A professor at Georgetown University will be in Peoria Monday. Michael Eric Dyson will be the featured speaker at Peoria's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Luncheon. Dyson tells WMBD's Greg and Dan while King's message lives on, there is still work to be done.
"There's been incredible disparity between black and white wealth in this country, the unemployment rate is hovering near 17 percent for African-Americans and the devastation of denied opportunity is a legacy we continue to battle with," says Dyson.
Concerning race relations, Dyson says home is where educating our children starts, "to confront the bigotry, to confront the stereotypes, to confront the ignorance, to educate our kids," says Dyson. "And then engage them in an ongoing conversation about how we can better ourselves and, therefore, the society in which we exist."
Dyson says if Americans really want the government they deserve, they should take a lesson from what he calls "the tea partiers and occupy Wall Streeters."
"You can't bellyache and gripe about the government if you're not willing to stand up and talk about the government. The government is 'We the People,' the government is the articulation and expression of who we are and our political will," explains Dyson.
"Unless we get involved we won't be able to shake that government and talk about what we think is right or wrong."
Tickets are available at $40 each or a table of ten for $400 at 494-8554.
Also, Public Employees for Community Concerns will be making a donation to Peoria Promise during the luncheon. Peoria Promise provides City of Peoria students who have graduated from a public school with 64 credit hours to be used over a three-year period at Illinois Central College.
