"A Time to Break Silence"

1/30/15

"A Time to Break Silence"

Dear Reader,

On April 4th, 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave one of the most controversial speeches in U.S. history, when he delivered, " A Time to Break Silence," a speech in which he condemned the Vietnam War, and called for peace.

Thereafter, he was no longer welcome in The White House, condemned by many black leaders for alienating President Johnson, and the U.S. news media vilified him. But Dr. King also became one of the leaders of the movement to end the Vietnam War.

I recently shared a tiny segment of that speech and my friend and reader, Mary Ellen revised it slightly by removing "Vietnam" and inserting "Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan Etc."

With her slight revision, please see how appropriate that speech is today. Let us hope that today's call for peace will not continue to fall on deaf ears. 

"Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of IRAQ, PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN ETC.. 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 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 an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative of this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours."

Angelic Blessings,

Mary Ellen ^I^

If you would like to read or hear this speech, http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm