every confidence they out of it you’re
gonna succeed at some point but you’ll
go through some failures there is no
excuse for not trying worry less about
what you want to be and worry more about
what you want to do they chose to take
responsibility for their lives for their
education and set goals for themselves
the idea that if you’re willing to work
hard it doesn’t matter who you are or
where you come from Michele LaVon
Robinson girl of this all said what’s
that believed nation it’s Evan my one
word is believe and I believe that you
have the ability to do something special
that can change the planet so to help
you on your journey today we’re going to
learn from the 44th President of the
United States Barack Obama and my take
on his top ten rose to success vol 2
rule number 2 is my personal favorite
and I’d love to know which one you guys
like the best
[Music]
with respect to failure it’s terrible
but but but necessary if you if you are
going to try something hard if you’re
putting yourself out there in some way
there are going to be times where you
screw up or you don’t succeed or there
are times where you do everything right
and you still don’t succeed but that’s
not just true of politics or running a
non-for-profit that’s true some of you
talked about being entrepreneurial if
you’re starting a clothing line that’s
that’s a cutthroat business so yeah I’m
sure you yeah I have every confidence a
out of it you’re gonna succeed at some
point but you’ll go through some
failures you know and and I think that
the most important thing and this is a
little bit of a cliche but sometimes
clichés are true is to learn from those
failures and to have a sense of
resilience and be able to examine what
is it that I did not succeed at why
didn’t I succeed and what do I need to
do better if you’re focused on giving of
yourself to accomplish something then
even when you fail at a particular
objective you’re still succeeding in
learning about how you can accomplish
those goals maybe someone in your family
has lost their job and there’s not
enough money to go around maybe you live
in a neighborhood where you don’t feel
safe or have friends were pressuring you
to do things you know aren’t right there
is no excuse for not trying where you
are right now doesn’t have to determine
where you’ll end up no one’s written
your destiny for you because here in
America you write your own destiny you
make your own future dr. King once said
before we reach the magenta
pictures of the promised land there is a
frustrating and bewildering at
wilderness ahead we must still face
prodigious hilltops of opposition and
gigantic mountains of resistance but
with patient and firm determination we
will press on so I don’t know about you
CBC but the future rewards those who
press on with patient and firm
determination I’m going to press on for
jobs I’m going to press on for equality
I’m going to press on for the sake of
our children I’m going to press on for
the sake of all those families who are
struggling right now I don’t have time
to feel sorry for myself I don’t have
time to complain I’m gonna press on I
expect all of you to March with me and
press own take off your bedroom slippers
put on your marching shoes shake it off
stop complaining stop grumbling stop
crying we are going to press on we’ve
got work to do whether we have seen
eye-to-eye
or really agreed at all my conversations
with you the American people in living
rooms and in schools that farms on
factory floors diners and on distant
military outposts those conversations
are what have kept me honest and kept me
inspired and kept me going and every day
I have learned from you you made me a
better president and you made me a
better man the sole time in my political
career where I think I ran more just
because it was the next thing rather
than running because I had a good theory
of what it is that I wanted to do and
this is a mistake I think a lot of folks
who get into politics make and so when I
see white house aren’t interns or I talk
to young people I always tell them
worried less about what you want to be
and worried more about what you want to
do because when you
what when when you’re more concerned
with I want to be a congressman or I
want to be a senator or I want to be
rich then you know some people may
succeed in chasing that that goal but
when they get there they don’t know what
to do with it and if they don’t get
there they don’t have anything to show
for it but if you’re worrying about I
want to improve education in low-income
neighborhoods or I want to deal with
climate change and help save the planet
all right then whatever you’re doing in
pursuit of that goal
in and of itself is going to be
worthwhile and it’s going to teach you
things and it’s going to put you in a
position to have an impact and then if
it turns out as a result that you also
end up being successful in in in
politics or whatever thing you’re
pursuing then so much the better
