- Video shows the mountain communities coming together in celebration of Martin Luther King Junior's day
- Locals reflect and share the stories they've experienced or witnessed
- Mel Weinstein, who led the event, tells the history of Martin Luther King Junior
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Locals in Pine Mountain Club share their experiences with racism, diversity, and love in honor of Martin Luther King Junior’s Day.
Mel Weinstein reminds the community that Martin Luther King Junior’s birthday is more than just a day off of school.
“It’s not just a day to go shopping and have a day off from work,” he said. “Millions and millions of people or billions of people that have lived, how many people can you remember that made a difference and in changing the world.”
But rather a day to flip through the history books and reflect on our beliefs.
Weinstein said, “Doctor King’s whole belief is to bring people together and everybody’s entitled to a decent life, whatever the color of your skin is.”
From where we started… to where we’re going.
He said, “It seems like so much of the country that moves forward now is starting to go backward again. And that’s another reason a day like today is so important.”
Julian Wilson, who attended the event, said that it’s important to come together. “There’s still a lot of things we need to work on,” he said. “I don't know what it would be like if he were here with us today. I don’t know what he would think. I don’t know what he would say.”
Especially at the beginning of each year, “Doing this again at the beginning of another New Year is important because if there’s some ground that we’ve lost, we got to find a way to get re-grounded and then try to stay there and get through,” Wilson said. “Because I mean, this world is a very dynamic place, this world we live in.”
Wilson hopes the mountain community can come together and share stories, or ask questions.
He said, “The biggest thing I wanna see… is people who come tonight and talk, get the opportunity to either express what they wanna express or more importantly, ask the questions that they’ve always wanted to ask and see.”
Weinstein said to him, Martin Luther King Junior's Day means welcoming everyone. “...and that to me is what life is about– not looking to hate people and look for differences that you can look for differences that you can look down on,” Weinstein said. “It’s a matter of everybody’s equal and everybody’s entitled to a good life.”
Locals encourage each other to talk about history and learn from the past.
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