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Vietnam : “To save the soul of America
Continued from page 17
Perhaps the more tragic recognition.of real
ity took place when it became dear to me that
the war was doing far more than devastating
the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending
their sons and their brothers and their hus
bands to fight and to die in extraordinarily
high proportions relative to the rest of the
population. We were taking the black young
men who had been crippled by our society
and sending them eight thousand miles away
to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which
they had not found in southwest Georgia and
East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly
faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro
and white boys on TV screens as they kill and
die together for a nation that has been unable
to sear them together in the same schools. So
we watch them in brutal solidarity burning
the huts of a poor village, but we realize that
they would never live on the same block in
Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of
such cruel manipulation of the poor.
My third reason moves to an even deeper
level of awareness, for it grows out of my
experience in the ghettoes of the North over
the last three years — especially the last three
summers. As I have walked among the des
perate, rejected and angry young men I have
told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles
would not solve their problems. I have tried
w offer them my deepest compassion while
maintaining my conviction that social change
comes most meaningfully through nonvio
lent action. But they asked — and righdy so
Review
Continued from page 11
ends with dramatic slow motion shots of
a river baptism, after all — but the story
has enough mystery and drama to keep
the attention of any audience.
However, The Last Sin Eater is also
unafraid to explore some of the darker
aspects of humanity, especially how peo
ple can misuse religion. It is interesting
that a religious film would explore so
candidly the notion of how organized
religion can be used to mask political
goals and personal grudges, even if, in
the end, the unmasking of the Sin Eater
tradition as not just false, but thorough
ly corrupt, only strengthens the film’s
message of Christianity as the one true
faith.
— what about Vietham? They asked if our
own nation wasnt using massive doses of vio
lence to solve its problems, to bring about the
changes it wanted. Their questions hit home,
and I knew that I could never again raise my
voice against the violence of the oppressed in
the ghettos without having first spoken clear
ly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the
world today — my own government. For the
sake of those boys, for the sake of this govern
ment, for the sake of hundreds of thousands
trembling under our violence, I cannot be
silent.
For those who ask the question, “Arent you
a avil rights leader?” and thereby mean to
exclude me from the movement for peace, |
have this further answer. In 1957 when a
group of us formed the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, we chose as our
motto: “To save the soul of America.” We
were convinced that we could not limit our
vision to certain rights for black people, but
instead affirmed the conviction that America
would never be free or saved from itself unless
the descendants of its slaves were loosed com
pletely from the shackles they still wear. In a
way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes,
that black bard of Harlem, who had written
carlier: O, yes, I say it plain, America never
was America to me, And yet I swear this
oath— America will be! 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 Americas
soul becomes toully poisoned, part of the
autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be
America : ‘Hunger in America is real’
Continued from page 6
time, I did not hesitate. I gave them S2O
and they thanked me. After walking a
block, I looked back and they were actually
dancing, happy to have some money.
Hunger in America is real. And everyone
asking for help on the street is not interest
ed in conning the public or is headed to the
nearest liquor store when someone gives
them spare change.
Those of us who live in the most affluent
country on earth, tend to overlook hunger
and poverty among us. When we think of
hunger, we conjure up images of famine in
Africa or India. Indeed, hunger is a global
issue, with 852 million people in the world
going hungry, according to Bread for the
World. In developing countries, 6 million
children die each year, mostly from hunger
related causes. Sub-Sahara African Africa is
AUGUSTA FOCUS
saved so long as it destroys the deepest ho
of men the world over. Soitisthatthoseofi
who are yet determined that America will be
are led down the path of protest and dissent,
working for the health of our land.
As if the weight of such a commitment to
the life and health of America were not
enough, another burden of responsibility was
placed upon me in 1964; and I cannot forget
that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a com
mission — a commission to work harder
than I had ever worked before for “the broth
erhood of man.” This is a calling that takes
me beyond national allegiances, but even if it
were not present I would yet have to live with
the meaning of my commitment to the min
istry of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of
this ministry to the making of peace is so
obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who
ask me why lam speaking against the war.
Could it be that they do not know that the
good news was meant for all men — for
Communist and capitalist, for their children
and ours, for black and for white, for revolu
tionary and conservative? Have they forgot
ten that my ministry is in obedience to the
one who loved his enemies so fully that he
died for them? What then can I say to the
“Vietcong” or to Castro or to Mao as a faith
ful minister of this one? Can I threaten them
with death or must I not share with them my
life?
Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for
myself the road that leads from Montgomery
to this place I would have offered all that was
most valid if T simply said that I must be true
the only region in the world where hunger
is on the rise, with 204 million hungry.
Even with safety net programs in place
for the poor, such as free school breakfast
and lunch programs, hunger is also a prob
lem in the United States. According to
USDA, 35.1 million people — including
12.4 million children - live in households
that frequenty experience hunger or risk
hunger. This means 11 percent of all U.S.
houscholds fall into this category. Almost
11 million people — induding 606,000
children — live in U.S. households that fre
quently skip meals, consume an inadequate
supply of food or don't eat for an entire day.
Local government officials confirm the
federal assessment of hunger. Last year, the
U.S. Conference of Mayors noted a 7 per
cent increase in the requests for emergency
food assistance. Because of the rising
demand for emergency food assistance, 45
percent of the mayors said they were unable
to my conviction that I share with all men the
calling ro be a son of the living God. Beyond
the calling of race or nation or creed is this
vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and
because I believe that the Father is deeply con
cerned especially for his suffering and helpless
and outcast children, I come tonight to speak
for them.
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 victims of our
nation and for those it calls enemy, for no
document from human hands can make
these humans any less our brothers.
Strange Liberators
And as I ponder the madness of Vietham
and search within myself for ways to under
stand and respond to compassion my mind
goes constantly to the people of that peninsu
la. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side,
not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the
people who have been living under the curse
of war for almost three continuous decades
now. I think of them too because it is clear to
me that there will be no meaningful solution
there until some attempt is made o know
them and hear their broken cries.
They must see Americans as strange libera
tors.
to meet their communitys food needs.
Equally important, 63 percent of those
polled said they had to decrease the amount
of food given out or reduce the number of
times people can receive food.
The hunger problem involves more than
food. The United States has the highest
wage inequity in the industrialized world.
That means that even when people have
jobs, often the pay is too low for them to
properly feed their families. This country
must provide well-paying jobs and expand
ed opportunities for the poor if it really
wants to address the issue. Until we do that,
we'll continue to see people eating out of
garbage receptacles.
George E. Curry former editor-in-chief of
Emerge magazine and the NNPA News
Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and
media coach. He can be reached at
george@georgecurry.com or through his Web
site, UAVULQeOTZeCUITY.COM.