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TRIGG COUNTY GROUND BREAKING Monday, November 26, 2007
TRIGG COUNTY GROUND BREAKING
Monday, November 26, 2007

Judge Humphries, members of the Trigg County Fiscal Court, Judge
Woodall, Judge Redd, other distinguished office holders, and to my fellow
citizens of Trigg County, and west Kentucky, and all other guests and
friends. It is a singular honor for me to be given the opportunity to make
appropriate remarks at this remarkable occasion. Remarkable because
history deems it so.

We are grateful today for those who have helped to bring us to this grand
occasion Chief Justice Lambert; our legislators; our current Fiscal Court
and Judge Executive, as well as his predecessor; the judicial building
committee; the representatives from AOC; Codell, our construction
manager; and our architect CMW.

We are standing today on the old court grounds high above this city, high
above the plains, hills and hollows of this county the high ground of
justice. The earth we will ceremonially turn in a few minutes is the same
earth our forefathers turned with meager mattocks and spades and with
humble hearts for the same purpose which is shared with us today to keep
the temple of justice on the high ground. Through wars, through famine,
through good times and bad, justice rules eternal here in this beloved
community upon this high ground. We here today are blessed to be given
this grand opportunity once again to stamp our mark upon the corporal face
of justice. In the words of Rupert Brooke, God be thanked who has
matched us with this hour.

In choosing this site, the people of Trigg County have once again
resoundingly chosen the high ground for their seat of justice. They have not
been lured to the more convenient, less imposing commercial fringes of the
city, but here to this special place where history repeats itself in this days
ceremony.

Our justice system is not perfect. Within this structure about to rise above
our heads, not all people aggrieved will be rectified; not all guilty persons
convicted; not all the innocent reprieved. For just as this edifice is built with
human hands, so are the mighty cogs and wheels of justice turned by mortals wings for angels, feet for men. But to both the living and the dead, to the
master spirits of our deceased ancestors and to lives yet unborn, we make
this pledge. We shall continue the arduous pursuit of equal justice in this
city on a hill.

Many of us in this group today are blessed with blood lines running back
across many generations to this ground. Many of us here are the heirs of
those very men and women who were the first to claim this place as their
home. My Scottish ancestor, William Cunningham, served as an election
officer for the very first election held in this county. He was a member of
the first Circuit Court jury and a road commissioner for the wild and virgin
lands of the western part of this county. A man who served on that first jury
with William Cunningham was a man by the name of Willis Minton. In an
ironic and wonderful twist of history, Willis Minton was an ancestor of my
fellow Supreme Court justice, John Minton, Jr. So in a real and human way,
the states highest court today is rooted to this place.

Go with me for a moment back to the beginning. On May 15, 1820, the very
first Fiscal Court of Trigg County received and adopted this report from the
search committee for a new courthouse: After a mature and deliberate
examination of the many different places as sites for the administration of
justice at and near the center of said county, we are of the opinion that the
seat of justice be fixed on the lands of Robert Baker where he now lives on
Main Little River on top of the eminence above the spring at or to include
the lot where his stable now stands, it being the most central, convenient,
and eligible site for the purpose. Whereupon the said Robert Baker has this
day obligated himself to convey to said county court of Trigg for the use of
said county together with 50 acres more to be laid off in right angle from the
square, which bond we here submit as part of the report, likewise several
promissory notes, given as donations. Given under our hands and seals this
15
th
day of May, 1820.

So, as you can see this place where ground is turned today for a magnificent
temple of justice was once the place of a humble stable. And we all know
what great things have come from a humble stable.

The world has turned many times since that time. Courthouses have risen
and fallen. Human perfidy, sin, debauchery, and crime have continued to
plague our community and our nation. But we still follow that dream and
that vision of justice for all. We still take arms against the sea of trouble. We still believe that it is our duty sometimes failing but ever sure to treat
our fellow travelers upon this planet with respect. Knowing that we are all
lonely travelers to a sure end where Gods justice will be our ultimate
destination.

That is why we follow the sky. Why we look upward ever seeking higher
ground. We not only seek higher ground, but common ground common
ground with a very uncommon purpose. For here the staff of the beggar and
the scepter of the prince lay side by side. This ground knows not race or
religion, neither wealth nor poverty. It knows and weighs all alike in the
hovering scale of justice.

From the high portals of this edifice, one will be able to see the surrounding
beauty of this glorious land the soft and rolling hills painted by the
changing seasons. According to ancient scripture, A land which the Lord
thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the
beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. This storied place, this
land that we love, and this justice center that we build, will be here long after
we are gone.

Does it humble you as it does me that as our mortal remains molder to
dust? That this place, this land, will remain and endure? Who will
remember that we were here this day under this winter sky, turning this
ground for faces yet unseen and generations still to be born? Few, if any.
But a common cord will be weaved, unseen and unknown between us and
the heirs of our ideals just like we are connected today to those pioneers of
yesteryear in one electric circle of hope and justice.

This afternoon pride is in the air in bracing whiffs. Pride in our rich
heritage. Pride in our country, our Commonwealth, our community. Pride
in what Trigg County has been and what it can become.
So let me ask you as I close to lift your eyes beyond this hill and this city.
Beyond the rolling meadows and woodlands which surround us. Beyond
this day. Beyond the fears, uncertainties and terrors of our time to the hopes
and dreams of tomorrow. Beyond ourselves and our lives upon this planet.
Always with the fervent prayer that the human spirit within this building
about to rise toward the sky will forever hold to the high ground of justice.