In honour of the day ...

[karlht]

Bob Harris excerpts Dr. King's Beyond Vietnam speech at New York's Riverside Church on 4 April 1967, exactly a year before he was assassinated.

This is truly what resistance looks like. Articulate, passionate, respectful and unyielding. The big voice, calling out to every conscience, every heart, every vibrant soul in its path. This is the voice of prophecy -- and the only way that we can save ourselves and our nation from doing unspeakable evil:

This call for a world-wide 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. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept -- so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force -- has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John:

"Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us."

Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate.

Now let us begin.

Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the callling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost?

The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

Comments

[debg.livejournal.com]

Alas, I'm the naysayer.

It is possible - whether the voice of religions wants to believe it or not - to live well and love well and share with humanity, without any belief whatsoever in a god.

The calling of the sons of God?

Not for me. Once again, the message is exclusionary.