Organizing for America | Inland Empire Green Economy: MLK Jr Parade Keynote address

MLK Jr Parade Keynote address

By Jonathan Abraham - Jan 21st, 2009 at 2:52 pm EST

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Tags: economy, education, Green Economy, inland empire, martin luther king jr, Redlands, Universities

Today is the day that we honor a man who in his time, was the moral leader of a generation not just of Americans, but people around the world. We are here today in the Golden State, in the navel orange capital of the world, our beloved city of Redlands, not just to celebrate the life of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, but also what his life, and his dream mean for us today, on the eve of history.

As a boy growing up in Nigeria, I was captivated by the movement for civil rights, when I sang the song, We Shall Overcome, in an Indian School in an African country. Deep in our hearts, we do believe . . . that we shall overcome. It was the refrain of a generation, not just in America, echoing across the world. This song that the peaceful protesters sang in Selma, and Montgomery, in Atlanta and in Mississippi, when the Freedom summer met the brutality and hate of a few. A song sung on the road to Washington, as Dr King joined hands with other leaders of the movement to dream a dream in the shadow of the Lincoln memorial.

When I first read the declaration of independence, sitting in a dusty classroom in Africa, I was convinced that the United States of America was the one country on earth where all were equal. The words leaped off the pages of my history textbook.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

This is the promise of America. But it troubled me that such a noble ideal met with harsh reality, that men and women might be created equal by God, but the possibility of full citizenship would be open to only some of the population.

Aristotle, when speaking to the ancient Greeks about the idea of citizenship, said that a citizen is one who is eligible to participate in the elected offices necessary for the government of a nation. And this extends to all offices in a nation, including the highest elected office. If some citizens cannot reasonably aspire to hold office in the land, then their citizenship exists as a promise on paper, but has not been fully realized. It remains just a dream.

When I was nearing the completion of my military service. I was on leave from the Army in New York City and was attending a jazz benefit at the historic Apollo theater in Harlem for the musicians of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. These musicians held firmly to the dream that they would overcome their adversity, and rebuild New Orleans. During an intermission I got into a short conversation with the restroom attendant. He was an older African American gentleman, who on seeing my haircut, asked if I was in the service.

"Yes, Sir, how did you know." I replied.

"Well you got that haircut that's designed to put a helmet around." He said.

He told me that he was also a veteran. He had been in the Normandy invasion, at D-Day. Seeing a young soldier returning home from this war led him back to the days of his youth.

And he asked me, "And what did you do in the Army young man?"

" I was in the infantry, sir" I replied.

"And in which unit?" he asked.

"The 173rd Airborne, based out of Italy." I replied.

"Oh you were a paratrooper?" he asked. Now he looked thoughtful.

At this point his voice became hushed, and he said, "Son, in my day, they didn't allow colored folks in the paratroops."

As I walked back out of the Apollo Theater onto 125th street that day, my eye caught the street sign at the intersection. It read . . . Martin Luther King Jr. blvd. It was a reminder that without Dr King and his dream, I would never have been allowed the honor of combat in the mountains of Afghanistan, wearing the proud insignia of the Airborne on my shoulder above the United States flag.

Forty-five years ago, Dr King led the march on Washington, and delivered his speech to the nation. He said he had a dream, an American dream. He took stock of the nation's progress since president Lincoln had signed the emancipation proclamation. A century had passed, and he came to an uncomfortable verdict. America in that generation, had still not lived up to the promise of its founding principles. Many African Americans could not vote, and fewer still could dream of gaining the qualifications to run for the highest office in the land.

But Dr King held to an unwavering hope, that we as a nation were a better people, that change would come to America. He said that he might not reach this day with us, but he knew that we as a nation, would live out our creed. That we would reach the promised land of brotherhood, and harmony, and opportunity for all to serve our nation.

When we gathered here last year, in this Redlands Bowl, to honor Martin Luther King Jr., an epic struggle for the soul of America was playing itself out across the nation. Young men and women from Redlands joined others from across the country to brave the snows of the Midwest, going door to door, spreading the same message of hope and the dream that is as old as our nation, that all men are created equal.

I was sitting in my car, parked on Eureka street, listening to the public radio station for news from the primary. And then came the clear result . . . that America was ready to let go of the past, and reach for the future that our founders envisioned for us. In Iowa, the tide of battle turned, and people young and old became alive to the possibility that we could do the impossible. That the dream that was spoken more than forty years ago on the steps of the Lincoln memorial by the moral leader of his generation was one step closer to becoming a reality for our generation.

In less than twenty-four hours, Change will come to Washington. In less than twenty-four hours, Barak Obama will raise his right hand, and be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America. With his presidency comes a renewed call to service of our country by each of us. To us falls the task of making this change real right here in the great state of California, in the counties of San Bernardino and in Riverside, in this Inland Empire that one in every ten Californians calls home.

Never has the urgency been greater, never has the need for us to exercise fully the rights and the responsibilities of citizenship in America and in California been greater. This great state, sitting on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, the fifth largest economy in the world, this dynamic golden state of innovation and progress, this is where America's future is written. We cannot look to Washington, to our new president for all the answers, more than likely, he's looking to us here in California, for some of the answers. We need to stop looking up to Washington, and start looking around at each other, since the answers to our problems are right here, with us, with the residents of cities like Redlands, San Bernardino and Riverside. We hold the key to our own future. We are the ones who can make change happen right here in the Inland Empire. Right here, Right now.

America is looking to us for answers. Answers for how to create more wind and solar energy. Answers for how to turn household waste into natural gas. Answers on how to power a new generation of electric cars and high speed trains. America is looking to California to be first in implementing the new green economy that will create high paying jobs for all our residents. To see how we will take a housing based economy, and turn it into a knowledge based economy with opportunities for all residents. To see how we will make our buildings more energy efficient. To see how we will use innovation and American ingenuity to reverse the economic depression that grips the city centers in both the county seats in the Inland Empire, Riverside and San Bernardino.

To see how we will revive the city of Fontana, still recovering from the closure of the Kaiser Steel mill, and today hit by the foreclosure crisis like so many of our cities. To how we will turn the old Norton Air Force Base, and the the old March Air Force base, and George Air Force base into thriving enterprise zones that will produce jobs for American workers creating the sophisticated products of the green economy. Jobs making energy sensors, creating electric car engines, the next generation of natural gas engines and other made in America products that will revive our middle class, and provide a decent job for everyone who wants to work hard at the American dream.

We can look to the universities in the Inland Empire to be innovators in producing the research and technology that is required for this new economy. To University of California in Riverside to produce the new technology to run electric cars, and California Polytechnic Institute at Pomona to create regenerative energy technologies, to Cal State University in San Bernardino to commercialize these ideas with their business program, to Loma Linda University to find ways of researching and creating more effective solar panels and to the University of Redlands to help create a new computerized map for the whole country.

Our community colleges will need to train workers in the new green economy, and our schools from kindergarten till high school will need to prepare all of our young people, and equip them with the skills in reading, and writing, and math, and science so they can go to college at UC Riverside, and do research at the University of Redlands, and create new ideas in the research center in Cal Poly Pomona, and go on to good paying jobs that can pay a mortgage, and support a family. So the rising generation of Californians, who are African American, and white, and Hispanic and Asian and American Indian, and Indian American like myself, can forge the future of the Inland Empire, and of California, and show America what our new president's recovery plan looks like in action.

We have a proud heritage and a diverse people, from the many waves of settlement that have poured into these valleys from the east, coming West in search of new frontiers, of new promise. Ours are the oldest settlements in California, dating back to the Indian tribes, the Spanish missions, the Mormon fort that used to stand in San Bernardino, the citrus growers in Redlands, and everyone since who has been drawn in by the beauty of the land, these mountains, capped with snow, lakes of fresh water and the space to expand our horizons, to think of new possibilities and to dream an American dream right here, right now in southern California.

With unity of thought and action, with many voices joining together as one, we can grasp the fierce urgency of this moment, that change comes when we dream our future, envision our future, when we settle for nothing less than our highest hopes, when we take these dreams, write them down, speak them in the public forums, in our newspapers, in the mailboxes of our representatives in congress, of our senators. When we speak out our vision for our future in city councils, and school board meetings, and community college board meetings, and our county supervisors meetings. When we speak with one voice, one purpose and say to all who hear, that we the people have spoken. That the future is ours, and we are ready to make it happen. Yes we can!

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ML King | Report to Admin

By Torgny V.O.B. Jan 21st 2009 at 5:18 pm EST (Updated Jan 21st 2009 at 5:18 pm EST)

What we see today is truly the result of the work of ML King and others.

Re: ML King | Report to Admin

By Jonathan Abraham Jan 22nd 2009 at 3:12 am EST (Updated Jan 22nd 2009 at 3:12 am EST)

Yes, I was also especially moved to see Rev Lowery offer that heartfelt benediction at the inaugural.

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