Make Some Noise!

Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement, and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

As we stand on the brink of a new conflict, let us remember the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., who, 40 years ago today, called on Americans to listen to their conscience and demand an end to the war in Vietnam.

In his address, he speaks of the damage done to Vietnam:

If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war.

He could be describing Iraq...

We, the US, have been given an unusual opportunity- to make right the horrors of a war for empire past by calling for an end to the present one which bears remarkable parallels to our actions in Vietnam.

Tomorrow is Good Friday. Passover is in progress. The rumors coming out of Russia say we will strike Tehran tomorrow morning. Let us pray this shall not come to pass.

And if we are so lucky as to have the twin horsemen of war and death pass us by, we should use this briefest of periods- the holidays of rebirth, renewal and escape- to have some compassion for others and ourselves, and start a new cycle by rising up and demanding our leaders cease and desist.

These are might times, people. Mighty times.
Make yourselves heard. Make some noise!