Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”
“Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Welcome back to those who where abroad last semester or who are returning from the winter holidays, and welcome to those who are new to the Guilford College community. I hope that everyone is adjusting well.
Earlier this week we celebrated and honored the life and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In accolade to the life’s work of Dr. King and others who lived and died for the cause of freedom and equal rights I wanted to lift up and share a few pieces of our own community that echo the work of these remarkable people.
For those who were able listen to our guest speaker, Dr. Alma Adams (NC House of Representatives, see story page 1), she highlighted this college’s mission statement and how its ideals parallel those of Dr. King.
“Guilford College draws on Quaker and liberal arts traditions to prepare men and women for a lifetime of learning, work and constructive action dedicated to bettering the world,” reads our mission statement in the student handbook.
This mission statement, just as King’s Dream, is based not only in learning and conversation, but in action. Through “a lifetime of learning” we gain the tools to experience, be a part of and improve the world around us. As Dr. Adams stated, progress is rooted in one’s commitment to work towards change, towards betterment.
Currently the college is finalizing action steps in order to implement the ideas and ideals presented in the Strategic Long Range Plan. The plan has developed into a road map for the college, and with the implementation process we will begin on this road towards the ideals we deemed important. From our dream we work towards reality.
Community Senate has recently embarked on a “Less Talk, More Action” campaign where students who shared their hopes and needs have now embarked on brining these ideas to fruition. Through continuous and decisive steps of action they are working to create and recreate pieces of our community, pieces, which in the end, we will all benefit from.
Too often we dream of what reality could be, but rarely do we recognize the realities in our dreams. Dr. King’s life, like the life of thousands before and thousands after, was a life of service: service to our community, the world community, and service to fulfilling his dream. In this age, the prevailing question becomes, what is your dream and what are you doing to make it a reality?
Life without purpose is death not having lived.