In music, in readings, and in a challenge to keep on working for justice, a capacity congregation celebrated the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Monday at Riverside Community Church.
“We celebrate dreams that are sometimes challenged by nightmares,” Rev. John Boonstra said, invoking the “I have a dream” speech in 1963 by King in Washington, D.C.
In what is now an annual event, the Community Gospel Choir sang and led songs by the congregation, adults and children read words of Dr. King, and John Lennon’s “Imagine” was sung a capella by HRVHS students AnneLise Acosta, Olivia Newcomb, and Caitlyn Fick. It was a reprise of their 2014 performance at the same event, billed as “MLK’s Dream Lives on: Building a Community of Justice for All” and organized by Gorge Ecumenical Ministries. Following a potluck, about 250 people filled the sanctuary of the church.
Mayor Paul Blackburn welcomed the congregation, speaking first in Spanish.
“If he were to look around in 2015, Dr. King would be proud at what we have done and crestfallen at the ongoing challenges,” Blackburn said, citing police violence and disproportionate African-American male prison population, marriage inequality, health insurance inaccessibility, challenges to legal residency, and human impacts on climate.
“We are challenged by our nightmares, but our dreams live on,” Boonstra said, adding his hopes that citizens will continue to dream of love between brothers and sisters, peace between the ways of nonviolence and the sources of power, and for a healthy planet.
He cited the nightmares of families separated, immigrants who must drive illegally to get to work and take their children to school, peaceful communities shattered by too easy access to drugs, neighbors unable to access affordable health care, gun violence, and “a groaning planet.”
‘We’ve learned to fly the air like birds, we learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven’t learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters.” — Dr. Martin Luther King
“I have a dream I can make a difference. It is to go to Mexico and visit the place my family left behind.” – Christina Garcia
“I hope you remember anything at all about tonight is that the person sitting next to you is a dreamer just like you,” Boonstra said.
“Dr. King taught us, ‘when we become silent about our dreams we die inside.’ Now take a long look around you and feel the power of a room full of dreams. Dr. King said, ‘Dreamers dare to take that first step even when they do not see the whole staircase.’
“He reminded us we are all connected and we are all related. Remember his famous words, ‘we may have all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now,’” Boonstra said. “Tonight in our turbulent waters, we share the same boat, brothers and sisters in the same boat,” Boonstra said.
To a series of “amens,” he listed Anglos and Hispanics, straights and gays, undocumented and legally protected, young and old, humans and all threatened species ”all in the same boat.”
High school students Charley Boonstra and Christina Garcia spoke, and Garcia tearfully expressed her perspective as the daughter of immigrant parents.
“Why is there injustice? Why does it exist?” she said, noting that there are 12 million illegal immigrants, most of whom are in the U.S. for a better life and the chance for their children to gain an education and advance beyond menial existence. Garcia, an HRVHS junior, noted that in November 2014, voters defeated the ballot measure creating a driver card law for undocumented residents, yet passed the measure legalizing sale and possession of marijuana.
“How can this be possible? How can a plant be more legal than a human being?” Garcia asked.
Blackburn called on the community to work in earnest to realize the ideals of Dr. King.
“Dr. King spoke of what he saw from the mountaintop,” Blackburn said, “but in the Haitian proverb ‘there are mountains behind mountains,’ and our climb and efforts need to continue. Ours is the work to do, to preach morality, to stand up for the marginalized, to speak for the vulnerable, to remember the lonely. It is a big, tough world out there. Tonight as we celebrate Martin Luther King, we need to continue meeting the challenge, to keep going together, holding hands if necessary, and singing as often as possible.”
At the end of the service, an offering supported the work of GEM with children and youth, including Peace Village, a summer day camp that teaches social justice and sustainability.
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