NYSUT members everywhere will join with other Americans in just a few days - Jan. 21 - to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This year marks a special observance. It was 40 years ago, on April 4, 1968, that Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. And, as unionists, it's important for us to remember that Dr. King - always a champion of the labor movement - was in Memphis in support of worker justice.

"Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness," Dr. King told striking Memphis Sanitation Workers the night before he died. "Let us stand with a greater determination ... to make America what it ought to be."

More recently, the King holiday has provided Americans an opportunity for community service. More and more, Martin Luther King Day is about participating in service projects in hometowns and neighborhoods across the country.

This third full week in January will find several of our members in Memphis, attending the annual AFL-CIO Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Celebration.

They will join hundreds of unionists from around the nation in commemorating the 1968 sanitation workers' strike and reflecting on the life and vision of Dr. King.

While there, they will also engage in political training and perform community service in low-income neighborhoods.

Contributing to a better community is not new to most NYSUT members. Our union has a strong social justice agenda that our members embrace. We will highlight that agenda at this year's NYSUT Representative Assembly, focusing on our longstanding commitment to the civil rights movement and our participation today in dozens of community programs statewide - including our organizational commitment to ending the achievement gap.

Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we "will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness."

Life's most persistent question, he said, is: "What are you doing for others?"

I am extremely proud of how the NYSUT family consistently answers that question.

Thank you.