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Dave Gearhart: Gerald B. Jordan. In recognition in the distinction you have brought to the
University of Arkansas and your significant impact on the state of Arkansas, the nation
and the world, the University of Arkansas proudly bestows upon you the Silas Hunt Legacy
Award. Congratulations. Gerald B. Jordan: Wow. Lee Bodenhamer, Julian
Stewart, Lewis Epley, asked me if I was going to make a speech. They said "Well you're a
journalist." I said, "well no, we cover speeches. We don't make speeches." I did make a few
notes that I'm going to give to Dr. Robinson and ask him to read them. Thank you. Thank
you all so, so very much and Mike, thank you for that gracious introduction.
As you all can see from the video, I take this honor quite seriously. In fact, I'm sorry
that vice president Biden isn't here tonight to express in blunt terms just how I feel
about this occasion. I'm so flattered, so flattered that the committee would select
me, more flattered to be included in the company of my distinguished fellow honorees, and most
flattered to follow the inaugural class of Silas Hunt honorees. What a time.
Now a time when I worked at the Boston Globe, I learned this. A time is an occasion that
Boston war healers used when they're honoring one of their old pals. It also frequently
coincides with when they're trying to get rid of someone. I recall from my Globe days
that one character would say, why don't we just give him a time and say goodbye to him?
Well, let me say how much I truly appreciate this time although I hope it's not goodbye.
My thank you list is so long that I'm reluctant to call names but Senator Pryor, please tell
Barbara that my peeps are in the house again tonight and for that I am filled with joy
and appreciation. There's one person here who's known me all my life, two people who've
known me all their lives, and of course my wife has been with me for half my life, and
family I'm so grateful to your being here tonight and friends, classmates, my goodness
there are a room full of people here who know my secrets. I guess beyond gratitude I should
look at this dear, dear honor as a mark of achievement. Those persons of faith will understand
me when I talk about the afterlife and I stake no claim to a place in glory but I do hold
fast to Randall Ferguson's heeding that one day we'll face our ancestors and they're going
to ask us what did you do with your freedom? So with great pride of accomplishment, I'll
tell them that I learned to read, and to write, and it was legal. I'll tell them that I graduated
from the university that they couldn't fathom or even dream of entering and it was challenging.
I'll tell them I voted and nobody clubbed my head as I entered or left the polls. And
one day when the votes were counted, I'll tell them that we elected a man whose father
was Kenyan and whose mother was Kansan and it was amazing. I'll tell them that I wrote
for some big city newspapers and it was a blast. I'll tell them that I taught the progeny
of those with whom we once were told we couldn't drink the same water, we couldn't ride on
the same bus, we couldn't dine in the same restaurants, we couldn't live in the same
neighborhoods. I taught their progeny and it was just.
Thank you Silas Hunt committee for making all that possible. Thank you Silas Hunt for
what you did in paving the way for us. Thank you all for tonight.