Alarming Female

Today marks the anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King’s assassination in 1968 was an act of terrorism that robbed this country of a moral and courageous leader. Stephen F. Rohde, in an editorial for t r u t h o u t, reminds us that a year to the day before his death, Dr. King delivered a speech in New York that sharply criticized American foreign policy in Vietnam. King famously stated, “A time comes when silence is betrayal.”

Americans have no comparable leader today willing to take the political risk to denounce our current foreign policy in Iraq and the Middle East, Rohde points out. King’s message was not well received at the time, but its prescience is uncanny—

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor. . .I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption [abroad]. I speak as a citizen of the world. . .aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. . .a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men.

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The ‘tide in the affairs of men’ does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.’. . .We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.

Emphasis mine.

Dr. King’s words reflect the overt sexism of their time; his message is terrifyingly timely. Who has the courage, the humility, the righteous conviction to speak out and be heard?

No one comes to mind.

Has anyone seen our old friend Martin? Can you tell me where he’s gone?