Tomorrow, April 4th, marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil rights activist leader of the American civil rights movement.

A day prior to his untimely death, he gave the now famous
I have a dream speech in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. The workers were tired of being mistreated, overworked and underpaid.

Did you know he contemplated not giving that speech? Apparently, not only was he not feeling well but it was gloomy and rainy and it was anticipated that not many people will show up to support the sanitation workers. Can you imagine if he never gave that speech?

So today as i think about the great sacrifice that Dr. King made for all of us and that inspiring speech he gave, i question how much better we are today than we were then. Have we reached the promised land? Are we letting freedom ring?

Video of Speech
Text of Speech
Text,Video and Audio of Speech

Activist groups throughout the country are uniting during the week of April 6-13, 2008 to raise awareness about continued violence all over the world. The following events are planned for the Global Week for Darfur by Genocide Intervention Network, Amnesty International, Save Darfur and STAND.

No one person can solve the entire problems of the world alone but each of us can certainly make a dent by pitching in. So how can you help? What can you do?

April 6th:
Host a fundraising house party to mark the 14th year anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.

April 8th:
Watch an HBO documentary, The Greatest Silence:Rape in the Congo, at 10pm EST/PST.

April 9th:
Join Darfur Activists at Beijing Olympics Torch Relay in San Francisco as they lobby China to use its influence with the government of Sudan to end the Darfur genocide.

April 10th:
Nudge your congress man or woman on this STAND’s National Call-in Day and demand that they join the president to Lobby China.

April 13th:
Join amnesty international, save darfur, STAND and the Genocide Intervention Network at the National Mall in Washington DC at 11am for a march to the White House in commemoration of the victims of the genocides of the 20th century.

As part of a reforestation effort in Indonesia, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Google Earth have teamed up together with others to bring us mybabytree.

So the idea is, for $5.50 you get to buy a tree that will be planted and cared for on your behalf. The icing on the cake is that each of the trees will be affixed with geotags to allow the buyers to keep an eye on their trees using google earth.

What a wonderful idea to boost a declining ecosystem and get lots of people involved!