Hip Hop: Don't Let it Go to Your Head -- Brand Nubian

Watched a rerun of an entourage episode and heard this song. Took me back. enjoy.

Action & Pepper Seed

Man I remember this song. I think it came out back in 1993. A big tune dat is. Enjoy and remember.

Hip Hop: Resurrection - Common Sense (AKA Common after '96)

Was listening to @vh1soul and they played this joint from Common's second album. #Classics

Beres Hammond Concert

I decided to finally post more of my picks from the Beres Hammond concert I went to a couple of weeks ago. If you didn't know already, Beres is one of my all time favorite reggae artists. His concert was amazing. The man puts out a lot of energy during his concerts.

Hip Hop: Ghetto Dreams Video - Nas & Common

I'm not mad at this. Always thought these were some of best lyricists in Hip Hop. What you all think. Common took it back to his "Can I Borrow a Dollar" days (BTW explicit lyrics and it might offend you). I wonder if Common will loose some his females fans from his lyrics in this song. Hmmm.

WTT Classic Album #HOP

I haven't peeped the Watch The Throne  album yet, but I've heard everyone telling me that it's a classic. I really doubt its going to live up to the hype. I've heard Otis and other tracks, but still not that much into it. I think Otis is a great sample, but the song is just okay to me.

At the same time the hype around WTT was at an all time high, the IPod rotation put things into perspective by reminding me of what a hot track really does to me. Jay-z's D'evils came on and I think I repeated that joint about five (5) times. So i decided to post the song because the track and lyrics were all on point.

Caveat: My opinion is that Reasonable Doubt is still Jay-z's best album hands down, and I enjoyed the Black Album and Blueprint 3. 

Hip Hop: Latifah's Had It Up 2 Here by Queen Latifah

I heard this joint on the radio when I was in Atlanta. It got me thinking about some of the best female MC's. So I decided to start off with the Queen (no specific order). She's always had my respect as an emcee. Hailing from brick city, here's one of her joints I still like to listen to.

Hip Hop: They Call Me D-Nice by @djdnice

One of the hardest track to this day. If you don't like this song, just delete me from everything in your life because you don't like good music. This joint is still in rotation. It went from being in rotation on tapes to CDs and now its on the iPod (A shift in the Paradigm on Music).

Hip Hop: Jungle Brothers - Straight Out of the Jungle

Downloaded a couple of mix tapes over the last week and heard this song on both. Its probably my number one song from the Jungle Brothers. Enjoy

New Summertime Mix by DJ Jazzy Jeff and Mick Boogie

I like this mix. At first, I was a little disappointed but by the end of the mix I was happy. Check it out.

Download

Carnival Time: Byron Lee and the Dragonaires - Dollar Wine

Once again, I’ve searched the Internet but couldn't find a video for this song, which I know doesn't exist.   This is another classic Soca song from Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. Memories. If you can't Dolla Wine, then there is something wrong with you. LOL :-D

DC Hide Away: Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar

I happen to be walking from the Starbucks on Pennsylvania Ave SE, some time in the spring of 2010, when I came upon a small restaurant named Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar. I was like, wow, this place looks very nice. I proceeded to check the place out an was very impressed with the decor. The restaurant is not that big, but what really impressed me was the private dining room upstairs for events as well as what they have dubbed the Avenue lounge. You see, around the same time I was in the process of planning the Florida A&M University - National Alumni Association (FAMU-NAA)Washington, DC Chapter's first ever wine social. I felt that Sonoma was the perfect venue and that my timing for this discovery couldn't have come any sooner because I was having a hard time finding the right venue.

What I like about Sonoma is that you can stop in to have a glass of wine and some cheese at the the bar down stairs or upstairs in the lounge. The lounge has a very nice ambiance in the evenings with the exposed brick, dimmed recessed lighting accented with the soft flickering light from the candles on the tables. It's just a nice place to sit and enjoy the evening with some friends. Another time I stopped in on my way home from work and was fortunate to meet Conregressman John Lewis. My civil rights movement experts and Atlanta people know who I'm talking about.

