[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Mark Ridley-Thomas
California State Senate
Chair, Legislative Black Caucus

On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., this nation’s greatest contemporary disciple of non-violence, openly declared his opposition to the Vietnam War.

He told an audience at Riverside Church that ending the war through non-violent means was a ‘moral imperative;’ that his ‘conscience (left him) no other choice’ than to condemn the war.

Despite strong opposition from the Civil Rights and political establishments to his anti-war stance, Dr. King decried the war that was changing the nation’s domestic priorities and siphoning off resources needed to address economic and educational inequities, and health disparities.

His critics urged him to stick to the domestic issue of black civil rights and stay out of international affairs. But Dr. King’s moral plea did not have borders.

Once again the U.S. is involved in an unpopular and costly war based on questionable motives, ambiguous objectives and evil practices: a war, which seems to have no crest to its rising iniquity.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Mary Lyon

"I may not get there with you..."

So said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., once upon a time, talking about a figurative Promised Land that he himself would indeed never reach. It was a Moses reference, with the Promised Land in this case being the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave - in its most perfect form, evolved, open, transcendent, every inch the land of opportunity for ALL - not just those well-heeled, well-positioned, or exclusively white-skinned. It was a portrait of a Promised Land that he envisioned for everyone in the dream he had for America.

Moses never made the transition to the Biblical Promised Land with his people. It was left to Joshua to lead the Israelites there. Perhaps we in early 21st-Century America have our own latter-day Joshua, finally? Or at least the hint of one?

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Griffin Dix, Ph.D.

Tomorrow, August 28 is the anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech. Many of the Brady Million Mom March Chapters across the country are observing Aug. 28 by staging "Lie-Ins" to draw attention to illegal gun trafficking.

In California, we have a particular purpose--to garner support for AB 1471 (Feuer), pending in the state legislature, which would mandate an inexpensive and proven technology to help law enforcement identify gun traffickers and straw purchasers, as well as solve gun crimes. We will be at Contra Costa College in San Pablo, at Noon, dressed in black, will lie on the ground to symbolize the victims of gun violence in Richmond, Oakland and other Bay Area cities, including the seven Contra Costa College students that have been killed by gun violence since 2003.

According to the Carole Johnson, President of the West Contra Costa Chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the goal of the demonstration is to make the public aware of illegal gun trafficking. Said Johnson: “We need the public and the media to always ask the question: ‘Where did the gun come from?’ Our students and citizens are not safe at school or at home from random, senseless, or gang-related gun violence.”