Martin Luther King Jr. - Assassinated April 4, 1968

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 15, 1929 – April 4, l968

Place of birth: Atlanta, Georgia. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father also served, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor.

While in college in Boston he met and married Coretta Scott. Two sons and two daughters were born.

Movement: African-American Civil Rights Movement and Peace movement.

Major organizations: President of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) 1957

Notable prizes: Nobel Peace Prize (1964)

Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977, posthumous)

Congressional Gold Medal (2004, posthumous)

Alma mater: Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary,Boston University

Religion: Baptist

Influences: Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Benjamin Mays, Hosea Williams, Rosa Parks, Bayard Rustin, Henry David Thoreau, Howard Thurman, Leo Tolstoy.

In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. 


At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.


Dr. King's April 4, 1967 speech "A Time to Break Silence: Declaration of Independence from the Vietnam War" was profound and a stark warning against endless war.
He said “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. .... 
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." (MLK, April 4, 1967)

The speech was delivered in the Riverside Church in New York City, to the clergy and laymen concerned about Viet Nam.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room
in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. He was killed exactly one year to the day after his greatest speech – against the War on Viet Nam. (in case one misses the symbolism)

The King family publicly stated that the federal government killed Dr. King and that James Earl Ray was just a patsy who was framed (Dexter King even met with Ray in his prison and they sought, without success, to get Ray the trial he never had).
In December 1999, after Ray's death in prison, the King family won a federal lawsuit against some of the perpetrators of the assassination. The jury found that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the victim of a murder conspiracy - not a lone gunman. This astounding jury verdict is rarely mentioned by the media. The facts are fairly straightforward, confirmed by a federal jury verdict and endorsed by the King family.

The best way to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy is to work for a world beyond militarism, for non-violence and economic justice.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1967 Speech Against War and Injustice - Timely Today. You can find complete copies of the speech on line, also on youtube. Please take the time to view them. You will see that if you change the words Viet Nam to Iraq and Afghanistan, the speech could be relevant today.

Today marks the 44th anniversary of his assassination.

They slew the dreamer - long live the dream.

Women's History Month -12 Nobel Peace Laureates

Women Nobel Peace Laureates

I was planning to choose one of the following women to write about but I couldn't decide which one. Twelve women have received the Nobel Peace Prize, all of whom have dedicated their lives to peace.

Here they are:

1. Baroness Bertha von Suttner -Nobel Peace Prize, 1905

A friend of Alfred Nobel, Baroness Bertha von Suttner was a leader in the international peace movement in the 1890s, and she received support from Nobel for her Austrian Peace Society. When Nobel died, he bequeathed money for four prizes for scientific achievements, and one for peace. Though many (including, perhaps, the Baroness) expected the peace prize to be awarded to her, three other individuals and one organization were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize before the committee named her in 1905.

2. Jane Addams - Nobel Peace Prize, 1931 (shared with Nicholas Murray Butler)

Jane Addams, best known as the founder of Hull-House, a settlement house in Chicago, was active in peace efforts during World War I with the International Congress of Women. Jane Addams also helped to found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was nominated numerous times, but the prize went each time to others, until 1931. She was, by that time, in ill health, and could not travel to accept the prize.

3. Emily Greene Balch - Nobel Peace Prize, 1946 (shared with John Mott, YMCA)

A friend and co-worker of Jane Addams, Emily Balch also worked to end World War I and helped to found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was a professor of social economics at Wellesley College for 20 years, but was fired for her World War I peace activities. Though a pacifist, Balch supported the American entry into World War II.

4. & 5. Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan - Nobel Peace Prize, 1976

They founded the Northern Ireland Peace Movement. Betty Williams, a Protestant, and Mairead Corrigan, a Catholic, came together to work for peace in Northern Ireland, organizing peace demonstrations that brought together Roman Catholics and Protestants, protesting violence by British soldiers, Irish Republican Army (IRA) members (Catholics), and Protestant extremists.

6. Mother Teresa - Nobel Peace Prize, 1979

Born in Skopje, then in Yugoslavia, Mother Teresa founded theMissionaries of Charity in India and focused on serving the dying. She was skilled at publicizing her order's work and thus financing the expansion of its services. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her "work in bringing help to suffering humanity." She died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003 by Pope John Paul II.

