 There is no time like the present But let us not forget the past out of which we have emerged and A future that we must help to create Let us spend a moment of silence and Give deep thought To the brothers and sisters on the island of Haiti who suffered a devastating earthquake this week Today as we come together To remember the late dr. Martin Luther King and Of course, Coretta Scott King Let us ponder that the ideals of justice and freedom and The ideal that all men are created equally Are vain if we do not live out the true meaning of these ideals I would like to welcome you all as we celebrate another Dr. Martin Luther King junior Day in Burlington, Vermont Let me welcome Mayor kiss Secretary Markowitz city councillors legislators Dr. Miller who is here to introduce our keynote speaker a Warm welcome Let me acknowledge the sponsors of today's event Listed on your program. I Would also like to acknowledge Judge Crawford for being a gracious host once again To the many volunteers who has helped to make today's event Go very smoothly a big. Thank you and last but not least to the Unitarian Church For offering this space This afternoon Thank you so much Ladies and gentlemen It is my very great pleasure to welcome to Burlington, Vermont Again Anita Hill Please rise and give Anita Hill a big round of applause Please remain standing for the national anthem sung for us this afternoon by Evelyn Kwanzaa Thank you Evelyn Kwanzaa. So beautifully done for us here this afternoon. I Wanted to just Do a special introduction to freedom mock who's sitting here to my right She is out of Los Angeles, California And she chose us in Burlington, Vermont because she's doing a documentary on the life of Anita Hill And so Burlington, Vermont will be in her documentary. So thank you Now I would like to introduce the Mr. Danny Easton and the abundant life choir out of Montreal who is here this afternoon to sing for us Please welcome Danny Easton. Thank you. Mr. Danny Easton and the abundant life choir Once again another round of applause It is my greatest pleasure To welcome yet another year The very dynamic Fainice Miller Dean of the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont a Great partner in programming since she's arrived here five years ago Dr. Miller it is indeed a great pleasure to ask you to do the honors welcoming Anita Hill here today In 1999 when Anita Hill appeared here the wonderful Dot Williams then director of Multicultural Affairs at St. Michael's College did a rousing welcome Dot Williams will return in March to be the opening keynote speaker at the diversity conference that I am organizing Dr. Miller it is indeed a pleasure to welcome you and have you do the honor of Introducing our keynote speaker today. Dr. Miller. Good afternoon And glory glory Hallelujah Thank you You take me back Way back to my roots And I appreciate and thank you for sharing those uplifting words with us today Thank you glory glory Good afternoon It's an honor and pleasure to introduce Professor Anita Hill She's currently a member of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management faculty at Brandeis University She also holds a professorship at the women in the women's studies program at Brandeis in 2005 She was selected as a Fletcher Foundation fellow and in 2008 The Ford Hall Forum awarded her the Lewis P and Evelyn Smith first amendment award Professor Hills academic accomplishments are impressive She has authored or co-edited several books among them for autobiography speaking truth to power and In an edit volume entitled race gender and power in America In addition, she's published many articles on contract law gender equity social justice and sexual harassment Professor Hill gained national promise when she dared stand up and share her experiences as a woman working for the federal government as Is written in the poem Invictus Before doing and after the Senate hearing Professor's Hills head was bloodied but unbowed She showed through her actions That to have courage is to have the strength to endure whatever life throws your way To stand tall with dignity and pride Professor Hills courage raw and exposed to all in one of the more public ways the media Served to motivate a whole generation of women to fight against sexual harassment Her courage encouraged us all to focus anew on the plight of women in the world Some might argue that Professor Hills decision to stand with her head held high as she exposed herself to the scrutiny of others Was opportunistic I challenged those Who would speak in such a way? Professor Hill was raised to speak truth to power. It is not in her makeup to do otherwise She's the youngest of 13 children She grew up and understand up to group understanding and appreciating the importance of hard work truth and honesty Throughout her life. She's worked hard She graduated with high with honors with high honors and was a class valedictorium She received a bachelor's degree from Oklahoma State University and her law degree from Yale University In addition to her positions in the US Department of Education and the Equal Employment Commission She's held academic positions at oral Roberts University and the University of Oklahoma University There's much more that I could say about professor Hill She's a woman of integrity. She's astute She's not afraid to stand up and confront those who dare threaten our safety She is and remains a powerful and important voice For all of us all of you who dare not bow your heads Please join me in welcoming professor Hill. Thank you so much. Thank you each every one of you Where do I start? I suppose with Patrick Brown, and I don't even I think he's probably off doing more work But he did the work to get me back here to Burlington. I want