Celebrating the Dream in Dayton

By on January 5, 2009 in FEATURED, LIFE

Martin Luther King Celebration Dayton Ohio 2009Last Jan­u­ary, I was for­tu­nate enough to take part in the Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Day march and cel­e­bra­tion in down­town Day­ton.  I wrote about what a great time it was last year.  I even met the Governor.

As a result of that blog post, Laura Arber found me and asked me to take part in this year’s event.  Laura is orga­niz­ing the march that enters into down­town from the South — there are 4 groups in total one from each direc­tion con­verg­ing at the old cour­t­house downtown.

Part of my respon­si­bil­ity as a vol­un­teer is to help to pro­mote the march.  I have agreed to spread the word and ask oth­ers to par­tic­i­pate and thus I am ask­ing you to join me on Jan­u­ary 19 .  If you have never been to this event, you should check it out.  If you have been, I hope you choose to return again.  It is a won­der­ful and unique expe­ri­ence cel­e­brat­ing the life of an amaz­ing human being at a time when his dream is alive and well in America.

Laura sent me a detailed mes­sage describ­ing the event which I will share with you:

On Jan­u­ary 19, 2009, we will again have the oppor­tu­nity of hon­or­ing Dr.
Mar­tin Luther King, his val­ues, his con­tri­bu­tions and his legacy.

There will be a num­ber of events on the week­end, and dur­ing the pre­ced­ing
week, but we par­tic­u­larly want to bring to your atten­tion the Mar­tin Luther
King March on Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 19, 2009.

Over the years, the Day­ton com­mu­nity has cre­ated an event that reflects the
best of Dr. Mar­tin Luther King Jr.‘s val­ues and hopes — the need for a
com­mu­nity to come together in good will and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion.  This year, it
seems even more impor­tant that the Mar­tin Luther King mes­sage be observed by
all of us — Chris­tians, Hin­dus, Jews, Mus­lims, per­sons from Day­ton, Oak­wood,
Ket­ter­ing, Cen­ter­ville, Huber Heights, Trot­wood, Clay­ton, the youth and the
elderly, –rep­re­sen­ta­tives from all the parts of the world who com­prise the
Day­ton community.

The Day­ton March begins in four sep­a­rate loca­tions.  As each march
pro­ceeds, it gath­ers in more peo­ple until the truly joy­ous moment when east,
west, south and north join tumul­tuously at Third & Main and four streams of
peo­ple become one community.

This is not just an invi­ta­tion but also a call to the com­mu­nity for all
per­sons and orga­ni­za­tions to be with us on Jan­u­ary 19, 2009.  Youth and
youth orga­ni­za­tions are par­tic­u­larly called but every­one in the com­mu­nity is
wel­come. Ban­ners rec­og­niz­ing any of our march­ing orga­ni­za­tions will be very
wel­come.  We would appre­ci­ate your includ­ing this event in your church,
uni­ver­sity, or school bul­letin announce­ments, start­ing after Decem­ber 18,
2008.  The start­ing point of the march for the South Quad­rant is Day­ton
Fair­grounds , and we will begin march­ing down­town at 11:00 am. Please feel
free to join us for the march and celebration.

We look for­ward to see­ing you on Jan­u­ary 19th in the march, and at
Cour­t­house Square.

Sin­cerely,

Laura L. Arber
South Quad­rant Chair

I hope to see you there.

5 Responses to Celebrating the Dream in Dayton

  1. Joe Gauder January 5, 2009 at 8:21 pm #

    Laura has a knack for bring­ing good cre­atives to together and help spread aware­ness. I should know, been work­ing with her for over a year now. Glad to hear you are get­ting involved with the com­mu­nity, such a mon­u­men­tal part of history.

  2. Melissa Blevins January 6, 2009 at 4:22 pm #

    Thanks for help­ing to get the word out!

  3. davidebowman January 6, 2009 at 4:38 pm #

    Thanks to you and all at Bing who are so nice to leave com­ments here. It is really great to see so many peo­ple from Bing Design so involved in such a won­der­ful event. Kudos to you.

  4. cara January 10, 2009 at 9:05 am #

    I came across this post after read­ing the book, Day of Tears last night. It is the story of the largest slave auc­tion in his­tory. It was sent home with my 5th grader for me to pre­view due to the inten­sity of the sub­ject and the lan­guage used in the book. As my chil­dren read the accom­pa­ny­ing let­ter from the teacher about con­cerns with the “N” word being used through­out the book, I was struck by the fact that they had no idea what that was. Maybe they’ve just been shel­tered, but I would like to think that it is because they are grow­ing up in a chang­ing world. Slav­ery is a part of a not so dis­tant his­tory, and seg­re­ga­tion existed in my life­time. To have come from that shame­ful his­tory to now elect­ing an African Amer­i­can pres­i­dent is awe inspir­ing. I want my chil­dren to rec­og­nize and under­stand that his­tory, and to also rec­og­nize the coura­geous peo­ple like Dr. Mar­tin Luther King who turned the tide of his­tory. In that spirit our fam­ily will be join­ing the march to cel­e­brate this new era in Amer­i­can his­tory. “Yes we can”.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. BINGenuity. Where no two ideas are exactly alike. · Martin Luther King Rally - January 6, 2009

    […] on Cour­t­house Square Down­town Day­ton. Read more of the detailed mes­sage describ­ing the event at David Bowman’s blog, who is also help­ing to pro­mote the […]

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