Lincoln celebrates King Day with Scholarship Breakfast

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[January 21, 2015]  LINCOLN - On Monday, many community members and leaders celebrated the life and dream of Martin Luther King. The annual Joyce Kinzie/Martin Luther King breakfast was held 7:00 a.m. January 19, 2015 at Lincoln College Davidson-Sheffer Gymnasium.

Attendees were served a large buffet style breakfast, which was followed by a program of inspirational words and song.

To begin the morning, Reverend Glenn Shelton, a long term central figure in the breakfast, provided the invocation. Lincoln College president John Blackburn welcomed everyone celebrating King’s vision and people coming together. He noted the scholarship helps recipients have access to a college education. Since its inception, the breakfast has raised over $30,000 for the Martin Luther King Minority Endowed Scholarship for Lincoln College.

Lincoln College student Jermaine Sanders thanked donors and community leaders for their contributions to the scholarship. His remarks were followed by the songs by Second Baptist youth choir.

Master of ceremonies Gary Davis then introduced the 2014-2015 scholarship recipient Rhiniqua Carter. Carter is a 2013 graduate of Lincoln Community High School who chose Lincoln College ‘to begin her education journey.” After graduating from Lincoln College, she plans to continue her education at Illinois State University “with the ultimate goal of becoming a nurse anesthetist.” She said that as a Lincoln College student, “I have grown each semester due to my professors who have stretched my abilities.” Carter thanked her parents for their support and said she was “very honored to receive a scholarship. . .it means a lot to me.”

Following Carter’s remarks, the Lincoln College Chorale sang “Imagine.”

Loving one’s enemies

The morning’s keynote speaker was Chaplain Henry M. Johnson who shared thoughts drawn from King’s writing “Strength in Love” on loving one’s enemies. Johnson said that many years ago while traveling with his family, he stood on the steps of Washington D.C.’s Lincoln Memorial looking out into the reflection pool and pondering Martin Luther King’s timeless “I Have a Dream” speech. Johnson wondered with all the violence going on in the world today: Is it a dream deferred or is there still hope for fulfillment of the dream that Dr. King spoke of?

Johnson noted that in the book Strength to Love, Dr. King said that we should “Love our enemies." He quoted King’s words, “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. . . So when Jesus says “Love your enemies,” he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies– or else? The chain reaction of evil–hate begetting hate, wars producing wars–must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.” Johnson asserted that even though these words were written many years ago, they are still true today.



Johnson shared that King said in learning to love our enemies, we should first “learn to forgive” and that forgiveness is not so much for the other person as for ourselves because hatred eats us up inside. He reports that Oprah recently interviewed the Little Rock Nine as well as some of the protesters there the day the nine became the first black students to enroll at Little Rock High School. The Little Rock Nine forgave the protesters who had moved past hatred.

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Johnson said that Nelson Mandela saved his country from a bloodbath because he advocated forgiveness for atrocities committed during Apartheid. He noted King’s words, “When there is no enemy within, no enemy outside can harm us.” King also asserted that we must realize [that the] evil and enemy does is not the sum total of their lives. We need to see humanity in one another—it is the only race that matters.

As Johnson explained, when we diminish or kill anyone, we prevent the next Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, Peyton Manning, Lebron James, Jim Edgar, Paul Simon, Madeline Albright, Hillary Clinton, or John McCain. . .we prevent the doctor who may find the cure for cancer. When we kill or diminish, “we destroy a life.” We must not seek to defeat or humiliate our enemy for “only love can transform an enemy into a friend.”

Johnson believes that though we have come a long way, there is still much work to do. He said that Dr. King dreamed of a day when people would be judged by “the content of their character” instead of “the color of their skin.” We need understanding and acceptance so that nation can heal, our families can heal, our communities can heal. It is time to close the racial divide and political divide that is tearing apart our nation. In John 13:34, Jesus says: “a new commandment I give you: love one another, by this shall all men know you are my disciples if you love one another” and Johnson prays that we may have the strength to love.
 


Johnson urged everyone to overcome barriers and said we can all be the salvation of our community with the help of our almighty God. He exhorted everyone to put into practice the love of Christ and strength to love by husbands loving wives, wives loving husbands, children loving and obeying their parents, teachers committing to academic excellence, [people] being respectful of law enforcement, law enforcement loving and protecting their community, democrats loving republicans, republicans loving democrats, both loving independents and libertarians, employers loving employees, Christians loving Jews, and Jews loving Muslims. There is such strength in love. In closing, he suggested that through love, “we shall overcome in our schools, our churches, our economic sector, law enforcement, and communities. . . God will provide the strength to love.”

As the morning drew to a close, the LC chorale sang, “We Shall Overcome” followed by the Second Baptist Youth Choir going from table to table with offering baskets to collect donations for the scholarship fund.

Before offering the benediction, Reverend Shelton fondly remembered Joyce Kinzie for establishing the scholarship and annual breakfast.

He noted that Dr. King said “anybody can serve.” All we need is to be “full of love for all mankind, then you can go out and serve.” He encouraged everyone to “do your best, God will take care of the rest.”

The scholarship committee consisted of the Reverend Glenn Shelton, Les Plotner, Cathy Tiffany, Debbie Ackerman and Cynthia Kelley.

[Angela Reiners]

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