to thank Dr. Miller for that inspiring introduction and our musicians, of course, you know, it's They're easy to it's easy to be inspired by this beautiful music abundant life It is in fact hard to follow it But great you have given me the challenge to do better and I Will start by saying that I was here I guess it was 11 years ago now time does go by very fast And I was here 11 years ago when I came here. I was and I was just moving to Massachusetts and I was on the verge of this new chapter in my life moving from, Oklahoma my home state to Massachusetts which seemed pretty much like a foreign place at the time and I arrived in Burlington on one of the coldest days That I have experienced in decades And I'm happy to say that some of you must have ordered good weather for this weekend It because it's it's been beautiful and perfect and as I arrived here and came into City Hall in the forum there Sit it I think close to the front row if not on the front row was Mary Ann Kampman and Mary Ann Kampman is here today. She was a student at the University of Oklahoma In her first year I taught her first-year contracts and there she was and maybe I was just looking for some sign Some way to connect But that familiar face along with the warmth that I had experienced for mr. Brown from all of the people Who were there that day that familiar face all of it together? Even though I was a long way from Oklahoma I Knew that as I made that transition in my life I would find the way to feel welcome that I would always be able to find people to make me feel welcome and here I am 11 years later and I feel just as home at home in this part of the country as I am in the state where I grew up I Still grumble about the weather But that's okay Today, thanks to so many of you governor Cunard who I met today for the first time Judge Crawford so many of you who have come together all of you 2010 the welcome has been just as good in 2010 as it was in 1999 a Lot has happened in ten years. I don't think I was wearing reading glasses ten years and Like the reading glasses and a lot of it has not been so good But I like to describe myself as ever-hopeful and Part of my hope comes from what I saw is a coming together of the American people during the 2008 election Perhaps the most moving scene of all came on election day in Grant Park in Chicago on that night when thousands of people gathered together When it was announced that Barack Obama had won the election and you saw a crowd of people Seeing of all ages and all backgrounds and all kinds of persuasions Gather together to witness the turning of the page of our country's history About a year ago days after a few days just a few days after Martin Luther King Day in 2009 Barack Obama became the president And in his inaugural address He called upon the country and I'm going to use his words He called upon the country to reaffirm our enduring spirit to choose our better history To carry forward that precious gift that noble idea passed on from generation to generation The God-given promise that all are equal all are free and All deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness and For me as someone who's worked on equality issues Actually, I guess I was born into working on equality issues 53 years ago I've thought about a lot about what it means To how the future would look How the future looks if in fact we do draw on our better history And I'm going to get to that future In a moment, but before I do that. I want to talk about the president I want to talk about what it the Obama presidency does mean And of course as an academic What it doesn't So I'm going to talk about what I think the lessons are For now Or at least said let's go back to November 2008 for a moment What happened was as the country slid into the worst economic situation than most of us had ever experienced many voters decided that they were ready to put race aside and It was interesting because just prior to the election a CNN poll Said the seven out of ten people Saw that race was not a factor in their decision in the presidential election And seven out of ten doesn't sound like a lot, especially when you think three out of ten thought there was race was an issue But let's put that aside for now seven out of ten doesn't sound like a lot But that was an improvement over far exceeded where we had ever been historically And it did seem that the content of his character his ideals and his intelligence really became the basis for judging Barack Obama's presidency in Doing so as he became president Mr.. Obama changed the country's electoral map and that was no small feat Not only did he change it for his own election, but for many of the representatives Particularly throughout the South and in some of what they call those swing states But it was more than the electoral map that was changed Indeed in December when awarding President Obama the Nobel Prize the chairman turned to mr. Obama saying Dr.. King's dream has come through has come true in you Now I'm not going to quibble with that I'm going to in fact agree that yes, dr. King's dream Does live in the election of an African-American president? But there must be more to the story than that And indeed in fact the election may have changed the way we see race today According to another poll just taken this last week or just reported on this last week today blacks Latinos and whites view the future for African-Americans with equal optimism Again, it doesn't sound like much, but that is a milestone in this country's history Now with all of this optimism you must be wondering If the struggles of the past are really behind us if we have become this post-race America that we all Claim to want I would say in fact to you today. Yes, dr. King's dream