Take Up This Work
Head of School Thomas K. Sturtevant opened the all-school meeting on Monday morning by calling students to follow the example of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sturtevant asked the audience to carry “the torch of fairness and justice,” using both President Obama’s example and that of NMH students and alumni who have been organizing donations for earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Sturtevant was joined in the MLK day tribute by Jacob Aduama ’10, Will Baker ’10, Mary Diaz ’10, Sharon Dunmore ’10, Kimberly Gray ’10, Ezra Leslie ’10, and Nisha Malik ’11. Members of the World Music Combo performed Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry” with soloist Mackenzie Daigle ’11.
NMH is celebrating the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. all this week. To see a list of upcoming events, click here.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day opening remarks by Thomas K. Sturtevant:
The story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. inspires me continually to review my opportunity to work for fairness in the world. I especially admire Dr. King’s positive vision for humanity and his faith that each of us can act with humanity and purpose, and apply our intellect, compassion and talents to serve the greater good. A generation ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served a nation and a world that has become more sophisticated, less predictable, and more volatile. Today’s world needs more than Dr. King’s example. It needs citizens like us to carry the torch of fairness and justice and to do so with creativity, sophistication, consistency, discipline, and relentlessness.
I think President Obama is a contemporary example of such a citizen. In the end, Obama and Dr. King do not do the work for us. In the end, the fairness and justice in the world mostly depends on the many small choices each of us (every one of the nearly 7 billion people in the world) makes in our daily lives. We make lots of choices to live with integrity, to recognize all of humanity as part of your family, to do what is expected of you in the dorm and in classes, to push yourself to expand your horizon, your understanding of the world.
President Obama has set a tone that I would like us to recognize as our own at NMH; he calls us to work for justice, to recognize the truth of our divisions and social inequities, and to remain calm and patient (not partisan and strident) as we take up this work. He reminded us that we have made progress as a nation, progress that inspires us to see we can become “a more perfect union” as we strive for the ideals set in our nation’s founding documents.
In Obama’s words: “What we know – what we have seen – is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.”
King is not here to do the work for us. Obama has provided a vision, an inspiring belief that our democracy can evolve constructively. What’s ours to do is to commit ourselves, each and every one of us, to learn and to take up the work we see before us, especially the hard work.
This means taking a second look at one’s first impressions. This means developing the habit of examining the fairness and direction of what you do, what you think, what you expect for yourself and others. This means doing your best in school, to cultivate your character, to understand the ideals of this nation, the ideas that led us to our current position, the history, the many stories, and the questions of fairness that persist. Take up this work here; take up this work in the world.
During today’s meeting (and beyond I hope) I ask that you consider what action, what responsibility you will take to attend to fairness and justice. So, we begin with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but we then continue with you.
We don’t need to look far for local examples of inspirational leadership and for people who work for social justice in small and large ways. Today’s meeting and week of activities were organized by students who attended the Students of Color Leadership Conference and have made commitments to serve us and the greater good.
One NMH grad from the class of 2004 served on a year-long medical mission in Haiti as part of his MD program at Brown. This NMH graduate’s name is Wilfredo Perez. He grew up not far from here in Holyoke, earned a scholarship to NMH and then to Brown in the BA/MD program. Inspired by Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of the Partners in Health organization, several years ago Will Perez founded his own clinic in the Haitian countryside to provide basic health services to struggling children and their families.
As you know, there has been a terrible earthquake that unseated poorly constructed buildings and utilities infrastructure in Haiti. Those fleeing the devastation in Port-au-Prince are seeking aid wherever possible in the countryside. Will reports that his clinic has been inundated with those in need and supplies are either limited or have run out. I have been in email contact with Will and he is courageously doing all he can to serve the many injured and suffering around him.
Last summer, when I asked Will about why he was choosing to work in Haiti while also somehow studying for his MD (through correspondence with Brown), he told me that he was sure he was put on this earth to do medical missionary work and that he knew his calling now is to work in Haiti. At the time, of course, he had no idea how much more challenging his work would become this winter. Will has been joined by other NMHers in Haiti recently, including Alex Fischer from the class of 2001.
Our own member of the senior class, Chris Caruso, also has volunteered in Haiti recently. Chris and members of the NMH Model UN team will be collecting at the chapel doors today after this meeting and in Alumni Hall at meals during the rest of this week. Faculty will be contributing, as well, in hopes that students can match their efforts. All NMH donations will be sent to either Will Perez's clinic or to Partners in Health by the end of this week.
I want to thank James Greenwood and all the students, staff, and faculty who helped organize this week’s programs. Speaking for all of NMH, I am inspired by your initiative and provocations, and I will appreciate the special opportunity that we have created to add to what I know and to call for my best efforts to make this and other communities better places for everyone.
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