REFLECTIONS FOR MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY

• Thanks to Elizabeth Riebschlaeger for sending in the following reflection on MLK from SEN. JEFF MERKELEY for "WORKING FAMILIES" and an ACTION that each of us can take.

Today, we honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s a chance for us to recommit ourselves to his life’s work – equality and economic opportunity for everyone.

After all, as Dr. King once said:

What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee? ... What does it profit one to be able to attend an integrated school when he doesn’t earn enough money to buy his children school clothes?

The minimum wage today has less buying power than it did fifty years ago. That’s just wrong.

We can change that. The Fair Minimum Wage Act would increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, up from $7.25 today, and provide a raise for tipped workers (who’ve been stuck at $2.13 an hour since 1991). 

Sign the petition and tell Congress:  It’s time to raise the minimum wage.

Just as important, the Fair Minimum Wage Act would tie the minimum wage to the rate of inflation so working families earning minimum wage never lose a penny in buying power down the road. We’ve done that here in Oregon with our minimum wage, and it’s been a critical factor supporting our working families.

In the last several years, the top 1% have taken home some 95% of the economic gains. A stronger minimum wage means a stronger economy for all of us and better opportunities for working families. It’s a critical step towards making sure our nation's prosperity reaches everybody, not just the lucky few.

Please join me and Working Families: Call on Congress to pass the Fair Minimum Wage Act without delay.

-Senator Jeff Merkley
Oregon

• Thanks to Cindy Stacy for sending in Joan Chittister's reflection on MLK: A HIGHER NOTION OF HUMANITY

…until the day he was assassinated, Martin Luther King waged one long, unending campaign for the soul of the century. He molded the black church into a center of resistance. He targeted one situation after another for black reaction—segregated lunch counters, white educational systems, the labor disputes of black workers, urban housing settlements, voting registration abuses, and finally he focused in on the relationship between business, militarism and racism everywhere. And he did it all with love of the enemy and passive resistance that changed a nation without leaving a residue of incurable and unforgettable bitterness.  READ MORE

• PAX CHRISTI:  During the past week, in preparation for the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Pax Christi has been featuring some of the best writing from the "Bread for the Journey" blog that references or is inspired by Dr. King's witness.  

THEME 1:  WITNESSING TODAY TO THE PROPHETIC PRESENCE OF DR. KING
CLICK HERE for reflections by Rev. Joe Nangle, ofm which were first posted on 1/21/13.

Fr. Joe Nangle, ofm is a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace.

THEME 2:  WHEN PROFILING IS "REASONABLE," INJUSTICE BECOMES EXCUSABLE

CLICK HERE for reflections by Fr. Bryan Massingale which were first posted on 7/19/13. 

Fr. Massingale is a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, a profesor of theology at Marquette University, and a dynamic speaker on justice issues.  He is the author of "Racial Justice and the Catholic Church,"  (Orbis, 2012).

 

THEME 3:  A POEM FOR MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR

CLICK HERE for the poem by Art Laffin, written from Rappanhannock Jail, Fredricksburg, VA, MLK Day, 1994.