When NIU marchers gather today to honor one of America’s most notable and influential leaders, they will also be acknowledging the trials and tribulations many have worked so hard to overcome throughout the years.

With that in mind, all members of the NIU community are encouraged to join in an annual campus march at 3:30 p.m. today to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Scheduled to start from the lobby of Stevenson Towers North, the march will wind its way through campus and end at the MLK Commons outside the Holmes Student Center.

Not only was King influential in paving the paths for blacks, he also was influential to the many Americans of all races and ethnicities who were positively affected by King’s beliefs.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal,’” King said in 1963.

America has come a long way since King’s speech, but there still is plenty more to be accomplished.

By attending today’s march, community members will know what it’s like to participate in a real march, as well as be able to be part of a movement that changed the way society operated.

The march’s annual crowd of about 200 students is only a small fraction of those who could, and who should, participate in the event and help continue King’s dream of moving America forward.

Believe in America as King did. Without one another, we’d be strangers lost on a never-ending path.