Sharon Abreu Speaks Out for Peace in Honor of Martin Luther King

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be remembered this Sunday evening .

Sunday evening gathering  to honor Nobel Peace Prize Winner Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sharon Abreu, professional singer, committeed environmentalist and passionate peacemaker, invites all Orcas Islanders and visitors to the Senior Center in Eastsound for a memorial service Sunday evening.

Participants are welcome to bring a song, poem, story or music to share at the event which starts at 7 p.m. Abreu plans for any freewill donations to benefit the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Network of Spiritual Progressives.

“I think on Sunday we’ll have a really inspiring, maybe cathartic coming together of people who desire a more peaceful, compassionate and respectful world,” says Abreu.

“Martin Luther King Day” is an important holiday for all of us who want a peaceful world, civil rights, and compassionate communication; and who believe in speaking truth to power and treating all people with dignity and respect,” says Abreu.  “The day is a chance to remember those ideals and to renew them in ourselves.”

In this time of war, Abreu recalls Martin Luther King’s 1967 speech at Riverside Church in New York, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence.”  “It is a chillingly current speech, ” says Abreu. She decries the folly of war, from the manipulation of the public by fear to support war, to the injustice of an “economic draft” that offers warfare as a way to employ or educate young people, to the suffering of those who wage war as well as those who are victimized in war. “We’re supposed to make this country a more perfect union, to end poverty and suffering, to create a more caring and sustainable society.”

Abreu wrote her first “song of peace” as a teenager for the piano, and used it as an audition number for the Manhattan School of Music, pre-college division; the performance won her admission to the school. “It tells of a voice that keeps pushing on though it seems at times we’re outnumbered,” she  says.

Abreu is a classically-trained vocalist and has sung soprano solos in performance on Orcas Island, in Seattle, New York City and internationally. She has also performed in concert with legendary folksinger Pete Seeger, at the Northwest Folk Life Festival in Seattle, the United Nations in New York, U.N. World Environment Day in San Francisco, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa.

Although she is a passionate activist for peace, justice and sustainability — she is a co-founder, with Michael Hurwitz of Irthlingz, an environmental non-profit; a political campaign manager; and the writer of an environmental musical called “Climate Monologues” —  Abreu seeks to “recharge her peace  batteries” through observing the natural world and through meditation, quiet times when she listens for guidance.

She thinks “the ordinary Joes” can make the world a better place by educating themselves — “do a little reading about the history of wars” — and by paying good attention to elected officials — “what they’ve done and what they propose to do.”

Personally, “Look at the choices you make in life; what you decide to buy; where you put your dollars. Boycott the companies whose policies you don’t support, and let them know you’re boycotting them.”

She says the international Network of Spiritual Progressives “give me a lot of hope, because they’re ‘smart with heart’ and have a practical and visionary approach to solving major problems that we’re dealing with.”

Abreu believes in supporting American military troops by bringing them home now. With young Americans who can’t get a job or can’t afford to go to college, many wind up in the military –“and that’s still a civil rights issue.

“Fear is a powerful manipulator; but we can’t go into wars, not taking into account their ramifications. We suffer for them in ways we don’t realize.”

“Martin Luther King spoke with such eloquence, and integrity, and honesty. He was all about civil rights — education, jobs, health and the environment — and peace. He saw that they are inseparable. We must decide in our country what are our rights, what are our values? We need to stand up for each other in this country. The things that are not tangible run through all of us like love; we can’t see it but we can see how people treat each other.”

“It comes back to compassion. We the people… it’s up to us to speak truth to power and to have respectful discussion. Let’s see what we can come up with together.”