Instead of Watching a Racist Get Inaugurated on MLK Day, Let's Spend the Day in Service to Our Communities
There are things we can do to keep our blood pressure in check and fulfill the call to service to which Dr. King dedicated his life.
Anything going on next week?
Oh, yeah. We’re getting a new president.
Are you planning on watching our first convicted felon president get inaugurated on Monday?
You know what else Monday is, don’t you?
Martin Luther King Day.
That’s right — we’re inaugurating a racist on a national holiday commemorating the revered civil rights icon.
If someone were to write it, it would be too implausible to believe.
But here we are.
In case you’re one of the growing throng planning to refuse to dignify the corporate media networks with more ratings Monday afternoon, there are things you can do to keep your blood pressure in check and fulfill the call to service to which Dr. King dedicated his life.
First, Americorps offers many opportunities to volunteer delivering food to the food insecure and/or transportation limited, providing unhoused individuals with winter clothes, or donating hygiene products and clothing to local shelters.
Also offering volunteer opportunities is the “Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change” (aka, “The King Center”). This year’s theme is “Mission Possible: Protecting Freedom, Justice, and Democracy in the Spirit of Nonviolence.”
Teach for America has published an impressive list of “19 Resources and Ideas to Celebrate the MLK Day of Service,” one of which is “Explore the Idealist website for volunteer tasks and other locally based volunteer opportunities.”
More suggested actions are to get involved with your local historical society or support the National Civil Rights Museum; or, locate a civil rights museum nearest you and pay it a visit. There are likely volunteer opportunities at it as well. The Civil Rights Project provides an alphabetical list of civil rights organizations.
Even though the 2025 election season might seem like a lifetime away, parties are preparing now. This is the time period in which potential candidates for office begin reaching out to their local party committees for endorsements. So it’s a perfect time to contact your local board of elections office and sign up to become an election worker, or help people register to vote.
If a virtual approach you can do from home interests you, Catchafire offers those volunteer opportunities.
Volunteer to transcribe historical documents through the Smithsonian Digital Volunteer program or the Library of Congress which offers a transcription program with “By the People,” a volunteer endeavor designed to improve search, readability, and access to handwritten and typed documents, including the sight impaired.
Help seniors feel less lonely by helping out with “Letters Against Isolation,” serving thousands a senior citizens all over the world.
Volunteer with CareerVillage.org to answer questions from students thinking about pursuing your career in the future. You can even sign up with UPchieve to be a virtual tutor for low-income students.
If you can’t volunteer, all non-profit organizations accept donations, and there are many worthwhile groups we are going to need in the next four years standing up for our rights, safety, and dignity. Sometimes just $20 or $25 dollars is all it takes to help their efforts and get yourself on a group’s email list so you can stay apprised of their activities and opportunities.
Dr. King dedicated his life and legacy to public service. The next administration is going to challenge our resilience, community, and fortitude--the very things Dr. King spoke of so eloquently and advocated in his tireless work to promote the qualities enshrined in our Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal.”
King was surveilled, jailed, attacked, insulted, maligned, labeled a “communist”. J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI considered King the “most notorious liar in the country” and even encouraged him to commit suicide (see below).
As we head into dark days, it’s important to remember the darker days heroes like Dr. King and so many other civil rights champions believed we would overcome, and it some ways, did.
As Dr. King famously pronounced: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”