Commemorate Martin Luther King Jr Day here by participating in the SilenceIsViolence Strike Against Crime activities, which begin with the following activities today:

• Crime Happens Here: Community crime reporting public awareness campaign throughout the week. Signs available at Sound Cafe (2700 Chartres Street)
• Mayoral Candidates Forum: Candidates for Mayor discuss violence in New Orleans and ideas for community/government partnerships toward public safety.
  Location: Goody's Restaurant, 3200 St. Claude Avenue at Louisa Street. Time: 7PM
  Hosted by: SilenceIsViolence, Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force, and Stooges Brass Band
  Moderator: Lee Zurik

..and culminate in the Strike itself, which will be on Friday the 22nd.

Internationally, the victims of the earthquake in Haiti still need our help, as Nordette Verite notes. If you haven't contributed to help Haiti, please do so today. The circumstances there are still dire, even for those who escaped bodily injury but must cope with the aftermath.

As Coretta Scott King's words on this holiday tell us:

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is not only for celebration and remembrance, education and tribute, but above all a day of service. All across America on the Holiday, his followers perform service in hospitals and shelters and prisons and wherever people need some help. It is a day of volunteering to feed the hungry, rehabilitate housing, tutoring those who can't read, mentoring at-risk youngsters, consoling the broken-hearted and a thousand other projects for building the beloved community of his dream.

Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we "will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. Life's most persistent and nagging question, he said, is `what are you doing for others?'" he would quote Mark 9:35, the scripture in which Jesus of Nazareth tells James and John "...whosoever will be great among you shall be your servant; and whosoever among you will be the first shall be the servant of all." And when Martin talked about the end of his mortal life in one of his last sermons, on February 4, 1968 in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of a full life. "I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others," he said. "I want you to say on that day, that I did try in my life...to love and serve humanity.

We call you to commemorate this Holiday by making your personal commitment to serve humanity with the vibrant spirit of unconditional love that was his greatest strength, and which empowered all of the great victories of his leadership. And with our hearts open to this spirit of unconditional love, we can indeed achieve the Beloved Community of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream.

May we who follow Martin now pledge to serve humanity, promote his teachings and carry forward his legacy into the 21st Century.