7. Alva Myrdal - Nobel Peace Prize, 1982 (shared with Alfonso GarcíaRobles)

Alva Myrdal, a Swedish economist and advocate of human rights, as well as a United Nations department head (the first woman to hold such a position) and Swedish ambassador to India, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with a fellow disarmament advocate from Mexico, at a time when the disarmament committee at the UN had failed in its efforts.

8. Aung San Suu Kyi - Nobel Peace Prize, 1991

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose mother was ambassador to India and fatherde facto prime minister of Burma (Myanmar), won election but was denied the office by a military government. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent work for human rights and independence in Burma (Myanmar). She has spent most of her time since 1989 under house arrest or imprisoned by the military government for her dissident work.

9. Rigoberta Menchú Tum -Nobel Peace Prize, 1992

Rigoberta Menchú was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for "ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples."

10. Jody Williams - Nobel Peace Prize, 1997 (shared with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, ICBL)

Jody Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

11. Shirin Ebadi - Nobel Peace Prize, 2003

Iranian human rights advocate Shirin Ebadi was the first person from Iran and the first Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize.

12. Wangari Maathai - Nobel Peace Prize, 2004

Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt movement in Kenya in 1977, which has planted more than 10 million trees to prevent soil erosion and provide firewood for cooking fires. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to be named a Nobel Peace Laureate, honored "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace."

*****

The Nobel Peace Prize is an award presented to either an individual or an organization in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s living will. Alfred Nobel, was a Swedish inventor and industrialist. He disposed the Nobel Peace Prize in his will to be awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The prize can be awarded for current efforts, rather than for having accomplished a goal or resolved an issue.

*****

An amazing group of women to whom we owe so much. All of whom had the courage to stand up for others and speak out, even when it may have been unpopular to do so.

peacesojourner

Martin Luther King Jr. - Assassinated April 4, 1968

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 15, 1929 – April 4, l968

Place of birth: Atlanta, Georgia. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father also served, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor.

While in college in Boston he met and married Coretta Scott. Two sons and two daughters were born.

Movement: African-American Civil Rights Movement and Peace movement.

Major organizations: President of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) 1957

Notable prizes: Nobel Peace Prize (1964)

Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977, posthumous)

Congressional Gold Medal (2004, posthumous)

Alma mater: Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary,Boston University

Religion: Baptist

Influences: Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Benjamin Mays, Hosea Williams, Rosa Parks, Bayard Rustin, Henry David Thoreau, Howard Thurman, Leo Tolstoy.

In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. 


At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.


Dr. King's April 4, 1967 speech "A Time to Break Silence: Declaration of Independence from the Vietnam War" was profound and a stark warning against endless war.
He said “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. .... 
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." (MLK, April 4, 1967)

The speech was delivered in the Riverside Church in New York City, to the clergy and laymen concerned about Viet Nam.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room
in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. He was killed exactly one year to the day after his greatest speech – against the War on Viet Nam. (in case one misses the symbolism)

The King family publicly stated that the federal government killed Dr. King and that James Earl Ray was just a patsy who was framed (Dexter King even met with Ray in his prison and they sought, without success, to get Ray the trial he never had).
In December 1999, after Ray's death in prison, the King family won a federal lawsuit against some of the perpetrators of the assassination. The jury found that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the victim of a murder conspiracy - not a lone gunman. This astounding jury verdict is rarely mentioned by the media. The facts are fairly straightforward, confirmed by a federal jury verdict and endorsed by the King family.

The best way to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy is to work for a world beyond militarism, for non-violence and economic justice.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1967 Speech Against War and Injustice - Timely Today. You can find complete copies of the speech on line, also on youtube. Please take the time to view them. You will see that if you change the words Viet Nam to Iraq and Afghanistan, the speech could be relevant today.

Tomorrow marks the 42nd anniversary of his assassination.

They slew the dreamer - long live the dream.

President Obama's Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

In reacting to the news on Friday morning, that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, the President struck a note of humility and recognized that the award was a nod to a vision of what is to come:

“I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize -- men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women, and all Americans, want to build -- a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents. And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century. 
 
