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Other than the founding father of the US, George Washington, Martin Luther King  is the only other American for whom a national holiday has been established in his honor.  Twelve years since its adoption, the day has been gradually evolved into not only a  day of remembrance but also a day of service. Citizens of various town organize  to perform various volunteer services for their community, such as serving hot lunches  for their low income seniors, cleaning up local streets,etc; Our home town Lexington, MA is no exception. For the past four years my wife has participated in the Lexington MLK day of service, marched in the parade of the day, served lunches at local senior housing  projects,  provided translators for Chinese seniors (now over 30-50% in some  housing units), and raised funds.This year is no exception.

One memorable instant  of the day was when a local resident, Fang Ying Huang, gave a short speech at the MLK day service when she concluded: “she hoped/dreamed that there will not be 'us' and 'them', but just "US" 'which got  a long  standing ovation and rivals the famous sentence of the 2004 Obama speech :  It is not the Red states of America nor the Blue states of America but the United States of  America. On this day of celebration, it is important to remember that all the benefits we Chinese-Americans  as a minority enjoy in this country are won by MLK and others who gave blood, sweat,  and ultimately life so that “we can”.

Photo of my wife with her hand made banner