Corporations, Not People, Are Represented By Our Government

Martin Luther King Jr., Riverside Church, NYC, April 4, 1967

Sharing a copy of remarks I would have made today at a rally in Portland, Maine nationally coordinated with a broad coalition to oppose the incoming administration in Washington. But, because we live in Maine, a snowstorm blowing in overnight and into Monday morning led to postponing the event to next weekend, Sunday January 26 at 2pm. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrate today, was famous for his words. Information control has cherry picked his speeches to present a sanitized version of the ideas animating the civil rights movement. But, we can find MLK's real words for ourselves.

"Beyond Vietnam--A Time to Break Silence," was a speech Dr. King gave at Riverside Church  in New York on April 4, 1967.

I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. 

For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

Dr. King was silenced by the FBI within the year.

Another quote I find relevant today, often attributed to MLK: “a budget is a moral document.”

Congress recently held a bi-partisan lovefest with their sponsors in the war machine pledging to divert $890 billion – that is, almost one trillion dollars – from the fiscal year 2025 budget.

Divert one trillion dollars from providing health care.

Divert one trillion dollars from providing housing – while homelessness grew an astonishing 18% last year.

Divert one trillion dollars from providing education, food, public transportation, climate mitigation.

If you agree with me that this set of priorities is immoral, join me in telling the billionaires and their servants: SHAME!

The U.S.-Israel war on Gaza continues apace now spreading to Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. We who say we want to stop the genocide are deliberately mislabeled “antisemitic” or “terrorists.”

The U.S. has more than 800 military outposts in other countries. It invests millions each year in operating them at the expense of the safety and health of local populations. 

Here in Maine, it pollutes unceded Wabanaki territories with PFAS. It wastes thousands of gallons of highly polluting fuel for war planes in air shows aimed at recruiting youth into the imperial force projection project. Yet our congressional representatives brag about securing contracts for General Dynamics to build 500 pound bombs to drop on Palestinian babies, and warships to enforce the blockade of Gaza. “It’s a jobs program,” we’re told.

The Pentagon’s newest project is war in space. Insanely expensive (the elongated muskrat gives no discounts), and the planners long ago realized they’d have to raid Social Security and Medicare in order to pay for it.

You don’t agree with this plan? Tough luck because corporations, not people, are represented by our government.

Let us now unite to defeat the billionaires’ agenda! The people united can never be defeated.

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Relevant to these concerns are the indictments delivered by the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal at a press conference on MLK's actual birthday. The tribunal spent several months examining the evidence that Lockheed Martin, Raytheon (RTX), General Atomics, and Boeing should be tried for war crimes.

Thirty-five evidentiary videos are available to view and share at Merchantsofdeath.org.