 Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. Thank you, Leander, for your leadership, for your activism, and as a young and in our future generation, you will be carrying this torch. Good afternoon, everyone. We're coming to you live from the St. Joseph's Cathedral in Burlington. This is the 36th annual celebration of the life and legacy of the late Dr. Martin Luther King. And today we also acknowledge his widow, Coretta Scott King. In the fight for racial justice, equity, and inclusion, let us also remember the late John Lewis and the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu. They fought for equity, peace, and justice. And as we celebrate, as we remember today, let us keep them in our thought and in our prayers. So I open up with a little bit of the history that in 1993, I realized, I recognize that Burlington, that Vermont was one of four states not observing the King holiday. And I continuously thank Kathy Hoyt, who was then Secretary of Administration, who conferenced with Governor Howard Dean and the Vermont State Employees Association and made this a reality, a holiday in the state of Vermont. And so today, with their leadership and their acknowledgement of the life and work of the late civil rights leader, we're able to come together again to celebrate this holiday. So with that notion, I welcome you all today. And I thank Young Leander Buckley for opening up. It was not too long ago that we had the Diversity Speaker Series where he and some others spoke and were so very well received. And this is usually part of our programming to have young folks speak and be part of these celebrations and these acknowledgements of the civil rights movement. And so as we continue our program on this very cold day, I welcome you all. Before we get to hear some music from the Community Gospel Choir and the Civil Rights Panel and in no less our keynote speaker today, Mr. Tim Wise, who has been in Vermont on many occasions to speak at our schools and colleges and very well known in our community and in our state. And I think he has visited on warmer days. So I extend to him, no matter what the temperature says outside, a very warm, warm, I won't say Vermont welcome, a very warm welcome. So at this time is Nella here. We'll have our next student reader. Nella Saleh Mayer, if she's ready and able to read for us. Hi, I'm Nella Saleh Mayer and I'm going to be reading a MLK piece. Let nobody give you the impression that the problem of racial injustice will work itself out. Let nobody give you the impression that only time will solve the problem. That is a myth. And it is a myth because time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or deconstructively. And I'm absolutely convinced that people of ill and will in our nation, the extreme rightists, the forces committed to negative ends have used time much more effectively than people of goodwill. It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic works and violent actions of bad people who bomb a church in Birmingham, Alabama, or shoot down a civil rights worker in Selma, but for the appealing silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, wait on time. Somewhere we must come see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals. Without this hard work, time becomes an ally of primitive forces of social stagnation. So we must help time and realize that the time is always right to do what is right. Thank you so very much. And our final student speaker today is Jayden. Jayden Gomez will be our final speaker. Jayden? We have come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the great urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drugs of gradualism. Now is the time to make the real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of this moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 or 2022 is not an end, but a beginning. And those whose hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam will now be content with or will have a rude awakening. If the nation returns to business as usual, and there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights, the whirlwind of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. So once again, please join me in giving all three students speakers another round of applause. So again, at this point I would like to thank the St. Joseph's Cathedral, the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, Champlain Housing Trust, the City of Burlington, City Market, the Courtyard Maria in Hotel Vermont, Howard Center, Key Bank, People's United Bank, TD Bank, Spruce Mortgage, for their ongoing support of these annual celebrations. The Mayor, Mayor Weinberger, was supposed to be here. I don't know if he arrived yet, but in case if he's online, I would like to extend a warm welcome to him also. At this time, we're gonna invite the Montpelier Gospel Choir to give us a rendition. So usually on Mondays of the MLK holiday weekend, we would have a civil rights panel and some of the panelists today have appeared on these programs many times. And so we have merged, once the city has said, no in-person gathering on Monday, we merge the panel into today's events. And so we have a very distinguished panel of three. And the first I'm gonna call on my good friend and colleague Grace Matero, who is from Kenya, to offer us a few words. What would Dr. King say if he was alive today, Grace? I met the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as I was sailing in what Stevie Wonder referred to as the rivers of my mind. He invited me into his old church vestry and asked me kindly, ma'am, what can I do for you? I only have a few minutes, but do sit down. I sat and looked into his face and asked him, Reverend, what should I do in 2022 to fight the good fight and finish well? He paused as if to survey the times for a minute. Then in his most gentle voice replied, the principles are timeless, live by them with integrity