Last Updated:7:25 PM EST 1/27/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Erica Henriksen Poet Keith Harris performs his piece named "Young Gifted and Going Places" in the Cleary Auditorium.

More than 40 years have passed since Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a Dream" speech at
the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

Despite the passage of time, more than 100 people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities gathered inside the Cleary Family Auditorium between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. for a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.

King once said, "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

King was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and believed that resistance was the only weapon to fight against equality and injustice.

Yantee Slobert, Director of Multicultural Affairs and Diversity Programs, noted that the important word is we. One person could not do it alone. It is about making a group effort to help a greater good.

The theme for Fisher's Annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration 2010 was "Eliminating Poverty: Repairing the Road to Jericho."
The program focused on the challenge to abolish poverty within the community and was highlighted through the performance of dance, poetry and song.

Rev. Linda Hickmon Evans was the keynote speaker at the event and has devoted her life's work to the field of human services and education.

"Dr. King beckons us to the Jericho road. A place where our natural instinct would have us avoid," Evans said. "The Jericho roads that are in our midst may be places that reek of nihilism; places of abject poverty and hopelessness, yet places rich with possibilities because possibilities are resident in each of us."

"We must enter the Jericho Road aware, with both eyes and heart open. There are visionaries and those who implement, those who stand in need and those who have the capacity to underwrite," Evans said.

"Extravagance has become taboo and we have begun to think and act creatively to attend to the financial church. We live in an era where the greed and gluttony of some have brought us to near ruin for a nation," Evans said. "Voices are raised and united as leaders are being called upon to provide ethical leadership."

Continued...

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