| Martin Luther King Day in
2009 precedes the dawn of the historic inauguration of America's first African American
President. This inauguration is lauded as the realization of Dr. King's dream, a defining
moment in the cultural paradigm, a tectonic shift in race relations and a beacon of real
change for the plight of the poor and oppressed. Infusing the dreams and ethos of Dr. King
in to the presidential persona demands a confluence of ideals and actions to truly deserve
the association. To betray the dream, to profit from the sacrifice is to insult the
legacy. To be worthy of the torch demands integrity.
"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."
This speech by Dr.Martin Luther King in 1967 is as poignant today as it
was back then. The names change but the nightmare remains the same. Today's Iraq and
Afghanistan replace yesterday's Vietnam. Today's increased level of poverty and
imprisonment of a hugely disproportionate number of African Americans in the prison
system, the slaughter of millions more of the world's poor and Dr. King's subsequent
murder at the hands of his own government bear witness to exactly which initiative was
taken.
President-Elect Barack Obama, in his speeches, expresses his desire to
inculcate the ideals of Dr. King in to his decision making and his attitude to his fellow
human beings.
He "chokes up" repeating the words of this Man of Peace, but
he'll "hold it together" on Inauguration day. He'll make America, in Dr. King's
words "a land no longer torn asunder with racial hatred and ethnic strife, a land
that measured itself by how it treats the least of these, a land in which strength is
defined not simply by the capacity to wage war but by the determination to forge peace - a
land in which all of God's children might come together in a spirit of brotherhood."
He stands silent as his country aids in the genocide of the
Palestinians.
He will forge peace by sending 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan to
intensify the massacre that has left nearly 800,000 of his brothers and sisters dead.
He stands silent on the more than 700,000 of his brothers and sisters
who have been murdered in Iraq.
He threatens War against Iran, Syria and already destroyed Lebanon. He
remains silent on the murder of his brother Oscar Grant III by police officer Johannes
Mehserle in California.
He perpetuates what Dr. King called "a nation that continues year
after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social
uplift".
"Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and
forgotten....America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses
the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and
the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of
greatness--justice" Martin Luther King, 1967.
The President-Elect refuses to bring George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald
Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger and the rest of the War criminals to justice as he looks forward
from the mountain top and points the way to spiritual death.
Would Dr. King, if he actually held public office, have voted for
invading Iraq, invading Afghanistan, sending arms and money to Israel and remained silent
as his poverty stricken brothers and sisters were slaughtered?
The words of Martin Luther King have been hijacked by
those would would use his message to further their narcissistic goals. His peaceful
supplication has been betrayed by lies and a sickening adulation of meaningless oratory.
His greatest statements of love and humanity have been relegated to
sound bites for mass consumption by a deceived public who have put their faith in a man
who represents all that Dr. King was fighting peacefully against.
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Be A Golden Rule Citizen! 
