This year marks 42 years since MLK Day became a federal holiday and Americans have honored the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a day set aside to honor a man whose leadership was rooted in universal human dignity, democratic values and a profound belief in America\u2019s capacity for moral growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His message was simple and powerful: citizenship requires service, and freedom comes with responsibility. It was a vision of nonviolence, pluralism and moral clarity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After 15 years of advocacy, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law in 1983, establishing the third Monday in January as a federal holiday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This celebration should not be diluted and be used as just a day off from school or a day off from work. We shouldn\u2019t be wondering if the banks are closed or whether we will receive mail on this day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Americans, for this and all our federal holidays, we should reflect on why we actually have them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin Luther King Day celebrates the universal, unconditional love, forgiveness, and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit. It was designed to be a unifying moment in American civic life, a day to reflect on our shared values, our progress and the work still left to do. It is supposed to be a day of service as we celebrate a man who brought hope and healing to America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We should commemorate the timeless values he taught us through his example; courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility, and service that so radiantly defined Dr. King\u2019s character and empowered his leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We should be promoting the opportunity to learn about courage, sacrifice, nonviolence and the hard work of building a pluralistic society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We should be learning and teaching that civil rights are about expanding freedom, and that justice is not achieved by replacing one form of hatred with another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I encourage you to embrace this spirit not just on MLK day, but to welcome his philosophy of brotherhood and cooperation every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fraternally,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Larry Magdy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Philadelphia Continental Chapter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sons of the American Revolution<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This year marks 42 years since MLK Day became a federal holiday and Americans have honored the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a day set aside to honor a man whose leadership was rooted in universal human dignity, democratic values and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-color-guard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pccsar.org\/pennsylvania-gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}