Even thought I've been going to Sonoma since last spring, I have to admit that I've never ordered anything off of their menu other than a combination of a charcuterie board with a selection of assorted cheese. If you are interested in dining at Sonoma you should check out She's Savvy Blog. She actually dined at the restaurant last fall and gave it a glaring review. 

I've also provided a few pictures of the avenue lounge for you to get a feel of the ambiance. I recommend stopping in for dinner or a glass of wine with a some cheese.

P.S. Sonoma also has a happy hour in the lounge from 5 - 7pm Tuesdays - Saturdays. I forgot to ask why they have named it the Italian Happy Hour, but glasses of wine are five dollars and they also offer three dollar beers  and signature cocktail drinks.

Carnival Time: Byron Lee and the Dragonaires - Tiney Winey

Okay, I'm pretty sure a video doesn't exist for this song, but you can't talk about carnival and not bring up Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. This song takes me back to my youth and all of the wedding receptions, backyard and basement sessions. Memories :-D.

Carnival Time: Rupee - Tempted to Touch

Another song since its Carnival time. I like this video. :-D

Carnival Time: Kevin Little - Turn Me On featuring Spragga

The problem with a lot of the classic Soca songs is that there are no videos for them, at least good quality videos. Well, I am mentally preparing myself for carnival, while running sprints to physically prepare for the Soca line. Dancing to Soca is tiring. Prepare yourself. Always liked this song by Kevin Little featuring Spragga Benz.

Maxi Priest: Close to you

I was out this weekend and the selector played this song. Took me back to the days of my youth. Still a big tune. Felt the need to share this since the DC Carnival is this weekend. Jump, Jump, Jump. Jamaican Massive Standup.

L-Boogie on Jimmy Fallon --- Memories

Rejoice and Shout

This film, REJOICE AND SHOUT, seems as if its going to be a good one. I got the following excerpt from Magnolia Picture's website:


"Rejoice and Shout traces the evolution of Gospel through its many musical styles – spirituals and early hymns, four-part harmony-based quartets, the integration of blues and swing into Gospel, the emergence of Soul, and the blending of Rap and Hip Hop elements."

I am definitely going to check this out. I thoroughly enjoyed @vh1soul's documentary of the linkage between Gospel music and today's different music genres. This new film opens in DC at the West End Cinema on June 17th.


Oh, and it's right around the corner from Dusk lounge, one of my hideaways in the city.

Hip Hop Samples

Whose album sampled this song? Can you guess?

DC Hide-A-Way: Dusk Lounge at the Best Westin

I usually like to have a few spots that I can meet up with my peeps with out having to deal with over crowded bars and no place to sit or post up. People are always asking me to put them on a few of my spots so I decided I'll start sharing. The first spot is a lounge called Dusk, located in the Westin Grand in Washington, DC.


View Larger Map

The atmosphere is really laid back and the bar tenders are pretty cool. I have to admit that I really enjoy just stopping in for a happy hour. I also think the food is pretty good. I usually go for the lamb chops appetizers and their crab cake sliders. They are so good. Below are a few pictures of the lounge. Check it out if you get a chance.

Tell Me How Come --- Morgan Heritage

A big tune. Love this song. Felt the need to share.

Happy Mother's Day

Since it's Mother's day I had to post some of my favorite songs praising all the Mother's out there. Happy mother's Day Mother.
Love Ya mom. Kissess. <3 <3

Glad some one said it again. Just watch

Got this off of Ta-Nehisi Coates site.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Nas and Damian Marley's videos

I was a little suspect when I heard Nas and Damian Marley were making an album together but I have to admit i really enjoyed the album. My number one song is Tribal War featuring K'naan. It's fire. Unfortunately they haven't shot a video for it yet. I did come across videos of two songs that I enjoyed off of the album. I especially like how they finished shooting one video and moved right into the next video. Take a look.