and believe deeply in your own somebody-ness, one with dignity, worth and significance. Study, to understand and stay true to your selfhood and guard against allowing somebody, yourself or another to sow seeds of hatred in your soul, thus bringing you low. Whatever you do, strive for excellence. Do your best. Take seriously and personally your responsibility to make your nation a better place for everybody, a place that cherishes and nurtures beauty, love and justice. Keep moving forward, keep climbing before you know it, you too will reach the mountaintop and see the promised land. Then the Reverend quoted from the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes chapter nine, verse 11, for the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned, but time and chance happen to them all. As he stood up to leave, the good Reverend reminded me of the Apostle Paul's words in Hebrews chapter 12, verse one. Personalizing it for me, he said, therefore, since you, ma'am, also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding you. Read yourself of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles you and run with endurance, the race that is set before you in 2022. Then he drifted off in the midst of time, leaving me here to fight the good fight. How honored I am to introduce the next panelist, the Honorable T.J. Donovan, Attorney General of the State of Vermont, who has appeared on these panels many, many times over the years. Please welcome T.J. Donovan, Attorney General for the State of Vermont. Good afternoon. When Patrick called and asked if I would appear on this panel, I of course said yes. And he said there's only one question. What would Dr. King say about today? And I paused and I said, that's an incredibly difficult question to answer, Patrick. I said, I don't know if I'm qualified to answer it. He said, I think you are, but you have two minutes to answer it. So Patrick, thank you for the kind invitation to join you again as we celebrate the life and legacy and the lessons of Dr. King. When I said to Patrick on the phone when he referenced the question is what I'll answer today because it came immediate to me. It was simply to do better, to do better as a community, as individuals, as a state, and as a country. You know, I'm struck when I read about Dr. King and his teaching and his words. And how often he talks about love, how often he talks about forgiveness, how often he talks about overcoming and not being burdened by hate, but choosing to love. And that's what I would say is the answer to your incredibly difficult question, but fair question, because we all know that we are at an inflection point in this country right now. These are difficult and dark days for the United States of America. And we need to heed Dr. King's words and his life and his legacy. To love more, to forgive more, to be more compassionate, to be more merciful, not to say silent, but to engage more, to care more about your neighbor, about your community, about the person who you disagree with, but not to react in violence or in to hate, but in understanding compassion and love, because the true test of leadership that Dr. King demonstrated time and time and time again is we have to bring people along with us. We have, and that's hard work. That's incredibly hard work. To achieve that dream, not only of Dr. King, but the promise of this country, of a more perfect union. And when you think about the debates that we're having today about voting rights and not making sure, when you talk about the issues of civil rights, when you talk away, taking away the basic bedrock principle, the fundamental right to vote, if it being taken away mostly of black and brown people and states that we have an obligation to speak up. We have an obligation to engage in direct action in our democracy, to make sure we pass laws that lift people up and not keep them down, to do it in a fair way, in a just way, in a peaceful way. So Patrick, my answer today is the answer that came to me when we spoke on the phone, that I think it's simply this. The charge to all of us is to do better, to do more, to love more, to forgive more, and to bring people along with us as we continue to create a more perfect union for everyone in this country. Thank you. Thank you, Attorney General Donovan. One of the things I am remissed in doing is acknowledging the numerous folks who are attending virtually today. And I say a warm welcome to each and every one that's at home listening to this 36th commemoration of the life and work of the late civil rights leader. Our final civil rights panelist is someone who is no stranger to being on these panels and speaking at our annual events. Ms. Karen Stackpole, I invite you to the podium to offer your words and welcome you yet again. Karen is a community member, very visible at all these community events and a great contributor in many ways to our board, to our city, to our community and to the state of Vermont. Please welcome Karen Stackpole. I'd like to thank Patrick for welcoming me to speak. I very much appreciate it. It's hard to follow the two folks ahead of me. I will say, and particularly some of the students too in terms of what you said, Nala I was struck by one of the quotes that you had which reminds me that Dr. King very specifically recognized that we can be well intentioned, but if our actions aren't there, if we sit, if we don't stand up, if we don't call out things that are inappropriate, things that are unjust, then we're not doing the work that we were called to do. And so it is a thoughtful process that each of us needs to go through. And when I think about some of the quotations and what would Dr. King say today, I can't presume to know, but a couple of quotes come to mind, one of which is a law maybe just on its face and yet not in its application. That's absolutely true. It's been true for a really long time, pocket constitution in evidence, right? It's