I am convinced that if we are to get on to the right side of
the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of
values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a
person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and
property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets
of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being
conquered.
- The Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.
“Beyond Vietnam” (1967)
We remember the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s landmark
speech on April 4th, 1967 – exactly one year, to the day, before he
was assassinated – for his passionate and principled dissent and excoriation of
our country’s misadventures in Vietnam. “Beyond
Vietnam” remains one of the most compelling and yet hopeful protests in our
country’s history.
But I remember the speech primarily for another reason:
because of his prophetic call for a “radical revolution of values” for and in
our country, a challenge that we did not take up meaningfully then and that is
even more urgent for us today.
I’ve been thinking about this for some time now, but I will
acknowledge that the election of Donald J Trump to the highest office in this
land and his subsequent and complete demonstration of unfitness for this honor
and awesome responsibility have dramatically increased my sense of urgency
around exhorting us to consider Dr. King’s challenge and to take it up as our
own now and permanently.
We need a radical revolution of values … because what’s
happening in our country today shows that we have largely lost our way.…
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question
the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one
hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will
be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road
must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and
robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more
than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which
produces beggars needs restructuring.
It’s not just that our president is a pathological liar, a
boor and inhumane; it’s that millions of our fellow citizens celebrate him for
these very reasons. It’s not just that we claim, falsely, to be a Christian
nation; it’s that millions of our fellow citizens celebrate elected and
societal leaders who demonize the poor in direct contradiction to Christ’s
example. It’s not just that we fail to acknowledge the many -isms that continue
to plague our country; it’s that millions of our fellow citizens celebrate the
disenfranchisement of the similarly situated simply because they consider them The
Other. It’s not just that inequality, economic and otherwise, is at an historic
high; it’s that millions of our fellow citizens vote against their own economic
(et. al.) interests and become dispossessed along with those they think that
they’re better than. It’s not just that we’ve become polarized politically,
socially and otherwise; it’s that millions of our fellow citizens see this as a
good thing even as their own realistic chances at realizing the American Dream
evaporate, too.
I want to tell myself that I don’t recognize this bloated,
mean-spirited and materially obsessed America, and yet I do. I want to tell
myself that it’ll get better if we’re patient, and yet it won’t. I want to tell
myself that if I subscribe to the selfishness that has so pervaded our society
and just focus on me and mine getting ours we will, and yet we won’t. Don’t get
me wrong, all of these things could happen; they are just significantly less
likely to as our communal bonds continue to be shredded and our ability to
relate to each other and collaborate in mutually beneficial ways ebbs daily.…
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the
glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will
look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge
sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out
with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, “This is
not just.” It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America
and say, “This is not just.” The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything
to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
I want to tell myself that I don’t understand James
Baldwin’s famous observation that “To be a Negro in this country and to be
relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time,” and yet I do. I
want to tell myself that as much as the presidency of Barack Obama was a
harbinger of hope that it won’t be overshadowed and undone by the studied and
purposeful depravity of his successor, and yet it could well be. I want to tell
myself that we Baby Boomers will prove to be more faithful and astute stewards
of the responsibilities of societal leadership than we considered our parents
to be a half-century ago, and yet we won’t.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order
and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business
of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans
and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples
normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloodied battlefields
physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with
wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend
more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
spiritual death.
I want to tell myself that Dr. King was wrong for indicting
the US government as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world,” and yet
it is (both internationally and domestically) and therefore he isn’t. I want to
tell myself that we are more humane in our approach to the opioid crisis than
we were when the crack epidemic was a scourge affecting our society because
we’ve evolved, and yet we haven’t. I want to tell myself that our constant
war-mongering and continued refusal to address the ongoing needs of those
damaged by it will be resolved in time, and yet they won’t.
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world,
can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a
tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the
pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing
to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we
have fashioned it into a brotherhood.
I want to tell myself that we will awaken from this fog of
being lost and right our course, and yet we may not. I want to tell myself that
the America that I and my generation are bequeathing to our children is a
better one, and it is in some ways, and yet in many and increasing ways it is decidedly
not. I want to tell myself that we will avoid our current and clear pattern of
mutually assured degradation if not destruction, and yet we very well may not.
A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis
that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation
must now adopt an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve
the best in their individual societies.
This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly
concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an
all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. …
History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and
individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee
says: “Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and
good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in
our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.”
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is
today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. …
Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long
and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. … The choice is ours, and
though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of
human history. …
And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to
transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. If we will
make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of
our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. If we will but make the
right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all
over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like
a mighty stream.
I would like to tell myself that I don’t have hope, because
it’s so/too costly, and yet I do. I would like to tell myself that this is a
battle for the next generation because I’ve done my fighting, and yet it’s not.
I’d like to tell myself that hope isn’t a strategy, and yet in its active form
it can be.
I’d like to tell myself that I’m tired and too old to fight
the good fight anymore, and yet I’m not. I’d like to tell myself that every
time I reflect on the incisive wisdom of Dr. King’s words and the passionate
inspiration of his actions I’m not moved and spurred again to action, and yet I
am. I’d like to tell myself that this new world, this better world, will be
made by a new generation, and yet it doesn’t have to be. I’d like to tell
myself that at this stage of my life I should just focus on the relatively
short road ahead of me and not worry about the big picture, and yet I can’t.
I’d like to tell myself that the remaking of this world is beyond my scope, and
yet it isn’t.
It all starts with the
revolution of values: first mine, and then yours, and then ours, and then,
hopefully, all of ours, too….
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three;
and the
greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:13
(NRSV)
