MLK Spirit Award 2025
This Martin Luther King Jr Day I’m reflecting not only on a day of service that provided food and essential items to thousands of families but also on being the 2025 recipient of the Columbia Basin College Martin Luther King Jr Spirit Award for work in the community that exemplifies his vision and values. It is truly an honor to receive this award and I'd like to begin by thanking Chaune' Fitzgerald, Naima Chambers, and Daishaundra Loving-Hearne for trusting me to work alongside them in service to our community. Dr. King was a coalition builder. Powerful leaders like them and so many others I see in the community, inspire us all to keep working toward justice, even at times like this where we continue to see injustice across the world.
My ancestors came to the United States, what many indigenous cultures call Turtle Island, from England, Scotland, and Ireland. I stand before you tonight not as an ally, but as an accomplice, a co-conspirator following a legacy of "good trouble" as John Lewis said. Let us remember, Dr. King was also a disruptor, revolutionary, and agitator who refused to be silenced.
Dr. King asked “What are you doing for others?”. Wisdom from across time and cultures teach us the importance of collective liberation- from the Mayan tradition of In Lak'ech "Tú eres mi otro yo", to the South African philosophy of Ubuntu "I am, because you are", to the Christian tradition of 'I am my brother’s keeper'.
Over the summer, I read Dr. King's last book "Where do we go from here: chaos or community?" and it is as relevant today in our fight for justice as it was in 1967 as we refine our strategies. One line really hit me though. He said “Let us be those creative dissenters who will call our beloved nation to a higher destiny, to a new plateau of compassion, to a more noble expression of humanness.” In our modern society it is all too easy to de-humanize each other. I invite us all to continue to honor Dr. King's legacy because I believe that we are all relatives, interdependent- connected to each other and the planet we share.
As an organizer, Dr. King taught us to never give up. In the times ahead we must care for each other, focus on collective healing, continue to support the most vulnerable in our community, and lift each other as we climb. As activist Lilla Watson said, "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together". We get free together.