Portland Peace Activists Pay Homage To Martin Luther King Jr.

GENERAL NEWS 

By Andrew Theen

Portland, OR  April 4, 2008 1:56 p.m.

Friday marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior.  Peace activists in Portland are paying homage to the civil rights leader by playing his final speech, "I've been to the Mountaintop."

Every Friday since October 2001 Will Seaman and other peace activists have gathered in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Seaman said King's final speech is one of his most important because it preaches solidarity.

Will Seaman: "For those of us who are concerned about the war in Iraq, i think we also need to learn from that and to look beyond just issues of war and peace.  To issues like social justice, to issues like civil rights here in the United States,  To not segregate our conscious about what's wrong with the world today."

Forty-one years ago today - just one year before he was killed, King gave a major speech opposing the Vietnam War. If King were still alive, Seaman thinks he would be outspoken against the Iraq War - and saddened by America's involvement there.

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