Posted on: Monday, January 17, 2005

ISLAND VOICES

By Miles M. Jackson

On this day, Hawai'i and the nation recognize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the legacy he left us. It is a day Americans and all others living in this nation may choose to pause and take notice of the significance of his work to break down barriers between people.

Not only was his life's work to heal and bring people of various races and religions together, but also to foster respect and dignity for all.

Dr. King's work began in Montgomery, Ala., where he organized and led this nation's largest civil rights movement — a movement that provided equality not only for African Americans, but all minorities, women and others who were disenfranchised because of their status in life.

The civil rights movement in this country came at a time in our history when this nation was facing a serious moral dilemma. It was a time of legal racial segregation, the Vietnam War and the general disregard for non-white people by misguided men. As a nation, it appears that we have outgrown adolescence and now have reached the beginning stages of adulthood.

In 1983, Congress made Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday that was first celebrated on Jan. 29, 1986. Hawai'i's Legislature recognized the holiday in January 1988, and Gov. John Waihee signed a proclamation on Jan. 11, 1989.

For those of us in Hawai'i nei, King's message reminds us that despite our differences, life in these Islands can be one of relative harmony with mutual respect for each other. Live and let live.

Then, too, Hawai'i offers to the nation a vision of what America can be when people of various ethnic backgrounds decide that it is in their best interest to pursue harmony for the sake of the "beloved community." Tolerance, peace and equality can provide the way Dr. King would want Hawai'i to be — a place that is not perfect, but always striving to be the best it can be. A place full of hope.

King once said: "We must learn to live together or perish together as fools."

Miles M. Jackson is a professor emeritus of the University of Hawai'i and the editor and author of "They Followed the Trade Winds: African Americans in Hawaii" (2005).