Hi friends,
Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Though I haven't traveled back to Tuwani since July, I've been very busy. I've been
working on a graphic novel about At-Tuwani. (I hope you've already
heard about that too.) The novel when it's finished will be about 300
pages long and describe At-Tuwani's struggle against settler violence
and military occupation. Actually, it will be a lot like the comic
version of my blog, which I know many of you have read. As you can imagine, a project like this has keeps
a writer pretty busy.
But, there's something else that I've been
working on. I've entered a Martin Luther King Jr. Essay contest that, if I win, will earn me $500. I
just learned that I'm a semi-finalist, but need your votes to win.
Here's the link:
www.adaction.org/pages/posts/vote-in-our-what-would-martin-do-contest560.php
I'm essay number five (that's important) and votes are counted until
Monday. The winner is decided exclusively by voting, so I really need
your help. Vote, and equally important, please share this if you can.
The
money, if I win, will go towards research expenses associated with the
graphic novel I'm writing about Tuwani. So please, vote and share this
with your friends!
Below is the essay that I wrote. I hope you enjoy! And as always, thanks.
- Joy
Beyond Iraq: Martin, the Poor, and the Revolution of Values
If
Martin Luther King, Jr. could visit our country this January, he would
see a nation much changed and yet the same. Imagine King catching a bus
in downtown Montgomery. Perhaps he would select a seat in the front,
next to someone tired from a long day's work for little pay. Through the
bus window, he might see dilapidated schools and foreclosed homes. If
he were to open up a newspaper, he would read of another war with no end
in sight. If King returned to this country of sweet promise and bitter
disappointment, he would once again take up the struggle of the poor.
King would organize against the interlocking evils of racism,
militarism, and poverty. And he would invite us to join him.
In
the 43 years since King's death, we have not fulfilled his dream of
equality. Poverty is rising. Health care is out of reach for too many
Americans while our military budget grows. Ours is a political landscape
that King understood all too well.
In his speech Beyond Vietnam,
King decried the way the war on poverty was abandoned for the war on
communism. Today we still choose fighter jets over unemployment
benefits. The soldiers who fight and die in our army are still
overwhelming our nation's poor. If he were here today, King would say
again, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on
military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
spiritual death.”
King cried out for the poor of Vietnam
recounting American's role in their history. “We have destroyed their
two most cherished institutions: the family and the village,” he said.
“We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon.” Today, King
would similarly mourn the poor people killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. He
would point out that we once supported the Taliban, the mujaheddin, and
Saddam Hussein – over the protests of Iraqis and Afghanis. We remain
the enemy of the poor in Iraq and Afghanistan and everywhere our
government supports the rights of corporations over the rights of poor
people.
King wrote, “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...When machines and computers, profit
motives and property rights are considered more important than people,
the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable
of being conquered.” But that world revolution is still alive today and
brings hope even to our country.
In Iraq, Afghanistan, America,
and around the world, millions of poor people are building a nonviolent
movement for a peaceful, just future. We should not need to Dr. King to
entreat us to join the right side of the world revolution. The poor are
calling us to join them. Just as King heeded their call, may we see
their cause as ours.
--
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