We
all celebrate "Martin Luther King Day". But do you know what is the
significance of this occassion; who King is or why we celebrate his
birthday? Read on to know what is so special about this man that United
States of America has declared a national holiday on his birthday.If you
like our article, click here to refer this page to anybody you want.
Martin Luther King was born Michael King in 1929.It was as a teenager he
chose to change his name to Martin Luther King Jr, after his father the
preacher.
He went to university and gained doctorate in Theology. He was a minister in
the Baptist Church, one of the strands of Christianity derived from the
Protestant faith. He started to write early, penning down his thoughts and
beliefs to paper.
Rev. Martin was a born reformer.-for him, it was a black woman being
arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Like
Martin Luther, he saw his parishioners struggling in the face of a corrupt
and autocratic system. He spent the his life fighting for justice and
equality in the eyes of God and their fellow man.
Martin Luther King wore many feathers on his cap- he was a devoted husband,
a doting father, despite his other commitments. He lived amidst controversy,
suffered incarceration and death threats. Sadly, he died before he should
have. Luther King struggled with the laws and doctrines of his time and
worked to eradicate segregation in America. Martin Luther King left the
world a better place; leaving also large tracts of his thoughts and beliefs
through the written and spoken word.Martin Luther was a modern thinker, many
say bridging the gap between medieval times and the Renaissance. His
writings are timeless.
Martin Luther King Jr was renowned for his simple and powerful oratory. His
sentiments echoed the desire of so many and have become near universal
beliefs.
The Luther King holiday(16th Jan)-its meaning
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man
who sowed the seeds of hope and healing in America. We commemorate as well
the timeless values he taught us through his example -- the values of
courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that so
radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership. On this
holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love, forgiveness and
nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit.
The King Holiday honors the life and contributions of America’s greatest
champion of racial justice and equality, the leader who not only dreamed of
a color-blind society, but who also lead a movement that achieved historic
reforms to help make it a reality.
This day also commemorates Dr. King’s great dream of a vibrant, multiracial
nation united in justice, peace and reconciliation; a nation that has a
place at the table for children of every race and room at the inn for every
needy child. We are called on this holiday, not merely to honor, but to
celebrate the values of equality, tolerance and interracial sister and
brotherhood he so compellingly expressed in his great dream for America.
It is a day of interracial and intercultural cooperation and sharing. No
other day of the year brings so many people from myriad cultural backgrounds
together in such a vibrant spirit of togetherness. Whether you are
African-American, Hispanic or Native American, Caucasian or Asian-American,
you are part of the great dream Martin Luther King, Jr. nurtured for
America. It is a peoples' holiday!
We commemorate on this holiday the leader and the visionary who embraced the
unity of all faiths in love and truth. And though Dr. King was an American,
on this holiday we must also venerate the global leader who inspired
nonviolent liberation movements around the world.
The King Holiday celebrates Dr. King’s global vision of the world house, a
world whose people and nations had triumphed over poverty, racism, war and
violence. The holiday celebrates his vision of ecumenical solidarity, his
insistence that all faiths had something meaningful to contribute to
building the beloved community.
This holiday honors the courage of a man who endured harassment, threats and
beatings, and even bombings. We commemorate the man who went to jail 29
times to achieve freedom for others, and who knew he would pay the ultimate
price for his leadership, but kept on marching and protesting and organizing
anyway.
Every King holiday has been a national "teach-in" on the values of
nonviolence, including unconditional love, tolerance, forgiveness and
reconciliation, which are so desperately-needed to unify America. It is a
day of intensive education and training in Martin’s philosophy and methods
of nonviolent social change and conflict-reconciliation. The Holiday
provides a unique opportunity to teach young people to fight evil, not
people, to get in the habit of asking themselves, "what is the most loving
way I can resolve this conflict?"
On this day, people recognizes yet one more time about the power of
unconditional love even for one's adversaries as a way to fight injustice
and defuse violent disputes. It is a time to show them the power of
forgiveness in the healing process at the interpersonal as well as
international levels.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is not only for celebration and remembrance,
education and tribute, but above all a day of service. All across America on
this day, his followers perform service in hospitals and shelters and
prisons and wherever people need some help. It is a day of volunteering to
feed the hungry, rehabilitate housing, tutoring those who can't read,
consoling the broken-hearted and a thousand other projects for building the
beloved community of his dream.
Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we "will walk in the
light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Life's most persistent and nagging question, he said, is `what are you doing
for others?'" he would quote Mark 9:35, the scripture in which Jesus of
Nazareth tells James and John "...whosoever will be great among you shall be
your servant; and whosoever among you will be the first shall be the servant
of all." And when Martin talked about the end of his mortal life in one of
his last sermons, on February 4, 1968 in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist
Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of a
full life. "I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther King, Jr.
tried to give his life serving others," he said. "I want you to say on that
day, that I did try in my life...to love and serve humanity.
We call you to commemorate this Holiday by making your personal commitment
to serve humanity with the vibrant spirit of unconditional love that was his
greatest strength, and which empowered all of the great victories of his
leadership. And with our hearts open to this spirit of unconditional love,
we can indeed achieve Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream.
May we who follow Martin now pledge to serve humanity, promote his teachings
and carry forward his legacy into the 21st Century
The King Holiday and Its meaning
On August 2, 1983, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill
creating a legal public holiday in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Although there had been little discussion of the bill in the House itself
and little awareness among the American public that Congress was even
considering such a bill, it was immediately clear that the U.S. Senate
should take up the legislation soon after the Labor Day recess.
The House had passed the King Holiday Bill by an overwhelming vote of
338-90, with significant bipartisan support (both Reps. Jack Kemp and
Newt
Gingrich voted for it), and the Reagan administration was indicating that
the president would not veto it if it came before him. In these
circumstances, most political observers seemed to think that Senate
enactment and presidential signature of the bill would take place virtually
unopposed; few anticipated that the battle over the King holiday in the next
few weeks would be one of the most bitter congressional and public
controversies of the decade.