Celebrating MLK jr. Day
Today is January 18th, Martin Luther King jr. Day in American. Today we celebrate a man who worked almost his entire life to end segregation and racism. A man who is honored at our nation’s capital, countless other places across America, and even over the entrance of Westminster Abby.
Today we celebrate more than we might on a typical Monday; we look back, not only at the history of a man, but also at the history of a movement that sculpted 1960s America. A movement building since 1619 and culminating in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s: living up to our words.
Of course today does not solely belong to King, it honors those who came before him as well as those who come after him. It is a day for Americans to look back on their history — both the good and the bad — and as, he would say, “Be[ing] true to what we said on paper.” Our long history is filled with living up to what we wrote: That all men are created equal, deserving of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Today we celebrate our progress towards equality, the steps America has taken to rectify its past. Nothing we do will ever alter our history, but every step forward secures a more perfect future. Take tame to celebrate today, if all we look at is failure, all we will feel is anger. Seeing history as it was, not as we think it aught to be.
Today we enjoy relative comfort, relative peace, and relative prosperity. We are able to eat in the same restaurant as others, go to the same school as others, and sit on the same bus seats as others. But as we enjoy these gifts that were won through the sheer force and will of those who came before, we should not ignore others who still suffer, within our boarders. Ted Kennedy said in his eulogy for his brother Robert that, “Through no virtues and accomplishments of our own, we have been fortunate enough to be born into the United States under the most comfortable conditions. We, therefore, have a responsibility to others who are less well off.” A duty to help the helpless and be a voice for the voiceless. This job does not end tomorrow and it should not be forgotten. However, it is not eternal either, one day the race will be won.
Until then, it is perhaps well to remember the hymn Because I Have Been Given Much:
Because I have been given much,
I too must give;
Because of thy great bounty Lord,
Each day I live;
I shall divide my gifts from thee
With every brother that I see
Who has the need of help from me.Because I have been sheltered, fed
By thy good care;
I cannot see another’s lack and I not share;
My glowing fire, my loaf of bread,
my roof’s safe shelter overhead
That he too may be comforted.
