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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy5 of conformist thought within one's own bosom6 and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexed7 as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge8 of being mesmerized9 by uncertainty10; but we must move on.
And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation11 of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility12 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 prophesying13 of smooth patriotism14 to the high grounds of a firm dissent15 based upon the mandates16 of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements 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.
Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical17 departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query18 has often loomed19 large and loud: "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King?" "Why are you joining the voices of dissent?" "Peace and civil rights don't mix," they say. "Aren't you hurting the cause of your people," they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.
In the light of such tragic20 misunderstanding, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely22, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church -- the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate -- leads clearly to this sanctuary23 tonight.
I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate24 plea to my beloved nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity25 of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons27 of virtue28, nor to overlook the role they must play in the successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable29 reasons to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent30 testimony31 to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides.
Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellowed [sic] Americans, *who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.
Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision.* There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated32, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation33 of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.
Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating34 the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily35 high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. And so we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony36 of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. And so we watch them in brutal37 solidarity38 burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.
My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness39, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years -- especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails40 and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion41 while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor43 of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.
For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby44 mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian45 Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself until the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles46 they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard47 of Harlem, who had written earlier:
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath --
America will be!
Now, it should be incandescently49 clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy50 must read: Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined51 that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.
As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1954** [sic]; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission -- a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for "the brotherhood52 of man." This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry53 of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel54 at those who ask me why I'm speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men -- for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience55 to the One who loved his enemies so fully42 that he died for them? What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this One? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?
And finally, as I try to explain for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid56 if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed57 is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.
This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties58 which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls "enemy," for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.
And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies59 of the Liberation Front, not of the junta60 in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.
They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence *in 1954* -- in 1945 *rather* -- after a combined French and Japanese occupation and before the communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided61 to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not ready for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance62 that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination and a government that had been established not by China -- for whom the Vietnamese have no great love -- but by clearly indigenous63 forces that included some communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.
For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive64 effort to recolonize Vietnam. Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of their reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization.
After the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva Agreement. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify65 the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators, our chosen man, Premier66 Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition67, supported their extortionist landlords, and refused even to discuss reunification with the North. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by United States' influence and then by increasing numbers of United States troops who came to help quell68 the insurgency69 that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown70 they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictators seemed to offer no real change, especially in terms of their need for land and peace.
The only change came from America, as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt71, inept72, and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Now they languish73 under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically74 as we herd75 them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal76 social needs are rarely met. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs.
So they go, primarily women and children and the aged26. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting77 for their mothers.
What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?
We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only noncommunist revolutionary political force, the unified78 Buddhist79 Church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted80 their women and children and killed their men.
Now there is little left to build on, save bitterness. *Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call "fortified81 hamlets." The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these. Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These, too, are our brothers.
Perhaps a more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies.* What of the National Liberation Front, that strangely anonymous82 group we call "VC" or "communists"? What must they think of the United States of America when they realize that we permitted the repression83 and cruelty of Diem, which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the South? What do they think of our condoning84 the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of "aggression85 from the North" as if there were nothing more essential to the war? How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign86 of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Surely we must understand their feelings, even if we do not condone87 their actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf88 their greatest acts.
How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent communist, and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam, and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will not have a part? They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored89 and controlled by the military junta. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them, the only party in real touch with the peasants. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again, and then shore it up upon the power of new violence?
Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment90 of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
So, too, with Hanoi. In the North, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French Commonwealth91 and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at Geneva. After 1954 they watched us conspire92 with Diem to prevent elections which could have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered.
Also, it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the presence of American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the initial military breach93 of the Geneva Agreement concerning foreign troops. They remind us that they did not begin to send troops in large numbers and even supplies into the South until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands.
Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures94 for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard the increasing international rumors95 of American plans for an invasion of the North. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor, weak nation more than *eight hundred, or rather,* eight thousand miles away from its shores.
At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called "enemy," I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.
Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted96. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption97 in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.
This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words, and I quote:
Each day the war goes on the hatred98 increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian99 instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring100 deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism (unquote).
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 maturity102 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 detrimental103 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 atone104 for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war.
*I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating105 ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:
Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.
Number two: Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation106.
Three: Take immediate101 steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing107 our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos.
Four: Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations108 and any future Vietnam government.
Five: *Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement.
