On this day in which our entire nation and the rest of the world takes a moment to commemorate and honor the life and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we should all remember the many visionary principals of equality, harmony and peace that he put forth.

While the achievements of his lifelong fight for racial equality in the United States are well documented, Dr. King’s fight for world peace and tolerance on an international level often takes a second seat in the history books.

At great risk to the success of the cultural movement he was leading at the time, Dr. King decided that he no longer could stay quiet about the horrible war that was destroying and dividing our country. On April 4th of 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Dr. King stepped in front of a packed New York City Riverside Church and delivered one of the most powerful speeches of his life. The 6800 word speech, entitled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” is as relevant today as it was the day that he spoke the words.

Iraq and Vietnam
As we continue down this destructive path in Iraq and the casualty count on all sides continues to rise with no real political progress, we all wonder where this war is going. Similar to the Vietnam War, our society has become divided over the crisis; however, the major difference is that we do not have a draft today. That single aspect was what confirmed for many people in the sixties that it had become a time to break silence. Although we lack the catalyst of a draft in our current disaster, it remains just as vital that we all stand up in protest for peace; because once again, it has become a time to break silence.

And on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wonder what one of the most powerful leaders in our nation’s history would be saying today if the would be 79-year-old had not been so tragically taken from us some 40 years ago. While I would never assume to speak for Dr. King, I believe his own words from this 1967 speech draw many parallels to the crisis we are dealing with today, and there still remains a great deal to be learned from the message of peace and understanding of which Dr. King so eloquently spoke.

World Peace and Social Justice
In his speech, Dr. King explained the correlation between the fight for world peace abroad and the fight for social justice here at home. He was greatly troubled by the sacrifices our government was making, both blood and treasure, in a time when the government’s resources and attention could have been used to support the movement for social change at home.

While we have come a long way, it is clear that the estimated $2 trillion that we will spend on the Iraq War could have been better used to help our low and middle income families in areas of education, employment, healthcare, housing, crime, etc. Whatever progress has been made, this country has been diverted from the cause since the vacuum of lives and resources called the Iraq War began. In Dr. King’s words:

“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.”

Non-Violence at Home and Abroad
Dr. King also spoke about the contradictions between his preaching a message of peaceful social change in America and the use of violence as a tool for change by our government. Facing questions about the double standard of a militaristic government and peaceful social change, Dr. King knew that he could no longer preach peace for all in America if our military continued to promote peace by the barrel of a gun. This again was an example of the relationship between world peace and social justice.

Today, our hypocritical government is waging a war on the premise of building a peaceful democracy, but doing so with the use of bullets and bombs once again. While reducing violence is often the proposed strategy from our leaders nowadays, the contradiction of an original approach to wage a violent war is troubling. Violence does not stop violence, and what Iraq needs more than anything right now is strong and open-minded leaders willing to compromise both politically and socially in honor of their proud nation – not more American soldiers. Dr. King spoke of a similar dichotomy in his speech:

“…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.”

A Plea on Behalf of All Involved
Speaking directly to the leaders of our nation, Dr. King broke his silence by pleading for an end to the Vietnam disaster from a perspective of our own repercussions, as well as the tragedies that had befallen the innocent victims on the “enemy’s” side.

This universal compassion is in great need nowadays, as the citizens of Iraq have suffered unimaginable and unspeakable losses. With rampant reports of corruption that have continued to drain Iraq’s resources and infrastructure, the future of their citizens is in great jeopardy; and it has all come at the cost of the lives of nearly 4000 young American men and women. Dr. King’s blind empathy for all of those suffering was clearly evident in this excerpt of his plea:

“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.”

Listening to the Enemy
And with that, Dr. King spoke powerfully and in great depth about the importance of tolerance and understanding among all people, including our enemies. During the Vietnam War, Dr. King was troubled by the fact that our nation’s leaders were perpetuating our problems by remaining extremely closed-minded about the regional situation and had little concern about how the world community viewed the United States.

And today in the Middle East, our current administration continues to lack the ability to grasp how much damage is being done to our country’s international relations. Our leaders still refuse to meet with many of the leaders they consider enemies, leaving one to wonder what non-violent options are available to bring about peace if there is not even the ability to have an open dialogue. Dr. King expressed his thoughts:

“Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and non-violence, 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.”

The Downfall of the American Image
Dr. King spoke in detail throughout his speech about his concerns regarding America’s image as a result of our poor decisions in Vietnam. During his speech, he took a moment to deliver a message directly from Vietnam’s Buddhist leaders. They described our own leaders as being only military minded and that they lacked the ability to foresee the societal and political problems that clearly needed to be dealt with. As a result, they felt that the world would no longer be able to see us as a beaming light of freedom and Dr. King believed we desperately needed to end the war to repent for the “sins” that we had committed.

