第一篇：愛國演講稿：百年沉寂

愛國演講稿：百年沉寂

從盤古開天辟地開始，就昭示著我們從混沌走向了文明。五千多年以來，我們中國人秉承著傳承文明，開拓創新的信仰創造了一個又一個世界奇跡。

不論是商代的司母戊鼎，還是秦朝的兵馬俑都見證了我們的精湛鑄造技能。我們的祖先在人類鑄造史上不斷的刷新世界記錄，比如四羊方尊，龍虎尊等等這些我們所引以為傲的鑄件精品。我們擁有六千年鑄造歷史，遠遠超出西方人一千多年。因為我們從遠古時期就擁有了領先世界的鑄造技術，這也是為我們提高我們的使用工具做出了強有力的技術支持。在那個遙遠的時代我們就利用各供青銅，或者鐵制工具來耕作，大大提高了我們的生產力。這為我們的文化發展提供了一個非常有利的保障，而且不斷改進的陶瓷制作工藝和技術也為我們改變生存工具和提高文化生活提供了良的基礎。因為工具是進步的關鍵，而技術是革新的前提。

在五千年的歷史進程中，我們的工具提供了我們民族文化不斷發展的良好基礎。因為工具的先進，所以才有了許多讓人驚嘆的制造。阿房宮的傳奇美麗，莫高窟的美輪美奐，雁塔的虔誠精妙，拙政園的精雕細刻，都江堰的精巧周密，乃至金碧輝煌的故宮，這些無不讓我們感受到我們悠久文化的魅力與精純。

數千年來，我們一直走在世界文明的前列。夏商時代我們就擁有了最科學的歷法，準確的掌握了時令；張衡發明了地震儀，為預測地震做出了科學推理；祖沖之精確的測量了圓周率，并且將它精確到了小數點后七位等等，我們還有名揚世界的四大發明------造紙術，指南針，火藥和活字印刷。科技的領先，成就了我們的強大。這些智慧的結晶，使得我們偉大的民族引導著這個世界的發展方向。這不僅僅是科技和文化的見證，也是我們偉大民族的智慧。

或許，我們走的太急；或許，我們走的太匆忙。在十六世紀的岔路口，我們突然間迷失了我們前進的方向。我們偉大的民族突然間失去了引領世界的王者風范，沒有了以往的霸氣和風貌。總是在沉默，總是在迷茫，總是徘徊，總是在尋找。

瓦特發明了蒸汽機，改變了歐洲的制造業。在日益發展壯大了工業技術時代，我們卻淡漠了。我們依然坐著天朝大國的美夢。以至于乾隆道出那句“天朝物產豐盈，無所不有，原不藉外夷貨物以通有無”。當八國聯軍侵華，在曾經譽為銅墻鐵壁的紫禁城里燒殺擄掠；當一箱箱的鴉片蠶食著我們那些氣血方剛的錚錚男兒；當我們的國土被瓜分被掠奪。而我們只是在默默的退讓，忍耐，屈辱和仇恨在那一幕幕中交織著。

1840年，我們無法忘記的年份，那一年，我們用我們虛弱的身形和殘留的意志來保衛我們的國家，保全我們的尊嚴。但是我們失敗了，我們屈辱的簽訂《南京條約》，但是噩夢并沒有因此而結束。一切也才剛剛開始。1937年，我們怎能忘記，30萬，這個血淋淋的數字，我們的同胞，我們的國民，在數日之間就被喪心病狂的小日本劍殺擄掠。我們還能忍耐么，我們還可以眼睜睜的看著自己的兄弟姐妹就這樣離去？不，不能。我們已經不能退縮了，我們已經無路可退，我們已經忍無可忍。鮮血刺痛了我們的心靈，點燃了我們心中的怒火與仇恨。

