Speaker has tips for King devotees

A speaker asks, 'Where is your dream in 2006?'
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- A historian presented a list of do's and don'ts for those wanting to follow Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Don't lock him into the past, Lenworth Gunther told those attending a community program Monday at Packard Music Hall.
If King were alive today, he'd say, "Yes, I had a dream in 1963, but where is your dream in 2006?," Gunther said.
Don't put King on a pedestal, said the professor of history at Essex County College in New Jersey, who has served as a historical consultant for Life magazine and "The Discovery Channel."
People want to deify King, so they feel like they can't follow in his footsteps, Gunther said.
Do find a way to make Martin Luther King Day meaningful, he said.
"Dr. King would wonder what happened to his day. He'd ask why his day is a day when people are looking for sales at the mall," Gunther said.
Civil rights
Do create a broader sense of the civil-rights movement as you celebrate the holiday, he said.
He recalled some of the other early civil-rights leaders who created an environment where King could stand up and lead.
One was the Women's Political Council, which was formed in Montgomery, Ala., years before King arrived as a pastor. This group, with Rosa Parks as its secretary, pushed for an end to segregated busing, creation of jobs for men and the hiring of black bus drivers.
Do renew the sense of community that neighborhoods, churches and places of employment used to have, he said.
People years ago had little technology, but they had relationships, he said. When he was a young boy in Harlem, all of the men in the neighborhood were like his father and all of the women were like his mother, Gunther said.
People in today's neighborhoods, however, don't know each other.
"Today, we have SUVs and no mountains to climb. Today, we have cell phones and nothing to say," he said.
He added that "there was a time when we sat in the kitchen and didn't just cook, but talk."
Be different
He called on young people to be different. He recalled with fondness the days when people didn't let their pants sag, listened to music that was about love and heeded the wisdom of the elderly.
"There was a time when our young men stood up and stood out," he said.
Gunther's talk was the conclusion of a day of programming sponsored by the Trumbull County Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Team. The Rev. Kenneth Paramore spoke in the morning at a breakfast at Warren G. Harding High School, and then workshops were held later in the day.
shilling@vindy.com