While there can be no argument that the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has left behind an enormous legacy for generations to come, whether this legacy has brought about a permanent shift in societal behavior is still up for debate.
In the University of West Georgia’s third annual Martin Luther King celebration Thursday night, speakers alluded to the night’s theme, “There is Still Work to Do: Seize the Day,” and challenged the university’s students to realize a dream that is now nearly 50 years old.
Keynote speaker Judge Penny Brown Reynolds, a former trial judge, attorney general, and later television judge, set out to answer the question, “Is Dr. King’s dream still relevant?” before her audience, in what turned out to be not a speech, but a sermon.
“We believe that God transcends religion, God transcends anything,” Reynolds said. “[King] was a man that had a vision...they may have killed the messenger, but thank God, they could not destroy the message.”
Reynolds described herself as a beneficiary of Dr. King’s work, an example of a person’s ability to rise from the ranks and become something out of nothing.
She said that now there exists only two sorts of people, those that can rise above their conditions, and those that cannot. The problem, she said, is there is an ever-increasing number of people who cannot rise above inequality. While the poor get poorer, banks are bailed out.
Read more:Times-Georgian - UWG speaker discusses relevance of Dr King’s dream in today s society
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