I want to begin by thanking the Massachusetts Commission on the Humanities for holding this rally for the renewal of the Voting Rights Act in 2007. Given the lack of moral judgment being shown by those in Congress and the President's Administration, it is clear that we need the Voting Rights Act as much as we did fifty years ago and that we must gather our forces to keep it in place.

However, it is equally important to remember that two years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, Dr. Martin Luther King called on people of all races in this country to join him in Washington, D.C. to confront the three evils imbedded in the policies of the federal government: militarism, economic exploitation/materialism, and racism.

Given the assassination of Dr. King—through what I, Dr. King's family, and a jury of six whites and six blacks in Memphis believe was a conspiracy of members of the local, state, and federal government as well as members of organized crime—he was not able to lead the Poor People's Campaign to victory and forty years later we see that militarism, economic exploitation/materialism, and racism continue to be imbedded in our federal policies. For example:

Our federal budget devotes $600 billion, two thirds of our discretionary spending, on militarism. The remaining $300 billion has to cover all the social needs. Even the Katrina recovery is being funded out of the meager funds left for the social needs of the people of this country.

Our federal tax policy is a clear example of economic exploitation in that tax breaks for the rich enable them to avoid paying their fair share of the costs of government, thus increasing the tax burden on those of middle, moderate, and low income.

The War on Drugs is a clear example of a racist national policy in that it is not designed to lessen drug addiction in this country. Earlier this year, the General Accounting Office in Washington warned that Afghanistan which produces 80% of the heroin used in this country is becoming a narco state. At the same time resources for recovery are diminishing. It is clear that our federal drug policy is a War on Black and Latino youth since it is putting increasing numbers of Blacks and Latinos in jail.

In 1973, there were 500,000 people of all races in jail. Today, there are two million: one million of whom are African-American, hundreds of thousands are Latino, and the remainder white and Asian. Estimates are that 80% of those incarcerated are in jail for nonviolent drug crimes.

An example of a racist international policy is the fact that the majority of the federal government foreign aid allocation goes to Israel and Egypt, thus financially supporting Israel's keeping our Palestinian brothers and sisters as virtual prisoners of war.

Yes, brothers and sisters, it is critically important that we come together to gather the strength necessary to renew the Voting Rights Act. However, it is equally important that we pick up Dr. King's cross and demand that our federal government end the militarism, economic exploitation, and racism imbedded in our federal policies.

We must take action now to force our government to use the resources of this country to fund Dr. King's dream rather than continue to use our tax dollars to fund the military industrial complex and their wealthy allies in their wars of aggression at home and abroad.