New Blog Post: New Video from Bilal

As I was perusing through Okayplayer, I came across the latest Bilal video. Check it out. I've always been a fan.



VIDEO PREMIERE // Bilal "Little One" from Centric TV on Vimeo.

Did I Do That---C'mon Man

I know you've seen that guy out many times. He's there in the spot to be for the night, kicking it with or w/o his peeps. He's probably dressed stylishly for the occasion. He may be in a two or three-piece suit that he's worn to work earlier that day or maybe he's had a chance to swing by the crib to switch into one of his more casual urban attires. What ever the case is, he's feeling like he's gotten it right tonight. Women may or may not be digging his "SWAG" (I hope this word gets retired soon). But what I want to know, is when did the Urkel big frame glasses become so stylish. I mean, if you don't need them to see, then why are you rocking them. Why have these spectacles become the latest cliche urban male accessory. How and when did this happen? 

I understand everyone needs some way to express themselves. Some use the arts while others use fashion. I also understand that everyone has their own sense of fashion. Some I may agree with and some I do not. I'm okay with that. But I think that some people just try way way way too hard to be, how can I best put it, COOL. When you walk into a room, your presence is either felt right away or its not. You either have that "it" factor that pulls every ones attention to you as you emerge through the door or you don't. You can't by style in a store and put it on. To quote the Dragon, your either a Bad Ass or your not. Nuff Said

If this trend doesn't stop soon, this is the future for the urban male:

This blog was inspired by a post by the Dragon: http://halloftheblackdragon.com/reel/1206/quit-being-cute-and-man-the-f-ck-up.html

Odd Future East Coast Tour Dates

For all who are interested and curios, the Odd Future are coming to the East coast.

http://oddfuture.tumblr.com/eastcoast

More Barcleona Pics: The W

If you ever get a chance to visit Barcelona, make sure that you go to the the W. It is by far the best W lounge I've ever been to. Here are a couple of pics. It was so nice that I fell asleep in the lounge (due to drinking 6 glasses of Sangria earlier).

Hip Hop: ATCQ Doumentary "Beat, Rhymes & Fights"

If you haven't heard yet,  Michael Rapaport (aka Remi from a Higher Learning) has been working with the members of  A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ) on a documentary of one of the greatest, if not the greatest groups of all time in Hip Hop . The documentary is titled Beats, Rhymes, & Fights. Now if you are a Tribe fan, you've been awaiting a story like this to be told for years with excitement as well as with a little bit of anxiety due to the fact of the known friction between the group members, specifically between Phife and Qtip. The film is now making its way through the film festival circuit, but it wouldn't be Hip Hop if there wasn't some controversy surrounding the film, hence my anxiety. So I decided to share with you all a the Trailer for the film as well as an interview with Qtip, Ali, and Jarobi on the phone (yes he's still part of the group). Unfortunately Phife wasn't present (sigh & sad face).  I sigh with the sad face because this is my favorite Hip Hop group and I've unfrotunately never seen them live as a group, due to our schedules not in synch when they were on tour (Sigh & sad face again). I've seen phife by himself and Qtip by himself but not together as a group. Hopefully there is a reconciliation between the group members some time in the near future. Hey Phonte and 9th did it.



A Tribe Called Quest Documentary (Trailer) by PayeTaChatte

MTV Shows

You can view the rest of the MTV interview by clicking on the following link:

 http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/632317/a-tribe-called-quest-clear-up-documentary-controversy.jhtml#id=1659979

MOS DEF-inately one of the greatest MC's out of BKLYN. At least in my book.

Mos Def. Nuff said. I'm such a fan. Here are a couple of songs that are in the iPod rotation.

Some Pics from Barcelona

Sagrada Familia

Taking a walk

I forget what this is.

Nice view from the hotel

 Taking a walk.

There's a story behind this one. LOL

Another nice Nice view. This was from one of towers of Sagrada Familia.

