Guest Columnist: Let us all be diligent

Jamie Jenkins

Students were on their way home from Pinkneyville Middle School at the close of classes last Wednesday. Small clusters of adolescents were walking down the street, talking, laughing and engaging in normal horseplay for kids their age. In this ordinary scene were groups of two, three, or several boys and girls, black and white, Asian and Hispanic. All together. It was a “rainbow of ethnicity and races.”In his “I Have a Dream” speech of August 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of his desire for a future where all people would coexist harmoniously as equals. The words of Dr. King will ring in our ears and rest in our hearts forever.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”“With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

Bishop Woodie White in his annual “Letter to Martin” says “as we approach the 40th year since his death on April 4, 1968 the racial landscape of America has changed radically… (At the same time) some communities, schools, and everyday routines are more segregated today than they were 40 years ago.”Bishop White goes on to say, “There has been a fundamental shift in the American ethos. That doesn’t mean racism and sexism are absent from American life, but now they are antithetical to the American ethos, not a reflection of it.”“Both state and church have it right.! The inalienable rights for all is a core value of the state, and the intrinsic worth of human beings is a core value of the church.”“Perhaps the greatest challenge before us in 21st century America is to prevent the creation of a permanent underclass that, while not exclusively comprising black Americans, is one in which they are found in too greater number.”

Thank God for the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. and for all others who have led the struggle for justice and equality. Thank God for the progress that has been made. Let us all be diligent in working for the day when all God’s children “will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

The Rev. Jamie Jenkins currently serves as the assistant to Bishop Lindsey Davis in the North Georgia Annual Conference. This article first appeared in “Monday Morning in North Georgia” on January 21, 2008.