TCC president’s remarks on MLK Day

I mentioned earlier that the remarks offered by Tidewater Community College president, Dr. Deborah M. DiCroce, at the Urban League Community Leaders breakfast were, as always, outstanding. I finally received a copy of the text of them and with her permission, they are reprinted below.

Good morning.

On behalf of the entire TCC community, it’s my pleasure to welcome you—all 600+ of you—to the Urban League’s 25th Annual Community Leaders Breakfast in celebration and recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Indeed, Tidewater Community College is honored to serve as this year’s host college—our only third time in this role in that 25-year history.

Indeed, I remember very well how we finally got the invitation to host some eight years ago. As I recall, up to that point, the event had been alternating between ODU and Norfolk State as the two host institutions. It was at ODU in 2001 and I was charged with making closing remarks where—in the course of them—I wondered aloud whether the Urban League would ever give TCC the chance to play host. . . . Well, it didn’t take long after that for the invitation to come—with a note from then ODU President Jim Koch telling me that the host college springs for breakfast! In 2002, TCC—with pennies in hand—took the breakfast regional and brought it to Chesapeake for the first time. And, here we are this year at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

Bottom line, this important event is such a natural extension of your community college as the people’s college. And, in a deeply fundamental way, the “dream” that we pause this morning to remember, to celebrate, to reaffirm is very much the college’s dream. The battles won, battles yet to be fought are so very much a defining piece of the character of TCC—rooted, to be sure, in a steadfast belief in the value and dignity of all people to have the chance to make their mark on the world in which we live—and, in ways large and small, leave it a bit better than they found it.

At TCC, we believe that education is the single greatest act of optimism that all of us have as a nation, a people, a region.

We believe that knowledge is power—and education, the great equalizer.

We believe that an area’s economic vitality is only as bright as its workforce will allow it to be.

We believe that a community college that’s doing its job functions as an integral part of the community, wades around in the muck of community where need be, and makes an enduring difference in the life of that community.

It’s another bottom line: TCC and the Urban League of Hampton Roads. Kindred spirits. Fellow travelers. In the TCC vernacular, from here, together, we might go anywhere.

And so, on this day-on, on this, the eve of the inauguration of our Nation’s first African American president, we dare to embrace the future as perhaps we have never before embraced the future. We dare to claim the dream that America is a place where all things are possible. We dare to believe that his dream is alive.

No, all is suddenly not sweetness and light. For as we celebrate, the moral injustices, social inequities, economic disparities of society remain all too ever-present. And somehow, we’ve still got to see the “inescapable network of mutuality” that Dr. King spoke of from his jail cell in Birmingham as more than mere fate. Because, in civil rights, amidst the countless battles won, remain battles yet to be fought.

True or false—the color of skin still matters. Yes or no—the tension between reality and possibility is still a little tight. Yes or no—honest dialogue on the struggle itself and its implications for each of us as individuals, for all of us as a people still makes us uncomfortable.

In the muck of it all, on so many occasions, Dr. King urged us toward readiness and excellence. “Be the best of whatever you are,” he said. “And when you do that, you’re ready for the new age.” All of which, of course, begs the question for each of us this morning: Are we, in fact, ready for the future we embrace, the dream we claim? Are we, in fact, ready?

Again, TCC is honored to be this year’s college host. To all, welcome.