Thank you all very much.
It really is a great pleasure to be with you this morning and to join you in paying tribute to the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I appreciate all of you who've come out today to this event as well as those who can participate though our internal television network.
Let me also thank Bill Grimmette for his inspirational reenactment of some important moments in Dr. King's life. While no one, of course, can completely recapture Dr. King's moral seriousness and ability to touch our hearts, Bill has come about as close as we could hope to portraying Dr. King's life for us.Thank you Bill for coming to the Department today.
It is always a great pleasure for me to take part in events like this. It gives me a chance to speak directly to my fellow DOE employees and, in this case, to help the Department recognize and honor a great American.
One thing that I've noticed since September 11 is how the horrible events of that day have strengthened our unity as a country and made it clearer than ever that we are all Americans. Immediately after the attacks, and even now at more than three months distance, we all feel a sense that we need to pull together and work together in a way that we might not have felt so clearly before.
Harmony, unity, and pulling together â?¦ weren't these really the lessons that the great teacher Martin Luther King delivered throughout his life? Maybe it sometimes takes a September 11 to remind us of the American motto that Dr. King believed in so deeply - "Out of many, one."
Although we are a diverse nation â?¦ and gather enormous strength from our diversity â?¦ we also know as Dr. King taught us, "we cannot walk alone." Freedom denied to one group of Americans harms all Americans.To be a great nation we have to live up to our great principles. To be a strong nation, we have to be a unified nation.
So I think about Martin Luther King when I think of September 11 because as we acted our best during and after that tragedy we really fulfilled his dream for this country. Our goal, of course, is to fulfill his dream not just in the face of national adversity, but at all times.
A great teacher sets great and difficult goals for us. That is certainly what Dr. King did. And that's one of the reasons we will continue to honor him years and years after his death.
So this really couldn't be a more appropriate time to celebrate Dr. King and to reflect on the ideas that guide his life.
Recent events have also taught me personally about the great talents, skills, and dedication of all of you here at the Department. Just about a year ago, when I first took this job, I spoke in this auditorium and said how proud I was to be Secretary of Energy.
Over the last year that level of pride has done nothing but increase. My goal has always been to make sure everyone here shares in that sense of pride.
And I must wonder how you cannot help but be proud of this agency when you consider the responsibilities the American people have given us.I can't think of any other place in government with a greater range of issues to tackle.
Just think of the NNSA and the pivotal role it plays in nuclear security, in maintaining our stockpile, and directing new efforts to strengthen homeland security.
Our EM program is performing a really outstanding service to this Nation. The communities near our sites made a great contribution to winning the Cold War, and we owe it to them to see that their environment is safe. Environmental clean up is really an important national security priority, and we are going to treat it as such.
Our science program is moving us closer to solving the mysteries of the human genome at the same time it looks to next-generation energy sources. There is just no telling how much this country â?¦ and the world â?¦ can gain from the kinds of basic and applied research that comes from our science efforts at DOE.
Our national labs are now becoming more widely recognized for the huge national asset they are. In fact, it's really frightening to think where this Nation would be today in terms of homeland security without our national labs. From protection against bioterrorism, to detection of nuclear and chemical threats, to advanced systems for airport security, America is looking for answers. And it's discovering that those answers come from the Department of Energy's national labs.
The Department's energy programs are looked to for policies that will give us energy security in the 21st Century. What's more, these programs will give America the technology and advanced research we need to make today's fuels cleaner and more efficient.
And believe me, you don't have to be in this Department very long - even as the Secretary - before you realize how important our administrative staff is. They keep trains on track, and without them this entire operation would grind quickly to a halt.
So, all of us together have a critical job to do. And it's one that the American people recognize is very important, as well.
It's a strange thing about government, but sometimes the things you work on are very visible to the country and sometimes they are not. But we've just completed a year when, believe me, no American could have missed the critical role played by the professionals here at DOE.
Just 12 months ago, the Nation was being pummeled by sky-high energy prices. We stepped in and helped create a national energy policy, a balanced approach that looked to long-term solutions to America's energy challenges.
Then we experienced four simultaneous and coordinated terrorist attacks that again put the men and women of this Department front and center in the Nation's mind.
In all this we worked together. When I took this job a year ago, I said I considered all of us a team. We have worked extraordinarily well together over the last year. We've proven to be a team when it most counted.
And I want you all to know how proud I am of the service this Department has rendered our country, and how much I am looking forward to the next 12 months working with all of you.
I mentioned last year when I spoke at the Black History Month celebration that as a member of the U.S. Senate I had the great privilege to sponsor the legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal - our highest honor - to Rosa Parks.
Her contributions to changing the politics and culture of this country were really extraordinary, so it's a mystery why she hadn't received this medal before. But she hadn't, so we passed the legislation unanimously.
One of the great moments of my career in the Senate was to participate in the ceremony in the Rotunda of the Capitol of the United States -- joined by all the members of Congress, the President, and leaders of the civil rights movement - to bestow that medal on Rosa Parks.The feeling that day in that grand chamber was something I will never forget.
Like Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks was really asking this country to live up to its principles.
And who better to remind the Nation of the importance of inalienable rights than those who have had those rights denied. Martin Luther King and the other leaders of the civil rights movement were in a unique position to teach us all forbearance, patience, and dignity under harsh adversity.
His work over his too brief life changed all our lives.
As I said, I think Dr. King would have been proud of the way this Nation reacted to the events of September 11.We showed the kind of unity of purpose that made it easy to rise above differences.
In the days and months ahead, I hope we can continue to follow Dr. King's teachings.
So let me thank the organizers of this wonderful ceremony. This is an important day for this Department, and I hope everyone takes some time to reflect on what we've learned from Dr. King and how his legacy still can shape our lives.
It's been an honor to join you today. The President is counting on us and he has great faith in our ability to meet the many responsibilities he's given us.
Thank you all for coming.