The situation is no different in Iraq today, as our mistakes have given the support our enemy’s need in their arguments that America is a nation of militarism and violence. Our friends and allies have turned their backs on us, and the current administration is incapable of taking responsibility for its mistakes. Only a humble atonement and responsible stop to the Iraq War will provide the first footsteps toward once again regaining a positive image in the world’s eye. The following is Dr. King’s reading of the Buddhist leaders’ message:

“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.’

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.”

The Repercussions of American Greed
Although the world has changed, many aspects have remained the same when it comes to America’s foreign policy. In the world he lived in, Dr. King spoke of our nation’s interest in international resources and our blind protection of these investments to ensure the luxuries that we enjoyed. This steadfast defense of such resources often came at the cost of human rights and human life.

Today in our oil-based economy, our nation has again attempted to protect our oil interests overseas, all while we have turned our heads from many innocent people in desperate need of help. In a time when the world has numerous human tragedies, from oppressive dictators to outright genocide, America’s leaders appear to only protect the resources necessary to support the American lifestyle and have no interest in doing what is good for all of mankind. This is a dangerous set of values that still has not changed over the last 40 years since Dr. King made these remarks in his speech:

“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.”

American Priorities: War or Peace?
America’s strategy to use bombs in order to create peace during Dr. King’s era was as troubling then as it is now. Dr. King shared his concerns on this topic, as he discussed America’s misguided and contradictory priorities. Stating that it was a time for our nation to prioritize peace over war, Dr. King clearly saw the potential for a revival of the American spirit, where we could once again become a nation that uses its resources and compassion to bring people together.

In our modern conflict, there remains just as strong of need for such a change in American priorities. While death and destruction occurs daily in Iraq with little to no political progress, the road to peace continues to be extremely challenging. It is a time when our nation needs peace as priority number one and the only “surge” we should be making should be to unite people, not to divide and conquer. In Dr. King’s own words:

“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.”

Communism and Terrorism
Dr. King lived during a period in which the greatest perceived threat to America was communism. He spoke of communism as being a result of America’s inability to confront the factors that created the breeding grounds for such a movement, as well as our failures to support the democratic revolutions that we helped to bring about.

In today’s world of terrorism, we again see America’s resources being diverted from confronting the source of radical movements and our failed attempts of “creating democracies” in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East have become a foundation of support and recruitment for our true enemies. Dr. King spoke of such a challenge in his speech:

“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 anti-revolutionaries. 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.’”

Love Conquers All
Dr. King spoke eloquently about the power of love for all mankind. As it is today, the sixties were a troubling time for the international community as the world was changing. World peace was being threatened by various factions and Dr. King believed the only true way to conquer such threats was through love. He scoffed at those who felt such a message was spineless in a world of such violence and Dr. King firmly spoke about how the spirit of love among all people was vital to the ultimate survival of mankind.

It seems that this is simply another message that we have forgotten in today’s troubled and dangerous world. In order to overcome the world’s current challenges, we must find love among all people based on our similarities and regardless of nationality, race and religion. The international community’s current focus on all of our differences prohibits Dr. King’s message of love from rising above our problems. As Dr. King stated in his speech:

“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.”

It Is Not Too Late
Dr. King was well aware of the choice that America was faced with at that moment in history – either a peaceful coming together or a violent destruction. Most importantly, Dr. King knew time was running out on making such a decision in favor of peace and harmony. He stressed the risks our nation faced, warning that we could become one of the many world powers throughout history which have failed mankind if we continued to reprehensively use our “might without morality.”

Today we are faced with the same decision. Our leaders have once again taken our nation in a direction that abuses our global influence and lacks any sort of moral consideration. It is not “too late” to act, but we as Americans must stand up now in the name of peace. It is our country and thus, it is our reputation to defend. The great resources of our nation and the collective compassion of Americans should be used to promote peace around the world, not hijacked to perpetuate hatred and violence. During his speech, Dr. King captured this idea of making the choice for peace before the option is no longer available:

“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: non-violent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. 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.”

A Time to Break Silence
So, on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we should all take some time to think about the many visionary ideals that Dr. King dedicated his life to. It is our responsibility to carry on the lessons of Dr. King – from his messages of equality and social justice here at home, to his beliefs of peace, compassion and tolerance on a global scale.

With that, it has become a time for all us to break silence. We all must stand up for world peace and show our compassion for others. We all share this world we live in and history tells us that violence only results in destruction. It is time we all make the choice of peace. It would only be fitting to close with the prophetic words of Dr. King himself, just as he finished this historic speech:

“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.”

To listen to the streaming audio or to read the transcript of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s entire speech, entitled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”, click here.

- Rapáil Eamon

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Some additional excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech that are clearly relevant to the crises that we are confronted with today:

On Standing Up in Protest…

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“…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.”

“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.”

On Compassion for All – Including the Enemy…

“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 re-conquest 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

On Communism (Terrorism)…

“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.

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.”

On America’s International Image…

“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.”

“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.”

On American Imperialism…

“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?”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”