Building Community Bridges Requires Getting Back to Basics

The theme of Monday evening’s program honoring the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at , "Building Bridges," held different meanings for those who attended.

The Rev. Bryan Smith, pastor of and the evening’s keynote speaker, said he’s making an effort to be a better listener.

“Really take some time to listen deeply to somebody else, to not just assume you’ve heard somebody clearly, but to make sure you’re listening with as much energy as you can,” he said. “So often we try to quickly categorize folks without really hearing them and understanding them.”

Jeanine Gillikin and her son Sean, 10, who have made attending the program a mother-son tradition. She said they enjoyed the music, provided by Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Festival Singers, directed by Jennifer Kopp, and the performance by Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Breakdancing Club, led by faculty adviser Lance Putrus. What she liked the best was the way the evening's tone captured King’s quote, “The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.”

Gillikin said understanding another person’s point of view, even if you didn’t agree with it, is a key step in understanding others.

When she asked her son how he would bridge a gap between two people or groups, Sean Gillikin suggested helping others or donating money to a cause. Asked how he built bridges among his classmates, the boy replied, “play games together.”

Another attendee, Adrienne Davis, member of the Plymouth-Canton school board – whose seven members have recently fallen into a 4-3 split on a number of issues – said that connecting requires small steps and getting out of one’s comfort zone. “Each side take one small step and then another step … What you will find when you begin to work together is we have more in common than we have apart,” she said.

Davis expressed confidence in newly elected school board president John Jackson to unify the entire board.

Ralynda Moore, who, with her husband Darian Moore, helped organize Monday’s program as part of Canton’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. subcommittee and the Commission for Culture, Arts and Heritage, said the key to building bridges among people is “recognizing that everyone has a unique perspective that they bring to the table and respecting those differences.”

Her mother-in-law, Donna Moore of Flint, said that the greatest way to connect with others is through love.