Monday, January 21, 2008

"A day on not a day off" -- MLK on line

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 in 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 in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967.

The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not
revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of
futility.

Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967.



Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and
violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge,
aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden, December 11, 1964.

"We must work unceasingly to uplift this nation that we love to a higher destiny, to a higher plateau of compassion, to a more noble expression of humanness"
-Dr Martin Luther King

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5 Comments:

Blogger Cecily R said...

Thanks Kim. :)

7:42 PM  
Blogger Liane Spicer said...

Thank you for posting this. When I read the first one I couldn't help thinking how relevant those words are right now.

12:44 AM  
Blogger kim said...

I had to really work at not being discouraged about mankind when I read that -- 40 years later and insert name of new war here...

If I waste too much of my time worried about a mentality I can't relate to, I become ineffective in my world. There are plenty of people who's thinking doesn't scare the living daylights out of me, so I'll focus back to that knowledge.

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." -- Mahatma Gandhi

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fail. Think of it -- always." Mahatma Gandhi

"You must be the change you to see in the world." -- M.G.

1:02 PM  
Blogger kim said...

woops!

mangled that last one

"You must be the change you WANT to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi

1:06 PM  
Blogger Liane Spicer said...

I too have to work at that. Man doesn't seem to learn... I have to make a great effort to focus on the positives, and to remember that there are many good people striving to make the world a better place.

Very inspiring quotes by Gandhi. I'm familiar with the last one, but not the others. I'm copying them for the times when I begin to despair...

3:17 AM  

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