 I'm E.D. Miller. I'm a member of the program for Ali, the Sure Life Long Living Institute. And I'm delighted you're here today, because I think we're in for a real treat. I, until I met him this afternoon, didn't know Dr. Meeder, but I've heard of him. His reputation, I've heard of him for decades, I think. So I'm delighted that he's finally here. He has spoken at many other Ali groups throughout the state and been extremely well received. So let me tell you a little bit about him. He is a university distinguished professor of German and folklore at UVM, where he just told me he's aiming for 50 years at UVM, which will happen in, what do you say, six years, four years? Only four. Okay, 44 years, he's got them. He served as chair of the department of German and Russian for over three decades. And he's received a number of awards for his teaching and scholarship, including honorary doctorates from the universities of Athens and Bucharest. While his research ranges from fairy tales, legends, and folk songs to philological studies, his special expertise lies in the area of international study of Proverbs. And I learned a new word that I want to share with you because I never heard this word. It's parameology. Parameology. Very good. And that's Dr. Muir's specialty and he'll tell us all about it. But I love learning new words, so I want to share that with you. Many of his books deal with the use and function of Proverbs, and there is a variety. He is a much published author, and there is a very interesting variety of books on the table here that you might look at. His books deal with the use and function of Proverbs, in literature, mass media, art, politics, and advertising. His most recent book is Behold the Proverbs of a People, Perverbial Wisdom in Culture, Literature, and Politics, and that book is there as well. So, with no further ado, let me introduce... A little further. Oh, a little further. My further ado is the fact a car parked illegally. Does anyone have a blue Subaru GMK 300? It's parked on the side there. Well, never mind. No more yet. Yes. Can you let people know what... But next week? Okay, yes, that's a good idea. And before we start this week, we will let you know that next week we will be... Oh, and for another treat of a totally different sort, we will be in Berry, and we will have Mary Bonhack and Evan Primo, who are nationally and internationally known musicians who happen to live in our midst, talking about making music and raising a family. In Berry. Oh, good. Well, thank you, Edie, for those nice words and for your quick... You're quicker than my students, you know, in learning the word parameology. Parameology is not such a hard word. It's Greek, and paramea means proverb in Greek. So, basically, we have picked the Latin word in English to use proverb. But if you want to be fancy and talk about the science of studying wisdom and proverbs, then you go back to Greek. You use the Greek word for proverb, which is paramea, and then you can make ology the study of. Voila, you have parameology. Well, I'm glad and honored to talk to you. I was with the Montpelio-Oli group. I looked it up. I can even give you the date. On September 21, 2011, we met up at the Montpelio at the college. And I know I met Bob there, and I talked about proverbs in advertising and so on at the time, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I want to thank Edie, first of all, for her nice remarks. But I would like to dedicate this talk to two people who we, and I think you all knew both of them, have just lost. First of all, Ben Scotch, who was a dear friend of mine. And Ben and I served on the UVM Center for Holocaust Studies for many, many years. I would say from about 1993 on. And so, Bob was always the most impressive partner with great ideas. A lot of willingness to once in a while discuss a problem that was not necessarily popular. And he could do that with charm and humor and so on. So we'll miss Ben a great deal. And the other good friend is Hayley Ballantyne. And that I only found out as I arrived here today. I have known Hayley, or knew Hayley, at least for 45 years. I got to know Hayley the minute I arrived at UVM in 1971. And she of course was a German teacher. So as you can imagine, we had strong ties also with her husband. So I'm very sad to find out that Hayley has passed away. And I will have to carry that back to my German colleagues at UVM because we all knew Hayley and her family very well. Okay. Anyhow, leaving that sad thought behind us. What I would like to do today is last time, or sometimes when I talk to wonderful Oli people, which I by the way really like. It's a completely different experience for professorial time to stand in front of people who are my age, you know. And I know that there are certain things I can mention to you that I'm aware of the fact that you can relate to. Our cultural literacy is very much the same. Even the Beatles nowadays, if I mentioned to my lovely students how much I like the Beatles, that doesn't belong to their growing up. I mean, I remember in the early 60s when I just come to America, I remember in college how we were literally waiting for the next Beatles song to appear. Of course, we didn't have record players. So you had to have someone who had the record. Someone who had a record player. I remember my roommate had a record player and he was more lucky with young ladies than I was. I always had dates and I always was a nerd and stayed at home. But I could listen to Bob Dylan. I could listen to the Beatles. So anyhow, it's nice to have an audience and I always enjoy adult learners in my classes. So keep in mind, once we reach that wonderful age of 65, you can study free at UBM, you know. So that's something to keep in mind if you have the time and the inclination. Anyhow, today I want to talk to you about only one proverb. Just one. And explain to you a little bit how the proverb or when are created equal. What it has meant to us Americans. How it developed. What interpretations of it there are. Is it really as perfect as we sometimes think? And I see many ladies in the crowd. So, you know, you might have a few problems with that particular proverb. And we've worked on that. What can we do about it? Why was it not more gender neutral when Jefferson came up with that wonderful statement? So I want to show you a little bit what it takes to look at one proverb. And I hope you will enjoy it and we'll go from there. It is no problem for me to start my comments by saying we all know. I have to be careful at UBM that I don't say too often to my students as you all know. I really think that's probably the biggest mistake a teacher can make to say in a class as you all know. They don't all know, you know. And why should they? That's why I'm there for them. But in your case I can say as you all know and the students know that too. And that is that on July 4th, 1776 we have the big Declaration of Independence in this country, right? And we all associate the Declaration of Independence with nobody else but Count Jefferson, of course. And you also remember the beginning. