Though he’s been dead 34 years, the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. still guides us in dealing with today’s problems, speakers at a commemorative service said Monday.

They tied King’s spirit to the state budget crisis, Trent Lott, the war on terrorism and protesters from Fred Phelps’ church in Topeka.

“He gave us the revolutionary dream that we could come together in brotherhood and share the same banquet table,” said the Rev. Paul Winn Jr., of Praise Temple Church of God in Christ. “The dream, yes, still has a lot left to be accomplished.”

The two-hour service at the Lied Center capped four days of events surrounding the 18th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Celebration organized by Ecumenical Fellowship Inc. It included speeches and performances by the MLK Community Choir and South Singers Honors Choir.

Speakers applied King’s message to current events:

Jared Smith, 8, left, a student at Kennedy School, and Sabastion Simmons, 8, a student at Woodlawn School, add their contributions to a mural during the 2003 Martin Luther King Jr. Day

• Ron Schneider of the Lawrence Jewish Community Center said protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, who were at the Lied Center with their signs denouncing gays, should learn King’s messages of tolerance.

“It bothers me, yet when I think about them, it’s ironically appropriate for this day,” he said. “Dr. King cherished the Constitution and the right for people to speak.”

• City Commissioner David Dunfield said that while Americans have extinguished support for slavery, some support for segregation remains.

“Recent headlines have reminded us of that,” he said, referring to racially divisive comments made by Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott.

• Dunfield also said King would have been critical of racial profiling to wrongfully incriminate suspects in the war on terrorism.

“Let’s take this holiday to think about the radical thoughts for expanding civil liberties in our nation,” he said.

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• State Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, said the Legislature would hold true to King’s commitment to help “the needy and vulnerable.”

“The government is there to assist, and we’ll follow through with that mission,” she said.

The keynote speaker was Yvonne Thornton, the first black woman in the United States to be board-certified in high-risk obstetrics. She also is author of The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, a book — and later a TV movie — that chronicled how she and her sisters found success despite her family’s impoverished background.

Her sisters became a psychiatrist, court stenographer, dentist and attorney. Thornton credited King with giving them opportunities not previously given to black women.

“Martin Luther King opened the door,” she said. “Now we have to walk through it.”

And Thornton credited her parents with allowing her and her sisters to have big dreams.

“Today kids are without any direction in their lives,” she said. “They think a hero is a sandwich. They think G.O.D. stands for guaranteed overnight delivery. People are paid more for saving a baseball game than for saving a life.”

David Johnson, a Kansas University junior from Arkansas City, was among the approximately 850 people who attended the service.

“This was inspirational,” he said. “It’s a reminder that dreams come true, but we’re still waiting to really achieve the American dream.”