If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was still alive today he would be 94 years old. This year, one day after his birthday, the country remembered the late civil rights leader who dreamed of a nation …
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If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was still alive today he would be 94 years old. This year, one day after his birthday, the country remembered the late civil rights leader who dreamed of a nation where all people could live together in peace and harmony.
When Dr. King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his famous “I have a Dream Speech” to hundreds of thousands who participated in the march on Washington, he remarked that they had, in a sense, come to the nation’s capital to cash a check.
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir,” Dr. King said.
He goes on to say, “… we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”
Looking around our country today, we can see that we’ve come a long way since Dr. King delivered that speech on August 28, 1963. Our society has become more inclusive of people from different backgrounds and walks of life. Many are able to rise as high as their talents and determination can take them.
In other ways, we still have a long way to go to realize the full extent of Dr. King’s dream. Our country is still deeply divided among racial, economic and partisan political lines.
The life of Martin Luther King Jr. was one of service. The best way to honor that legacy is to commit ourselves to the same. Rather than just looking forward to MLK Jr. Day as a day off from school or work, we should think of ways that we can join together to make our community a better place. We must never forget our responsibility to the less fortunate of our society and what we can do to promote liberty and justice for all.
It is incumbent upon us that we never stop marching toward the dream that Dr. King articulated 59 years ago.
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