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Martin Luther King Jr. on War

By Leslie on January 21, 2008 at 6:45 PM in Current Affairs

During the last few years of his life, Martin Luther King, Jr., began to see the relationship between war and civil rights and poverty. Although he realized that denouncing the Vietnam War risked alienating President Johnson, his ally on civil rights legislation, and the civil rights movement. Nevertheless Martin Luther King, Jr., followed his conscience and refused to back down.

In December 1966, testifying before a congressional subcommittee on budget priorities, King argued for a ‘‘rebalancing’’ of fiscal priorities away from America’s ‘‘obsession’’ with Vietnam and toward greater support for anti-poverty programs at home…. King led his first anti-war march in Chicago on 25 March 1967, and reinforced the connection between war abroad and injustice at home: ‘‘The bombs in Vietnam explode at home—they destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America….”

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http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

Hillary Clinton Asks Fellow United Methodists to Continue Social Witness for Children

Release # 045 {2909} April 24, 1996

DENVER (UMNS) — Acknowledging the profound impact of the United Methodist Church upon her life, Hillary Rodham Clinton called upon the denomination to continue its social witness for the world’s children. …
http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

Hillary Clinton Asks Fellow United Methodists to Continue Social Witness for Children

Release # 045 {2909} April 24, 1996

DENVER (UMNS) — Acknowledging the profound impact of the United Methodist Church upon her life, Hillary Rodham Clinton called upon the denomination to continue its social witness for the world’s children. …
jharp

Fantastic clip. Almost brought tears.

I have a 14 year old son and 15 year old daughter and every MLK day I give them a homework assignment to watch one of his speeches.
http://www.youtube.com/davidspates davidspates

I made a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day video that I think EVERYONE will enjoy. It’s really short, and should put a smile on your face.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AtugYg42mmc

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day everybody

David Spates

http://www.youtube.com/davidspates
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

Speaking of speeches, the top three Dems spoke movingly today at the Ebenezer Baptist Church about MLK’s legacy.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

Susan,
The spam filter got your comments by mistake. Fixed it, but now you have a dupe.
Mr.Murder

King opposed war on a moral stanpoint, it is a clear position.

Certain persons claim to have opposed the wars we are in now, all I can see of those comments before this year are the attachment of a qualifier.

The war was only opposed if it was not a “smart” war.

Wars against weapons of mass destruction related program activites, on UN security review votes, that pay for themselves in oil, and last maybe 90 days or will be over within a year if not by at least 2018, with a smaller faster army that has less troops than the Joint Chiefs Chair calls for, that get every funding vote since Obama has been a Senator, that is what Obama stands for.

That you should question his stance against the war throughout this time is to question the very legacy of MLK. Thought we’d clarify that for you.

You appear to have been satisfied that we have fought a smart war.

There’s another position to consider for arguing certain security measures and a lack of transparency regarding the use of ‘national security’ as a waiver of all procedure and Constitutional Separation of Powers.

Will try that after dinner and visit with relatives.

Happy MLK day for all, and a life of civil and human rights, dignity and living wage as part of the American dream.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

Mr. Murder,
Who are you talking to? Who is “satisfied that we fought a smart war”?
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

Is anyone watching the Democratic debate tonight?
justsomeone

Coretta Scott King influenced Dr King. Actually Coretta was more anti war than he was.
TeakWoodKite

Did you say Rezko?
shirin

I just looked at your latest poll. You left out a very important option. Some of us might choose to donate the tax rebate money to Bush’s victims in Iraq. What about, for example, donating to a mental health fund for Iraqi PTSD sufferers of which there are millions. Or perhaps donating to Iraqi orphans, or refugee families.

Of course, I COULD be really “naughty” and suggest donating the money to the resistance. Come to think of it, that might be the only way of getting the U.S. out of there.
justsomeone

Leslie, thanks for the heads up. Yes, I’m watching those 3 lawyers go at it.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

“Donate the money” covers a wide range of options. But be careful, Shirin, administration spies are all over the place!
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

Post a comment if one of them says something interesting, OK?
TeakWoodKite

Of course, I COULD be really “naughty” and suggest donating the money to the resistance.