been true for a long time that laws that may have been just on their face have not been applied correctly, justly, fairly. So we need to do a better job with that. We need to remember that those of us who have opportunity need to reach back for other people who have not had it. We need to widen the door. We need to create a bigger space so that the people who come after us will have a better opportunity. It's our job. It's our job to make sure that the people behind us, the people around us are well taken care of and well loved. I am reminded on this day in a church that I've come to mass in, right? And that my daughter was actually confirmed in. I am reminded that Dr. King was not just a civil rights leader. He was a pastor. He was a Christian minister who very specifically made the point that this is about us in acts of love to one another that we want to help one another, that we want to see God in each other. And I know there's at least one good sister of mercy here who taught me. And that's the answer I was taught always was look at another person as if you see God in that individual. And then it's your job to make sure that you treat that person with love. And there are a lot of people out there who are making a lot of noise and who are doing unkind things or even evil things. We know that we see that I will not give them airtime because I choose to think about love and I choose to think about justice and I choose to think about what I can do every day. Get up every morning, say my morning prayers and think to myself, what will I do today that can make just one person's life easier? And particularly our brothers and sisters in our community, mostly black and brown, we have not had the same opportunities or treatment that I have had the benefit of. And I appreciate that. My daughter, who's African American, said to me once, Mom, when people say that they don't see color, I'm pretty sure they don't see me. I've never forgotten that. I think about it every single day and I want to make sure that my daughter and all of the people who are like her that have great love and wonder and many things to contribute are certainly treated with the same love and care that I would expect for myself. That's our job. And I think that's the message that Dr. King was sending to me. Thank you, Papa. Appreciate the opportunity. I just realized that our mayor is here and he'll never forgive me if I don't give him a warm welcome and introduce Mayor Weinberger, the mayor of the city of Burlington. And I don't know if he came prepared to offer a few words, but if so, after Mr. Weiss has spoken, I'll have him. And Tiffin, who is here from Representative Welsh's office, has brought a message from the representative that she will read later on in the program. So at this time, I am very honored to welcome back to Vermont even under colder circumstances the great Mr. Tim Weiss who has spoken nationally and internationally. He's spoken at about 700 college and university campuses around the country. He has done lectures and training in the corporate world. He has spoken to small audiences, to large audiences. And we're honored to have him back here in Burlington, Vermont to speak to us today and to celebrate with us as we remember the life and legacy of Dr. King. I know Mr. Weiss is no stranger to a lot of you and so without much further ado, I would like to welcome him and ask him to address the audience. Thank you. Thank you so much. First of all, I want to thank all of the speakers prior to me whose remarks I think were incredibly fitting on this day. And I want to thank the choir because that was a truly extraordinary piece of work that you all just did. And I want us all to give them another round of applause if we could. That version of Amazing Grace literally gave me chills. It's cold outside, but that's not what did it. It was that version of Amazing Grace. It's not COVID that gives me the chills. It's not the 20 below or whatever it is outside. It's you all and I thank you for that. When you can give chills to a relatively agnostic Jew singing Amazing Grace, you know that you have done something rather extraordinary. It is good to be back with you here in Vermont for the second year in a row for the MLK day events. I don't know exactly what it means when you get invited back two years in a row. I would like to believe that it is because folks said, man, that was so good last year. We're just going to bring him back and have him do it again. On the other hand, it could be an indication that I am the biggest sucker in America and the only one willing to come to Vermont in January in the middle of a global pandemic that has killed 850,000 of our brothers and sisters around this country and millions around the world. But whether it is version number one or whether it is version number two or perhaps it is some combination of them, I'm glad and honored to be here with you. This is about the 30th year that I have spoken somewhere in commemoration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday 30 years ago today. I actually stood in a church, very lovely church like this one in Concord, New Hampshire to give a talk for the MLK holiday. And at that time I was addressing a couple of things that were going on politically in this country. One, in the state of Louisiana where I lived at that time and where I had been active against neo-Nazi white supremacist former plan leader David Duke who had just come off a gubernatorial race in 1991 and a race for the United States Senate in 1990 both of which he had lost but both of which he had managed to get 55 to 60 percent of the white vote. And so part of what we were dealing with 30 years ago was a politician blaming black people for problems they didn't cause in order to get white people to vote for him. Imagine that. I don't know if you can put your finger on other examples of that in more recent history but that was what was going