Advocate Newspaper Founder Les Kimber's remarks made at City Of Fresno 2012 Martin Luther King Jr. holiday march and rally held at Fresno City hall, January 21, 2012. Kimber began The City of Fresno Martin Luther King city celebraion while he was an elected City Councilman in 1983 six years before King's birthday became a national holiday.

Good Morning,

Welcome to the 2012 Dr. Martin Luther King March and Celebration.

"We have come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord, trusting in His holy word, and he hasn't failed us yet. O-o-o can't turn around – we have come this far by faith."

Yes, we have come this far by faith and years of hard work because, like Dr. Martin Luther King, we believe the scripture that tells us faith without work is dead.

Dr. King committed his life to making sure that this country lives up to its creed that all men are created equal with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

If Dr. King were alive today, he would be pleased with the tremendous progress we have made in overcoming this nation's social, economic and political problems. But, Dr. King would also warn us that, although we have come a long way, we cannot stop now.

We can't stop, so long as there are those amongst us who are attempting to turn back the clock to the pre-Civil Rights days to a time that allowed racism and discrimination to run unchecked in this country.

We can't stop, so long as there are those amongst us who would turn back the clock to the days when voting was the exclusive domain of a select and privileged few.

We can't stop now, so long as there are those amongst us who would deny citizenship rights to people born in this country as provided under the Constitution of the United States of America.

We can't stop now so long as there are those amongst us who would deny collective bargaining rights to dedicated public servants.

We can't stop now so long as there are those amongst us who believe that the government should protect the profits of millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the poor, the middle-class, the unemployed and the elderly.

We can't stop now so long as there are those amongst us who believe that it is more important to raise millions of dollars in taxes to provide recreation and shelter for animals at the Fresno Zoo than it is to provide increased revenue for our schools, our Fire and Police Departments, our Parks and Recreation Department, and other public services needed by the human citizens of Fresno.

We can't stop now so long as there are those amongst us who shirk their corporate responsibility to provide an atmosphere of civility and harmony in our community by providing a platform for the dissemination of hate and division at the rate of 120 hours Prime Time broadcasting per week.

No, we can't stop now – we have come too far, we have worked too hard, to turn around now – we can't stop until the transformation of this country from one that was exclusive for one hundred years to a country that is inclusive of all its people.

Dr. King, if he were with us today, would remind our fellow Christian brothers and sisters that love, not hate, is the true DNA of a Christian. He would refer us to the gospel where Jesus asked, "How can you say that you love me who you have never seen and hate your brother who you walk with daily?" Dr. King would remind us people of all faiths and all religions that war is not the solution to the world's problems.

We've got some rough days ahead of us, but we must push our way through so that Dr. Martin Luther King's 'Dream' will become a reality, so that in the words of Dr. King, "one day we will be able to say in the words of that old Negro Spiritual, 'Free at last, free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!"