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Tuesday, January 18, 2011 |
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SOCIAL JUSTICE: Civil Rights and Nonviolence
By St Mary Administrator @ 10:31 AM :: 133 Views ::  :: Social Justice
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This January 17th our nation will celebrate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most visionary civil rights leaders and nonviolence practitioners in history, who offered a moral compass to guide our way toward peace and justice. Dr. King understood that an injustice anywhere was an injustice everywhere. He believed in raising all boats and was willing to put his life on the line to protect the most vulnerable among us. He knew that speaking out on critical issues -- like war, racism and poverty – was an obligation for any person of conscience.
While Dr. King is officially remembered for his groundbreaking civil rights leadership, he was also an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and U.S. foreign policy. King was criticized for speaking out against the war. He was told that he should tend to the concerns of Black people and civil rights, and that the war was not his purview. Other civil rights leaders began to distance themselves from him, but he was not deterred. In a letter to Southern Christian Leadership Conference members who withdrew their support Dr. King clarified his opposition to the war.
“The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves ... marching and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy....
“[W]e as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. When machines and computers, profit and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
“A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies.... A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Forty-four years later, Dr. King’s challenge to us remains. Our country can make a change, a turn towards humanity and law and decency. Or we can continue down the road of deepening social injustice and permanent war. It’s time for our government to turn to the values of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — get involved, take action.
Adapted from UNITEDFOR PEACE AND JUSTICE.
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