on 30 years ago. A white person clamoring for the votes of other white people by looking at black and brown people and saying they are the cause of your pain. And for an awful lot of white people in Louisiana it worked. The second thing that was going on at that time when I spoke in that church in New Hampshire which in January of 2002 if you know your sort of chronology and the calendar you know that's the time of the New Hampshire presidential primaries. Pat Buchanan was running for president someone who just three months earlier had said that the Republican Party should take David Duke's winning playbook of ideas and make it their own. And so he was running for president sounding very much like David Duke and doing very well not winning that primary but doing very well in it and getting the votes of millions of folks around the country. Again a white politician clamoring for the votes of other white people by blaming black and brown people for their problems. The point of me mentioning that is obviously here we are three decades later and some things have not changed in fact some things have only gotten quite a bit worse. You know one of the things that I noticed when I started doing this work 30 years ago approximately a little more than that actually is that there was at least one thing three decades ago that almost everyone could agree on. We had disagreements but the vast majority could at least agree on one thing and that was the history of America in fact sometimes people on the right would go ahead and grant you that it had been bad just as a way to talk about how much better it was. They would admit oh yes my goodness those days of segregation those were terrible weren't they isn't it great we've made all this progress we've left all that in the past now I would say that was a cynical argument but my point is at least then you could get them to agree on the past even if you disagreed about the present. But today you see three decades later we have folks who were actually launching an assault on historical memory itself. Launching an attack on our remembrance of who we have been saying that actually the past wasn't really all that bad either so we have to make America great again right and more than that we have to rewrite our textbooks and rewrite our history and teach not the truth but lies to children in the name of patriotism and so this attack on what they call critical race theory but honest people just call truth in our nation schools is the result of people who want to control the border you see we talk about border control as physical borders and it is that and there are those seeking to control physical borders obviously at least the southern one no one's worried about the northern one just the southern one no one ever freaks out about crafty Canadian sneaking in to take advantage of our superior healthcare system because that would be ridiculous but they're very concerned about that southern border but they're concerned about more than that borders are not just physical they're narrative right borders are about the stories that we tell and the ones we don't and what these folks are saying is on the one hand we want to say who can be an American but if we lose that fight at least we can tell you what it means to be one and what it means to be one is to have this version of American history not the truth not the honest reflections of our past where we've been and where we still need to go but these lies and so they are attacking not critical race theory they are not trying to ban that they are trying to ban books we have states that are trying to get rid of children's books in schools that teach about Dr. King why because they tell the truth there's an organization in Tennessee where I live just outside of Nashville this organization has a chapter that is leading the struggle against children's books dealing with the civil rights movement and one of its leaders says that it's untoward to teach these books books about Dr. King for instance and the Birmingham Children's Campaign where young children had water cannons turned on them and dogs sicked on them but we don't want children to learn about that because it will make them hate white people or it might make them think badly of the police if we tell them the truth about Bull Connor so in other words those black children were young enough to face water cannons and dogs but white children in 2022 apparently are not old enough to learn about what happened that's what they're saying they want us not to tell the truth because if we tell the truth those young children today might ask what do I then have to do what are my obligations it's not a coincidence that this assault on anti-racist teaching is happening in the wake of the largest single racial justice uprising in this country's history in the summer of 2020 that's not a coincidence critical race theory has been around for 40 years but all the sudden it's a big national issue because 20 million Americans went into the streets in the summer of 2020 to protest systemic racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and if you don't want new policies to be passed to do something about systemic racism the one thing you want to make sure is that young people don't learn about it not just in the present but even in the past so we have state legislatures 25 of them in all that have introduced legislation to ban the teaching of what they call divisive subjects like the ones we're talking about today like the ones that Dr. King talked about and fought all of his life and his death in fact in New Hampshire teachers are being told that if they teach divisive subjects they can be fired and have their teaching licenses revoked there is a snitch portal that is being set up online so that students and parents can rat out teachers who talk about these subjects in class a legislator in Florida just introduced a bill to put microphones on teachers in