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January 17, 2010

Anonymous The Commercial-News Sun Jan 17, 2010, 11:18 AM CST

The nation celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today, a holiday marking a remarkable man who launched a mission that changed his community, his state, his country and the world.

Dr. King grew up in a South still locked into the practices and prejudices developed during the previous 450 years. The region saw the “peculiar institution’ of slavery grow, felt the sting of the Civil War that ended it and then the years of discrimination aimed at people whose only offense was their appearance.

Dr. King found himself in a better place than many of his neighbors, able to go to college and serving as a minister. Yet he still saw — and felt — the constraints the society of the day. And he decided to act.

Using the tactics of nonviolence, King sparked a movement that soon attracted thousands — black and white, northerners and southerners — with a simple goal: to open the doors of opportunity to everyone regardless of their position in life.

His strategy of nonviolence — maintained even in the face of attacks from authorities and thugs alike — eventually crumbled the centuries of prejudice.

Dr. King’s birthday, which the nation celebrates today, now has become a call for action, for volunteers to pick up where his movement left off and work to better the lives of all Americans.

The best way to honor Dr. King and his ideal of equal opportunity for all is to step up and volunteer. Serve as a mentor with Vermilion County’s Big brothers Big Sisters. Visit a local nursing home. Lend a hand at a school in your community. Help teach adults to read with The Reader’s Route at Danville Area Community College.. Swing a hammer with Danville’s Habitat for Humanity chapter and help construct houses for deserving families.

What you chose to do with your time doesn’t matter, only that you offer it to others to help make their lives better.

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