More than just a U.S. Federal holiday or a day off from work, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an opportunity for us to deeply consider critical social and political issues. What’s disturbing is how Dr. King’s words still describe the world we live in today, even though they were written and spoken nearly 40 years ago. For instance, consider his sermon titled "Beyond Vietnam," delivered on April 4, 1967, in New York City’s Riverside Church:

The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Yet, more than just considering these words, our challenge is to choose our path carefully and take action. What change do you want to see? Start in your home and move outward: "Think Globally, Act Locally."

For more excerpts from Dr. King’s speeches, visit: MLK Jr. In His Own Words