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I think all of us are very, very familiar with that. I'm going to put this away because then I don't have to watch it. Okay, so now, yes, that was on the evening of the 4th of July that was the official Declaration of Independence. But when you start looking how that was framed, how it was phrased originally, you actually find out that Jefferson had read the following. Listen closely. We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation that derives rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So you can see it really wasn't phrased quite as memorable as we know it now. And guess who gets the credit for that? John Adams. John Adams was the big stylist. So he took what I just read to you and modified it into the beautiful, memorable statement that we have now. And I'm sure you have heard that Thomas Jefferson Adams were friends, but there was also friction. There was also a little bit of jealousy. And they were fighting for who's going to become the second president. So anyhow, and it was Abigail Adams, probably one of the brains of the founding fathers. The only problem is, as a woman, she didn't have a political voice, but she talked to John in the bedroom and she influenced John Adams quite a bit. So anyhow, John Adams really was very much involved in it. And even Jefferson, where did Jefferson get his idea from that all men are created equal? Now notice, George Mason, about three weeks before the Fourth of July on the 12th of June, 1776, George Mason had written the Virginia's Declaration of Rights. Now listen to what Jefferson knew that, of course. Here's what George Mason wrote, three weeks before the Declaration of Independence, that all men are born equally free and independent and have certain inherent natural rights of which they cannot by any compact deprive or divert their posterity, among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty with the means of acquiring and possessing property and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Now, Jefferson knew that three weeks before he tried to formulate the Declaration of Independence. So what you're really finding out is all of us stand on the shoulders of people who can't be for us. If we do our research, we'll figure out what has ex-sad and what might President Obama say, or what has Teddy Roosevelt said. By the way, all of our presidents, we know this, for their inaugural addresses, guess what they do? They look at the previous inaugural addresses and then they realize every former president has tried to formulate a couple, three, four sentences in those addresses that might be memorable, that they will be remembered by. Member Kennedy asked not what your country can do for you. By the way, that wasn't even original. He had plenty of help. So anyhow, so as you can see, now, I can even go further back and tell you that there was a medieval Latin proverb that goes something like this, we are all born equal and are distinguished alone by virtue. There are legal maxims along that line. And of course to come up with the idea that all men are created equal is really not, I would argue, particularly unique. The uniqueness is to say it and to get away with it. And to have it caught on. And then as we look at history to see what is the problem maybe with that statement. We'll have some fun with this. Now, to get back to John Herron's, he also wrote the constitution, was involved in writing the Constitution of Massachusetts, where of course he lived. So listen to this, in 1779, now he knew the new declaration of independence very well. But in 1779, in the Constitution of Massachusetts, he says all men are born free and equal. Notice the tremendous linguistically, semantically human way difference between those two statements. All men are created or born free and equal. Adams could get away with that. Remember of all the founding fathers. Only Adams and Ben Franklin had no slaves. And I think, I will try to tell my students this, one thing that none of us can do. You can't and I can't. We're all partners or members of the time we live in, don't we? We can't escape that. We can try to be decent human beings in our time, and I think most of us try. But we make misjudgements, or we vote for a president. We don't know whomever we vote for, what that person eventually will turn out to be, or what history will prove that person to be. So you can't escape that. And I would think that Jefferson was perfectly capable of the thought that all men are born free and equal. But the time for him to say it wasn't right, wasn't right for it. I wish he had done it. We'll get back to Lincoln about this too in a moment. But anyhow, so Adams I think deserves a little bit of credit as being one of the first who already is going a little bit beyond all men are really equal by getting this free element into it. Okay. Now, I want to show you by a few examples how that proverb, and of course it caught on. Don't forget, it only took a few days and we actually had pamphlets, little broad sheets with the declaration on it, handed out to people in the colonies. So people knew it. People picked it up, people reacted to it. What I want to show you in this talk is a little bit what have certain people done with it over history. And the person I want to start with is one of my real heroes. And you probably remember this. When you were in high school, there was a time in America that almost every high school student read Frederick Douglass' Slave Narrative. It's only about 45 pages long, the first version. Eventually you wrote two more versions, they were much longer. But anyhow, Frederick Douglass was to my way of thinking one of the most handsome men I've ever seen. Tall, beautiful African-American hair, just an incredibly handsome man, beautiful voice as far as I have