One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
Interpretation
The Vietnam War had a devastating impact on domestic programs aimed at improving American society.
In this quote, Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasizes the tragic consequences of the Vietnam War on social initiatives in the United States, often referred to as the Great Society. He suggests that the resources and attention diverted to the war effort resulted in the weakening and undermining of social programs intended to address poverty and inequality, highlighting a deep connection between foreign policy and domestic welfare.
In practice
In a speech about social justice, one might invoke this quote to highlight the distraction of war from domestic issues.
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
Music is the best consolation for a despaired man
We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
Israel... is one of the great outpost of democracy in the world
And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land
Minorities within nation-states frayed by global capitalism are naturally more resentful of hollowed-out but still heavily centralised systems of political and economic domination.
Power in America today is control of the means of communication.
It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
The black man in North America was sickest of all politically. He let the white man divide him into such foolishness as considering himself a black 'Democrat,' a black 'Republican,' a black 'Conservative,' or a black 'Liberal' ...when a ten-million black vote bloc could be the deciding balance of power in American politics, because the white man's vote is almost always evenly divided.
There's an abiding interest by the United States, by the American people, and by anybody with his eyes set in his head, to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
We do not deny any nation's legitimate interest in security. But protecting the security of one nation by robbing another of its national independence and national traditions is not legitimate. In the long run, it is not even secure.
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