Examine where we’ve been, where we’re going
OCEAN CITY — The Rev. Marcia Stanford had audience members on their feet during a rousing keynote address as the city celebrated the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday at the Ocean City Music Pier.
The speech from the pastor of Macedonia United Methodist Church followed the reading of four middle-schoolers’ essays.
“I think it’s not fair that the keynote address comes behind these four great speakers here this morning,” Stanford said. “It gives us much hope.”
Stanford said upholding King’s legacy requires examining “where we are now and where we have come from, because if we don’t we cannot calculate the accomplishments that we made and we cannot calculate the way to get to them because we don’t want to make the same mistakes in the past.”
She used the gospel of Samuel as an example, saying through his prayers God “came behind the underdog and he gave them victory.”
To commemorate the victory, Samuel had a stone raised and said, “thus far, the lord has helped us.”
“We look at where we’ve come from. We have been brought from the desert of slavery, in the wilderness of chaos. We have come against all sorts of Jim Crow and segregation. We have been segregated and overcome,” Stanford said.
She noted how troops were segregated during the Civil War and noted how the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II were willing to give up their lives for a country that would not even fight alongside them.
“We have moved from that, and we have generals sitting at the table now that have helped to plan the battles. We have moved from being segregated to being united. Thus far, God has helped us,” she said.
Stanford said the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer resonated around the world.
“We look at the world all over and we see that in America we are not alone in the wilderness,” she said. “People of the world really do want to come together, but it seems as if the Goliaths that we have to overcome are bigger than the soldiers that are in the battle. Today we honor the fact of where God has brought us.”
Stanford said when God looked at America and decided that it was time to start the battle of peace to become equal, he looked for and found and created Martin Luther King.
“Martin Luther King went to the Promised Land with God and he saw the promises that could take place. He saw what could be and he was willing to fight, but not with a gun, not with a knife but with the word,” she said.
“The fight goes on, it continues to be a battle,” she continued. “The Promised Land is the land where we really do see each other as brothers and sisters, that we see each other not through the lens of color or ethnicity but through the heart.”
“There are those who live and breathe hate, live and breathe discrimination, live and breathe segregation and racism, and those have to be dealt with, but I know in my heart there are more that don’t believe the lie but believe the truth that we as a nation can get to the Promised Land, we as a nation can become what Martin Luther King envisioned.”
Returning to her beginning, she said she is optimistic.
“When I hear these young people speak, I hear that if America can raise children like these, we have hope to become not divided but undivided,” she said. “I am hoping for the day when we will really become one nation under God.”
Mayor Jay Gillian shared some words of wisdom before introducing the winners of the city’s Martin Luther King Community Service Awards.
He read a prayer of King’s — “Help us walk together, pray together, sing together and live together until that day when all God’s children — black, white, red, brown and yellow — will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the reign of our lord and God.”
“In some ways we have come a long way since Dr. King lived, and in other ways we have not. It’s sad that our world is still so divided, not just by black and white but by blue and red, rich and poor, partisan and nonpartisan,” Gillian said. “Every once in a while something happens that brings us all together, something that reminds us of Dr. King’s words.”
He said it was heartwarming to see people come together when a football player collapsed and nearly died on the field.
“The world stopped and embraced him. They didn’t see a Buffalo Bill or a Cincinnati Bengal, or a black man or a white man, a Republican or a Democrat. They saw 24-year-old Damar Hamlin, who was fighting for his life. … Unity is a powerful force that can take us far, if we believe the words of Dr. King.”
He introduced John Loeper, who he said he is “dedicated to preserving our shared history in Ocean City.”
As president of the Ocean City Historical Museum and chairman of U.S. Life Saving Station 30, Loeper has been indispensable in preserving the city’s history for generations to come, the program stated.
“John Loeper has done so much for Ocean City,” he said, noting the Fourth Street Lifesaving Station that became a point of contention in the city.
“When you go to the Fourth Street Lifesaving Station and you see what this gentleman did with all of the volunteers, all of the people who put so much into it, it’s amazing where we’ve come. It’s a testament what John does and all of his crew to just preserve Ocean City history. And I think that’s so important in life because if you don’t know where you came from, it’s hard to move forward,” Gillian said.
Loeper said it’s time to start recording everything lest it be lost.
“Your history is always there, but without understanding and cherishing it, you can never navigate a path to the future,” Loeper said.
Gillian spoke of his shared service on the Ocean City Board of Education with the second recipient, Dr. Patrick Kane.
He said Kane provided leadership through the COVID-19 pandemic that “brought people together with a common goal of educating our children.”
“You really see leadership when you go through adversity,” Gillian said, noting that good leaders have to make decisions that are not always popular.
“If you waste so much time worrying about being loved, then you can’t make the right decision and you can’t use your heart to make the right decision,” Gillian said.
Kane, also giving kudos to the youth speakers, said listening to the speeches made him feel as if his time was well spent on the school board.
“Education is a fundamental right and the best way for us as a society, one of the most powerful tools for us to continue advancing ourselves,” Kane said.
He said King mentioned that he entered the ministry as the best way to answer his inner urge to serve humanity.
“When I look back on it, I wanted to volunteer my time on the school board as a way to give back to the community,” he said.
Applying King’s words to the handling of the pandemic in the school district, Kane quoted: “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
He noted three health care leaders who donated time to the COVID Committee and helped get students back into the schools.
“What that resulted in was us being able to go back to school full-time when other communities were still leaving. What that resulted in was us never having an outbreak in any of the schools. What that resulted in was us never having to shut down once we went back to school,” Kane said. “I think it is such a fantastic example of community members coming together to help the greater community … and I think that quote of hard, concrete, critical thinking and making hard choices really illustrates that commitment.”
He said the second quote — “Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.” — was particularly appropriate to what board members experienced during the pandemic.
“It’s certainly not the horrors of racism, but I can tell you that for a lot of the members of the school board it was very hard for them, making difficult decisions. Many of them it was the first time people were unhappy with them,” Kane said.
Lastly, he quoted: “Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of a true education.”
“Looking to the future, I want to challenge the community to live by that standard,” he said.
Ocean City Intermediate School seventh-graders Kendall Barnes and Sofia Wright and eighth-graders Sydney Halliday and Gabriel Meron read their winning essays on the King’s influence on society. Halliday also won as a seventh-grader.
Music was provided by Bishop Floyd T. Myrie on piano and Twana Brandon on vocals. Brandon noted how she suffered a stroke in 2015 and vowed to perform at every event to which she was invited if she recovered.
Volunteers were invited to join others nationwide for a Day of Service to honor King’s contributions by participating in a citywide cleanup.
Following the service and ceremony, guests were treated to a complimentary soul food buffet luncheon in the Music Pier solarium.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff