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ORDERS TO KILL -- THE TRUTH BEHIND THE MURDER OF MARTIN LUTHER KING |
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Chapter 32: Conclusion AS THIS STORY COMES TO A CLOSE the next millennium is less than five years away. Nearly forty years ago Americans and the world began an extraordinary decade. It was a time when no problem seemed insolvable, and no obstacle insurmountable. It is difficult now to recall, much less understand, those times when there was so much hope for the future and an unbridled passion for life dominated our daily lives. Masses of people, long suppressed, came out in full view. Their presence was frightening to an alliance of the corporate elite and their agents in government which long ago had come to dominate American public and private life. Legions of the poor, blacks, women, Native Americans, disaffected soldiers, students, and even prisoners represented a new, vital force which would inevitably clash head-on with the nation's leaders who, in the face of increasing economic hardship at home, were advocating a growing war effort in Vietnam. When Martin Luther King only preached about morality and led his people, Southern blacks, down the road of realizing their basic civil rights, he could be tolerated. He was a nuisance but the cooptive power of the society could well allow for long overdue concessions to be given to blacks in order to head off any potentially serious disruptive activity. This coopting facility of the American system has, historically, been extraordinarily successful. It is the most subtle and effective apparatus of control that the world has ever seen. The system's flexibility allows for basic reforms to take place as they become necessary, with the distribution of just enough wealth to enough people so that only a troublesome but manageable minority remains to act on their discontent. "When, however, Dr. King began to assert his moral leadership on the issues of peace and economic justice, he became intolerable. Then the massive weight of the American government came down on him. As we have seen he and his followers were subjected to harassment, infiltration, surveillance, and wiretapping. Finally he was killed -- and for what? For seeking peace and justice in his native land which had rejected one and denied the other. The amount of money spent on the government's multiplicity of anti-King operations, not to mention the expenditure of the HSCA's and other cover-up activities, is incalculable. The average citizen would be staggered, as was I, by the number of different intelligence units and operations. Shock turns to horror when one becomes aware that the pervasive spying on Dr . King was only the tip of the iceberg and that massive surveillance operations were mounted against huge numbers of American citizens with most of the spying. done on Americans who were themselves paying for it. Thus, American taxpayers were paying for their own government to spy on themselves. When the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights issued its 1973 report detailing the massive spying on civilians by army intelligence, the nation was shocked. The practices were soon put down to the excesses of General Yarborough, his successor General Joseph McChristian, General Blakefield, and other individuals, and were soon forgotten. The fact is that from what we now know, the report hardly scratched the surface. It is too easy and all too prevalent to blame such past abuses and excesses on the likes of Hoover, Yarborough, or other individuals wielding power at the time. The clear, however unwelcome, indications are that the problem is a systemic one. In 1968 the last serious effort to change American society led by Dr. King came to an end with his death. American cities burned for a while, but the Washington "invasion" fizzled out. The force that died early that evening of April 4, 1968, has never been revived. Now it may be too late. The corporate elite, their lawyers and bankers, as well as their assets in government who have led us into the abyss may quite simply be too strong to dislodge, too powerful to unseat, at least in our lifetimes. We now appreciate as never before the power of the "establishment." James Madison's worst fears appear to have been realized. He, the Republic's fourth President, the father of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution itself, warned about the very danger which has consumed our representative democracy. He noted that when any faction becomes so powerful, beyond its legitimate numerical presence, that it can dominate the branches of government and the political parties, so that dissent is suppressed, then tyranny will thrive. The system of government which results is a democracy in name only. Under the Constitution of the United States, Madison and his founding colleagues attempted to provide for the problem by establishing a structure of government with a separation of powers, so that theoretically the executive, legislative, and judicial branches may each act as a check on the others. What was not envisioned, however, was that an increasingly powerful corporate elite would develop which would not only formulate and act upon common policies, values, and goals, but also lend its senior representatives to government service. The power and influence of this corporate faction extends across all branches of government into virtually every agency and department. Governmental policies and activities in the service of these powerful private economic interests have, where those interests required, continually lied, and deceived the people as to the true state of events at home and abroad. Thus, the enormous power and wealth of the government has been used for purposes and ends which all too often have been directly contrary to the interests of the masses of Americans. With all of this history laid bare and the details of the abuse of power clearly revealed, the inevitable conclusion will still be very difficult for many Americans to accept. Representative democracy, as practiced in the United States, has failed. I believe that the revival of democracy in America can only be accomplished by the people taking actual control over their public affairs. Time and again, I have been impressed with the ability of juries comprised of ordinary people provided with a full presentation of the facts to thoughtfully administer justice. I remain confident that if provided with all of the facts the people are still democracy's best hope. By 1995, however, a significant obstacle exists in the fact that the public information put out on sensitive issues is rarely complete, balanced, and comprehensive. It is usually skewed in order to obtain the desired public response. This must be addressed. It goes without saying that control of the major media companies by multinational conglomerates will never ensure the objectivity required to enable the citizens to make informed decisions. This was a problem which faced Dr. King daily between 1965-68 as he argued for the commitment of the nation's wealth to the alleviation of misery at home rather than the infliction of barbarism abroad. Dr. King is gone forever. He can never be brought back to us, however much the memory of his quest for justice lives on. James Earl Ray will remain in prison unless the outrage of ordinary people reaches such a crescendo that he is at last either given the trial denied to him for twenty-six years or, based upon all that we now know, he is offered a pardon or clemency. Until that day, justice will continue to be denied in this case. As for the cancer afflicting the body politic and democracy in America, only the people in their millions can affect a cure. Rather than mourning the passing of liberty I hope they begin to organize its rebirth.
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