Reading the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

                       

 By Reginald Johnson

 

  NEW HAVEN, CT ---- The annual reading of  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s great anti-war speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence,” will take place tomorrow in City Hall.

  The reading, sponsored by several peace organizations, will be held at 12 noon on the second floor of City Hall, 165 Church Street.

  Wednesday is the anniversary of Dr. King’s birthday. The nation officially observes King’s birthday on Monday, January 20.

 In the speech, given on April 4, 1967 before an audience of 3,000 people at the Riverside Church in New York City, the civil rights leader came out strongly against the war in Vietnam and condemned US militaristic policies around the world. He deplored the fact that the country was spending so much money on war while ignoring crumbling cities and poor people at home.

 “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” he said.

  A number of leaders and pundits at the time denounced King for his criticism of the Vietnam War (in which the US had been fighting communist guerillas for several years resulting in hundreds of thousands of casualties) and said that he had ruined his legacy as a civil rights leader by venturing into foreign affairs.

 But in his speech King said memorably, “There comes a time when silence is betrayal. And that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.”

 Exactly one year after King spoke those words, he was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee.

 The public reading of Dr. King’s speech is taking place as the United States is again involved in wars overseas even though these wars are considered so-called “proxy wars” where the United States does not actually have troops on the ground. But the US is still spending hundreds of billions dollars to fund the two countries fighting the wars.

 In Gaza, Israel is waging a genocidal attack on Palestinians and in Ukraine, that nation is locked in a now three-year-old conflict with Russia.

  The war in Gaza, by all accounts, has triggered a humanitarian disaster for civilians. Some 45,000 people have been killed, according to official estimates. But many experts believe that figure is much higher and the real total is over 200,000 deaths. Infrastructure has been devastated with hospitals, schools and residences bombed or burned to the ground.

  Thousands have been displaced and are living in tents. Heavy rains and freezing temperatures have created intolerable living conditions and a number of children have frozen to death. Human rights observers claim Israel has conducted a systematic campaign to wreck Gaza’s health care system with the destruction of medical facilities and doctors and staff shot or abducted.

 Hunger is widespread in Gaza with the Israeli military blocking the entry of aid convoys.

 A flier put out by the organizers of the reading in New Haven said, “On the anniversary of Martin Luther King Junior’s birth, we refuse to stand by and allow tens of thousands of our fellow human beings to be flooded, frozen and burned alive by Israel and the US, as if their lives meant nothing.  We join millions in the US and throughout the world demanding a permanent cease-fire and massive humanitarian aid be allowed to enter Gaza.”

 The Greater New Haven Peace Council, Veterans for Peace, the New Haven Peace Commission and the Connecticut Peace and Solidarity Coalition are sponsoring the public reading.

 For more information, email grnhpeacecouncil@gmail.com

 

  

Proud moment for Bridgeport

           

         By Reginald Johnson

                                                     Commentary

          

   This past year has been a blur. So much has been happening with me both on a personal level and also in terms of what I’ve been writing about and working on I really wouldn’t know where to start in terms of a recap.

   But none of this would be very interesting to anybody else so I’m not going give some long recounting. But I just want to say one thing. I can’t be more proud of the fact that officials in my hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut stood up and were counted on the absolutely awful events that are going on in Palestine.

 A year ago at this time the City Council was debating whether they should pass a resolution urging Congress and the President to push for a cease-fire in the Gaza-Israeli war. Already at that point thousands had died and there were numerous war crimes. It was clear to anybody who was reasonable and looking at the facts objectively that Israel needed to stop their brutal attack and the United States had to stop enabling their campaign.

 There were a number of packed and emotional meetings in the City Council chambers in which pro-Gaza supporters and pro-Israel supporters vented their feelings on the proposed resolution. Some members of the Palestinian community, in particular, gave moving speeches. Things got heated and police at one point intervened to stop a fracas.

 In the end, despite harsh attacks by some from the Israeli side, council members voted overwhelmingly to pass the nonbinding resolution. The moment the resolution passed, the council chambers erupted in cheers and people were hugging and waving Palestinian flags. It was a powerful moment.

 Several weeks later, the council stood strong and rejected an effort to overturn the resolution.

 There were those who said that the resolution was inappropriate for the Council to work on since it didn’t deal specifically with any city issue and was a waste of time. But from my point of view. the vote was one of the best things the city ever did. People were taking a stand on a deep moral issue which in the long run means a lot more than just voting to pass money for a new road or a new school. 

 I was proud of what the City Council and Mayor Ganim (who I’ve been often been critical of over the years) did that night. Thank you.

 Unfortunately, it’s just too bad that now, almost a year after that resolution was passed (resolutions were passed in a number of other cities as well ---  thank you to them) the war drags on and Israel is still carrying out its genocidal campaign, aided and abetted by the United States. Now, 45,000 are dead, and that’s in all likelihood a severe undercount. Thousands are starving from lack of food and Gaza's health care system is collapsing as Israeli forces bomb hospitals.

 There has been no concerted effort by our so-called leaders in Washington, DC. to stop the carnage. This has been one of the most disgraceful performances by members of Congress, in both parties, and by a President, in US history. The cowardice being shown is just beyond words.  An unspeakable horror is continuing and these people sit back and worry about their AIPAC contributions. Disgusting.

 The US could put an end to this war very quickly if it wanted to, and it’s just a shame that hasn’t happened.  Tell Israel to stop the killing and agree to a ceasefire or all aid and support, stops.

 So in the new year we still have a lot more work to do to turn this policy around. But it can be done.  In the spirit of what Bridgeport and other cities have done, let’s keep pushing for a permanent ceasefire.

 That's the least we can do for the people of Palestine.