Lynn celebrates equality & faith

LYNN – One night last fall, Iris Rivas drove home from one side of Lynn to the other in complete darkness amid a citywide power outage.”I had been forced to rely on my own headlights and the lights of the occasional car passing by me to see and it took twice as long to get home. Through that experience, I discovered that when relying on a small amount of light, it is nearly impossible to get anywhere. The same can be said for humanity,” Rivas told the audience gathered Monday at North Shore Community College for the 24th annual holiday observance in honor of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.”This world needs more light, because what we have is not enough. Lynn may be only one city out of thousands of cities on this planet, but it only takes one to be an example, to start a revolution, a much-needed revolution. Then it won’t be history, but our story that changed the nation that changed the world.”Rivas, representing the Greater Lynn YMCA, was among several speakers at the event, the agenda highlighted by audio recordings culled from King’s public speeches, song, dance and inspirational messages focused on freedom, equality and faith.”Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase,” said Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, who asked local residents to take that initial step along with her new administration to make the city a better place.U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney, a Salem Democrat, recalled the words of President Barack Obama who, upon taking office, urged Americans to look within.Guliver Gomez from LaVida YES, emphasized that a celebration of minority culture in Lynn is not exclusively African-American. “The population of Lynn is made up of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, but it is one community,” he said. “Generations of immigrants have come to Lynn to work hard, provide for their families and contribute to the economy and strength of the United States. Just like the generations before us of English, Irish, Greek, Jewish, Polish, Italian and African immigrants, my parents and I came to Lynn to make a better life. The Lynn community that has greeted us and provided us with so much is a product of the ideas and sacrifices of Dr. King and the Lynn residents who opened their minds and arms to embrace new neighbors and new ideas.”Gomez noted that Dr. King and many African-American leaders paved the way for successive waves of immigrants, particularly the Latino community of which he is a member. “We Latinos enjoy many of the rights that were made possible because of Martin Luther King,” he said, citing as an example racially integrated schools in which white and minority students share the same resources.At several points during the breakfast, performers from Building Bridges Through Music brought the audience to its feet, such as when local youth minister Bobby Bishop took the stage along with Classical High student Juliana Davis to sing an original music tribute entitled “Portrait of a Dream.”The breakfast was organized by the Community Minority Cultural Center with assistance from Gordon College, NSCC, the Greater Lynn YMCA, LaVida, Girls Inc., Upward Bound, Part of the Solution, KIPP charter school, Oasis Youth Group and other organizations. The planning committee included CMCC Executive Director Steven Godfrey, Gloria Lopez, Audrey Jimenez, Beth Wright and Val Buchanan.