Please join us in reading a portion of MLK’s 'Beyond Vietnam' speech, in honor of its 50th anniversary. Following the speech, we will discuss how militarism, racism, and the issues addressed in his speech are still relevant today.
Doors Open: 6pm
Speech Reading: 6:30pm
Discussion: 7pm
Delivered to an overflow crowd at the Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967, Dr. King’s challenge to engage in a radical revolution of values encountered ferocious opposition. Fifty years later, however, it is clear that his analysis and his call to action is as relevant now as it was then.
Today the United States has a multi-trillion dollar permanent war economy, the costliest deployment of weapons and military personnel in the world and at home a vast system of mass incarceration, a hideous homicide rate and endemic violence against women and LGBTQ people.
Today as a result of our society’s virulent racism, people of color are subjected to unrelenting state violence through police brutality, police murder and massive incarceration rates, while suffering gross disparities in income, education, employment, military service, housing and health care.
Today materialism dominates our culture and our economy to the peril of all life on earth. It pollutes our values, our souls and the natural world.
Today we know that the struggle against sexism and patriarchy is intrinsically linked to overcoming racism, militarism, materialism and environmental catastrophe.
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