To most people, the holidays just mean another glorious day off work.  After all, who isn't desperate for extra secs in their day?  But what I've recently realized is that instead of sleeping in we should actually be celebrating the people who made our stupendous country what it is - free. 

So, we at the Weekly Volcano are serving you up a couple of activities sure to school you on why we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Today the Washington State History Museum on Pacific Avenue will honor the late Dr. King through various exhibits and events. 

Through Tuesday, Jan. 16: the four-year traveling exhibit - "381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story" - will exit the museum Tuesday.  Originating from the Smithsonian, the exhibit commemorates the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks and her struggle for equality.  The exhibit brings to life the change that more than fifty thousand people brought upon the segregated bus system in Montgomery, Ala.  Looking at the photos, quotes, and historical texts, I could actually feel the energy of this movement.  It's inspiring seeing how so many diverse people stood and worked together as one.  I learned that during the bus boycott blacks with cars would take others to and from work, so they wouldn't have to take the bus, even if they didn't know them.  They called this the "private taxi."  Freedom wasn't given to them; they fought and got it for themselves.  I was struck by a black and white photo of a young African American boy warming his hands over a burning cross.  It shows how they were fazed by nothing.  They set out to achieve one goal and reached it.  Roberta Wright once wrote of the boycott, "It helped to launch a 10-year national struggle for freedom and justice, the Civil Rights Movement, that stimulated others to do the same at home and abroad."

Today: From 1 to 4:30 p.m. the Washington State History Museum will present Juanita Jones Abernathy.  Abernathy, an activist in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, will share her thoughts and memories of the time.  Then global artist Eddie Walker will create a mural commemorating the boycott and its creators.  Don't be scared to wear your painter's overalls, because he'll even let you help - with his instruction of course. 

There isn't an admission fee today.  Nice.â€" Julie Jordan