The Blueprint

What’s the best way to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday?

As a food blogger, I’ve struggled with this over the years. In the early days, we stuck to food content, and business as usual. But in recent years, we’ve turned a corner. Because MLK has his own day. Some people have the day off from work.

Why?

So we can do a little more shopping?
So we can catch up on a little sleep?
So we can go about the business of life?

No. No. No.

Doctor King was murdered to silence his voice, to prevent the spread of the messages he preached. So I think one of the best things we can do today is to amplify those messages of love, peace, and justice. If you’ve got the whole day off thanks to the good doctor, the least you can spare is twenty minutes to hear a speech on the elements required to build a better life.

Thanks to the magic of the internet, here’s a speech from October 26, 1967 in Philadelphia, delivered to junior high school students. It’s fantastic, and continues to be relevant today.

When you’re done, you can forward the video along to someone else, or you could simply share this post. Or, if you wanted to go the extra mile, you could scour the internet for more videos, speeches, or remembrances and share those.

Today is a freezing winter day in Albany. They say it feels like thirty below. This is winter. A time when the Earth is dead and everything is locked shut. The wind will whip tiny daggers of ice and snow into your eyes, gloves won’t protect your fingers from the numbing cold, and the whole of all outdoors seems intent on your doom.

I’m not going outside.

The blueprint for my day is cook, maybe season the French steel pan, and cook some more. With luck, dinner tonight will be a steaming hot bowl of Italian vegetable soup, and maybe some roasted vegetables on the side.

But I’m going to hold close the lessons MLK taught back in Philly, and try to shine a light wherever I can.