Why should we celebrate Dr. King's birthday?

Question

Why should we celebrate Dr. King's birthday?

Answer 1

As a matter of respect for a man who devoted his life to promoting peace during a time of hostility. Not too mention the extreme impact and catalyst towards improving equal rights.

Answer 2

Not only should we celebrate it because of his civil rights work, we should celebrate it because of his anti-Capitalist and anti-War work. If you ever watch the movie "King" or any other drama you will notice the three last years - up until his assassination - are missing. They go from the march on Washington and other great Civil Rights events and fast forward 4 years to his death in 1968.

Why?

Because he began to speak out about all injustice. He spoke out against Vietnam and the Military Industrial complex that supported it. He spoke out in support of Economic Equality. He spoke out against the way the US was treating African, Asian and Latin American nations.

In short, his message was muted when it ventured beyond Civil Rights because it began to touch on the very nature of our democracy and how it was being betrayed to the Capitalists.

So I say celebrate his Birthday - everyone! He was speaking for all of us, around the world!

Answer 3

Because he helped your country. England doesn't even recognise our Patron Saints day! Consider yourselves lucky, because I'm stuck in the least patriotic country of them all!

Answer 4

If you have to ask the question, don't celebrate it.

Dr. King brought the case of black America to the forefront in a peaceful, respectable, but forceful way.    He earned respect for black America.  His life and death were a real turning point in America, and of course it is appropriate that a holiday should be named for him.

Answer 5

Same reason why we celebrate all the American icons..Lincoln, Washington, etc..Dr. King is just one of many..Interesting that you single out only Dr. King..

Answer 6

We need to remember the struggle that many Civil Rights activists went through to bring the rights of all races to some balance. When Dr. King,John F. Kennedy,Medgar Evers,and Robert Kennedy were killed,The United States lost not only important voices,but the driving force to the quest for equality. If Martin Luther King,Jr. had lived,things could possibly be very different today;more young people would recognize the importance of having good morals,good values,a good education,and would be making better choices than so many have.

Answer 7

I was around when the whole nasty business happened.  Dr.King can only be described as a true nephew of Uncle Sam.  He saw injustice and put his life on the line to end it.  The man may have had his flaws but this was one true patriot.  

He embraced the Constitution and forced those of us who did not want to know to realize that unless it applied to every man it applied to no man.  He found an effective way to hold up a mirror to us and in all honesty, we did not like what we saw.

His method was truly genius.  Those among us that were filled with bigotry were only able to maintain our prejudice against blacks by convincing ourselves that they were somehow less human than we were.  What Dr. King did, by fearlessly marching directly into the jaws of some of the most racist places in the entire United States and defying those racists was courage beyond description.  

People often discuss how brave Ghandi was to stand in opposition to an army wearing only a loin cloth.  But then there was Dr. King. Out in front, singing and marching, unarmed right into the hornets nest.  It is hard to visualize how things were then if you were not around back then.  

These were parts of the South where Jim Crow was still mainstream, the Klan was everywhere and even the Police and Firemen were racist.  There was no body to come to the aid of King and his marchers when the violence took place.  All that stood between the marchers and the skull crackers were the eyes and ears of America.

When clash after clash happened, when the dogs attacked unarmed men and women wearing their Sunday clothes, when the fire hoses turned on them, the clubs began to beat them, the police kicking and punching and the tear gas it was perhaps the ugliest thing I had ever witnessed.  All I knew was that these people of a different color than I, bled, cried and died just like we do.  

We began to realize something, something very important.  In these scenes of horror we witnessed live on TV, the only ones that seemed sub-human were the whites.  By not fighting back, the King's marchers made us ashamed.  We looked into the eyes of evil and saw our own eyes staring back.  

Right then and there, America knew that we were wrong.  We were not  living up to the great and beautiful words our Fore Fathers so eloquently wrote.  Then Martin Luther King lost his life.   We stood in witness as a white man fired a single rifle shot and killed Dr. King.  To me, that moment was when our Constitution was really ratified.  

We celebrate the great white men who wrote the Constitution of the United States.  We honor them for all they have given us.  But we also honor the one man who many years later sacrificed his life, liberty and sacred honor so that all Americans may breathe free.  

So you ask if we should celebrate his birthday.  I suppose we should but what I would much rather see is April 4th, the day Martin Luther King died, named as the second Independence Day.  For it was the day that the pealing of the Liberty Bell finally reached the ears of all Americans.  

Merry Christmas!

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Answer 8

we should do more than just celebrate his birthday. He was a great man who asked people to step up, dream, and stop using violence as a way to make a point. He asked all people, not just black people to become involved, make a difference. I am in my 50s, I was lucky to see him speak in Washington DC, I will never forget it, I think he changed my future and because of him I am a better person.

Answer 9

Because he was a great man who helped bring an end segregation, who preached for peace and love, and refused to turn to violence, even though he was insulted and beaten, simply because he was black.

Answer 10

Because he is a great person and made a difference in many lives. He is the Definition of a Hero.

Answer 11

thats a crazy question...

Dr. King did a lot to make sure that people were united and seen as one instead of by color