Ann Arbor school ties MLK day celebration to help for Haiti earthquake victims
Mitchell Elementary School music teacher Rosalie Koenig leads the student body in song during Thursday morning's Martin Luther King Jr. program. Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com
As Ann Arbor Open School began its Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration this morning, Principal Naomi Zikmund-Fisher had a quick question for the students.
After reminding them Dr. King’s message was about equality, she wanted to know how many of them got an allowance that was more than $2.
“I said, ‘What if I told you that there was a place near here where most of the people - the adults - had less than $2 a day of food and clothes and everything they needed? That’s not very fair. That’s not equal. And you can imagine that they wouldn’t be able to build strong houses or have good doctors if they didn’t have any money. So what if I told you that in this place there was a terrible earthquake?'
“We can’t talk about equality and freedom when we have so much and they are in so much need.”
She went on to explain the student council is collecting money for Doctors Without Borders. She told the students their job this weekend is to go to the adults in their lives and remind them if they want to help, they should send money into the school’s collection.
Ann Arbor area schools were spending Thursday and today commemorating King because they are off on Monday.
That meant signing songs, listening to poetry, getting history lessons, and in several cases, listening to guest speakers. At Ypsilanti’s Chapelle Elementary School, a parent who was involved in freedom marches in Memphis spoke to students.
Not all the celebrations stayed in school.
A group of students from Ann Arbor’s Scarlett Middle School was scheduled to take the assembly on the road to the Toyota Technical Center this afternoon.
At Open, Zikmund-Fisher will be sending an e-mail to her school’s parents, looking for donations and driving home her message.
“We can’t celebrate Dr. King this weekend when there are people suffering so close to us if we don’t pay attention,” she said.
• See a complete list of MLK Day events around the area.
Slideshow of the MLK Day sing-along at Ypsilanti's Erickson Elementary School.
David Jesse covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 734-623-2534.
Comments
alarictoo
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 : 1:34 p.m.
Shaking my head as I try to figure out what about my post deserved being "stricken from the record", Ed. I was no more political in my post than the message spoken by the principal in the story. I guess I shouldn't expect there to be an actual reason, though. All: be careful of stating any opinions that might not be in line with the politically correct agenda of A2.com. Let's see how long this message takes to be removed.
Julie
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 : 8:44 a.m.
By the way, Naomi is in good company in her choice to see the Haiti disaster through the eyes of MLK: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100116/ts_alt_afp/haitiusobamapoliticsaid_20100116043117
Julie
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 : 8:39 a.m.
Nope. It's a public magnet school.
The Picker
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 : 8:17 a.m.
Is A2 Open a charter school?
monster
Sat, Jan 16, 2010 : 11:09 p.m.
"It would be great if we had public educators who didn't engage in such fuzzy thinking like this. " said AD Bigot Is she educationg your kid? Or other people's kids against their will? You should do more homework. Ann Arbor Open is a magnet school, and as such -whilst still a public school- is chosen by parents who want exactly this. Do you hear any Open School Parents complaining? No? Then shush. You don't interfere with my kids' education and I won't interfere with yours. And as for tax dollar -that has NOTHING to do with this story. Nothing. This is about humanitarian aid dollars from the pockets of individuals, and about what MLK taught and believed in. You don't have to agree with MLK, but in an assembly celebrating his work and remembering his life, it is TOTALLY appropriate for a teacher to relate his message to events of the current day.
Alan Benard
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 9:23 p.m.
I am a parent of two Ann Arbor Open students and Naomi's example is exactly the message I want my children to hear. I is exactly what I would tell them around the dinner table. I was very proud this evening when my daughter said she would take her allowance money which she receives for doing household chores and contribute it to the AAO fund for Doctors Without Boarders. She is following the guidance from educators who provide a moral compass along with factual learning -- that the strong should help the weak, those with should help those without. I'm presently reading local author Don Faber's The Toledo War," and the preface quotes the Northwest Ordinance which helped form our state: "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." To complain that our schools provide moral lessons is to ignore the historical foundation of public education. If my children were to learn sociopathic, counter-productive lessons in school -- that the weak have only themselves to blame, that the strong deserve what they have and should selfishly keep it -- I would remove my children from that program.Dr. King's message was about taking direct, non-violent action to make the world a more just place. That action might be a march, a boycott, or it might be offering the resources of an impossibly strong nation to a pitifully weak nation. At the end of his life -- and maybe his life was forfeit because he took this stand -- Dr. King "called for 'radical changes in the structure of our society' to redistribute wealth and power."http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2269He also said, in his April, 1967 speech entitled "Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam":"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look easily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: " This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.... A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values.http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0115-13.htmThat is the man whom the United States has given a national holiday of remembrance. Those are the values Naomi described. If you don't like that, I personally say: Too bad. In a democratic republic, your side lost.
bedrog
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 8:01 p.m.
@blueplatespecial...just speculating, but i think A2.com's restrictive moderation policy on those trying to piggyback other issues on cases of specfic tragedy is targeted at a small group of true fanatics who see everything through a particular middle east prism ( and it aint the israeli one!)...if so, good policy a2.com...keep it up!
Jeffersonian Liberal
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 7:37 p.m.
My thoughts and prayers are with the Haitian People. That said, we have been pouring hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars down the rat hole that is Haiti for decades. Why isn't there a better infrastructure? Until we stop throwing away our money on places like this around the world that our run by thugs and dictators it will never change.
Julie
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 5:56 p.m.
