Somerset Board of Chosen Freeholder issued Proclamation in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King during the Breakfast Celebration. To read the Proclamation please click here
The following news was reported in FranklinReporter.com and Tapinto.net on January 17, 2017.
20th Anniversary MLK Community Breakfast Sees Record Crowd
By:Bill Bowman: franklinreporter.com
Former schools Superintendent Frank Pepe exhorted attendees at the 20th annual MLK Community Breakfast to hold their leaders accountable, and to work for peace and justice. A co-founder of the township’s longest-running multicultural event helped celebrate its 20th anniversary Jan. 16 with exhortations to hold leaders accountable and listen to one another. Former schools Superintendent Frank Pepe spoke to more than 500 people at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast, held at the DoubleTree Hotel on Atrium Drive. Pepe helped create the annual event with former police chief Daniel Livak and former Board of Education member Eva Nagy. The breakfast is used to raise money for college scholarships for Franklin High School seniors. To date, more than $157,000 has been awarded to 155 students, according to a release about the event. The morning was filled with tributes to King in speech and in song. Zachias Noble, of the New Jersey Orators, presented a “montage in Honor of Dr. King’s Life,” while the Community Fellowship Mass Choir performed several songs, including “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Pepe evoked 1967 in his remarks, noting that King had published “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” the last book he published before his assassination in 1968. In the book, Pepe said, King described “what he had always known, that the objectification of human beings, the 1/3 hatred and greed that had fostered slavery, and then lynching and then Jim Crow, it was the same vileness, the same evil that had excuses the massacre of Native Americans, that fueled the Holocaust, that ignored the death of hundreds of thousands in Viet Nam and that perverted capitalism to overwhelmingly reward the rich while neglecting the poor.” “Dr. King was asking a divided country, where do we go from here?” Pepe said. “And now here we are, half a century later. We have made significant progress in 50 years, but our nation is bitterly divided; fraught with distrust and fear; brimming with rage; hatred and racism for many of us spoken boldly and openly.” “We have seen the killings of civilian motorists, the assassination of our peace officers and hate crimes perpetrated on the feeble and many of our ethnicities degraded; mass incarceration, eviction of a quarter of a million Americans every month because they are too poor to pay their monthly rent,” he said. “And yet the richest of the rich grow even richer. Where do we go from here?” King’s message, Pepe said, “remains a powerful guidance for peace, justice and progress.” “We have come a long way, but we have much further to go,” he said. “We must be persistent and strong and hold all of our leaders accountable. Dr. King’s message is still essential, we must come to understand one another, pursue empathy and reconciliation.” “We must exert relentless pressure on the government to serve the people, demand justice for all, fairness for all people, the common man, the poor, the disenfranchised,” Pepe said. “Government cannot legislate good will, government cannot create brotherhood or resolve hate. “The assassination of Dr. King denies us of his leadership, but not his hope,” he said. “We still have time, we still have a choice, we still have each other. Now it’s up to each and every one of us.” The breakfast also featured comments from other township, state and regional leaders. State Assemblyman Joe Danielsen, (R-17), told the crowd that “this is a year that we have to stay focused.” “We need to stay righteous in our activities and things that we do,” he said. “We need not to be distracted. We may be on the mountain top, but we are far from the promised land.” “It’s incumbent on us all to cry out against injustice,” said Somerset County Freeholder, and former Mayor, Brian Levine. “As the anthem says, lift every voice. Not some of us, all of us.” Current Mayor Phil Kramer noted that “some may feel that although we have held freedom, it may be about to slip away. If so, we must fight for it.” Referencing the New Jersey Interfaith Council’s “Pledge To Stand Up For The Other,” Kramer said, “I call upon all of you to pledge to stand up for the other and reject every attempt to separate any portion of decent humanity from the rest. That is the essence of Martin Luther King’s struggle, and that is the essence of what this country stands for.” Board of Education president Ed Potosnak thanked the crowd for their donations, and said that the scholarships are very important to the students who receive them. “It makes a huge difference when there are scholarships … to open those educational doors in the future,” he said. Ali Chaudry, who co-founded the NJ Interfaith Council with township resident Alex Kharazi, led the crowd in taking the pledge to “Stand Up For The Other.” The pledge, he said, “is the key … to building the cohesive nation we wish to build.” 2/3 Nagy, holding what she said was a “slave collar,” which was used to prevent African-American slaves from escaping their owners, said, “This is what it’s about.” “There are collars that are invisible and visible,” she said. “There are collars that ware inflicted on others, there are collars that are inflicted on us. What do we want our children to know?” “That’s why events like this, and this unique group that comes together, are so important,” she said. “It should never happen to anyone, physically, mentally or emotionally.” During the event, Rabbi Eli Garfinkel of Temple Beth El gave the offertory and dedication, Shirin Poustchi of the Baha’is of Franklin Township gave the invocation and the Rev. Julia M. Hawks Presley of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens gave the benediction. Following are some scenes from the event.