America I Am, The African American Imprint: Exhibit

I checked this exhibit out over the weekend. I recommend everyone to check it out before it ends.

http://www.americaiam.org/Pages/CurrentStop.aspx

DC Restaurant Review: 1905

If you live in the nations capitol, then you probably know that the U-Street Corridor is littered with a variety of small boutique restaurants. These restaurants are very unique in that they their decor as well as their menus are not usually duplicated anywhere through out the city.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to to dine a the restaurant 1905. 1905 is one of the many small boutique type restaurants that calls the U Street Corridor home. It is actually located on the edge of the eastern part of the U Street Corridor. The address of the restaurant is 1905 9th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20001(I've embedded a Google Map for your convenience).

View Larger Map

Anyway, now that you have the location, its time to get down to the main course or better yet the main point of this blog entry, the FOOD. To start off, I ordered the Main Lobster Meatballs. Yes I said it, Main Lobster Meatballs. I've never had a meatball made out of lobster before, but I figured what the hell. The actual appetizer I ordered was the Maine Lobster Meatballs in an aged sherry, tomato, and cream sauce. When I say HEAVEN, I really mean it. I have never had a meatball so tasty in my life.

As shown is the picture, the dish came with three huge meatballs made of nothing but lobster and not like some restaurants that serve you a crab cake that is mostly made of cake and less crab. This chef did it the right way. The entire meatball was lobster. On top of that, the aged sherry, tomato, and cream sauce was AMAZING. When I say AMAZING, I really mean AMAZING.

After my appetizer, I figured it was going to be all down hill after that, but then my entree arrived. For my entree, I ordered the Pan Seared Duck Breast with squash ragout, rosemary-rye bread pudding, and lingonberry-Côte du Rhône Cumberland sauce. If you have not had duck before, I recommend giving it a try. Duck has slight different taste than chicken and usually has more fat, but when prepared correctly, it leaves a nice savory taste that lights your mouth up with joy. The dish I ordered did what I expected it to do to my taste buds, even though the Lobster Meatballs had already got the party popping earlier. My only negative comment about the main entree, was the bread pudding became a little soggy due to the duck being served on top of it. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the entree.

To wrap this review up, I recommend to stop in to 1905. Word from the wise, make a resevation, because when I say boutique, I really mean boutique, as in limited space.

Another thing I found out while I was there, was that 1905 has different events during the week. They have a late night happy hour that starts at 11:00 pm, YES I SAID IT, 11:00 pm to close and it doesn't close until 2am Tue-Thurs and 3am, Fri-Sat. The restaurant also has Taco Tuesdays,  Burger Wednesdays, and Live Jazz on Thursdays. I'm planning on hitting 1905 up on Taco Tuesdays and the live jazz on Wednesdays in the future.  You should too.

Atlanta's Hip Hop Scene: The Good Die Mostly Over Bull Shiiiiiiiiii.......

GOODIE MOB. I don't think I have to say any more. One of the  most influential groups out of Atlanta. I still have their first album, Soul Food, in heavy rotation on the iPod. I remember when I first  heard cell therapy. I was like this is an instant classic.

Out of all of the members, I always was a big fan of Big Gipp and Cee-Lo because they seemed to push the edge lyrically. Don't get me wrong, I also enjoyed listening T-Mo and Khujo on the mic, but the Cee-Lo and Big Gipp were usually on fire on all of their songs.

I decided to post a couple of songs that I still enjoy listening to this day. So sit back and reminisce.

Documentary Review: War Don Don

Last month I saw an independent film called War Don Don at the West End Cinema in Washington, DC. I was fortunate to be able to be present as the director/producer, Rebecca Richman Cohen was available for a question and answer session after the viewing of the film.

War Don Don is a film that delves into the effectiveness of the United Nations (UNs) Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). The UNs SCSL was set up as a partnership between the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations as way to bring to justice the individuals who were responsible for the for the violations of Sierra Leone's and International Community's Humanitarian laws. What was so interesting about this documentary is the fact that it questioned the effectiveness of these special courts. Is justice really being served by prosecuting a few individuals? Are these individuals the only ones that should shoulder the blame for these violations that took place during a horrific civil war?

