Thank you for sharing it RufusTFirefly.
King was way out ahead on equating civil rights at home with our imperialistic foreign policy abroad. He turned against the war relatively very early and took a lot of crap for it in the mainstream media, who implied he'd lost his rocker, was going too far afield, was getting funding from communists, etc.
A lot of people don't know what a fighter he was, and that he was growing increasingly unpopular with mainstream America. But he did not heed their unsolicited advice to stick only to once particular cause. He saw clearly that they were intertwined. He was a true radical, standing up for what is right and not just for what is popular. He could see that young black people fighting and dying in Vietnam was related to their economic status at home. We still have a long way to go. Particularly considering the prison rates and unemployment rates of young black people in our country right now.
The amount taxpayers spend on military hardware is astronomical compared the pittance we spend on directly educating and training black people, all people of color, and all poor people here at home. I find it very interesting that Dr. King was organizing a poor people's movement in the United States. He really could see how draining it is on all people, in a land with enough wealth to easily eradicate poverty.
He has long inspired me, as have many of his contemporaries. As do others today who follow in his footsteps. Thank you for sharing his amazing speech at Riverside Church.
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