Top King essays note similarities between two wars.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Here are three winning submissions in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day essay contest for Eugene and Bethel students, sponsored by the Eugene School District Multicultural/Equity Office. A fourth winning essay starts on Page 1B.

In his speech "Beyond Vietnam," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. describes the negative impacts of the Vietnam war on society and the importance, therefore, of changing battle plans. He suggests compromising to achieve a result far more heroic in the long run. There are both parallels to and striking opposites between this speech and the current global situation.

First, Dr. King spoke of a war that was very different from the war we face today. The United States of America's participation in the first war of the millennium is in response to a direct attack on our country. Vietnam was distant and foreign to America; this war has been practically demanded by its citizens. People feel empty if they fail to exact revenge. Taking an eye and more for an eye is basic instinct. Does Dr. King's speech then not apply to today's situation?

Quotes from Dr. King's speech protest otherwise. This speech reads as though Dr. King presented it last week on national television.

"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." Measures that President Bush failed in passing earlier flew through Congress almost unanimously. Once the hurdle of patriotism and the looming possibility of war presented themselves, members found it hard to turn down the president's requests.

"And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies ... so long as adventures like Vietnam ... continued to draw ... skills and money ..." Both then and now, war has rearranged our country's priorities.

"... at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury." A fact not widely broadcast via the media is that the death toll on Sept. 11 has been surpassed by the total number of civilian deaths taken by American bombs in Afghanistan.

If those examples read true today, then pieces of advice given by Dr. King in his speech must surely apply as well.

"... history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursue this self-defeating path of war." Similarly, the future looks just as bleak if we as a global community continue to take this path. Add in the increasing threat of nuclear weapons if war erupts in the wrong places, and the risk shoots up. We've already seen the danger of chemical weapons in the anthrax scare, which hardly involved advanced methods and was by no means pursued as thoroughly as could have been.

"America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world can lead the way in this revolution ..." America has not to any degree lost its hegemony over the rest of the world since the Vietnam era. Anything America wants to do and proceeds to pursue will not be long in being followed by the rest of the world, to some degree. What if the United States had responded to terrorism differently? The media has been flooded with rumored threats of bin Laden and company to carry out more such attacks, yet have we seen any? Is this because of our bombing of Afghanistan or simply because we're now on a much higher level of security and readiness? We could revolutionize our methods even now. Call the military back. Use techniques involving less "collateral damage."

"We can no longer afford to worship hate or bow before the altar of retaliation." There are endless reasons for a "radical revolution of values" now in the time of war. This is the first war, in purpose if not in name, of the millennium as well as the year and century. A new year is the metaphorical blank slate, the very time for changes and new starts. War today is potentially disastrous to the scale of Armageddon. Closer to home, the American economy is shaky and was deeply affected by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. War could devastate our country. In an economic depression, America would decisively lose hegemony and the chance to turn around the very situation and concept of war that caused its downfall.

Dr. King has kindly already outlined a five-step plan which easily could be cross-applied, with several minor changes, from Vietnam to Afghanistan. It includes the cessation of bombing and the declaration of a unilateral cease-fire.

Let's call a cease-fire on the world, for as Dr. King himself said: "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."

Katy Bogart, 10th grade South Eugene High School 

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great man. He helped thousands of African-Americans to racial equality. This righteous leader was one of the best orators in recent history. He told America that they had a racism problem, and the world listened. Any second-grader can tell you in no uncertain terms all of that and more. But still I wonder, is there more than "I have a dream"? Was this civil rights leader interested in other world issues? Was there another side to King? The answer to all is yes.

This man was so brave, so courageous that he spoke out strongly against an opposition that called him traitor. Dr. King told the world the other side of war. He told of American soldiers crashing down on unsuspecting villages and massacring every living soul. The reverend spoke of young boys swept away by the draft and then swept into their graves. Also, he talked about all the money that was going into a war that was tearing apart families in Vietnam and here, in the United States. Mr. King opened the eyes of countless people about a conflict that was killing thousands.

Many people are not aware that Martin Luther King was more than just a civil rights leader. They think that all he did was spout "I have a dream" and "I've been to the mountaintop." Maybe that is all history wants him remembered as. I want him remembered as something more. I want him remembered as a man with a dream that is much broader than the one spoken in his famous speech. This dream includes white boys and black boys playing together, but it also has poverty decreasing, soldiers coming home, destitution in America vanishing and even countries that once were our enemies becoming our allies. He had this dream, and we can make it come true.

The question before us is, "Do words uttered 35 years ago still have relevance today?" I think they do. The current situation in Afghanistan holds some of the same horrors as Vietnam. This new war is crying out for King's words. He once said, "We can no longer worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation." These words are so fitting for the Afghanistan conflict that the words seem to have been written in this morning's paper instead of being said more than three decades ago. An orator so talented and ahead of his time as Martin Luther King Jr. can never be thought of as irrelevant or old-fashioned. He will be quoted for centuries to come.

Now that the first war of the millennium is upon us, King's words replay in my mind: "Let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter - but beautiful - struggle for a new world." Let us begin this beautiful struggle. Let us start striving for peace in our world; people are still being discriminated against in our world, people still live in poverty. These are the same issues King faced. So let us start today to work for the tomorrow Dr. King strove for, for the tomorrow he yearned for with his entire being. If we have the integrity to start this mission nothing will stop us. All King's words are still as important and appropriate today as they were in 1968. So honor his memory with the promise to uphold this courageous man's righteous beliefs.

Katie Parker, eighth grade Jefferson Middle School 

Do I hear King's words? Yes, I hear them with power and strength. We can come together and say "No more."

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation (and other nations), for those it calls 'enemy,' for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters." We can take the world under our wings. "The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate" were his words. We can surf the oceans of history and change the whole world.

I see a brighter, better world out there that we can grasp with the hands of America. Hate is evil's brother. Why live in a world of violence? We have bombed Afghanistan for what Osama bin Laden has done, but King used passive resistance with the African-Americans. He was the face of victory. I believe using his words and resisting violence would bring harmony. Can you hear freedom ring?

Hannah Foster, fourth grade Danebo Elementary School