This specific documentary covers the trial of Issa Sesay, a formal battle field Commander of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The film takes a look from both sides, the prosecution and the defense. The prosecution is charged with proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Issa Sesay, one of the key figures in the peace negotiations that ended a long bloody civil war, should bear the responsibility for the atrocious acts against the citizens of Sierra Leone. Such atrocities included the recruitment of child soldiers, amputating the limbs of many citizens of the country, as well as the rape and mass killings of the it's citizens. The defense, while not trying to dispute the fact that Issa Sessay was a battlefield commander of the RUF, must try to prove that Issa Sessay cannot be held responsible for all of the atrocities that occurred during the civil war. They must prove that he in no way authorized or condoned such treatment of the people he was fighting to set free from a corrupt and oppressed government.

The documentary also looked at the peculiar relationship the court has with the every day citizens of Sierra Leone that lived through this civil war. They do want and would like to see justice but at what cost. They see the outside nations pouring millions of dollars into the SCSL to prosecute a few individuals while poverty and joblessness runs rampant in the country.

If you have a chance, I recommend seeing the film. It has been running on HBO for the last month. You can also purchase the DVD online from the following Website: http://www.wardondonfilm.com/film.

I hope you enjoy the film as much as I did.

Health tip: Transition from Fruits to Vegetables

I really enjoy food. I would have to say that food is an obsession of mine. My obsession with food is not to the point that I can't control myself around it, but it is one of the great pleasures of my life. Not only do I enjoy going out to restaurants to sample different cuisines, but I also like to dibble and dabble a bit in and around the kitchen. I by no means consider myself a chef, well maybe somewhat of a fly by night chef, hence my moniker the Midnight Chef. I also use this nickname because I tend to start preparing meals at the wee hours of the night.

My love of food has also opened my eyes to the fact that I also enjoy looking at cookware and watching cooking shows on the Food Network (Chopped is by far my favorite) and the Cooking Channel. I also purchase and use cookbooks to help inspire me to create in times when I need inspiration. Sometimes I forgo the cookbooks and just freestyle it (that means to go off the top of my head for anyone who missed the meaning).

I have also found that my love and fondness for cooking has provided me another form of entertainment and venue to relieve stress. I've come to realize that we all need these types of venues to help us deal with the everyday pressures that we experience as we navigate this vast complex set of intricate twists and turns of tunnels and open spaces we call life.

Okay, so I know I have completely gotten of topic with this blog, but like the title says this blog is dedicated to a set of "Random thoughts that go through my head". So I hope you will be patient with me as I lead you on this journey to a specific place and point.

Since I am such a lover of food and cooking, I know that I must engage in some type of physical activity (this means more than walking around the block once in your 10 year old kicks that looks brand new because of their lack of usage) in order to keep myself from blowing up like a house. You can't eat as much as I do, while being sedentary most of the day, and not expect to pack on the pounds over the years. I mean I am getting older and I don't think (well I actually know) my metabolism is planning on increasing as time progresses.

One thing that I have learned over the years is that nutrition is key to keeping your self physically fit as well as an exercise routine that incorporates interval cardiovascular and strength training (Yes women strength training is also good for you too, and no you wont start looking to masculine unless you already had that problem LOL). If you have given up the candy and the cakes and you still find yourself having a hard time trying to attain a certain goal, try transitioning some of those in between snacks from fruits to vegetables. I'm not trying to say that fruits aren't healthy, but they still contain sugar, natural sugar, but still sugar. The transition of some of these in between snack from fruits to vegetables should reduce your overall sugar intake, which might give the extra lift needed to get rid of those extra five (5) pounds.

Anyway, give it try and see how it works.

I'm Cool Like That

I was always a big fan of the Digable Planets back in the day. I actually thought that their second album was much better than their first. I decided to post two of their most popular songs (my opinion at least). The first is Rebirth of slick and the second is 9th wonder (is that where 9th from LB got his name?). Any way, hope you enjoy.