Part of our ongoing109...part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum110 to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary. Meanwhile... meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse111 ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible.
*As we counsel young men concerning military service, we must clarify for them our nation's role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious112 objection. I am pleased to say that this is a path now chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover, I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions113 and seek status as conscientious objectors.* These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly114. Every man of humane115 convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.
Now there is something seductively tempting116 about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing.
The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady117 within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality...and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.
And so, such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.
In 1957, a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years, we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which has now justified118 the presence of U.S. military advisors119 in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and why American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru.
It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable120." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. 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...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives121 and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism122, extreme materialism123, and militarism are incapable124 of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice125 which produces beggars needs restructuring.
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry126 of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans127 and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins128 of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody129 battlefields physically130 handicapped and psychologically deranged131, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense132 than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant133 status quo with bruised134 hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.
*This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and, through their misguided passions, urge the United States to relinquish135 its participation136 in the United Nations.* These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. *We must not engage in a negative anticommunism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice137, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.*
These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail138 world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions.
It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid139 fear of communism, and our proneness140 to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated141 so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch antirevolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment142 against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility143 to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores144, and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted145, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked146 shall be made straight, and the rough places plain."
A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding147 loyalty148 to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.
This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional149 love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental150 and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme151 unifying152 principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: "Let us love one another, for love is God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us." Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.
We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation153. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered154 with the wreckage155 of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says: "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory156 must be the hope that love is going to have the last word" (unquote).
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum157 of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination158 is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing21 bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs159. We may cry out desperately160 for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant161 to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached162 bones and jumbled163 residues164 of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ48 moves on."
We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful165 corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds166 are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message -- of longing167, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.
As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently168 stated:
Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide,
In the strife169 of Truth and Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight170,
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.
Though the cause of evil prosper171, yet 'tis truth alone is strong
Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending172 cosmic elegy173 into a creative psalm174 of peace.If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords175 of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty176 stream.
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distinguished
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personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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laymen
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| 门外汉，外行人( layman的名词复数 )； 普通教徒（有别于神职人员） | |
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5
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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6
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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7
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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8
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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9
mesmerized
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| v.使入迷( mesmerize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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11
vocation
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| n.职业，行业 | |
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12
humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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13
prophesying
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的现在分词 ) | |
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14
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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15
dissent
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| n./v.不同意，持异议 | |
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16
mandates
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| 托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式） | |
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17
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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18
query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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19
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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20
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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21
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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22
concisely
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| adv.简明地 | |
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23
sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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24
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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25
ambiguity
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| n.模棱两可；意义不明确 | |
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26
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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27
paragons
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| n.模范( paragon的名词复数 )；典型；十全十美的人；完美无缺的人 | |
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28
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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29
justifiable
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| adj.有理由的，无可非议的 | |
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30
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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31
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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32
eviscerated
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| v.切除…的内脏( eviscerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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33
rehabilitation
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| n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位 | |
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34
devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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35
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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36
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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37
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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38
solidarity
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| n.团结；休戚相关 | |
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39
awareness
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| n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智 | |
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40
cocktails
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| n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物 | |
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41
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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42
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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43
purveyor
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| n.承办商，伙食承办商 | |
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44
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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45
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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46
shackles
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| 手铐( shackle的名词复数 )； 脚镣； 束缚； 羁绊 | |
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47
bard
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| n.吟游诗人 | |
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48
writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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49
incandescently
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| adj.白热的；白炽的；十分明亮的；感情强烈的 | |
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50
autopsy
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| n.尸体解剖；尸检 | |
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51
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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52
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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53
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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54
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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55
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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56
valid
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| adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的 | |
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57
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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58
loyalties
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| n.忠诚( loyalty的名词复数 )；忠心；忠于…感情；要忠于…的强烈感情 | |
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59
ideologies
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| n.思想（体系）( ideology的名词复数 )；思想意识；意识形态；观念形态 | |
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60
junta
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| n.团体；政务审议会 | |
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61
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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62
arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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63
indigenous
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| adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的 | |
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64
abortive
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| adj.不成功的，发育不全的 | |
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65
unify
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| vt.使联合，统一；使相同，使一致 | |
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66
premier
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| adj.首要的；n.总理，首相 | |
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67
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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68
quell
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| v.压制，平息，减轻 | |
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69
insurgency
