Gilded with the rare beauty granted solely by timeless inspiration and characterized by silent cries for dire hopes of humanity unearthed by immaculate minds unparalleled. A voice strengthened with courage profound enough to believe change was well within reach reigns then, now and forever more as the man with the dream and a holiday. Martin Luther King Jr. lays claim to the third Monday of every January as a representation of the legacy and well ripened fruits of grand labor. Personally, the day has always embodied for me a unifying force driven by the anchored desire for a yielding oppressive culture and a saving grace for differences unchosen by those who bear minority qualities of various stratospheres. A day for America to look back and marvel at how far we’ve truly come.
Words of his infamous speech echo throughout time as historical landmarks of their own, speaking of a dream for little black boys and little white girls to simply be capable of playing together; to look at each other and see eye to eye, rather than create the superiority and inferiority complexes sought to keep fearful, and narrow minded traditionalist on top. His words empower and continue to carry out a duty to a society once sickly laden with the utmost oppressive barriers. I look back sometimes, upon history, and I honestly ask myself how in the… and then I just sit awestruck, dumbfounded by the progression alone. I then move to ponder the mentalities of such leaders as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and the many others who paved way for the whole civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is not simply a famous birthday, and not simply a black holiday; it commemorates the work for people who hadn’t the tools to fight for themselves in a culture where everything about them was said to be wrong. It is a day for hope that justice can prevail.
I don’t speak for an entire race, gender, class or any particular demographic. I speak solely as an individual with a heart that goes out to those individuals of whom captivate the soul and mind. 1965 was a year of substantial influence and shift. Equality became more than a notion dreamed of and sought after with contributions from Martin Luther King Jr. I don’t take away from any other factor in the movement for black rights in our earlier America, such as the extraordinary Malcolm X. I pay homage to the man who, in name, signifies a movement for a better life for me, my family, my friends and all who adhere to the legislation passed and mountains moved. As the years fly by, we as a nation tend to forget the ugly past. Actual laws set in stone to deprive an ethnicity of inalienable rights we take for granted daily. Such injustices that sicken the spirit and would make your skin crawl to live within the era and lay actual witness to.
Mountains were moved.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, recognized in some states at one point as Civil Rights Day to pay complete and clear homage to the whole era and movement for Equal rights in America for all, is a day that took 15 years after his assassination to create. A day most easily understood and stated as a day of appreciation. A day to totally recognize the full gravity of all that has come to past in America and largely one man’s huge contribution within it. Respecting it is the least you could do.
