Ain't Gonna Study War Anymore

Once a year or so we recall the name and face of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, and we commemorate a holiday for "what he did for America." So, what did he do? His name is on many an inner-city school and community center; teacher supply stores now carry "history" decorations that include Dr. King's face in three-tone color along side the grade-school images of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We remember him with TV news replays of his "I have a dream" speech and flashes of various Civil Rights marches. But what did he do for us, that we are celebrating?

I leave that question hanging, and propose something further beyond the question: If he were alive today, besides being fairly "old," he probably wouldn't be as revered, because he probably would have been a real bother to our society for many of the same reasons he was a bother before he was assassinated (for which he was assassinated?)

Our schools today are segregated and disparate along segregated lines, under conditions that may even be worse than before Plessy vs. Ferguson (which, of course was BEFORE Brown vs. Board of Education) *See Jonathan Kozol's The Shame of the Nation on this one. We have continued to face significant portions of our society in poverty and/or in jail (today with over 2 million of our population incarcerated). And, we are mired in yet another war--that this time has lasted over 14 years, when you consider that before we invaded Iraq with ground troops, we had been bombing the country daily--yes, daily!--for the ten years prior!

I don't imagine that, given the direction Dr. King was headed in 1968, attempting to point to the root connections between state sponsored violence and social injustice, he'd be a quiet observer today; his non-violence was active pacifism (not "passivism"). He made a point of "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable." He was a radical peacemaker. And this is certainly not what we celebrate yearly on his "holiday." If we did, we would feel more than a little "convicted" by the challenge of what he stood for.

As with so many other "prophets" (both secular and religious) who we commemorate, we mourn his death but are then able to let ourselves off the hook from his message. In life he was a "disturber of the peace," and then we build him monuments and memorials after he has died.

So now, for example, the radical message of Dr. King has no place in our country's deliberations about war and peace. Anyone who might take his radical nonviolence seriously, in fact, will be summarily portrayed as a modern-day fringe wacko, out of touch with "reality." Certainly, let's not think we can get anywhere constructively by asking, for example, if there are any ways we can extricate ourselves not only from Iraq itself, but from warmaking as a means of peacemaking. Let's not think it is productive or realistic to connect the dots between the 10 Billion dollars a month (or more) spent on the US in Iraq, and our decaying schools, decaying neighborhoods, decaying healthcare system, and more.

In this very early "political season" in fact, we are being wooed by umpteen candidates who want to lead us next after the current administration has left its legacy. All but one candidate out of the whole lot, in either of the major political parties, even dares to question the fundamental principle of warmaking as a way to peacemaking; and that one candidate is so often portrayed as a fringe wacko, out of touch with reality. This point will be lost on a majority of our population. Even those on diametrically opposed sides of the Iraq war issue are disagreeing about timing; they aren't offering any serious leadership to help us address the very roots of war as a way of peacemaking.

I believe Dr. King was serious and committed when he intoned the phrase, "I don't know about you, but I ain't gonna study war, anymore!" Unfortunately we've redacted that one from our historic memory; it would be a dangerous memory if we took it seriously.

Here is another blog that includes texts from Dr. King's speech about the Viet Nam war in 1967, and an audio recording of his speech "Why I am Opposed to the War in Viet Nam."

And an excerpt from a speech by Dr. King: Aug. 28, 1963 as redacted for 21'st Century U.S.A.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

…And nations will not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore. And I don’t know about you, I ain’t gonna study war no more.
— Martin Luther King Jr.