"Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism and militarism."
So said Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967. Somehow, the gravity and relevancy of his words still ring with an urgency that is unparalleled. They speak to those of any time who embrace activism and reject war. As with the recent commemoration of Mohandas Gandhi, we should recall these admonitions of the past as we venture into an uncertain future.
Yet, there's an emptiness felt in reciting the words of the Rev. King. Where is the anger of our generation? Where is our rage?
We stand today at a precipice overlooking a future of war, violence and unprecedented aggression. While it seems silly to say, I fear that many of us have forgotten: War is bad. I'm not a pacifist, for there are times when pacifism is inexcusable. But today we are confronted by our own government's desire to wage war when and where it desires, and in the face of achievable peace. War should be a last resort, never a preferred option.
The generations before us seem to remember the horror of war. A full-page anti-war petition recently appeared in The New York Times, "Not in Our Name" (Sept. 19). Among the signatories were Kurt Vonnegut, Gore Vidal and a score of others. While popular prestige doesn't make these figures military experts, what is notable is the memory their generations relate to the current situation.
Like Vietnam, to say that invading Iraq is a matter of national security is questionable at best; at worst, it's simply aggression and greed. Bear in mind that Saddam Hussein does not have a vested interest in attacking America, despite his ambitions of regional Middle Eastern dominance. To claim American interests abroad by invasion reeks of imperialism.
Our generation now faces a watershed moment, which will shape our collective identity. Albert Einstein long ago said a country "cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." I hope he's wrong. But if we wage war, we must realize that blood on American bullets is blood on all of our hands.
We are a democracy. Each life taken in the name of freedom, whether an enemy or our own, is delivered with all our names. Moreover, is invading Iraq a cause that you, personally, are willing to die for? If you believe sending others in your place is right, you are not only confused, you are a coward.
Gandhi said, "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?" While Donald Rumsfeld does his best Dr. Strangelove impression, we must clear our minds and recall that which is truly worth fighting for. Social programs of all kinds in America struggle, and our economy is dangerously teetering from recession to depression.
Right here in Pennsylvania, affluent children receive 17 percent greater public-education funding than children in poverty -- the fourth largest gap in the nation. These concerns are, of course, neither a beginning nor an end to our problems. Rather they are a sample of the myriad concerns I'm sure you bring to mind yourself this moment. Consider that every penny spent on war is lost for these causes.
So in the memory of the Rev. King, I ask those of you who are angry: Let it not be our appalling silence that we are remembered by. Our president has advised us that the best course of action is to go about our daily lives; we must answer that he is wrong. We must answer that if our government sheds unwanted blood in our names, it will not be with our subdued assent. Rise up. Protest. Write. Vote. Realize your voice.
One such opportunity will occur on Oct. 26 in Washington, D.C., where a major peace rally will take place. Last spring, I watched a similar rally in Washington, and I can't help but recall a woman I saw lifting a sign above the crowd. Its words, known to many but forgotten to most, were left burned into my mind as I left that evening. They spoke on a subject not heard so often today. They were the words of former President Eisenhower from 1953: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
