Collegiate Times

In remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death just over 40 years ago, it is worth taking note of the message of brotherhood and nonviolence that he preached and lived.

At a period in which our nation is confronting some of the same questions it faced during King's life, it may be of value to revisit his words. Why did his message resonate so powerfully? And why has such a radical and militant critic of militarism, racism and poverty been pushed aside for a more comfortable and ultimately less powerful memory of Dr. King?

In his famous "Beyond Vietnam" speech, King noted how when he urged the most "desperate, rejected, and angry young men" to solve their problems through nonviolence they would respond by asking, "what about Vietnam?" Was not the American government, through its military, using massive violence to achieve its own geopolitical goals? Isn't the American government currently relying on the power of massive military violence and force to achieve its goals in Afghanistan and Iraq?

How can an activist, a preacher, or a politician credibly urge us to seek domestic solutions through nonviolence when they are willing to condone or even call for the use of large-scale violence in the international arena?

King recognized the obvious answer to these questions, that he "could never again raise (his) voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," his own government. Is today any different? Our military, with the help of others, has occupied Afghanistan and Iraq for more than five years and currently threatens a third nation in the region, Iran, which is bordered by both Afghanistan and Iraq.

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