We Are King

A friend of mine put me onto this group called King (http://www.weareking.com/) this week. I must say that I am utterly and completely in love with the music I have heard so far. Of course, once I heard their music and went to their website, I decided that I had to share it with others. I might be late in knowing about this group, but I figured there might be others out there like me. Visit their website to gain more insight about the group and to connect with them socially. Sit back and enjoy the sounds of King.

v/r

Cali's Hip Hop Scence Part II (Souls of Mischeif)

Souls of Mischief is another underrated Bay area hip hop group that I enjoy listening to. Souls of Mischief's 93 'Till Infinity is a classic Hip Hop album that has transcended time. Just as I always like to do, I decided to share with you two of their videos from the 93 'Till Infinity album. Enjoy :-D.

Black History: One of MLK's most powerful and unknown speeches.

One of the reasons I am so proud that I attended Florida A&M University (FAMU), a Historical Black College and Unversity (HBCU), was the constant reminder of African American's rich past and contributions to society as a whole. By no means does this mean that if you did not attend an HBCU, you are some how less knowledgeable about the impacts that African Americans has had on society.

As students, not only did we have access to the Black Archives Research Center and Museum, located on our campus, but the fourth floor of Coleman Library contained a special collections of books and artifacts that were pretty rare, some specific to the history of the University itself.

I use to go to the fourth floor to study because it was probably quietest floor in the entire library. That is where I use to sit and talk to the brother who usually worked the check out desk on the floor. Its been so long that I can not remember his name. Anyway, he would always feel the need to drop a little history and explain to me the importance on knowing our history. A long time ago he said that I should read the speech MLK Jr. wrote and delivered on the Vietnam war, even though he was advised not to because many felt that it would hurt the civil rights movement. I felt the need to share like I do with many other things on this blog. It is a bit long, but I still think that some of his points are still valid to this date, considering the changing of the old guard in the Middle East. Let me know what you think about it.


Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
By Rev. Martin Luther King
4 April 1967

Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.

Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. Aren't you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church -- the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate -- leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight.

I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia.

Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reason to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides.

Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.
The Importance of Vietnam

Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.

My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years -- especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and 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 hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.

As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission -- a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for "the brotherhood of man." This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men -- for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? What then can I say to the "Vietcong" or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?

Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.

This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.
Strange Liberators

And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.

They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony.

Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not "ready" for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.

For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam.

Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization.

After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators -- our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change -- especially in terms of their need for land and peace.

The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy -- and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us -- not their fellow Vietnamese --the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go -- primarily women and children and the aged.

They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong"-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.

What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?

We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only non-Communist revolutionary political force -- the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?

Now there is little left to build on -- save bitterness. Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These too are our brothers.

Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. What of the National Liberation Front -- that strangely anonymous group we call VC or Communists? What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of "aggression from the north" as if there were nothing more essential to the war? How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.

How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent Communist and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will have no part? They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them -- the only party in real touch with the peasants. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence?

Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.

So, too, with Hanoi. In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at Geneva. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which would have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again.

When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Also it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the presence of American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the initial military breach of the Geneva agreements concerning foreign troops, and they remind us that they did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands.

Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard of the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the north. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor weak nation more than eight thousand miles away from its shores.

At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless on Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor.
This Madness Must Cease

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words:

"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."

If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play.

The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways.

In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:

1. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.
2. Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation.
3. Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos.
4. Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and in any future Vietnam government.
5. Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva agreement.

Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary.
Protesting The War

Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible.

As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them our nation's role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is the path now being chosen by more than seventy students at my own Alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.

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.

In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military "advisors" in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken -- the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." 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 people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status Quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not call everyone a Communist or an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the problem of these turbulent days. We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.
The People Are Important

These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status Quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain."

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.

This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept -- so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force -- has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John:

Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says : "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word."

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on..." We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.

We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world -- a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated:

Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth and falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah,
Off'ring each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever
Twixt that darkness and that light.

Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet 'tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong:
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above his own.

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