Hundreds gathered Monday morning to recollect and celebrated the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on the metropolis’s 54th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast beneath the theme of “Keeping the Promise of Democracy” — with many audio system solemnly warning of the threats that promise faces.
“All around us we have sobering evidence that gains are not guaranteed,” stated Rep. Ayanna Pressley, talking on the scholarships awarded throughout the breakfast and the state of training. “We need to reflect on our past, revisit King’s blueprint for radical change, and fortify ourselves for the urgent fights ahead. This is no easy task, but it is an imperative for us all.”
Speakers, together with keynote speaker and Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Gov. Maura Healey, Mayor Michelle Wu, AG Andrea Campbell and Sen. Ed Markey, touched on occasions from the tip of landmarks like affirmative motion and Roe v. Wade, to upticks in challenges to numerous books and academic curriculum, to “assaults” on the nation’s democracy.
The theme comes from the quote in King’s “I Have a Dream” speech: “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
“Our special responsibility in this moment of great challenge everywhere is to step up and step into the vision that we know is possible, but only if we’re willing to include everyone in our community,” stated Wu at a midday occasion co-hosted by town and BU. “So we must continue this marathon toward the unrealized promise of liberty and justice for all. Knowing as Dr. King did, that it won’t be easy.”
Wu famous town’s will announce companions for the Reparations Taskforce within the “coming weeks.” The mayor additionally spoke to efforts to deal with the racial wealth hole by means of metropolis contracts and first-time homebuyer help, town’s “national precedent” for partnering police group members, religion leaders and others, and different ongoing efforts.
In her speech on the breakfast, Healey known as the promise that “every voice will be heard, every community will be respected, every person will have equity in education, their health care, their environment, their opportunity” an “unkept promise.”
The governor additionally introduced a brand new initiative to diversify companies who’re awarded state contracts.
“Our administration applies an equity lens to everything we do – and that includes the process to award state contracts,” stated Healey. “We’re proud to be taking this step to reopen contracts that can provide more opportunities for diverse and small businesses to compete.”
The state’s Operational Services Division and the Supplier Diversity Office will assess and reopen statewide contracts to offer alternatives for numerous and small enterprise, the governor’s workplace stated in a launch. These embrace info expertise, vitality, local weather motion and different business alternatives.
The administration can even attain out on to numerous entrepreneurs to attach them with sources, Healey stated, and launch a brand new Supplier Diversity Office Diverse and Small Business Advisory Board.
The contracts will reopen “later this year,” the discharge stated, and the state will conduct “regular reviews” going ahead to open new alternatives to diversify contract recipients.
“Now is the time to advance economic justice in our state,” stated Healey. “And that starts with government.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”