MLK
Today, we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The question that we need to ask ourselves if what have we done with his legacy?
Today, things are dire. Continents are burning; Neo-Nazis are marching; 162 billionaires have the same wealth as half the population on earth; Children and families traumatized at the border are relying on us; Healthcare costs are out of control; our trans brothers and sisters are being murdered; HIV/AIDS is being contracted at alarming rates in communities of color; the right to vote is being stripped from our population -- and this is not nearly all of it. It is exhausting -- but our community and our people need us and they need our voices.
We must be motivated to fight for what is right, what is just. It is 2020 -- and we face critical issues this year. Not only is the US presidential election this year, but it’s also Census 2020. We have no time to feel sorry for ourselves.
We need to look beyond Dr. King's emotionally charged speeches -- and realize that these speeches were a call to action. These words were said to motivate each of us to take up what we can do to engage in change-making activities wherever we can, for our communities and the least of these.
Many, if not all, of our marginalized communities -- no matter the diversity -- have experienced clear and obvious hatred then and still do this day.
It is easy to sit here and write a social media post and encourage us all to actually "do something" -- and think that I am doing something useful. Many of us have been sold on the idea that difficult tasks ought to be left to heroes, often from somewhere far away or from long ago. That it’s up to them, whoever ‘them’ is. That thinking is wrong and we need to confront that, take up the challenge and create the change we wish to see.
Let us remember and honor that history, but also let it be a motivation. Let us take this day and let it be an inspirational one to motivate us into action -- and live the dream that he fought for.
Nothing bends towards justice without us bending it.