Martin Luther King Jr. Day is not about remembering the past as much as it is about examining the present and looking toward the future.
The Civil Rights Movement didn’t end in the 1960s, it didn’t even start then. Civil rights as a term involves more than racial minorities, it involves everyone. And what this day really should represent is America’s constant struggle to treat every citizen as equal under the law and within our communities.
Black America’s fight for equal rights continues. The Women’s Rights Movement continues. Hispanics, undocumented immigrants, sexual minorities, the disabled, the elderly, the poor?the fight continues.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who fought the fight in honorable ways. A true American who continues to show us the power of words, the power of peaceful resistance and the power of the individual.
We don’t have this man to stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and lead us. Now the collective Civil Rights Movement rests in our hands.
The easy thing to do is ignore that the fight continues, to point to past movements and say, “We treat everyone equal now.”
The hard thing to do, which by the way is the right thing to do, is to listen. Groups of Americans who get stepped on always scream for help. We have to hear their voices. These injustices that pervade America may not be so noticeable as slavery, segregation or the right to vote. You can’t see the injustices as you walk down State Street or hit the polls, but we all know they are there.
Little comments, jokes, looks, gestures such as these that go unchecked are an indication that America still has a problem and isn’t doing much about it.
Change that. Take a stand, not necessarily a Martin Luther King Jr.-sized stand, but don’t let the next negative comment about Mexicans go without saying you are offend. When your friend says, “that’s so gay,” make it clear that you don’t approve. Treat your grandparents with the respect that they deserve.
Taking these actions today will lead to a tomorrow that inches toward King’s dream and a better America.