that the most successful business people
that I know Bill Gates didn’t start off
saying I want to be the richest man in
the world
he started off saying to himself I
really think these computers are cool
and I want to write cool software that’s
what he wanted to do worked out well for
young people like Jasmine Perez from
Romo Texas jasmine didn’t speak English
when she first started school neither of
her parents had gone to college but she
worked hard earned good grades and got a
scholarship to Brown University as now
in graduate school studying public
health on her way to becoming doctor
Jasmine Perez I’m thinking about and
Donny Schultz from Los Altos California
who’s fought brain cancer since he was
three he’s had to endure all sorts of
treatments and surgeries one of which
affected his memory so it took him much
longer one
some extra hours to do his score but he
never fell behind he’s headed to college
this fall and then there’s Chantel Steve
from my hometown of Chicago Illinois
even when bouncing from foster home to
foster home in the toughest
neighborhoods in the city she managed to
get a job at a local health care center
start a program to keep young people out
of gangs and she’s on track to graduate
high school with honors and go on to
college and Jasmine and Dhoni and
Chantal aren’t any different from any of
you they face challenges in their lives
just like you do in some cases they’ve
got it a lot worse off than many of you
but they refuse to give up they chose to
take responsibility for their lives for
their education and set goals for
themselves and even when you’re
struggling even when you’re discouraged
and you feel like other people have
given up on you don’t ever give up on
yourself and I remember in 1979 arriving
as a freshman and doing what freshmen do
you know trying to figure out what
courses are and trying to change your
study habits and trying to identify that
food in the cafeteria what it is and we
were visited on campus by a couple of
gentlemen from South Africa who were
representatives the ANC in 1979-1980 and
they spoke about their efforts to
overcome apartheid and for about an hour
myself and a group of students listened
to these young men who were not much
older than we were describe the
extraordinary struggles they were going
through the sacrifices that were being
made people who were enduring jail and
torture and beatings because they had a
sense that somehow someway a justice
would prevail and
that that brief meeting I think in some
ways changed my life because what it
told me first of all was that ordinary
people can do extraordinary things when
they’re given an opportunity we
sometimes think that our leaders have to
be have fancy degrees or well educated
or some public office somewhere these
young men had not none of those things
but what they possessed was a anger over
injustice that they were able to channel
in a constructive positive way and I
thought to myself that they gave me some
sense of the direction that my life
might go and so I became active in the
anti-apartheid movement on campuses and
I’m not sure we were particularly
effective as I recall Occidental College
continued to refuse to divest despite
the various protests that we organized
the students I transferred to Columbia
and there were similar resistance on
Columbia’s campus but over time I like
to think that I was part of that mosaic
that applied pressure and ultimately
helped those in South Africa achieve the
extraordinary liberation that I would
witness almost 10 years later at night
as a as a law student and I remember the
image of Nelson Mandela walking out of
prison and understanding that a seminal
moment in history had occurred and that
Mandela’s long march towards freedom was
not his alone but was part of thousands
of footsteps of millions of footsteps of
people all around the world and I traced
back me getting involved in politics to
that moment because I as a consequence
of that organizing on a college campus I
became a community organizer as a
consequence of a community organizer I
after going back to law school became a
civil rights attorney as a consequence
of being a civil rights attorney I
entered the state legislature and I now
stand before you as a United States
Senator and as a candidate for president
and so the primary message I guess I
have
in receiving this award is that all of
you represent enormous potential and
enormous possibility for change because
we all know that injustice still exists
it exists it exists here in the United
States in every poor neighborhood and in
every inner city and every rural
community all across the country there
is quiet desperation
young people’s lives are filled with
sadness and desperation and anarchy and
chaos and obviously all around the world
we see those same symptoms of
hopelessness made manifest in places
like Darfur places like the Middle East
in places that too often are forgotten