the classroom so that parents can monitor what the teachers are saying and then get them fired if what they're saying is objectionable to them this is censorship it is book banning it is authoritarianism and that's where we are in this country that I can assure you is something Dr. King would say if he were here today it's interesting to me that these folks wish to erase history even as they are seeking to repeat it let me say that again they are erasing history even as they seek to repeat it what do I mean by that? I mean by diminishing voting rights, refusing to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and then saying that that refusal is something they're doing in the name of Dr. King blasphemous saying that Dr. King wouldn't want this kind of heavy-handed approach coming from people that thought nothing of Dr. King when he was alive but will speak his name now that he is dead because he cannot rise up out of the grave and correct them but we certainly can and so when they pass laws and states to make it harder for people to vote restricting early voting why would you restrict early voting for instance? what is the logic of that? even if you say well maybe it should be necessary to have an ID and maybe we can make that not too much of a burden, okay possibly but what's the reason for shutting down early voting? the only reason is we know who tends to vote disproportionately early black and brown folk, working class and poor folk of all colors, young people college students, demographics that don't vote the way some of these folks want the vote to go in North Carolina the attempts to restrict voting were so precise, so targeted to black folks that the courts there said that black voters had been targeted with surgical precision because what the lawmakers there in that state did was they asked the question they wanted to get some information you know before they passed their new bill a few years ago they didn't want to just go off half cocked and so they asked the state to provide them with information about the kinds of identification that white people were most likely to have versus black people and then the ones that black folks were least likely to have were the ones that they made a requirement I'm sure it's coincidence though and yet some of these folks will walk into church on today and they will speak on tomorrow about this man and they will praise him even as they oppose legislation that is similar to the legislation that he fought and died for they will praise him even as they refuse to get rid of a filibuster that makes it impossible to get that legislation passed they will praise him they will say quite literally defecate upon his legacy you see we're not supposed to say that because that's a divisive subject and if I were a teacher in New Hampshire I could be fired for saying that right they wish to erase the history even as they are currently repeating it and what's fascinating to me is that they do this as if somehow these ideas about systemic racism that we've been talking about so much since the uprising in 2020 that these ideas that are embedded in critical race theory are somehow oppositional to the legacy of Dr. King that's what Don Jr said and you know Don Jr is a noted Dr. King scholar so Don Jr a few months ago said Dr. King would be appalled by critical race theory and the idea that America had a systemic racism problem but what did Dr. King actually say see we only hear a couple of quotes every year we know the ones usually the safest ones that folks can find this is a man who as it was mentioned before he was a preacher he spoke somewhere every Sunday at least once a week if not several times and yet all we ever hear are those lines those banal anodyne lines that they can pull out of the speeches that are the most ecumenical the easiest on the eye and the ear the ones that go down smooth they don't ever want us to listen to the lines that go down the way medicine does you know medicine never tastes good and I remember as a child I never understood like why can't they just make it taste good like why does it have to taste like that my mom wants me to take this medicine and the doctor wants me to take this medicine why can't they just and then they try to make it they put some cherry or lemon line and then it just tastes worse it's like why can't they make it taste good then I came to the realization whatever it is that gets you better that must be the part that tastes bad and you just can't take good medicine you have to take difficult medicine but we don't we don't like that Dr. King because if we even knew of that Dr. King we would realize that this idea that his views were somehow contrary to a systemic racism analysis contrary to critical race theory those arguments are not true at all but if these state legislatures get their way and if those on the right get their way about what can and can't be taught in school make no mistake the man that we honor today will not be able to be taught at least not the honest version of him will be able to teach a caricature perhaps a lie but not the real one how do I know that well here's how I know it I'm going to share some lines with you and some quotes from Dr. King that I'm guessing most have never heard and you certainly will not hear them tomorrow in 1968 March a month before his death Dr. King gave a speech in Gross Point Michigan here's what he said he said there must be a recognition and I'm I'm trying to read I'm doing like the young folks trying to read on my phone so that is a challenge both technologically and I'm just going to let you know but I'm going to do my best I made the font really big I blew it up so I can hopefully read this here's what he said he said there must be a recognition on the part of everybody in this nation that America is still a racist country and we will never solve the problem of racism until there is a recognition of the fact that racism still stands