In the wasteland of war, the expenditure of resources knows no restraint; here our abundance is fully recognized and enthusiastically squandered. The security we profess to seek in foreign adventures we will lose in our decaying cities. No such fervor or exhilaration attends the war on poverty. There is impatience with its problems, indifferene toward its progress and hostility toward its errors.

-- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

When writing a piece about King, it is impossible to separate his legacy and not speak of the involvement of the United States in the calamity named "Operation Desert Storm." You cannot laud King and applaud the United Nation's involvement in what is essentially an Arab conflict. To be a student of the teachings of King is to be against all forms of imperialism and aggression.

In Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, King writes, "When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism amd militarism are incapable of being conquered."

The reader might ask, how does racism play a factor in this? According to the latest Census figures, African-Americans make up 12 percent of the U.S. population, yet according to the Department of Defense, they constitute 30 percent of front-line troops in the gulf. Even more startling is the fact that 48 percent of U.S. servicewomen there are of African descent. Is that a coincidence or just a reflection of the military's insensitivity to African-Americans? The group has fought for this country in every war since the American Revolution and received the least benefits.

During the escalation of troops, and the skyrocketing of fuel prices, radio station WQWK helped sponsor a contest that sold gasoline for 97 cents a gallon for 97 minutes. Radio personalities were clad in "Arab" garb as they substituted for local gas attendants. This is as racist as Al Jolson made up in blackface singing "Mammy."

How many of us have listened in silence or participated in Arab slurs or jokes? As we joke, remember not only are our service women and men in danger, but many innocent Iraqi men, women and children as well. Prejudice and hate can only lead to moral degeneracy and ill-spent efforts.

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man of peace, love and justice. King wrote:

"...Power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love."

King's words ring with a strange sense of unerring truth at this time. The United Nations was created in a worldwide call for peace and harmony following WWII. Now it has entered into the least-likely part of its mission -- counteracting aggression through war.

Hundreds of millions of dollars daily are sent for the defense of Kuwait. Millions that George Bush could not find in the U.S domestic budget for child care, education (including higher education loans) and health care. No one will dare to ask where the money is coming from to pay for the war that grows grimmer as the hours pass.

Kuwait is a nation that was originally carved out of Iraq over seven decades ago by Great Britain, before leaving their former possession. The southeastern part of "old Iraq" is the oil-richest part of the country and the British wanted control for itself and the United States. Thus it created a "nation" with selfishly favorable treaties. What we see today is only the reflection of historical events. That is why history is so instructive. The British and the Americans are more concerned with the maintenance of their perceived "rights" in the region, than Kuwaiti independence.

President Bush has been vigilant in the defense of his actions on this situation and ever ready for military confrontation. But when it comes to dealing with the unneccessary evils at home he vacillates and undulates. Homelessness, poor educational attainment and poverty are concerns he would rather leave to his "one thousand points of light.

Hypocrisy abounds in U.S. domestic and foreign policy. It urges warfare on the alleged insanity of Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega, then urges restraint on the repressive regime of South Africa. We know that the still-functioning South African policy of apartheid is oppressive and has served to disenfranchise the African majority. The U.S. government, historically and today, has never threatened military intervention to free indigenous South Africans, as Bush did for Kuwait. President Bush has even spoken out against economic sanctions in South Africa saying it would slow down change! Where is the public outcry and emergence of sympathy for the brutalized Africans and Indians of South Africa? Where is the "big stick" for South Africa?

U.S. policy urges caution on economic sanctions in Eastern Europe and advocates military invasions in Panama and Grenada. Earlier when the United States was having diplomatic disputes with Iran, the Unites States and Iraq were chummy (just four short years ago). To set the pull-out deadline on King's birthday is ultimately a lack of respect.

King would be deeply disturbed indeed by the procession of events. He saw during the "police action" in Vietnam that attention was diverted form the "War on Poverty." The undeclared war on Vietnam usurped the necessary funds that provided the backbone of the anti-poverty campaign. If U.S. money was helping to fight overseas, it surely would be absent for the fight back home. We will never win any war on drugs, joblessness, illiteracy or AIDS if our resources are direted at the task of policing the world instead of our own back yard.

As we reflect on King's legacy and shed tears while we join hands to march, let us not forget the true person. While we light candles and listen to lectures about this peace-loving savant, let us remember that he was not just a man who had a dream, who led a march and who gave his one and only life. He was one of the most prolific moral philosophers of our day. He was not solely concerned with the unity of the races, but with the unity of the world. We would like to leave the reader with a quote by King that surely can be transposed to our situation today.

"In the days ahead we must not consider it unpatriotic to raise certain basic questions about our national character. We must begin to ask, 'Why are there forty million poor people in a nation overflowing with such unbelievable affluence?' Why has our nation placed itself in the position of being God's military agent on earth, and intervened recklessly in Vietnam and the Dominican Republic? Why have we substituted the arrogant undertaking of policing the whole world for the high task of putting our own house in order?

All these questions remind us that there is (still) a need for a radical restructuring of the architecture of American society. For its very survival's sake, America must re-examine old presuppositions and release itself from many things that for centuries have been held sacred."

Please use this day to reflect on many things. It is sorrowful that a day set aside for one such as King will be plagued with violence, bloodshed and suffering. Amidst this time of sorrow and grief, "let freedom ring."