Jan 19 2009
Celebrating Martin Luther King JR Day
As part of your continuing celebration of National Activity Professionals Week, I do hope you say a few words about the great man, Martin Luther King JR. He was a great man with ideals that are not far from Activity Professionals and others working in healthcare and/ or those caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias.
Here is a little is a little information about him.
Martin Luther King, Jr., was a great man who worked for racial equality in the
United States of America. He was born on January 15, 1929, in
Atlanta, Georgia. Both his father and grandfather were ministers. His mother was a schoolteacher who taught him how to read before he went to school. Young Martin was an excellent student in school. After graduating from college and getting married, Dr. King became a minister and moved to
Alabama. During the 1950’s, Dr. King became active in the movement for civil rights and racial equality. He participated in the
Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott and many other peaceful demonstrations that protested the unfair treatment of African-Americans. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in
Memphis, Tennessee. Commemorating the life of a tremendously important leader, we celebrate Martin Luther King Day each year in January.
He is an excerpt from his ”I Have a Dream” Speech
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
So join with me in celebrating Martin Luther King Day and National Activity Professionals Week
Also visit my sister site for more ideas
by Susan Berg
