January is the month of New Year’s resolutions and transitioning into what is hopefully a more empowering and progressive chapter of life. As the season demands individuals to look toward better and more peace-bringing tomorrows, it serves as the epitome of crucialness to remember, honor and celebrate the man who offered the foundation for such dreams to exist.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born Jan. 15, 1929 in a nation illustrated by dividing lines. As the country progresses, it is essential to use his birthday celebration as a device for further expanding his vision and beliefs.
My college, Central Michigan University, offers students an entire day off of classes to better explore King’s mission. It is encouraged to be an experience devoted to enlightenment, education, volunteerism and unity.
On Jan. 21, I look forward to marching with the Central community toward a vigil made in honor of King and to recognize the war for civil well-being that did not conclude with his death in 1968.
However, I am disheartened to see so many of my peers use this celebration as a holiday for careless daydrinking and sleeping in past noon. Because of such realities, I believe it paramount to understand King did not subject himself to reoccurent hatred, imprisonment and eventually assasination for one to simply have a three-day weekend.
When he was born, American society was encapsulated by barbed wire fencing, authorizing the crafts of segregation and categorization to weigh down minorities with iron, ridiculously cruel fists.
King entered a game of tug of war, where the victorious parties were composed of compacted minds and the desire to travel slowly without dreaming. Despite their imposed discomforts and washed out vision for the world, there were forces desperately latching onto their side of the rope, although it was rotting.
King, Jr. was born dreaming, and continued to aspire toward a universe where power, prosperity and opportunity were accessible to all of the people. He longed to use nonviolent protest and resistance as a strategy for obliterating lines of division, releasing a better realm full of radiance, color and love in the aftermath.
The peaceful use of sit-ins, marches and boycotts furnished the means for the Civil Rights Movement to evolve into a tsunami, crashing into the government with demands for dignity, freedom, respect and equality.
His voice served as a pathway for the movement to be recognized on the highest levels of government in the United States and inspired an abundance of Americans to stampede into the horizons, restlessly searching for a civilization based off of righteousness and fairness.
Although his philosophies and advocacies inspired legislature such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, it is absolutely pivotal to apprehend his dream has not yet been fully attained.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2019 is a chance to gather and project a message of love, justice and advancement.
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right,” King said, a concept all must hold themselves accountable to this coming Monday.
For how to get involved and honor King, visit https://www.cmich.edu/news/article/pages/Celebrating_MLK_2019.aspx.