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Hundreds pemember Martin Luther King Jr.
BY PAUl f. P. POGUE
Nearly a hundred people gathered
on the steps of the State Capitol
Building on a gray, rainy Friday afternoon to honor the memory of Martin
Luther King Jr., who was shot to death
in Memphis, April 4,1968. It was one
of numerous events all around the
city over the course of the weekend
commemorating King's memory.
During the Friday gathering,
King's nephew, Derek King, deliv
ered a thundering speech condemning the nation's current path.
"Terror? What's terror?" he asked.
"Terror is when we're shot in the
back by police, that's terror! It's
amazing to me that we've got 25
million people going to be hungry
every night in this country; we've
got 16,000 homeless people in this
very city; but we've got enough
money to build bombs ... I don't
support the carnage that's going on
right now in Iraq. We say we're going
to rebuild Iraq? Well, we haven't
even rebuilt America yet!"
Though he spoke loudly against
the Bush Administration, King
reserved his most fiery rhetoric for
the religious community, whom he
said was standing by idly in a time
when they needed to speak out.
"Where's Billy Graham at? I
haven't heard from Billy Graham in
a long time. These religious people
say, 'We'll go in after the war and
bless it.' Bless what? Bless the
bombed-out land? Bless the mothers and their dead children? How
can you stand in the pulpit and say
God loves us and he doesn't love
anybody else? How can these so-
called religious people turn on their
televisions and see the carnage?"
When King and numerous other
speakers were finished, the crowd—
many of them carrying signs with
Martin Luther King quotes such as
"It doesn't matter what you say, it
matters what you do" and "Peace is
not the absence of conflict; it is the
presence of justice" — marched
back to the Urban League, braving
the rain while singing gospel hymns.
It was an event very much in the
spirit of Martin Luther King, not
only in form, but also in substance.
Derek King spoke while flanked by
the peace flag and "Jobs For Justice"
signs, and speakers discussed
poverty, racism, injustice and war in
equal measure — a reflection of
Martin Luther King's belief, late in
his life, that many great injustices
draw from a common well.
PPOGU6@NUVO.NET
