MLK week: Dreams can last more than a lifetime

By Neil Schulman
Long Branch — On Monday morning, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Guild of Greater Long Branch concluded its week of events commemorating the civil rights activist with a ceremony at the park named for him on Atlantic Avenue.

Guest speaker Michael Salvatore, Long Branch Superintendent of Schools, told two stories about two people, and two words that mattered to them both, “inspiration and purpose.”
Our actions can inspire not only those around us, but also future generations, Salvatore said.
One of the people in his story, David, was born in Massachusetts. His father was a pencil maker “and in 1818 that was a big deal,” Salvatore said.
David learned to use his pencil, and other forms of communication, and became a respected educator and communicator. He became appalled by slavery in the United States, and used his writing and speech as a platform to oppose it, something unusual for the time.
“Speaking out against slavery was unheard of,” Salvatore said.
His other story involved a man named Michael, the son of a minister, who was such a prodigy he entered college at the age of 15.
“The work of a gentleman born nearly 90 years  earlier would inspire him,” Salvatore said.
David’s essays spoke to Michael, such as one called “Civil Disobedience.”
Coincidentally, both men also decided to change their names, Salvatore said. David become known as Henry David Thoreau, and Michael was known as Martin Luther King.
Both men realized they had a purpose in life, and both inspired others. We should use this as an example, Salvatore said.
“If Martin Luther King was inspired by work of a man born a century before, what could you inspire?”
“Do you think he actually envisioned that children today who are five years or younger can’t even imagine anything but a Black president?” Salvatore asked.
Joan Minor, Past President of the Guild, said that the superintendent’s speech reminded her of the sit-ins held in Greensboro in the 1960s. Those who attended these events were trained to sit as long as possible, and take any abuse hurled at them.
“They sat until the leader said let’s go,” she said.
“We don’t really have a leader [today] to say ‘let’s go,’” and the purpose of the Guild is to make sure people know about the importance of staying around in the meantime.
Mayor Adam Schneider said that had King attended some of the events in Long Branch in his honor, “he would have enjoyed himself, because we were having a lot of fun.”
These events — several performances in churches, a Soul Food dinner on Friday, and the ceremony at the park — showed how people from Long Branch, regardless of race or economic strata, can “come together for a single purpose,” the mayor said.
That purpose isn’t always to commemorate a person. The city will also come together to ensure that its children are educated and make it a better place to live, Schneider said.

 

Originally published Jan. 19, 2012