While the memory of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech is well-maintained, in the spring of 1967 Dr. King gave what some consider a far more important one. This speech, titled “A Time to Break Silence” (also known as “Beyond Vietnam”), marked the end of Dr. King’s own silence about the Vietnam War that was increasingly dividing American society. In breaking his own silence, King directly criticized America’s participation in the war and highlighted the existing systemic evil functioning within our society. He identified racism, materialism and militarism as the “giant triplets” of this evil.

Racism, materialism and militarism have long had a close relationship in American history.

Racism is arguably the most obvious and blatant form of dehumanization. The concept of “race” is a scientifically invalid fiction. We are all members of the same human species. The notion of different races of humans is a fabrication designed to give one group a way to dominate another group by arbitrarily assuming who is superior and who is inferior. Beginning with European colonization and occupation of the continent now known as North America, racism has been an integral part of American society and culture. It began with the genocidal slaughter of the humans who were living here long before those colonists arrived and racism continued with the heinous abductions of humans from Africa to serve as slave labor for the colonists. It has been credibly argued that American prosperity was built by slavery. While legal slavery ended in the 1860’s, it soon resurfaced in other “legal” forms and is currently manifested in the grossly disproportionate legal penalties against and mass incarceration of persons of color in the United States. These are not the only ways that racism persists in America.

Dr. King also identifies materialism as another toxic energy imposing itself on American society. “Profits over people” is the catchphrase that exemplifies this corrosive dynamic. Persons are commodified within the structure of a materialistic culture. The power and dominance of corporations have grown tremendously since 1967 and although corporations have become legal “persons” in America, they are not good citizens. According to their consistent behavior, they are sociopathic colony organisms whose primary goal is to maintain their own existence and to increase profits for shareholders. They consider the harm they cause only to the extent that it may detract from profitability. They have been legally structured to be that way. More Americans suffer and die as a result of corporate crime than from street crime yet very few with political power draw attention to this fact.

The extreme materialism of our culture dehumanizes by reducing people to mere providers and consumers of “goods and services.” Dr. King’s warning that “we must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society” has become tragically prophetic because we have utterly failed to make that shift. If anything, our society has become much more “thing-oriented.”


When Dr. King speaks to us of the evil of militarism we need to understand the pervasive dehumanization caused by war. The harm is to all who are involved in any way and all who are witness to it from any distance. The dehumanization of persons in uniform takes place as they are regarded as “boots on the ground” and numbered as casualties. Civilians who are killed are euphemistically labelled as “collateral damage.” News reporting of wars carefully avoids calling them human beings.

No one is immune to the pervasive destructive power of war. Pretending that “God’s on our side” does not immunize anyone who pulls a trigger or pushes a button causing others to die. The suicide rate for veterans of nearly twenty per day is deeply disturbing but not well publicized. That number does not include the many other “deaths of despair” that are not categorized as suicides. The phenomenon of moral injury is unquestionably a consequence of the trauma induced by a person’s involvement in the toxic atmosphere of militarism.

The murderous intent that is the essence of all war proclaims that life is trivial. This state-sanctioned mass murder is layered with a veneer of “foreign policy” and “protecting American interests” giving it the illusion of propriety. War’s true ugliness hides behind masks of rationality and necessity.

President Eisenhower’s prescient warning in early 1961 about the rise of the military-industrial complex has become our current reality. The American economy has become highly dependent on our nation’s preparation for and participation in war. More than half of our government’s discretionary spending goes toward “defense.” Dare we consider what would happen to our economy if world peace actually happened? At best it would extensive chaos. On a societal level, it could be as painful as heroin withdrawal.

It is important to recognize that each of the three “triplets” are well-established as part of our current legal, economic, educational, cultural and social structure. In other words, all three are still the status quo in America.

Each of Dr. King’s “giant triplets” induces trauma within individuals and society as a whole. Each one is highly toxic to every person it touches. All who become infected with these toxins are injured as the trauma is internalized individually and collectively producing a significantly diminished sense of value as human beings. This sense of inner shame is intensely painful for those who feel it and is often invisible to the casual observer.

