Sorry, today's blog is not a delightful recipe, even though I have a few that I will share as soon as I can get to it. Today is a late reflection of one of my heros: Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the many motivations behind my veganism is my love of peace. Martin Luther King, Jr. sought peace. He spoke out against the Vietnam war, and I find the things he said particularly relevant today. Here are my favorite quotes from his famous speech, Beyond Vietnam.
And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to
understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of
that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the
ideologies of the Liberation Front, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of
the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three
continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that
there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know
them and hear their broken cries.
...
What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as
we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do
they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested
out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where
are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among
these voiceless ones?
We have destroyed their two most cherished
institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their
crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only noncommunist
revolutionary political force, the unified Buddhist Church. We have supported
the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and
children and killed their men.
Now there is little left to build on, save
bitterness. Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at
our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call
"fortified hamlets." The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new
Vietnam on such grounds as these. Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must
speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These, too, are 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 dealt 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.
. . .
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast
of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas
and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia,
Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the
social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at
our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not
just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others
and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay
hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not
just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our
nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate
into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and
bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot
be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after
year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift
is approaching spiritual death. [sustained applause]
America, the richest
and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution
of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from
reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over
the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant
status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a
brotherhood.
. . .
We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent
coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action.
. . .
If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day,
all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like
waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. [sustained applause]
