Tomorrow will see the annual outpouring of one-off community service gestures by thousands of well-meaning citizens who want to appropriate the beatific fantasy identity that is the sainted/sanitized version of MJK Jr. I apologize for my role in establishing the "King Day Of Service" tradition in the mid-1990's. It was something I regretted within two years of launching this Wofford/Romney (the elder) optimistic parade/charade. Read Michael Eric Dyson on King, Hibernate this winter and read the Taylor Branch trilogy. If you have tomorrow off from work or school, rally for a higher minimum wage, a lower incarceration level, better public education and policing. Protest the pentagon and preferred taxation for the rich and their influence on politics. If you want to service your community take a radical progressive political stand as Dr. King always did. Don't pick up litter or paint schools - advocate for adequate pay and health care for those who do these things for a living. Teach your children what is wrong with the Right, and right with the Left.
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AuthorJon Amsterdam is a Lawyer, Educator, Community Organizer and National Service Innovator who directs Communities Without Borders, a non profit organization he founded in 1996. Archives
January 2021
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