Fifty-eight years after Dr. King’s tragic murder, the country he so desperately tried to transform has sunk into political conflict, economic chaos, and moral decay. A man has ascended to the U.S. presidency, bringing with him unprecedented violence, corruption, and decadence.

By April 7, 1967, the Vietnam War had already been in full swing for twelve years; it was also the height of domestic protests against the unpopular war. In less than a decade, the U.S. military would leave Vietnam in defeat, and the service people came back to a hostile country.

A courageous, but troubled Dr. King was not dreaming when he stepped up to the podium that day. Troubled, because his anti-war stance was causing dissension within the Civil Rights Movement. Guided by his moral conviction, Dr. King asserted that peace and civil rights were inseparable. He refused to betray his own sacred principle that silence is betrayal. He was clear-eyed and unflinching when he condemned his beloved country as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”

Later that year, Dr. King introduced his concept of the three evils at the National Conference on New Politics. He asserted that “the giant triplets of racism, economic exploitation and militarism” were a scourge on American society. He linked them to the moral decay he observed in the wake of the Vietnam War, the persistence of poverty, and the deepening racial inequalities of the time. Fast forward to 2026.

U.S. imperialist aggression, the persistence of poverty, and racial inequities have deeply undermined the fabric of democracy and decency. The MAGA monsters have us at war with nine countries and are pushing us to the brink of financial calamity, while white supremacy spreads across the globe.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has not seen the speedy outcome predicted by Trump. NATO and other U.S. allies, previously ridiculed by Trump and hit with tariffs, are now being asked to help Trump with a war that they were not consulted about, and neither approved by Congress nor the American people. The economic crisis worsens daily, and the potential for increased military actions on all sides is frightening.

The tensions that exist in the Middle East are old, but they have always been stoked and manipulated by the U.S. government. The CIA has a long and deadly history of assassinating leaders in the region under the guise of national security. Woke people now understand that national security often translates to the extraction and control of resources. Regime changes are an essential part of maintaining control over people and oil.

This part of Dr. King’s legacy is important to ground us in this historical moment. Our mission is to break the silence of indifference, engage in the resistance to war, and to build a just and peaceful world beyond the inhumane destruction in the Middle East.