Groveland, FL, Commission Meeting
16 January 2024
Choice Edwards (477 words)

Mayor Wilson, city council and staff, thank you for the invitation to the Central Florida Freethought Community to deliver the invocation!

 Arrested on Good Friday, April 12, 1963---60 years and 3 months ago- for nonviolent demonstration against the injustice of his fellow United States Citizens. This man who did not hate.....but simply loved everyone.

 Yesterday was his birth date. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail, while he was jailed for leading nonviolent civil rights demonstrations in Alabama, The Letter from Birmingham Jail explains why MLK believed people had a responsibility to follow just laws, ..and a duty to break unjust laws. Martin was responding to several criticisms…. made by the …."A Call For Unity " clergymen

 On April 16, 1963, 6 decades ago, The Reverend Doctor, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate... penned these words ….to a mostly white Christian clergy….. in response to divisive statements made by some white Christian clergy about his tactics: He was non violent and peaceful; he never threw a Molotov cocktail!

 “I am cognizant of the inter- relatedness of all communities and all States. I can not sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

 “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all others indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United states can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country.”

That includes you and me...all of us! Because it is always the right time to do the right, just and moral thing!

Friends, there are just laws...and there are unjust laws.

Alarmingly and disappointingly, ...we are still dealing with injustice against both our citizens…. and non-citizens.

In the words of that great philosopher, RODNEY King: “Why cant we all just get along?”

I too have a dream.

My dream is captured in the lyrics in two songs: My Grownup Christmas List and Imagine.

“No more lives torn apart, that wars would never start. And time would heal all hearts.

And everyone would have a friend, and right would always win. And love would never end.

Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer but I am not the only one.”

 That’s MY dream!

Thank you, mayor and members of the city council, for all that you do for Groveland’s quest for peace, brotherhood and harmony. And finally, as you conduct the business of the city of Groveland, I wish you all wisdom, light, life, love, peace, power, prosperity, passion poise, beauty, joy health, wealth, romance and ALL the Excitement you can handle!

When you are smiling and laughing, you are living!  Thank you, Shalom, Amen and Namaste