From Ukraine to Uvalde we see the crises of which Rev. Dr. King warned, militarism, materialism, racism and the prospect of spiritual death. This webinar will address how we may better work for peace.
MLK Day should be a day for courage, for independence, for nonpartisanship, and for nonviolent action for the complete ending and abolishing of participation in any war.
This excerpt of Martin Luther King speaking (in 1967) provides a wonderful example of how he was a systems thinker. Here he discusses the interconnected nature of reality, the foolishness of war and the interdependence that binds the human family together... “Wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is obsolete... If we are More
"This noble effort to put ending poverty on the same high plane with prolonging and escalating war, risking nuclear apocalypse, and destroying any chance of global cooperation on climate or homelessness or disease or hunger rings false."
"Between theory and practice — between the aspirations expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, on the one hand, and the pervasive presence of what King labeled the “giant triplets” of racism, materialism, and militarism on the other — there still looms, even in our own day, a massive gap. [King's Riverside Vietnam] speech address eloquently reflected on that gap, which, with the passage of time, has not appreciably narrowed."
"The Bible has been used by systems of power to perpetuate all sorts of injustices and persecution since the Christian Church was institutionalized in the third century by Constantine, who was a brutal dictator,” says Hedges.
'"These people are going to kill us. And they are going to kill my children."
"The notion that perpetual war will somehow bring long-lasting peace is a peculiarly American and often recurring form of doublespeak (saying one thing and meaning the opposite) that permeates the entire national surveillance empire..."
"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.”
MLK's unheeded prophecy that has come true: "The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality…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 — 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."
MLK: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
"What I am suggesting is that those calling for fundamental change will go badly astray if they ignore Dr. King’s insistence that each of the giant triplets [racism, extreme materialism, militarism] is intimately tied to the other two."
