The dream continues: Community event to honor MLK’s vision
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. What became known as the “I Have a Dream speech,” is now one of the most famous orations in American history.
But only the inspirational last part is well-known. The less-remembered part of MLK’s address is the unfulfilled promises to Black America and the urgency for change. Fifty-seven years later, the words are eerily pertinent.
On June 14, 2020, nearly 1,000 members of our community attended the student-initiated Black Lives Matter protest in the Center. This peaceful and safe gathering confirmed what many people knew and others were just learning — that while Shelter Island is a wonderful place to live and raise children, some of the speakers said that people of color can feel like they don’t always belong. Therefore, we have a lot of work to do in our community, as well as our country, to achieve the dream of racial equality.
On August 28, 2020, the 57th anniversary of MLK’s historic speech at the Lincoln Memorial, the Shelter Island Health and Wellness Alliance and the Shelter Island Library are sponsoring a commemorative event celebrating the that event, but also to address the continuing inequalities that people of color face every day. We invite the Shelter Island community to log in and participate.
Our program is a follow-up to the protest. This is not a political event. This is not a rally. Our purpose is to create a forum to listen and learn from other’s experiences. We seek to create a dialogue with viewpoints from neighborhood panelists moderated by Shelter Island High School history teacher Peter Miedema. We also invite viewers to participate through the “chat” function.
But most importantly, this program will bring the words of MLK and the efforts of the late John Lewis to the present. Those words were true then and continue to resonate now.
We welcome interested members of the community to join us for an hour of education, music and hope. We all love our island. Let’s join together to love it even more.
To register, please visit the Library website at:
www.shelterislandpubliclibrary.org
Note: Other members of the Shelter Island Health and Wellness Alliance include: Lucille Buergers, Jessica Colas, Laurie Fanelli, Ryan Sultan, M.D., Bonnie Stockwell and Councilman Jim Colligan.
