“A Time to Break Silence” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 21, 2008 on 9:48 pm | In ContextAs we see how Dr. King’s life and message has been sanitized for mainstream consumption, we recall his April 4, 1967 speech at Riverside Church in NYC, “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence,” in which he said:
Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in times of war. . .
On the “why do they hate us” question of that era, King quoted a Buddhist monk:
Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.
He also quoted John F. Kennedy: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable,” and added that
Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. 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 not only break silence, but defend those being silenced.
Click here to hear Martin Luther King’s April 4, 1967 speech.