at the center of so much of our nation you say that today in a school in one of those 25 states you will be fired or subject to such this same sentiment was one that featured very prominently in his last essay which he wrote just prior to his assassination it wasn't published until January of the following year in Playboy magazine I only know about this because I read it for the articles that is a joke that only the older among us will get here's what Dr. King said in that final essay he said despite its virtues and attributes America is deeply racist and its democracy is flawed both economically and socially you see this is a man who understood the fundamental flaw it wasn't an incidental one that's what they're saying in Texas is that the teachers there will only be able to teach it's actually written in the law that racism can only be discussed as a deviation from an otherwise stellar commitment to liberty and justice in other words racism has to be taught as deviant from the American norm and what Dr. King was saying who now I suppose will have to not be taught in Texas schools was that actually no it wasn't a deviation from the norm it was the norm you see if folks on the right would just listen to the whole I have a dream speech they like that one line the one about judging people by the content of their character not the color of their skin it's like they think that's the only line the man ever said he just got up said that and then got shot as opposed to understanding if you listen to even that whole speech forget these obscure ones that I'm digging out of the archives here just even listen to that full speech what did King say in there he said that America had quote given the Negro a bad check a check which has come back marked insufficient funds he wasn't suggesting that a few bad apples had done that he wasn't suggesting that just a dozen or so southern sheriffs in league with Klansman had done that he was saying that America had failed as a society as he continued to say in that final essay quote the black revolution is more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes it is exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society it reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and suggest that radical reconstruction of society itself is the issue to be faced Dr. King not only viewed racism as systemic he also viewed it as something maintained by white ambivalence and ill will he was not color blind in his analysis of the nation's problems in April of 1967 in his speech the other America delivered at stanford university king said quote white America has allowed itself to be indifferent to race prejudice the American people are infected with racism that is the peril that is not a man who was saying this is the deviation from a norm he is saying it is in the soil and the soul of the country he went on to say in that final essay quote the largest part of white America is still poisoned by racism here comes the key line which is as native to our soil as pine trees sagebrush and buffalo grass racism as native to the soil as sagebrush pine trees and buffalo grass but perhaps king's most direct criticism of structural racism and the explicit naming of white America as its source however uncomfortable that may make us can be found in his address in September of 1967 to the American psychological association there he said this quote white America needs to understand that it is poisoned to its soul by racism and then he went on to discuss the urban uprisings, rebellions and riots that had rocked several northern cities during the summer of that year and here is what he said about those when he decided it was necessary to make clear where the blame resided he said this quote the policy makers of white society have caused the darkness they create discrimination they structured the slums and they perpetuate unemployment ignorance and poverty it is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes but they are derivative crimes they are born of the greater crimes of the white society he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations his police make a mockery of law and he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provision of civic services the vicious system of the white society and he goes on to say if the violations of law by the white man in the slums over the years were calculated and compared with the law breaking of a few days of riots the hardened criminal would be the white man they are not going to quote that man tomorrow but that's the man we're honoring now you don't have to agree with his take just because a man is a secular saint does not have to agree with the white man it's a literal one and it doesn't mean you have to agree but you can't act like he didn't say it because it's inconvenient to acknowledge that he said it King went on by the way in that speech to the APA to say that black Americans were rebelling against white American perceptions and values quote because they have discovered that their plight was not a consequence of superficial echo them and to King that rebellion was positive as a development because and hear these words clearly particularly because we are hearing them in a church he said quote the philosophy and morals of the dominant white society are not holy and they are not sacred but in all too many respects they are degenerate and profane that's the Dr. King who we must honor the one who told the truth even when and especially when it would make him unpopular if we are not going to honor that Dr. King we are not going to honor Dr. King at all and if we are not allowed to tell the truth about American history we won't be allowed to honor him into the future you see and Dr. King knew how difficult it would be to honor the truth and he knew how much white America didn't want to do it and he said in a very formal full length book where do we go from here he said that the