Did you know that there is a chance that Sen. John McCain could win New York? Given the conditions of Barack Obama’s home state, with sales taxes near 11 percent, more citizens killed on the streets of Chicago than soldiers in Iraq, and a state pension fund that is billions of dollars in debt, some people are wondering about the direction of change that he would bring.
But, I always default to what I learned as one of the relatively few Niagarans working on both of Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns. Mount Zion’s Reverend Bushelon headed it up the first time, and city water department employee Otis Glover headed up the second try. Jackson said that if we have our fair share of representation on the local level, then we can live with anyone in the White House. That’s why I am more concerned about the local issues upon which few are actually willing to volunteer and work, and less about the “all-eyes-on-Washington” groupies who cannot even name their five city councilmen.
That local representation of which Jackson spoke is not always elected. Most just stepped up, filled the gap and patiently awaited someone smarter and more talented than themselves to vigorously take their place. Usually they wait all of their lives. As mentioned in Willie Fields’ obituary, he was one such citizen. Glenda Glover was another. She worked tirelessly, even through her illnesses, to ensure that her now-closed Niagara Community Center continued to serve the people that she loved. The center died shortly after she did, and the death of neither sent the smallest ripple through a community so dependent upon government entitlements. Perhaps Obama, or McCain, or someone far off will take their places. But I doubt it.
My now-deceased sister Jacquelyn Henderson and Glenda were best of friends. Therefore, Glenda and I often chatted with each other on community issues. But there were things that died, even as my sister and she was dying, that no one seemed to have noticed. Lord, I hope that there is no one still in high school who remembers watching Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. live on television. Because that is the case, I can understand why our children look at the civil rights leader as more cosmetic than real. It is the adults that I cannot understand, and their cavalier attitude towards the works of Dr. King. To so many of them, he is just a picture on a church fan, or one that merely hangs upon a wall or some excuse to justify them receiving something for which he died, but to do nothing with that something, once it is received. Most whites give him the same and in some cases more, reverence than do we.
At a recent MLK service at a local church, the parking lot had Mercedes, Lexuses and Lincolns parked in it; many of the 200 men in attendance wore Stetson hats, Stacey Adams shoes and worsted wool suits; many of the 350 women came draped in furs, jewelry and $300 exotic hats; and nearly 200 children came in their Sunday best, some with $120 pristine sneakers decorating their feet. The collection that night was only $749. That’s about a dollar a person. Glenda wanted to cry but she had long ago shed her last tear over the lost legacy of love that we once had for the King — and for each other.
For the most part, the leadership in the African-American community comes from the churches. Nearly all of our churches teach Christ as King and Messiah, and our clergy preach from the pulpits that we are to imitate both Him and His works. As congregants sit on the padded pews and cool themselves with the paper fans that have pictures of Christ knocking on a door or holding a lamb, or an extreme close-up of Martin Luther King, Jr., nearly all of us walk away on those Sunday afternoons and live our lives the rest of the week imitating neither of the Kings pictured on the fans, nor any of their works.
Perhaps the next generation will be different. We need to get as many of our children as we can down to Fatima Shrine at 5:30 p.m. Saturday to listen to King’s niece, the Rev. Dr. Alveda King as possible.
Tickets are available by calling Dorothea at 745-3403. Perhaps the flame from the torch that King’s uncle and father lit in her will leap upon the hearts of our children and they will do the things that our hearts seemingly have long forgotten. We must keep our own Niagara community at the center of our love and work, and we must count on our children to become the next Willie Fields and Glenda Glovers to do so.
Ken Hamilton is a Niagara Falls resident. Contact him at kenhamilton930@aol.com.
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