MLK Jr. Day event inspires again

For years, you might have taken the attitude toward Martin Luther King Jr. Day like I did.

It's great to recognize King like we recognize Lincoln and Washington, and by God yes, we should've voted for the federal holiday way before 1983, but I didn't think you had to go to an event to show respect for the principles of King.

And you don't. You still don't.

But I would say you would be missing a huge opportunity for some inspiration to find a way to live like King by taking the day off and just feeling good about it.

MLK events like the one in Mankato Monday night and the one in St. Peter Monday during the day offer the inspiration that is sometimes not present in our daily routine.

The Mankato event is noteworthy for a number of reasons. It's in its 28th year, meaning it was celebrated two years or so before the federal holiday was approved by Congress and Ronald Reagan.

I've come full circle on this event. As a college student and editor of the MSU student newspaper in the 1980s, I believed I attended the first or second MLK Day event.

Last year, The Free Press was recognized at the event with the Business Pathfinder Award for our efforts to embrace the diverse community in Mankato in a way that helped them interact with that American institution known as the media.

But Monday's event was terrific in a number of ways. The award recipients for the Pathfinder, Young Pathfinder and Business Pathfinder couldn't have offered more inspiration or a better narrative.

Wilbur Neuschwander-Frink was recognized for her work on what she calls the "self advocacy movement" of people with disabilities. She has long worked with the disabled communities in a variety of ways and through the stories she has heard from families over the years, she was inspired to write and direct plays that these folks put on and participate in.

And, by all accounts, these plays are emotional for the audience and for the actors who demonstrate the "hurt of words" for people with mental disabilities by shredding them on stage.

Zeynab Omar, a senior at Mankato East, works taking care of elderly in an assisted living center, and engages her colleagues daily at school about issues of equal rights and ethnicity and "communicated with them without causing arguments, disagreements or misunderstandings," according to her teachers.

Pretty solid assessment for someone around their 18th birthday.

Lloyd Management Inc. was recognized for the Business Pathfinder Award for their program that helps new refugees learn how to navigate American laws, customs and cultures in housing and daily life.

When Lloyd Management's Julie Hawker got up to accept the award, she detailed a narrative of the program that involved other companies, other agencies, and most importantly the handful of refugee mentors who will help the next wave of immigrants with the same issues.

Many were in attendance as Hawker asked that they stand up and be recognized. They were with audience applause.

She was brought to tears thinking about the impact the program has had on families that are new to America.

But inspiration for the night did not end there.

Dakota Storyteller Colin Wesaw provided an outstanding, spontaneous Native American story about two Eagles raised by chickens who continued to think they were chickens until inspired by another Eagle.

He mentioned King and his legacy and the 38 Dakota hanged in Mankato, "the day after Christmas" 150 years ago. His story wasn't about that, however.

After 20 minutes of drama and humor and emotion, he brought the conclusion of the story down to one thing that related to everyone in the room who might be sitting "on a limb" with regard to really righting the injustices that still pervade America today.

"Get out there and help some people who need it. Get out there."