We Must Learn to Live as Brothers

Today is a federal holiday, the observance of the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Schools and government operations are closed as communities across the country join hands and hearts if only for a moment, to celebrate his life and to consider our progress as a nation in our ongoing journey for equal rights.

We're not there. Yet. But we're closer today than we were yesterday and tomorrow we'll be farther still. That's really our pilgrims' progress (pun intended). Norwich has always been a city of doers, with a rich ethnic diversity for earliest days as waves of immigrants took their turns, so to speak, in the mills and factories built along the banks of the three rivers which helped define the city's boundaries and character.

Thamesville, Taftville, and Greeneville together with Bean Hill, Laurel Hill and the farmlands to the east and northwest of the city all offered opportunities to newcomers and established settlers alike and Norwich thrived because of who we were and what we made of ourselves in the moments we claimed for our own. It wasn't the first time, I suspect, that we realized we had more in common than those individual difference that separated us one from the other. It's a history and a heritage we would do well to remember today as we honor the 91st birthday of Dr. King.

As a child of the sixties, who came of age when Dr. King preached and taught and shaped every discussion about equal rights and human rights, believing as he did that one was always the other, I was often speechless at the depth of his belief and eloquence of his vision that resisted the existence and pervasiveness of poverty and despair that was destroying this country. Reinventing American society so that his children together with mine and yours would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" is a part of the legacy of  Dr. King's life and a part of our nation's history.

So, when you can today, I hope you'll make time to take part in the ceremonies and commemorations celebrating him wherever that may be. I hope this year we can seize the moment to celebrate the dream of Dr. King and make it our own.  And then, every day for all the days that remain, use its promise to change the world. Again.
-bill kenny