read. There are reports. He used to talk in front of 9,000, 10,000 people as a black man in Boston. You have to think about that in the 40s as a former slave. He never went to school, taught himself how to read. And yet contemporary of Abraham Lincoln, I've read all of his books, all of his writings, Douglass, I've done the same with Lincoln. I would give Douglass the higher grade as far as rhetoric is concerned. As far as really emotive rhetoric fighting for the freedom of slaves and his speeches are just incredible. So it was a very dear experience for me to read it. But let me give you an example. In 1846, at one of his rallies, he said the following, I do speak against an American institution. That institution is American slavery. But I love the declaration of independence. I believe it contains the true doctrine that all men are created equal. It is, however, because they do not carry out these principles that I'm here to speak. It's quite a wonderful way to get people going. I have a right to appeal to people everywhere. I would draw all men's attention to slavery. I would fix the indignant eye of the world on slavery so it be swept off the face of the earth. So he takes our beautiful, all men are created equal. It accuses the young nation of saying, you know, you're not living up to anything you've ever said. And people listen to him. He went to Ireland, he went to Canada, he went to Great Britain, gave speeches. If you go to Great Britain, Ireland, once in a while you see a sign, Frederick Douglass spoke here. And you can take a look. I brought my book on Frederick Douglass along. Ten years later, in 1854, let me give you one more example. America stands prominently forth as a land of inconsistency and contradictions, aspiring to be honest and yet as a nation of liars. For in her Declaration of Independence she proclaims all men are created equal while she holds in bondage three million and a half of her subjects robbed of every right, deprived of every privilege and sold and bought like beasts that perish. You can see a little bit where Martin Luther King gets his language from, don't you? And don't ever worry, I can prove to you that Martin Luther King read Frederick Douglass, that Barack Obama read Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King. And yeah, so that I think gives you an idea how people see that, yes, we have all these wonderful statements but do we live up to them? And let's see how we go on. Let's turn to Lincoln. Lincoln and Frederick Douglass knew each other. There's that famous anecdote that President Lincoln had a reception of some time and Frederick Douglass as a black man was invited. And supposedly Frederick Douglass, I mentioned to you how tall and beautiful he was, was outside. Lincoln was inside equally tall. The doorkeeper would not let Frederick Douglass in. Of course, how do dare walk into the White House? Lincoln supposedly saw him and said, let that man in. He is my friend. A very touching story, of course. Now, Lincoln at the same time, 1854, as Douglass says the following, the humility of Lincoln is always just unbelievable. And if you permit me to say that, we don't have much humility right now. My ancient faith tells me that all men are created equal and there can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of another. What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. I say this is the leading principle, the sheet anchor of American republicanism. Our Declaration of Independence says, and then he quotes the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. Four years later, in 1858, Lincoln returns to our phrase. So I say in relation to the principle that all men are created equal. Let it be as nearly reached as we can. I think this too is where Barack Obama gets his humility from. We'll get to President Obama in a little while. This kind of won't say something, but also drawing back a little bit. One of Lincoln's favorite proverbs was the Bible proverb, judge not lest ye be judged. So what Lincoln will do is he will step forward, be a little bit aggressive in what he says. Then he realizes, wait a minute, I might be going a little bit far. He pulls back and says, oh wait a minute here, we're not also perfect either. Again, something that I think our modern politics could benefit from. So he says, so I say in relation to the principle that all men are created equal. Let it be as nearly reached as we can. He's not saying that we will succeed. There's no exceptionalism thinking here. Like unfortunately I think our politics are not just recently. I think our American exceptionalism thinking in politics is not good for the nation. Humility is always better. And he goes on and says, let us unite as one people throughout this land until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal. You see? He's touching, he's getting to the point saying look it's only about 70 years later but let's be honest with ourselves. We're not even living up to that statement. I leave you, typical Lincoln, I leave you hoping that the lamp of liberty will turn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be doubt that all men are created free and equal. Can you remember just a few years off from the Civil War? This is very important. He is not president yet. He can still say what he thinks. Once you become president, your freedom of exactly saying what you think at times is limited. A president has to find a president has to be a person of compromise. You know? And we'll get there. Okay, now what you, what most likely is already going through your minds is wait a minute, Lincoln of course also used our proverb in the Gettysburg address. Did anyone of you still memorize the Gettysburg address as a pupil? 