about and not written about until they
flare up in tragedy so I hope that all
of you who are on the brink of doing
extraordinary things have decided to
channel that talent and that energy and
that imagination to figuring out how do
you move the process along for a better
history you know how do you put your
shoulder against the wheel and move that
boulder up the hill and I’m absolutely
confident that if all of you take up
that challenge the world is waiting for
you ready to be changed because I think
we live in this moment in history right
now where the the hunger for change the
hunger for something new the desire to
break out of the ordinary
the self-interested the petty the
trivial is is everywhere I believe we
can keep the promise of our founding the
idea that if you’re willing to work hard
it doesn’t matter who you are or where
you come from or what you look like
you love it doesn’t matter whether
you’re black or white or Hispanic or
Asian
[Applause]
a rich or poor able disabled gay or
straight you can make it here
[Applause]
don’t be afraid to ask questions don’t
be afraid to ask for help when you need
it I do that every day asking for help
isn’t a sign of weakness it’s a sign of
strength because it shows you have the
courage to admit when you don’t know
something and that then allows you to
learn something new Michelle
[Applause]
Michelle Mabon Robinson girl of this all
said
for the Fed for the past 25 years you
have not only been my wife and mother of
my children you have been my best friend
[Applause]
[Music]
you took on a role you didn’t ask for
and you made it your own with grace and
with grit on the style and humor
[Applause]
we made the White House a place that
belongs to everybody and a new
generation sets its sights higher
because it has you as a role model so
you have made me proud and you have made
the country proud
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
Malia and Sasha under the strangest of
circumstances you had become two amazing
young women you are smart and you are
beautiful but more importantly you are
kind and you are thoughtful and you are
full of passion
[Applause]
you’re the burden of years in the
spotlight so easily of all that I have
done in my life I am most proud to be
your dad
[Applause]
[Music]
to Joe Biden
[Applause]
you were the first decision I made as a
nominee and it was the best
[Applause]
a great vice-president but because in
the bargain I gained a brother and we
love you and Jill like family and your
friendship has been one of the great
joys of our life
[Applause]
you
thank you guys so much for watching I
made this video because you’re ohm a
asked me to if there’s someone you’d
like to vote on for the next top 10
check out the link in the description
and go and have your say finally I want
to give a quick shoutout to John D
Webster John thank you so much for
picking up a cup of my book you’re one
word taking that great picture outside
the store doing the interview on your
channel I really appreciate our support
and I’m so glad that you enjoyed the
book so thank you guys again for
watching I believe in you I hope you
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one word is much love I’ll
see you soon
I will tell you this everything else is
unfulfilled if we fail at family if we
fail at that responsibility I know that
when I am on my deathbed someday I will
not be thinking about any particular
legislation I pass I will not be
thinking about a policy I promote it I
will not be thinking about the speech I
gave I will not be thinking about the
Nobel Prize I received I will be
thinking about that walk I took with my
daughter’s I’ll be thinking about a lazy
afternoon with my wife I’ll be thinking
about sitting around the dinner table
and seeing them happy and healthy and
knowing that they were loved and I’ll be
thinking about whether I did right by
all of them so be a good role model set
a good example for that young brother
coming up if you know somebody who’s not
on point go back and bring that
brother-in-law those who have been left
behind who haven’t had the same
opportunities we have they need to hear
from you you’ve got to be engaged on the
barbershop on the basketball court at
church spent time and energy and
presence to to give people opportunities
and a chance pull them up expose them
support their dreams don’t put them down
we’ve got to teach them just like what
we have to learn what it means to be a
man to serve your city like Maynard
Jackson to shape the culture like Spike
Lee to be like Chester Davenport one of
the first people to integrate the
University of Georgia law school what he
got there nobody would sit next to him
in class but Chester didn’t mind later
on he said it was the right thing for me
to do someone needed to be the first and
today Chester is here celebrating his
50th reunion where’s Chester Davenport
he’s here
[Applause]
[Music]
so if you had role models fathers
brothers like that thank them today and
