By Dewey Terrill
JC Post
Programs and events with a cause like the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration are important and timely. That's the view of planners for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Junction City. Coordinator Daphne Maxwell said it's an opportunity for the community to come together in one place, "hearing the same things and being able to get encouraged and being able to be charged and being able to go out in a unified front."
Maxwell noted that King didn't actually motivate people but he had a movement. She explained her recent comments to the celebration planning committee in Junction City. "We're going to mask up and move out, that's what I said. Because it's time to get up and not to talk about what we used to do and what we could have done, but we have an opportunity to do that now in the conditions that we're in." Maxwell added, " We know that we're still in pandemic but we don't have to be in pandemonium through the pandemic. We can be at a peaceful program in the midst of this. We have to find a way to do what we do and that's what's needed in the midst of what we're going through."
The Martin Luther King Jr. program on Monday will begin at 10 a.m. at the C.L. Hoover Opera House. Chaplain LTC James D. Key, 1st Infantry Division Chaplain and author / writer, will be the keynote speaker. Face masks will be required for those who attend in order to align with health and safety protocols.