 the station and the comforter is gone. They'll be weeping and awaiting. No light will be found because the one who shed the light has gone and loved us. Sheds his clothes into a new bangle, heavenly red knows the end of song. Comforter is gone. Bangle, heavenly red. Being in such beautiful music, we all really, really appreciate it. Music and singing for the soul. I'm really excited to be here with you and the Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center which has, as its mission, really an essential mission, to increase awareness and provide opportunities to celebrate, promote, and support cultural diversity within our community. We need that now more than we've ever needed it. And everyone who is here, I know shares the goal that is the commitment of the Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center. You know, we're going to be hearing from Dr. Dyson and I, of course, have seen him and read some of his articles and commentaries. And he's an extraordinary person and in some ways carries on the legacy of Dr. King. You know, he's got a Princeton PhD, but he grew up on the streets and he has the wisdom that comes with study and he has the wisdom that comes from growing up on the streets. And he combines the two. And he's a voice who is called on all of us, in myself, very, very much included, to challenge the forces of unconscious, white privilege and implicit bias. You know, each of us has to look within our own heart and soul to understand what it is we don't understand and to try to appreciate and understand the experience of others who haven't had the opportunities that everyone is entitled to. And for all of us in our daily lives to acknowledge the terrible toll, the terrible toll that generations of oppression, 250 years of slavery, more, followed by over 100 years of Jim Crow, to a current country, the richest in the world, where the poverty rate for African Americans is double, more than double, that of white Americans. That doesn't happen just by accident. It's not a combination of policies that grind away at the heart and soul and the opportunity of people who want to work hard and make good communities and make themselves the best they can possibly be. But it's also a complacency that sometimes is the result of people, especially ones who are better off, not having a vivid awareness of some of those forces that are out there holding other of our neighbors and our friends in our community back. You know, and today Martin Luther King is a special day. It's, I met Martin Luther King when I was 20 years old. I was working in a community organization in the west side of Chicago. I grew up in a white Irish neighborhood. And we went with some of the neighbor kids and two buses down to Atlanta for the SCLC convention. And I remember pulling into Atlanta and these two buses and the leader of the group, the African American man who was our leader, he wanted to see Martin Luther King. So he had the two buses pull up to his house. And he went in, we sat out and waited, and he came back out. But then we all went to the Ebenezer Baptist Church. And this was an incredible experience for a young Irish Catholic from Springfield, Massachusetts. Because in that church, and I went to Catholic Church, and you know, we don't have singing like we just heard. And we don't have singing like I heard in the Ebenezer Baptist Church. And we didn't have preaching like I heard in the Ebenezer Baptist Church. And the first preacher was Hosea Williams. And I'd never heard anything like that. I never heard anything like it. I said, what's happening now? And then this man named Ralph Abernathy came out. And I said, wait. And I never heard anything like that. And then Martin Luther King himself came to the podium. And I was up in the balcony. And he preached as only Martin Luther King could preach. And I was just overwhelmed by everything, really. And I was unaware of the struggles. I knew it in an abstract way. And I was working in the west side of Chicago, where there was brutal housing discrimination, where African American families who'd come up from the south wanted to get a toehold in the economy. And they'd get some decent jobs, but in order to buy a house, they had to pay twice what a white family had to pay. They couldn't get a mortgage. So they had to buy it on contract. And on the contract, they had to pay twice the interest rate that you'd pay if you got a mortgage. And under this contract, if you missed a payment after four or five years, you lost the house. The man came in and took your house away. That was legal. That was the law. And, you know, I had grown up in Springfield, Mass. I had no idea that this was going on. And of course, the narrative is in that neighborhood, which was having real challenges, people didn't care about it. But, you know, I lived there for two years. People cared. The difference was, in order to make that mortgage payment, they had to work two jobs, sometimes three. And if something happened, you know, a wife or husband got sick, one of the kids had an accident, and you were a little short at the end of the month, you could lose your house and you did. And how did that happen? That had nothing to do with how hard people worked. It had to do with the federal government would not insure mortgages in that neighborhood, redlined, off limits. It had to do with because banks decided it didn't matter what your credit worthiness was. It didn't matter how long you had held that job. It didn't matter that when you did the numbers, you could pay the mortgage. We're not giving a mortgage in that neighborhood. That's off limits. That was the legacy that, that's what makes this happen. It's not an accident. And Martin Luther King faced this every single day. And he made a decision, and this is the part that was so extraordinary to me even this day. Now just tell a little story about the end of his preaching. He, you know, I was, all of us were overwhelmed and the church emptied. And I was with three or four people and we lingered. And then after everything had quieted down, I saw that Martin Luther King and some of his aides went upstairs and some cameras followed. And Martin Luther King was giving a press conference to denounce the war in Vietnam. And I remember being puzzled. Why would the civil rights leader with such prominence and such focus and such commitment to the civil rights of African Americans, why