Sunday, January 14, 2007

MLK Sunday Speech
I don't know if John Edwards has what it takes to defeat both Obama and Clinton, and I'm not sure I prefer him to Obama. But, Edwards gave an MLK Sunday speech that says what needs to be said. And he gave the speech at Riverside Church, site of Dr. King's most famous anti-war speech, a point Edwards references early. TPMCafe has advance excerpts.
As he put it then, there comes a time when silence is a betrayal -- not only of one’s personal convictions, or even of one’s country alone, but also of our deeper obligations to one another and to the brotherhood of man.

That’s the thing I find the most important about the sermon Dr. King delivered here that day. He did not direct his demands to the government of the United States, which was escalating the war. He issued a direct appeal to the people of the United States, calling on us to break our own silence, and to take responsibility for bringing about what he called a revolution of values.

A revolution whose starting point is personal responsibility, of course, but whose animating force is the belief that we cannot stand idly by and wait for others to right the wrongs of the world.

And this, in my view, is at the heart of what we should remember and celebrate on this day. This is the dream we must commit ourselves to realizing.
...
If you’re in Congress and you know this war is going in the wrong direction, it is no longer enough to study your options and keep your own counsel.

Silence is betrayal. Speak out, and stop this escalation now. You have the power to prohibit the president from spending any money to escalate the war – use it.
It made me go back and read that speech of Dr. King's. If you have a chance, read through it. Scroll down a bit here and you can see the full text. Has there ever been a man more deserving of an American holiday? I like where Edwards is going.

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