Monday, we will celebrate Dr. King day, a cause for stopping to reflect and remember. Dr. King’s life and his words—with us forever—are a reminder to us of the ever constant fight for equality–in our country and in our industry. I was going to include some quotes from Dr. King’s famous “I HAVE A DREAM” speech on the PEOPLE web site but decided on another direction when I read the “Just Saying” message emailed by Rob Boyle, Justine Petersen. I felt, like Rob, that Dr. King’s “THE OTHER AMERICA” speech more accurately reflects what is on my mind here and now, January, 2018.

I am not sure how one properly celebrates Dr. King day but for me, I shall read the following speech as well as his “I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH” and I will sit in silence and in total admiration of Dr. King’s words and his work. What a powerful inspiration this man was–and continues to be–for so many in need of dreams and HOPE. I would love to spend an afternoon with this guy.

Here is the blog posted by Justine Petersen

Just Saying…
A Weekly Blog by Justine PETERSEN

Number 51
January 12, 2018
This week’s blog is written by our Chief Executive Officer, Rob Boyle.

I was eleven years old living in Indianapolis when on April 4, 1968 Bobby Kennedy arrived in Indy for what was to be a political rally but instead announced to a crowd that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been murdered earlier that day. Many in the crowd had not heard before that, nor had I. That day is the birthday of my social and political consciousness. Before then, of course, Martin Luther King lived his short life as heroes and prophets live their lives.

Ten years later I read Dr. King’s “The Other America” speech, iconic for its eloquence of language:
“They find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity” and ” This other America has a daily ugliness about it that constantly transforms the ebulliency of hope into the fatigue of despair.”

And for its direct rebuttal to apologists: “One is the notion that only time can solve the problem of racial injustice. I’m sure you’ve heard this idea. It is the notion almost that there is something in the very flow of time that will miraculously cure all evils. And I’ve heard this over and over again. There are those, and they are often sincere people, who say to Negroes and their allies in the white community, that we should slow up and just be nice and patient and continue to pray, and in a hundred or two hundred years the problem will work itself out because only time can solve the problem. I think there is an answer to that myth. And it is that time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively. And I’m absolutely convinced that the forces of ill-will in our nation, the extreme rightists in our nation, have often used time much more effectively than the forces of good will.”

And for its political and cultural pragmatism: “Let me say another thing that’s more in the realm of the spirit I guess, that is that if we are to go on in the days ahead and make true brotherhood a reality, it is necessary for us to realize more than ever before, that the destinies of the Negro and the white man are tied together. Now there are still a lot of people who don’t realize this. The racists still don’t realize this. But it is a fact now that Negroes and whites are tied together, and we need each other. The Negro needs the white man to save him from his fear. The white man needs the Negro to save him from his guilt. We are tied together in so many ways, our language, our music, our cultural patterns, our material prosperity, and even our food are an amalgam of black and white. So there can be no separate black path to power and fulfillment that does not intersect white groups. There can be no separate white path to power and fulfillment short of social disaster. It does not recognize the need of sharing that power with black aspirations for freedom and justice. We must come to see now that integration is not merely a romantic or aesthetic something where you merely add color to a still predominantly white power structure.

Integration must be seen also in political terms where there is shared power, where black men and white men share power together to build a new and a great nation. In a real sense, we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

On Monday, as we celebrate Dr. King’s life and as we celebrate his gifts that he offered to us, I hope we make the time to imagine his dream and reflect on how we live his values.

Please view and/or listen to Dr. King’s “The Other America” speech at: https://youtu.be/m3H978KlR20
and the text of the speech at: http://www.crmvet.org/docs/otheram.htm.

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