MLK Day of Service 2024!
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?"
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Voornaam,
The birthday of America's greatest civil rights icon, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is observed annually on the third Monday in January as “a day on, not a day off.” This federally recognized holiday encourages all Americans to honor Dr. King through service to one another and to their communities.
As we close the book on the year that was, and we welcome 2024 with optimism and renewed expectations, the MLK Day of Service inspires all of us to become much more involved in finding ways to serve others. On the occasion of celebrating Dr. King’s birthday, his life and legacy, we cannot help but to remember what he was doing on his last day of life: making a difference in the lives of others through supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.
I often wonder how different, how much better our communities and our nation would be if each of us could devote a couple of hours each month to volunteerism.
Fortunately, many of us already do! There are almost as many ways to volunteer as there are people to serve. In moving forward into 2024, this is particularly true as we face the challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, such as hunger, poverty, homelessness, the lack of equitable, quality health care, and mental and racial disparities.
In addition to individual volunteerism, volunteering as a family is a very special way to teach younger children to help others, and to give back to their community. Knowing how much Dr. King loved his young children, and how he loved and served all children, I believe he would be especially happy to see families volunteering together, teaching future generations the enduring value of service to others.
When speaking of how he wanted to be remembered, Dr. King said these words: “I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.” This is my labor. This is our labor. It is my hope that “democracy” seeking Americans will stand on the front line of answering Dr. King’s urgent question, “What are you doing for others?”
As Oregon Democrats, let’s all come together on the MLK Day of Service, and each day thereafter, to empower people through volunteerism in building strong, healthy, environmentally safe communities, while addressing social and economic inequalities. In volunteering to serve others, we move Oregon and the nation one step closer to Dr. King’s vision of the “beloved community.”
