Editor,

Over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday there were three events held on South Whidbey related to Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement. The event The Record chose to highlight, “Good Cheer gets helping hand” was the least directly connected to essence of the Civil Rights Movement.

Doing community volunteer work is certainly commendable, but it fails to grasp the importance of the nonviolent activism of Martin Luther King and the thousands of students, sharecroppers and clergy whose witness and sacrifice changed America. Dr. King at the time of his assassination was outspoken in opposition to the war in Vietnam and a military establishment that took resources from poverty programs. At the time of his death he was planning a Poor People’s Campaign and speaking out against the maldistribution of wealth in America. The issues King raised in 1968 remain with us today.

Not reported by The Record was a public showing in Langley of a PBS special “Beyond Vietnam” which discussed King’s courage in speaking out against the war and militarism. Underreported by The Record was the annual “Beloved Are the Peacemakers” community event. This year’s theme was the “Beloved Community” which honored participants in the Civil Rights Movement and linked the 1960s movement with the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement and the “Mother Emanuel” massacre in Charlestown. These two underreported events relate to the essence of Dr. King and the movement.

DICK HALL

Coupeville