mammon worship, the soul-sucking evil of
materialism/consumerism, was alive and unwell, lurking in the belly of
capitalism.
Throughout history, racism and
economic exploitation have always walked hand in hand. The prosperity
of the capitalist English Empire and that of it's rebellious offspring, the USA,
were built squarely on the horrors of genocide and slavery. Sadly,
although its current forms (cultural genocide, systemic poverty, and jailhouse slavery) are widely ignored or explained away, this continues today.
Like
my identical twin brother, Lance, I usually tend to be more Buddhist than Christian in
my lingo. Yet, I just gotta say it out loud: Capitalism is the work of the freakin' DEVIL! I agree with Mahatma
Gandhi. Capitalism the dark
side of the force. It is built on exploitation, and it fosters greed. It is capitalism that drives climate change -- and it is taking aim on
the survival of the planet.
Dr.
King, like Gandhi, was a Holy Man. He sought to alleviate the
suffering created by a political and economic system that feeds on
greed, hatred, and delusion. Like many other prophets throughout
history, both King and Gandhi threatened the ruling order -- and were martyred.
Although Dr.
King focused on the evil of racism in his "I Have a Dream" speech that
late summer day in Washington DC, his words were delivered to the throng
that had assembled for the March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom. This effort, which he had helped organize, challenged economic
exploitation and suggested bold governmental action to alleviate
poverty. The FBI claimed the event was inspired by Communists and
lobbied to prevent it from happening.
King continued to march. He continued to preach love and championed a
non-violent response to a system that has always used violence. Like
Jesus of Nazareth, and a myriad other martyrs, Dr. King knew full well
that he would most likely be killed for challenging the ruling order -- and he chose
Love instead.
Dr. King's assassination, five
years after the "I Have a Dream" speech, occurred when he traveled to Memphis to support striking
Afro-American municipal sanitation workers as the leader of the National
Poor People's campaign. That campaign demanded an Economic Bill of Rights which included five planks:
1. "A meaningful job at a living wage"
2. "A secure and adequate income" for all those unable to find or do a job
3. "Access to land" for economic uses
4. "Access to capital" for poor people and minorities to promote their own businesses
5. The ability for ordinary people to "play a truly significant role" in the government
When's the last time you saw the Economic Bill of Rights highlighted in the corporate media coverage of Dr. King's life?
A Time to Break Silence
These are unsettling times. There is no doubt that Trump's legion of misanthropes, materialists, and military men waiting in the wings to reclaim power. Now, more than ever, it is a time to break
silence. Dr. King did so, dramatically, on April 4, 1967, at the
Riverside Church in New York City.
On that
day, Dr. King proclaimed, "these too are our brothers," and came out
against the US involvement in the Vietnam War with a passion and an
eloquence that many believe caused his assassination exactly one year to the day later.
The corporate media today ignores this
speech and remains silent. I hope you don't. Please listen and pass
this along. Then join some folks and speak out -- with love in your
heart!
It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!
(More Rambling on with Brother Lefty )
Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence
1 comment:
Fired up into the point. This planet is in a sad State of affairs and an evolution like mankind is never seen. The Awakening that begin with the end of the mind calendar as loud people all over the world to see that we are civilization being modified and used like so many civilizations before us. Modified right to the DNA, to the core of us. A controlling takeover that we are saying no more. You're not going to tell me how to feel I'm just think what I should do to be happy. The 1% at the top of the pyramid needs the rest of us to hold them up there, they know it and they are getting scared and forcing more restrictions. Men like Martin Luther King or head of your time. Let us all stand against slavery that is so boldly expressing itself in plain sight
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