Rose Ehart, an AIS volunteer, accepted the University Place (WA) City Proclamation of Martin Luther King Jr. Month. Here is her speech:

For those of you who I invited, that were able to come, I thank you, especially in light of the last minute time change.

I would also like to say thank you to the University Place city council, for having this annual ceremony, and for inviting me to be here this night. Because I am honored and thrilled to accept this proclamation, on this, the day that we commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In remembering Dr. King’s life and the great lessons he taught. I keep returning to three things he said and the lessons I have learned from them. The first is this: Faith! He said:

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

Everything that is good, all progress, all accomplishments, come about because someone is willing to take the chance, that the course of action taken will result in a net good.
We cannot predict the future, we can only work in the present to make that future as bright as we can. Dr. King, could not have known when he said this, that the world would look the way it does today, where a nation that once reviled him now proudly celebrates his life.

He also said: "All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem, brings us face to face, with another problem."

Taken with the first statement, we have a great example, of the things that cause people to fear to step out of the ways of the past and look for justice, or peace, or freedom.

Because we cannot predict, we fear, and because our fear, tells us that even if we try we will find unexpected obstacles and barriers, maybe we should quit before we get hurt, or not try to tamper with the things that are for fear of making them worse. But Dr.King had the answer too. He said:

"Human progress, is neither automatic, nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice, requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."  

He was right, of course; Truth, justice, peace, freedom all require that we acknowledge the struggle, that we accept that it will take hard work, that we understand and glory in the fact that though we are opposed by the forces of intolerance, of bigotry and hate, we never falter.

Today we live in a nation where under the law all are created equal, but where the darkness of poverty, fear, discrimination and intolerance, still casts a foul shadow on the American dream. We have come far, and wrought much, but we must remember that as long as there is one of us who lives in fear because of the accident of their birth Dr. King’s work is not finished.

It is up to us to continue his dream.