REV. HERBERT DAUGHTRY TO HONOR KING'S BIRTHDAY AT MASS ANTI WAR RALLY IN DC

s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday fast approaches, what is the best way to honor it with the whole of King's activism in mind? For his monumental work didn't stop with the civil rights movement. By 1967 he'd had the courage to come out forcefully against the Vietnam War. He had become increasingly vocal in his opposition to the militarism of United States foreign policy. In his "Beyond Vietnam" speech, which he delivered on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church - exactly one year before he was slain - King called the US "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."

Unfortunately, those words remain only too true now, over 35 years after King uttered them. Anyone who has studied his life and beliefs can't help but think that were he alive today, King would be just as passionately against the current administration's foreign policies, including this heinous war Bush seems determined to inflict on Iraq. In fact, tens of thousands of people across this nation have such a deep conviction about this that they will be honoring Dr. King by spending Saturday, January 18^th at a mass anti war rally in Washington DC to oppose the war.

One person who holds this conviction is the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, pastor of Brooklyn's House of the Lord Church, and long-time civil rights and anti war activist. Last December 10^th he was arrested, along with over 100 other religious leaders of numerous denominations and faiths, in front of the US Mission to the UN where they protested the impending war on Iraq.

Rev. Daughtry is also founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Now Committee, which has joined forces with Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) to hold the rally in Washington DC. Stated Daughtry, "We're looking forward to a massive turnout on the 18^th where the issue of peace, which was so near and dear to King's heart, will be the emphasis. We also think," he added, "that there is going to be an urgency about it because the war drums are escalating. We are urging people to be present and take a stand."

He spoke of the hopeful fact that the opposition to this war is way ahead of what opposition there was to the Vietnam War at a comparable stage in it's development. He himself was against that war, too, from the beginning, and his was one of the first churches to come out in opposition to it publicly - which seemed like the only natural thing to do. "I think the horror of war ought to motivate any decent person, irrespective of their national or religious background or political persuasion, to be against it," he stated.

Rev. Daughtry also made it clear that he's not a pacifist, as such: "I would not say I am absolutely, completely and forever nonviolent," he commented. "There may be times when it becomes inevitable that some kind of response is in order, but this Gulf situation is not one of them. In fact, it's a long ways from it. It seems to be hyped, almost an obsession of President Bush. I'm convinced that it's more about petroleum, politics and prosperity for the corporate manufacturers and personal vendetta than anything else."

In addition to the massive destruction to the land and people of Iraq, a second reason Rev. Daughtry opposes this war is because of what it will do to so many people in this country as well. "Obviously those who occupy the bottom of the social ladder will be the hardest hit," he noted. "Poor whites, poor Blacks and other poor minorities join the Armed Services primarily because they hope it will be an avenue toward bettering their lives. They shouldn't have to try to provide for themselves in this way what the larger society has not provided for them. But then, the cruel irony of it is that when war happens, they're the cannon fodder."

The third and major reason Rev. Daughtry is against war is its peril to mankind. Our ability to manufacture weaponry, specifically nuclear weapons, has dangerously outstripped our moral development as humans, here in the US and abroad. "To have these things floating around the world in the hands of human beings who are so far behind ethically ought to drive fear into the hearts of everybody," he stated.

Rev. Daughtry said that a further thing which bothers him about US foreign policy is that so many resources and so much energy are poured into making war, while the question of why people hate America is seldom given a thought. "Sometimes the US leaders are like people cleaning out the river downstream when the problem is upstream," he observed.

As to the problems in the Middle East and elsewhere, Rev. Daughtry has a tangible idea about how the US could use its leverage to engender an interest in peace rather than in escalating violence. "The US gives out a lot of money around the world," he explained. "Israel, for example, gets about $12 billion every year." And he asked, "What would happen if the US government said to warring countries, 'Listen, we're not going to give a penny to anybody until you get together and sit at the table. We are not going to be pouring money and resources into this situation until you can settle this thing.'"

Instead of the US using our money to support "questionable governments" all over the globe, Rev. Daughtry, like Dr. King, wants to see resources directed to the people of those countries to end disease, fight poverty, and other such worthy endeavors.

For further information about the rally - including about the buses leaving for DC from the House of the Lord Church at 5:30 on January 18^th - call the MLK Jr. Peace Now Committee at (718) 596-1991. You can also call ANSWER at (212) 633-6646, for they will have buses departing from many destinations throughout the 5 boroughs.