"And so, such thoughts
take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.
In 1957, a sensitive American official overseas
said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world
revolution. During the past ten years, we have seen emerge a pattern of
suppression which has now justified the presence of U.S. military advisors in
Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts
for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells
why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and why
American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active against rebels
in Peru.
It is with such activity in mind that the words
of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said,
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution
inevitable." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our
nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by
refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the
immense profits of overseas investments. 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...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, extreme
materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the
fairness and
justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we
are
called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be
only an
initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road
must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten
and robbed as
they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more
than
flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which
produces
beggars needs restructuring.
A true revolution of values will soon look
uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous
indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual
capitalists of
the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South
America, only
to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of
the
countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance
with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The
Western
arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and
nothing to learn from them is not just.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war,
"This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human
beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of
injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane,
of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped
and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and
love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military
defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
America, the richest and most powerful nation
in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is
nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our
priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit
of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo
with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.
... " This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing -- embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate -- ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: "Let us love one another, for love is God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us."4 Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day."
... " We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but
beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God,
and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too
great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that
the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we
send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message -- of longing, of
hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their
cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it
otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history."
