My New Annual Ritual - the MLK Breakfast

Constant Readers,

I had never been to the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast before but I'll be finagling tickets from now on.

Miss P. had invited me to the MLK breakfast put on by the MLK Civic Committee and sponsored by labor, Comcast, and Citi (no more "bank" on that name, apparently) by saying, "Everyone who's not going to the inauguration will be there." Hey, good enough for me. State Senator Mark Leno; Assemblyman Tom Ammiano; Supervisors John Avalos, David Chiu, Bevan Dufty and Ross Mirkarimi; Assessor Phil Ting (hilariously introduced as "the tax man"); Board of Education members Kim-shree Maufas and Sandra Fewer; and Community College Board member Steve Ngo, just to name a few.

I hadn't planned to write about the event, but was moved to by the sheer marvelousness of it all. I mean, it's so incredible that Obama is about to be sworn in on the day after MLK's birthday! I know I wasn't the only one who got a little choked up at various times throughout the morning. And unbridled happiness plus children is bound to have some interesting results. Here are some fun things that happened today:

• The morning was kicked off by Marcellus Prentice who recited (almost) the entire "I Have A Dream" speech without notes. It was very impressive (it's actually a pretty long speech, y'all). When he got to the "I have a dream" part at the end, he fumbled a bit and in a room full of pastors and such, started cursing. "Damn! Oh, I'm sorry...shit! I lost my place!" Heheh. We all gave him a standing ovation anyway...

• Speaking of standing - there was a lot of it. We stood to listen to the national anthem, we stood after the presentation of each award, and even had to stand and hug our neighbors like it was church on Sunday. (Surprisingly un-awkward.) I'm not complaining, though, the program went for three hours so each stretch was welcome. 

• Assemblyman Ammiano spoke and started right in, basically saying, "A lot of people have been asking me where I'm gonna live in Sacramento. Well the Governor helped me find a place with a nice Mormon family." Then, discussing the potential statewide cuts to social services this year said "There are two 'girlie men' up there [in Sacramento] now - the Senator [openly gay Mark Leno] and Assemblymember [gayer than gay Ammiano] and we are not going to let this happen!"

• The folks who planned the day did two things that should be mandatory at all events: (1) Live music - preferably performed by a high-schooler with amazing talent, like Ranzel Merritt Jr. (pictured - sorry about the crappy bb camera quality) who played a song on his saxophone; and (2) whenever possible, recognize people's Mamas. Any person who was introduced (and I'm not talking about kids, I'm talking about Commissioners and such) and whose mother was present - that mother also got to stand up and be applauded. I counted at least three. Hells yeah!

• Winners of a citywide MLK essay contest got to go up and read their essays. Jackie Bell, the winner from K-2 didn't even use notes and delivered a fiery speech like a pint-sized pastor. The crowd (myself included) went nuts!

• Jocelyn Iglehart, the elementary school winner, wrote an essay that included what may be the best line of the day: "On November 4, 2008 a nation that is black and brown and yellow and white and tan elected a man who is black and brown and yellow and white and tan."

• The middle school winner, Aukayla Boone, recited her essay which was peppered with awesome statements like "Obama should give America more money", "a lot of our money goes to the government and people with bad weather" and "[Obama will help schools set up] a program for slow kids." 
  

• The President of the MLK Civic Committee, Millard Larkin II, spoke and at one point declared that there were no black people at the upper echelons of education in San Francisco. Kim-shree Maufas promptly stood up and waited for Larkin to finish his paragraph, then respectfully announced, "Hi. I'm Kim-shree Maufas and I'm the President of the San Francisco Board of Education." Right on!
  

All in all, it was a really inspiring morning with beautiful oratory from people like Rev. J. Edgar Boyd, Rev. Stephen Lui, Rev. James McCray, and Pastor Calvin Jones. I can't wait for tomorrow!!

--Melissa

Comments

[sfmike]

While you're at it, you should check out the MLK show at Bill Graham auditorium after the breakfast. It's where the poor people go. It's also an extraordinary event, with LOTS of live music.

[jocelyn]

hey please write nice comments about me

[jocelyn]

Hey thats so not nice