King's legacy remembered on historic day

Using the Martin Luther King Jr. quote, “Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts,” the Heidelberg community came together to celebrate King’s legacy on the same day the nation inaugurated its first African American president.

 

Interim President Jim Troha called upon the words of another president, Robert F. Kennedy, as he put the day’s historic events into perspective:

 

“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

Kennedy continued: “We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past, and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder. But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.

“And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.” 

Troha said the passage, a personal favorite, resonated even more on this day. He thanked the faculty and staff members and students for their role in organizing and participating in last night’s community celebration, Fulfilling the Dream, last night at Tiffin’s Ebenezer United Methodist Church.

 

For today’s program, the Heidelberg Concert Choir performed In Dreams by John David Earnest. Senior David Glover gave a dramatic reading to Steve Kowit’s Basic. Dr. Douglas McConnell, professor of composition and music and chairman of the Music Department, performed Improvisation on a Spiritual. Senior Mi-Yan Carter recited Open Letter to Barack Obama by Alice Walker. The program concluded with the singing of the hymn Lift Every Voice and Sing.

 

The annual program was organized and sponsored by the Academic Enhancement Committee, the Black Student Union and the departments of Music and Communication and Theatre Arts.

 

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