Many people know Martin Luther King Jr., basically. More people love the fact that his holiday provides them with a day off from work. I wonder, like many others, do we celebrate his accomplishments properly? 

   King, born Michael Luther King due to a physician’s error on his birth certificate, lived a life of celebrity and sacrifice. In 1964 King became the youngest man to win the Nobel Peace Prize. King also won the American Liberties Medallion, won third greatest American of all time in a public opinion poll and, according to a Gallup Poll, ranks second as the most admired person of the 20^th century.  

   On the flip side, King experienced upwards of twenty arrests, four assaults and eventually became the victim of an assassination. 

   King became famous for organizing marches for voting rights, his stirring oratory (in famous speeches like “I Have a Dream”) and his leadership of the bus boycotts that began with Rosa Parks’ refusal to submit to Jim Crow laws. King’s work did not stop there. 

   King spoke out against the war in Vietnam in his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech and advocated reparations. King did not believe in reparations simply for the payment of slave labor; he realized the actual amount would be way more than people were willing to pay. Realistically, King believed that reparations would help our society by not creating a paupers class of people forced to rely on government stipends for life.  

   King believed that having a downtrodden race of Americans would devalue not only the people living in those conditions, but American society on the whole. This theory seems to hold weight; I heard something very similar about crime rates in ghettos in sociology. Or, maybe I hear about it on the news all of the time.  

   King’s outstanding abilities not only made news, they allowed him to come in contact with many high profile government officials. King met with John F. Kennedy to dissuade his friendship with Stanley Levinson, a man whose communist ties resulted in an FBI wiretap and investigation of King’s Civil Rights Movement. That meeting seems to conjure an almost loving and understanding President giving his friend advice on how to push an issue of vital importance to humanity. 

   King’s pro-active, non-violent life won him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, organizations petition to get King’s face on currency and over 700 roads bear his name. King continues to gain prominence decades after his assassination. This leads me to wonder why people think that just having the day off suffices to honor his accomplishments. 

   I hope that people decide to hold services and candle-light vigils and participate in volunteer work to honor King in future years. I think the friends of King that advocate this type of remembrance show a unity and brotherhood that we sorely lack in today’s world. I believe that you honor his life and work by reminding us what King would want on his holiday.