One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
Interpretation
The Vietnam War had a devastating impact on domestic programs aimed at improving American society.
In this quote, Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasizes the tragic consequences of the Vietnam War on social initiatives in the United States, often referred to as the Great Society. He suggests that the resources and attention diverted to the war effort resulted in the weakening and undermining of social programs intended to address poverty and inequality, highlighting a deep connection between foreign policy and domestic welfare.
In practice
In a speech about social justice, one might invoke this quote to highlight the distraction of war from domestic issues.
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 peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
Music is the best consolation for a despaired man
We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
Israel... is one of the great outpost of democracy in the world
And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land
The new social question is: democracy or the rule of the financial markets. We are currently witnessing the end of an era. The neoliberal ideology has failed worldwide. The U.S. movement Occupy Wall Street is a good example of this.
When a nation's young men are conservative, its funeral bell is already rung.
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty. Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.
Throughout history, when societies face tough economic times, we have seen democratic reforms deferred, decreased trust in government, persecution of minority groups, and a general shrinking of the democratic space.
Above all else, we need a reaffirmation of political commitment at the highest levels to reducing the dangers that arise both from existing nuclear weapons and from further proliferation.
If a British government experienced such a long and persistent resistance to domestic policy in England, then that policy would almost certainly be changed... We have asserted that we are political prisoners, and everything about out country - our arrests, interrogations, trials, and prison conditions - show that we are politically motivated.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.