在血與恨的深淵里，我們沸騰的血液，燃燒的怒火，我們用摧枯拉朽的力量戰勝了這個夢想大東亞共榮的無恥國家------日本。

讓我們來到1949年，10月1日，那一聲簡潔而又氣勢磅礴的話語：中華人民共和國在今天成立了，中國人民從此站起來了。這句話久久的飄蕩在我們每個中國人的心中。因為這句話喚起了我們強烈的民族自豪感，因為從這一天起，我們所做的一切都證明了我們永遠是這個星球上最偉大的民族。

1964年在那個艱苦的時代，我們用最簡單的工具制造出了原子彈，1997年，闊別百年的香港回歸祖國。2012年我們國家GDp總額躍居世界第二，我們日益發展的國家，我們日益強大的民族，或許我們發現了，全世界都是中國制造。

是的，面對連續的經濟增長，不斷提高的國際實力，全世界已經沒有辦法阻擋我們的不斷強大。奧運會，世博會，世園會，博鰲論壇等等我們都是在見證我們國家的強盛和民族的興旺。

當我們的軍艦在亞丁灣護航，在那蔚藍的海域飄揚著鮮艷的五星紅旗；當我們的維和部隊在黎巴嫩，那金色的帽徽跳動著中國的精彩；當我們再次遭遇日本，當這個無恥的國家再次竊取我們的國土，我們強有力的呼出：還我釣魚島。我們不再是那個任人宰割的東亞病夫，我們已經崛起，我們已經崛起。

億萬人的夢想，千百年的夢想。在一代代炎黃子孫的不懈努力下我們向著夢想，這個魂牽夢縈的大國夢想奔跑，我們向這個世界展示了我們偉大民族的不屈不撓。百轉千回，我們不斷探索，不斷創新，不斷的用我們勤勞的雙手打造我們美麗的祖國。

我是中國人，我愛中國。

第二篇：沉寂近義詞是什么

沉寂是非常寂靜的意思。以下是“沉寂近義詞”，希望能夠幫助的到您！

沉寂的近義詞 ：

清靜

寂然

冷靜

寂寞

寧靜

寂寥

默默

沉默

安靜

冷清

岑寂

寂靜

僻靜

肅靜

沉靜

沉寂造句

1）沉寂多時的飆車惡風死灰復燃，讓警方十分頭痛。

2）最近一段時間，在外地打工的哥哥音訊沉寂，家人焦急萬分。

3）沉寂已久的色情理發業又死灰復燃了。

4）沉寂多時的飆車惡風死灰復燃，讓警方十分頭痛。

5）突然間，戰場變得十分沉寂起來。

6）中國目前最需要的，并不僅僅是言論的內容，更需要的，是敢于言論的勇氣。你哪怕只是一聲微弱的吶喊，也宣告了沉寂的終結。要問有用沒用嗎？答案是：世界上并不是所有的事情都按有用沒用來衡量的。

7）青春就是匆匆披掛上陣，末了戰死沙場。你為誰沖鋒陷陣，誰為你撿拾骸骨，剩下依舊在河流中漂泊的刀痕，沉寂在水面之下，只有自己看得見。

8）現在的未來，也許還重復著年少時經歷的故事，可我的心卻在歷經滄桑之后學會的淡然，學會了沉寂。這不是消極，只是站在更高的位置來看待生活。

9）突然間，戰場變得十分沉寂起來。

10）幸福，是一杯茉莉飄香的清茶。沸騰之后皈依平靜，漂浮之后還原沉寂；馥郁的濃烈不再張揚，華麗轉身盡洗鉛華。

11）當葉子獨自落下的時候：它不僅僅辭離了小樹枝，還辭去了夏日的火熱，那是一份熱情；辭去了一個生命，那是一份熱忱。它孤獨了……無所依偎、無所牽絆……一顆心在風中飄蕩，最終沉寂了、滅亡了。

12）我聽見帝都傳來的鐘聲，于都城中古月遙相呼應，那曾經有過的繁榮和夢想，一點一滴，積攢于心。天上的星星，地上的眼睛，霧散，夢醒，我終于看清真相，那是千帆過盡的沉寂。

