Each year on the third Monday of January the United States of America observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and reflect on the work that still needs to be done for racial equality. Dr King’s birthday is actually January 15, 1929. He would have been 93 years old today.
From his first public address in 1958 entitled ‘Give Us the Ballot,’ through his final 1968 address in Memphis, ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,’ MLK advocated for peaceful resistance to institutional racism and civil disobedience of unjust laws. He continued to lobby lawmakers for a more racially just society often at great personal peril to himself and his family. His words and his appearances ignited a population and the momentum continues to echo in our current affairs. We saw marches and protests following the violent death of George Floyd just a short time ago. Those calls for a more just society continue to ring through the years.
I’ve been inspired by my extended family’s activism dating back to the 1960s era of civil rights. I hope to see racial justice continue to be a priority in my city, my province, my country, and in my world. May we continue to be inspired by Dr Kings words and sacrifice:
• We are not makers of history. We are made by history.
• Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
• Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.
• We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
• All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
• The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.
• If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.
• It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.
• There comes a time when silence is betrayal.
• Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?
• Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
• Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God.
#MLK #MLKDay #MartinLutherKingJr #MartinLutherKingJrDay #IHaveADream
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