272 words, right? That was not beyond American students many years ago. But it would be a tough one to expect it now. You know, I'm of the school that I don't think memorizing something once in a while is a bad idea. A poem, a song, a great statement, wouldn't be a bad idea to bring memorization back at least. Not wrote, not memorizing. Memorizing for the sake of memorizing, but maybe for carrying significant statements, meaningful statements with us. Let me refresh you. The Gettysburg address starts with, as we know, four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, right? And beautiful start, no doubt. Four score, you know, score means 20, right? So we have to of course explain that sometimes. Anyhow, he winds up this beautiful, beautiful statement and recall that the other person who spoke in Gettysburg talked for two and a half hours. That is what was expected, a two and a half hour speech and they can get up and gets 272 words. People were flabbergasted. But it didn't take long and people realized, wow, this was the ultimate speech. Remember too, at the end he says that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Now I would love to come back and talk to you only about government of the people, by the people and for the people, but that's not our topic today. But I do have to digress for a moment. Look at what Lincoln says. Government of the people, by the people, for the people. If you had to improve on it and if you were not the president and you could really say what you think, how would you change it? Government of the people, by the people, for the people. How could you make it stronger? What little word could you add? Government of? Ah, super students sitting right there. We talked before we can't stop. Now listen to this. The word all. There was a famous abolitionist white man, white preacher, Theodore Parker, who had given, just like Douglas, many, many abolitionist speeches. And before Lincoln had said numerous times government of all the people, for all the people, by all the people. Lincoln, we know that Lincoln had read. Those speeches were published as pamphlets, handed out. We know Lincoln in his library had Theodore Parker. So he knew, he knew, there's no doubt in my mind, what was needed really was to say government of all the people. But Lincoln is the president. He's fighting to free the slaves. I hate to say it, he's not fighting for women yet. I hate to say it. It isn't that he's not thinking of you young ladies, but that's not on the agenda. So my personal belief is that Lincoln made a conscious decision not to use the all. The all was floating. Douglas used it, Theodore Parker used it. But I think President Lincoln, I back him on that. I think President Lincoln made a conscious decision that that is something at Gettysburg. He wasn't at Gettysburg to get people riled up. He was at Gettysburg to give beautiful statement for people who have given their life to the war. But that kind of shows you, doesn't it? Well, we mentioned the ladies of the house. We had, of course, two great feminists in the 19th century. Frederick Douglas was their friend. Douglas lived a long life, way, way into the 1890s. So they got to know each other. Well, you know what I'm talking about. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Two absolutely fascinating women. 50 years, those two ladies fought for women's rights. 50 years, Elizabeth Cady Stanton had seven children, a round middle woman, kind of a little bit rotund. You've seen pictures of Susan B. Anthony with her tight hair in a little bun back here. Of course, she's a bit uptight. But those two women, they crisscross the country. In snow, in rain, in heat, on the train, on the horse and buggy, fought for women's rights. And in 1848, on July 19 and 20, 1848, not far from here, in Seneca Falls in New York, little roundish Elizabeth Cady Stanton gets up on the stage and gives her speech, not called Declaration of Independence, but Declaration of Sentiments. Now you have to kind of have curly hair. There she stands and she starts. We hold these truths to be self-evident. Of course, we all know what's coming. That all men and women are created equal. So she blasts it out, you know, goes on with it and begins what in America has been known as the early feminist movement. And remember, it still took till 1920 to pass the 19th Amendment for women's rights. So the two ladies never really experienced it. And just to give Susan Anthony also some credit here, she says, why is it in the face of the utterance of our, not she's spitting one, her forefathers, why is it in the face of the utterance of our forefathers relative to all men being born free and equal? Notice she picks up on Adams, taxation without representation, government deriving its just powers from the consent of the governments, and one half of the people are denied any voice in the workings of the government. Remember, African-American males could follow me, but the women couldn't. Still half the population. Society upholds a false theory relative to women's place in the world, which thus makes it safe to violate these governmental maxims, our proverbs, right, as regards women, which no one would dare to do in the case of any class of men. The theory is that women are created primarily for men's happiness and secondarily for her own. I told my wife today I'd do anything she wants me to do. It's Valentine's Day. She laughed. Okay, so anyhow, so you can see, it took quite a few years till finally someone gets up and says, I'm pregnant here, let's change it a little bit and say all men and women are created equal. Okay, jumping, what I want to next is show you a little bit how some of the presidents have dealt beyond Lincoln now. Let's move to Harry Truman. Harry Truman was, you know, a real straight shooter. Again, a man of no college education shows you, you have to have them to be a good president. So Truman on 1949 in his inaugural speech says the following. Now remember, the war has just come to an end. George Marshall is spreading the Marshall Plan. I'm a Marshall Plan baby, so I'm very, very thankful to George Marshall because I grew up with dried American milk and eggs that got us through the years after the war. American people stand firm in the faith which has inspired this nation from the beginning. We believe that all men have a right to equal justice under law and equal opportunity to share in the common good. We believe that all men have the right to freedom of thought and expression. We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God. From this faith we will not be moved. Now remember this after the war. Code was just starting. The American people desire and are determined to work for a world in which all nations are free to govern themselves as they see fit and to achieve a decent and satisfying life. Above all else, our people desire and are determined to work for peace on earth. A just and lasting peace based on genuine agreement freely arrived among equals. That's a beautiful statement after World War II with George Marshall trying to get especially Western Europe economically and humanely uplifted. Unfortunately, Stalin, the plan where the Marshall plan was to do the same