lives in Barack Obama However, the measure of that dream of dr. King's enormous dream Cannot rest entirely on who lives in the White House The dream will not be fulfilled To its fullest anyway until it lives in each of us Our challenge today and in the days ahead is to draw on the goodwill and the euphoria and the optimism that came out of that left leg that election and to Think about the for future to move the country forward beyond mere Euphoria To plan to an action to a plan and then to action So let's start with the lessons from the election that I think I've learned and let's just assume That we have changed the way we think about race and our optimism about it. That's true But that does not mean that we can abandon the need to address racial disparities We were so quick to say that the election meant that Every child had an opportunity to be whatever he wanted or she wanted in life and that was proof In this latest recession we have learned that black men regardless of education are being laid off at a rate twice that of white men and The issue issues that the country confronts that have racial dimensions continue Education income incarceration rates housing issues Racial disparities exist in each of those categories Recently I learned that elected officials in three states, Illinois, Maryland and Tennessee How now have now charged one lender with targeting black and Latino Communities or borrowers for high cost loans in violation of civil rights and fair lending laws and Is more information emerges about the bank's marketing practices and poor neighborhoods More suits are likely to follow Yet ironically Many seem to be saying that Barack Obama must avoid questions of race Now we've said heard people say politically he cannot touch the issues of race but wouldn't it be the height of irony if the first African-American president could not address racial issues in this country Isn't that a challenge to how far we have come if that in fact is the case? But his harshest critics accuse him of racism Even if he acknowledges these disparities One talk radio host has even suggested that the president's aid to Haiti is Pandering just pandering to blacks in America Now and we can have a discussion about this We may or may not agree whether he should address the issues of race He may not be able to address But when people on the public airwaves assert that our president has a deep-seated hatred for whites the rest of us Must stand up and denounce it this kind of talk hurts our chances This kind of talk is what will hurt our chances of ever coming together To heal the wounds caused by prejudice and bias in the past and in the present We must remember as dr. King himself said that our lives began to end the day We become silent about things that matter and In this country even today Race does matter we must insist that in order for President Obama to be the present best president He can be for all of America He must be able to address all of the issues facing this country including racial inequities Now I told you about the pool pew poll talking about the optimism that every group is feeling about the future of African Americans in that same poll Latinos were polled about what they thought of the future for Hispanics Unfortunately, they were not as optimistic about the future of Hispanics in America as they were about the future for blacks and Is it any wonder? at the days the weeks to come we will all We must all be aware of the continued economic injustice done in communities of color and More importantly, we have to keep in mind That as this country turns to a whole variety of issues Racist talk is likely to rear its head again in particular We will no doubt eventually have to confront issue immigration issues in this country and Each of us has to be concerned that as we make our Decisions about immigration who gets to be Compart of the citizenry of this country who gets to feel welcome and at home in America Issues of race will arise Unfortunately as they have in the past We must be vigilant and we must be vocal We are in danger of losing the ground we gained on race in the 2008 election if we are not continually so If we are not willing to stand up and decry racist immigration policies for the future We will have lost every chance that we have of ever moving in this country forward Now I I tell people you have to be vigilant and you have to be vocal and Then you people ask the question like what about voice? How can I have a voice? Well, one of the things that I think we need to understand about voice is this and this is something that I had a hard time learning I Is it as I tell people I really found my voice in 1991 and having found it I won't lose it again And that doesn't mean that in order for you to have a voice You've got to jump and yell and scream and shout and get on the airwaves Or wear funny hats You don't have to do that to be effective And as we celebrate Martin Luther King think about what he showed us by example What he showed us was that dignity and courage Were more effective tools than bullying in Making positive change for this country Dignity and courage that's what is that that's what should be behind your voice Doesn't mean that you have to be able to give a sermon like Martin Luther King or be able to sing like these beautiful singers but each of us has his or her own voice and Even if it is a conversation with your neighbors and friends That is your voice One of the things that I have found so heartening about my experiences over the last few years is These times when I can talk to people not people who are in public office But people who are just everyday people living their lives and what they told me That has encouraged me the most is that following the 1991 