By Michael Krieger: Earlier today, I read Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1967 speech on Vietnam at Riverside Church. It was both uplifting and depressing.
Uplifting in the sense that he so eloquently expresses the timeless spirit necessary for humans to take the next evolutionary step forward into a more conscious paradigm. Depressing in the sense it’s crystal clear the American public quite spectacularly rejected his plea, further descending quite enthusiastically into a culture defined by depravity, violence and selfishness over the past 50 years.
While the entire speech is illuminating, the following paragraphs really connected with me on a deep level, as they reflect many of the themes I’ve been exploring over the past year or so.
Uplifting in the sense that he so eloquently expresses the timeless spirit necessary for humans to take the next evolutionary step forward into a more conscious paradigm. Depressing in the sense it’s crystal clear the American public quite spectacularly rejected his plea, further descending quite enthusiastically into a culture defined by depravity, violence and selfishness over the past 50 years.
While the entire speech is illuminating, the following paragraphs really connected with me on a deep level, as they reflect many of the themes I’ve been exploring over the past year or so.
A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.
This call for a world-wide 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 men.