Kevin Fulton will be the featured speaker at tomorrow’s weekly meeting of the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club. From the invite:
Kevin Fulton is a shining example of the American Dream. Born in a gritty, gang infested area, Kevin never had the opportunity to meet his biological father who abandoned the household when he was only a few months old. His mother Pearl immediately took control of the household and worked her way out of poverty. Kevin watched as his mother worked long hours to provide her kids with the opportunity to escape their surroundings. Pearl never blamed her race or society for her position in life; instead she taught him the importance of prayer, self-accountability and hard work to conquer poverty. Pearl’s mindset and perseverance were the foundation of the conservative values that would shape the rest of his life.
Kevin took those values and lessons and demonstrated a strong sense of community service as a child. Immediately upon graduating from high school, Kevin joined the Army and served this great nation with distinction as a reconnaissance soldier and received various honors for service during combat. His service included guarding the borders of Europe, functioning as a liberator in the Persian Gulf War and acting as a humanitarian in Operation Provide Comfort for Kurdish Refugees in Turkey and Iraq.
After being Honorably Discharged from the Army, Kevin immediately enrolled in college while continuing his service to the community by devoting his time on the Board of Directors for a youth counseling organization, helping victims of domestic violence, and training at risk students in conflict resolution. His focus and dedication earned him a Juris Doctor Degree with a notation for Distinguished Public Service.
Kevin periodically takes the time to visit subsidized housing communities to encourage disadvantaged youth to embrace conservative values to rise above their situation.
Broadening the Republican Party in low income areas has been a very important mission for Kevin. He has dedicated considerable time and personal funds to travel around low income areas talking about the Republican values that helped him escape the trappings of poverty and gangs.
Kevin is a co-founder of the MLK Association of Texas which is a Republican Party of Texas Auxiliary Club, which creates programs in low income areas to assist lifting people out of poverty by teaching self-reliance and accountability.
Kevin is also a strong supporter of prolife legislation lecturing to groups about the impact of abortion on the Black community.
This could be a very interesting meeting. Or not. It depends upon Kevin. Will we see the Kevin Fulton that we saw here and here? Or will we see the Kevin Fulton that chose not to make waves and became the HCRP’s nominee for the 11th District Court? I doubt that I’ve ever met someone with as much potential as Kevin in the Republican Party. But it is hard to ignore people that we think are ‘experts’ who keep whispering in our ears that you have to act and behave a certain way if we want to succeed.
Maybe this status update from his Facebook account today is an indication of what he will say:
If MLK was alive today would you support him?
Reading FB I’m amazed at people praising MLK today and spewing hate against people on other days. Are you judging people as biased and racist based on your own biased and racist views? Are you willing to sit at the table to bring about change for your community while disliking the person sitting across the table from you or do you prefer to allow ego and hubris keep you from communicating with those you dislike.
I am not a perfect person, so I refuse to hold other people to that standard. I am a product of my own life experiences both good and bad, but if I try to view everyone just through that prism then I miss out on my own growth. It’s amazing to me that people I expected the worse from are the people that showed me compassion and support when I needed it the most.
No matter who you are, how well respected you may be, we all fall short of perfection. The lesson I take from MLK is to engage each other in dialogue, not hate. I am not evil when my viewpoint is different then your viewpoint just like I am no saint when we agree.
If you study MLK he was a very complex individual with views that would be impossible to be pigeonholed into one specific political party or ideology…to make him one dimensional does all of us a disservice.
There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Either way, it should be an interesting meeting tomorrow at noon at the Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Houston.