hearings They sat down and talked with their families Their friends their neighbors about their experience That is raising your voice That is Removing that barrier of silence That is a way to move us forward to move society forward and the Experiences for those who have done it has been For them rewarding and for me encouraging So when I say raise your voice I Mean raise your voice wherever you find it wherever you find yourself It may be in public life. It may be in private life But we can all have an impact Dignity and courage those are the key Now here's another lesson. Here's lesson number two and this is going to take us back a little bit farther And it's going to take us to the primaries Hillary Clinton versus Barack Obama You'll remember Gender versus race Well, what's the lesson from that? What I'll tell you what it is Barack Obama's election does not prove that racism is more or less a problem than sexism Does not prove that Recall if you if you well, so in a Sonya so to my your and her nomination She's a Supreme Court. Now if you listen to some of our leaders this summer In Congress or in the Senate Judiciary Committee You would have thought that a wise Latina was the country's biggest threat There was still this fear of Sonya Sotomayor the wise Latina Some even said that she was too aggressive To be fit for the court which to me proves that what social scientists have said that Racism is persistent or excuse me racism evokes sort of strong reaction and sexism evokes persistence So we are persistently sexist and you strongly react to race and In the case of Sonya Sotomayor Congress did both Senators did both now I'm not sure what was so fearful why would the wisdom was so such a threat I Aspire to be a wise woman in fact God willing I'm going to be a wise old woman someday And whatever I do whether it's judging and I doubt that will be the case Whatever I do I hope to bring all of my Experiences all of my wisdom to bear to be the best at it And that is what Sonya Sotomayor said So where was the threat in that? We think about the future of our country We need to stop thinking about the future of our country as women versus men In order for this country to get back on track to be where we need to be where everyone needs to be Every one of us has to be valued for what we bring to the table a Few months ago the New York Times ran a story about Alan Greenspan and his failure to stem the problems of the economic collapse a friend of mine Brooks Lee Boren's was featured in the story and she was featured as well in a frontline episode That ran on PBS Now Brooks Lee Boren was head of the commodities future trading Commission in the 90s and the Clinton administration And as such she warned Mr. Greenspan that unregulated derivatives were a threat to the country's economic stability now derivatives were these Instruments that large financial Institutions of ones that have since been bailed out were using to hedge their investment risk and We know that it they were a key factor in the collapse of the economic system in this country Now what are derivatives beyond that? Well, some of you may know a lot about derivatives most people don't in fact George Soros has said and he knows a lot about Making money. He has said that he doesn't rely on them because he doesn't understand how they work But in 1997 Brooks Lee Boren knew enough about derivatives to know that they were potentially Dangerous, so she urged Greenspan to join her in her attempts to bring transparency to their use not to stop them But just to bring transparency to how they were being used the ruling powers resisted and Congress even stripped her of her In her agency of its regulatory authority to prevent her from doing what she wanted to do and Some say many people who know the whole situation say that they did so because they wouldn't listen to her because she was not One of the boys from Wall Street Now as I just said these instruments the one she distressed it the one she tried to rain in to bring some light to Ended up being a primary source of the economic catastrophe that we're all trying to climb out of and We are all left to imagine just how the course of history might have been changed for women and men Had the powers would be accepted the wisdom of One woman think of it think of the money the homes and the jobs that have been lost over the last few years and Think about how those might have been changed If she had just if her word had just been heated We cannot change the past But we can't avoid repeating it By bringing in by adopting the policies that she suggested over 12 years ago And that is really not too much to ask If we are to learn the lessons of this last economic collapse If we learn nothing else we should learn that transparency in all of our financial institutions It's critical to the well-being of this entire country You may think or you may have thought at one point that what happens on Wall Street doesn't impact what happens on Main Street But we see now that it has You may think that what happens in the Supreme Court doesn't impact what happens to you in your everyday life But if you've looked at some of the decisions about the workplace in the last few years You will learn quickly that what has going on the decisions made by the Supreme Court are Important to everyday working people and That's why I say what we should have recognized during the summer and maybe we did eventually Was that a wise Latina was just what the Supreme Court needed and that goes for And that same thing goes for wise Asian black and white women We need more women on the Supreme Court Our neighbors in Canada have figured out that we've had a they've had a chief job our neighbors in Canada They've had a woman who is a Supreme Court