One thing I always find wonderful about Traverse City is our annual celebration of the life and work of Martin Luther King., Jr. It is such a joy to live in a city where diversity and inclusion are embraced by all but a handful of people who live here. The good citizens of Traverse City are dedicated toward overcoming hate, bias and prejudice.

This year the public was warmly welcomed into Central United Methodist Church by their spiritual leader, Reverend Dean Bailey.

A proclamation from the Traverse City, City Commission, honoring January 14, 2001 as Martin Luther King Day, was read by Traverse City Mayor Larry Hardy.

Introductions for the evening were officiated in good form by Dr. Mark Williams, who also sits on the Human Rights Commission.

This year Traverse City was honored to hear as our guest speaker, Dr. Lloyd V. Hackley; a scholar and a gentleman in every way.

During his career in the Air Force Dr. Hackley taught Political Science and International Relations at the Air Force Academy. His credits include, President of the North Carolina Community College System, Vice President of the University of North Carolina, Chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and Chancellor of Fayettville University where he is a tenured professor in International Relations and Political Science.

Currently Dr. Hackley's major work is with the National Character Counts Coalition, which he chairs. In this capacity he has conducted nearly 500 seminars, workshops and lectures in ethics and character development around the world.

Following Dr. Hackley, a youth chorus was directed by Kevin Tarsa, director of music at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Grand Traverse, singing a rainbow song, "A World of Difference."

Martin Luther King Day 2001 Closing Remarks
by Rabbi Stacie Fine

As always it is wonderful to gather in this place to celebrate the life and work of a great human being, a great American, a great Black man. I have said from this pulpit in the past that it is easy to congratulate ourselves on creating and participating in this celebration. After all the creation of Martin Luther King Junior Day was no small feat in itself. It is easy and nice to listen to the program this evening and feel that is enough, that somehow we have fulfilled our obligation to Dr. King and to the many nameless, faceless thousands of others who have dedicated their lives, without fame or commemoration; it is easy to believe that showing up tonight is enough.

And again I will tell you this is not enough.

It is good that we are here, but I myself walk through those vaulted doors with a heavy heart, heavy with the fact that from one year to the next we celebrate and commemorate and still all our work is not enough to root out hatred, fear and the agenda of discord and division. All the hours put in, from last year to this, by activists, writers, artists, clergy, healers, business people and all people of good will, still it is not enough. Until each of us can honestly claim, "I have done all I can", real change will come too slowly.

Human progress comes slowly. Our celebration this year again falls against a backdrop of discord in our community, a time when we have allowed ourselves to become distracted by the rhetoric of fear and division from our real agenda: creating a safe, beautiful community, where all persons can grow, thrive, learn and enjoy life and liberty, and pursue their happiness. And I for one feel no small amount of shame for that distraction.

When will we be able to say, "We are Traverse City" not as a battle cry, but as a harmonious, loving statement of fact? How long will it take to be able to say, "We are Traverse City" and really mean "We"? How long will that dream take, or will we never make it real, instead resigning ourselves to fear and isolation, becoming like other communities with no unity or meaningful solidarity?

We will be able to say "We are Traverse City" only when all people are treated equally, regardless of race, religion, physical ability, ethnic background, gender, orientation or economic status, not only by units of government, in employment and housing, but by every other citizen in realms public and private, when hearts are transformed not only by way of policy but of personal propriety.

We will be able to say "We are Traverse City" when no one here is hungry, or homeless, or scraping by to feed a family on a minimum wage many of us of privilege would find unthinkable, when the homeless shelter does not have to practically beg us for support to buy powered milk for hungry babies, when the community meals program no longer must deliver to our neighbors because we ourselves do not allow our neighbors to reach that point of desperation.

We will be able to say "We are Traverse City' when no swastikas appear in the bathroom of the high school, when no Native American is harassed, when no migrant worker is seen as less than human, when no old person in our community lives afraid, alone and isolated.

We will be able to say "We are Traverse City" when the corridors of local, state and national power are open even to those who cannot spend millions to get elected, or to have their message broadcast on television, when the voices of the common people are as much a part of the dialogue as the voices of extremists, and already influential leaders.

We will be able to say "We are Traverse City" when physical attacks on person and property based solely on difference generate the level of hoopla and concern and involvement that a sticker does, and when persons from outside our community, with no investment here except their own publicity and ego cannot force us away from legitimate humanitarian concerns, and when reasoned voices are no longer drowned out by the disgusting rhetoric of hate.

We will be able to say, "We are Traverse City" when we can disagree without condemning others to hell. Only then we will be able to say, "We are Traverse City" as a truth and not just as a hope, as a reality and not just as a dream, and not one moment before. Until that day comes, although great strides have been made, Dr. King's dream too remains a hope, a wish, a goal for some future time not or own, and for places other than here.

I issue this challenge: let us be able to enter this room one year hence and joyously proclaim "We are Traverse City", and let us sit together on that day, with our crazy patchwork of beliefs and colors, let us sit together on that day without fear of one another, with a shared agenda before us, an agenda of love and welcome, of celebration and diversity, an agenda of growth and opportunity. Let us sit together on that day, all the colors of the rainbow, every philosophic stripe and creed, of every national background and belief, join our hands and proclaim, "We are Traverse City, and all are welcome here. We are Traverse City and all are safe here. We are Traverse City and all can join in our song peace and humanity." On that day no one will stand outside the circle of our love and caring, on that day all those imprisoned by fear and hatred, by self-loathing or disrespect will be free and the children of our children will look upon this generation, this place and time with the awe we use for Dr. King. Then shall the circle be made whole, and the clouds that have darkened our eyes and souls will meet the sun and reveal the holy splendor, the great resplendent beauty the Holy reserves for moments of grandeur and all the colors will come together in a bow upon the clouds, as it did for Noah in ancient days, when the rain finally cleared and all was made fresh and new and beautiful ...

... Circle Round