13）時間和空間是在旋轉中歸于沉寂的。沉寂就意味著，我意識到我做了什么。

14）在前三場比賽的沉寂之后，劉易斯在第四戰表現異常突出。

15）我在靜寂中走進廚房，冰箱里面明亮而擁擠，就像遠處鬧市中的林蔭大道。我取出一瓶啤酒，在餐桌旁坐下來，神情嚴肅地喝了起來。那邊，在夜的沉寂中，透明的塑料胡椒研磨機靜靜地凝視著我。奧爾罕·帕慕克

16）造 句 網是一部在線造句詞典，其宗旨是讓大家更快地造出更優質的句子。

17）夜晚的街與景一同歸于黑暗。行駛在高速上，遠方的村落閃著微弱的光，但仍然像是死去般地沉寂。未來像是一場脫胎換骨的旅行。前方是什么方向。路要怎樣延伸呢。河唐先生

18）他穿過這座巨型建筑物投下的憧憧黑影，來到那個空蕩沉寂的競技臺。

19）他沉寂了一段時間之后，現在又名聲大振了。

20）你知道嗎，有時，就像今天這種沉寂、安靜的夜晚，我幾乎有一種毛骨悚然的想法，那就是他們全都會從那扇窗戶中跳進來。

21）超世洋服從輝煌到沉寂的過程，是湖南紡織服裝行業的整體低迷。

22）星星的帳篷下，一個孤獨的人穿越午夜的沉寂而行。男孩醒來，迷失于他的夢，他的灰色的臉在月光中沉沒。特拉克爾

23）這些既有傳統基礎又標新出奇的結構發展手法，使得這部鋼琴奏鳴曲沉寂多年但終被人認可，成為鋼琴文獻中不可或缺的作品，它對后來音樂結構思維模式的發展具有重要的影響。

24）聲響只發生在沉寂赤道的雙方，因為運動存在于赤道的雙方，而在未分離的赤道上純粹不存在運動。

25）十幾分鐘后，這個村鎮又沉寂下來了，村上的醉鬼們又靠在滑動墊木上睡著了。

26）他說：“我能感覺到氣氛十分緊張：開始幾秒死一般的沉寂后，人們開始大聲哭喊。”。

27）夏夜的山塘燈火闌珊，岸上的路人走走停停，無邊的遐思沉寂在夜色中。

28）我掀開黑夜沉寂的幔帳，任一輪渾圓灑進我的窗口。

29）在可怕的沉寂中，達林太太聞了聞那只盆。

30）沉寂已久的西工圖書館英語沙龍又和朋友們見面啦！歡迎朋友們！

31）婦人抬頭一望，她那咆哮如雷的嗓子突然沉寂下去了。

32）空鐘，死鳥，在沉寂的屋內，九點，大地渾然不動，仿佛有人嘆息，樹木像在微笑，葉端水滴顫抖，一朵云穿過黑夜，門前一人高歌，窗打開了無聲無息。皮埃爾·勒韋迪

33）沉寂兩月有余的公司債一級發行市場出現“破冰”。

34）但是，股票期權在前幾年被介紹到中國之后，曾在1999年、2000年伴隨著美國那斯達克指數和香港創業板出現過一陣熱潮，但后又歸于沉寂。

第三篇：沉寂的反義詞（推薦4篇）

寫寫幫會員為你精心整理了4篇《沉寂的反義詞》的范文，但愿對你的工作學習帶來幫助，希望你能喜歡！

篇一：沉寂的反義詞

詞語：沉寂

【沉寂的反義詞】(以下詞語任選其一)

嘩笑；鼎沸；喧囂；喧鬧；

附錄詞語（沉寂）的相關知識：

【沉寂的意思】

①（形容詞）基本義：沒有聲息；十分寂靜。；②（形容詞）消息全無。

【沉寂的例句】

晚上熱鬧一天的廣場沉寂下來。（作謂語）沉寂的夜晚。（作定語）

【沉寂的近義詞】(以下詞語任選其一)

