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HomeNewsClarksville Mayor Kim McMillan’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Message

Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Message

City of ClarksvilleClarksville, TN – On Monday we will celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I believe the best way to honor his legacy is to continue to apply the wisdom he offered and meet the challenges he put before us.  

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well,” Dr. King once said. 

This quote reminds me that there is always something to appreciate about the work I’m doing at each moment. Michelangelo didn’t just show up with some brushes and paint, he left a part of himself in every work. Shakespeare’s work has been both hailed and criticized but few people would confuse it with any other writer’s.  Even though Beethoven was deaf, it was the music, he told his friends, that made him carry on to write some of his most well-known and well-loved pieces.

Today, wherever you find yourself and whatever the task before you, leave your mark on it.  The challenge is greater than doing your best; it is to give of yourself in the work. Regardless of whether what you do will ever be recognized, be proud of it and know that it is appreciated.  We all benefit from it.

I ask you on Monday to pause and reflect on the accomplishments and life of Dr. King.

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