Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day, a national holiday in the United States.  Please join us in taking a little bit of time today and thinking about his message.  Because of him, we’ve come a long way, although there’s still work to be done.

Dr. King put his life on the line, his wife and children, everything, to better his country and the people who lived here as he fought for equal rights and opportunity for all.  Dr. King not only strived to end segregation and racial injustices, spoke out against the war, against poverty, and he teamed with union presidents to fight for workers rights. 

Is Dr. King’s dream fullfilled? 

I have posted below Pete Seeger doing an excellent live version of “We Shall Overcome”.  I remember a teacher I had in middle school who taught African American history arguing that the lyrics should be changed to, “We Shall Overcome Today.”  Sort of like John Mayer’s song, “Waiting For The World To Change”. We wait and wait - maybe we need to act, even if it’s just our mindset.  It takes thinking about reality, not ignoring it.  It takes creating solutions and actually doing it.  It means taking risks, like Dr. King did.  We need to understand our differences, and instead of judging, embrace.

Today is the day!  How is Dr. King relevant today?  These aren’t just old tales of the past, this is recent history that is still taking place.  What area can you fight for?  What role can you take?  The song, “We Shall Overcome” was the hope that Dr. King gave the people then that a change could take place.  Now that we have the means to do this, let’s do something about it.