Timeless Words

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now.

I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam.

I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted.

I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam.

I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken.

I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation.

The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

Martin Luther King
From "Beyond Vietnam," April 4, 1967
Riverside Church, New York City.

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