By John Brice
Correspondent
Martin Luther King Jr. Day was commemorated with a celebration event at Goodsell United Methodist Church in Lanett during the morning hours of Monday, January 15th of 2024. Among the several guest speakers and visiting community leaders was LaFayette Mayor Kenneth Vines who was joined by Councilman Toney Thomas to represent their city.
Mayor Vines began his address by saying “I just want to say good morning to each and every one that is out in the audience this morning. All my sisters of Alpha Kappa Alpha, beautiful faces that I see. All the guests that’s here. I just want to say thank you for the invitation. Councilwoman Thornton gave me a call. Actually I have another agenda to attend but I canceled that to come to be with you all this morning to bring you this greeting on behalf of the City of LaFayette. On behalf of myself, Mayor Kenneth Vines, my official staff, Councilman Mangram, Councilman Ennis, young man beside me, Councilman Thomas, Councilman Ellis and Councilwoman Williams. I bring you greetings from the great, fair city of LaFayette, Alabama.”
Vines continued by remarking “Every brick, every block, every wood structure, every metal structure that was laid in the City of LaFayette has signified growth, unity and togetherness. During our administration of 2020 up until now we have seen tremendous growth in our great City of LaFayette, Alabama. I can say that today because I have witnessed the growth. Not by myself alone, also the names that I called, by working together. One of the things that Reverend Dr. King, my fraternity brother of Alpha Phi Alpha, that is what he encouraged us to do of working together. Your thing says living the dream, and it starts with me spreading hope, courage and unity. Without that in the City of Lafayette we wouldn’t have the growth and the unity that we have now.”
Expressing his gratitude for the colleagues in his life, Vines noted “Not only that, I just like to thank the people in the surrounding city. My brother, Mayor Heard, we always have conversations with words of encouragement to each other. I just want to thank him, we have been knowing each other for a very, very long time. We are on several boards together, we work together, and I just want to thank him as well. I just want to thank you for inviting me to this special occasion dealing with Dr. King, he meant so much to this world. As you can see, the dream continues to live on. It is up to us to continue the dream and continue to fight for the dream. To keep the light burning day and night. Because once that light goes out and dims, our future will be dim as well.”
Concluding his thoughts, Vines commented “We still have to have hope for our young people that is up and coming. We still have to teach them, we still have to encourage them like when we was coming up. We always had someone encouraging us, chastising us as well to do great. To be good citizens, to be good stewards. We have to continue that for our future. Whether it is black, white, brown or whatever the color is. Unity and togetherness that we have to continue to have.”