Everyone has a favorite quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and between the anniversary of his 93rd birthday this Saturday and the federal holiday on Monday, we’ll be treated to a lot of them.
Perhaps revealing more about
me than it does about Dr. King, my personal favorite is one I’ve always
suspected he offered tongue in cheek, but it still makes me smile, "We may
have all come on different ships,” he said, “but we're all in the same boat
now." Dr. King is known as a civil rights leader and recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize but that’s a line any stand-up comedian would admire
for both its humor and truthfulness.
Dr. King was murdered before celebrating his 39th
birthday but his impact in both scale and scope is still being measured by sociologists,
political leaders, and, most importantly well-intentioned men and women just like
us, every day and everywhere.
I believe he was so intent and intense in living he
might be amused by those trying to calculate his import but I think that’s
because analyzing the doing is always so much less risky than the actual doing itself.
The anniversary of his birthday allows communities across the country to join
hands and hearts even if it’s only for a moment, to celebrate his life and to assess
our progress as a nation in the ongoing journey for equal rights.
To begin, we're not there. Yet. But I’d hope we're closer
today than we were yesterday and choose to believe that come tomorrow, we'll be
farther along still. Norwich has always been a city of doers, with a rich ethnic
diversity from its earliest days when immigrants took their turns in the mills
and factories built along the banks of the three rivers which helped define the
city's boundaries and character.
The villages that made up Norwich and the farmlands to the east and northwest of the
city all offered opportunities to newcomers and established settlers alike and the
city thrived because of who we were and what we made of ourselves in those
moments we claimed for our own. It wasn't the first time, I suspect, that we
realized we had more in common than the individual differences that separated
us and it’s that history and heritage we should remember not just as we honor
the 93rd birthday of Dr. King, but every day.
There are formal observances
this Monday, with COVID containment and cautions, of course, starting at a
quarter of one across from the Harbor (you wondered why I like that ‘ships’
quote from Dr. King?) at the Market Street Garage, with a formal public unveiling
of the Public Art for Racial Justice, PARJE, mural, followed at half-past one
with a Freedom March starting in the David Ruggles Courtyard at City Hall with uplifting
words from guest speakers and a lot of singing (by unspoken mutual agreement, I
only listen during this part of the program) concluding with a program at the Evans
Memorial AME Zion Church on McKinley and some prayerful reflection.
I hope you'll make time to take part in the ceremonies and
commemorations celebrating Dr. King wherever and however you can. He dreamed a dream for all of us but each of us must make it our own.
-bill kenny
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