岑寂；冷清；寧靜；僻靜；安靜；肅靜；寂靜；沉靜；默默；寂寥；寂寞；寂然；清靜；冷靜；沉默；沉著冷靜；

篇二：沉寂的反義詞

【沉寂解釋】：

①十分安靜：萬籟沉寂｜沉寂的午夜。

②沒有任何消息：音訊沉寂。

③性情深沉：他神色沉寂。

近義詞：寂靜，沉靜，寂然，肅靜，安靜，寧靜

反義詞：喧鬧，鼎沸，喧囂

相似詞：死氣沉沉，暮氣沉沉，黑沉沉，陰沉沉，寂寞，靜寂，冷寂，寂然

用沉寂造句：

1、酒吧里變得死一般沉寂。然后突然歡呼聲響成一片。

2、他的聲音漸趨沉寂。

3、沉寂多時的飆車惡風死灰復燃，讓警方十分頭痛。

4、在沉寂了6個月之后，這些內容終于有了重大的更新。

5、但現在，這地方已廢棄，只剩一片可怕的沉寂。

6、當演奏結束的時候，大廳里一陣可怕的沉寂。

7、即使他想要叫停，他的`雇主也會派出另一名殺手來讓他徹底沉寂。

8、突然間，戰場變得十分沉寂起來。

9、當這段音樂最終結束，四周回歸沉寂時，一種滿足感拂過我的身心。通過頑強的堅持和不懈的聯系，我最終得到了這種滿足。

10、獨處的沉寂向他們揭露他們赤裸的自我，于是他們逃逸。

11、外面是燈火和喧嘩；這里只有夜晚的沉寂。

12、沉寂已久的色情理發業又死灰復燃了。

13、長長的沉寂之后，其中一個挖掘者從洞里拿出一個裝滿蜘蛛、蠕蟲和各種各樣昆蟲的罐子，他打開蓋子把這些奇妙的東西展示給那些嘲諷者看。

14、最近一段時間，在外地打工的哥哥音訊沉寂，家人焦急萬分。

15、周日，數千人光臨了曾經沉寂的北川城郊，幾乎讓這里有了節日的氣氛。

16、夜色沉寂，偶爾有幾只螢火蟲在飛來飛去。

17、既然這里已經不會再有我沉悶的腳步聲了，這片沉寂就更加顯得諷刺。

18、在這種情況下，一旦在某一斷層發生地震，震完也就結束了，但這也意味著，該區域其它現在似乎沉寂的斷層仍可能被觸發。

19、“我不行了，”他說，聲音很微弱，我幾乎聽不到他的聲音，后來，他的呼吸漸漸消失了，電話那端死一般沉寂。

20、終于，在上周，在沉寂了一個月之后，我又一次聽到了窗外的喧鬧聲，一陣接一陣的傳來。

21、但我的船長還在靜候著我的沉寂。

22、在經過幾乎沉寂的數年后，戰爭中勞工的參與遺跡最終在中國和歐洲吸引了人們的注意。

23、終于這場陰慘慘的沉寂被廚房門閂的響聲打破了：希刺克厲夫守夜回來了，比平時早一點；我猜，是由于這場突來的風雪的緣故。

24、如今，改革的聲音幾乎沉寂了。

25、這個荒島是一片美麗的地地，沉寂，遼闊。

篇三：沉寂的反義詞

一、【反義詞】

喧鬧、鼎沸、喧囂

二、【基本解釋】

[釋義]

(1) (形)基本義：沒有聲息;十分寂靜。

(2) (形)消息全無。

[構成]

偏正式：沉〔寂

[例句]

晚上熱鬧一天的廣場沉寂下來。(作謂語)沉寂的夜晚。(作定語)

