DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY The speech below was delivered by Leon Pinkett '20 at Calvert's all-school assembly on January 17, 2020, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Leon would like to thank his mentor Sra. Sandry Sachar.
T
hree miles is the distance from my house to Calvert School, but the truth is that it feels more
like three hundred miles. Three miles away a kid like me is expected to live to nineteen or twenty. Three miles away a kid like me isn’t supposed to know their father. Three miles away a kid like me doesn’t get the same quality education. And three miles away a kid like me doesn’t get a warm meal. I’m one of the fortunate ones. I’ve broken the stereotypes and assumptions of what a kid three miles away is supposed to be.
Since we are remembering Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today, it would only be natural for me to quote his famous I Have A Dream speech, but I’d rather bring something else to your attention: being comfortable. Throughout my life, there have been multiple occasions where someone has said something wrong, ignorant, or just rude. I have shied away from standing up for myself or using it as a teaching moment, just so I and the people around me could stay comfortable, and I’m sorry for that. I’ve done those people a disservice by not teaching and helping them grow in their knowledge of what they did not understand. I thought that I was doing the right thing because that's what kept the situation comfortable, but the truth is the only one that benefited from it was me. I used to have this quote on the lock screen of my phone; it said, “A comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there,” and I told myself that I would live by that quote every day. But if I’m being honest, I haven't. Nothing I did represented that quote. I still did the same old thing, backing away from opportunities and challenges just because it didn’t feel natural. A couple weeks ago, I went through the pictures that my dad had stored on his iPad. As I looked through the pictures, I saw all of the activities I used to do, and I realized how many things I quit
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REFLECTIONS 2019 - 2020
Leon Pinkett '20 delivers the keynote address at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day all-school assembly.
because they were too far out of my comfort zone. As I was going through the photos, I felt as if I was traveling through time, but at the end of that journey I realized the amount of time I wasted. Sometimes I feel like I let my family down because I know they didn’t use everything they had to allow me to be one of the fortunate ones, one of the kids from West Baltimore to go to a great school and be presented with opportunities, just for me to be comfortable. Dr. King’s message was about equality, but if you look at it a little closer he’s telling everyone to stop being comfortable. Stop being comfortable with treating your human brothers and sisters as if they are less than you. Stop being comfortable with creating separation between the human race. Stop being comfortable with hurting people. I can guarantee you that he wasn’t just talking to white people; there were some African Americans who became content with the way things were, so he was also telling them to stop accepting their situations and being treated like they are less than human.
