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 BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE
& MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
SOCIAL SCIENCE
Have students read Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech delivered April 4, 1967, one year before his assassination. (See abridged version below or download the PDF of the complete speech.)
DISCUSS
- Dr. King says that the war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit. How does Martin Luther King's view of the American collective spirit compare to that of Michael Moore's in Bowling for Columbine?
- Discuss America's current state of race relations, poverty, foreign policy, civil liberties, capitalist economics, gun violence, social/peace movements. What policies would King support if he were alive today? Find evidence from his speech to support your comments.
CLASS/GROUP EXERCISE
Dr. King's Speech Talks of the "Giant Triplets: RACISM, MATERIALISM and MILITARISM." Students may work alone or in groups to:
- FIND EXAMPLES of each of these three forces at work in the film Bowling for Columbine. List by category.
- Then DISCUSS each. In what ways are these forces at work in today's America? Groups or the entire class should design a WEB PAGE or poster with graphics of their conclusions.
REWRITE THE SPEECH
STUDENTS AS SPEECH WRITERS
This exercise can be done as a group assignment.
- The speech's POINT OF VIEW will be Martin Luther King, Jr.'s.
- Outline key points, making the 1967 speech's core message current. Answer the question: Do current U.S. policies (foreign and domestic) reflect "symptoms of a far deeper malady within the American spirit?"
- When appropriate, bring into the speech the point of view from Bowling for Columbine.
- If time permits, select one student to give each speech to the class.
Possible topics for inclusion: "terrorism" of all kinds, use of U.S. military abroad, racism, poverty in U.S., welfare-to-work policies, democracy at home and abroad, capitalist economics, gun violence.
POINT OF VIEW
- Write an E-MAIL from Michael Moore to George W. Bush (or current president) about what Moore believes Dr. King would say about the president's current policies. Write the RESPONSE e-mail from the President to Moore.
- Write an E-MAIL from Dr.King to X - what would he say to X about the United States today? [Select a character from current history, e.g.: a teenager who lives in Baghdad, a North Korean high school student, a surviving family member of the 9/11 attack, a Columbine student.] Write the RESPONSE from X to Dr. King.
- Or, in groups, use an online chat room style for the above exercise. Invite current political figures in to chat about Bowling for Columbine. Moore and Dr. King should be invited to chat with you. When finished, each group should share their dialogue with the class. This can be acted (role played) or as a writing assignment.
WHEN SILENCE IS BETRAYAL
by MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
delivered: April 4, 1967
(Abridged version. To read the entire text
of the speech, download the PDF file.)
A time comes when silence is betrayal. 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 perplexing 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.
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. ...
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. ...
The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, 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. ...
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 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, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. ...
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. 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 Latin 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. ...
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." ...
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. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate... .
Now let us begin. Now let us re-dedicate ourselves to the long and bitter - but beautiful - struggle for a new world.
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