A time comes when silence is betrayal.

[Rimm...@googlemail.com]

We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the
altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the
ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage
of nations and individuals
that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says:
"Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life
and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the
first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to
have the last word".

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We
are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding
conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too
late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us
standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide
in the
affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out
desperately for time to pause in her passage, but
time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones
and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the
pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that
faithfully records
our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving
finger writes, and having writ moves on."

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.

As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently
stated:

Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth and Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.
Though the cause of evil prosper, yet 'tis truth alone is strong
Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to
transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace.

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. If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to
speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when
justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty
stream.

Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence,
Martin Luther King, Jr. (4 April 1967)