“At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called “enemy,” I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.”
– excerpt from MLK’s Vietnam Speech. Full text in this link.
It wasn’t that he had a dream. This speech by MLK went too far. The president liked him until then. Free speech isn’t free. It’s an illusion. There are consequences to the isolated voice in meaningful dissent. Exactly one year later, he was assassinated. He died for our sins far more directly than white Jesus. We can’t resurrect him now that the masses agree so we gave him one day a year to remember how we made worm food out of him for this, though it’s about time for a 60% off clearance sale on furniture. 70% managers special if you are black or a veteran.
A dream can’t heal the broken heart of a nation, but I disagree with making oneself a martyr. However it was not a deliberately suicidal gesture, but an act of murder to protect the act of war in a nation of self supremacy and national exceptionalism.
Joker's Wild 