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| Jan. 17 -- First Selectman Rudy Marconi [right] joins hands with ROUND Chairman Mark Robinson [center] and Kimberly Wilson at today's Martin Luther King Birthday Celebration |
In the keynote address to the group of 50 Ridgefielders, Marconi said: "We must set the example -- we must BE the example [to] carry Dr. King's message ... of love and respect for one another." The event, scheduled to be held on the outside porch of the Community Center, was moved indoors at the last minute, as Ridgefield had its coldest weather in recent memory, with wind chills in the range of minus 20 to 30 degrees.
Today's ceremony focused on children, and the importance of Dr. King's message to them. [Right] Many youngsters attended today's celebration, which featured a reading by young Gianna Cocco. [Left] Rabbi Jon Haddon delighted the audience with a biblical story which reinforced Dr. King's legacy of a living commitment to the causes one believes in.
[Left] Kimberly Wilson, a member of the board of A Better Chance in Ridgefield, led the gathering in singing a number of uplifting spirituals, including "Lift Every Voice and Sing." [Right] First Selectman Rudy Marconi (left) congratulated Mark Robinson (right),Chairman of Ridgefielders Organized for Understanding and Diversity (ROUND), which has sponsored the King Birthday festivities for the part four years. Marconi is the first Ridgefield CEO to attend the King Holiday ceremony. In his brief but moving keynote, he reflected that the Ridgefield in which he grew up, in the 1950's and 60's, had an "innocence of... children who played and went to school together without seeing [racial] color..." Marconi also opined that there were actually more African Americans in Ridgefield in those days than there are today.
Since that day in 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr., standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, our country has seen positive change in the struggle toward racial equality in our American culture. Unfortunately, it has been a struggle and, much of our progress has only come through enacting laws against discrimination. While many Americans may feel good about the progress we've made, there are others who would not consider it progress, and some may have fallen through the cracks.
In 1955, while Dr. King was organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama, I was 7 years old and just entering the first grade at St. Mary's school. Ridgefield had about 6,000 residents, then. I remember it to be a warm, loving secure life here. There were many African-Americans living in Ridgefield then, more than today. We played, went to school together. . . and hung out after high school.
But just as the world became more complex, Ridgefield, too, experienced rapid growth and struggled to maintain its identity. The small, conservative town I once knew is gone. The innocence of its children who played and went to school together without seeing color is fading, too.
Our modern culture has bombarded our children with so many mixed messages. The media sells news by giving violence front page, or top story coverage. While some people are fighting for basic civil rights, we are granting permission for an industry to deliver lyrics to our children that promote violence. Messages of death and destruction in video games and movies now spill out into real tragedies in our schools.
I'm sure there are many who don't feel that they personally can make much difference in the overall struggle for equality. But, as parents, or just as one human being to another -- we can make a difference. Standing here commemorating Dr. King's life, we need to embrace his basic message -- to teach love and respect to our children -- to reject hatred and violence. We must set the example -- we must BE the example. The character of the next generation depends on how well we filter the mixed messages our children hear and how well we carry Dr. King's message with us of love and respect for one another.
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