The Army to End All Wars.
Doctor King’s Imagined Non Violent Army of the Poor to end Militarism.
The drums of war might be ringing louder today than yesterday but the song of War continuously plays on this continent for over 500 years.
If you are on the road to decolonization and deconstructing the harmful narratives of Empire you might understand that this entire continent is nothing more than a long occupation of unceded Indigenous Land through genocide and broken treaties and that the Forces (armed, intelligence agencies, police) are only here to protect the interests of the rich and white at the expense of everyone else. Including their own. After all, 8.2 percent of white people live in poverty. We all witness the way young people from poor communities are targeted into the prison or military pipelines from school age, we see the propaganda and we certainly see how badly our Vets are treated. Especially those who had no choice on wether to enlist in Americas decades worth of bullshit. Because NO American war has ever been valid.
Don’t get me wrong, outside of the geopolitical interests and red scare that led the US to join the Allies during WWII (once it was pretty much a won war by the Red Army) the American boys did the work. American soldiers, especially Black, Indigenous and Immigrant descendants did fight hard, but as a friend brilliantly put it for me this week, those ANTI FASCISTS american soldiers, kill a nazi on sight type of trained men (and mages)who fought not only came back to bad conditions and no help, no, they were sent back out and around the world to literally fight their international allies on the fight against fascism — There is stories of Vietnamese people rejoicing when their Allies, US soldiers, came, only to realize they came for an anti Communist war and they were no allies after all. To add insult to injury, the same damn near unreachable government that puts Veterans through hurdles just to receive services needed after fighting wars, is the same government that allowed the relocation of top Nazi military and scientist officials who were discreetly brought to the US, assimilated into and would go onto influencing every aspect of American life quite comfortably and without accountability.
During the Vietnam conflict and until his murder, Doctor King changed. Struggles and personal issues with other organizers and peers put Dr. King in an incredibly deep depression, during the time the FBI began instigating Dr. King to commit suicide. He had a global vision for liberation. He went against militarism and reached a point when he realized that only through Fusion movement, that is through a movement of unified people of all faiths or no faith, of all races and nationalities, of all abilities and sexualities and politics can the narrative really change. Doctor King became an internationalist. Then a call came, from the Poor Peoples Campaign and on his last birthday on Earth, as he organized his peers to march on Washington with the PPC, folks noted how happy he seemed. For the first time in a long time. The night before he was killed, Doctor King gave a powerful speech in which he invited the poor to organize, to be relentless, to become a NON VIOLENT army of the Poor, that this group of poor folks that got nothing to lose could become a new unsettling force for liberation across the world.
As news come of more war, of open war with another Imperial superpower, my old self would be in a state of anxiety. Im not saying I ain’t either. What I am saying that these beautiful souls, our leaders, our Ancestors, our friends have brought not just me but so many to this place, to this space where we see the interlocking injustices of racism, the warped religious moral narrative of evangelicalism, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism and work hard to change the narrative and build power not just for the over 140M poor People in America but all the Poor People of the world. So today I do not despair, instead I resolve to work harder to make this upcoming June 18th, 2022 March on Washington a tranformative event that will unite us into that non violent army of the poor for global change that Doctor King dreamt of long ago.
Join Us: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/
Reverend Leonina Arismendi Zarkovic is a DC State Campaign Organizer for Poor Peoples Campaign A National Call for Moral Revival, co-leader of Iglesia del Pueblo, a virtual faith space for action and reflection over on Kairos Center FB Live every sunday 7:30PM and Circle of Creatives Writer for Farmers Footprint.
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