These challenges can't be met by any one leader or any one nation. And that's why my administration has worked to establish a new era of engagement in which all nations must take responsibility for the world we seek. We cannot tolerate a world in which nuclear weapons spread to more nations and in which the terror of a nuclear holocaust endangers more people. And that's why we've begun to take concrete steps to pursue a world without nuclear weapons, because all nations have the right to pursue peaceful nuclear power, but all nations have the responsibility to demonstrate their peaceful intentions.

We cannot accept the growing threat posed by climate change, which could forever damage the world that we pass on to our children -- sowing conflict and famine, destroying coastlines and emptying cities. And that's why all nations must now accept their share of responsibility for transforming the way that we use energy.

We can't allow the differences between peoples to define the way that we see one another, and that's why we must pursue a new beginning among people of different faiths and races and religions; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.

And we must all do our part to resolve those conflicts that have caused so much pain and hardship over so many years, and that effort must include an unwavering commitment that finally realizes that the rights of all Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security in nations of their own.

We can't accept a world in which more people are denied opportunity and dignity that all people yearn for -- the ability to get an education and make a decent living; the security that you won't have to live in fear of disease or violence without hope for the future.

And even as we strive to seek a world in which conflicts are resolved peacefully and prosperity is widely shared, we have to confront the world as we know it today. I am the Commander-in-Chief of a country that's responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies. I'm also aware that we are dealing with the impact of a global economic crisis that has left millions of Americans looking for work. These are concerns that I confront every day on behalf of the American people.

Some of the work confronting us will not be completed during my presidency. Some, like the elimination of nuclear weapons, may not be completed in my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it's recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone. This award is not simply about the efforts of my administration -- it's about the courageous efforts of people around the world.

And that's why this award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity -- for the young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be heard even in the face of beatings and bullets; for the leader imprisoned in her own home because she refuses to abandon her commitment to democracy; for the soldier who sacrificed through tour after tour of duty on behalf of someone half a world away; and for all those men and women across the world who sacrifice their safety and their freedom and sometime their lives for the cause of peace.

That has always been the cause of America. That's why the world has always looked to America. And that's why I believe America will continue to lead.

Thank you very much."


 Taken from the White House Website 10/9/09

President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

President Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

Those of you who follow my blog are aware that I am a Pacifist and against war. When it comes to President Obama I remain supportive. Some of you may not understand this but I maintain that when he was running for office, he never stated that he was ending war.

While it is true that he did not vote to start the war in Iraq he repeatedly stated that, if elected, he would cut back troops in Iraq (which he has done) and that he would accelerate the number of troops in Afghanistan. (Also done).

So I am not surprised at his actions. I am a little surprised at some of his supporters and Peace groups who are telling him that he has not complied with his promises regarding War.

He was very up front with his intentions.

I am also aware that he is in a situation that he inherited from the Bush era and I am praying that he will announce a resolution and withdrawal from Afghanistan in the near future.

Having said that I have been closely watching the global response to President Obama. When the outcome of the U.S. election was announced I received an e-mail that showed the front page of the newspapers of every state in the Union. All of them were hopeful and jubilant. Included in that message were also the front pages of newspapers from around the entire world.

They all expressed joy at the election of Barack Obama.

I believe that if one is meeting another person across the table for peaceful negotiations it does make a difference if you believe that he/she can relate to you. President Obama has a multicultural background and is also very intelligent and that is recognized by world leaders.

In the days following his inauguration some of his first actions were to reach out to the opposing political party and he also reached out to leaders of many countries, cultures and faiths around the world.

He spoke at the United Nations calling for global responsibility of nuclear technology. He has been acting as an agent of change where ever he goes.

This did not go unnoticed and I believe that this interaction along with the many visits from world leaders and his visible presence and rapport in many countries are directly responsible for his receiving the honor of Nobel Peace Prize Recipient.

He is receiving congratulations from around the world, however, there are some in this country who are already spewing vitriolic hatred over the airways.

President Obama says in his acceptance speech “I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.”

That is a clear call for action for us in this country and those globally!




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To those expressing outrage - President Obama did not seek this award and it is not his fault that he has received it - he should not be blamed for it.

I hope you will join me in feeling happiness that this prestigious award has been presented to the President of the United States, Barack Obama.

This is a good image for the country – let us enjoy it with him.

More on this topic tomorrow.