for Eastern Europe, but Marshall put, Stalin put an end to that. We could have avoided the Cold War if we would not have started that terrible competition between America and the Soviet Union. But Richard Nixon, I like what Richard Nixon said in 1969 at the time, as we all remember, at the time and height of the civil rights movement. So Nixon picks up on this ball again and says, as we measure what can be done, we shall promise only what we can produce. But as we chart our goals, we shall be lifted by our dreams. No man can be fully free while the neighbor is not. To go forward at all is to go forward together. This means, look, this is 69. Nixon was not all bad. He was actually a very smart man. There's no doubt about that. But look how it goes on. This means black and white together as one nation, not two. The laws have caught up with our conscience. What remains is to give life to what is in the law, to ensure at last that as all are born equal in dignity before God, all are born equal in dignity before man. Again, that's a very heartwarming statement, really, of President Nixon. And on the way over, I listened to a wonderful program, an interview of the Montpelier principal and a lovely young Montpelier student. And I was deeply impressed by that student. She, if you have a chance to listen to this interview, it happened between, well, around 12ish, I guess, when I was driving here. And I look at this a little bit also from a linguistic rhetorical point of view. She was very clear-spoken. She didn't stop, answers by, well, you know, like. There was beauty in her speech. You could sense her commitment to this cause. And the principal equally, equally well done. So there was a very, very heartwarming interview. And I learned about it, entertained me on my whole trip down to Montpelier. So I was glad I tuned in on it. Anyhow, let me go on and give you Jimmy Carter. I think, my wife always points out to me, when you see a picture of former presidents, Barbara, my wife, notices that, that Jimmy Carter always stands a little bit to the side. He's never quite integrated into the group. And I think that's a shame. But maybe he is a little bit more shy than someone like George Bush, you know? But anyhow, here's what President Carter says. This vision still grips the imagination of the world. But we know that democracy is always an unfinished creation. Each generation must renew its foundation. Each generation must rediscover the meaning of this hallowed vision in the light of its own challenges. For this generation, ours, life is nuclear. Liberty is human rights. The pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants. I like this unfinished creation. I was in Bucharest a couple of years ago and had to give a major address. And I talked a little bit about American politics and proverbs. And one of the students asked me afterwards, well, what is democracy really? My gosh, I'm not a political scientist. But you know, as a professor, you have to be quick on your feet to answer something, even if you don't know the answer. So I came up with this, to me, blatantly obvious statement. A little bit along the line of Jimmy Carter, democracy is always an unfinished creation. So I said democracy is a work in progress. I don't think they took a super brain to come up with that. But the audience just loved it. People clapped and I was like, what's going on here? I think in that little sentence, they somehow found like, yeah, I guess what I was basically saying is that democracy is not perfect. We're still working on it. And that's what I meant earlier by saying a little bit of humility. We don't have the perfect democracy in this country. Far from it. But it certainly is something to strive towards. So anyhow, Bill Clinton, I'm going to pass Bill, not out of any evilness, but Bill Clinton basically gives a history lesson. And I don't think we need this at this moment. But I want to get to Hillary. I would recommend reading Hillary's book, Hard Choices. I really enjoyed reading it, published in 2014. But I enjoy it for our talk today, for a little segment in that book, when she talks about, and some of you might remember that, although that's maybe pushing it a little bit. But anyhow, the United Nations General Assembly put out on December 10, 1948 a universal declaration of human rights. And Eleanor Roosevelt, a superlady, one of the best presidential First Ladies we've had, a great lady, was the driving force. And Hillary relates to what happened there at this declaration time. And she writes, they discussed these people on that committee. They discussed, they wrote, they revisited, revised, rewrote. They incorporate suggestions and revisions of governments, organizations, and individuals around the world. It is telling that even in the drafting of the Universal Declaration, there was a debate about women's rights. So it was still not basically saying, well, of course, the initial version, this is really great, once in a while you'll find something, you can use like I do today, but the first article stated, all men are created equal. Elizabeth, Katie Stanton, and Susan Bianchi are rolling over in their grave. It took women members of the commission, led by Hansa Mechter of India, to point out that all men might be interpreted to exclude women. We have to be linguistically fair here. I need to make that statement. Women who are created equal does not automatically exclude women. We can prove linguistically that men can include women. But we want things nowadays more direct and more specific. Same linguistic problems, by the way, with German as well. But anyhow, might be interpreted to exclude women. Of course it might be interpreted that way. She writes, was the language change to say all... Okay, what would you do? Would you pick all men and women are created equal? You would like to use humankind? I think I would have liked that, but they didn't choose that. Any other suggestions? People would be an obvious decision. They didn't choose that either. They chose all human beings are born. And interestingly enough, they go back to John Adams. