Opinion
Peace Vigil Resurrects Vietnam Against Iraq
by Laura Billadello
News Staff

"A Time to Break Silence: Martin Luther King, Jr. On War and Peace" was a moving tribute to the civil rights activist. However, as a "peace vigil," the program was ineffectual. Folk singer Joan Baez's performance of traditional spirituals, while heartfelt, served to illustrate the fallacy indulged by liberals drawing on residual anti-Vietnam sentiment to justify their opposition to the Bush administration's tough stance on Iraq.

The program, presented by The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project in cooperation with Bay Area Veterans for Peace, Inc., took place on the evening of February 19th at Stanford's Memorial Church. The church proved a fitting location for the spiritual atmosphere that the events' organizers hoped to generate. The program began with Dean for Religious Life Scotty McLennan's denunciation of the "rush to war that this nation's leadership seems to be pursuing." Rush? It has been 12 years since UNSC Resolution 687 demanded Iraqi disarmament from weapons of mass destruction, and military action has become a necessity brought about by the failure of Iraq to comply with United Nations resolutions, sanctions, and diplomatic efforts.

The evening was marked by enthusiastic audience response to dramatic readings of twelve of King's lesser-known writings and public statements. Professor Clayborne Carson, Director of the King Papers Project, both compiled the pieces and orchestrated their presentation. His attempts to draw the audience into a whirl of pathos included his adaptation of a few selections for call-and-response between actor Aldo Billingslea, who presented the readings, and the audience. The result was a rhetorically infused program lauding the values of love and peace, and, above all, the practice of non-violence.

The program was idealistic and uncontroversial on the surface. No self-respecting person would argue against the aforementioned ideals, and even the practice of nonviolence sounds immaculate when divorced from political and historical context. That is precisely the reason why these readings ultimately failed in their attempt to construct a political appeal. Written by King with the Vietnam War as a backdrop, the readings offer no specific insight into the current situation in Iraq. Their application to the Iraqi WMD crisis is an overly simplified analogy. The program posed no alternate solution for dealing with a government that oppresses its people and is unresponsive to mediation by the United Nations.

The spirituals performed by Baez added to the romanticized tone of the evening. According to Carson, Baez was included in the program "because of her relationship with King, the closeness of her views on non-violence to those of King, and her ability to attract a larger audience." Nonetheless, the presence of the retired singer reiterated the hackneyed message of the organizers that the U.S. should have learned from its errors.

The fact remains this is a different situation. A main cause for anti-Vietnam protest was the draft, a moot point today. Carson views the strength of the parallel to be that both countries "have never directly attacked the U. S. but have nonetheless been attacked by U. S. military forces as part of a broader campaign against an international conspiracy." But, how can the vague and dehumanized term "international conspiracy" encompass what Americans know all too well to be the real and immediate threat of terrorism to our nation?

Although the songs and speeches were meant to escalate the Stanford community's anti-war fervor, there were very few students in attendance. Poor advertisement to the campus population by the events' organizers meant that the audience was dominated by Bay Area residents. The appeal of Vietnam-era anti-war slogans to this demographic only served to perpetuate the flawed analogy. Joan Baez may be a wonderful singer with a deserved record, but her political activism ended over 30 years ago, as did that of Dr. King. Without some actual relevant analysis taking the specific circumstances of the Iraqi crisis into account, the event remained an anachronistic throwback to the Bay Area spirit of the 1960s.

Page last modified on Thursday, 02-Mar-2006 00:21:18 MST.