"The Consent Of The King" By Don Miles

    I had always wondered why, after seeing his speech the night before he died, Dr. King allowed the assassins to kill him. When I watch that speech I see a man who has been told he will be killed and he knows it to be true and he is going to let it happen. The only question I have always had was why would he let "them" kill him? This could be the answer.
      When "they" called, Dr. King knew exactly what it meant. It was the phone call he had been dreading for a long time. It was a very short, terse statement, not a conversation, composed to explain how it would happen and why he would cooperate. Dr. King listened carefully to the monotone voice on the other end of the phone. He knew the threats of the voice were real. The voice reminded him that "they" had dealt with Kennedy right in plain sight and that no man was safe from "them". Dr. King had no doubt about what "they" could do and in a dark way had always wondered why "they" waited so long. The voice explained what Mr. King must do. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he knew their logic was sound, from their twisted point of view anyway.
     The voice explained in a very matter of fact way why Dr. King would go along with their demands. The voice said that Dr. King's family, friends and associates would one by one have "accidents" and that nobody he cared for would go untouched if he did not cooperate. "They" would  never stop erasing any person that he cared about. The voice also said some would just disappear to experience unique horrors, the people closest to him. The voice asked if he understood and Dr. King spoke for the first time. He said,"Yes." The voice went on to explain that the next day, Dr. King was to walk out on the balcony of his motel at 6:00 pm and walk slowly until...then the voice cut off and asked again,"Do you understand?" There was a long pause. Dr. King drew a breath and answered, "Yes, I understand. But I want to tell you something first. You may kill me, but you will never kill freedom and the desire for equality and justice. Every man and woman in the world, not just our country, want freedom and justice and security and equality. There is no way you can turn that back. You can try but you can't murder your way to power. In the end, I may be finished but so are you." There was a long pause then the phone clicked on the other end as "they" hung up. Dr. King knew his time was over but his family and friends would be safe. He began composing a speech for that night, the last speech and greatest speech he would ever write.