My MLK Day Message: https://www.facebook.com/SteveRaoNC/videos/4750668908359580

During this pandemic, I have been able to watch almost every movie in the Marvel Universe with Komal and Rayan, and of course, our favorite, is the Avengers Series.  We all need to feel that we have the strongest heroes, to inspire us, to help us get through tough times. Forget the Marvel Movies for now. Throughout history of mankind, there have been real Avengers, real heroes, living among us. These Leaders, during our darkest times in history, lit up the world with hope, changed their communities, their nations, by refusing to sit back and accept oppression, fear, and violence. They had no special powers.  They were ordinary citizens united around a purpose larger than themselves, were able to change the world and their communities. This weekend, we have the chance to honor and celebrate such a hero, such an Avenger, the inspiring freedom fighter Dr. Martin Luther King, who joins the likes of other human heroes such as Gandhi, Mandela, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A free India, a post Apartheid South Africa, the right for black Americans to vote, desegregation were all made possible by the marches to freedom led by such heroes.  At the time, many of the causes they fought for were not even popular or accepted, but they had to get out of their comfort zones, and fight for change.

Today, we honor such a hero, the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. We must not only remember his inspiring speeches, his brave struggle in the midst of a storm, but challenge ourselves to live our lives like him during these very divisive times.  His march for racial equality in America was a marathon, not a sprint. At each mile marker, he and his colleagues, experienced ridicule, humiliation, intimidation, and often imprisonment, but they never lost sight of their finish line, a nation, free from any discrimination where all citizens were treated equally under the law.  John Lewis took so many beatings in Selma, so Black Americans could vote, but we still have more work to do. We have come so far:Kathryn Johnson brought home John Glenn from the Heavens.  Colin Powell served Chairman of the Joint Chief and Secretary. of State  Condoleeza Rice served as Secretary of State.  Barack Obama served as the 44th President of the United States.  Lloyd Austin serves as Secretary of Defense. We have come so far but we still have not crossed finish line. We have more work to do.Let us never forget that positive change in America has come from ordinary citizens, who were not willing to accept a divided and unjust society. In the words of Freddy Mercury, The Show Must Go on. Long Live the Dream.