A virtual celebration

CLOVIS - Forced online for the first time in a history that's spanned parts of four decades, a Clovis celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. covered successes, obstacles and the work that still remains toward achieving the slain civil rights leader's dreams.

In place of the normal scholarship breakfast the Saturday before and the walk through the city streets on the day of, Martin Luther King Jr. Committee members and speakers went to a Zoom meeting format Monday morning moderated by Constance Williams.

"This is our 29th celebration," Commission President Joyce Pollard said. "I'm just thankful to God. I give God the praise and the honor for allowing me to be here for 29 years."

Speakers reflected on the successes of the last few decades, the challenges of the last few years with heavy reference to the Donald Trump presidency and everybody's role in a better America moving forward.

Featured speaker Ross Bettis, a Hobbs-based defense attorney, called 2021 "a year of revelation," in that many of America's divisions have been laid bare.

"We saw more rebel flags, we saw more guns, we saw more intolerance and inacceptance of people," Bettis said. "We saw more hate and disgust than we have seen in a mighty (long) time.

"People will come up to you and tell you exactly how they feel. We need to know where we stand with people and where they stand with us. Don't tell me you love me to my face and then go back home and call me the N-word."

In his work, Bettis said, the Black men and women he sees are usually in jail, heading there or just leaving, and they've been let down by a society that has told them they are "thugs selling drugs."

Bettis told audience members they couldn't rely on other people to change, and that they needed to be the change they want to see for the African American community and society in general.

"Our answer is not in another politician," Bettis said. "Our answer lies in our homes. We don't need another athlete. We don't need another rapper. We don't need another savior."

In her remarks, Pollard echoed many of Bettis' sentiments.

"Some of (King's) dream has been accomplished, other parts have not," Pollard said, while stressing the importance of teaching and practicing nonviolence. "We can all help someone. Every American can make a difference. We should go from words to deeds."

Congressional representatives provided pre-recorded messages, with Sen. Ben Ray Lujan noting many people have forgotten to love their neighbors and referenced the spread of COVID-19 along with gun violence and "senseless brutality." He added too many people bought into lies that drove the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but that the moral arc eventually bends toward the truth.

"I see the good in our hearts, I see the promise in our future," Lujan said. "This may well be mankind's last chance to choose chaos or choose community."

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez said King's legacy demands not giving up on truth and confronting lies, and that whatever affects one person affects every one of us.

Local school superintendents Renee Russ of Clovis Municipal Schools and James Haley of Clovis Christian also spoke, with Russ noting the hard truths the pandemic had revealed in the year that has transpired since the last MLK celebration. With schools largely limited to virtual schooling, Russ said, it has become more evident that many segments of the population are disadvantaged because they lack the technology needed to further their education.

"There's no denying our collective responsibility is to continue to work together as a community on behalf of this community," Russ said. "Having the light shone on this inequity may be one of the few gifts of this pandemic."

Haley said that somebody who came from 100 years ago would recognize little about today, but they would unfortunately recognize poverty, hunger, homelessness and discrimination.

"Dr. King painted for us," Haley said, "a beautiful picture of an inclusive, loving, tolerant community."