Photo by Rhododendrites – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=176954681
On April 4th, 1967, almost one year before the empire took him out, Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous anti Vietnam War speech at Riverside Church in NYC. Please note that after this remarkably written and given speech, many of his political, media and wealthy supporters actually turned their backs on him from that point on. Between his calling this empire the ‘greatest purveyor of violence’ and ‘sometimes silence is betrayal’, MLK pushed the envelope. LBJ realized that King would not be the ‘Good little colored boy’ in his corner on that phony war. At that point the Vietnam debacle was strictly a ‘Democratic Party War’, although they were doing the empire’s bidding along with the Republicans since its outset. Of course, when Nixon took over in January of ’69, Vietnam became his source of continued horror.
It was the young of this nation that took to the streets in opposition to the continuation of the conflict. Factor out the older Americans who were the original leaders in the forefront of dissent, it was the Mega Millions of us who put the PR pressure up many notches. You see, it was guys (and some gals) our age who were either butchering or being butchered in what the GIs called ‘The Shit’. We who protested did not see our fellow youth in uniform as the enemy. It was the adults in the room who sent them there, along with the Agent Orange and saturated bombings of a once peaceful agrarian culture. By 1970 my late father, a man who had always voted Republican (that’s another story), stated at a huge family Easter dinner, “Before I let my two sons go to Vietnam, I’ll personally drive them to Canada! ” He had had enough believing in the lies that his government was selling. His silence had been betrayal.
Today, 2025, we face a worse enemy than our government was in the 60s and early 70s. What this Trump Train is heading for is the economic, political, and civil liberty destruction of our American culture. He has become the front man or carnival barker for the very thing he says he hates: The Deep State. Trump is surrounded by sycophants from his cabinet, the Congress, the right wing media, and ,sadly, working stiffs, who either refuse or care not to go against him. Some of them are making out, career wise or financially, with what he represents and his executive orders. Those who are not getting rich or powerful through Trump are just drinking the Kool-Aid his regime serves.
MLK put it succinctly in his famous speech: “Silence can be betrayal.” Those who marched yesterday throughout our great nation, bless you all! And those who stayed at home but agreed with the millions of peaceful protestors, remember what MLK said and please take it to heart.
PA Farruggio
October, 2025