January 15, 2017

January 15th, 2017 is the 88th anniversary of the birth of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. ...We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation."
(From "Beyond Vietnam," delivered on April 4, 1967, one year to the day before his assassination)

Read about his life, and his perhaps most important speech, Beyond Vietnam: An excerpt that resonates today: "I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

See also:

Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015): from YES! Magazine, May 2004:
The beloved community of Martin Luther King
On the 75th anniversary of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth, an elder stateswoman of the Black Power movement reflects on what might have been different if we'd taken King's most radical teachings to heart-and what might still be possible