"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.
The Truth, The Whole Truth, and....
For
decades now, the corporate media has celebrated Dr. King's "I Have a
Dream" speech. Yet, with few exceptions, the MSM has assiduously buried Dr. King's teachings on
economic justice, materialism, and militarism.
Like
Mahatma Gandhi, King's message was Spiritual. Each of these courageous sages saw that Mammon worship, the soul-sucking evil of
materialism/consumerism, was alive and unwell, lurking in the belly of
capitalism.
Throughout the history of capitalism, racism, economic
exploitation, and warfare have walked hand in hand. The
prosperity
of the capitalist English Empire and it's rebellious teenage offspring,
the USA,
were built squarely on the horrors of genocide and slavery. Sadly, it still exists today systemic oppressions. Although the current ascendancy of Trump and his
MAGA Minions will try to deny its history -- and its reality today --
genocide, both literal and cultural, systemic poverty, jailhouse
slavery, etc. continue to emerge from the assumptions and actions of a white supremacist capitalism.
Like
my identical twin brother, Lance, I usually tend to be more Buddhist in
my lingo. Yet, I just gotta say it out loud (and type it clearly):
I agree with Mahatma
Gandhi. Capitalism is the work of the freakin' DEVIL! Its the dark
side of the force. With it's unbridled greed and exploitation, "business as usual" continues to slaughter and oppress people -- and it is taking aim on
the survival of the planet.
Dr.
King, like Gandhi, was not merely a political leader. He was a Saint, a Prophet, a Holy Man. With astounding vision and passion, he sought to alleviate the
needless human suffering created by a political and economic system that feeds on
greed, hatred, and delusion. Like many other prophets throughout
history, both King and Gandhi threatened the ruling order of oligarchs and
the preachers who supported them. And, they were both martyred.
Although Dr.
King focused on the evil of racism in his "I Have a Dream" speech on that
late summer day in Washington DC, his words were delivered to the throng
that had assembled for the March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom. This effort, which he had helped organize, challenged economic
exploitation and suggested bold governmental action to alleviate
poverty.
The FBI claimed the event was inspired by Communists and
lobbied to prevent it from happening.
King continued to march. He continued to preach love and championed a
non-violent resistance to a system that has always used violence. Like
Jesus of Nazareth, and a myriad other martyrs, Dr. King knew full well
that he would most likely be killed for challenging the ruling order -- and he chose
Love and "Good Trouble" instead.
Dr. King's assassination, five
years after the "I Have a Dream" speech, occurred when he traveled to Memphis to support striking
Afro-American municipal 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. The ability for ordinary people to "play a truly significant role" in the government
When's the last time you saw the Economic Bill of Rights highlighted in the corporate media coverage of Dr. King's life?
A Time to Break Silence
When Trump's legion of misanthropes, materialists, and
militarists first attempted to loot our country and the world, it was
easy for Progressives to protest. Then, with the election of Joe Biden,
we saw that the same collection of neo-con's, foreign policy
"experts,"media pundits, and the moguls and minions of the military
industrial complex dominate US foreign policy! A Democratic
administration continued to stoke the flames of warfare in Ukraine and
Gaza. And the rich got richer, the poor got poorer.
WTF!?
Now,
Trump has returned. His slim electoral success (a 1.5% margin) does
not constitute a mandate. Yet, he has had four more years to enlist the
energies of a powerful cabal of moguls and right wing theorists. They
are dead set on scuttling our ship of state. And its clear that the
cards are still out on whether our constitutional checks and balances
will be able to thwart his efforts.
In part, Trump's
margin of victory was fueled by his pretension and/or personal delusion
that he is a man of peace. Yet, the genocide in Palestine/Israel
continues. He's threatened to invade and annex both Greenland and
Panama. His efforts to curb the bloodshed in Ukraine haven't yielded a
successful diplomatic resolution -- or even a ceasefire.
It's
clear. It's time for those who believe in the creation of a world of
peace and shared prosperity -- as opposed to the accumulation of wealth by
the world's oligarchs -- to speak out. Dr. King did so, dramatically, on
April 4, 1967, at the
Riverside Church in New York City.
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,
to the day, later.
The corporate media today ignores this
speech and remains silent. I hope you don't. Please listen and pass
this along. Then join some folks, speak out, act -- with love in your
heart!
It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!
Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence
