Traditions Transcend with the Acceptance of Change
Students gathered around televisions throughout campus: the K-State Student Union, Hale Library, classrooms and offices, listening as President Barack Obama spoke of change in America during his Inaugural Address, Jan. 20. For students like Careem Gladney, senior in finance, watching history unfold before him was awe-inspiring, and seeing such change in the midst of MLK (Martin Luther King Jr.) Observance Week, Jan. 16-24, made it even more meaningful.
“The inauguration was such a tremendous thing,” he said. “So many people were using the words, ‘I’ve never been so proud to be an American, a U.S. Citizen,’ and it was just huge. When you have that in the context of underrepresented minorities, such as African Americans, achieving such an outstanding honor as being president of the United States, well, it’s a large achievement. And when you take that into context with the MLK (Observance) Week, which is really commemorating the life of King and the civil rights as a whole, when you combine those two things, it makes for a once-in-a-lifetime event.”