Martin Luther King Day

 

"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."

Martin Luther King, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence,  Riverside Church, 4 April 1967


"It is a dark day in our nation when high-level authorities will seek to use every method to silence dissent.  But something is happening, and people are not going to be silenced.

And don’t let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, 'You’re too arrogant!  And if you don’t change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I’ll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn’t even know my name.  Be still and know that I’m God.”

Martin Luther King, It's a Dark Day in Our Nation, Riverside Church, 30 April 1967

"But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow, before the gods of evil."

Martin Luther King, Ebenezer Baptist Church, 5 November 1967


"I have come across something that troubles me very much. We have fought long and hard for integration, as I believe we should, and I know we will win. But it seems to me that we are integrating into a house on fire. America is losing the moral vision that it may once have had. And I fear that even as we integrate, we are entering a place that does not understand that this nation must be deeply concerned with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Until we commit to ensuring that the underclass receives justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tugs at the soul of this nation." 

 Martin Luther King, to Harry Belafonte, March 27, 1968

"We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life — longevity has its place.   But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.

So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything, I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Martin Luther King, 3 April 1968 

The next day, 4 April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee, 4 April 1968.

Exactly one year to the day after his first anti-war sermon, A Time To Break the Silence.  

He was warned against giving it, but his conscience would not permit him to remain silent. 

This was no coincidence.

This was madness, these brutal assassinations, these three contemptible murders, in the depraved pursuit of power and profits above all else, that continues even until this day.

  "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Ephesians 6:12

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - In the Garden of Beasts

 

"Through his first year in Germany [1933], US Ambassador William Dodd had been struck again and again by the strange indifference to atrocity that had settled over the nation.
For Dodd, a diplomat by accident, not demeanor, the whole thing was appalling. He was a scholar and a Jeffersonian democrat, a farmer who loved history and the old Germany in which he had studied as a young man. Now there was official murder on a terrifying scale. Dodd's friends and acquaintances, people who had been to his house for dinner or tea, had been shot dead. 

In a letter to Hull, Dodd forecast an even more terroristic regime. 'The people hardly notice this complete coup d'etat.  It takes place in silence.  I would swear that millions upon millions have no idea what a monstrous thing has occurred.'"

Erik Larson, The Garden of Beasts

"It would be no sin if statesmen learned enough of history to realize that no system which implies control of society by privilege seekers has ever ended in any other way than collapse."

William Dodd, historian and US Ambassador to Germany, 1933

"Living in a totalitarian land taught me to value highly—and fiercely—the very things the dictators denied: tolerance, respect for others and, above all, the freedom of the human spirit.  I find that most true happiness comes from one’s inner life; from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation. And self-discipline. You have to have patience and understanding. And, when you can, seek God."

William L. Shirer, This I Believe

"A country approaching the fascist phase showed symptoms among which the existence of a fascist movement proper was not necessarily one.  At least as important signs were the spread of irrationalistic philosophies, racialist aesthetics, demagogy, heterodox currency views, criticism of the party system, widespread disparagement of the regime, or whatever was the name given to the existing democratic set-up.  All at once, the tremendous industrial and political organizations of labor and of other devoted upholders of constitutional freedom would melt away."

Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, 1944

Stocks managed to overcome their early losses and turn in yet another gain for the new year.

The Dollar slipped a little.

Gold and silver rallied up through resistance and stuck a strong close.

Next week's stock index option expiration may test the stocks bulls, and even the metals' mettle.

The VIX posted another decline to a year long low.

Tut tut, looks like rain.

US markets will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King day.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - To Banish All Fears - Stunning Plunge in the VIX

 

"Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have a wicked and unfaithful heart, and abandon the living God. Encourage each other daily while it is still today, so that none of you may grow hardened by the deception of sin. We have become friends of Christ, if only we hold from the beginning of our fellowship, firmly until the end. For it is said: 'Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts in rebellion.’”

Hebrews 3:12-15

"Satan’s monomaniac concern with himself and his supposed rights and wrongs is a necessity of the Satanic predicament.  He has wished to ‘be himself,’ and to be in himself and for himself, and his wish has been granted.   To admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking, of incessant autobiography."

C. S. Lewis

"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring.  Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.  Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty.  Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that man can get them for himself, without grace."

Simone Weil 

"Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be. Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.  Without love deeds, even the greatest, count as nothing.  Our Lord's love shines forth as much in the simplest of souls as it does in the most highly gifted, as long as there is no refusal of His grace.  To live in love is to banish all fears."

Marie-Françoise Thérèse Martin de Lisieux

 

There are several ways to banish our fears.  One productive and creative way, according to the saints, is to live in and with love, and walk in the light.

Another way is to deaden our senses, with drugs, and alcohol, or as Maximilian Kolbe said, the whiskey of passion and hate.

They seem to be passing the jug of prideful and passionate judgement and hatred a lot these days.

The VIX took a sunning plunge today, as the markets chose an optimistic and dovish interpretation of the CPI data this morning.   Or perhaps there was some technical reason for this, but it did seem to be hopped up on something.

Stocks initially fell, but rallied back ionto the green at the end.

Gold and silver rallied, as the Dollar fell fairly hard.

We are heading into a three day holiday weekend for the markets in the States, as Monday is Martin Luther King day.  We may murder our prophets, but we'll take a day off for them.

Let's see how things go.  It is starting to feel a little 'rinsey' out there.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Where Are We Going, Lord? - CPI Tomorrow

 

"God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.  I have my mission —  I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next.  He has not created me for naught.  I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.

Therefore I will trust Him.  Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away.  If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him.  If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.  He does nothing in vain.  He knows what He is about.  He may take away my friends.  He may throw me among strangers.   He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me — still He knows what He is about.

John Henry Newman

“Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist— and into them enters suffering, in order that they may have life.”

Léon Bloy

“The books which the Holy Spirit is writing are the living, with every soul a volume in which the divine author makes a true revelation of His word, showing it to every heart, unfolding it in every moment.  

There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed.   All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action.   All souls must admire and respect one another, saying: 'Let us each continue walking along our path to the same goal, united in purpose and with the help of God's plan which, in its great variety, is in us all.'

'But,' say you, 'what will become of me if ...?'   This is indeed a temptation of the enemy.   Why should you be so inventive in tormenting yourself beforehand about something which perhaps will never happen?  Sufficient for the day are its troubles.  Uneasy worries do us much harm; why do you so readily give way to them?   We imagine troubles, and what do we gain by it

To escape the pain caused by regret for the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow: leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence, and give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace.”

Jean-Pierre de Caussade, L'Abandon a la Providence Divine

Stocks caught a whiff of bullishness, and rallied hard into the close.

The VIX was largely unchanged.

The Dollar was unchanged.

Gold was unchanged, while silver edged a little lower.

The market has its eyes on the CPI data tomorrow morning.

The stock bullies are chomping at the bit it seems.

Everyone else, not so much.

I have no special insights.  Let's see what happens.

Have a pleasant evening.

"Cæsar was swimming in blood. Rome and the whole pagan world was mad.  But those who had had enough of sin and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful news of God, who out of love for men had given Himself over to be crucified, to redeem their sins.  When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of their time could not give to anyone— happiness and love. 

And Peter understood that neither Nero, nor all his legions, could overcome the living truth— that they could not overwhelm it with tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning.  He understood with equal force why the Lord had turned him back on the road.   That city of pride, of crime, of wickedness, and of a lust for power, was beginning to be His."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis