환영! 歓迎! Boa vinda! Bienvenue! The Korean news network OhMyNews have given Avaaz our biggest coverage so far - thanks too to all of you who are blogging about this campaign. Avaaz is now just about up in Korean, Japanese, Portugese and French.

Today is Martin Luther King day in the US - a holiday of reflection. Let's hope their Congress are looking into their hearts. Thanks to Briseis for sending us MLK's speech Beyond Vietnam - (read and listen here). So much rings true to this moment -

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... when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but ...

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

Let's hope senators and representatives are reading these words too. We can't depend on them - we have to inspire them.

This week Congress will vote on Iraq. This week they will read our ad - citizens from well over 100 countries around the world calling on them to Block the Escalation and demand a real plan to end the war. This is only possible because over 35,000 of us so far have added our voices, helped fund the ad and spread the word.

We need to go further to show the strength of global feeling alongside the US peace movement (see here, here and here). Our target is now 45,000 voices - so blog, email, tell your friends!

As Martin Luther King said then,

We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam [and now Iraq], and justice throughout the developing world -- a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours.