Dare to Dream
 

Celebrating the legacy and considering the challenge of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

  

Keynote speaker Rev. Dr. Arnold Thomas, Pastor Paul Eyer of Williston Federated Church and event organizer Chris Burns-DiBiasio listen as CVU students Malashie Tonoki, Allyson Gutierrez and Lydia Eshete recite the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance on Sunday, Jan. 19 at Williston Central School. About 150 people attended the event.
 
Community organizations came together at Williston Central School on Jan. 19 in an observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The event included a dramatic reading of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech by CVU students Malashie Tonoki, Allyson Gutierrez and Lydia Eshete under the direction of Angela Pollock. It also included musical selections by WCS’s Varietones, led by Emy Berger.

The theme of the event was Dare to Dream: Dream of Equity, Dream of Justice, Dream of Hope, Dream of Inclusion. 

Keynote speaker Rev. Dr. Arnold Thomas spoke of America’s history of broken promises of fairness and equality to various groups. He noted today’s “widening chasm between rich and poor and the increasing callousness that brings with it.” He recalled Dr. King’s message exhorting the nation to become “a community where the love and care for one another promotes and prioritizes the common good.”

Thomas asked: “To what extent are you willing to change the recipe of the status quo, to risk the required qualitative and quantitative changes in your life and in your soul for the life of and soul of our nation and world?”

The observance concluded with all those gathered singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Written originally as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, with music composed later by his brother John, the song became a rallying cry for the Civil Rights movement and has been referred to as the Black National Anthem.

The Williston-Richmond Rotary Club, Williston Federated Church, Williston Racial Equity Partners, Richmond Racial Equity, Williston Central School and Champlain Valley Union High School collaborated in putting on the event.