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| n.起义；暴动；叛变 | |
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70
overthrown
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| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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71
corrupt
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|
| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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72
inept
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| adj.不恰当的，荒谬的，拙劣的 | |
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73
languish
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| vi.变得衰弱无力，失去活力，（植物等）凋萎 | |
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74
apathetically
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| adv.不露感情地；无动于衷地；不感兴趣地；冷淡地 | |
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75
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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76
minimal
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| adj.尽可能少的，最小的 | |
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77
soliciting
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| v.恳求( solicit的现在分词 )；（指娼妇）拉客；索求；征求 | |
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78
unified
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| (unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的 | |
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79
Buddhist
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| adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒 | |
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80
corrupted
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|
| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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81
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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82
anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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83
repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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84
condoning
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| v.容忍，宽恕，原谅( condone的现在分词 ) | |
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85
aggression
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| n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害 | |
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86
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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87
condone
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| v.宽恕；原谅 | |
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88
dwarf
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|
| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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89
censored
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| 受审查的，被删剪的 | |
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90
assessment
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| n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额 | |
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91
commonwealth
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| n.共和国，联邦，共同体 | |
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92
conspire
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| v.密谋，（事件等）巧合，共同导致 | |
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93
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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94
overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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95
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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96
subverted
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| v.颠覆，破坏（政治制度、宗教信仰等）( subvert的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某人）道德败坏或不忠 | |
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97
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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98
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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99
humanitarian
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| n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者 | |
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100
incurring
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| 遭受，招致，引起( incur的现在分词 ) | |
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101
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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102
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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103
detrimental
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| adj.损害的，造成伤害的 | |
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104
atone
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| v.赎罪，补偿 | |
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105
extricating
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| v.使摆脱困难，脱身( extricate的现在分词 ) | |
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106
negotiation
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| n.谈判，协商 | |
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107
curtailing
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| v.截断，缩短( curtail的现在分词 ) | |
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108
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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109
ongoing
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| adj.进行中的，前进的 | |
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110
asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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111
perverse
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| adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的 | |
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112
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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113
exemptions
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| n.（义务等的）免除( exemption的名词复数 )；免（税）；（收入中的）免税额 | |
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114
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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115
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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116
tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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117
malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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118
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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119
advisors
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| n.顾问，劝告者( advisor的名词复数 )；（指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授 | |
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120
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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121
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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122
racism
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| n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识) | |
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123
materialism
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| n.［哲］唯物主义，唯物论；物质至上 | |
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124
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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125
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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126
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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127
orphans
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| 孤儿( orphan的名词复数 ) | |
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128
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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129
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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130
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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131
deranged
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| adj.疯狂的 | |
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132
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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133
recalcitrant
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| adj.倔强的 | |
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134
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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135
relinquish
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| v.放弃，撤回，让与，放手 | |
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136
participation
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| n.参与，参加，分享 | |
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137
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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138
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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139
morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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140
proneness
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| n.俯伏，倾向 | |
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141
initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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142
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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143
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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144
mores
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| n.风俗，习惯，民德，道德观念 | |
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145
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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146
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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147
overriding
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| a.最主要的 | |
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148
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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149
unconditional
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| adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的 | |
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150
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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151
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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152
unifying
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| 使联合( unify的现在分词 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一 | |
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153
retaliation
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| n.报复，反击 | |
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154
cluttered
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| v.杂物，零乱的东西零乱vt.( clutter的过去式和过去分词 )；乱糟糟地堆满，把…弄得很乱；（以…） 塞满… | |
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155
wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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156
inventory
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| n.详细目录，存货清单 | |
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157
conundrum
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| n.谜语；难题 | |
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158
procrastination
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| n.拖延，耽搁 | |
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159
ebbs
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| 退潮( ebb的名词复数 )； 落潮； 衰退 | |
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160
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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161
adamant
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| adj.坚硬的，固执的 | |
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162
bleached
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| 漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的 | |
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163
jumbled
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| adj.混乱的；杂乱的 | |
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164
residues
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| n.剩余，余渣( residue的名词复数 )；剩余财产；剩数 | |
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165
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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166
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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167
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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168
eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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169
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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170
blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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171
prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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172
pending
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| prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的 | |
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173
elegy
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| n.哀歌，挽歌 | |
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174
psalm
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| n.赞美诗，圣诗 | |
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175
discords
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| 不和（discord的复数形式） | |
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176
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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