In Honor of this January, National Poverty Month..



Taken from the Sermon at Temple Israel of Hollywood speech...

The affluent nations, the “have” nations must join in the grand alliance to do something about this. And not only must we look abroad, we can look in our own nation. We will discover that there are some 10 million families that are considered poverty stricken families. These families have an average of four or five members, which means there are some 40 -- between 40 and 50 million of our brothers and sisters in this country who are poverty stricken. There they find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. And certainly if we are to be a great nation, we must solve this problem. Now there is nothing new about poverty. What is new that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of it.

Some years ago a thoughtful Englishman by the name of Malthus frightened the world by discussing the problem -- the joint problem of production and population. He reached the conclusion in a book that the world was moving toward universal famine because man’s population -- the population rather, was outrunning man’s capacity to produce. But it didn’t take many years after that for many other people to reveal that Malthus was wrong, that he grossly underestimated the resources of the world and the resourcefulness of man. It was Dr. Kirtley Mather, a Harvard geologist a few years ago who wrote a book entitled Enough and to Spare. He said in substance throughout that book that there is enough and to spare in this world for all men to have the basic necessities of life. It boils down to the question of whether men and women in this nation are willing to be concerned about the least of these. A great nation is a compassionate nation. Who are the least of these? The least of these are those who still find themselves smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in an affluent society. Who are the least of these? They are the thousands of individuals who see life as a long and desolate corridor with no exit sign. Who are the least of these? They are the little boys and little girls who grow up with clouds of inferiority floating in their little mental skies because they know that they are caught in conditions of economic deprivation. Who are the least of these? They are the individuals who are caught in the fatigue of despair. And somehow if we are to be a great nation, we must be concerned about the least of these, our brothers. And we’ve been in the mountain of indifference too long and ultimately we must be concerned about the least of these; we must be concerned about the poverty-stricken because our destinies are tied together. And somehow in the final analysis, as long as there is poverty in the world, nobody can be totally rich. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/m...


Taken from from MLK's speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop"...

It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

Now the other thing we'll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively -- that means all of us together -- collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy -- what is the other bread? -- Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town -- downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

But not only that, we've got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a "bank-in" movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I'm not asking you something that we don't do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an "insurance-in."

Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.
Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we've got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We've got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. If it means leaving work, if it means leaving school -- be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together.

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus, and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. ..read more..

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/m...

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Here are my thoughts...

Dangerous Unselfishness,what a great noble, concept!! A concept scary as hell itself to those who have too much,who prefer security and things over freedom and facing the unknown honestly..To them they'd prefer we dare not speak it's name let alone embrace it.

But embracing this dangerous unselfishness is one way to forever keep power away from plunderers in suits like Enron..To disarm injustice and be sure no one sleeps in the cold and dies stuck to the pavement because no one cared..Caring isn't easy,it takes risk,it can be awkward frustrating, it hurts it doesn't make you rich or get you rewarded,but to me, I do it because I care it is right action,and in a world filled with corruption, right action is dangerous..

And,for me even though my income is below poverty level I still prefer being dangerously unselfish to hoarding up crap I don't need..When I feel burdened by things, I give my stuff away,why keep what I don't use around gathering dust for a "rainy day" that never arrives?

I wonder what would happen if we ALL learned how to be Dangerously unselfish here,than we on DU went out there offline,and taught all around us willing to embrace this liberating,equalizing dangerous world changing concept? Unburdened ourselves,and became Dangerously Unselfish?

I think Dangerous Unselfishness was a central part of MLK's dream being realized.A black president has made one mountain,racism crumble in a way it can never be the monster it was..But..
Are you ready to become dangerous enough to change the very foundations of ALL those mountains MLK referred to in his Temple speech,the first one I quoted from???

You dangerous enough to walk with me?