King celebration confirms his message
Every year, in the coldest depths of winter, the Sussex County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Organization hosts a parade that makes its way up Savannah Road in Lewes. Through most of the history of the parade, the weather has rarely given this outdoor celebration a break. Many years have seen the parade proceeding on icy pavement or with cold rain and biting winds. This year, at least the sun shone bright despite the cold temperatures.
Saturday’s cheerful sun matched the spirit of many of those marching in the parade. The cold, sharp air, however, served as a reminder that as sweet as justice and freedom are, they rarely come without pain and struggle.
One walking group carried signs and repeated a sound-off style message in response to their leader: “Everybody raise your hand, pray for peace across the land. Tell your sisters and your brothers, the Bible says we should love one another.” Many of the signs conveyed similar messages of peace and justice, and the Cape Henlopen High School Marching Band, with its flag corps carrying red, white and blue pennants, played a medley of patriotic music including “My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.” That song, of course, ends with: “From every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
Those who gather every year for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade and related celebrations remind us of the sacrifices King made on behalf of so many, and his powerful example of what can be accomplished through nonviolent persistence when efforts are grounded in our nation’s founding principles of freedom and justice.
It’s hard to imagine any individual in our nation’s history who used the constitutional freedoms of speech and peaceful assembly more courageously and effectively than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. While espousing his nonviolent views to gain equal rights for all, King knew his safety and life were in constant jeopardy. Still he persisted, and, of course, ultimately paid for his own freedom of speech when an assassin snuffed out his life with a hate-fired rifle bullet.
The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations prove the ongoing power of freedom and justice and confirm the wrongheadedness of those who believe they can use force to halt people’s efforts to achieve them.
