Service members and civilian teammates attached to Military Sealift Command gathered virtually for a special observance held in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 21.
Each year the Department of Defense (DoD) joins the nation in honoring the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The holiday, celebrated on the third Monday of January, encourages people to reflect on the principles of our nation: that all men are created equal—regardless of color or creed—and we are all equal members of the human family.
Dr. King, originally named Michael King, Jr., was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King is widely regarded as America’s pre-eminent advocate of nonviolence and one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in world history.
The keynote speaker for the special observance, U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Marcus Ivery, Chief of the Fleet Training and Readiness Branch of U.S. Coast Guard Force Readiness Command (FORCECOM), presented the national theme for this year’s celebration, “Remember! Celebrate! Act! A Day On…Not a Day Off,” which calls upon the American people to engage in public service and promote peaceful social change.
“I took these words quite literally this year and made a point to take action and serve my community as much as I could on Dr. Martin Luther King Day,” Ivery stated. “I participated in a couple of community events on Dr. Martin Luther King Day. I stopped by the Buckroe Baptist Church to assist with their renovation efforts on the back part of their church and I stopped by the Food Bank in Hampton, Virginia, to drop off some canned goods and help pack up food in boxes. The team of volunteers was great and I met some of the nicest people who were volunteering on their time off.”
“I haven’t been able to do as much volunteer work as I would like to over the past couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ivery added. “But my experiences during this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Day have inspired me to work harder on observing the ‘Day On, Not a Day Off mentality, and I plan to do a whole lot more volunteer work in the future in recognition and respect of Dr. King’s legacy of selfless dedication to a greater cause.”
“We all have our own ways of giving back to our communities,” he added. “Whether it be by donations, community service, mentoring, or just being good neighbors, we all have our own ways to serve and demonstrate self-sacrifice, to remember Dr. King, to celebrate his legacy, and to take action for a good cause.”
In addition to encouraging MSC’s teammates to give back to their communities, Ivery focused his presentation on the teaching from Dr. King’s ‘Street Sweeper’ speech, which was presented on the steps of Barratt Junior High School, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in October of 1967. During this speech, Dr. King asked this audience, “What’s In Your Life’s Blueprint?”
“Has anyone told you that you need to have your own life blueprint?” Ivery asked the audience. “Does anyone know why having a life blueprint is important?”
“A blue print is a foundational drawing that you build off of,” according to Ivery. “Dr. King stated in his speech that your blueprint will serve as a pattern, a guide, the model from which you build.”
Based on Dr. King’s speech, Ivery presented three principles for MSC Teammates to assist in navigating through life’s challenges.
“Number one in your life’s blueprint should be ‘a deep belief in your dignity, your own worth, and your own sombodiness,” Ivery stated. “Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth. And always feel that your life has ultimate significance.”
“Number two in your life’s blueprint, ‘You should have, as a basic principle, the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of your endeavor,’” he continued. “As the U.S. Coast Guard equivalent to a Naval Surface Warfare Officer, I have given myself the expectation that I will be the best ship-driver and the best conning officer, in the U. S. Coast Guard. I have made my personal expectation that I will be the best Cutterman (or Surface Warfare Officer) that the U.S. Coast Guard has in our organization’s workforce.”
“Excellence, excellence, excellence. Excellence is you being the best you that you can possibly be,” Ivery Added. “Dr. King passionately said that we all should have that determination to achieve excellence. If it is your duty to clean the passageway and empty the trash, schedule fleet replenishment oilers for underway replenishments-at-sea, or provide strategic plans to the MSC senior leadership, then you do whatever it takes to be the master of that duty. Make it a goal in your life’s blueprint to do these jobs so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn couldn’t do it any better.”
The final principle from Dr. King’s speech is that one’s blueprint “must be based on a commitment to the eternal principles to beauty, love and justice.”
According to Ivery, “the interesting thing about the three principles that Dr. King offered in building your life’s blueprint are, the first principle of sombodieness is 100% about you, the 2nd principle, excellence, is 100% about you, but the 3rd principle is 100% not about you; it’s about how you appreciate, care for, and treat and serve others.”
Ivery encouraged the MSC team to reach out to their neighbors, both at work and in their personal lives, and provide uplifting encouragement and appreciation for all that they do and who they are.
“I’d like you to send one text, e-mail, or social media post or direct message to someone you don’t interact with on a daily basis, but you really care about, and tell them one nice thing about them,” Ivery offered. “When you tell them this, don’t thank them for something they already did. Tell them one thing that is a good characteristic of them. Tell them one thing you admire about them.”
Ivery then charged the MSC team to ask themselves, “How did it feel? How did it feel to send that note of beauty, love and affirmation to the person you cared about? How did it feel when you said something nice to somebody else? If you received a compliment back from them, how did it feel when you received it back?”
“By sending out those notes, emails, texts, direct messages, whatever you sent out there in the world, you just did everything that Dr. King wanted us to do with his 3rd principle; beauty, love, justice,” Ivery concluded. “And hopefully we can continue to share this practice long after today and we place this practice in our professional toolbox and use it from time to time when we have to have those difficult conversations, when we have disagreements on tasks, or when we are mentoring or being mentored by people who care about our own self-worth and talents. We should be intentional in demonstrating beauty, love and justice in our everyday lives.”
Military Sealift Command remains dedicated to providing a positive and inclusive working environment focused on the development and advancement of all of its teammates.
| Date Taken: | 01.21.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 01.28.2022 15:15 |
| Story ID: | 413641 |
| Location: | NOROLK, US |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Military Sealift Command Gathers to Honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s Legacy, by Bill Mesta, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
