Love Wins – MLK bus ride shines spotlight on community
This article has won an SPJ award and was originally published in our monthly Today Magazine — the topic is timeless and still relevant today
By Lillian Peng
Special to Today Magazine
Mondays. The worst day of the week. The transition from the careless weekend to the responsibilities of the real world, the day so dreaded there are countless pieces dedicated to the hatred of it.
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Mondays in New England at this time of the year are not helped much by the miserable winter weather. But somehow, against all odds, a group of students, administrators and members of the Farmington Valley community showed up on the Monday morning of Martin Luther King Day (a day off from school) to go on a bus ride.
This Abrahamic Bus Ride Against Hate, as it was dubbed, was a creation of history teacher Stuart Abrams and the UNICEF/Amnesty clubs at Avon High School.
The goal was to hit three houses of worship, discuss pressing topics that have puzzled the great philosophers of humanity since the beginning of time, and grab breakfast along the way — since there’s nothing like thinking to start a hankering for baked goods.
The first stop was Beth El Temple in West Hartford.
Rabbi Jim Rosen, who has served for over 30 years, greeted us and talked about the connections between the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and members of the Jewish community in that time period. In fact, the original leader of Beth El Temple, rabbi Stanley Kessler, was present in 1963 at the National Mall where Dr. Martin Luther King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
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We talked about hate, and where it starts. Hatred begins with small actions that perpetuate dehumanization, so we must remember to respect each other. We must remember names, faces and identities to ensure nobody’s story is forgotten.
Furthermore, if there is injustice in the world, we must acknowledge it. To remain complacent is to become an abuser. When there is hatred, it isn’t only the victims who suffer — the perpetrators do too.
After chewing on that (and some bagels), we made our way to the Church of Saint Ann in Avon, where we were greeted by pastor Alphonso Fontana, or Father Al.
In the Roman Catholic faith, the idea of virtue, or the inclination to do good, is imbued within the chapel that depicts saints and miracles. When we discussed overcoming hatred, the solution that kept coming up was the power of love overcoming evil.
As Dr. King once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
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But where can we find it in ourselves to forgive those filled with hate? While many find it difficult to “forgive and forget,” maintaining grudges against those who have done wrong only further pains the beholder. Fostering hate toward others, to any extent, never serves to bring about an improvement to one’s life, but instead continues the detrimental cycle of resentment.
The concept of “loving one’s neighbor” is something that can be forgotten in a society centered around ourselves. By expanding our horizons, we can create deeper bonds than the superficial ones within our lives that have become so commonplace.
Our final stop was the Farmington Valley American Muslim Center in Avon, where we held our discussion with imam Safwan Shaikh.
The Islamic faith puts an emphasis on the larger community and the bigger picture. Muslims often participate in volunteer work in order to improve the society around them — the Farmington Valley center partners with a mobile Foodshare and a mobile medical clinic.
While it is easy to sit around and tell people they need to be better, by being proactive, an actual difference is made.
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"Darkness cannot drive out darkness — only light can do that • Hate cannot drive out hate — only love can do that" — Martin Luther King Jr.
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Finally, imam Shaikh pointed out that a lot of hate comes from misunderstanding. By forming close relationships with others and seeing from other perspectives, people can bridge the gap.
We came from different tribes and nations, so diversity is something we should celebrate. Every culture and every voice deserve to be heard because “without one, we cannot know the other.”
Love is important, but love is simply an emotion. Emotions come and go, but our moral conscience stays within us, and that is the common factor that ties us together. As humans, we all have this idea of right and wrong. If we are all the same, the same flesh and bones, we should make room for others.
Despite the different perspectives held by these religions, their collective agreement that hate has no place in our communities elucidates parallels between them regarding the dispelling of hate.
With each group, the idea of humanity’s inherent desire to pursue philanthropic efforts — the idea of inner good — is a common factor they all believe to be essential for creating change. And that is what we need to carry with us if we want to make our community a more supportive and inclusive place that gives a voice to every person. +
Lillian Peng was a senior at Avon High School when this article was first published — she is currently a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute aka RPI
Her article received both first-place and third-place SPJ awards and originally appeared in the February 2023 edition of Today Magazine, our monthly publication
Today Online features community news that matters nationwide and aims to record Connecticut’s underreported upside — covering the heart of the Farmington Valley and beyond
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