would he be diverted to get involved in a very controversial debate at that time? And he was way ahead of his time about the injustice of the war in Vietnam. And in my youth and lack of judgment, I actually thought he was quote wrong because it would take away from his civil rights activities. But I've come to see how he was right because injustice anywhere was injustice everywhere, where he made the connections between what was going on in foreign policy with what was going on in Laundale, which is the neighborhood I worked in, that was denying opportunity, that he understood that most of those kids who were going off to war, their main qualification was that they were poor and could be drafted and they couldn't go to college or pay to get some kind of deferment. And that comprehensive approach that Martin Luther King had that I think our country has come to appreciate those of us who want to make this a much better and more just society. He had that in him and he couldn't stop himself if he saw injustice he spoke out against it. And of course, the other thing that was so astonishing I think to anybody when I look back about it and I see the horrible fractious politics sometimes that are so on display now, every single day he faced the prospect of real violence directed at him. And the combination of having to go through a day where your safety was imperiled, where you didn't know whether you're going to be able to get home that night and tuck your kids in, he had four kids, where you didn't know whether you'd be able to say goodbye to your wife. And he would every single day embrace that day and keep marching forward. And not only did he do that, but those hostile feelings and the hatred that he experienced where he was being attacked because he stood for justice for African Americans. And it was too much to handle for so many people in our country. And of course, he'd been in that bus boycott. He'd seen Bull Connor. He'd seen dogs turned loose. He'd seen my colleague in Congress who's an inspiration to all of us, John Lewis, get beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Every single day he faced that, but he had this incredible, incredible heart and commitment to loving his neighbor. How is it that a person has the strength to endure the rampant anger that comes out of nowhere that has nothing to do with what the person who's being hated has done? And in fact, that person, in the person Dr. Martin Luther King, everything he had done was generous and loving. But how, when you're on the receiving end of all that, everything from insults to physical attacks to the FBI illegally wiretapping and sending you secretly a letter saying your days are numbered, but you maintain a capacity to be really connected and loving to the people in your life and the people that you're leading. And whenever I get discouraged at the state of politics or my own limitations or the mistakes I made, it's really my memory of that man and how no matter what he faced, now how matter how repetitive it was, he had an enormous capacity to act out of love. And we really saw that, of course, with that extraordinary address he made with his I Have a Dream speech. So I am so glad to be here with you and especially in this time, you know, we just got, we just are opening up government and just think about what the fight has been about. It's about whether we build a wall when it should be, how do we break down the walls of separation. We should be talking about the bridges that will connect us, not the barriers that will divide us. And this is a very difficult time in our country, but if any of us have doubts about the need to move ahead and why we should, let's remember this man, Martin Luther King, he didn't do it because there was a guaranteed success at the end of his struggle. He was well aware that the struggle that he was pursuing might ultimately end as it did with him being assassinated. But he knew that however it ended, he knew that whenever it ended, each day that he had on this earth, each breath that he could take was going to be a breath for freedom. It was going to be a breath for solidarity. It was going to be a breath for love. So thank you so much for allowing me to be here in the guide for us these last three weeks in Congress when we've been fighting this horrible wall fight with our diverse caucus was to recognize the diversity is our strength and unity is our power. And let's all of us when we leave be unified, strong in our diversity, in our commitment to what we learned from Martin Luther King. Thank you very much. Thank you representative Welsh for your very kind message this afternoon. Let us give representative Welsh yet another round of applause. I would like to start off by thanking our musicians Vivian Dean, singer and Nancy Hinston who so generously agreed to come and perform for us at very short notice with Dan Bishop on bass and Andrew Moraz on piano. Thank you. Ms. Susan Sussman is here this afternoon representing Senator Leahy. Please stand, Senate. And Kate Farley is here representing Senator Sanders. Now you know in my 25 years this is about the third that Senator Sanders has missed. He was always present. So I have some not so good news. Our keynote speaker this afternoon is still in transit. He left Chicago this morning at around six a.m. to Charlotte and then on to Washington and I got a text from him that he's delayed. So I'm not sure he's going to make it in here in time to address you this afternoon. Every year we recognize community members who have done outstanding work in our community in their effort to embrace diversity. And this afternoon we will recognize two of those community leaders. The first one is Christine Kemp Longmore. And I now invite Adeline Robertson to do the citation to Christine. And after Adeline has done the citation, our new new deputy chief who most of you haven't met, he is here representing our chief, Brandon Del Poso, who unfortunately couldn't be here this afternoon. So I'll ask Chief Deputy Chief Mirad, John Mirad to do the presentation of the Adeline. