Monday, January 21, 2013

A Call to Service

Today in the US it's Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Crowds are already gathering in Washington, DC to hear the President's 2nd inaugural speech. Many around the nation have the day off thanks to the holiday celebrating the late civil rights leader.

A Washington, DC Tweeter snapped and posted this image at a DC intersection:
And it just had me wondering...

Today we celebrate two huge things. First, the fundamental idea of democracy, freedom -- the idea that a people can and should have the liberty and rights and responsibility to rule itself.

Second, we celebrate the memory of a man who gave his life for the idea of justice for all people. His call to service helped lift our national discussion about who we are and what we can be.

We grow up being taught that freedom isn't free. That service to each other and to our nation is a noble goal. An essential goal.

And yet on this day, where those ideals are front and center, we can't even be bothered to crush our used single-use coffee cups so that they take up less room in the trash can. (Or in the recycling bin, where they actually don't belong in the first place.)

It seems to me, there is much work still to do if we're going to become what we say we want to be.

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