SILENCE IS BETRAYAL - REMEMBERING MLK ON APRIL 4

As we move closer to the April 4 rally in Augusta it is important to remember that April 4, 1968 was the day MLK was killed. Many, including myself, believe he was killed to a considerable extent because of this speech. King was thinking about running for president along with Dr. Benjamin Spock, one of the leaders of the peace movement as his running mate. The uniting of the civil rights and peace movements was a frightening thought to the ruling oligarchy.

By 1967, King had become the country's most prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, and a staunch critic of overall U.S. foreign policy, which he deemed militaristic. In his "Beyond Vietnam" speech delivered at New York's Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 -- a year to the day before he was murdered -- King called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."

Time magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi," and the Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."

Let April 4 be the day that we not only remember King but rededicate ourselves to his courageous call for peace and justice.