Once again, there was no citywide celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Chicago this year. There was no parade. The Mayor's Office of Special Events neither organized any events nor promoted events organized by others. I emailed them to ask why and received no response.

I was unable to find either this year or in any previous year a listing of free events honoring Dr. King in the city of Chicago in any of our local newspapers (accessing most of them by internet). There were a few events in suburbs, including at Northwestern University, some paid events at the Chicago Historical Society. Each year at the end of the holiday, I see on the local news brief coverage of assemblies in schools or services in local churches held for their particular congregations. There is also a high-priced annual dinner at a downtown hotel the week before the official day of observance, attended by local politicians and journalists, which most regular citizens could not attend even if they were aware of it.

This year, I see on the news that people are again speaking against the closing of schools and time off work on this holiday. They dishonor the effort it took to get Dr. King recognized with a national holiday in the first place.

The relative silence with which this holiday is met annually in Chicago is a shame. One shouldn't have to research to find events to attend. The majority of Chicago's citizens are African-American. Dr. King actually lived here with his family for a time, giving Chicago a direct historical connection with him. I can no longer wait and hope that "next year" someone will organize something or the local news media will promote all that has been organized throughout the neighborhoods. We need a citywide grassroots committee to make sure Dr. King and his legacy is honored. So, I am starting one.

I hope that many local activists, organizations, and regular citizens will be interested in coming together to organize a citywide celebration to be held in downtown Chicago in 2004 and to coordinate publicity of neighborhood events throughout the city. Some of my ideas are:

1) A week or weekend long series of FREE, public events (i.e., a symposium) which is promoted well in advance, including listings in local newspapers and announcements of events on the news channels, as well as a web site, and

2) A program book that may be distributed FREE throughout the city in advance of the holiday, listing not only events organized by this committee, but local assemblies, services, programs put on by local colleges and universities, etc. throughout the neighborhoods.

We need people who truly understand Dr. King's legacy to get involved. This committee will be about more than setting up a venue to listen to clips of the "I Have a Dream Speech" and applaud.

We need to educate local citizens to know more about his messages and all that he accomplished. We need to educate local activists about the complexity of his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. We need to make the annual holiday an organizing day for projects which will go on throughout the year to educate children and adults about Dr. King's legacy. We need to make the holiday a day of service instead of a day of rest. We need to celebrate this life that was given in service to improve the world for each of us.

If it bothers you that there are almost no festivities in the city on this holiday, get involved to change it. If you can help in any way, please join the yahoo! mailing list at

groups.yahoo.com/group/MLK2004