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Let's get ready to celebrate the King Holiday. Let's get started. The plan for today's episode was completely different, but I could not overlook the chatter about the King Holiday a few days away, right? So I'm like, you know what, let's discuss this.
Now, there is this rumor floating around, not just in the virtual spaces. The King Holiday station stations are reporting this, that the King family said that they are not celebrating MLK Day, come January 17th. Instead, they're urging the Biden administration and Congress to take action on voters' rights legislation and asking the public to do the same. So the crazy part about this is I did see this on a news station.
In this news article, or this video, they are stating, matter of fact, that this is what the King family is saying and doing. There were no clips of anyone interviewing one of the King children or somebody from the King's center. There was nothing of the sort at all in this entire little segment. Now they did go and interview different people in the community to see what they thought, and they were leaders in the community.
It wasn't just on the street type of questioning. Luckily, the community leaders, they did their homework. Every single one of them came back and said, you know, we don't think that's what the King family is saying. We think they're saying this, but they were clear to say what they thought, not that that's what it was, unlike the television station.
I've got a really big problem with this because I feel like in the virtual spaces, people will take something that they heard and blow it all out of proportion when if you did your homework, if you followed that trail, you would eventually get to the spot where you would find out what that actual person said or what was done to make people say this. The other crazy part about this is the video that I saw on the news. It came out five days after Bernie's King had already went to social media to clarify what the real deal was. How is it that this lady could go out there and say, hey, you read us wrong.
That's not what we're saying. We're saying this. And then five days later, the news station comes back and says, nope, she didn't say this. She said that.
How crazy is that? That's absolutely mind-boggling. So if by chance you missed it, you're not on Twitter or whatever, because that's where this particular video can be found, this is a part, a clip of what Bernie's King said. I want to take this moment to clear up any confusion that some of you may have as a result of a recent headline in the news suggesting that the King family will not be celebrating the King holiday if no voting rights legislation has been passed.
Well, the issue is really not will we be celebrating, but how we will be celebrating or more appropriately commemorating the King holiday. So let me be clear from the outset that we will be commemorating the King holiday and we are encouraging all of you to continue your commemorations as well. However, if voting rights is still hanging in the balance by the King holiday on January 17th, 2022, then we, meaning all of us, must collectively use our various commemorations and our platforms on that particular day to do what Dr. King would do.
My father would speak and act in a way to ensure that this nation lives up to its promise of democracy by putting pressure on our United States Senate to bypass the filibuster and instead of taking the King holiday off, they should make it a day on to pass the voting rights act. Bernie's King continues that her mother, Coretta Scott King, worked entirely too hard to get this holiday in place for them not to celebrate. So that's yet another reason why you can pretty much understand, get the idea through your head that no, she's not saying they're not going to celebrate, but maybe here's another clue that can help explain the whole situation. The King Center is presenting the virtual Beloved Community Global Summit.
The theme is it starts with me shifting priorities to create the beloved community. That says it right there. She's talking about shifting your priorities in your celebrations. She's not saying don't celebrate.
She's saying don't celebrate with a parade, a cookout, and that's it. She's saying celebrate by making your voice heard, make a difference, call a senator, do something, reach out some kind of way, speak up, be heard, educate, advocate. She's saying, you know, do something as opposed to nothing at all. And so when I hear that and, you know, even in the verbiage that she wrote in her video, it said let's educate, advocate, and activate.
Clearly, she's saying to celebrate and commemorate, but just don't do it in the laid back fashion that people do with other holidays. She's saying take this day off and make it a day on, put some work into it. Do something that's going to make a difference in the community. Now to me, that was a crystal clear message.
Why it was five days after her putting this message out that people then came behind her and said she told people don't celebrate? I got nothing. That to me just seems like people who are trying to stir the pot and create confusion. Thank you for joining me for today's episode.
Now we are a couple days out from the King Holiday, so let's go ahead and start thinking now what are we going to do to educate, advocate, and activate. We've got the time. Now, you may not have enough time to get whatever idea you come up with and get it launched on the 17th, but what you can do is get it started. Don't use that as an excuse because we're not accepting excuses.
I'm sorry if you missed the memo, but we're not. So we want to find something to do to help someone, to help the community, to help the global community. So thinking now, enjoy your King Holiday, but don't just enjoy it doing the fun things. Having little gatherings and getting together with friends and whatnot.
That's not what we're trying to do. You can do a little bit of that, but we need to do a little bit of work. It does not need to be a day off. It needs to be a day on because there's a lot of stuff out there that needs to get done.
And who's going to do it? Why not you? All right. Have a great weekend.
I'll see you guys back on Tuesday.