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Feb 10, 2004 Now, I can love Coretta Scott King. I really can. She is a lady of peace. She fights a principled battle for peace. She was quoted January 19th, saying, “Peaceful ends can always be reached through peaceful means.” If only that were a true statement. Very rarely in the history of men has “peaceful ends” been achieved by “peaceful means”. The days of the civil rights movement as led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States, might have qualified as the exception. The “Civil War” of the 1860s, which was anything but peaceful, helped end the American form of slavery. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was sincerely a process of peaceful actions to achieve the peaceful ends of gaining many more freedoms for black Americans. I believe only in a democratic society you can take Mrs. King’s words and make them apply. In nations that do not cherish the rights of individuals over the whims of dictatorship, you will not see peaceful ends garnered by peaceful means. Peaceful dissention against dictators usually will end one up in someone’s mass grave somewhere. Mrs. King said, “The noblest goal is not the conquest of enemies but reconciliation with adversaries.” In a political arena, this statement works. It is a statement of naïveté in the light of the war against terrorism. Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas, el Fatah, The PLO and all other terrorist organizations only have one “noble goal”; the destruction of everything that is not Islam. They kill without mercy or concern for innocent life or peaceful ambitions. Mrs. King would not be permitted to spread such messages of peace on the streets of Mecca. Very bluntly, she would be killed, almost immediately. In the many speeches of Dr. King, he knew his audience. He also knew whom he was directing his words at. There are those who think Dr. King’s words are appropriate for the whole world. Now, I would agree in part, but I have to be practical too. Dr. King was a Christian man who knew God in such a personal way that he was completely unafraid to follow his dream to death. Islam will never accept the ideals of any Christian man. The words and ideals of the Lord Jesus Christ will never be the words and ideals of Islam. Dr. King knew his dream could come true in a nation founded upon the principles and laws of the loving and just God of the Hebrew/Christian Bible. He neither taught, nor protected the Koran of Islam. He espoused religious freedom because he knew and understood and was thereby comforted by the truth. The Apostle Paul wrote, “But has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the gentiles. For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day.” (2 Tim.1:10-12) Dr. King, like Paul the Apostle, knew Jesus intimately. He could be unafraid of persecution. He was unafraid of the sword. Dr. King knew America would honor its Christian core. I was sad to read about the reception President Bush received when he recently went into the South to render honor to the memory of Dr. King. That was not a political act. It was an act calling for the very reconciliation that Mrs. King addressed in her speech. I have watched our President reach out his reconciliatory hand many times over the past three years only to have it swatted away. Our President is honoring an oath that he swore before us, and before his God and the God of Dr. King. This oath has been sworn by every President since our first to protect and defend our nation against all enemies “both foreign and domestic”. Sometimes this calls for the harsh decision to go to war. We all should try to understand that and accept the reality of it. There is no way Dr. King would stand by and watch his nation destroyed by the radical acts of murder committed in the name of a god of murder. Even Dr. King understood that the “peaceful end” of the Civil War, WWI, WWII, and the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts only came in result of armed struggle. I believe he would understand this current war against terrorism too. I do not believe Dr. King would slap away the hand of any man who was trying to protect the country he believed in. He would not only shake that hand, but would continually pray to God to keep that man safe to fulfill the good work of protecting America. ------------ About the Author: Independent, Conservative, Christian. Married 29 years with 5 children raised and one grandson being raised. 30 year Army Veteran and published poet with www.poetry.com since Y2K. Email Michael John McCrae: michael.mccrae@us.army.mil Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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