Today is a Martin Luther King Jr Day, a National Holiday in the United States honoring the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King. Yesterday I started reading the 1963 book titled Why We Can't Wait by MLK. In the first chapter he talks about the Centennial (1962) of the Emancipation Proclamation (1862), and how not much had changed. He talked about the 9 years since Brown v. Board of Education and how not much had changed. 45 years later I wonder too if not much has changed? In 2008, we could elect a Black President. But so much of what Dr. King wrote about in 1963 is still true. Our legal system still enslaves with color bias. Opportunity exists for the top 10%. I could easily name several dozen well known success stories. But what about the millions of poor, who lack some bit of skill or luck (or divine intervention, if you will), to live the same life that millions of others have been so graciously given. I'm reluctant to write "poor blacks" and "other whites", but Dr. King argued in 1963 that the poor Black and poor White were similar in circumstance, but different in opportunity. With the state of our education system, I fear that not much has changed, it might even be worse. Reading the Emancipation Proclamation, I'm struck by the word "Free." President Lincoln was mostly writing about physical freedom. Nothing so much decries slavery as actual physical bondage. But we are all slaves to much more. We're slaves to our own selves, to our morals (or lack there-of), to the society, economics and culture in which we're born, and to the general world around us to which one often feels out-of-control. Secular Progressives recognize Dr. King for his greatness in the Civil Rights movement. But It's noteworthy that Dr. King was a Reverend. The only freedom I've ever found comes from spiritual roots. By whatever name you choose, the only freedom I've ever found comes from G-d. First, one has to become self-aware that they are enslaved, then they must ask for help in bending the bars of our own prisons, and slipping out the door. I was born an American Jew a little less than 20 years after WWII, and the Holocaust tremendously influenced my formative years. The Civil War is American History to me. But I was struck how Dr. King was born a mere 65+ years after the Civil War and how this memory too must have molded his psyche. I live in a different society than the one that caused my people so much pain, but the Black man still lives in the same Land that caused his. Today is a National Holiday. But it's not a day for rest. CivicActions has worked tirelessly for Human Rights. We believe in the same basic rights for all people. We believe in a diversity that encompasses "openness, shared energy, and going beyond tolerance to embracing similarities and differences." We work towards these goals and we try to live this values, although being only Human ourselves, we often fail. Dr. King wrote the book I mention above in 1963, talking about the previous year as if it was History. Yet, it was an ongoing current event. And this is how history is made. Listen to MLK's famous I Have A Dream Speech, skip on over to the Witness HUB, or Amnesty International and signup for a newsletter. Search within yourself and cast off any leftover remnants of the societal message of division and separation that we all grew up with. Diversify your world. Then, after you renew your soul, do something. Spread the words of Dr. King, "All Men are Created Equal." Write a blog. Talk to others. Work for the candidate of your choice. Vote Early. Stand up and be counted. Be present today because History is yesterdays present. 1863 to 1954 to 1963 to 1968 to 2008 is a too long to be so short.