Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 4 December 2003 — Page 2

Page 2 • The Muncie Times • December 4, 2003

EDITORIAL Non-decision on MLK Boulevard renaming means effort must continue

The year 2003 is about to end, as African Americans and other rightthinking Muncie and Delaware County residents watch helplessly. Efforts to rename Broadway in honor of civil rights icon, the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have again been put off. While the agreement between the city and community committees to name a team to advocate the name change is a step in the right direction, it is hardly the definitive statement that we expected from the mediation efforts. At a Friday morning City Hall news conference to announce the agreement, members from the two committees joked with each and said the meetings had helped to bring them closer together. Some even said they had made new friends

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from across the aisle. That is good news. But it pales when confronted with what needs to be done. The two groups' members publicly signed an eightpage agreement arrived at through the efforts of Anita Cochran, a Chicago-based member of the U. S. Justice Department's Community Relations Service. Cochran was here to mediate the dispute between the Muncie Community Team and the City of Muncie Team over whether Broadway Avenue should be renamed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. According to the pact, after the renaming advocacy, a new ordinance will be drafted on the issue for a vote before the Muncie City Council, which last June voted 7-2 against the name change. It's not clear if any minds have been

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changed enough to predict success in the new vote expected next June or July. If that fails, another stab would be taken at the renaming at another time. What disappoints us is that this process could go on ad infinitum or until people tire of it. We would have preferred a definite time table with a cutoff date for making this decision. That would end the uncertainity. The mediation efforts were the result of the dispute over the proposed renaming. In the negotiations the two teams did reach agreement on a number of other pressing community issues. That is well and good. Those issues needed to be addressed. But we continue to wonder why, after all the se mediation efforts, the two teams could not resolve the

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issue of whether Broadway will now become Martin Luther King Boulevard. And we also continue to question the secrecy that surrounded the mediation meetings. People in the community were largely left out of the process. This should have been an opportunity to show people how the process works. While we commend the efforts of the Community Relations Service for its efforts in getting these Munsonians to talk to each other, we remain totally unpersuaded that there was enything sensitive or confidential enough to require this veil of secrecy. We can only hope that in future a greater effort will be made to ensure that there is adequate public participation and openness in tackling issues of this nature. ^ Dr. King and his colleagues battled racism in the deep South, in the bowels of Alabama and Mississippi, and defeated that monster. Their successes in those battles means we do not have to replicate that struggle. Racism has been defeated but not forgotten. It continues to raise its ugly head in various manifestations. That's why there is so much opposition to the rightful renaming of Muncie's Broadway as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. We have been given various reasons, such as the inconvenience of having to change business cards, business stationery or post office mail carriers having difficulty in delivering mail on the renamed street. But we all know those are phony

excuses being used to hide the real reason—the fact that certain businesses are opposed to renaming Broadway after an African American. We know there would be no such opposition if the effort was to rename Broadway after someone such as Ronald Reagan. We are not blind to the real reasons for the opposition or the threats to relocate from the renamed street. We do not think that the renaming issue should be put on the back burner while other issues are tackled. We believe that there should be relentles^ pressure to ensure that this issue will be resolved next year. Now that the people from the two teams have had a chance to work together and to know each other, we hope they will take this to a higher level by combining their efforts so that Munsonians can collectively honor Dr. King, one of the greatest men this country has ever produced. Dr. King stood for and embraced racial reconciliation, something that Muncie desperately needs. We have a dream, that next year Broadway will become Martin Luther King Boulevard and that this will serve to bring the races together, instead of polarizing them.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

MUNCIE TIMES STAFF Publisher Bea Moten-Foster Editor John T. Lambkun Advertising Bea Moten-Foster Layout Patty King Typesetting Maurice Taylor Contributors: T.S. Kumbula, Shante Scott, Geri Rosales, Barbara Namwawa, Maurice Taylor, Charles Gulubane and David Hoelscher The Muncie Times is published twice monthly at 1304 N. Broadway, Muncie, IN 47303. It covers the communities of Anderson, Marion, New Castle, Richmond, and Muncie. All editorial correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, The Muncie Times, 1304 N. Broadway, Muncie, IN 47303. Telephone (765) 741-0037. Fax (765) 741-0040.

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