And get your self on a list you might not care to be on? LOL
TeakWoodKite

Poor Obama. He can dish it out but he can’t it when trading barbs…He should not have brought up Bill Clinton. He said “I worked for 5 hours” on a “joint project” ? So he knew folks where out in the cold? Why is Obama making distinctions that Hillary = girl Obama = black, Edwards = white? WTF?
shirin

Oh, shoot! I’m probably on all kinds of lists as it is! What’s one more?
shirin

Really? Are they doing any “social witness” (whatever that is) for the children in Ghaza right now?
http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

Great news via TomP, an excellent diarist at MyDD:

MLK III to Edwards: Keep Fighting!
Mr.Murder

Obama’s only concern heading into war wasn’t about going, it was about what was done when there. “Smart war,” as opposed to dumb war, or in McCain’s case 5th from the last in his class war… something like that.

That’s a catch 22, he can always claim he would have fought it differently or better. Channeling John Kerry on that topic as well, got him on the podium for the best speech opportunity of the ’04 convention.

If we put Obama in on right wing policy clothed in left wing rhetoric, it will drive voters back to the GOP. If the policies fail they’ll claim it was the fault of Obama, not the platform. If they even reach a normative level it would call for further “reform” that retains us in robber baron levels of inequity and unregulated graft. If they fail abysmally it will pointed the way of Democrats in charge. Every pick faces this challenge, but his is the one most likely to have serious burnback on the consequences of how he framed the run for office.

Our market is over valued. Bottom line estimates of 20%, I say it’s much more, spread out over a series of items, enough so to scare Buffet out of many market sectors in 2005. The money from inflated value is then sent into investments for this market, compounding shortcomings in the future, and weighted abroad in securities bundles, which is one reason world markets are consistently plummeting right now. The countries also buy into our debt, so when things bad here they’ll get bad there as well.

It used to be that you could hedge currencies and ride out bad time with sell offs in a sector or exchange by using a separate strong area’s gains to buy up when things cross a certain threshold. The boom years had this effect. Our Dow and NASDAQ could both gain, or just one, almost every day, provided the SPR was maintained to help fuel a domestic boom or counter minor valleys on the ride to the top.

Then it became more of an item that as America’s stocks declined the multinationals gained elsewhere, the EU had a currency to buy in with, and China had volume to but with from the low end hedged currency.

We’re in no man’s land, and enough shabby value was put into each slice of pie that market drag will occur to levels not anticipated. Only our currency value and several key investment yields may soon flip, which could be catastrophic because no normative correction measures could be used since we’ve pushed back with uncommonly low interest rates and high debt levels and there’s inadequate incoming revenue stream to counter.

Obama’s operating under the generous assumption of policy and rhetoric comparisons that do not match the numbers. That leaves most of us with no room but to assume he’s in favor of how the war was fought. He rarely spoke against items of policy and his votes for spending matched. Had he wanted to be consistent he could have voted ‘present’ for that item, he’s far more inconsistent than that.
CK

Doesn’t anyone find it ironic that the Warsaw Ghetto model has been refurbished and is now in use in Palestine?
shirin

I have commented on that at various times over the years, and been skewered for it by Jewish interlocutors who insist that the Jewish experience remain unique in its horror. And the analogy has become increasingly apt year by year by year until now it is almost a perfect parallel.
CK

Unique except for the gypsies, gays, mentally challenged, physically disabled, Polish catholics and christians, afro-germans, and Jehovas witnesses ( a total of about 6 million out of the 11 million who died in the planned exterminations).
TeakWoodKite

G Hazeltine posted a disturbing link about what you point out spreading to the securities and bond markets. I was left thinking how investments are rated according to risk and how the little guy in the near future will have no where to go when risk is equalized across all investment instruments.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

I agree with him! Edwards has been really great. Wonder what he’ll do after the campaign?
Rob Gard

There are two sides to most issues, and while the Israelis can be legitimately criticised for some actions, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not exactly totally innocent victims here. To equate the crimes of the German S/S committed against the involuntary occupants of the Warsaw ghetto is a bit of a stretch. And all those German S/S troops were constrained to liquidate the entire (involuntary) population of the Warsaw ghetto because the involuntary occupants of the ghetto were, in violation of the Geneva accords, firing hundreds of rockets from the the midst of civilian populations in the ghetto at German troops, right ? And the Germans had been providing food, medicine and fuel to the ghetto inhabitants, right ? And the Germans were treating ghetto inhabitants with state of the art medical care in German hospitals, right ?