Center For Energy Education Honoring Martin Luther King Center For Energy Education Honoring Martin Luther King Center For Energy Education Honoring Martin Luther King 2025 Community Service Program Thursday, January 16, 2025 Show Transcript and then some that did vote they voted against the principles of what we said and we still report in our community we talk about the voter Rights Act we have to see it all in a perspective that collaborates everything because we still have people out there that you still did not go and work there are so many left on the road so I'll stop right there I'm good man I'm I could help somebody as I Trail below if I could help somebody with the word or a song still I could help somebody as I travel then my living will not be in b then my living will not be in vain then my living will not be in vain if I could help somebody as I Trail below then my living your living our living will not be in way to prove employment discrimination so opening up doors of opportunity for people to get jobs and and I said that that's the kind of lawyer I want to be and so when Mel Watkins up to my where I was in law school recruiting for the law firm in Charlotte I was right there I was like yes let me come and do this kind of work um sadly like Jewish Chambers the my career was not able to advance the law on civil rights instead almost all the battles I thought were to try to prevent re retrenchment trying to prevent moving the law backwards and I was only a little bit successful um so so I talked a little bit earlier maybe I'll do here about you know we we've lost the protections of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act um we have also lost the large degree the protections of of the rest of the Voting Rights Act um you know we have a Justice on the US Department of course you think it's the entire Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional um and has been and there are federal courts now that have um entertained the notion that individuals should will not be able to file lawsuits on the motor attack all of these are examples of ways in which your rights and your ability to enforce those rights to equally participate in the political process that's what the Voting Rights Act is about those have been cut back and for the last 8 and a half months you all have made me feel a part of the community and everything I just want to say thank you for that by definition for community service is hero because my dissertation study was on the segregation of schools and I interviewed an African-American principal and a white principal that did the right thing and their family were put in imminent Peril 1 had a uh a weapon shot missed the baby in The Carriage only by engines they were uh thought against by people of their own ethnicity and others they were standing on an island all by themselves but they're 1 thing was is that we've got to make we've got to make this right and you know a definition of a hero is a ordinary person Hood into an extra ordinary situation and doing the right thing and the whole time I interviewed you in these guys yeah because I went to school in the 70s and the 80s and I was blessed to be able to go to a school that had a large African-American population go along so I was able to have that interaction learn learn from each other and I'm sitting there thinking I will never have to face the challenges that these 2 gentlemen had to face instead what I've seen the last 20 years is everything that those gentlemen fought for slowly to come eroded we can't have that happen and the only way we can stop that from happening is we have got to invest in our vegetables our kids they are seeds right now and we have to nurture them for 13 years we you got teachers to do that we've got principles we've got people in the community but we've all got to come together my definition of community service for welding City Schools would be for you to come and help us be that person that that child when they see you out in public they came to my school they read a book to me they talk to me at lunch they told me a story about you know the history of this area you have 1 of the most successful boycotts during the Civil Rights Movement for schools happened right down there at Hyde County teach that history value 1 another when I walked in in there you know I'm retired I could be sitting at home enjoying that check once a month you know but I'll tell you every time that I start coming up 95 or 158 can't do it on track I start getting that that just overwhelming urge for service you know in rotor we say service above self and it is so true yes give everything that you have I asked you to please come to welcome City schools and Halifax County schools and run up rapid schools and give us everything that you have to help nurture our children they will remember you and that's the best form of community service that you can do for our children continue to set me up for success I need your partnership where crime is committed 99.9% of the time law enforcement is not there we need you and we need the community to assist us and tell us what happened we not only need you to tell us what happened but we also need you to take part in the process of bringing Justice to whoever the victim may be because people tell us stuff all the time but don't put my name in it I ain't coming to court when he tell me that you saw something and then you refuse to come tell the judges it doesn't go anyway we put a lot of resources in it but it it doesn't go anywhere so we need you to continue to move forward we need these Partnerships and we need to build this on our community because I push positive stuff with law enforcement in our community all the time so I know my time is short so I want to say this don't make people are enemy before we can make them our friends 16 days district court judge for judicial district 7 I had about 6 minutes is worth the speech I'm cutting it to 3 so what community service means to be from a Judicial perspective for us community service looks like alternative sentencing which is an opportunity for people to pay back their debts to society without being so heavy-handed in our judgments particularly when dealing with the first time offenders and juveniles after all I think we would all agree that we all want to have first-time offenders to be last time offenders so allowing them to perform community service adds an additional layer of connection between our courts and the community additionally community service from a traditional standpoint looks like taking the time to pursue funding for specialty courts and problem solving courts such as our current team courts throughout the district and our drug courts including our very own Halifax accountability and Recovery Court which I am extremely proud of and that is for people who are trying to recover from years of substance use and they're trying to do exactly what we do every day and we take for granted and that is to show up for their families and be productive citizens Community Service for us looks like engaging in expungement clinics exponent expungement have a direct economic impact because of the ability of a citizen to get their low-level non-violent record cleaned and then be able to get their foot in the door of our local uh jobs and businesses reverses that pipeline to and turns it into an interstate of opportunity and finally when time does not permit judicial officials because normally I wouldn't be able to be here until the time does not permit us to leave that Courthouse service looks like bringing the community to us in fact for the last 16 years I've prided myself on being able to go out into the schools and preside over and administer the old board and since the SGA um in our local schools I don't have the time to do that now as Chief so guess what next month we're bringing them to us so we have local schools who are coming in the SGA offices have been elected and they're going to have their ceremony at the courthouse so community service means a lot of things from the judicial perspective um but I will end by saying as Shirley Chisum and all of the other greats who repeated it after her says service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth right so this great day of service let's commit to keeping our rent paid thank you thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts on what community service means to me as the executive director of the Ella Baker educational project of North Carolina my life work is deeply rooted in social justice human rights and ensuring that our youth have resources and opportunities they need to secure their futures of late I've been drawn to the power of cooperatives as a transformative tool for underserved communities to meet their needs whether it's access to Goods services or even opportunities for economic empowerment cooperatives remind us that people not profit should come first for me community service is about showing up as individuals using our capacity expertise and willingness to share for the benefit of