MINISTER CITES KING IN FIGHTING INJUSTICE

The Rev. Solomon Williams urged people gathered Friday in Cape Girardeau in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. to follow the slain civil rights leader's example and "let love lift us from the depths of despair and injustice.

"Do something about your own state of mind," said Williams, national chairman of the General Council of Pastors and Elders of the Church of God in Christ. "Then do something about your workplace, then your schools, and, yes, even your churches, because some of us have forgotten how to love."

Williams was the guest speaker at the third annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration held Friday evening at First Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau. About 200 people attended the event.

The minister said that since King was slain 25 years ago, people throughout the world have struggled in the face of mounting violence to keep alive his dream of social justice. Williams said it's time all Americans work to curb violence.

"Stop the killing," he said. "Start the healing and building. From the time I stand up tonight to the time I sit down, two likely African-Americans will be killed in an act of violence."

Williams said he wondered what King, who 25 years ago viewed with optimism black America's prospect of casting off white oppression, would think of "black-on-black" violence in America today. He spoke of King's dream that is "now plagued by the nightmare of epidemic violence.

"In the 60s, by involvement, we were at the threshold of success," Williams said. "Today, through indifference, we're throwing the opportunity away for our youth to achieve personal and collective greatness."

He said it's important that parents become more involved with their children so that they don't instead turn to drugs and violence.

Williams said violence in America today, which disproportionately affects blacks, is the antithesis to King's dream of social justice through non-violence.

"What Dr. King proposed that is more relevant today than any other is a back-to-basics move to put God first," he said. "Violence in America is not a black thing. It's not a white thing, nor an Asian or Latino thing. It is a people thing."

The minister said there are national leaders meeting daily to devise plans to curb rising violence.

But he said people must individually act against violence and injustice in their families, neighborhoods and communities.

"If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, get up and do something," he said. "Yes, there is a plan for curbing violence in America, and if you don't like it then do something to change it. If not me, who? And if not now, when?"

Friday's event also featured performances by a children's choir comprised of students from the city's public grade schools, the Futrell Temple Church of God in Christ choir, a children's message, Carol Keeler of KZIM radio, and remarks from the executive board of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Michael Sterling, president of the Cape Girardeau NAACP, echoed Williams' exhortation to become involved.

"King's philosophy was the concept of service," Sterling said. "You don't have to have a degree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato or Aristotle to serve. You just need to have a heart full of love and a soul full of love."

Debra Willis, community action chair of the NAACP, quoted King: "No one can ride your back. No one can keep you down, unless you're bent over."

Leola Twiggs, also an NAACP executive in Cape, added: "We need community involvement from the north to the south, the east to the west, young and old, big and small.

"We will never resolve all our community problems, but we can make a deep impression."