Honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2018: Still Pursuing a Dream

01/15/2018

Some anniversaries are particularly meaningful, and one of those occurs in 2018: the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, a Baptist-minister-turned-civil-rights-icon whose impact and inspiring words remain both intensely inspirational and relevant today.

VITAS recognizes Monday, January 15, 2018, as a day to honor Dr. King’s legacy as an inspiring preacher, tireless community activist and leader of the national civil rights movement.

In his short 39 years, he made a significant impact on the nation, whether in the form of inspiring words and images from his now-famous 1963 “I Have a Dream Speech,” his insistence on nonviolent solutions for society’s deep-seated social challenges and racial divisions, or his willingness to stand personally on the picket lines with Memphis sanitation workers just days before he died.

“…The time is always ripe to do right,” he wrote in a 1963 letter from an Alabama jail cell, a year before he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Every day, VITAS encourages its employees to honor Dr. King’s vision and inspiration by doing what is right as they provide compassionate, dignified hospice care that matters—care focused on quality of life at the end of life.