Paintings by Joy Garnett

Joy Garnett - "New Spaces of Catastrophe..."

Martin Luther King Jr (repost)

(This is a repost from April 4th, 2008)

Sadly, nine months since I posted this the first time, it is still very appropriate. I was reflecting on some of Martin Luther King's his speeches this morning and came across "Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence" (you can download the mp3 to listen to the speech) delivered exactly one year before his death. The speech makes many points that parallel our current war in Iraq. Writer Juan Cole outlined his analysis of King's stance against the war in Vietnam with what he assesses as "10 Things Martin Luther King would have done about Iraq" here. Below are some very wise, forthright, and challenging excerpts from King's speech:

"But they ask -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government."

"Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition."

"If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war."

King closes with a statement of hope, eloquently saying:

"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."

Obama in Denver on Sunday

We were part of the estimated 100,000 people (that estimate seems pretty high) in Civic Center Park in downtown Denver on Sunday to see/hear Obama. We were too far back to actually see him as seen in these pictures, but it was a cool experience to hear him and be part of the action:

Obama was way up there (this is looking towards the stage)This is looking backward from where we were standing (looking back at the Capital)

here's the video from Rocky Mountain News:

Human beings are like that

From The Great Dictator - a comedy film directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin. First released in October 1940:

"We all want to help one another; human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there's room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio [and tv and internet] have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people...."