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. I don't know which one we would... humankind, I think, might well be maybe the one we could settle on. But still, as you can see, they really worked on it. Well, you knew I was going to say something about Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King. I bought my book on King over there. I'm going to take a look at it. King... Look, he was a Baptist minister, trained in the Sermonic tradition of the South by his own father, smart man, PhD-earned, and... he used a lot of proverbs. Religious proverbs, folk proverbs. His two favorites were Love by Enemy, Solid Bible Proverbs, and Matthew 544. And he liked all men are created equal. Like many others. But those are the two that really stand out. Now, on March 12, 1958, he gave a sermon called The Christian Doctrine of Man. And he dealt with an A, meaning the collective human race. See, language is a complex system. Because we could immediately say, come on, Martin, why didn't you say The Christian Doctrine of Man and Women, right? But he figured we would understand that he means it inclusively. Anyhow, he had that Sermonic stroke of genius to have God talk through him to us. So he goes, he starts by saying, the God of this universe stands there in all of his love and forgiving power, saying. Now he's quoting God speaking to us. Come home, Western civilization. You have strayed away into the far country of colonialism and imperialism. You have taken one billion, 600 million of your brothers in Asia and Africa dominated them politically, exploited them economically, segregated and humiliated them. You have transplanted, you have trampled over them. And speaking to us, right? But Western civilization, if you will rise up now and come out of this far country of imperialism and colonialism and come on back to your true home, which is freedom and justice, I'll take you in. For God kind of giving us a break, you know? America. This is kind of me too. America. I had great intentions for you, says God. I had planned for you to be this great nation where all men would live together as brothers, a nation of religious freedom, a nation of racial freedom. And America, you wrote it in your Declaration of Independence. You meant well, for you cried out, all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unaliberites. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of heavens. But in the midst of your creed, America, you've strayed away to the far country of segregation and discrimination. You're taking 16 million of your brothers, trampled over them, mistreated them, inflicted them with tragic injustices and indignities. But America, I'm not going to give up on you. If you will rise up out of the far country of segregation and discrimination, I will take you in, America. And I will bring you back to your true home. I wonder, Martin Luther touches all of us. Martin Luther King, I better say. So, yeah, it was, I mean, to read, I read everything that Martin Luther King ever wrote. Also speeches, everything. It is, he was an artist. A linguist, par excellence. But conscious. He worked on it. Now, President Obama, in his, do you remember, I was kind of disappointed and I'm a real fan of Barack Obama, so you can see, I wrote this book called Yes We Can. But, remember when he was on his way to his inaugural address, he stopped in Baltimore, in Philadelphia. And I wish he hadn't done that. Because he basically gave his inaugural address, both at Baltimore and at Philadelphia. So when he finally gave it, it was, didn't come across, I don't think, as powerful as it should have. In fact, I'll make a little personal plea here. I wish, I don't know how you feel, but I can wait until our newest president gives his or her presidential address. I really don't need the pundits telling me, two days prior, what the president's going to say. I mean, that impatient. It takes, it takes the joy away from that incredible event. If the press is already discussing the pros and cons of what is being said. So that, I think is something we really, I think could maybe be a little bit more patient. Anyhow, here's what he said, the early patriots were willing to put all they were and all they had on the line. One of President Obama's favorite proverbial expression on the line. Their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for a set of ideals that continue to light the world. That all men are created equal. That our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness come not from our laws, but from our maker. And that our government of, he knows exactly what to say that our government of by and for the people can endure. It was these ideals that led us to declare independence and craft our constitution. Producing documents that were imperfect, but had within them, like our nation itself, the capacity to be made more perfect. And what's ringing in your head is the beginning of the constitution of the United States in order to make it a more perfect union. So, another part of the speech. We remain a young country, Obama says. But in the words of scripture, there's time has come to set aside childish things. That was great. A linguistic rhetorical clue there to say, put away childish things. Let's quit bickering about the Congress, for example. The time has come 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 created equal. Notice, he didn't use men. I think that was conscious too. That all are created equal. All are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. So, I think those are very, very uplifting statements. And I believe we are all aware of the fact that the President giving, again, his or her, one of these days, presidential inaugural addresses, it is expected from that particular speech that there is certainly a bit of American flag-waving and self-praise. But I think it is worthwhile to be a little bit careful with some of the exceptionalism thoughts that I mentioned earlier. Even in an inaugural address, I wouldn't be too quick to say that we are the greatest country in the world. It doesn't need to be said, you can think it. How about Bernie to wind up with? Bernie is just fine. Another good book to read is Our Revolution, a Future to Believe that Bernie wrote in 2016. I gave a speech about Bernie in Portugal last year. I received a hero welcome. People in Europe really, many people in Europe, really like Bernie Sanders. Remember, Western Europe are basically social democracies. So you shouldn't be at all surprised that Bernie's rhetoric was appealing for many reasons, but certainly in Europe. But listen to Bernie. Democracy is the right of a free people to control their destiny. Another beautiful short definition of democracy, really. Not kings or queens or sals, but ordinary people who come together in a peaceful manner in order to determine the