Young essayist honors Martin Luther King Jr.

by The Ann Arbor News

Caleb Roberts has a lunch date Monday.

The Erickson Elementary School fifth-grader will be one of the guests at Monday's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day President's Luncheon at Eastern Michigan University.

Caleb was the grand prize winner of the Ypsilanti Public Schools annual Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest. The theme for this year's essays was "Struggle for Equality."

Caleb Roberts

First place winners, by grade categories, were Marcie Angeli, Estabrook Elementary, first grade; Illana Hall-Vit, Erickson, second grade; Trinity Kelso, Erickson, third grade; and Chevaun Johnson, Erickson, fourth grade. Seventh-grader Daniel Blakely was the middle-school winner, from East Middle School; junior Stephanie Sweeney was the high school winner.

Here is Caleb Robert's essay:

"We shall overcome," said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King led the struggle for equality by believing. He believed that all men were created equal. When I say 'equal,' I mean all men have the right to eat wherever they want; they have the right to sit wherever they want on a bus; and they have the right to get the same pay for doing the same job.

Dr. King made the world a better place by motivating all people, whether they were black, white, yellow or brown, to fight for freedom. He said we must fight for freedom nonviolently.
Nonviolently means without using dogs, weapons or bombs, but by peaceful marches, encouraging words and speeches and by love. He believed that all Americans could make peaceful changes. He believed the hearts of men could change.

Dr. King made the world a better place by preaching love, not hate. He was influenced by Gandhi, Thoreau and Jesus. Although Dr. King went to jail over 32 times he said, 'If we are arrested every day, if we are exploited every day, if we are trampled over every day, don't ever let anyone pull you so low as to hate them. We must use the weapon of love ... we will return good for evil. We will love our enemies. Christ showed us the way, and Gandhi showed us it could work.'

Let us continue to make love work! We can make love work at Erickson Elementary School. We can make love work in our own communities. Wherever we go, we can make a difference. Just think over 40 years ago Dr. King had a dream.

We begin to see change. Now we have our first black president, Barack Obama.

People voted for him not because of his color but because of change. We can change the world. We can make the world a better place."