Honor Martin Luther King Jr.

“Life’s persistent and most urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ”

Martin Luther King Jr.

On Jan. 19, Americans will celebrate the national holiday honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1994, President Clinton signed the King Holiday and Service Act, designed to transform Martin Luther King Day into a day of service that reflects King’s life and teaching, bringing people together around the common focus of service to others and breaking down the social and economic barriers that divide our nation. In the eyes of Dr. King, service was the great equalizer. “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.”

Dr. King’s message is one of urgency as well as hope. “Let us rise up tonight with greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge, to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make a better nation.”

Honor Martin Luther King Jr. by making this “a day on, not a day off.”

TOBY ROSSNER (tobyross@cox.net) was the director of media services at the Bureau of Jewish Education from 1978 to 2002.