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Guest Opinion | PCC President José A. Gómez | Honoring Dr. King’s Legacy of Service: The Path Forward for Our Community

Published on Monday, January 20, 2025 | 4:00 am
 

This year’s observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on Monday, nearly two weeks after one of the worst disasters in the history of Los Angeles County, and my beloved home of Pasadena, where I live, have raised my family, and where I serve as president of Pasadena City College (PCC). As I consider this heartbreaking moment we now find ourselves in, it brings me back to Dr. King’s legacy of service.

The holiday honoring Dr. King, one of the most transformative leaders in history, has become synonymous with service. It’s a time when we see people giving back to their communities – painting buildings, planting flowers, helping the elderly. This holiday weekend, there will be service events across the nation honoring Dr. King’s life. In a typical year, MLK Day is a gentle reminder of the inherent virtue of helping others.

But this is not a typical year for us at Pasadena City College, or for Pasadena, Altadena, the Palisades, or Los Angeles County.

Our region is facing a terrible new reality. Streets filled with homes turned to ash and rubble; blocks of houses still standing but eerily empty. The lives of our family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, students who resided in those homes have been turned upside down. Schools, businesses, places of worship, barbershops, restaurants are gone.

The great need in our region requires a great response — one that is expansive and sustained. What we need, even more than a day dedicated to service, is a deep and renewed commitment to service as a way of life, a new concept of service embraced by all sectors of our society that centers those in need. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” The question asked by Dr. King is at the core of his belief about service and especially relevant in our community today.

Many, many people in our community are doing great work to fulfill needs that have multiplied in unimaginable ways. Local, state, and federal agencies, nonprofits, churches, and businesses are helping, and the PCC family has joined arms with many of them. PCC has worked to be a force that helps stabilize the community: providing meals, essential supplies, healthcare, places to gather, resources for recovery, and emergency childcare services.

For PCC and so many others, offering service during a time of crisis is lifting up a community and honoring Dr. King’s legacy. Service that supports those in need, and that recognizes its greater good for society as a whole, is what Dr. King advocated. He recognized its ability to bring about change and inspire hope.

In Dr. King’s Beloved Community, grace, compassion, and service are the catalyst for change – and every societal challenge can be overcome. Our capacity to find solutions to the most vexing human conditions and needs is activated by our care and concern for one another. In the days since the fire, this outpouring of care and concern has given our communities reasons for hope.

What I see emerging in the days since the fires is an opportunity for service in a way that sustains the community and its enduring spirit, that allows the people of Altadena and Pasadena, and our neighbors in Los Angeles, to return and rebuild, and that listens to their voices.

On the long road to rebuilding these homes, schools, and lives, our community will continue to need our service – and our understanding of the way this service benefits a higher good. And the journey ahead won’t take days, or weeks. It will take years. But our ability to recover – to build back even stronger – depends on our ability to serve. Dr. King teaches us that transformation is possible when a community comes together with a shared commitment to service and the public good.

José A. Gómez is president of Pasadena City College and a resident of Pasadena.

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