Today we honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Some people don’t think any more of the day other than the fact that it is a holiday and a day off work. Other people are irritated that there is yet another holiday to inconvenience them by closing banks, the postal service, and other government offices.
Thank goodness, there are many more who recognize the importance of what he accomplished in his lifetime and the need to celebrate and honor that.
King was not a perfect man. Like all men, he had his strengths and his weaknesses. Most of those weaknesses were in his personal life, but in the public arena his strengths were many. He was an inspiring orator, an effective leader of men and women, and a force of significant change in our country. Which is why it is so important to teach our kids and grandchildren the legacy that King left us.
It was a bit distressing to me to wake up this morning and tune to one of the news podcasts I listen to while getting ready for the day, and there was no mention of the holiday.
Nothing on the news sidebar on Twitter either.
I was astonished.
Whatever we do as a country moving forward, we can’t let the legacy of men like King and Rosa Parks and John Lewis and so many others who set us on a course of civil rights activism that we so sorely needed end.
As we recognize the systemic racism that has plagued our country for too long, let us continue to work to bring King’s dream to fruition.