Heroes and Humans

January 29, 2020

Each week a BA Woman contributes to our BA Women's Words—a bloglette posted on Friday mornings where we tackle gendered issues to advance the educational, personal, and professional development of women who seek to make a difference in the world. 

Read on for EmpowHERing words by confident women living dynamic, complex lives. Have something to explore, share, declare, or celebrate with us?
Let us know contributing your ideas here. 

It’s Friday. And I’ve got to admit: I’m tired. It’s been a long week, in part because my office squished five days into four. This Monday our office was closed in annual observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to honor Dr. King and the other activists of the Civil Rights Movement who faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles to make our world a better place. Meanwhile, I'm just trying to catch up on my overflowing inbox.

MLK Day—the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service—is meant to be “a day on, not a day off." Across the country, individuals and organizations volunteered at projects to assist with job readiness, provide food assistance, promote healthy futures, beautify their communities, and much more. That's BA(dass).

But not everyone gets this day off, or even if we do, maybe we're balancing the demands of family, or second jobs. Or maybe we just need a day off. And, for me, that's the lesson of this holiday: tackling seemingly insurmountable obstacles starts with small actions, and requires the hard work of cultivating persistence. Dr. King was a hero, but he was also human. The same was true for Daisy Bates, Fannie Lou Hammer and other amazing women and countless contributors to the Civil Rights movement.

These Civil Rights icons made change happen, but they also balanced their movement-building with the pressures of work, the needs of family, the joy of spending time in community, and the importance of self care. I'm certain they had weeks when they were tired, if not from their version of an overflowing inbox, then from the undeniable knowledge that there was much, much more work ahead. It wasn't, and still isn't, about a single day off to kickstart the new year; it's about getting up, again and again, (to paraphrase the words of Dr. King) to keep bending the "moral arc of the universe towards justice."