Groton — They stood before us, all 10 of them did, with their stories: indignities of humanity that happen all too often.

Abject bigotry.

Jaw-dropping crudeness.

Happening all around us.

And there went the universe again, providing lessons to at least 700 of us — some of us willing to listen, others hearing stories affirming their journeys — Thursday night at the Mystic Marriott, home to the 50th rendition of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Trust Fund Gala.

How fortuitous this celebration happened only six days after the ugly post-football game fight at New London High School. The timing ran like a current between the two events, manifested through the night's 10 award winners, whose injustices suffered could have warranted violent reactions, but instead adhered to Dr. King's wisdom:

"Nonviolence," Dr. King said, "is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it."

There is the story of Lizzette Perez, a senior at Fitch High, who remembers "a man in a baseball cap" at ShopRite. The man called Lizzette's mother, Cynthia, a "tax burden" and a "free loader" in the checkout line. Maybe this has been your experience, too. Maybe you know it happens all too often. Or maybe you're surprised that a stranger would even speak to a woman and her children.

What would you do if someone approached you with such hostility in front of your children? Lizzette Perez and her family stayed true to Dr. King's values, using the experience as an opportunity to teach. They used bigotry as motivation over time, understanding that change happens in a slow cooker, not a microwave.

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle," Dr. King said. "And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom."

Lizzette said, "we are not our ethnic backgrounds. We are people."

And then think about this: The man in the baseball cap is very likely approaching another unassuming family like he did that day in the checkout line. Lizzette, meanwhile, stood triumphantly before 700 people, feted as a scholar teaching others how to straighten their backs.

Lizzette wins.

Then there was Yalissa Rodriguez, a senior at Marine Science Magnet, who remembers one day when she was seven. A store owner in Niantic spit at her mother, Altagracia, punctuating his hospitality with "we don't accept food stamps here."

Again: Can you imagine how you would react if someone spit on you or your children?

"The words were like scars," Rodriguez said.

And yet Rodriguez and her mom did the Dr. King thing: "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."

They kept moving forward, slowly, peacefully, steadfastly and quite earnestly. Much like the tortoise did to the hare.

More Dr. King: "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence ... in a descending spiral of destruction."

Yalissa, whose family hails from the Dominican Republic, home of "dirt, mangos and latrines," she said, told the crowd, "I am my words. I am my effort. I am a Bronx baby, New London raised and an MLK scholar. Embrace your dirt, your mangos and your latrines. Never let anybody define your worth."

Yalissa said she wants to be a Supreme Court Justice, although recent evidence suggests she's already grossly overqualified.

The 10 honorees and their parents were not concerned with "who started it," a familiar refrain around here lately, but more with proper ways to react and to prevent it from happening to others.

Such stories are juxtaposed with last week's postgame brawl that wasn't merely confined to the kids, but incited by too many misguided adults, mixed together with parents who were scared and trying to protect their kids from acts of violence.

Sad, though, that many of the fight's adult contributors, through word and deed, have taken to social media to defend their actions/anti-Dr. King sentiments. Seems they have support within the New London Public Schools as well.

Superintendent Cynthia Richie sent a letter to the Board of Education last week, alerting members of the column I wrote about the incident.

"It is unfortunate that the article continues to belabor a negative and dramatic tone," Ritchie wrote, "especially after work has been done over the past three days to move students through processing, learning and thinking ahead. ... Please know the entire incident was less than a minute long."

What I don't understand: Why, if this was used as a learning tool, wasn't there anything released to the media so we didn't have to belabor the event with a negative tone?

They have a top paid administrator responsible for media relations. No relations is not good relations. Per Ms. Ritchie, the fight only lasted a minute, anyway. And the three assistant coaches who prevented fights from starting a half-hour after the game ended? Drama queens, all. I'm glad I'm in good company, by the way.

Here's the thing: If the experiences of Lizzette and Yalissa — which may have lasted less than a minute — have stayed with them and had powerful, lasting influence on their lives, why would anyone dismiss the experience? I cannot imagine being put in a situation where there are hundreds of people surrounding my son.

But I sure do know that it would take more than three days to process.

If the school system wants to insert cranium into beachfront (bury its head in the sand), pretend like everything is just swell now, fret more about image than substance and not communicate about an important event, just know this: I'm not done arguing. I can't stand by. Maybe it is my dramatic flair.

If others want to justify violence and instability, I'm not done arguing with you either. You will never win.

But for now, I'd rather focus on 10 triumphant kids whose circumstances could have turned them and their families bitter and unstable. Instead, they did the Dr. King thing.

Dr. King was what the world needed at that time. And we need him still. I'm grateful that his teachings and actions are carried on through our kids, especially those honored for the last 50 years.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro