As I wait to get my hair done, I am watching some news program talking about the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death. I am once again amazed by the little I know of history. While watching the program, I went on the internet to find facts. For example I didn't know Jesse Jackson was with MLK Jr. that fateful evening.
I was especially interested in a speech King gave one year before his assassination entitled A Time to Break Silence. It is a speech focusing on leaving Vietnam. Much of the speech is relevant today. Remove the country of Vietnam and insert Iraq (or Iran).
from A Time to Break Silence:
I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:
Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.
Number two: Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation.
Three: Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos.
Four: Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and any future Vietnam government.
Five: *Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement.
Historical anniversaries not only help us remember the figure or event. They help us look at the present remembering our past. "If we don't learn from history, we are bound to repeat it."
I was especially interested in a speech King gave one year before his assassination entitled A Time to Break Silence. It is a speech focusing on leaving Vietnam. Much of the speech is relevant today. Remove the country of Vietnam and insert Iraq (or Iran).
from A Time to Break Silence:
I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:
Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.
Number two: Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation.
Three: Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos.
Four: Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and any future Vietnam government.
Five: *Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement.
Historical anniversaries not only help us remember the figure or event. They help us look at the present remembering our past. "If we don't learn from history, we are bound to repeat it."
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