三、【英文翻譯】

1.(十分寂靜) dead; quiet; still

2.(引伸為消息全無) no news

四、【短語造句】

1. 我們尊重地等待她打破沉寂。

2. 風已經停止，一切歸于沉寂。

3. 一切都死一般的沉寂。

4. 周圍一點動靜都沒有，一片沉寂。

5. 只有畫筆在畫布上的揮灑打破沉寂。

6. 這沉寂令人可怕。

7. 正交軌線的問題一直處于沉寂狀態。

8. 只有子彈的呼嘯聲沖破著夜的沉寂。

9. 海水沉寂而陰郁。

10. 又是裘麗姑姑打破這種沉寂的局面。

五、【詳細解釋】

◎ 沉寂 chénjì

(1) [quiet;still;silent]∶非常寂靜

小街上霎時間沉寂起來。——柳青《創業史》

(2) [no news]∶杳無音訊

消息沉寂

篇四：沉寂的近義詞和反義詞有哪些

沉寂的近義詞

寧靜：①安定;安寧：寧靜四海|地方寧靜。 ②安靜;平寧靜

清靜：1.指天氣晴朗寧靜。 2.指心性純正恬靜。 清靜

安靜：①沒有聲音;沒有吵鬧和喧嘩;病人需要～。 ②安安靜

寂靜：沒有聲音 ;很靜：～無聲。寂靜

沉默：①寂靜：全場一片沉默。 ②不發聲，不說話：沉默沉默

冷靜：①人少而靜;不熱鬧：夜深了，街上顯得很～。 ②冷靜

寂寞：①孤單冷清：晚上只剩下我一個人在家里，真是～。 寂寞

冷清：冷靜而凄涼：冷冷清清 ㄧ～的深夜ㄧ后山游人少，顯冷清

僻靜：偏僻清靜：山林的僻靜處有一間茅屋。僻靜

肅靜：1.肅清;使安定。 2.舊時王侯﹑官員等外出時肅靜

寂然：〈書〉形容寂靜的樣子。寂然

沉靜：沉靜

默默：1.緘口不說話。 2.幽寂無聲。 3.無知貌默默

寂寥：〈書〉寂靜;空曠。寂寥

岑寂：寂靜;冷清：山堂夜岑寂。岑寂

沉寂的反義詞

喧鬧：1.喧嘩熱鬧;吵鬧。喧鬧

喧囂：①叫嚷;喧鬧：喧囂一時|叫賣的小商販喧囂起來了。喧囂

鼎沸：〈書〉形容喧鬧、混亂，像水在鍋里沸騰一樣：人聲～鼎沸

沉寂的造句

1、沉寂多時的飆車惡風死灰復燃，讓警方十分頭痛。

2、最近一段時間,在外地打工的哥哥音訊沉寂,家人焦急萬分。

3、沉寂已久的色情理發業又死灰復燃了。

4、沉寂多時的飆車惡風死灰復燃，讓警方十分頭痛。

5、突然間,戰場變得十分沉寂起來。

6、炮聲沉寂。

7、他的聲音漸趨沉寂。

8、終于，在上周，在沉寂了一個月之后，我又一次聽到了窗外的喧鬧聲，一陣接一陣的傳來。

9、在經過幾乎沉寂的數年后，戰爭中勞工的參與遺跡最終在中國和歐洲吸引了人們的注意。

10、外面是燈火和喧嘩;這里只有夜晚的沉寂。

第四篇：名人演講：打破沉寂

名人演講：打破沉寂

我們都知道，馬丁·路德·金是美國的民權運動領袖，他為黑人謀求平等，甚至獻出了自己的生命，被譽為是“黑人的麥加”。而與此同時，馬丁·路德·金也是一名卓越的反戰斗士，他關心的不僅僅是“小我”的權利，而且還有“大我”的和平、自由。如果你一直以來只是把馬丁·路德·金看成一個黑人運動領袖，那么下面的這篇演講相信會讓你對他有新的認識——馬 ぢ返隆そ鸕奈按筧爍裰檔夢頤敲懇桓鲅鍪幼鵓礎?br>

本演講發表于1967年4月4日，是馬丁·路德·金在“憂世教士和俗人協會”的一個反越站的集會上的演講，集會的地點是紐約著名的河邊大教堂（Riverside Church）。

我之所以跨入此間宏偉的教堂，是因為我的良心讓我別無選擇。我加入你們的集會，則是因為我對這個聚合我們的組織——“憂世教士和俗人協會”關注越南——的工作和主旨非常認同。我對你們執委會最近的聲明深有同感，當我閱讀到它的開場白的時候就甚有共鳴：“這是一個‘沉默即是背叛’的時刻。”

