Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 75 years old on Jan. 15. On Monday, Jan. 19, most of the world will recognize his achievements in becoming the face associated with the fight for civil rights, with peace, harmony and equality for all who consider themselves human beings. And, as many Americans have done every year since Ronald Reagan mandated King's birthday to be a national holiday in 1986, most of the world will reflect on how the world has changed as a result of King's legacy.
It's unfortunate that, while elaborating on the importance of King's holiday, the words "most" or "many" need to precede "Americans." Many Americans do nothing to reflect on how the world would be today without King's leadership and some Americans - like former Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham in the late 1980s - refuse to recognize the holiday altogether.
What makes King most remarkable, then, is that in the face of such apparent ignorance, King would be apt to extend the olive branch with an appetite for understanding and compromise. In its most rudimentary form, freedom is the responsibility and duty to formulate a unique idea or thought, and King would respect that freedom even in what would be his 75th year.
In the nearly 36 years since King was assassinated on a Memphis, Tenn., balcony, it's still interesting to imagine how King would respond to denial today. It's intriguing to consider what King would be fighting for in this day and age.
What would King say about the USA Patriot Act? What would King think about the war in Iraq and the reasons to engage in it? Who would King have endorsed in every presidential campaign since his death?
Any speculation as to what King would have thought is just that; speculation. No one is capable of speaking for a man who spoke for so many others, who weren't afforded the ability to speak for themselves.
What we can do, though, is remember and reflect on how King would want us to live today. The man who studied Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi put his trust in two things - his faith and fellow man. In both, we hope King would not be let down by what the world would be on his 75th birthday.
That is why it remains our duty to maintain a world King would be proud of today. It doesn't require a radical display of rebellion, his mastery of oration or essay, or even his inimitable strength and self-reliance.
It only requires a moment of free thought. We are given 24 hours each year by the federal government to revel in the work that King did in his short life, but it takes even less than that to keep King's spirit alive 36 years after his death.
On Monday, we urge you to keep King alive by offering his memory even a moment of reflection on how the world has changed since the tragedy in Memphis left us all a little short. King's fight was a success in his time, but his power was never limited to an era.
"We may ignore Gandhi at our own risk," King wrote of his hero. It would still ring true today from mountaintop to mountaintop that ignoring King and his legacy is not a risk America should be willing to take.
