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This past Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day celebrated not only in the United States but in Canada, Holland, and Hiroshima, Japan. OneNature is pleased to spend some time examining Dr. King’s monumental impact on our lives. Last year in honor of Dr. King, we discussed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s inspiring vision of interconnection and justice.
The legacy of Dr. King and his vision of equality, interconnection, and justice continues to inspire so many of us today. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pivotal figure in the fight for equal rights for all humans. He believed we all had a basic right to freedom. Dr. King campaigned for the freedom and equality of African Americans, but for all persecuted individuals.
“In a real sense all life is interrelated. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be… This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation
It’s easy to spend one day out of the year celebrating and honoring Dr. King, but it’s important that we take some time throughout the year to reflect and truly understand and appreciate his dedication to the equal rights of all. Reverend KC Slack of the Washington Ethical Society said it best, “…concentrating our attention to these particular days has a tendency to flatten the story. Some of that I think is intentional, evidence of the force of normative history making tidy categories and easy-to-digest stories out of complicated, dynamic figures and forces.” Great strides have been made in the fight for racial justice and human rights, but the fight is not yet finished. Dr. King’s words were as today as they were fifty years ago. Martin Luther King Jr. has a plethora of works, whether they’re speeches, sermons, or writings. We hope you will spend some time this week to reflect on who Dr. King was and go beyond the easy-to-digest stories on Dr. King to learn more about why and how he became a prominent leader of the civil rights movement.