Today is the day we celebrate the life and leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States. For some an effect of living abroad is forgetting the importance of some of our holidays and celebrations, but today should not be one of them. I hope all of you take a minute to celebrate today in any form you deem worthy.
Dr. King was someone we should take time to reflect on not just one day a year but innumerable moments during our lives. He was a man who fundamentally understood that the United States (and the world for that matter) needed radical change from its path if survival was going to be the outcome. He was scoffed at by his peers, feared by the establishment, and demonized and hunted by our government. However, history has a long arch and now he is universally considered one of the greatest persons of the twentieth century.
He was savagely murdered in front of his friends and staff on April 4, 1968. He had been marching with the sanitation workers of AFSCME. Many of us understand that this was the last straw for the powers that control our world. King, a leader poised to change the world we knew, had forged a newpath with the civil rights movement. However, it would never be allowed to include the class struggle into this new collective change. His message resonated with almost every person who heard it. And this change was terrifying to the ruling class.
In Memphis, Tennessee while walking out of his hotel, an assassin too cowardly to show his face murdered him. Dr. King, died a Nobel Peace Prize winner, one of the United States’ greatest leaders, and a man who has irrevocable touched countless lives. That is why today, we should make sure we do not forget his legacy. Whether it is the Montgomery Bus Boycott, The Million Man March, The Poor People’s Campaign, or his general philosophy of nonviolence, today is a day to reread, research, or discuss with a friend the power of the people when change is needed.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Presente!