Township's Twentieth Anniversary Community Breakfast: Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
By MALIK A. LYONS: WWW.tapinto.net
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, NJ - Close to 500 hundred members of Franklin Township's community gathered Monday at Double Tree Hotel for the 20th anniversary of Franklin Township's Community Breakfast hosted by the Dr. Martin Luther King Community Foundation (FTMLKC Foundation).
The annual event was created to bring the township together to honor the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and to raise scholarship money for students of Franklin High School.
Sergeant Sean Hebbon of the Franklin Township Police Department and FTMLKC Foundation 1st vice president performed as the master of ceremonies and kicked off the event by saying:
“Twenty years ago this community began coming together each January to celebrate and honor Dr. King’s legacy, to continue to keep Dr. King's dream alive... Since 1998, the education and lives of 155 Franklin High graduating seniors have been supported and touched by this event and you!"
Many local businesses, religious groups, political organizations, not-for-profit agencies, police/fire, and community organizations of Franklin Township came out to give both their social and financial support. Unity Bank sponsored 10 children from each of the local public schools and Masjid-e-Ali sponsored a table of students from the Jafaria School of Central New Jersey. Franklin Township's school district administrators, teachers, and staff also were in attendance provided support for the breakfast.
Franklin Township's Police Department opened with a Presentation of Colors accompanied by the singing of the "Star-Spangled Banner" by Dr. Angela Bodino. Zachias Noble, a 10-year-old member of the Somerset Chapter of the New Jersey Orators gave a speech titled "A Montage in Honor of Dr. King's Life" and received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Rabbi Eli Garfinkel of Temple Beth El gave the offertory and dedication and reminded the attendees how the breakfast started at the old Franklin High School cafeteria and has grown every since. Dr. Shirin Poustchi of the Bahá'ís of Franklin Township who was awarded one of the scholarships in 2009 gave the invocation and shared a selection of guidance from the Bahá'ís writings and a Bahá'ís prayer.
Eva M. Nagy, the president of FTMLKC Foundation invited various officials to give the attendees a special greeting.
The first to speak was Assemblyman Joe Danielson, who told the crowd "if there is ever a time you need help please reach out to my office, my staff or me personally 24/7."
Freeholder Brian Levine was the second official to speak and awarded the FTMLKC Foundation with a proclamation on behalf of the Freeholders of Somerset County.
Mayor Philip Kramer gave the third greeting and thanked the organizers of the breakfast and urged the crowd to Stand Up For The Other.
"Reject every attempt to separate any portion of decent humanity from the rest, that is the essence of Dr. King's struggle, and the essence of what this country stands for," Kramer said.
Board of Education President Ed Potosnak spoke next and told the crowd how important scholarships are for many students and without them, it would be harder to get the education needed to open doors to new opportunities.
Nagy then thanked and acknowledged many members and organizations of the community, before introducing Dr. M. Ali Chaudry co-founder of the NJ Interfaith Coalition to finish out the special greetings segment of the breakfast.
Dr. Chaudry invited the crowd to take the Stand Up For The Other pledge together as a group, and everyone in attendance obliged. Mayor Kramer and Township Council formally adopted the pledge in the form of a resolution last month, and on December 19 the entire legislature of New Jersey endorsed the pledge.
The Community Fellowship Mass Choir performed "Anthem of Praise" which can be found below:
Frank V. Pepe who was one of three community leaders responsible for creating the Dr. Martin Luther King Community Breakfast 20 years ago was the day's Keynote speaker. Pepe urged the crowd to be bold in their expectations and confident in their ideals and values and to be persistent and strong in their convictions. Pepe quoted Dr. King saying “We are faced with the fierce urgency of now… Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: “Too late.” He then told the crowd we still have time a choice and each other to make sure we stand up for what is right and just.
Reverend Dr. Julia M. Hawks Presley of First Baptist Church performed the benediction for the crowd. Before Dr. Presley led the prayer she reflected on how she was a senior in high school when Dr. King was assassinated and fell victim to racist encounters. “When you think about those things that we encounter in life they don’t make you angry or bitter, they make you better and stronger,” Presley said.
Community Fellowship Mass Choir and the audience closed out the event by singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “God Bless America.”
"Diversity is beautiful, ensuring that we honor each other and hold each other up in dignity and working together is paramount and not only important here in our community but in our state, country and in the world," Nagy said after the breakfast.
