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 radical
departures from the destruction of Kashmir, many persons have questioned me
about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns, this query has often
loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? Why are
you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights dont mix, they say.
Arent 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 tragic misunderstanding, I feel
betrayed as I was once promised of peace.

Our so called friend America promises us of peace and change but the only change
came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of
governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support. All
the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace
and democracy and land reform. And when they no longer need us they languish
under our bombs and consider us, the real enemy and yes I feel betrayed as I was
once promised of peace.

In 1906, the Nobel prize for peace was awarded to a lover of war by the name of
Theodore Roosevelt. uring World War One, no prizes were awarded. And then came
1919 a prize for peace went to Woodrow Wilson who had needlessly dragged his
own nation into the worst war yet seen; who had developed innovative war
propaganda techniques, conscription techniques, and tools for suppressing dissent;
who had used the U.S. military to brutal effect in the Caribbean and Latin America;
who had agreed to a war-promoting settlement to the Great War From that moment
to this, the Nobel peace prize has been heavily, but by no means entirely,
dominated by elected officials. In 1929, for example, the winner was Frank Kellogg ,
Kellogg had cursed peace activists in 1927, done their bidding in 1928, and would
die without ever understanding them.In 1953 the prize for peace went to General
George Marshall. In 1973 a co-laureate was none other than Henry Kissinger.
Whatever their merits, these were major makers of war who would almost certainly
have also won the Nobel War Prize, were there such a thing.

As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one
child is hungry, our lives will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these
victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting
them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their
freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.

No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of
night. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering;
not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us
alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.

they do not know that the Good News was meant for all menfor 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 obedience to the one who
loved his enemies so fully that he died for them?

We see the rice fields of a small Asian country being trampled at will and burned at
whim. We see grief stricken mothers with crying babies clutched in their arms as
they watch their little huts burst forth into flames. We see the fields and valleys of
battle being painted with human blood. We see the broken bodies left prostrate in
countless fields. We see young men being sent home half men, physically
handicapped and mentally deranged. Most tragic of all is the casualty list among
children