Keeping the dream alive

Students at the University School of the Lowcountry in Mount Pleasant have been watching videos and talking about how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s ideals might apply today.

Four of them sat down in the school library with a reporter last week to share their thoughts: Adrian McKinney, ninth grade; Lily Frain, eighth grade; and John Eustis and Jeanne Marie Martin, both seventh-graders.

These students are learning Spanish, Latin and Chinese along with their regular courses, so absorbing videos aimed at adults seemed par for the course. The video was 'Take ‘the Other' to Lunch,' a talk by Elizabeth Lesser at a Technology, Entertainment and Design conference. TED has 20-minute talks and performances available on the Internet.

The concept of 'the other' gets to the heart of King's message, the students said. It's not just whites learning to get along with blacks — although there's still work to be done there, they said — but people learning to accept differences.

'Martin Luther King wasn't just working for the freedom of African-Americans,' said Lily. 'He was working for diversity all across the board for God's children, as he put it — the different religions, African-Americans, women's rights.'

She recalled being called names for being a Jew when she lived in New Orleans. 'People are afraid of differences,' she said. 'They react to it.'

She also recalled a friend who committed suicide, possibly because people picked on her because she was depressed.

'I don't think people realize how bad one simple insult can feel to somebody else,' she said. 'You never know what it means to them.'

She explained a recent class experiment that showed the effects of actions on others.

'The other day we took a piece of paper that was supposed to represent our friend,' she said. 'We were allowed to crumple it, stomp it, whatever we wanted to. When we unfolded it, there were all these creases and wrinkles. It showed us that everything we do to a person leaves an effect.'

Jeanne Marie said she used to look down on people who were different until she learned better.

'I used to really pick on certain people,' she said. 'I wasn't all that mean. I just didn't like what they did. I couldn't get along with them. After watching some of these videos, I've realized there's no point in arguing. You can figure out a way to compromise.'

Adrian recalled a friend who was teased so much he quit his favorite sport.

'I used to have this really good friend and he was really into swimming,' Adrian said. 'He used to have this really dark, dark hair, but then he started swimming so much it bleached it white. He never heard the end of it. Kids never left him alone. So he gave up swimming, his favorite pastime, just so he would stop being bullied.'

He said another friend was forced to leave a school after people found out he was homosexual.

'He was just like everybody else, but once people found out he was different in that way, they just refused to accept him as a friend,' he said.

There's no reason people can't be nice to each other, even in the midst of political disagreement, John said.

'I don't ever want to be like that, being picked on or picking on somebody,' he said.

He looked at Lily, who was sitting next to him.

'I'm a Christian and a Republican,' John said. 'She is a Democrat and a Jew, and we're best friends.'

King had a vision for how the world should be, and so do these students.

'I would want the whole world to get a thorough education, because I feel education is the key to equality,' Lily said. 'If you're a racist, you don't have any idea what you're saying, and you're just saying it because your parents said it, that's all you know. Through education, people can learn how to thrive and be equal.'

King also was concerned about poverty. Students at the school take up that cause with a canned food drive each year, John said. They collected 400 pounds of cans this year, including one student who went around with a wagon and collected 100 pounds himself.

Reach Dave Munday at 937-5553.