The following news was reported in FranklinReporter.com and Tapinto.net on January 17, 2017.
20th Anniversary MLK Community Breakfast Sees Record Crowd
By:Bill Bowman: franklinreporter.com
Former schools Superintendent Frank Pepe exhorted attendees at the 20th annual MLK Community Breakfast to hold their leaders accountable, and to work for peace and justice. A co-founder of the township’s longest-running multicultural event helped celebrate its 20th anniversary Jan. 16 with exhortations to hold leaders accountable and listen to one another. Former schools Superintendent Frank Pepe spoke to more than 500 people at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast, held at the DoubleTree Hotel on Atrium Drive. Pepe helped create the annual event with former police chief Daniel Livak and former Board of Education member Eva Nagy. The breakfast is used to raise money for college scholarships for Franklin High School seniors. To date, more than $157,000 has been awarded to 155 students, according to a release about the event. The morning was filled with tributes to King in speech and in song. Zachias Noble, of the New Jersey Orators, presented a “montage in Honor of Dr. King’s Life,” while the Community Fellowship Mass Choir performed several songs, including “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Pepe evoked 1967 in his remarks, noting that King had published “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” the last book he published before his assassination in 1968. In the book, Pepe said, King described “what he had always known, that the objectification of human beings, the 1/3 hatred and greed that had fostered slavery, and then lynching and then Jim Crow, it was the same vileness, the same evil that had excuses the massacre of Native Americans, that fueled the Holocaust, that ignored the death of hundreds of thousands in Viet Nam and that perverted capitalism to overwhelmingly reward the rich while neglecting the poor.” “Dr. King was asking a divided country, where do we go from here?” Pepe said. “And now here we are, half a century later. We have made significant progress in 50 years, but our nation is bitterly divided; fraught with distrust and fear; brimming with rage; hatred and racism for many of us spoken boldly and openly.” “We have seen the killings of civilian motorists, the assassination of our peace officers and hate crimes perpetrated on the feeble and many of our ethnicities degraded; mass incarceration, eviction of a quarter of a million Americans every month because they are too poor to pay their monthly rent,” he said. “And yet the richest of the rich grow even richer. Where do we go from here?” King’s message, Pepe said, “remains a powerful guidance for peace, justice and progress.” “We have come a long way, but we have much further to go,” he said. “We must be persistent and strong and hold all of our leaders accountable. Dr. King’s message is still essential, we must come to understand one another, pursue empathy and reconciliation.” “We must exert relentless pressure on the government to serve the people, demand justice for all, fairness for all people, the common man, the poor, the disenfranchised,” Pepe said. “Government cannot legislate good will, government cannot create brotherhood or resolve hate. “The assassination of Dr. King denies us of his leadership, but not his hope,” he said. “We still have time, we still have a choice, we still have each other. Now it’s up to each and every one of us.” The breakfast also featured comments from other township, state and regional leaders. State Assemblyman Joe Danielsen, (R-17), told the crowd that “this is a year that we have to stay focused.” “We need to stay righteous in our activities and things that we do,” he said. “We need not to be distracted. We may be on the mountain top, but we are far from the promised land.” “It’s incumbent on us all to cry out against injustice,” said Somerset County Freeholder, and former Mayor, Brian Levine. “As the anthem says, lift every voice. Not some of us, all of us.” Current Mayor Phil Kramer noted that “some may feel that although we have held freedom, it may be about to slip away. If so, we must fight for it.” Referencing the New Jersey Interfaith Council’s “Pledge To Stand Up For The Other,” Kramer said, “I call upon all of you to pledge to stand up for the other and reject every attempt to separate any portion of decent humanity from the rest. That is the essence of Martin Luther King’s struggle, and that is the essence of what this country stands for.” Board of Education president Ed Potosnak thanked the crowd for their donations, and said that the scholarships are very important to the students who receive them. “It makes a huge difference when there are scholarships … to open those educational doors in the future,” he said. Ali Chaudry, who co-founded the NJ Interfaith Council with township resident Alex Kharazi, led the crowd in taking the pledge to “Stand Up For The Other.” The pledge, he said, “is the key … to building the cohesive nation we wish to build.” 2/3 Nagy, holding what she said was a “slave collar,” which was used to prevent African-American slaves from escaping their owners, said, “This is what it’s about.” “There are collars that are invisible and visible,” she said. “There are collars that ware inflicted on others, there are collars that are inflicted on us. What do we want our children to know?” “That’s why events like this, and this unique group that comes together, are so important,” she said. “It should never happen to anyone, physically, mentally or emotionally.” During the event, Rabbi Eli Garfinkel of Temple Beth El gave the offertory and dedication, Shirin Poustchi of the Baha’is of Franklin Township gave the invocation and the Rev. Julia M. Hawks Presley of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens gave the benediction. Following are some scenes from the event.
