BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
63 years later, the question is not only whether the speech still resonates, but whether people can still hear it through the noise of the modern world.<\/p>\n
For Winston Alozie, this time of year still carries the echo of King\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n
Alozie, head of the Bethlehem Boys & Girls Club and a father of four, said Dr. King\u2019s message is still present in the work being done with young people.<\/p>\n
Asked whether King is \u201chere\u201d at the Boys & Girls Club, Alozie answered quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, very much so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alozie said he sees parts of King\u2019s dream being realized in the way children of different races, backgrounds and identities grow up together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful thing to see children of all races, creeds, colors, backgrounds, orientations, being able to experience the world together, grow up together, and some of those barriers that existed in my parents\u2019 and grandparents\u2019 time aren\u2019t there in those same ways,\u201d Alozie said.<\/p>\n
But today\u2019s divisions \u2014 over immigration, politics, protest and trust itself \u2014 can feel all-consuming.<\/p>\n
High school seniors Xavier Moore, Holden Breininger and Louis Lazaro said they trust and believe in King\u2019s words, even if they question whether his message would cut through as strongly today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the internet, so a lot of people like to do things for entertainment or for views,\u201d Moore said. \u201cSo it\u2019s just kind of hard to trust people\u2019s words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Breininger said the number of voices online can make it difficult for one message to break through.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many people on the internet now, and everyone has their own opinion,\u201d Breininger said. \u201cOne person can\u2019t stop this whole thing. I wish it would, but it\u2019s just the reality that we live in now.\u201d<\/p>\n
63 years later, the question may be less whether the dream still resonates and more whether people can still hear it.<\/p>\n
Alozie said the country remains unfinished work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a work in progress,\u201d Alozie said. \u201cThere\u2019s a saying that I grew up with as a child of the Black church: \u2018I\u2019m not where I want to be, but I\u2019m not where I used to be.\u2019 And I think that\u2019s where we are as a nation. We definitely aren\u2019t where we used to be, but I think we have some ways to go to be where we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous \u201cI Have a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,153,155,154,1391,856],"class_list":["post-275628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-area","tag-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}