Happy MLK Day! Today is a federal holiday! State and county offices are closed, schools, banks, postal services, libraries are all closed! In America, we love holidays! To me, holidays normally mean a day of relaxing, catching up on quiet reading, perhaps even the opportunity to “sleep in” a little later than usual but not this day! King holiday is a day a service! Millions of Americans honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and answered President-elect Obama’s call to service by volunteering on the January 19 King Holiday. Americans made it “a day on, not a day off” by delivering meals, refurbishing schools, reading to children, signing up mentors, and much, much more. Initiated by Congress in 1994, King Day of Service builds on that that legacy by transforming the federal holiday honoring Dr. King into a national day of community service grounded in his teachings of nonviolence and social justice.
To many this day is bitter sweet. While we celebrate his life and many accomplishments, we can’t help but still mourn his untimely death. In fact, some of us still shed a few tears. Today I shed a tear because I know that we have come a long way as a people but we have an even longer way to go. In Sunday school one of the children asked a question: If Dr. King were alive would he be happy with the way things are going in our communities? (she was referring to the African American community) This was a good question that made many of us pause and think about what this ten year old had really just asked. Her question made me ponder another question: Would things be different within our community if Dr. King were alive today? I believe that one person has the power to mold and shape its surroundings. Dr. King showed us how powerful one voice could be when he decided to cry out against the injustices that were plaguing just about every corner of America with its infectious seeds of hate and racism. Would Dr. King be happy with our current condition and state of mind? (…most likely not) According to studies, criminologist report that murders among black youth have risen in recent years. While the school drop out rates and pregnancies for black teens have declined other numbers have risen. For example: high unemployment rates, domestic violence, number of households run by single mothers and so on. So, no I don’t believe that he would be completely happy with some of the challenges that we are facing our community... but I do think he would us this:
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
“If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.”
---Dr.Martin Luther King Jr
No comments:
Post a Comment