“Hatred and bigotry are still alive and well in 2008,” said former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman at Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observance in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.

Herman, currently the CEO of New Ventures, Inc., a job training company, spoke about racial relations and equality. She mentioned hate crimes, noting such events as the Jena Six and recent anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery in Chicago. She also deplored the fact that “race and poverty still go hand in hand in America.”

Herman also noted that, due to globalization, issues such as child labor and immigration have created questions of human rights extending beyond the frontiers of the United States.

Herman called for individuals to have a cause to fight for, quoting her 104-year-old grandmother: “If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything.

“When people look at you today, what do they say you stand for?” Herman asked.

Herman expressed her admiration of the growing involvement of the younger generation in the elections, particularly in the Iowa primaries. She told the audience that voting could be a step toward having their voices heard, whether on global warming, the war in Iraq or education.