future of their society. Democracy means that the government belongs to all of us and that it is our inherent right to protect people who will represent our interests. After all, this is what our Declaration of Independence proclaims when it profoundly states we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and so on. So basically then he uses the same type of language and one more statement from Bernie. The idea that all Americans are created equal, nicely put, all Americans are created equal and that all of us are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness according to the founders supposed to be self-evident truths. Then he probably made a bit of a break when he only presented this and said but those foundational notions about what this country is supposed to be all about are seriously imperiled by the grotesque level of wealth and income inequality that exists in America today. So he uses our proverb that we're talking about to point out that we might be able to solve some of our racial issues but we still have that tremendous economic split and the title of my talk in Portugal was Bernie has two favorite proverbs the one you can immediately think of enough is enough and if Bernie would listen to me I would say to Bernie, Bernie could enough is enough try not to use that anymore it gets a little bit tiring but the rich get richer and the poor get poorer that I think is the truth that is something that our country needs to watch you know so anyhow you can see how this one little short sentence is you know it is something we should aspire to we haven't by any means reached we haven't even talked about the gay community and all the rest right now we've only talked about black and white and women and men but there are many many other issues that really center around it what time is it getting to be okay so I brought a few slides if you would like to see how the proverb continues to live in well more humorous way in advertising and so on but of course you could also say what a shame in a way that this particular statement is reduced to advertising jingles and so on but I want to show you before we do that a couple of parodies anything that you and I use a lot silent nights, jingle bells proverbs eventually there's a tendency in us human beings to play with it to parody it to kind of make a little bit of a joke out of it a serious one but nevertheless the good one comes out of George Orwell's Animal Farm you remember Animal Farm 1945 I'll read you the short passage Benjamin never mind him for once Benjamin consented to break his rule and he read out to her what was written on the wall do you remember what was written on the wall you remembered there was nothing there now except a single commandment it ran all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than ours so Orwell was definitely parenting that look at Bernie, Bernie comes up with this in recent elections the concept of one person, one vote has been supplanted by the influence of big money the more money you have the more power you have some citizens participate in contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the politicians and parties of their choice most citizens contribute to money and do not vote to paraphrase Orwell some citizens are clearly a lot more equal than others he knows how to entertain I'll read you a few more all men are born free and equal but some of them grow up and get married good day, good for Valentine's Day all men are born equal but some of them outgrow it and think about these things outgrow it all men are created equal but necklines, waistlines and hemlines show that women are not all men are created equal especially twins all men are equal and the cynic thinks they are all equally bad well all men are born equal the tough job is to outgrow it and now it becomes serious in nuclear warfare in nuclear warfare all men are created equal that's not so nice I think I can do this in front of a public audience a grown audience in public hair baths all men are equal I'll let you think about that anyhow would you like to see a few slides? yes be patient enough okay Bob if we can turn the lights off the old man can bend down I think you'll enjoy this I think you'll enjoy this we can do this relatively quickly by the way I just want to show you so we basically know the proverb all men are created equal so what you can do with any proverb you simply take the key word and say x so all x are created equal that's our formula so now I can show you a whole battery of these that I've collected over the years all rates are not created equal right here from the Burlington savings bank that doesn't exist anymore I still remember buying my mortgage there all Canadians are not created equal so you can see the advertising people have fun with it all pickups are not created equal so all Steinways let me see if I can this is going to annoy you maybe we can let me stand here yeah all maintenance free batteries are not this is almost silly all razors all beers are not created equal right all shampoos are not created equal if you see them in a series like that it's almost ridiculous I know that all chemicals all hotels all feet all sacrilegious now we get all feet are not created equal those picture I hope you don't mind this one a smaller condom because all men are not created equal I think it was kind of an ingenious ad using those what do you call those fruit galls this one is funny too I mean this is a fruit of the loom underwear it is getting into ladies underwear so they say fruit of the looms ladies panties because women was created equal but different and then they get into the spiel about that panties come in feminine styles fabric soft pistol colors that are all so different from our men's briefs but they are created equal to quality value comfort and long lasting you can get them as briefs hipsters and bikinis what else you know about women's underwear so they had some fun with it all glass is not created equal all gold so you can see the proverb is not just in political rhetoric but it plays a role in our community Professor Meier what is your technique in drawing out of the cyber universe these particular creative themes how nice of you to ask this I'll quickly digress I started at UVM in 1971 and I began to collect things like this magazines I would go to various dentist doctors office and said can I have the old magazines when you're done and I leafed through them cut them out kept them and