On Thanksgiving Day 52 years ago, these questions were not rhetorical and abstract. Louisvillians read that horrific headline on the front page of The Courier Journal as they began their holiday, a day no doubt planned to be filled with family and friends gathered around tables of plenty. They read about Bobby Ellis, a 9-year-old third-grader at Louisville's Byck Elementary School. Police discovered Bobby's body, weighing under 30 pounds, in a bed with four other emaciated children. A child, in our community, was dead because he did not have enough food to eat.

Our Louisville ancestors saw that shocking headline, read that news, declared such a tragedy would never recur here and acted to make that declaration a reality.

We feel divided today. But divided we also were in 1969. Divided by race, divided by faith, divided by political divisions. Bobby's tragedy cauterized those divisions.

People came together from every faith, political party and zip code. They called on their neighbors to "Dare to Care." Catholic priest, Fr. Jack Jones, opened the basement of his parish church on East Walnut (in the current location of St. John Day Center) as a place to gather and plan. Faith leaders like Rabbi Herbert Waller called on their congregations to act.