unwillingness of whites to quote reeducate themselves out of racial ignorance end of quote was the barrier to progress and he closed that paragraph with the following and they are words every bit as relevant today as they were 54 years ago when he wrote them it is an aspect of their sense of superiority King said that the white people of America it is our obligation from this point forward to insist that the legacy of Dr. King is a progressive legacy it is a radical legacy it is a legacy that you cannot glom onto just to make yourself feel better to stand in that legacy is to stand on truth to demand that it be taught to demand that it be spoken not only in church but in our schools and at the polling places at the center of this society and if we cannot do that then we will have dishonored this man's legacy and our own potential as Americans in ways that will make our children curse us and we will deserve that curse thank you all so much for being here I appreciate you very much and have a wonderful Dr. King day thank you thank you very much Mr. Tim Wise for that message of hope and we can only take it with us feel motivated and most of all feel inspired your message will resonate with us here in person and those attending virtually today for quite some time once again our sincere appreciation and I ask you to join me once again in giving Mr. Wise yet another round of applause and so at this time I'm going to change the program up a little bit and ask the representative from representative Welch's office to give us remarks and then we're going to call on the mayor and this is very optional mayor if you want to bring brief greetings and then we'll hear from the Gospel Choir Tiffin Hi everyone, my name is Tiffin Dean and I work for Congress from Welch and I ask me to share this note with you all today dear friends today we celebrate the life of the remarkable visionary and courageous leader the reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr one of the honors of my life was hearing Dr. King preach at the Ebenezer Baptist Church while I attended the Southern Christian Leadership Conference I was 20 years old at the time but I remember it like it was yesterday how his words stirred me although he was a victim of violence and hate he spoke of love and while the road ahead was long and dangerous he spoke of hope and commitment while surrounded by division he demonstrated that the promise of this nation can be kept if we work together now more than ever we need to live by Dr. King's vision and honor his legacy our American democracy is imperiled the right to vote and our election institutions are under attack we must stand up and redouble our efforts to strengthen our democracy community by community all of us need to engage however we can to ensure that all people have access to the ballot and our democracy survives thank you for your advocacy and I'm honored to celebrate Dr. King's life with you I'm committed to continuing to do to all I can to uphold his values and legacy in Congress in solidarity Peter Welch, United States Congressman thank you good afternoon everyone thank you all for being here and making sure that we celebrate the life of Dr. King properly in this in Burlington once again I want to welcome back to Burlington Tim Wise I don't think you're crazy for being here two January's in a row cover story on the weekly newspaper before you leave it's about the large numbers of people who are moving here permanently during these challenging times and you're invited to save the travel and become a permanent part of the community it's great to hear your words again your calls on all of us to do everything we can to become a more anti-racist society are heard and appreciated here in Burlington and really that's the only other thing I wanted to say was thank you on that front as well I think one of the reasons why Burlington while having a lot of work to do I think is responding to this moment and making progress on many fronts while we see the kind of backlash and backsliding that Tim just spoke about and so many parts of the country here in Burlington we are we are training all of our city workers right now in anti-racist they're going through an anti-racist training being led by our new and newly expanded racial equity inclusion and belonging department we are going back to some of the founding documents of the city and looking at what was happening here in Burlington during before slavery was abolished and what responsibilities and implications this community has for that with the task force we are unpacking our history of racism within housing and looking at what we can do to change the zoning and regulatory regime that has kept us from integrating as a community kept us from the white community and working on the financing side as well to be able to roll out new programs to encourage black home ownership and BIPOC home ownership and address the continuing and unacceptable disparities in housing and home ownership that we see and I think one of the reasons Burlington because 435 plus 36 years now we have gathered like this sometimes with much bigger groups when conditions allow to celebrate the life of Dr. King and really the reason we have done that as a community for so long and with such impressive events is because of Patrick Brown and his commitment to these events and so let me just make sure that we don't end today without appreciating and noting what a huge contribution Patrick has made to this community by continuing on this tradition so thank you Patrick. So once again I thank you and I'll invite the choir the Montpelier Community Gospel Choir to give us our final rendition of the afternoon. Just one final note ladies and gentlemen that as you leave Mr. Wise will be sitting in the back with copies of his books and he will sign them and briefly greet you as you make your exit. Once again a big thank you to each and every one of you. Thank you.