A timeless call to action

Also: What Bill Belichick taught us about winning [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  January 14, 2024 Dear Cog reader, Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day, and to mark the holiday, we wanted to bring you thinkers who could reflect on Dr. King's legacy, and how the advocacy work he was doing in the '50s and '60s is still very relevant today. The first is [a reflection by Kenneth Griffith]( the music director of the [Boston Children’s Chorus]( (BCC). The Chorus, founded by Boston social justice legend [Hubie Jones]( is in its 21st season. BCC singers range from ages 7 to 18, and they come from more than 100 zip codes across the Greater Boston area. On [Monday]( nearly 400 singers will take the stage at Symphony Hall for the group’s annual MLK Day celebration, which this year will focus on the contributions of Bayard Rustin. "I want us to have an eye to creating a world in which people haven't had to hide who they are," Griffith told Cog. The second piece is an interview with two local nonprofit leaders: Leon Smith, the executive director of the Citizens for Juvenile Justice; and Dr. Tasia Cerezo, the co-founder and CEO of Meryl’s Safe Haven, an organization that provides shelter and support to young people aging out of the foster system. We asked Smith and Cerezo to reflect on Dr. King’s, “[Letter from a Birmingham Jail]( written in the midst of the Birmingham Campaign, which called for the desegregation of schools. The letter, organized by King and his colleagues, was a response to white clergy members, who were nominally supportive of the cause of civil rights, but thought the nonviolent direct actions underway were “unwise and untimely.” In one of the more famous passages of the letter, Dr. King called out the white moderate “who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to ‘justice’ " as more dangerous to the cause of freedom than the “White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner.” Smith and Cerezo told us many passages of the letter still resonate today. “Freedom is never, ever voluntarily given,” Smith told us, echoing a recurring theme from King. “Freedom only comes with that push, that constant push of advocacy.” In addition to reading the letter yourself this year, Smith and Cerezo recommend listening to Dr. King read it aloud. (You can do that [here]( P.S.— We also ran two essays this week on [that big news out of Foxborough]( one for [football lovers]( and another for people who (perhaps) only tolerate football, but are still curious about that notoriously “[grumpy Yoda in performance fleece]( Cloe Axelson Senior Editor, Cognoscenti Support the news  Must Reads [Dr. King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' is a timeless call to action]( To celebrate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, many of us return to his writing and public remarks. We listen to “I Have a Dream” or “I've Been to the Mountaintop.” But Dr. King’s advocacy and legacy is much more complicated and nuanced than his two most popular sermons, Leon Smith and Dr. Tasia Cerezo tell Cognoscenti. [Read more.]( [Dr. King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' is a timeless call to action]( To celebrate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, many of us return to his writing and public remarks. We listen to “I Have a Dream” or “I've Been to the Mountaintop.” But Dr. King’s advocacy and legacy is much more complicated and nuanced than his two most popular sermons, Leon Smith and Dr. Tasia Cerezo tell Cognoscenti. [Read more.]( [At Boston Children’s Chorus, creating the world I want to live in: joy, love and ‘true colors’]( The value I've taken from my experience as a musician, and the confidence, skill and fluency of language I’ve built, it all makes me feel proud showing up exactly as I am, writes Kenneth Griffith, music director of Boston Children’s Chorus. He wants that for his singers — all 400 of them. [Read more.]( [At Boston Children’s Chorus, creating the world I want to live in: joy, love and ‘true colors’]( The value I've taken from my experience as a musician, and the confidence, skill and fluency of language I’ve built, it all makes me feel proud showing up exactly as I am, writes Kenneth Griffith, music director of Boston Children’s Chorus. He wants that for his singers — all 400 of them. [Read more.]( [What Bill Belichick taught us about winning]( Goodbye, dark cloud. Goodbye, hoodie. Goodbye, international man of misery. After 24 years, Bill Belichick has issued his final, gruff pronouncement in a Patriots sweatshirt, writes Joanna Weiss. [Read more.]( [What Bill Belichick taught us about winning]( Goodbye, dark cloud. Goodbye, hoodie. Goodbye, international man of misery. After 24 years, Bill Belichick has issued his final, gruff pronouncement in a Patriots sweatshirt, writes Joanna Weiss. [Read more.]( [Bill Belichick is a legend — and a relic]( Bill Belichick is a relic of a Patriots era that no longer exists and can no longer be recreated, writes Khari Thompson. [Read more.]( [Bill Belichick is a legend — and a relic]( Bill Belichick is a relic of a Patriots era that no longer exists and can no longer be recreated, writes Khari Thompson. [Read more.]( [Behind the prison walls, I heard these women's stories]( Adam Stumacher recognized the metal detectors and walkie-talkies inside the prison from his years teaching in schools that mostly serve low-income students of color. This is what the school-to-prison pipeline looks like, he writes. [Read more.]( [Behind the prison walls, I heard these women's stories]( Adam Stumacher recognized the metal detectors and walkie-talkies inside the prison from his years teaching in schools that mostly serve low-income students of color. This is what the school-to-prison pipeline looks like, he writes. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "This year’s election is, in fact, a continuation of the unresolved question of the civil war era: will the country continue to move towards fostering a multiracial democracy, or will it aggressively reject its growing diversity and attempt to make America white again?" "[Nikki Haley’s pretend slavery ‘gaffe’ told us what this election is about]( The Guardian. "No wonder Pamela Anderson makes headlines when she goes out without makeup; it’s still considered brave to be a famously beautiful woman with an unadorned 56-year-old face out in public for everybody to see." "[Botox Destroyed What I Liked About My Face]( The New York Times. "Seniors seem to understand the value of inoculating themselves against the flu. So why do they forgo the same precaution against something so much worse?" "[America Is Having a Senior Moment on Vaccines]( The Atlantic. "Bill Belichick never wanted to be liked. He wanted to win." — Joanna Weiss, "[What Bill Belichick taught us about winning]( ICYMI [Yes, Joe Biden is old. And?]( Nothing about aging is a monolithic experience, writes Pat Lowery Collins, who at 91 years old knows something about getting older. In President Joe Biden we have a Super Ager, she writes, and we'd be wise to look at his age as a bonus instead of a detriment. [Read more.]( [Yes, Joe Biden is old. And?]( Nothing about aging is a monolithic experience, writes Pat Lowery Collins, who at 91 years old knows something about getting older. In President Joe Biden we have a Super Ager, she writes, and we'd be wise to look at his age as a bonus instead of a detriment. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 🔎 Explore [WBUR's Field Guide]( stories, events and more. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? 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