We’d be remiss if we didn’t take a moment to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. So many are calling this an “anniversary,” a word that seems so jarring in light of what we’re remembering: his assassination.

In just this past year alone, I’ve had so many reminders of his legacy. From spending time at the Highlander Center in Tennessee, where Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and many more worked together in training, organizing and preparing for the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, to visiting family in Atlanta and standing by his memorial, it is such an understatement to say that his presence always seemed to surround me, traveling across this nation to do the work of social justice.

We know that in the last years of his life, as he focused more on poverty, that the urgency of his call was seen as an even greater threat to this nation by those who were afraid of what it meant to see the economy as we know it come to an end.

Well, here we are, 40 years later, and the economy, the earth, the world as we know it, is rapidly changing. So, in this moment, where so many are rightfully rushing to act, we must also remember.

Listening to his last speech continues to give me chills. I leave you then, with his own voice, his own testament to building and doing the work that needs to be done, beyond fear, beyond knowing that there will always be an end, and the true question is how we lived.