Oh, but Bigotry... it's so much more than that! Sure, this disaster could have happened anywhere. But it happened in a place already rife with poverty and chaos! It did not happen in a white country, or a European country, or a country with priveledge and resources. There are people dying of fractures because they couldn't get antibiotics and got infections -- TOTALLY preventable stuff. They have no infrastructure to begin with, no resources. And yes, that MATTERS. And it's relevent. And it's relevent on this MLK holiday, and it DOES tie in to a broader discussion about race, poverty, priveledge.
Anonymous Due to Bigotry
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 5:29 p.m.
justwondering: I'm not saying that *I* think "if you can't help everyone equally then don't help anyone". I'm objecting to the silly attempt to tie helping people in this case with "equality" because that's the sort of conclusion that it leads to. It's better to just say "lets help these people in this time of disaster because that's what we do" and not try to tie it to something totally unrelated like civil rights or equal opportunity especially when this particular form of aid probably won't do anything for civil rights or equal opportunity in haiti. I have to wonder if the real implication here is something more like "we have to help the black people in haiti because if they were white then we'd certainly help them" or something stupid like that.
justwondering
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 4:55 p.m.
Anonymous Due to Bigotry - I understand your point. If you can't help everyone equally, and solve everyone's problems equally, then don't help anyone. Hmmm......
blueplatespecial
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 4:47 p.m.
Ed- It is interesting that comments were removed for using death to make a political statement when Principal Zikmund-Fisher and this article are doing exactly that.
Anonymous Due to Bigotry
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 4:40 p.m.
justwondering: No, it's very simple. We don't control the political situation in Haiti, unless of course you'd like the US to invade in order to stop all the people from burning tires around each others' necks and stuff. This isn't some sort of issue of equality, except for how Haiti is being helped while other countries in other places aren't. No, people in Haiti do not have equal opportunity, but this is the fault of one political group or the elites oppressing the rest of the population. Disaster relief aid isn't going to improve this situation. If anything it's probably a struggle to make sure that the elites don't seize and hoard the relief supplies. Relief aid will save lives in Haiti, but it will not solve any political inequality problems and if anything Haiti is getting a certain amount of special treatment here while other places are very unequally treated.
Anonymous Due to Bigotry
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 4:29 p.m.
I agree with In4mation completely. I also agree with Top Cat. It would be great if we had public educators who didn't engage in such fuzzy thinking like this. The problems in Haiti are hardly the result of the US mistreating them by not being generous enough. If anything is "not fair" and "not equal" it isn't fair or equal that Haiti gets so much attention when you have genocide going on in Darfur and other places in Africa and nobody seems to care. The natural disaster and death is terrible, but people are only thinking about this because it makes a sensational news story and I guess other death and disaster doesn't. Furthermore, slavery is not gone from the world! Why doesn't anyone ever bring any attention to this on MLK day? Seems like people would rather stick their heads in the sand and pretend like it's over everywhere just because it's legally abolished in the US. Seriously, we have widespread slavery in Africa right this very moment, but as soon as apartheid was eliminated in South Africa suddenly everyone thinks everything in Africa is fixed. Go check out http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
justwondering
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 4:05 p.m.
Julie - I think the explanation probably goes something like this: Don't help them! What did they ever do for me! It's every person for themselves! Don't help, don't give, don't empathize. Look out only for yourself and no one else, no matter the devastation, suffering, and inequality you may see. Don't get involved! Me, me, me! However, I think the message of helping your fellow human beings is a nice message. I think your comments are right on!
Julie
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 3:31 p.m.
Topcat, you still haven't explained what you meant by "equality of opportunity not equality of results."
48104
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 3:31 p.m.
TopCat, that principal was talking to my five-year-old. Not to you.
bedrog
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 3:24 p.m.
@vielmetis...good policy, given what some seem capable of.
Top Cat
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 3:10 p.m.
"Thats not very fair. Thats not equal." I would expect to hear that from a 5 year old not a Principal. We cant talk about equality and freedom when we have so much and they are in so much need. That is more ridiculous. Of course we can talk about it. One has nothing to do with the other.
Julie
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 2:10 p.m.
MLK was much more than a civil rights activist. He was passionate about racial justice, poverty and war across the world. This is from his Nobel Peace Prize Lecture in 1964. There is no question in my mind that MLK would be proud to have people like Naomi Zikmund-Fischer reaching out and speaking difficult truths, and doing so in his name: "The time has come for an all-out world war against poverty. The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for "the least of these". Deeply etched in the fiber of our religious tradition is the conviction that men are made in the image of God and that they are souls of infinite metaphysical value, the heirs of a legacy of dignity and worth. If we feel this as a profound moral fact, we cannot be content to see men hungry, to see men victimized with starvation and ill health when we have the means to help them. The wealthy nations must go all out to bridge the gulf between the rich minority and the poor majority. In the final analysis, the rich must not ignore the poor because both rich and poor are tied in a single garment of destiny. All life is interrelated, and all men are interdependent. The agony of the poor diminishes the rich, and the salvation of the poor enlarges the rich. We are inevitably our brothers' keeper because of the interrelated structure of reality."
Julie
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 1:13 p.m.
Top Cat, huh? The people of Haiti have equality of opportunity? Please do explain.
waterwave
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 1:11 p.m.
68,000 people died in China Sichuan earthquake in 2008. I searched Ann Arbor news, None, nothing comes up. No coverage, no organized donation activities. Correct me if I am wrong.
Top Cat
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 1:03 p.m.
I thought Dr. King's message was about equality of opportunity not equality of results.
Angela Smith
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 12:57 p.m.
I was at the assembly at Ann Arbor Open this morning and it moved me to tears. Very profound and thoughtful celebration.