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice.I join 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 statements 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.” 海量資料分享

演講全文：A Time to Break Silence by Martin Luther King, Jr.I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice.I join 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 statements 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.” And 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.And 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 海量資料分享

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 movements 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 the 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 misunderstanding, 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.海量資料分享

Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they must play in the successful resolution of the problem.While they both may have justifiable reasons 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 National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellowed [sic] Americans, *who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.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 this 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 海量資料分享

home.It was sending their son

海量資料分享

第五篇：名人演講：打破沉寂

我們都知道，馬丁·路德·金是美國的民權運動領袖，他為黑人謀求平等，甚至獻出了自己的生命，被譽為是“黑人的麥加”。而與此同時，馬丁·路德·金也是一名卓越的反戰斗士，他關心的不僅僅是“小我”的權利，而且還有“大我”的和平、自由。如果你一直以來只是把馬丁·路德·金看成一個黑人運動領袖，那么下面的這篇演講相信會讓你對他有新的認識——馬　ぢ返隆そ鸕奈按筧爍裰檔夢頤敲懇桓鲅鍪幼鵓礎?br>

本演講發表于1967年4月4日，是馬丁·路德·金在“憂世教士和俗人協會”的一個反越站的集會上的演講，集會的地點是紐約著名的河邊大教堂（Riverside Church）。

我之所以跨入此間宏偉的教堂，是因為我的良心讓我別無選擇。我加入你們的集會，則是因為我對這個聚合我們的組織——“憂世教士和俗人協會”關注越南——的工作和主旨非常認同。我對你們執委會最近的聲明深有同感，當我閱讀到它的開場白的時候就甚有共鳴：“這是一個‘沉默即是背叛’的時刻。”

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice.I join 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 statements 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.”

演講全文：A Time to Break Silence by Martin Luther King, Jr.I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice.I join 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 statements 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.” And 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.And 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 movements 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 the 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 misunderstanding, 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 must play in the successful resolution of the problem.While they both may have justifiable reasons 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 National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellowed [sic] Americans, *who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.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 this 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.And 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.And so we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago.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 ask--and rightly so--what about Vietnam? They ask 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 the 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 until 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 1954** [sic];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'm 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?

And finally, as I try to explain 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 the victims of our nation and for those it calls “enemy,” for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula.I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, 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 1954*--in 1945 *rather*--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 their 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 Agreement.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 rooted 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 United States' influence and then by increasing numbers of United States 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 dictators 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 the 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 on 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 out 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 noncommunist 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.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 a 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 the United States of 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 not have a 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 upon 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 could 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 Agreement concerning foreign troops.They remind us that they did not begin to send troops in large numbers and even supplies into the South 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 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 hundred, or rather,* 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 in Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called “enemy,” I am as deeply concerned about our own 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 a hell for the poor.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 one who loves America, to the leaders of our 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, and I quote:

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(unquote).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.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 horrible, 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:

Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.Number two: Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation.Three: Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos.Four: 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 any future Vietnam government.Five: *Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement.part of our ongoing...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 must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary.Meanwhile...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 and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam.We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method 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 a path now 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.Now 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 that 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...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.And so, 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 has now justified the presence of U.S.military advisors in Venezuela.This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala.It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia 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 investments.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...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, extreme 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.On 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 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 South 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 hand 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 the 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.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 engage in a negative anticommunism, 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.*

These are revolutionary times.All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds 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 antirevolutionaries.This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit.Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that 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 worldwide 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 mankind.This oft misunderstood, this oft 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 not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh.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 every one 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.And 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”(unquote).We are now faced with the fact, my friends, 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 flood--it ebbs.We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on.Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues 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.Omar Khayyam is right: “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.”

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation.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 a moment to decide，In the strife of Truth and Falsehood, for the good or evil side;

Some great cause, God's new Messiah offering 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 portions 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.And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace.If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.