Township's Twentieth Anniversary Community Breakfast: Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
By MALIK A. LYONS: WWW.tapinto.net
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, NJ - Close to 500 hundred members of Franklin Township's community gathered Monday at Double Tree Hotel for the 20th anniversary of Franklin Township's Community Breakfast hosted by the Dr. Martin Luther King Community Foundation (FTMLKC Foundation).
The annual event was created to bring the township together to honor the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and to raise scholarship money for students of Franklin High School.
Sergeant Sean Hebbon of the Franklin Township Police Department and FTMLKC Foundation 1st vice president performed as the master of ceremonies and kicked off the event by saying:
“Twenty years ago this community began coming together each January to celebrate and honor Dr. King’s legacy, to continue to keep Dr. King's dream alive... Since 1998, the education and lives of 155 Franklin High graduating seniors have been supported and touched by this event and you!"
Many local businesses, religious groups, political organizations, not-for-profit agencies, police/fire, and community organizations of Franklin Township came out to give both their social and financial support. Unity Bank sponsored 10 children from each of the local public schools and Masjid-e-Ali sponsored a table of students from the Jafaria School of Central New Jersey. Franklin Township's school district administrators, teachers, and staff also were in attendance provided support for the breakfast.
Franklin Township's Police Department opened with a Presentation of Colors accompanied by the singing of the "Star-Spangled Banner" by Dr. Angela Bodino. Zachias Noble, a 10-year-old member of the Somerset Chapter of the New Jersey Orators gave a speech titled "A Montage in Honor of Dr. King's Life" and received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Rabbi Eli Garfinkel of Temple Beth El gave the offertory and dedication and reminded the attendees how the breakfast started at the old Franklin High School cafeteria and has grown every since. Dr. Shirin Poustchi of the Bahá'ís of Franklin Township who was awarded one of the scholarships in 2009 gave the invocation and shared a selection of guidance from the Bahá'ís writings and a Bahá'ís prayer.
Eva M. Nagy, the president of FTMLKC Foundation invited various officials to give the attendees a special greeting.
The first to speak was Assemblyman Joe Danielson, who told the crowd "if there is ever a time you need help please reach out to my office, my staff or me personally 24/7."
Freeholder Brian Levine was the second official to speak and awarded the FTMLKC Foundation with a proclamation on behalf of the Freeholders of Somerset County.
Mayor Philip Kramer gave the third greeting and thanked the organizers of the breakfast and urged the crowd to Stand Up For The Other.
"Reject every attempt to separate any portion of decent humanity from the rest, that is the essence of Dr. King's struggle, and the essence of what this country stands for," Kramer said.
Board of Education President Ed Potosnak spoke next and told the crowd how important scholarships are for many students and without them, it would be harder to get the education needed to open doors to new opportunities.
Nagy then thanked and acknowledged many members and organizations of the community, before introducing Dr. M. Ali Chaudry co-founder of the NJ Interfaith Coalition to finish out the special greetings segment of the breakfast.
Dr. Chaudry invited the crowd to take the Stand Up For The Other pledge together as a group, and everyone in attendance obliged. Mayor Kramer and Township Council formally adopted the pledge in the form of a resolution last month, and on December 19 the entire legislature of New Jersey endorsed the pledge.
The Community Fellowship Mass Choir performed "Anthem of Praise" which can be found below:
Frank V. Pepe who was one of three community leaders responsible for creating the Dr. Martin Luther King Community Breakfast 20 years ago was the day's Keynote speaker. Pepe urged the crowd to be bold in their expectations and confident in their ideals and values and to be persistent and strong in their convictions. Pepe quoted Dr. King saying “We are faced with the fierce urgency of now… Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: “Too late.” He then told the crowd we still have time a choice and each other to make sure we stand up for what is right and just.
Reverend Dr. Julia M. Hawks Presley of First Baptist Church performed the benediction for the crowd. Before Dr. Presley led the prayer she reflected on how she was a senior in high school when Dr. King was assassinated and fell victim to racist encounters. “When you think about those things that we encounter in life they don’t make you angry or bitter, they make you better and stronger,” Presley said.
Community Fellowship Mass Choir and the audience closed out the event by singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “God Bless America.”
"Diversity is beautiful, ensuring that we honor each other and hold each other up in dignity and working together is paramount and not only important here in our community but in our state, country and in the world," Nagy said after the breakfast.