At 78 years old, the Honorable Glenn Poshard confided that for the first time in his life, he is afraid for his country — “afraid that we can lose this democracy.”

Poshard told those attending the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Fundraising Program, held Sunday, Jan. 14, at First Missionary Baptist Church, that “the hateful and violent words and actions consuming half the population of this country, the insurrection attempt upon our nation’s capital, the votes by nearly half of the House of Representatives to overturn a free and fair election for President based upon no evidence of fraud are all indicative of the frontal assault on democracy in our country.”

They are actions, he said, that men like King and the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) fought against all their lives.

Poshard was a freshman legislator when he first met Lewis in 1989. With offices not far from each other, over the next 10 years, they would spend “many hours discussing the most important issues confronting our country. I would be doing John an injustice if I did not speak to you today about those matters of importance confronting our country at this very moment.”

Poshard quoted the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

“John Lewis and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew these rights weren’t available to them, but they also knew that these are God-given rights, as it says, ‘endowed by the Creator.’ They knew because these rights are God-given, then their cause for Civil Rights was grounded in justice — it was grounded in that principle ‘that governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.’ ”

King would later say, as he sat in a Birmingham, Alabama, jail that while the state’s laws prohibit him from a number of things, “there is a higher law, a universal law, a moral law, that says I can do all of those things because I am God’s created being,” Poshard paraphrased.

Poshard emphasized that while actions by men like King and Lewis resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, “laws are cropping up today all over the country making it more difficult for that most important right — the right to vote — to be exercised. These laws are every bit as dangerous and unjust as the poll tax and other laws that denied our citizens the vote decades ago,” he said. “There are states right now that are planning to send to Washington alternate slates of electors to vote in the electoral college in 2024 for the person they want as president, no matter if that person lost the popular vote in their state — an incomprehensible denial of justice to overrule the will of the people.

“Dr. King reminded us that a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. These new laws at the state level are unjust laws because they cannot meet the moral test of governance under God’s law,” Poshard continued

Using King’s words from the Birmingham jail, Poshard reminded his audience they cannot be silent: “ ‘We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people,’ ” he quoted.

“When our voices are stilled by threats, uprisings and caution, when we condone the hatred of prejudice and racism by our silence, when we allow our history to be rewritten because we do not want to own the great sin of our nation, then we, too, are equally guilty of the destruction of our democracy,” Poshard said. “My voice will never be silent. It is a lesson I learned from studying the words and actions of President Abraham Lincoln, of the non-violent actions of John Lewis and a lesson my generation should have learned from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Fundraising Program was held the day before what would have been King’s 95th birthday. The program is hosted and coordinated by the First Missionary Baptist Church youth department, directed by Doris Puckett. This year’s theme was “More Than a Celebration — This Is a Continuation.”

Charles Tate, pastor of Brookport Church of God, gave the opening prayer, giving thanks for “King’s dream, his legacy, the desire of his heart, the passion of his life, the dedication that continues today to see this dream fulfilled.”

As part of the program, a collection is taken to benefit the church’s scholarship fund, which is used to assist members with post secondary educational needs. Pastor David Deem, of Lutheran Church of the Cross, gave thanks for the offering “that it may be a blessing.”

J’Von Wade Beggs, a member of the First Missionary Baptist Church youth department, read a poem about King, “A Dream Can Come True.”

During the program, past and present education leaders, clergy and civic leaders in attendance were recognized, including State Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis, 117th District).

Windhorst was set to return to Springfield at the week’s end to begin the next legislative session where “there will be a lot of challenging issues that will take up this year. We’ll get a better feel as we get up there this week as to what those issues will be. I tell people as we go through difficult legislative sessions or times in our nation, state and communities, there is much more that unites us than divides us. We need to remember that if we work and pull together on the issues we’re facing, we can solve those issues and problems.”

Since being elected a representative in 2019, Windhorst said his goal remains “to strive to make this a better place to live, work and raise a family. Sometimes, what we push for isn’t always what happens, or at least not at the pace we want it to happen. I’m often reminded of Galatians 6:9, ‘Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not lose heart.’ That also led me today to think of the words of Dr. King, ‘If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.’ ”