On this week's edition of Social Justice Television we will focus on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King and play tributes to him and speeches he made in their entirety. At a recent community gathering where various speeches of Dr. King were played I realized that I have never heard an entire speech from Dr. King anywhere in the media and I have only heard certain select snippets of his famous "I have a dream" speech. I started thinking about why this is and my answer was in the words of the speeches I never heard.
Dr. King said many radical and revolutionary things that most us have never heard. Right before he was assassinated by rogue elements of the U.S. Government, Dr king. made a speech telling why he was against the Vietnam War. Many people believe that it was this opposition to the war and the potential unification of the anti-war and civil rights movements, with Dr.King leading the way, that the U.S Government and those in control of it feared most and therefore decided to take his life by murdering him.
The words he spoke against the Vietnam War could just as easily be applied to the current Iraq War as many of the same conditions exist today. I have to question how far have we really come but I refuse to give in to despair and negative thinking because those are unproductive pursuits and luxuries we cannot afford. We must be the generation who rises to the challenge with eyes and hearts wide open and bring forth into existence the promised land that Dr Martin Luther King foretold.
Martin Luther King, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"
Martin Luther King "I have a dream" in it's entirety...
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