Take time Monday to honor the courage, values that helped make Martin Luther King Jr. our most celebrated civil rights activist

Q.What’s the meaning of this holiday?

A.Coretta Scott King, on The King Center’s Web site, described it as “a celebration of the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America.” It’s a day for remembering timeless values America’s famous civil rights activist lived — courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service. She wrote, “On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love, forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit.”

Q.Why do MLK observances all over the country call for community service?

A.King preached often on the importance of service. He once said that each of us has to decide whether we “will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness.” His widow quoted him as saying, “Life’s most persistent and nagging question is ‘What are you doing for others?’ “

All over the country Americans celebrate this holiday with activities such as serving in soup kitchens or conducting food drives. At Eastern Washington University, you can participate in a school supplies drive for Cheney grade school students. Drop off items such as colored pencils, pens and No. 2 pencils at Monroe Hall, Room 204, or at the EWU Bookstore. The supplies will be distributed by Cheney Outreach.

If you have an service project you’d like to organize, check out www.mlkday.gov, the Corporation for National & Community Service Web site, for advice.

Q. What did King say it takes to serve others?

A. In his 1968 speech “The Drum Major Instinct,” he said, “You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”

Q. Where can I find copies of King’s famous sermons?

A. They’ve been collected by the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. Read them online at www.stanford.edu/group/King/.

Q. What’s the Inland Northwest’s most popular way to observe the day?

A. Listening to the Rev. Happy Watkins, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Spokane, deliver King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech has become a tradition. He’ll deliver it approximately 35 times this month.

Here’s an excerpt: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

Q. How many times has Watkins given this speech?

A. He’s never kept track, but it’s likely hundreds of times. He began reading it to audiences in the early ‘70s. When the third Monday in January became an official Washington state holiday, he locked himself into a room at his church and rehearsed the speech until 3 or 4 a.m., until he had it memorized. And soon he was delivering it all over the state – and as far away as Los Angeles.

Watkins, who also works as a patient advocate at Holy Family Hospital, takes two weeks off this time of year to deliver both King’s speech and his own presentations as well.

Q. Where are his favorite places to speak?

A. Lewis and Clark and North Central high schools in downtown Spokane, both with richly diverse student populations, have a spirit that he can just feel as he arrives. Of the students at LC, he says, “They’ll make you cry. They’ve got the very poor and the very rich, black and white, the gays and the lesbians, the Russians.… And they understand diversity.”

Q. If Watkins’ wrote his own personal “I Have a Dream” speech, what would it describe?

A. Watkins dreams of strong families gathered around the kitchen table for dinner each night and embracing the values of education, hard work and unity. He wants to see more black students returning to Spokane to take jobs as teachers and nurses and doctors.

He carries around an autographed photo of the late Spokane astronaut Michael P. Anderson and says, “I think he would say to our kids today, ‘Dreams really do come true, but you have to work hard.’ “

Q. What’s the voice message on Watkins’ cell phone?

A. “Life is now in session. The question is: Are you present?”