Celebrating Martin's dream

200 mark Martin Luther King Jr. holiday at Warwick’s United Methodist Church in song, words and prayer WARWICK - The Rev. Vernon Peters looked across the 200 or so people seated in the Warwick United Methodist Church for a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and noted that Dr. King would be pleased by this event where people came together as human beings and not as a race. Almost all of the people who spoke this day wove King’s “I have a dream” speech into their remarks by urging everyone to keep that dream alive. “Let us focus on making the dream a reality,” said Samuel Tucker, a retired guidance counselor at Valley Central High School in Montgomery. And the Rev. Patricia McLeod, an African American who began her career as a teacher, promised that dreams can come true. “I woke up one morning and I was the superintendent of schools,” she said. Peters and members of the Union African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church sponsored the event. However, since their new church is still under construction, Rev. Chris Yount, pastor of the Warwick United Methodist Church, graciously offered to host the services in his church on Forester Avenue. Co-chairs of this year’s event were Sol Williams, Eddie Tucker and Mona Harris. In addition to clergy and members of the Union AME Church, pastors from the Warwick Assembly of God, the Warwick Valley Church of the Nazarene, the Bellvale United Methodist Church and the Bellvale Community as well local officials and other dignitaries were also present. They were gathered to honor the memory of King, the civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prizewinner who was assassinated in 1968. In addition to local pastors, guest speakers included U.S. John Hall, Supervisor Michael Sweeton, Mayor Michael Newhard, Judges Peter Barlet and Nancy D’Angelo, attorney Doug Stage, educators Samuel Tucker and William Carter and McCloud. Early in the service the audience loudly applauded local radio and TV personality Dick Wells, who, although still recovering from a long illness, made his first public appearance since September to sing the National Anthem. Yount then asked everyone to hold hands during his invocation. Children from the Union Youth Ministry took turns telling the story of how King admired the peaceful methods to achieve change successfully that had been demonstrated by India’s Mahatma Ghandi. Rev. Bill Wisner, pastor of the Bellvale Community, accompanied the Bellvale Community Choir and retold the stories he had heard from his own father who had been active in the civil rights movement. “It’s going to be hard to follow that,” said Warwick Mayor Michael Newhard, referring to Hall who had just led the congregation in singing, “Happy Birthday,” in honor of Dr. King. Displaying a good sense of humor, Hall had brushed off a misprint in the program which had Jerry instead of John by stating that it was appropriate for the occasion since his brother Jerry is a Catholic priest. “We call him Father Hall,” he smiled. Hall, a former singer and rock musician who co-founded the 1970s band Orleans, recalled that when traveling with African American musicians he realized how it felt to be in the minority. And when the group stopped at a roadside restaurant where he was back in the majority, he noticed that his companions were treated much differently. Hall admitted, however, that the country had come a long way since then. “There is a man of color running for President and a woman of color serving as Secretary of State,” he said. “But we cannot rest until all injustice is eradicated from our society.”