Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 21, 2019
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
"The time is always right to do what is right." "Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last."
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
These are quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.
After a long struggle, legislation was signed in 1983 creating a federal holiday marking the birthday of King. The federal holiday was first observed in 1986, making 2019 the 33rd anniversary of the King federal holiday.
In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday as a national day of service and charged the Corporation for National and Community Service with leading the effort.
Put your zip code in the Find a Project box to locate a volunteer opportunity in your community or plan your own project.
King also said this:
"“We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Some people (a fair number) believe that King planned to address the issue of income inequality in the US as a class issue, that quote suggests he was moving that way.
Too bad he was assassinated before he might've had an effect on the move towards using gov't to increase income inequality, consumer & worker/employee rights that started with Rocket Ronnie's administration. He might've been able to marshal others to change the direction of US politics.
Posted by: azure | January 22, 2019 at 11:14 AM
Correction, increase income inequality and decrease consumer & worker/employee rights . . .
Posted by: azure | January 22, 2019 at 11:15 AM
Hi azure,
Thanks for writing a comment about what Martin Luther King Jr. said about income inequality and materialism.
One year on the King holiday, I wrote about his views on income inequality. https://boomersurvive-thriveguide.typepad.com/the_survive_and_thrive_bo/2011/01/on-martin-luther-king-day-lets-make-a-commitment-to-eliminate-poverty.html
Rita
Posted by: Rita | January 22, 2019 at 11:31 AM