Dr. M. L. King on Viet Nam -- and Iraq?

No, Dr. King was not speaking about Iraq, but about our nation's propensity toward solving problems violently. However, his predictions about future generations are uncanny -- here we are, forty years later, faced with an almost identical situation. Why? Because we have not solved the moral problems to which he refers. You can listen to the speech and read the entire text here (American Rhetoric.com). Thanks to Sojourners' "Daily Verse and Voice" for the information.

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence

[April 4, 1967 at a meeting of "Clergy and Laity Concerned"]

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

. . . . it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. And so we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. And so we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.

. . . . As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their qestions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be [i.e., will live up to its commitment that all people are created equal] are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.

This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls "enemy," for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called "enemy," I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic 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 organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.

And so, such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.

. . . . the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken. . . . we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin . . . the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. 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.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores, and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Peacemaking as Typhoon relief

My old college friend, Salvador Cariaga, sends this report after one month of helping people whose lives were devastated by two typhoons in 10 days in the Mayon district of the Philippines.

A typhoon or hurricane is the strongest storm on earth. The last two typhoons that hit the Bicol Region in less than a week showed how powerful and damaging this force can be. Over 700 villages, five provinces, half a dozen cities, and a million people were affected by this recent double destruction. This was multiplied by the lahar and mudslides coming down from the Mayon volcano just fresh from its recent eruptions.

Though the loss of lives was 'minimal' at over 1,000, the damage is extensive and widespread. What was once lush agricultural fields of cocunut trees have turned into a war zone-like scenario. From the airplane, the abundant coconut trees looked like tooth picks sticking up from the ground, if not bent or fallen in all directions. Miles and miles of houses were damaged or completely destroyed, many roads and bridges were almost impassable or closed, electric posts dangerously leaning everywhere.

Our one month of disaster relief involving over 100 volunteers from around the country did a lot for two small communities, but we barely scratched the surface. However, after one month of sleeping in tents, I am glad to be home and take a short break. We did just about everything, including medical mission, provide roofing for over 500 families, our volunteers cleaned up and helped fix a dozen houses, rebuilt a community basketball court, fed thousands, gave away hundreds of bags and school supplies to kids, conducted two VBS, gave away 131,000 shampoo packs donated by Proctor and Gamble, etc.

My partners and I have personally met mayors, a governor, congresman, and local community leaders and tried to work with them and through them. In the process, a new congregation is forming and another house church is expected to start. Last Sunday, 62 visitors attended our worship service. Yesterday in his brief visit around Mayon Volcano, Dr. John Bailey saw some of the places and people we have served.

We will be back there again with a new team and a new round of relief effort. We plan to do medical mission with half a dozen doctors and help provide roofing for 1000 more homes. We need to raise the following:

1. Medicine to treat 1000 or more people

2. 100 rolls of tarp to provide temporary roofing for 1000 more homes

3. 1000 Bibles. Most people's Bibles were water-damaged, if not swept away. 1000 Bibles is nothing compared to the need, but we plan to hand deliver them to the homes with personal prayer and encouragement.

4. Feed 10,000 people

5. Supply the food and needs of 60-80 volunteers for two weeks.

6. Generator

7. Chain saw

8. 20 more tents and beddings for the volunteer workers.

Note: Salvador had a ruptured apendix and was operated. He is currently recovering in the hospital.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you wish to help with material things like seeds, food and clothes, please send them to:

(Manila Area)
Makati Church of Christ
1598 Archimedes St
Brg Lapaz Makati, (near brgh hall)
Metro Manila,
Philippines

(Visayas Area)
Mactan Church of Christ
Tumulak Street,
Gun-ob
Lapu-Lapu City Cebu 6015
Philippines

(Mindanao Area)
Sunrise Christian College
Bon-Bon, Butuan City 8100
Philippines

For cash donations, please send it to the bank account of

Mactan Church of Christ

Metro Bank, Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City
00718550805-2
Swift number MBTCTHMM

Foreign donors can send their checks through their churches or mail it to:

BandS Ministries (Body and Soul)
P.O. Box 1926
Colleyville, Texas 76034

You may contact Dr. Bailey at jcb2of3@sbcglobal.net http://www.bandsministries.org/

If you have questions concerning Salvador's work, or the BandS organization of Dr. John Bailey, please feel free to email me.