Trauma is the experience of deep injury to our sense of True Identity. This True Identity is one of knowing and trusting the fundamental goodness of who we are. What occurs when we are traumatized is a kind of obscuring of our True Identity such that we are left with fictional narratives of being undeserving or “bad.” This produces an experience of tremendous emotional pain within us. We try our best to avoid or numb this pain but when we can’t, we will become reactive and likely either lash out externally in some way or lash out inwardly against ourselves. Either way, we will be feeding into the vicious cycle of violent perpetration and victimization.

It is important to note that trauma may occur as a result of being injured and as a consequence of perpetration. This key to understanding the phenomenon of moral injury. If I sufficiently violate my own moral tenets I will very likely experience a diminished sense of myself as a good person.

The famed psychiatrist and concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl wrote that there is a crucial difference between reacting and responding. Unlike merely reacting, responding provides some space within which we can consider the meaning and potential consequences of what we might do. If we merely react to our trauma we will very likely behave destructively toward others, ourselves or both. If we can allow ourselves some time and space to reflect on the true nature of our injuries and the false narratives we have constructed around them we can begin to find our way out of the torture chamber of our shame stories.

Throughout human history, we have been people who shared stories with each other. Whether those stories are simple or complicated, this is how we understand our world, our experiences and ourselves. The question of who we are has stayed with us for thousands of years. Perhaps it is our belief in who we are that establishes how we live our lives.

We have an Old Story of who we are. It’s the story of human beings who are biochemical machines who live and desperately want to keep living. In this way we perceive our separateness from all “others” and hold a corresponding belief that there is a real scarcity of what we need to stay alive. We are primarily motivated by fear of dying because we imagine that we don’t have enough to survive. Through our fear we see others as obstacles or threats to our survival. This story maintains the toxicity of Dr. King’s “giant triplets” in American society.

This tired Old Story rests on a kind of arrogance masquerading as “science” that would have us believe that all of Reality is nothing more than a collection of subatomic particles in various arrangements interacting with various forms of electromagnetic radiation. Each of us are just “things” in such a universe.

The re-emerging New Story of us is, in a way, older than the Old Story of “us-as-things.” Long ago we had a Story of Us that told of how we are sacred and profoundly connected to each other and to the sacredness of all creation. It proclaimed that each of us is far more than a mere biochemical machine and that our natural inclination is toward love rather than fear. We are made for love and meant to participate in the sharing of love. This love is what Dr. King clarifies in the following way:

“…I’m not talking about emotional bosh when I’m talking about love;
I’m talking about a strong, demanding love. …If you are
seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love.”

He speaks of love as a force that is exceedingly powerful that transcends the limits of materialistic power. He’s not talking about the kind of love we see in a Valentine’s Day card or on the Hallmark Channel. This the New Story of who we are that is making a comeback.

I believe that Dr. King has extended an invitation to each of us to break our own silence regarding the systemic evil that continues to profane our shared humanity and the beautiful little world we have been gifted. We are invited to exercise our freedom of speech and say No to what is wrong and unacceptable:

War is wrong and unacceptable.
Corporate greed is wrong and unacceptable.
Destroying the biosphere is wrong and unacceptable.
White supremacy is wrong and unacceptable.
Christian nationalism is wrong and unacceptable.
Misogyny is wrong and unacceptable.
Poverty is wrong and unacceptable.
“Othering” is wrong and unacceptable.

To maintain our silence is to give power to the “giant triplets” making them ever more toxic.

Dr. King encourages us to speak to the “unspeakable” and name every head of the Hydra that would have us forget who we truly are and would have us forget our true kinship to each other. He exhorts us to look directly at the Source of Lies and declare “I don’t believe you.”

He calls us to remember the truth of who we are: People of courageous love. He reminds us to be who we are and to live accordingly as members of the Beloved Community he envisioned.