Celebrating Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King
I am sharing the message I read to students this morning.  Have a great weekend!


"We are on the cusp of a long weekend before mid-term exams.  Difficult to believe, but the school year is nearly halfway gone, and for the leaders of this school, the great senior class, you are preparing for your last high school mid-term exams. As the adage goes, "the days are long but the years are short." 

Monday there is no school, but it is more than a day off.  It is much more than a long weekend.  

Monday is a day we stop to honor the great Martin Luther King.  How does one attempt to honor, with words no less, one of the most significant figures of the 20th century?  How does one attempt to honor one of the great orators in the history of humanity? 

Very few are up to that challenge, and I am certainly not one of them.  Ironically, one of the few individuals worthy of this linguistics challenge currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, and his path to that residence was paved, in part, by the great Dr. King.

Where do you even begin to honor this man?  Baptist minister, the winner of the Noble Peace Prize, social activist and leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, is a start. More than anything, this man represented hope.  He was a beacon of hope in the face of incomprehensible racism.  His message was one of a better future.   

The seeds of despair are planted every night on the evening news.  Terrorism, racism, needless death and destruction, nasty political rhetoric, the list goes on and on, but knowing the trials and tribulations Dr. King faced, if he had a message of hope, how can we not? 

The students I have encountered give me high hopes for our future.  So let’s all be hopeful for a better future, and let’s do our part in building the future we hope for.  It starts today because today is the only thing you can control.  As I have said many times, wake up every day with the intention of contributing to the well-being of others.  

If alive today, I think Dr. King would say, there is still work to be done, but I believe he would smile at the progress, and beam with pride over our current president.  

Dr. King helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he cemented his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.  

Today marks the 53rd anniversary of that speech.  This year marks the 50th anniversary of the METCO program.  A coincidence?  I think not.  We owe Dr. King so much.  

On Monday, put away the books for a little bit and listen to him give that speech.  Don’t just read the words, listen to it.  It is a message of hope, and it comes with goose bumps.  Thanks for listening.   I hope you have a fantastic weekend."


Dr. King, "I Have A Dream...." Speech

Dr. King, "I have a Dream...." Video