Happy Birthday Dr. King

Today marks the 82nd birthday of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   Most of us learn about Dr. King’s influential role in the Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States, and have heard his “I have a dream” speech.  But less do we hear about his opposition to the Vietnam War and his revolutionary calls for an end to U.S. militarism, calling his government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”  As a man who was deeply driven by spiritual motives who used religious institutions to organize millions, Dr. King is a constant inspiration to me, and I hope to other Sikhs.

Check out the below video to hear his powerful and righteous “Beyond Vietnam” speech from April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was murdered.

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. We must rapidly begin…the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.