By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A virtual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King was held Sunday through Hutchinson Community College and available for all to see on Monday via Youtube.
With the pandemic, it was a much different celebration, though it didn’t deter the message King wanted to get out. In the program, "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community", Joseph Shepard of Newman University noted that we have much to overcome.
“We are at a pivotal point in our nation, where we must rise up and change the course and trajectory of where we are today,” Shepard said. “We must focus on being put back on the path of civility, decency, justice and equity. Where people are put first, not politics.”
Shepard says that the situation was made worse by a pandemic and a government that refused to cooperate, both Republicans and Democrats.
“Kansans all over our state, unemployed, local businesses closing their doors at unprecedented rates," Shepard said. “The political division from all sides of the aisle continues to drive a wedge between relationships, and the home and our community.”
Representative Jason Probst also spoke. Probst has been very vocal about race relations in the community. He said the solutions come locally.
“I would argue that the answer is up to each of us,” Probst said. “A civil society is the aggregation of the people in it.”
Probst said that the pressure to move ahead for some, or keep the past for others, is the challenge for the community.
“There are always tensions and disagreements,” Probst said. ”Some work to move ahead, to see progress, and equality expanded, others hope to protect the status quo, while others seek to reconstitute a bygone world.”
Police Officer Willie Bowles also spoke of growing up as the son of a black police officer in Kansas City. Bowles says his relationship with the police force has helped both his fellow officers and himself.
“With some of my close friends on the department, I’ve learned that my experience as a black man growing up, they will never experience that,” Bowles said. “But me, explaining all of those experiences...helped them better understand and communicate with the black community, but also in situations where their experience helped me as well.”
The program also included remarks from Mayor Jade Piros de Carvalho, and new NAACP President Calvin Wright. As always the Buhler Singers provided entertainment, this year in a virtual performance.