“First, we are challenged to develop a world perspective. No
individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels that he
can live alone is sleeping through a revolution. The world in which we live is
geographically one. The challenge that we face today is to make it one in terms
of brotherhood. . . . Through our scientific and technological genius, we have
made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical
commitment to make of it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we
have got to do this. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all
perish together as fools. . .
We are challenged to rid our nation and the world of
poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, poverty spreads its nagging, prehensile
tentacles into hamlets and villages all over our world. Two-thirds of the people
of the world go to bed hungry tonight. They are ill-housed; they are illnourished;
they are shabbily clad. I’ve seen it in Latin America; I’ve seen it in
Africa; I’ve seen this poverty in Asia. . .How can one avoid being depressed
when he sees with his own eyes evidences of millions of people going to bed
hungry at night? How can one avoid being depressed when he sees with his
own eyes God’s children sleeping on the sidewalks at night? In Bombay more
than a million people sleep on the sidewalks every night. In Calcutta more than
six hundred thousand sleep on the sidewalks every night. They have no beds to
sleep in; they have no houses to go in. How can one avoid being depressed
when he discovers that out of India’s population of more than five hundred
million people, some four hundred and eighty million make an annual income of
less than ninety dollars a year. And most of them have never seen a doctor or a
dentist.
On the 41st Anniversary of
King’s Assassination, please
ask yourself whether you’re
up to King’s challenge:
*Can you take to heart the
words he spoke just four
days before he was gunned
down ??
As I noticed these things, something within me cried out,
"Can we in America stand idly by and not be concerned?"
And an answer came: "Oh no!" Because the destiny of the United States is tied
up with the destiny of India and every other nation. . .Not only do we see
poverty abroad, I would remind you that in our own nation there are about
forty million people who are poverty-stricken. . .this is America’s opportunity to
help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. The question is
whether America will do it. There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is
that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The
real question is whether we have the will. In a few weeks some of us are
coming to Washington to see if the will is still alive or if it is alive in this nation.
We are coming to Washington in a Poor People’s Campaign. . . We are coming
to demand that the government address itself to the problem of poverty. . . yes,
it will be a Poor People’s Campaign. This is the question facing America.
Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation.
America has not met its obligations and its responsibilities
to the poor. One day we will have to stand before the God of history and we
will talk in terms of things we’ve done. Yes, we will be able to say we built
gargantuan bridges to span the seas, we built gigantic buildings to kiss the
skies. Yes, we made our submarines to penetrate oceanic depths. We brought
into being many other things with our scientific and technological power. It
seems that I can hear the God of history saying, "That was not enough! But I
was hungry, and ye fed me not. I was naked, and ye clothed me not. I was
devoid of a decent sanitary house to live in, and ye provided no shelter for me.
And consequently, you cannot enter the kingdom of greatness. If ye do it unto
the least of these, my brethren, ye do it unto me." That’s the question facing
America today."
(The full text of Dr. King’s sermon entitled “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution”
containing the above quotes can be read here:
http://tinyurl.com/82npj . Dr. King delivered it
at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., on March 31, 1968, and you can listen to two
audio excerpts of the sermon at that same website.)
***TODAY, more than forty years after Dr. King gave that sermon, 41 percent of
humanity still defecate in the streets because they have no access to sanitation, onequarter
of humanity is still forced to live without electricity, and 30,000 KIDS DIE
UNNECESSARILY EACH DAY (See www.WhatNewsShouldBe.org for the proof, along
with an article about the statistical accuracy of such numbers).
BASIC NEEDS ARE STILL GOING UNMET... If you are indeed up for King’s challenge,
you’ll need to seek out that world perspective he spoke about and get the real front
page news on your own, because news which affects the largest number of people in
the most serious ways is rarely covered in TV news shows and newspapers!! This
website, www.WhatNewsShouldBe.com, is one of the places you can find it. It is only
when information about the most pressing issues facing humanity is widely known
that the needless death and suffering can be stopped. It doesn’t have to be this way
because THERE IS ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE. Please pass it on.
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