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MLK Day serves to underscore man’s life, achievements

On Monday, the world recognized Martin Luther King Jr. Day with marches, volunteer work, and in the words of King’s late wife, “commemorate the universal, unconditional love, forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit.”

Locally, Northern Michigan University students gathered in the lobby of NMU’s Magers and Meyland halls to participate in the day of service — holding a march for equality, volunteer training for Room at the Inn and the campus food pantry, reading and coloring with the kids at the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum, making Valentine’s Day cards for veterans at the Jacobetti Home for Veterans, knitting hats and scarves for the Women’s Center, and making dog toys out of old T-shirts for the Upper Peninsula Animal Welfare Shelter.

“Overall the goal is to provide an opportunity for students and the community to give back to their community in the start of the semester, and reflect on this day of service and why we have the day off of school, and what it means to honor Martin Luther King Jr.,” Georgia Harrison, NMU Superior Edge Volunteer Center student coordinator in the Center for Student Enrichment, told The Mining Journal.

President Donald Trump marked his first Martin Luther King Jr. Day in office by backtracking from the highly criticized alleged comments about immigrants from “sh*thole countries.”

In his address to the nation on Monday, Trump said, “Dr. King’s dream is our dream, it is the American dream, it’s the promise stitched into the fabric of our nation, etched into the hearts of our people and written into the soul of humankind. It is the dream of a world where people are judged by who they are, not how they look or where they come from.”

In a tweet Monday, former President Barack Obama said, “Dr. King was 26 when the Montgomery bus boycott began. He started small, rallying others who believed their efforts mattered, pressing on through challenges and doubts to change our world for the better. A permanent inspiration for the rest of us to keep pushing towards justice.”

Whether your allegiances are to the left or to the right, Monday’s holiday is one that is meant to serve others and move forward in the spirit of equality for all men and women, just as King had envisioned. This is a message that we should ALL be able to get behind.

In his own words from a 1968 speech: “”Let us move on in these powerful days — these days of challenge — to make America what it ought to be.”

After all, making America the best it can be for all people should be a nonpartisan issue in today’s world.

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