During Martin Luther King Jr. Week, every year Georgetown University celebrates the memory of the American hero with a series of events which involve Students, Faculty, and Staff in addition to a concert at the Kennedy Center where the “Legacy of a Dream” award is given to an outstanding person who contributed to the community in the same spirit of justice and quality as Dr. King. I was honored to have been invited to reflect on how Dr. King’s and his legacy have impacted my life during the Spiritual event on Wednesday January 20th, 2010 at Dahlgren Chapel. The spoken words were nearly identical to this draft of the speech. Although I didn’t think to record or transcript what I said, this is more or less what I delivered.
Friends,
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I am honored to be here in the presence of God to show you a reflection of my being.
The Song of America
In my adopted country of America, there is a song many of us sing. The song is not constituted of chords and rhythms. The song is not sung by voices of choirs, nor hummed by folks on their walks around their neighborhood.
The Song of America is a memory of our heroes, our legends, our movers and our shakers, our thinkers and our makers.
The Song of America is written by our Creator to show that a belief in God makes all things possible. We will live in a society where one day freedom will ring from every hilltop to every mountain, from every village to every hamlet, from every state to every city.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became a melody in our great Song of America when he became the quintessential person who took up his cross for a dream. He had a dream in which all of God’s children would be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.
When I was a child, I lived in a small town of Culpepper, VA. In a town in which 300 people graduated high school, my older brother was the first Indian American to graduate. Needless to say we were different from everybody else.
Growing up, my parents asked me to read and would let me watch Public Television. And in reading books and watching Public Television, I encountered Dr. King.
I had and still have a love affair with books and although I don’t watch much television now, no human force could have detached me from PBS. Although I was familiar with the Martin Luther King Day Holiday, it was the television miniseries “Separate but Equal” which showed me who he was and what he did.
I have read a few books, but the first one I read on Dr. King had illustrations. I remember them very vividly especially the last page of the book. The last illustration showed people pointing away from the hotel balcony where the man was assassinated.
However it was the illustration of Dr. King speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial which inspired me and continues to inspire me today. The joy I felt when I first heard “I have a dream” in indescribable. Growing up in a non-Christian household, this was probably the first sermon I heard.
In Culpepper, people either knew about India or they didn’t. There were those that didn’t quite understand me because I talked in an English Indian accent.
Others didn’t understand how I had brown skin like black people, but a facial structure like white people.
I was called the n-word by black and white people. And the black people weren’t using it as a sign of respect. Ignorance is not bliss, but in wisdom there is sorrow. When I learned about the civil rights movement, it gave me newfound strength and hope that even if it wasn’t in my lifetime, in the country of America, with people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there would be understanding. One day.
I became a believer in the Almighty nearly four years ago. My car slid on ice and rain over a cliff. I yelled out His name, and He came. Jesus Christ saved my life. This day and every day since, I have not forgotten of God’s presence in my life.
Dr. Martin Luther King’s message of service and doing for others has been a part of my life whether I knew it or not. God calls his children together to serve each other, so that we can share our lives and our dreams, so that we can share the good news of the coming of the Lord. When I became a believer, Dr. King was one of the exemplars of servant leadership whom I learned from.
Dr. King was a servant among leaders, and a leader among servants. God called King to be of service to America and the World. God called King to be of service to the meek, to the desperate and the weak. If it weren’t for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., my father would likely not have been able to have had the opportunity to come here. If it weren’t for Dr. King, I would not be here. I would likely not have heard the Gospel.
Today I want to be a leader among servants, and a servant among leaders. I want to be a melody in the Song of America.
