On Saturday during the Eighth Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Brunch, guest speaker Dr. Barbara McDaniel-Suggs, PhD, challenged the audience to make a difference by beginning with the person in the mirror. She queried, “Where do we go from here?” and suggested that God has something for all of us to do.
Reciting from some of King's speeches and repeating some of his quotes, she evinced that many of our children can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps because they are “bootless.” She alluded to them not having what they need to survive and thrive. She said people are interdependent by design. “I can never be what I ought to be, until you are what you ought to be,” she said.
McDaniel-Suggs, spoke of the apparent despair that many of the youth seem to be experiencing and implied that older generations became so wrapped up in their own agenda that they forgot about the young people. “If we lose our children, we have lost as a people,” she said.
She also heartened the people to work together to achieve their goals, stressed unity and alluded to what could be accomplished through oneness. She cautioned them to be alert to those who seek to promote strife among them because that is a trap often used to deter progress.
The Saint Benedict the Moor Catholic Church was the site of the annual birthday celebration held in honor of the late civil rights leader and guests were treated to musical selections by the award-winning Gentry High School Choir as well as other young people who celebrated King through choral readings that included excerpts from his “I have a Dream” speech.
Carver Randle Jr., served as emcee for the program, Jackie Mabece presented the occasion and the Rev. Adoris Turner delivered the invocation and McDaniel-Suggs’ introduction.
