Our Martin Luther King Jr. Call to communities of the nation and the world!
REBIRTHING KING, REBIRTHING AMERICA:
CELEBRATING THE BIRTHDAY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING
as a new government takes office on January 19-20, 2009*
Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.
This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls "enemy," for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.
“Time to Break the Silence”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
April 4, 1967
The next presidential inaugural falls on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, and the day before – Monday, January 19 – we celebrate Martin Luther King’s Birthday. This seems to us an extraordinary moment to project Dr. King’s vision of America’s moving beyond what in his great Riverside Church speech of April 4, 1967 (exactly one year before his death) he called America’s dangerous “triplets” – racism, militarism, and materialism – into becoming a “beloved community.”
-
We urge this year the organizing of a nationwide study and celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Riverside speech of April 4, 1967, leading up to nationwide observance of the confluence of MLK’s Birthday and Inauguration Day, January 19-20, 2009.
-
The MLK/ Inauguration process will begin in the fall of 2008, preparing study/ action guides based on Dr. King’s April 4, 1967, Riverside Church speech, Time to Break the Silence. (Rev. Donna Schaper of Judson Memorial Church in New York is preparing a study guide; it will be ready shortly.) Materials, comments, etc. will be posted on this Web site.
Hear or read MLK’s Riverside Church speech, Time to Break the Silence, at
www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
Goal: That in hundreds of communities across America, the speech be the focus of study from mid-November through mid-January.
-
On January 19-20, 2009, community groups around the country will take part in public actions intended to point America toward fulfilling Dr. King’s vision of an American freeing itself of racism, militarism, and materialism. Such actions might include:
Publicly affirming a pledge, making themselves personally responsible to work for Rebirthing America toward the vision of MLK. (See a draft of the Pledge at the end of this memo.) Just as the new president will take the oath of office at noon January 20, 2009, so the citizenry should make their own commitment the day before.
Carrying out a candlelight Night Watch the night of January 19, 2009. Candles might be lit in community group settings and then carried into public space, perhaps meeting and walking together to public parks. Here the newly connected groups could recite the pledge together.
-
From January 20, 2009, forward, the networks brought together by this process continue to work together toward the realization of Dr. King’s vision.
REBIRTHING KING, REBIRTHING AMERICA: A PLEDGE ON JANUARY 19-20, 2009
On this rebirthing day, January 19, 2009, Martin Luther King’s Birthday, on the eve of there coming into office a new government to represent the American people, I join in covenant with other Americans:
-
I commit myself to give a new birth in America and in the world to the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, to call ourselves and every nation now to develop an overriding loyalty to humankind as a whole, in order to preserve the best in our individual societies;
-
I commit myself to work toward a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond any tribe, race, class, or nation; to call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all humanity and for the web of life upon our planet;
-
I commit myself to fuse power with compassion, might with morality, and strength with insight; to choose nonviolent coexistence rather than violent co-annihilation; to speak for peace and justice throughout the world – within and beyond our doors and shores.
-
I commit myself to take the following specific actions:
For example:
ü I will work for a peaceful settlement of the Iraq war and an end to US military presence there;
ü I will use less gasoline;
ü I will read one of Martin Luther King’s speeches that I have not read;
ü I will write my Senators about subsidizing railroads and solar/wind energy instead of autos, coal, and oil;
ü I will work for a hospitality-for-the-homeless program in my community.
I do this in the knowledge that tomorrow is today, that we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long, hard, and beautiful struggle for a new world. We call on all those who read these words to join with those around you to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday with his sense of urgency. Feel free to use this statement in any useful way you’d like.
*Thanks to The Shalom Center (www.shalomctr.org), from which this material comes