VITA VISSUTA

Leggo sui quotidiano che Harry Belafonte (si, l’ex re del calypso, autore di “Banana Boat”) ha fatto causa ai figli di Martin Luter King, per una disputa sulla proprietà di documenti che gli erano stati donati da Martin e dalla sua vedova, e che Harry voleva mettere all’asta per beneficenza.

Uno dei documenti è la bozza scritta a mano del famoso discorso “Time To Break The Silence” contro la guerra in Viet-Nam, tenuto a New York il 4 Aprile 1967. Ne avevo ascoltato una registrazione quando ancora studiavo seriamente ed ero affascinato dalle tappe della contestazione nera negli Stati Uniti.

Sono andato a ricercarlo: è ancora un intenso piacere leggere e ascoltare (link) le parole di Martin Luter King. I contenuti, ma anche la retorica (l’arte oratoria) sono di un’attualità impressionante. Voglio offrirvene un brano (e mi scuso con i non anglofoni).

“……. A time comes when silence is betrayal. And 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.

And 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. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation’s history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. 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. ……”

Foto? Ovvio, immagini del Viet Nam che ho scattato in primavera …