As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, birthday, we remember his words. In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King said that three important issues confronting us were racial injustice, poverty, and war. How far have we progressed in ameliorating racial injustice?
Dr. King stated that “there is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.” Do the multi- billion dollar bailout handouts to Wall Street and banks to pad their deep pockets benefit American workers and their families on Main Street?
We must heed Dr. King’s call to “find an alternative to war, if we assume that life is worth living and that man has a right to survive.” He warned that “nations are not reducing but rather increasing their arsenals of weapons of mass destruction.” It seems incongruent for our government to demand other nations not to develop nuclear technology (even for ostensibly peaceful purposes), when the U.S. and other superpowers possess grand nuclear arsenals.
When we bear witness to President Bush’s order to invade Iraq, the destruction of a sovereign nation, and the continuing tragic aftermath, we know that “war is obsolete.” President Obama’s recent decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan is a grave mistake, and makes it more difficult for the U.S. to extricate itself from the quagmire in Afghanistan, and delays the search for a peaceful solution.
Dr. King stated, “I have the personal faith that mankind will somehow rise up to the occasion and give new directions (to a nation and world) drifting rapidly to its doom.”
What are we, individually and collectively, doing to banish racial injustice, eliminate poverty, and achieve peace, for our nation and our world?
Let us honor Dr. King.
