‘We must get comfortable being uncomfortable’
SOUTH BEND – In her keynote speech for South Bend’s 38th annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, Kimberly Esmond Adams reflected back on her days as a Notre Dame law student in trying to capture the ceremony’s theme: “Keep the Dream of Peace Alive: Don’t Let It Die.”
“Among his many teachings, Dr. King eloquently explained to us that peace is not simply the absence of conflict, but the existence of justice for all people,” said Adams, who’s in her fourth term as a judge on the Superior Court of Fulton County in the Atlanta Judicial Circuit, one of the busiest circuits in the U.S.
“Simply put, we must get comfortable being uncomfortable. …,” she said. “Recognize that members of minority communities want the very same things for themselves and their children that white Americans want for themselves and their children. And be very clear that institutional and structural racism is alive and well and continues to thwart progress and upward mobility of minority people in every hamlet, town, city and state comprising these United States.”
More than 800 people attended the Monday ceremony despite the subzero morning temperatures that infiltrated the banquet hall at Century Center in downtown South Bend.
Among the highlights were that the Rev. John Jenkins, who in October announced that this will be his last semester as president of the University of Notre Dame, received the keys to the cities of South Bend and Mishawaka from South Bend Mayor James Mueller and Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood.
An annual community service award created in honor of Roland Kelly, a South Bend Common Council member and former news anchor who died in 2007, was given to Elizabeth Bennion, a political science professor at Indiana University South Bend. Bennion teaches American politics and is the director of IUSB’s American Democracy Project, which hosts debates among local candidates for municipal office.