MLK Event will remember King 'for trying to help people'
The keynote speaker at the main commemorative event, Gwendolyn Webb-Hasan, is a Texas A&M associate professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development.
It was a tumultuous time in April 1968 almost 42 years ago when I did my part to "stop the silence."
News reached us in UCSD where I was studying of Dr. King's assassination.
I decided to join a rally near our college in La Jolla. Then someone suggested that we should go downtown San Diego to demonstrate in front of the city council.
Passion ran high in me. I wanted to participate and I wanted to show my emotion and support. So I drove my beat-up old car to San Diego from La Jolla--a 10 mile drive. For whatever reason, when I got to the city council building, I found out that the larger crowd from the college has not shown up there yet. There were only about half a dozen or so of us gather out front. All of a sudden I felt more vulnerable now. There was certainly no safety in number anymore. We were by ourselves.
As we were waiting and wondering what to do next, a man from the mayor's office came out and greeted us. "The mayor would like to meet you all. Talk to you," he said. Without much thinking we all followed the man up the elevator.
As I was in the elevator, I began to get worried about what would happen next. You see I was an international student from Hong Kong at that time which though by and large protected citizen rights, but I know in Hong Kong there were certain things a citizen didn't do with impunity, such as, joining a protest.
So here I was a foreign student about to get in front of the mayor without the anonymity of a crowd jarred me more than a little. "Would be I kicked out of the country for being a trouble maker now?" was a concern and fear that rose up in me.
As it turned out, the mayor did meet us--the six of us. We had a good exchange.
And I didn't get deported as I had feared I might be. And I'm glad that I got a chance to stand up and voiced an opinion and stop the silence.
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Higher Purpose and Style
MLK and Stop the Silence -- A personal reflection
News reached us in UCSD where I was studying of Dr. King's assassination.
I decided to join a rally near our college in La Jolla. Then someone suggested that we should go downtown San Diego to demonstrate in front of the city council.
Passion ran high in me. I wanted to participate and I wanted to show my emotion and support. So I drove my beat-up old car to San Diego from La Jolla--a 10 mile drive. For whatever reason, when I got to the city council building, I found out that the larger crowd from the college has not shown up there yet. There were only about half a dozen or so of us gather out front. All of a sudden I felt more vulnerable now. There was certainly no safety in number anymore. We were by ourselves.
As we were waiting and wondering what to do next, a man from the mayor's office came out and greeted us. "The mayor would like to meet you all. Talk to you," he said.
Without much thinking we all followed the man up the elevator.
As I was in the elevator, I began to get worried about what would happen next. You see I was an international student from Hong Kong at that time which though by and large protected citizen rights, but I know in Hong Kong there were certain things a citizen didn't do with impunity, such as, joining a protest.
So here I was a foreign student about to get in front of the mayor without the anonymity of a crowd jarred me more than a little. "Would be I kicked out of the country for being a trouble maker now?" was a concern and fear that rose up in me.
As it turned out, the mayor did meet us--the six of us. We had a good exchange.
And I didn't get deported as I had feared I might be. And I'm glad that I got a chance to stand up and voiced an opinion and stop the silence.