As the dominoes line up pointing us toward a Syrian war, we celebrate the passing of a great peacemaker who said about war in general and our phony, wasteful, set-up Vietnam War in particular:
"I want to say one other challenge that we face is simply that we must find an alternative to war and bloodshed. Anyone who feels, and there are still a lot of people who feel that way, that war can solve the social problems facing mankind is sleeping through a great revolution. President Kennedy said on one occasion, "Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." The world must hear this. I pray to God that America will hear this before it is too late, because today we're fighting a war." MLK
MLK on service by Galactic Free Press
As Oprah on August 28th borrowed words from Martin Luther King Jr. in commemorating him, she pointed us toward a road that could return greatness to America and the world's character:
"Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
Oprah quoting - Martin Luther King Jr.
Oprah MLK appreciation day by Washington Post
As the President spoke of how MLK's kind of service could bring rich and poor Americans and world citizens together:
"But it also teaches us that the promise of this nation will only be kept when we work together. We'll have to reignite the embers of empathy and fellow feeling, the coalition of conscience that found expression in this place 50 years ago.
"And I believe that spirit is there, that true force inside each of us. I see it when a white mother recognizes her own daughter in the face of a poor black child. I see it when the black youth thinks of his own grandfather in the dignified steps of an elderly white man. It's there when the native born recognizing that striving spirit of a new immigrant, when the interracial couple connects the pain of a gay couple who were discriminated against and understands it as their own. That's where courage comes from, when we turn not from each other or on each other but towards one another, and we find that we do not walk alone. That's where courage comes from."
Obama MLK appreciation day by Washington Post 8-28-20013
As much of the nation commemorated a wonderful man who loved service and peacemaking, we have no program or policy that would more quickly move us closer to the world the Preacher of Peace envisioned in his "Dream."
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