Dr. Fulani, thank
you for that lovely introduction.
Welcome to all of
you. Not many people ever visit a federal
courthouse. That
is because many people don't ever become
involved in legal
cases and of those that do, the federal court system
handles less than
10% of the legal cases filed in the entire country.
Most cases are
heard in state courts.
Despite their
smallness in numbers, federal cases have a great
impact in that our
courts hear national and international
constitutional,
commercial and criminal cases. This very
Courthouse or our
other courthouse next door, the Thurmond
Marshall
Courthouse, are the sites of cases you are reading about
every day in the
newspapers like Worldcom, Enron, Martha
Stewart, and the
World Trade Center bombings.
Article III of
the Constitution establishes the federal judiciary. It
requires that
federal judges be appointed for life tenure and prohibits
Congress from
ever reducing our salaries. Federal judges are
nominated by the
President and confirmed by the Senate.
The federal
system has three tiers of courts. The first level is
the district
courts which are our trial courts. The US District Court
for the Southern
District of NY, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx
and all the
northern counties short of Albany, shares this building
with my Circuit
Court. The second tier, the circuit courts, hear the
appeals of losing
parties in the district courts. The Second Circuit
has under its
jurisdiction, six district courts scattered throughout
NY, Connecticut
and Vermont. The third tier is the highest court in
the nation, the
Supreme Court. The Supreme Court hears only
about 80 cases a
year from around the country so circuit courts are
considered the
courts of last resort for most parties who have lost
below.
I am personally
delighted that you are celebrating your
DSY graduation in
my Courthouse. You see, I come from a
background very
similar to most of you. I grew up in a South
Bronx housing
project, the child of first generation immigrant
Puerto Ricans to
NYC. My dad died when I was nine. He never
graduated from
3rd grade. There were no lawyers or judges in my
family. I was the
first of two generations of cousins raised in New
York City to
graduate from college.
For my family,
the only exposure we had to courts was when one of
us was arrested.
Needless to say, that experience did not lend itself
to a positive
view of courts. Your parents are not going to like
what I am about
to tell you but television was good for my
development as a
child. I learned about lawyering and how much
good it could do
as a profession from the first show on television
about a lawyer,
Perry Mason. Perry Mason was a defense attorney
who always proved
that his client was innocent. I also loved and
love reading, and
reading led me to understand that the world was
much bigger and
had many more choices than the ones I saw in my
everyday life as
a child. So, at age 10,1 dreamed about graduating
from college and
law school and even fantasized about becoming a
judge.
Well, as you
have heard from Dr. Fulani, I have lived my
dreams and more.
I love my work. I wake up each morning excited
about what I do.
I have a voice in interpreting laws that profoundly
affect people's
lives. I admire my profession for all the good it has
and continues to
do. The law and courts do not just prosecute people
for crimes. We
resolve disputes people do not manage among
themselves; we
protect the legal rights of individuals and
organizations -
poor and rich. The work of courts has even
changed the
course of history. For example, 50 years ago and a
month before I
was bom, the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of
Education, ended
legal segregation in the educational system in the
US. That decision
obviously changed the course of my life and that
of everyone in
this room.
I have found
great satisfaction through my work but it is
not the measure
of my success. I consider myself successful
because I have
lived my life with the dearest and most giving of
family and
friends. They have taught and guided me, opened doors
for me, shared
their advice and their success with me. They have
created my life
with me. Sharing and creating my life with loving
and good people
should have been the true dream of my childhood.
I am glad to say
that it is the dream and reality of my adulthood.
There are some
people who are born with silver spoons
in their months.
That is lovely for them. Most of us are not. I
understand that
DSY has taught you that we are all born with the
ability to take
charge of our own lives and to create the people we
want to become.
DSY has also taught you that you are born with
the ability to
let others work with you in creating a better world for
all of us. It has
taken me most of my life, and sometimes painful
mistakes, to
appreciate these lessons. It is wonderful you are
learning these
valuable lessons so early in your lives.
We all have to
work hard to perform our lives, however. Nothing
comes without
rehearsal and practice but sharing the creation of
who you are
becoming with families and friends eases the process a
whole lot. I hope
that as you leave the formal part of the DSY
program that you
do not forget its lessons. I hope you hold on to the
memory of each
time you have performed in this program and felt
good about
yourself and about the group you have been a part of.
Keep that memory
alive each time you feel down or discouraged.
Let that memory
fuel you to try again and seek advice whenever
things do not go
right the first, second or endless times it won't.
Success does not
ever come easy but continued effort does pay off.
Look around you.
Look at me. Look at Dr. Fulani and Pam Lewis.
Look at all of
the people who have led you in workshops. These
can be your
lives. Dream them; then work hard to make them real.
Keep hope alive
each day and you will make your life wonderfully
fun and
meaningful no matter the obstacles you face. If you do this,
it is my
expectation that someday I will be in an audience listening
to you talk about
how much you love your life. By the way, when
one of you gets
to the Supreme Court or the academy awards, invite
me so I can be in
the audience.
I will be here
after tonight's ceremony. I want to meet
more of you and
talk to you. Come up and say hello or ask
questions if you
have any. I am truly delighted you are here and
very glad my
Courthouse can host such an important event in your
lives. Thank you
for coming.