chief justice and it shouldn't stop with the Supreme Court in Fact we need more women in our country's leadership roles in both the public and the private sectors Lesson number three and this is the final lesson like to think we set a Wonderful example and the picture of America was good in November of 2008 and it was I throughout the globe There were people throughout the globe waving us flags for the first time That I've ever seen in my life so our example was good But don't be quite so satisfied We can rest on that image We can't set that in stone and think that our position in the world theater is secure and in place and intact forever Just as they were in December when the Nobel Prize was given and as they were in November of 2008 and during the election and even in 19 in the 1960s during dr. Keem's time the eyes of the world are still upon us Last year I was honored to take over the task of chairing the Human Rights Law Committee of the international bar Association and I am honored in that position to work with lawyers engage in struggles for disenfranchised people throughout the world and those lawyers who represent people whose plights are Really desperate are Looking to our country And they aren't the only ones eyes of the world will be upon us to see what happens in Guantanamo the eyes of the world will be upon us to see what happens in the trials of of Khalid shake Muhammad in California in federal court a challenge to proposition eight banning gay marriage is being adjudicated Each of these will be a test of our federal courts and of the depths of our commitment of this country's commitment to the rule of law to civil and human rights and to civil liberties I Was shocked and I'm not often shocked, but I was I was I was I was shocked actually to hear a lawmaker in Uganda Citing Maine's decision to ban gay marriage as support for his own legislation criminalizing homosexuality As a country we have to respond to that we must respond as a nation with diplomacy We must respond to by putting diplomatic pressure on the country However, that cannot be enough We have to respond by our own example Now more than ever we are challenged as a country to choose our better history To recommit to that noble idea that all are equal All are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness What is our better history and when I say all I've been all Regardless of gender race and sexual orientation. What is our better history? Well, think about it. Whether you think about the Bill of Rights This 13th 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution the granting of women's suffrage the civil and civil and women's rights errors and the legislation coming out of those at each phase of our legal expansion Our democracy and our country has been strengthened our better history has been to define rights and protection in ways that are progressive and inclusive Not more exclusive and restrictive Our better history has to expand has been to expand Protections to expand legal protection That is our better history That is our better present and that is our better future So I would just like to say I'm going to conclude with these observations Barack Obama's election And the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court Our fulfillments of Dr. King's dream So too is my life Even with its noted trials I Am here today because so many people before me struggled for my dignity for my freedom and for justice and I Because of that I am thankful. I live in a world that had the benefit of their works and For that I try to live each day With a heart full of grace Many of you no doubt say the same thing But what about the future what about that next generation that generation that we're now telling that you can be everything That you want to be anything that you want to be in this country None of us should be satisfied until we see Dr. King's dreams When in when we look into the eyes of children in each one of our neighborhoods And I use Boston exam as an example when I look in the eyes of children in Neighborhoods that are poor and troubled In Boston and kids in Roxbury in Dorchester When I look in their eyes, and I see the future the future in the same way as In the is the future of children who live on Beacon Hill Then I will know that Dr. King's dreams has been fulfilled When I look into the eyes of poor children of any race and Know that they have an equal chance to Realize their dreams as those children who are wealthy Then I know that Dr. King's dream has been fulfilled But even then I Cannot rest with our own neighborhoods those people who around me every day I Can't rest until I see that dream fulfilled in the lives of children in Haiti in Afghanistan and in Iraq Just to name a few Until that is true We must and again to use Dr. King's words Be in solidarity with their yearnings for equality peace and justice We must treat their yearnings for freedom and justice and peace as our own Because in fact they are our own Thank you It is really my privilege to be part of this celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and The life of this wonderful town Burlington Vermont. Thank you On behalf on behalf of all present here today I Convey sincere gratitude to Anita Hill for delivering the 2010 Dr. Martin Luther King address to our Burlington community and of course, you know I'm gonna say once again, please give Anita Hill another round of applause and so Miss Hill needs to get on her way for her Next engagement. She has a four-hour ride ahead of her and so we bid her goodbye and thank her for coming And she will be back here in ten years from now to deliver at another address and so in closing In closing our program, I'd like to welcome back the Abundant Life Choir. Thank you