Even from his hotel room in Washington, where he is attending the national Conference of Mayors, Mehaul O’Leary is thinking about Culver City.
A siege of the flu struck him down on Friday, and he was unable to attend the 14th Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration at the Senior Center.
The apparently shriveling King Day celebration.
Jim Clarke, one of two City Council members in attendance, said he thoroughly enjoyed the program, but…
The crowd was modest at best, decidedly smaller than last year. Turnouts have been reported shrinking instead of swelling.
What is going on?
Mr. Clarke did not have an explanation.
Mayor O’Leary did.
He recalled that “two or three years ago,” he was riveted by a King Day program because the headline speaker was a civil rights veteran who walked with Dr. King during the 1960s.
“The Senior Center was mobbed that day,” Mr. O’Leary said.
Before flying off to Washington, the mayor spoke to Daniel Lee, a City Council candidate who is and has been a member of the King Day planning committee.
To bring back the people, Mr. O’Leary told Mr. Lee, “you have to bring in someone who will inspire, preferably somebody who walked with Dr. King. Since they are aging, you only have a few years left to find them.
“We need to hear from the people who were there, who walked the streets with Dr. King.”
Critics say that the planning committee needs to find dynamic speakers with a message, not just an endless parade of people doing imitations.
