E. John Savoie, the state commissioner for higher education, has an excellent editorial in the Times-Picayune against HB 199, which would allow concealed weapons to be carried on university campuses. Read it, make its contents known, and mine it for talking points when you convince your friends to write their representatives, as you already have, urging that they oppose this bill.
I intended to post, and write today about the manifesto of the Reconstruction Party, by Cynthia McKinney and friends, from New Orleans Voices for Peace. Distracted by the concealed weapons proposal and the war, I would like to segue instead to some words from my favorite Martin Luther King speech, Beyond Vietnam (New York, 4 April 1967):
There is something seductively tempting 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 the 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 malady within the American spirit, 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. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.
It is a brilliant speech, and I recommend the whole thing. I remember hearing it when it was given, and it sounded normal. Twenty years later I heard it on the radio and realized how advanced it was. Therefore we will look at some more MLK paraphernalia, of which there is a great deal available. Following on this speech, here is Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (Atlanta, 30 April 1967). This speech is chillingly current. Here is the amazing sermon Why Jesus Called a Wise Man a Fool, where he describes the experience of receiving a death threat. This video has wonderful archival footage from Montgomery, Alabama and elsewhere. Here he is saying he is sick and tired of violence, tired of evil, and is therefore not going to use violence:
Here is How Long – Not Long, from 1965, which I missed because I was in Spain. Here is his final speech, in which he has been to the mountaintop, Part I and Part II. And you should still read the manifesto of the Reconstruction Party.
When you say Axé! to someone you are wishing them strength, health, and grace.
Axé!
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Many, many thanks for these links. I don’t have time to listen to them now, but I will come back. I am reading Greg Grandin’s book Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism right now, and these words go perfectly.
Here’s _The Urgency of Now_ (1963):
Here is a clip from _Technology_:
King was a grownup and this is why I am so impressed – one doesn’t meet that many.
Axé to you, Professor Zero!
Thanks for posting the link to the manifesto of the Reconstruction Party. I had not read it, and it soars.
Thanks for the MLK links, too. In Nov 2004 after the last election, I put several of MLK’s speeches, including the one on Vietnam, onto a cd and listened to them in the car for months. I felt that was one of the only ways to cope with the four-more-years depressive syndrome.