When will we ever learn?

“Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and [sister] to the suffering poor of Iraq and Afghanistan. Speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in these wars is ours. The initiative to stop them must be ours.”

I wish these eloquent and sage words were mine today, but they belong to the great Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience. Instead of Iraq and Afghanistan, it should, of course, read Vietnam. Forty-four years ago, we were mired in that war, a civil war that we shouldn’t have been involved in, that cost the lives of many Americans, Vietnamese, and other southeast Asians. We couldn’t figure out how to end the war and withdraw our troops, and we are in exactly the same situation now. As a nation, we have learned nothing.

Today, we are told that the war in Iraq is over, but there is talk of leaving 50,000 or more soldiers at risk there. A corrupt government reigns. In Afghanistan, we recently instituted a surge of soldiers, in an effort to make headway. A corrupt government reigns there also. Can we say that our intrusiveness has improved the quality of life for the people of these countries? Unfortunately not. It’s a sorry situation.

I cannot understand where the protest marchers are, or those talented enough to write and sing the songs that can move people to action. Where are the humble and compassionate in this country? Where are those who advocate nonviolent means of solving disagreements? Our nation desperately needs these voices to rise up. It took the draft and the student protests to put an end to Vietnam. And, it took Martin Luther King, Jr, Bobby Kennedy, and a few others to lead us from our wicked ways. Praise the Lord that they did.

Today we need a leader to step forth who has been “to the mountaintop,” who will tell the truth, who sees “nonviolence as a powerful and just weapon,” and who preaches love as the transformer of our enemies. For “the hope of a secure and livable world lies with the disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood [sisterhood].

“As individuals, each of us must decide whether we will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”

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

Quotations are all MLK, Jr.’s words. I have adapted some to make them gender inclusive.