Unity Breakfast in Watertown celebrates King, focuses on

immigration

By Laura Paine
Wicked Local Watertown
Posted Jan 17, 2011 @ 03:51 PM

WATERTOWN — Andrea Nathan said that as a person of color, she knows that if it
weren’t for Martin Luther King Jr., she wouldn’t have the rights she has today.
For the last four years, the Watertown resident has attended the town’s annual Unity
Breakfast, now in its 11th year, with her children.
“As a family we like to remember or commemorate Dr. King’s holiday and we were very
pleased to see something happening [in Watertown],” Nathan told the Watertown TAB &
Press. “[It’s important] because of the significant impact Dr. King had on civil rights in the
United States.”
The breakfast on Jan. 17 commemorated King and his diligent work to end prejudice and
racism in the United States.
The focus of the Unity Breakfast was on immigration.
Dr. Elena Letona, an immigration advocate, was the keynote speaker. She spoke about the
“broken” U.S. immigration laws and her dream of a day when “immigrants will no longer be
feared or hated.”
“Do we ask ourselves what we really know about people who [break] this law,” Letona said.
“They are flesh and bone, people, just like you. We are people who dream, work, love, laugh
and cry.”
Letona, the former director of Centro Presente, an immigrants rights association, said that
the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act closed many avenues
to U.S. citizenship and that it justifies deportation and tearing families apart.
During the event, Watertown Police Officer Harold “Tony” Physic was honored with the
Unity Award for his outstanding demonstration of community service and dedication to
Watertown.
“I am utterly humbled by this presentation of the Unity Award,” Physic said. “All I have
done is continue to do the service I was elected and hired to do. The community I live in
deserves just that. I will continue to serve, believe in what I do and with the efforts of the
Watertown Police Department, we will continue to serve the community.”
Larry Raskin, of The World in Watertown, described Physic’s service as gentle and
empathetic, saying that he has stopped crime in progress, gotten to know business owners and
residents while on patrol in East Watertown, pulled people from burning buildings and
“saved the lives of those whose hearts literally stopped beating.”
“There are some among us who go far beyond what is expected of them,” Raskin said.
“Officer Harold Tony Physic is such a person.”
World in Watertown member Will Twombly quoted Police Chief Edward Deveau as saying,
“If I had 25 officers like Tony, I wouldn’t need any sergeants.”
“He is indeed one of Watertown’s finest,” Twombly said. “He treats every person he meets
with great respect.”
In a moment of unity through music, Chosen Voices of Harmony – a traditional gospel
group – got the audience clapping to their lively performance, which Reverend Amy
McCreath described as one that would be heard at the services where King would speak.
Several town and public officials attended the breakfast from town councilors, school
committee members and library trustees to State Representative Jonathan Hecht and
Governor’s Councilor Marilyn Devaney.
Watertown Middle School 8 th grader Arianna Johnson read an essay about her experience at
sleep-away camp. A fellow camper came to her aide despite the fact that she and other girls
made fun of for being overweight, her clothes and her hair. It taught her that you can’t see
who a person is by “looking at their wrapper.”
Watertown High School sophomore Logan Riley spoke about the prevalence of racial
profiling at airports and even at his own school, which forced him to think twice about who
his friends were. He said there is a long way to go to fulfill King’s dream, citing primarily
Caucasian families starring in television shows and the borderline racist or religiously based
jokes he sees on television.
“It’s not too late to see Dr. King’s dreams dashed,” Riley said.

Laura Paine can be reached at lpaine@cnc.com.

Copyright 2011 Watertown TAB & Press. Some rights reserved