I have ten thousand slides like this you were fixated excuse me you were fix on the price created no that's only one of them I could come and do the same for others government of the people I could show you slides like that but you can see it takes a lot of time to collect stuff like that but it's you say fixed my wife says obsessed so a folklorist part of a folklorist is that you collect you know you can tell I really started all of this for my students because let's just say I teach a class on folklore in advertising how can a student in the matter of 1314 semester weeks collect all this stuff so you could come to me and say you know Professor Neeter I always wondered about that proverb that plays such a big role in Robert Frost's poem Mending Wall Good Fences Make Good Neighbors remember 1914 I could say well all right look I've already collected a number of poem poems that deal with this problem but I also have by chance about 25 cartoons comic strips advertisements I can give all of that to you and you done can go home and see what you can make out of it that's what started it anyhow thank you for that question so we have all axis are created equal all we can have the other formula not all men are created equal we can do this relatively fast all three had cassette decks are created equal not all dads are created equal sky is the limit really not all electrical distributors are creating this one I never have understood what the apples have to do with created with electrical distributors not clear to me but remember advertisements want your attention the fact that they're playing with a formula that you know as you flip through the magazine you might just stop and then you're supposed to read that of course not all colleges are created equal to Lincoln not all stereo phones are created equal this is the last one but this is a beautiful one and I'm so proud it happens to become come from my beloved UVM so what UVM was doing is they were advertising for summer trips that you could take and it's important to know that one of the study trips was to Gettysburg so there was a reason why when I first saw this I said well what is silly thing to do with Lincoln and the Gettysburg address but it was done on purpose to advertise for the study trip but look for score in seven years ago and then you can see that our phrase is right here the proposition that all men are created equal so I think this was maybe an effective effective advertisement if you caught on to it what was being done well that's it so let me just say a couple more things maybe I really I really have enjoyed your enjoyed your appreciate your question you could ask me after I shut my mouth in two seconds you could ask me say you know Wolfgang I've always wondered where does this particular proverb come from pick anyone any you wish if I'm lucky if I'm lucky I happen to have written a book on it or an article and you know I have a little trick when a journalist does that to me and let's just say they ask whatever proverb I know it of course but I have never worked on it then I can always quickly say yes but you know I have this other one that is much more interesting but each proverb can really become its own research project how old is don't judge a book by its cover really let me play a trick with you how old do you think the proverb is a dog is man's best friend if you had to take a guess did it exist in the middle ages does it go all the way back to classical antiquity as many proverbs do is it in the bible I think I can go home I'm not mean it this is what makes all of this fun you can in a way you can reason it out you're absolutely right a dog was a working animal or a wild beast more or less they happen to be running around so a dog was not man's or women's best friend was used for hunting purposes in cages and so on so you're right basically around mid 19th century yeah he's going to ask that proverb that I know nothing about watch him all good things come in three I can tell you now I'm not I'm not am I'm am I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm that brought me to it. It's sort of windy stuff, even Nathan's model is for it. And so they're talking in a different level of the stratosphere when they arrayed to a micro-former audience of 10,000. So there are two networks that I am talking about. Europe, professorial, and a rather extensive. But standing outside of all of that, is a type of rhetoric which proverbs are. And maybe you'll come again and talk just about proverbs and put forward speech. I'll respond to it quickly. If you need it, a quick working definition for proverbs. There are hundreds of definitions for proverbs, by the way, from complex to simple. I'll give you a wonderful one that I use all the time as a working definition. The proverb is a concise statement, has to be short, a concise statement. Now comes importantly of an apparent truth of something that is not always true, but many times. Proverbs are not universal truths. Remember, out of sight, out of mind, and absence makes a hard groove on that. So proverbs are not a philosophical system, but rather proverbs are apparent truths. They fit, and when they fit, we use them. And if they don't fit, we use another one. So a proverb is a concise statement of an apparent truth. And now comes one very, very important part, which has currency. In other words, it has to be known by a group of people. Not necessarily the whole United States, not necessarily all of UVM, but maybe the snowboarders. The snowboarders all know, go big or go home. So it's a, we know this. It's a proverb that started about 20 years ago out of the snowboarding folk group. It is becoming more and more a general American proverb. But the thing with proverbs to get to your real point, proverbs are, I'm gonna use three fancy words and then I'll quit. Proverbs are multi-semantic. Now those proverbs can have more than one meaning. Proverbs are multi-situational. Proverbs appear in all kinds of places. Politics, Shakespeare, Robert Frost, snowboarding, you name it. And they are multi-functional. You can use a proverb with your grandchild to teach her a lesson. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. There you have an old-fashioned educational didactic use of that proverb. But a humorist or a cartoonist can twist it around and use it in an absolutely ridiculous way. So proverbs are absolutely not simple. And you can play with them in addition to it. Thank you all for coming.