No one comes to this place or this kind of a time in her life without help from many, many people. And, because I have been very fortunate in my life, I have many people to thank today.
First, of course, Governor Patrick: thank you so much for your kindness to me and for your willingness to trust me with this responsibility. I am particularly grateful to you for seeing in my district and municipal court experience the qualifications to make a contribution on the Appeals Court.
Judge Sydney Hanlon was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court by Governor Deval Patrick in a ceremony held on Wed., April 29, at Dorchester District Court. Judge Hanlon, a Dorchester resident, had served as presiding judge at
I want to thank my family. I have more family than you might think. I am an only child – everybody knew that, right? And my parents, who made great sacrifices to educate me and to support my career – and me personally – are both gone, but they left me more than 50 cousins. My cousins and their families are really my brothers and sisters. They have supported me through good times and bad for many years and I am very lucky to have them in my life.
My friends are also my family – and I cannot begin to thank them all – and I am not going to try because I will leave someone important out. But, if you are here, please know that your friendship is very important to me. Thank you for being in my life and for all of your help over the years.
I want to thank every single person in the Dorchester Court community – the court staff, the lawyers, on all sides – prosecutors and criminal defense and civil bar, the advocates, the police, the community providers, and the judges – for the work that you do here. This is a wonderful and a difficult place to work – a challenge every day. We see horrible things and tragic things and stupid things and funny ones. And, good day or bad day, we have a chance to help people every day. Some days, we are trying to keep them from hurting themselves; some days, we are trying to keep them from hurting someone else; some days we are trying hold them accountable for what they do in the community. Every day, we try to be fair.
And we do all of these things in the very demanding world of the modern judicial system – with inadequate and dwindling resources – and ever increasing demands for production and accountability. I believe with all of my heart that this is extraordinarily important work, and being part of it has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.
To the Dorchester Court staff, in particular (including the Dorchester judges), I leave, still in awe of what you do here. As I have told you, it is not just the volume of the work, or the seriousness of the crime and the other problems that this community brings to the court, or even the relentlessness of the pace. It is your commitment to excellence – to doing it right, every day, over and over, and over again.
Finally, I want to thank all of you for coming here today – to this very special place, the Dorchester Court, in this very special community – to share with me this very great honor.
