"When machines and computers, profit motives and
property rights,
are considered more important than people, the giant
triplets of racism,
extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of
being conquered."
-- Dr. Martin King Jr., Speech at Riverside Church, April 4, 1967
"It is my firm belief that Europe of today represents not the spirit of God or Christianity but the spirit of Satan. And Satan's successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips. Europe today is only nominally Christian. In reality, it is worshiping Mammon."
-- Mahatma Gandhi, Young India, August 9, 1920.
Dr. King's vision from the Mountaintop was that of taking down walls constructed of fear and hatred, not building them.
Yet, the walls that he dreamed of removing didn't just consist of segregation. His message was broader and deeper. For decades now, the corporate media has increasingly whitewashed Dr. King's views on economic justice, materialism and militarism. Like Gandhi, King's message was essentially Spiritual. They both saw clearly that Mammon worship, the soul sucking evil of materialism/consumerism, lurks in the belly of capitalism.
Throughout our history, racism and economic exploitation have always walked hand in hand. The prosperity of the English Empire and it's rebellious teenage child, the USA were built on slavery and genocide. Sadly, although the form may look different, this continues today.
Like my identical twin brother, Lance, I usually tend to be more Buddhist in my lingo Yet, I just gotta say it out loud: I agree with Gandhi. This is the work of the devil.
Although Dr. King focused on the evil of racism, his speech that late summer day in Washington DC was delivered to the throng that had assembled for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That march challenged the economic exploitation millions of Americans because of the color of their skin. The FBI claimed the event was inspired by Communists and lobbied to prevent it from happening.
Like Gandhi, King continued to march, to champion a non-violent response to a system that has always used violence. Like Jesus of Nazareth, and a myriad other martyrs, they knew full well that they may be killed for challenging the ruling order.
Dr. King's assassination five years later occurred when he traveled to Memphis to support striking Afro-American sanitation workers as the leader of the National Poor People's campaign. That campaign demanded an Economic Bill of Rights which included five planks:
1. "A meaningful job at a living wage"
2. "A secure and adequate income" for all those unable to find or do a job
3. "Access to land" for economic uses
4. "Access to capital" for poor people and minorities to promote their own businesses
5. Ability for ordinary people to "play a truly significant role" in the government
When's the last time you saw that highlighted in the mass media coverage on Martin Luther King Day?
A Time to Break Silence
As Trump's legion of misanthrops, materialists and military men prepare to board, loot, and scuttle our beleaguered ship of state, it's a time to break silence. Dr. King's did so dramatically on April 4, 1967. On that day, Dr. King proclaimed, "these too are our brothers," and came out against the US involvement in the Vietnam War with a passion and an eloquence that many believe caused his assassination exactly one year later.
The corporate media today chooses to ignore this speech and remain silent. I hope you don't. Please listen and pass this along. Then join some folks and speak out -- with love in your heart!
It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!