if you haven’t commit yourself to being
that man for somebody else persevere
nothing worthwhile is easy no one love
achievement has avoided failure
sometimes catastrophic failures but they
keep at it they learn from mistakes they
don’t quit you know when I first arrived
on this campus it was we had little
money fewer options but it was here that
I tried to find my place in this world I
knew I wanted to make a difference but
it was big how in fact I’d go about it
I I but I wanted to do my part to shape
a better world so even as I worked after
graduation a few unfulfilled jobs here
in New York I will not list them all
even as I went from motley apartment to
motley apartment I reach that now I
started to write letters to community
organizations all across the country and
one day a small group of churches on the
south side of Chicago answered offering
me work with people the neighborhood’s
hit hard by steel mills that were
shutting down and and communities where
jobs were dying dying away the community
had been plagued by gang violence so as
once I arrived one of the first things
we tried to do was to mobilize a meeting
with community leaders to deal with
gangs and then I’d worked for weeks on
this project we invited the police we
made phone calls we went to churches we
passed out flyers the night of the
meeting we arranged rows and rows of
chairs and anticipation of this crowd
and we waited and we waited and finally
a group of older folks walked into the
hall and they sat down and this little
old lady raised her hand and asked is
this where the bingo game is
it was a disaster nobody showed up my
first big community meeting nobody
showed up
and later the volunteers I worked with
told me that’s it we’re quitting they’d
been doing this for two years even
before I had arrived they had nothing to
show for it and I’ll be honest I felt
pretty discouraged as well I didn’t know
what I was doing I thought about
quitting and as we were talking I looked
outside and I saw some young boys
playing in a vacant lot across the
street and they were just throwing rocks
up at a boarded building I had nothing
better to do late at night just throwing
rocks I said to the volunteers before
you quit answer one question what will
happen to those boys
if you quit who will fight for them if
we don’t who will give them a fair shot
if we leave and one by one the
volunteers decided not to quit we went
back to those neighborhoods and we kept
at it we registered new voters and we
set up after-school programs and we
fought for new jobs helped people live
lives with some measure of dignity and
we sustained ourselves with those small
victories we didn’t set the world on
fire some of those communities are still
very poor there’s still a lot of gangs
out there but I believe that it was
those small victories that helped me win
the bigger victories of my last three
and a half years as president we should
feel good about the progress we’ve made
understanding that we’ve still got more
work to do it’s it’s sort of like you
know I’m 54 now so I got to work out
harder to stay in shape and and you know
if I’m feeling good in the gym I want to
acknowledge that what I’m doing is
working otherwise I’d just go off and
have a big double bacon cheeseburger or
something because I’ll think well this
isn’t working no if it’s working then we
should be staying on that same path that
doesn’t mean that I’m where I
necessarily want to be it doesn’t mean
that I stopped
you know doing some hard work to to get
where we need to go
gonna succeed at some point but you’ll
go through some failures there is no
excuse for not trying worry less about
what you want to be and worry more about
what you want to do they chose to take
responsibility for their lives for their
education and set goals for themselves
the idea that if you’re willing to work
hard it doesn’t matter who you are or
where you come from Michele LaVon
Robinson girl of this all said what’s
that believed nation it’s Evan my one
word is believe and I believe that you
have the ability to do something special
that can change the planet so to help
you on your journey today we’re going to
learn from the 44th President of the
United States Barack Obama and my take
on his top ten rose to success vol 2
rule number 2 is my personal favorite
and I’d love to know which one you guys
like the best
[Music]
with respect to failure it’s terrible
but but but necessary if you if you are
going to try something hard if you’re
putting yourself out there in some way
there are going to be times where you
screw up or you don’t succeed or there
are times where you do everything right
and you still don’t succeed but that’s
not just true of politics or running a
non-for-profit that’s true some of you
talked about being entrepreneurial if
you’re starting a clothing line that’s
that’s a cutthroat business so yeah I’m
sure you yeah I have every confidence a
out of it you’re gonna succeed at some