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Adeline Robertson. Hello to all those that I know and don't know. I'm here thanking Patrick for his numerous years of doing the MLK. Let's just say thank you to Patrick for all his hard work. Thank you, Patrick. We need to give you an award, Patrick. You deserve it. Just saying my opinion. But right now I'm going to present the award. I'm going to give you a background for Christine Kemp Longmore. She's also a good friend of mine from my sister church, Christine Kemp Longmore. Christine Kemp in 2005 co-founder of Uncommon Alliances, a grassroots organization led by steering committees of racial and ethnic minority workers toward dismantling racial and ethnic profiling in law enforcement. A Chidman County effort that resulted in the first traffic data collection project in Vermont with four local police departments and justice systems officers who met regularly with community members and began the statewide race data collection. And then in 2011, she received the IACP, which is the International Association of Chiefs of Police Civil Rights Award for Burlington Police Department under the leadership of Chief Michael Shorlin. And then in 2015, Mrs. Longmore appointed to the Burlington Police Commission of Services as chair until 2018 after completing a three-year term. In 2016, she joined the Board of Directors Justice for All in Vermont State Police, Fair and Impartial Policing Committee. In 2016, she joined the Racial Justice Reform Collision Agency as a member. 2016, she co-founded with her daughter Jada the Catholic Community Council of Accountability with law enforcement officers based on the model of uncommon alliances. A grassroots effort led by a steering committee made up largely, but not exclusively, of racial and ethnic minority. In 2017, she was appointed chair by T.J. Donovan, our very own, Vermont Attorney General's advisory panel on racial disparities in the juvenile and criminal justice system of Vermont, three-year term. And in 2018, she was the recipient of the 2017 Ken Schwartz Award, City of Burlington for exemplary commitment to restorative justice, community-based responses to crime and conflict and preventing recidivism. Thank you for your service, Christine Kemp-Lawar. Give her a round of applause. Thank you, and thank you, Deputy Chief Mered for doing the presentation. Thank you, Ed Lyne. So, the next presentation is the Shal Dorr, who will be presented with his award by Mr. Don Baker, who's the president of Key Bank, and now also president of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce. And this is going to be the citation is by Tato, and Tato is one of the shining lights. She was just appointed to the board of the Howard Center for Human Services and is one of the leaders of the Association of Africans Living in Vermont. Good afternoon, everyone. As Patrick said, my name is Tato Razave, and I work for the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, where we help all the refugees and immigrants who get resettled in our state to settle in Vermont in their new home. This afternoon I have a pleasure of introducing Shal Dorr. Shal is the founder and executive director of the Sudanese Foundation of Vermont, otherwise known as the SUT Fund Incorporated, a nonprofit organization established in 2016. Its mission is to support new American families and their children to succeed academically and athletically in Vermont. Shal is also the president of Sudanese community in Vermont. Shal is also the manager of the Nile Soccer and Basketball Academy, a soccer and basketball mentoring program for Chittenden County's new American children. Its mission is to promote a healthy lifestyle through sports. As the manager of academy, Shal oversees fundraising efforts to support the mentoring programs, provide college scholarships, and run the Nile Athletic Academy. Through partnership with Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Rock Point Camp, and the Vermont Folklife Center, Shal has worked to secure full scholarships for new American children to attend summer camps and participate in other recreational activities. Prior to coming to Vermont in 2007, Shal lived 12 years in a refugee camp in Kenya. He fled the civil war in his home of Sudan, now called South Sudan. In 2011, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Vermont, where he was a McNair scholar. And he also was awarded the Merrage Foundation Scholarship for the American Dream in honor of Vermont's former Governor Madeleine Kennan. Shal serves on a number of boards in Vermont, including Spectrum Youth and Family Services and formerly the Vermont State Health Assessment Committee. Most recently, Shal was appointed by Mayor Weinberger of Wellington to serve on the Community Development and Block Grant Advisory Board. It is my pleasure to introduce Shal to you. Thank you, Shal, and thank you, Mr. Don Baker, for presenting this award. I would like at this time to acknowledge Dr. Wanda Heading Grant, Vice President for Human Resources, Diversity, and Multicultural Affairs at the University of Vermont, and she is also, she's a regular attendee of these programs, but today she's representing President Tom Sullivan and Leslie Black Sullivan. Please stand and be acknowledged. Today, we remember the great civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King. In 1963, when Dr. King delivered his I Have a Dream speech to that gathering at the Lincoln Memorial, not only did he speak to the hearts of African Americans who struggled for the rights of American citizens, but he also spoke to the hearts of all his countrymen. We're therefore thankful to those of you who come year after year to these celebrations and remembrance of the late civil rights leader, those of you who stood with us in the past and those who will stand with us in the future. We're here today not only because of the past out of which we have emerged, but because of the present that we serve. Let us continue to, in solidarity, to remember the work and the legacy of the late civil rights leader. Let us embrace each other. Let us ask ourselves what kind of world do we want to live in? Do we want to live in a world that's characterized by peace, justice, and equity? In order to have a world characterized by peace, we must have a world characterized by justice. In order to have a world characterized by justice, we must have a world characterized by equity. And how do we do this? By coming together, by remembering, by celebrating. I thank you for being here today and we look forward to seeing you next year as we remember Dr. King. I very much regret that our keynote has not made it and so I turn over to our wonderful musicians again. Thank you.