Port Mortuary’s Pull

Maureen Dowd today, in her Op-Ed about Obama’s coming
monumental decision to either accede to the current path of
America’s multiplicity of imperial crimes ‘abroad’ and
tyrannies ‘at home’, captures both the flavor and the scale
and scope of the decision that Obama must make about an
entirely necessary revolution for America --- a second
revolution away from Empire and borne back "against the
current" to democracy.

One wonders in this 'First Year', is Obama ‘overwhelmed’ by
the multiplicity of issues of war ‘abroad’, and dozens of
domestic problems ‘at home’--- or just ducking the seminal
issue?

This first year of Obama’s ‘hope’ and ‘change’ revolution has,
for Obama himself, and the whole of how America is governed,
devolved into a vast multiplicity of problems, covering up a
singularity of cause: Empire.

http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=14781

But like Obama, Rev. Martin Luther King was confronted with a
similar monumental decision about whether to speak-out against
the imperialist war ‘abroad’, that was grinding up the
working-class sons of both black and white Americans, or to
continue focusing on his most heart-felt problem ‘at home’ of
racism’s tyranny against young blacks.

For more than a year, Rev. King kept his focus on the racial
battle at home, and would not be detoured by addressing the
combination of multiple issues that would inevitably spring
from taking-on the crimes of imperialist foreign war, domestic
racism, and the ‘class-warfare’ that linked these crimes of
Empire.

Finally, on April 4th, 1967, and at the Riverside Church in
New York City, Dr. King decided that it was “A Time to Break
Silence” not only about Vietnam, but Beyond Vietnam, and to
speak the truth about the nature of Empire and the class-war
that Empire always uses to maintain its unfair, unjust, and
un-democratic control over the indivisible political-economics
of power both ‘abroad’ and ‘at home’.

Hopefully, Obama will reach the same monumental decision as
Dr. King – and even more hopefully, average Americans of all
colors will respond to a seminal outing of Empire by
recognizing their common humanity, their common-wealth in
country, their common ‘public interest’ in democracy (against
the ‘private interest’ of Empire), and by treating this 21st
century messenger and leader against Empire and for democracy
differently than Dr. King was treated. 

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine


PS.  I hope that Obama is benefiting, in his time of decision,
from taking the time to re-read King’s Riverside speech:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

King noted, “The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far
deeper malady within the American spirit”

And today, hopefully, Obama will take note that,  “The war in
_______ is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the
American spirit”

King continued:

“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.”

And I hope that Obama recognizes that those “giant triplets of
racism, extreme materialism, and militarism” are EMPIRE.

Finally, King concludes with, “If we will make the right
choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of
our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”

And I hope that Obama, in preparing to make his choice,
recognizes that the multiplicity of those “jangling discords
of our world”, those pressing problems ‘abroad’ and ‘at home’
are but the uniform fingerprints of one thing ---- EMPIRE.