KAILUA-KONA — Reassuring, a reminder, a beacon of light upon which people should never lose focus. ADVERTISING KAILUA-KONA — Reassuring, a reminder, a beacon of light upon which people should never lose focus. It’s remembering how far the country has
KAILUA-KONA — Reassuring, a reminder, a beacon of light upon which people should never lose focus.
It’s remembering how far the country has come, and still needs to go. It’s about understanding empathy and embracing one’s neighbor.
That was the message Sunday at the Martin Luther King Jr. 36th annual Kailua-Kona Community Birthday celebration at the Old Kona Airport Beach Park Makaeo Pavilion, where more than 100 people gathered to reflect on the journey and legacy of the transcendent civil rights leader.
“It touched my heart,” said Earnest Young, who helped organize the event, on the turnout that came to celebrate King’s birthday, which ended in a group circle where people held hands and sang. “It brings tears to my eyes to see everyone here united, it doesn’t matter what race they are.”
Young and old, different races and religions shared that sentiment on a sunny afternoon get-together that started with a potluck lunch.
King Jr., whose eloquent voice and leadership was a catalyst for equality in America, would have been 88. He was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, while spreading a message of peace and unity in support of striking sanitation workers.
Sunday, people from all walks remembered that message. We are all different, some said, but all in the world together.
“It’s reassuring,” said Lydia Weiss, who came to the United States at the age of 5 and knows first-hand about blending in to a mixing pot society on why it’s important not to lose sight of King’s memory — one that preached inclusion and what she said makes this country great. “We have to be united.”
Students from west side schools shared what they learned from King, and what their dreams were. Choirs sang, and the county band played “Amazing Grace” during the 90-minute program.
“To make the world a better place,” Mauna Lani Christian Academy second-grader Diamond Punihaole said of what he learned from King.
“To clean up the garbage from the ocean,” said classmate Jaedan Londigan about his dream.
“To spread joy, to inspire others to spread the aloha spirit,” said eighth-grader Maya Calilao.
The observance event kicked off in Kailua-Kona 35 years ago in 1980 by the late Frank Bramlett, along with Mamie Bramlett, and Virginia Halliday. Later the group was joined by Kathy Simmons. The remaining three members formed a committee of 12 in 2008, and volunteers joined on because of the program’s popularity.
“I have decided to stick with love,” a quote of King’s read, hanging on the wall of the pavilion. “Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
The message of unity is ever important, others said, after the country went through a divisive election season.
“We’re going to respect the office,” said Simmons, who emceed the event on President-elect Donald Trump’s White House victory. “Because God, not man, has the whole world in his hands.”
“We are moving forward,” she added. “Because we have our eyes on the prize.”
After the event, which ended in the group song, people mingled and shook hands, talked story and laughed, which was the point of the annual tradition now three-plus decades in the making, politics aside.
“It’s important to understand that we, as Americans, are one race, united together,” Young said. “Not united by race, color or anything like that. We’re all Americans.”
