THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 18, 1996 TAG: 9601170121
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: BY ALAN R. FELUMLEE
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
In 1965, when I was 11 years old, my family went on a trip from Ohio to California. One memory of that trip stands above the rest.
Stopping for lunch, we walked into a restaurant behind a black family. A man at the front door told them the restaurant was full, although I remember looking around at all of the empty tables. The family left, saying nothing.
When the same man asked my father where we wanted to be seated, he responded, ``If you don't have room for them, you don't have room for us.'' And we walked out. I didn't understand what was happening.
On April 4, 1968, I was sitting on the floor in front of the television, supposedly doing my homework. I remember well the special bulletin that interrupted it: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot by a sniper at a Memphis hotel. He later died, at age 39, as a result of that gunshot. Again, I didn't understand what was happening.
We come together nearly 28 years later - from different backgrounds, with different levels of understanding and with a variety of life experiences - to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Even more, we come to learn from his life and his words.
This wisdom can be applied to any situation, any day.
It is better to work for solutions to present-day problems than it is to place blame.
Everyone seems to be looking for someone to blame for their problems. We need to move beyond blame.
The same is true in race relations. We will never make the progress that needs to be made if we are still living in the '60s, '70s and '80s. We cannot change history!
Certainly, we have regrets for past atrocities. We know and admit that many wrongs have been committed and are still with us, but we must move beyond blame to forgiveness, from the past to the future.
In ``Stride Toward Freedom,'' Dr. King said, ``As we go back to the buses, let us be loving enough to turn an enemy into a friend.''
We must realize that we are all in this together.
Hear his words: ``We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.''
Many young people today wear shirts with the words, ``It's a Black thing - you wouldn't understand.'' Others proclaim ``It's a White thing - you wouldn't understand.'' I believe Dr. King would say, ``It's a human thing - we must begin to understand. It is the only way.''
Dr. King said, ``Desegregation will break down the legal barriers and bring men together physically, but something must touch the hearts and souls of men so that they will come together spiritually because it is natural and right.''
We need to realize that we are members of one family with one father, God Almighty.
We must continue to dream and work for a better tomorrow for our children and our children's children.
Perhaps the most famous speech given by Dr. King was his Aug. 28, 1963, ``I Have a Dream'' speech.
His was a dream of a day when races would be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood, a dream of freedom, justice and equality for all, a dream of people being judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
As true today as when they were spoken over a quarter of a century ago are these words: ``Our freedom was not won a century ago. It is not won today. But some small part of it is in our hands, and we are marching no longer by ones and twos but in legions of thousands, convinced now it cannot be denied by any human force. Today, the question is not whether we shall be free but by what course we will win.''
In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., let us choose the course of love, reconciliation, unity, justice and equality, by sitting together at the table of brotherhood. MEMO: The Rev. Dr. Felumlee, pastor of Main Street United Methodist Church,
Suffolk, spoke Monday at Suffolk's citywide Martin Luther King Jr.
celebration. This text is excerpted from his address.
by CNB