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blue bits. red rocks.
Tuesday 9 March 2010

They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Saturday 6 March 2010

To offer roses to those who throw stones is a rare and remarkable quality. History is made of the witness of such moments. I think of Nelson Mandela bringing his jailers from Robben Island onto the platform at his Inauguration. I think of the Prophet Muhammad granting amnesty to those in Mecca who for two decades tried to destroy him. I think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. staring down the dogs and fire hoses of hate, insisting that he had no anger, that he was too focused on redemption, on reconciliation, on building the beloved community. Van Jones, Faith Hero

Thursday 4 March 2010

If King’s actions against war prove anything, it’s that there’s a huge difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism is the critical affirmation of one’s country in light of its best values, including the attempt to correct it when it’s in error. Nationalism is the uncritical support of one’s nation regardless of its moral or political bearing. …The confusion between the two has blurred the difference between love and worship of country, a distinction King never failed to make. … Martin Luther King, Jr.’s role as a dissenter and prophet never diminished his patriotism. True patriots love their country enough to tell it the truth. King never confused a healthy patriotism with a myopic nationalism that often wrapped ethnic bigotry and racial terror in a flag — and around a cross. Michael Eric Dyson

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Frederick Douglas’s agenda was an agenda, not for black people to get out of slavery. It was for America to become a better democracy. And it’s spilt over for women’s rights; it’s split over for worker’s rights and so forth. Martin Luther King Jr’s agenda was not to help Negroes overcome American apartheid in the south. It was to make America democracy a better place, where everyday people, from poor people who were white and red and yellow and black and brown, would be able to live lives in decency and dignity. And that black agenda included a love of Vietnamese people, who were being bombed by American airplanes and repressed by gangster communists, right? Cornel West

Monday 22 February 2010

I am not prepared to adjust myself to a society that takes necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. Martin Luther King, Jr (via morningstar)

Thursday 4 February 2010
Tuesday 2 February 2010

When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, social programs must inevitably suffer. We can talk about guns and butter all we want to, but when the guns are there with all of its emphasis you don’t even get good oleo. These are facts of life. Martin Luther King

Monday 25 January 2010

I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all… It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. Martin Luther King

Thursday 21 January 2010

So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monday 18 January 2010

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary. Martin Luther King Jr.

I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. Martin Luther King

Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane. Martin Luther King

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