Let me share an event that was less than 5 minutes, that keeps coming up in my memory. In 1979, I was blessed to be hired to work for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Ohio. I was tasked to be an Internal Auditor for the bank, and part of my responsibilities was to do what I called surprise audits with a team of auditors on banks in the 4th district.

As part of my new job we were sent to Atlanta, Georgia to go to the Federal Auditors School for a series of classes. As we took the class, we were living out of a hotel. One day after work, we got on the hotel elevator, and to my surprise Dick Van Dyke, walked into the elevator with me. We exchanged greetings, confirmed he was who I thought he was, then said “Have a good day!” as he got off his floor. This was before social media and cell phones. He was someone I admired from my childhood, especially the Dick Van Dyke show with Mary Tyler Moore.

Did you know that Dick Van Dyke, who just turned 100, who was born December 13, 1925, was once an opening speaker for Dr. Martin Luther King? It was at the “Religious Witness for Human Dignity” rally on May 31,1964 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It was a group of faith communities and leaders standing up for human dignity.

Think about it, this was less than a year after Dr. King gave the “I have a Dream” speech. During this event the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had passed the U.S. House of Representatives and was being debated in the Senate. Where it did finally win passage, on June 19. Then 19 days after this rally, President Lyndon Johnson broke the stalemate in the Senate, and the Civil Rights Act was signed and made law on July 2, 1964.

Dick Van Dyke gave the speech, but he did not write it. Rod Serling from the show of my generation, “The Twilight Zone,” is believed to have written it. I don’t know why he did not read it himself. Here is most of the speech, we don’t have room for all of it:

Ladies and gentlemen, this may be the most non-political speech you ever hear. And, indeed, if you look for controversy, what I’m about to say conjures up little conflict.

We have reached a moment in time when restless men, dispossessed men, angry and impatient men, and anguished men look up and reach out for an elusive justice oft promised them, long denied them, but in the eyes of God and man’s conscience is their due and should be their expectation. I say this is non-political and non-controversial. We’re not talking now about miscegenation. Or whether a man can fence his yard. Or a hotdog vendor carefully selects his customer. Or an innkeeper chooses not to accommodate a particular traveler. These are the ramifications of the problem. They are not the problem. There have to be some bridges built; but first we have to acknowledge the rivers.

This must be first, the recognition and then the admission — that the dignity of human beings is not negotiable. The eminent worth of man has no pro and no con. And the desperate need for an understanding and a respect between all men is as fundamental as the process of breathing in and breathing out. There is something happening on this earth transcendent of the Senates, the governments, the temporal voices of the champions of rights and the filibusters of wrong.

What is happening is that a whole world has suddenly become cognizant of its oneness. An idea of brotherhood has ceased to be an abstract. It has taken on a form and dimension and breadth and meaning. “Every man’s death diminishes me” — a lyrical stab at truth from another century. But in this nineteen hundred and sixth fourth year of our Lord, every man’s indignity, every man’s hunger, every man’s search for freedom, every man’s life reinforces me and revitalizes me and rededicates me. “We cannot be half-free and half-slave,” Mr. Lincoln said. And now, a hundred years later, we find that we cannot be half hungry and half content; half with dignity, half with shame; half with freedom, half with a simple yearning to be free; half with prerogatives, half asking for just a few; half superior, half denied the right to prove even equality. Hatred is not the norm. Prejudice is not the norm. Suspicion, dislike, jealousy, and scapegoating — none of these things is the transcendent facet of the human personality. They are the diseases. They are the cancers of the soul. They are the infectious and contagious viruses that have bled humanity over the years. But because they have been and are, is it necessary that they shall be? I think not. If there is one voice left to say “welcome” to a stranger; if there is but one hand outstretched to say “enter and share”; if there is but one mind remaining to think a thought of warmth and friendship, then there is also a future in which we will find more than one hand, more than one voice, and more than one mind dedicated to the cause of man’s equality. Horace Mann said, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” Let’s paraphrase that tonight. Let us be ashamed to live without that victory.

The Mann quote was the slogan of Serling’s alma mater, Antioch College, it had already been used in one of the episodes of “Twilight Zone” “The Changing of the Guard.” As we move into another holiday season, why not look to help make this vision come true.

It may surprise you how easy it may be. No matter how young or old a person maybe we can all do something to make these dreams, goals and visions come true. Someone said, “You are not old by chronological age, you are old when you give up on your dreams.” I have met a number of people who are secret dream makers in people’s lives. It’s the best gift you can give yourself. The best blessing you can ever have, is to be a blessing.

From the Cummings Family, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and anything else you might celebrate. Live, Laugh, and Prosper is my wish for you and yours!

Bishop Darrell Cummings is pastor of Bethlehem Apostolic Temple in Wheeling and Shiloh Apostolic Faith Assembly in Weirton.