Our thanks go out to the Whatcom Human Rights Task Force of Bellingham, Washington and to all the volunteers who worked to envision and create an event to honor one of our country’s greatest patriots. We are quite delighted that so many high school students took part in this year’s event. Power to the students…power to the youth!
We were honored and very much enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of this celebration/remembrance/tribute/continuance of Dr. King's dreams. No, the (s) at the end of ‘dream’ is not a typo. Dr. King had great dreams for his country. Although "I Have A Dream..." resonates loudly and inspires us all, its continued use to narrowly DEFINE King leaves us less than thrilled.
King also dreamt of an America in which systems and institutions worked FOR all Americans, not BY using some Americans to maintain status quos. So, one of our presentations at this event included continuing his call for Americans to critically examine our “society as a whole”. Poverty: The Inevitable Institution was created in order to ensure that the aspirations of the Poor People’s Campaign he and others started in 1968 will persevere!
If you're reading this you are either:
a) At the MLK Conference and have made the wise decision to attend one of the workshops Project 2050 is putting on.
or
b) A regular visitor to our website.
Either way it's good to have you here, be it physically or digitally. We have a federal holiday to honor Dr. King for the work he, and countless others, did to ensure America lives up to its promise of 'liberty and justice for all.' In remembering the work that made Dr. King famous, though, we often forget what he devoted the last years of his life to: the all bit.
It's not enough to talk about inequality, we have to ask why that inequality exists, and in doing so we must examine how the systems in which we live - political, economic and cultural - contribute to the inequalities that exist to this day. Dr. King said, 'It is not enough to throw a coin to a beggar, but one must address the edifice that creates beggars.' In the celebration of the life and works of all those who fought, and died, in the struggle for civil rights in America and around the world, let's take the opportunity to do just that: turn a watchful and critical eye on the institutions that continue to perpetuate racism, sexism, poverty, discrimination and prejudice of any kind.
Enjoy your day on.
