A Call To Conscience

[Dover]

"I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos," King said, in the most controversial line of the 45-minute address, "without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government."





Tonight there was a very moving and powerful call to conscience. A pbs special featured a speech given by Martin Luther King exactly one year before he was shot. Many close to Martin feel that it was this speech in particular that sealed his fate. I had never heard it. In the speech, entitled, Beyond Vietnam, MLK strayed from his usual path as a leader of civil rights and took on the issues surrounding the Vietnam War, American morality, misuse of U.S. resources and abuse of power around the world.
Not only was there a negative reaction from government (Pres. Johnson had been a big supporter of civil rights and was furious about this new focus by MLK) and an exposive media response, but the black community was also strongly opposed to taking on this issue which, they felt, threatened to derail the focus at home on civil rights while also alienating a cooperative president. But Martin stood alone acting on his conscience and explaining how the situation at home was related to the one abroad. How could so many black youths be sent to a war as a liberating force for those in another land, and come home to experience the oppression of their own rights and freedoms? Why allow our precious national resources to be used in this way, against humanity, when it could be used to uplift the impoverished? Where was this country's conscience relative to its foreign policy and propensity for war?

It's a remarkable speech and rarely heard. And it is, of course, timely relative to our current military involvements which challenges this country's moral center once again.

Also interesting to hear what Martin's closest friends have to say about Obama....and what Obama has to say about MLK and war.

Watch the special and/or listen to the audio of this famous speech here:

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/reports/index.html


LA Times's review of the special:

'MLK: A Call to Conscience' displays a more radical Martin Luther King Jr.

Toward the end of a mostly compelling and occasionally moving new documentary, Cornel West does his best to puncture the image of a benign and non confrontational Martin Luther King Jr.

West rejects what he calls the "Santa Clausification" of King, fuzzy myth-making that the African American scholar says is "one of the ways in which you defang and domesticate people who are on fire for justice."

"MLK: A Call to Conscience" works best when it tends to the words of the provocative West -- revealing a King who was both more troubled, more radical and, yes, even more courageous than standard hagiography typically has allowed.

The documentary, airing at 8 p.m. Wednesday on KCET, delivers a worthy glimpse of the feeling, thinking and struggling King, a year before the end of his life.

The program would have been even more successful had it probed deeper into King's psychological and political challenges from both left and right and tossed aside some diversions, particularly an off-target attempt to hold President Obama accountable to the King legacy....cont'd

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-onthemedia31-2010mar31,0,5032612.column

(In fact, this special holds ALL of us accountable not to King but to our own conscience, individually and as a nation. Do we have the courage to stand in the light of our conscience
as MLK did)?




Why are we in Afghanistan REALLY?(and why won't the media cover these aspects of both our foreign policy as well as our energy policy?)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x525311


Why have there been no prosecutions for war crimes?

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. I remember his speeches, most of them, and remember

my young understanding back then that he "had to be " killed, that he was seen as
a danger to the status quo.
It was, I think, the first time I realized how true his words were:
"the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government."

It took me a few more years to understand why Bobby and JFK "had to be " killed.

[Dover]

3. If Martin were alive today I wonder if he would have a strong impact

on the current politics? Would he still be such a threat?

Would he even be heard or his speeches reported by the media?

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Excellent point.

As filtered and censored as news was back then, it was wide open compared to today.

[Dover]

6. Well that as well as the chaos and saturation of media noise?

Would he be heard among the cacophany of tweets and twitters, i-phones, youtube, etc. that is the characteristic din of the this information age? If everybody has a voice can anyone be heard?

[jotsy]

2. It's exponentially more true now than it was then.

The American public is too drunk on self appreciation to remember that conscience is a virtue to be coveted, rather than compromised.

The Military Industrial Complex has grown a couple of handy limbs in the megaphone of the media and the legitimacy of thorough governmental consent. I've heard claims that United States forces are and have been engaged in securing the interests of corporations for decades. According to a quick check at wikipedia, in 2007, the nation was the U.S. was the world's leading exporter of weapons by a considerable margin. I don't understand why the mind of man doesn't understand we are far too sentient and sentimental a race to be our best as conquering monsters who waste time on destroying and deem it as not just living, but living well.

Saw another excellent quote by Dr. King somewhere whilst blog trolling for tid bits to post here. I'll check back if I can remember where it was I caught it.

Always a pleasure to take in his mood and the hope in the moment. k and r

Edited to finish editing a sentence.
Twice.

[awoke_in_2003]

5. k&r, nt

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Dover.

[EFerrari]

8. For folks whose machine can do video, the episode can be streamed here:

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/reports/index.html

Thanks for the heads up, Dover!