The people of the United States need to rethink their standards and get their priorities straight, said Reverend Jamal-Harrison Bryant at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration service on Tuesday. Bryant, who is from the Empowerment Temple of Baltimore, gave the keynote sermon at the celebration in Gaston Hall, which also included performances by the Georgetown Gospel Choir and Black Movements dance troupe.
“When garbage men make more than teachers, something needs to be done,” Bryant said.
Bryant said that he feels that young Americans have nothing to speak out about, unlike previous generations of college students.
“Young Americans are trying to find the opportunity to dream,” he said.
Bryant also said that American students do not measure up to students abroad, especially those in Asia and Europe. “An Asian student studies four hours a night. The average American student studies 35 minutes a night because of MTV/BET culture,” he said.
Bryant said he feels that Americans need to re-evaluate their standards. “Young people and children are worth something?not just at election time, but all the time.”
Bryant spoke of the two important days in people’s lives: the day they were born and the day they figure out why they were born.
“We must have our own dreams, not self-serving, but self-giving,” he said.
“Blacks were stripped of their identity by a society that forgot its own constitution,” Bryant said. “They were beaten into believing they were third-class citizens.”
According to Bryant, King made sacrifices to promote black causes during a time when many people refused to help blacks. “He stopped when he could have done other things. He lived outside of himself. It was not what he could take but what he could give,” Bryant said.
“Dr. King didn’t sacrifice for just black America, he did so for all America,” Bryant said. “How long will it take before we understand we are the same people?” he asked.
Bryant spoke of the sacrifices made for students to attend Georgetown. “You are here because you’re standing on the shoulders of someone who sacrificed before you,” Bryant said.
Students need to take action, Bryant said. “You’re half-dead because you’re going through the motions. You’re not here to be popular. You’re here because somebody prayed for you. You’re not here just for you, but so you can help somebody else,” he said.
“The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that when you’re half-dead, by deductive reasoning, you’re half-alive,” Bryant said. “It is now incumbent upon you to go back and see somebody you can help,” he said.
