Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
January 13, 2023
Dear Skidmore Community,
In the days ahead, we once again have the opportunity to honor and celebrate the impact,
teachings, and influence of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday is commemorated
by a national holiday this Monday, Jan. 16.
Last year, in my annual President鈥檚 Message for MLK Day, I emphasized how King鈥檚 teachings
push against the current impulse toward polarization, toward us-versus-them, toward
intolerance and demonizing. I find that message as current in January of 2023 as it
was in January of 2022, though I also see encouraging signs all around us that give
me hope that our world is reaching toward more understanding, more acceptance, and
more inclusion.
To be sure, signs of discouragement are all around us as well, often with greater
clamor and attention than the signs of hope. But that is all the more reason to assert
with steady insistence on what unites us, what we have in common, what we embrace
in each other. This is the conclusion Ralph Ellison reaches at the very end of his
magisterial novel of 1952, 鈥淚nvisible Man,鈥� where he states: 鈥淚 defend because in
spite of all I find that I love. In order to get some of it down I have to love. I sell you no phony forgiveness 鈥� but too much of your life will be lost,
its meaning lost, unless you approach it as much through love as through hate. So
I approach it through division so I denounce and I defend and I hate and I love.鈥�
Ellison, like King, recognized that in America we denounce and defend, love and hate, reject and embrace. Ours is indeed a nation of contradictions.
King鈥檚 embrace of this is much of what I find so admirable in this remarkable man.
As he memorably stated in his 1964 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 鈥淚 believe that
unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is
why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.鈥� King continues
to teach us about justice, about political possibility, about our shared humanity,
about how race and gender and nationality are only elements of identity, not the determinant of our being. And ultimately, he teaches us about
love, that most fundamental of human traits that shows our greatest possibility and
power. He said, 鈥淟ove is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of
the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God."
In times of anxiety and challenge, I urge us to hold to the teachings of King, whatever
they mean to us and however we conceive of them, and thereby to bring out our better
angels and see in our sisters and brothers the blessings that they are.
As we pay tribute to Dr. King鈥檚 life and work, Skidmore is again partnering with MLK
Saratoga to honor his legacy,and I encourage all members of our community to participate in events from Friday, Jan. 13, through Monday, Jan. 16. A full lineup of performances,
presentations, and service opportunities, can be found on the .
While I hope you can join in this community-wide celebration, it is my hope that we may all honor Dr. King鈥檚
legacy and teachings each and every day, at Skidmore and beyond.
Sincerely,
Marc Conner
President