Senate Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Members highlight the continued need for racial justice and civil rights
DENVER, CO – In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, the Colorado State Senate passed a resolution sponsored by Senator James Coleman and Senator Rhonda Fields commemorating his birth and legacy.
After the reading of the resolution last Friday, several members provided poignant remarks regarding the continued impact of Dr. King’s work on this country and the world.
“Dr. King arrived at the right time in the right place to hold high a moral compass across the hurts [of inequality], with a clarion call that hope would conquer,” said Senator Coleman, D-Denver. “Today in Colorado and in this Chamber, we find ourselves at another ‘right time’ and in another ‘right place’ to hope. It is our time to be those conduits, those champions, those drum majors for justice; to hold to hope, despite the hurts, knowing that we can heal our land and live free as a single garment of destiny because of the choices we make together in this chamber.”
“We all must strive to ‘Be Like King’ in our actions, words, and interactions with others,” said Senator Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora. “We need to suspend judgment when it comes to the color of people’s skin or their diversity or their differences – and give people the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas in a way that is respectful. We must build on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, so let's continue to keep his dream alive with the work that we do here in the State Senate chamber.”
“We must honor Dr. King by actively contributing to the vaults of opportunity by the actions we take every day – to take our role as custodians of truth seriously and make a deposit into the bank of justice,” said Senator Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs. “We make deposits when we promote equal opportunity and social justice when we pass laws to reduce mass incarceration, utilize restorative justice to rebuild communities when we eliminate racial disparities in our schools. We do that when we make the law – fair for everyone – not just a privileged few, and that must be our focus moving forward.”
“We have romanticized the civil rights movement – we have children’s books that portray Rosa Parks as being ‘a tired woman that once sat down’,” said Senator Faith Winter, D-Westminster. “But in reality it was so much more than that – it was two years of deep organizing, training and work to make sure that, once the boycott started, people could get to work. And that organizing continues today. Organizing is building power through people and making sure that we’re working furiously every single day to provoke change. This year, that organizing has been more important than ever as we have seen Black Lives Matter come to the forefront and demand justice. It takes all of us together with collective action to make the difference we want to see.”
View the full text of the resolution here.
