AN EXCERPT FROM MARTIN LUTHER KING'S LAST SERMON At the Washington National Cathedral, March 28, 1968 "Anyone who feels, and there are still a lot of people who feel that way, that war can solve the social problems facing mankind is sleeping through a revolution. President Kennedy said on one occasion, "Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." The world must hear this. I pray God that America will hear this before it is too late. ... It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence, and the alternative to disarmament, the alternative to a greater suspension of nuclear tests, the alternative to strengthening the United Nations and thereby disarming the whole world may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation. . . Like a monstrous octopus, poverty spreads its nagging, prehensile tentacles into hamlets and villages all over our world. They are ill-housed, they are ill-nourished, they are shabbily clad ... There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will. . . Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet. . . we have not had the ethical commitment to make it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we have got to do this. Wemust all learn to live together as brothers. Or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality." MARTIN LUTHER KING ONLINE http://www.mlkonline.com These words are even more relevant today.
paraphrasing King said: If peaceful decent is not allowed then violent revolution is garaunteed. i find that pretty darn relevant
MLK knew all about zionism and and anti-zionism. He watched his country burn with fire and hate, knew segregation was more than physical, he spoke of "shall" overcome not "have" overcome, right up until the unsurprising moment when he took a bullet. He knew. Now, it's our turn. MLK showed us how to come to understanding the easy way, and how to apply the truest courage precisely and unwaveringly toward what it's most worth.
he's the black Americans' Gandhi but, as nice as his words sound, they are utopic nobody wants war (in democratic societies, at least) but while there are people like Kim Jong-Il or bin-Laden, while there is fascism in the world (in one way or another), blunting our swords is not the answer
Does it matter whose Gandhi he was? He almost singlehandedly changed the face of American society for the better. He could also see injustice everywhere, and his and Gandhi's basic ethics are the same, everyone is equal, no matter race or creed, sex, or orientations. Today sadly from Israel, Saudi Arabia, to Kashmir, to Latin America, to even America herself there will be a constant struggle against overt -isms.
It seems I may have been misinformed (not usually the case with me regarding zionism) I hold my hands up, and appologise. Thanks for the link.
Violence cannot end violence. Peace cannot be done, but being. It is time to be peaceful, if not now, when? It is up to us, if not us, who?
Palestine needs a Ghandi, ain’t no one gonna' support Israel if the IDF fires on a crowd of unarmed peaceful protesters, and then the pressure will really be on 'em to back the fuck off. But then, even militant Palestinian groups probably wouldn’t leave a non-violent movement alone.
But then, even militant Palestinian groups probably wouldn’t leave a non-violent movement alone." It doesn't matter what the "militants" do. The "movement", or Palestine, would eventually leave the militant groups alone. Fighters and their organizations would gradually be starved of recruits and funding, the last of them can choose to perish in raids and accidents, or to be arrested and tried for prolonging the regional agony of Arabs and Jewish immigrants. Public opinion needs only to see results to buy into nonviolence, and agree to an end to the childish and immaterial "who started it" argument. Violence has well proven its ineffectiveness in solving this problem and nearly everyone can see this fact. Nonviolence can in the Palestinian cause certainly achieve more and faster results than does the assymetrical warfare, which has been nothing but a black pit swallowing up lives,dignity, and prosperity for 30-60 years, depending on your perspective.
if only that were true..... Tom Hurndall dies at age 23. Murdered by an Israeli sniper who shot him while Tom was protecting Children in Rafah, Gaza.
King's message was great indeed. He wouldn't understand or condone the tactics used or the messages spewed by the current crop of race pimps that have hijacked his movement and turned it into a perverted ideology rooted in afro-centrism and personal greed. He would be ashamed of what has become of some of his early disciples. :bugeye:
"if only that were true..." By your logic, after the deaths of only one or two people the American Civil Rights movement should have (or could have) been abandoned as a vehicle for fundamental societal change. In order to have any success whatsoever, nonviolence must be a popular movement. I am not belittling the significance of the sacrifices of Tom Hurndall, Rachel Corrie, and other Western activists, but they do not represent a popular Palestinian movement. The immediate response to their deaths is a nonsensical bellweather of the potential effectiveness of organized and widespread Palestinian nonviolence. When northern American civil rights workers were murdered in the South for their activism, the end of segregation and racism did not then magically manifest as a direct result. Political change through nonviolence required, as it always will, disciplined popular participation.
I wonder if MLK was familiar with Armagedon and the prophetic destruction of mankind? All we are doing is fullfiling prophesy. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
