Since no one else will say it, I will: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be disappointed in us.
Our crippled progress. Our false brotherhood. Our fading hope.
You've heard the story. Read it in history books (I hope).
Dr. King's call for a national awakening in the summer of 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial would forever ring in the hearts and minds of America's hopeful.
"I have a dream," King said, impassioned by something greater than even himself.
His message of unity and peace awoke a nation ill with injustice (one that, sadly, is still afflicted with the same sickness). Now, nearly 45 years since that sweltering summer of discontent, Dr. King's dream still seems to be just that -- a dream.
Much like the quizzical poem by Langston Hughes, "A Dream Deferred," we must ask ourselves what's happened, and what continues to happen, to this dream deferred?
"The dream is still a dream," Yolanda King, Dr. King's oldest daughter, said in February of 2006 during the Distinguished Speaker Series. "We all have a role to play in moving us forward. We must become champions for peace."
As I reflected on this year's day of service and the vision a hopeful man, I began to wonder: How could I champion peace so that his dream could become reality?
I'm no Dr. King (despite me thinking we have some special bond because we share the same birthday). But neither are Valerie Marcellus and Luis Ocampo -- students I met yesterday who volunteered for the MLK Day of Service -- and that didn't stop them from keeping true to their promise for peace.
For Marcellus (sophomore-nutrition), yesterday represented her continued pledge to serve others.
"I'm always looking for events to volunteer at," she said. "We should do the little we can do."
Marcellus, one of 25 students who worked with Second Mile, felt very strongly about the Day of Service.
"It's something you should do," Marcellus said of student service. "Honestly, I didn't think it was going to be this big."
And big it was.
More than 300 students participated in the Day of Service (despite the 9 a.m. wakeup call on a day off). Some students volunteered at the Faith Centre or the Salem Hill Personal Care Home or the Centre County Women's Resource Center, while others stayed on campus and worked on "service to go projects" for Meals on Wheels.
Luis Ocampo (senior-nuclear engineering), one of the students working on a service to go project, said yesterday was extremely important, in light of racially motivated events like the Jena Six incident.
"Regardless of what is going on, we can take it one day at a time," Ocampo said of the theme: One Day Is Today. "I just want to help the community."
I began to see that, in their own way, they were championing peace through service to others.
Much like the fiery determination of Fannie Lou Hamer that led her to challenge Mississippi's all-white and anti-civil rights delegation in 1964 and say, "I question America."
Service.
Or like the united front of Bayard Ruston and A. Philip Randolph, who, in 1963, said America's downtrodden -- at the time, citizens of a darker skin hue -- must march on Washington's National Mall to end the miscarriage of injustice that had swept the country.
Service.
At the very root of Dr. King's life mission was his service to others. There is no denying that.
There can be no progression toward equality and peace without collective service.
And, while I don't necessarily believe that the theme -- One Day Is Today -- is applicable at the moment, I am hopeful that "One Day" could, and might, be tomorrow, but only with our collective service to others.
Megan DeLany (senior-human development and family studies), co-director of the MLK student committee, believes there is great urgency on making Dr. King's dream reality.
"Instead of waiting for tomorrow, today is the day to make change," she said.
What will happen to this dream deferred? You decide.
