The Smorgasbord of Douglas Bell

Last week, I entered an essay in the North Central San Mateo Neighborhood Association’s 25th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay & Poetry Contest. (How’s that for a long title?) The contest involved submitting an oratorical essay, which was also to be read and not exceeding 5 minutes in length. Well, Saturday afternoon was the awards ceremony during which they announced the winners, and in the 11th Grade Essay division, not only did my essay win first place, but it received a standing ovation from the audience when I finished reading it there, and I got numerous compliments and even got invited to read it again at some events that are a few months down the road.

However, today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and I will once again be attending the Freedom Train and Celebration in San Francisco today. We’ll be recording PreviewCast #050 afterwards (fifty episodes–a big milestone for us). However, for today, I thought that I would share my essay here for the reading pleasure of anyone who is interested. May we all remember what Dr. King’s legacy means for us today.

Each year, on the third Monday in January, we celebrate a holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We have all learned about Dr. King’s accomplishments in the Civil Rights Movement and remember him as one of the leaders who helped to turn America in a new direction away from racial segregation. But why do we gather at this time each year to remember one man who represented an entire movement? And what is the legacy that he leaves us with today in the 21st century?

We honor Dr. King because he was able to lead a movement to accomplish what some may have considered the impossible: destroying racial segregation and injustice through nonviolent means. As a minister, Dr. King preached much more than having faith, reading the Bible, and praising God as the way to heaven; he followed the Social Gospel, teaching people that the way to ascend into heaven was to fulfill one’s lifetime by doing good deeds, by helping the worse off among us, and by doing what was right to make the world a better place. When he accepted the Nobel Prize in 1964, he said, “I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsom in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him.” We remember Dr. King because he dedicated his entire life to fighting injustice, whether it was leading a bus boycott to call for equal rights, demonstrating for the poor in the slums of Chicago, or calling for the end of an unjust war in Vietnam. He gave up everything in order to do what he could to make the world a better place for everyone.

So what is the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? I believe that his legacy is a call to action. Had he not been killed on that April morning forty years ago, without a doubt he would still be active today, continuing his work to support the poor and the underprivileged, and fighting the many injustices that still remain in our society in the 21st century. During the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King proved to the world, just as Ghandi did in India years before, that anyone can accomplish change by nonviolent means. But, since he is no longer with us, it is our responsibility to pick up where he left off and continue his work into this new century.

During the years after the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, and prior to his death, Dr. King lost much of his newfound popularity when he began advocating for the end of war in Vietnam. In his Beyond Vietnam speech in 1967, he said, “Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war.” Forty years later, we once again find our country in an unjust war supported by only a minority of America that has killed almost four thousand American soldiers, wounded thousands more, and has killed upwards of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iraq. It is up to us to follow Dr. King’s lead by striving to end the scourge of war, and electing a government that can lead the world with an example of peace. We must also fight for the social injustices that are taking place here at home. We must reach out to the poor and worse off among us and do what is necessary to help them have a roof over their heads, food in their bodies, a proper education, and a decent manner of living. We must advocate to end all forms of segregation, whether it be racial segregation or segregation based on sexual orientation, as we have seen so much of in the 21st century. We must remind our government that if they can find the money to kill people on the other side of the globe, then they should be able to find the money to promote social welfare programs and ensure justice for everyone on our own side of the globe. If we are to truly honor Dr. King, we must do more than just remember his achievements; we must pick up where he left off and continue to demonstrate against the many social injustices that continue to be present in the world. In the words of Dr. King, “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Martin Luther King Day means much more than an extra three-day weekend in January to go skiing. It is a day for us to remember a historic man, one who gave up everything so that we may all ‚Äúhold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.‚Äù And the day is also a reminder to all of us that even though Dr. King is gone, we must continue Dr. King‚Äôs work until freedom–true freedom–rings from every valley and every mountainside around the world.