point but you’ll go through some
failures you know and and I think that
the most important thing and this is a
little bit of a cliche but sometimes
clichés are true is to learn from those
failures and to have a sense of
resilience and be able to examine what
is it that I did not succeed at why
didn’t I succeed and what do I need to
do better if you’re focused on giving of
yourself to accomplish something then
even when you fail at a particular
objective you’re still succeeding in
learning about how you can accomplish
those goals maybe someone in your family
has lost their job and there’s not
enough money to go around maybe you live
in a neighborhood where you don’t feel
safe or have friends were pressuring you
to do things you know aren’t right there
is no excuse for not trying where you
are right now doesn’t have to determine
where you’ll end up no one’s written
your destiny for you because here in
America you write your own destiny you
make your own future dr. King once said
before we reach the magenta
pictures of the promised land there is a
frustrating and bewildering at
wilderness ahead we must still face
prodigious hilltops of opposition and
gigantic mountains of resistance but
with patient and firm determination we
will press on so I don’t know about you
CBC but the future rewards those who
press on with patient and firm
determination I’m going to press on for
jobs I’m going to press on for equality
I’m going to press on for the sake of
our children I’m going to press on for
the sake of all those families who are
struggling right now I don’t have time
to feel sorry for myself I don’t have
time to complain I’m gonna press on I
expect all of you to March with me and
press own take off your bedroom slippers
put on your marching shoes shake it off
stop complaining stop grumbling stop
crying we are going to press on we’ve
got work to do whether we have seen
eye-to-eye
or really agreed at all my conversations
with you the American people in living
rooms and in schools that farms on
factory floors diners and on distant
military outposts those conversations
are what have kept me honest and kept me
inspired and kept me going and every day
I have learned from you you made me a
better president and you made me a
better man the sole time in my political
career where I think I ran more just
because it was the next thing rather
than running because I had a good theory
of what it is that I wanted to do and
this is a mistake I think a lot of folks
who get into politics make and so when I
see white house aren’t interns or I talk
to young people I always tell them
worried less about what you want to be
and worried more about what you want to
do because when you
what when when you’re more concerned
with I want to be a congressman or I
want to be a senator or I want to be
rich then you know some people may
succeed in chasing that that goal but
when they get there they don’t know what
to do with it and if they don’t get
there they don’t have anything to show
for it but if you’re worrying about I
want to improve education in low-income
neighborhoods or I want to deal with
climate change and help save the planet
all right then whatever you’re doing in
pursuit of that goal
in and of itself is going to be
worthwhile and it’s going to teach you
things and it’s going to put you in a
position to have an impact and then if
it turns out as a result that you also
end up being successful in in in
politics or whatever thing you’re
pursuing then so much the better
that the most successful business people
that I know Bill Gates didn’t start off
saying I want to be the richest man in
the world
he started off saying to himself I
really think these computers are cool
and I want to write cool software that’s
what he wanted to do worked out well for
young people like Jasmine Perez from
Romo Texas jasmine didn’t speak English
when she first started school neither of
her parents had gone to college but she
worked hard earned good grades and got a
scholarship to Brown University as now
in graduate school studying public
health on her way to becoming doctor
Jasmine Perez I’m thinking about and
Donny Schultz from Los Altos California
who’s fought brain cancer since he was
three he’s had to endure all sorts of
treatments and surgeries one of which
affected his memory so it took him much
longer one
some extra hours to do his score but he
never fell behind he’s headed to college
this fall and then there’s Chantel Steve
from my hometown of Chicago Illinois
even when bouncing from foster home to
foster home in the toughest
neighborhoods in the city she managed to
get a job at a local health care center
start a program to keep young people out
of gangs and she’s on track to graduate
high school with honors and go on to
college and Jasmine and Dhoni and
Chantal aren’t any different from any of
you they face challenges in their lives
just like you do in some cases they’ve
got it a lot worse off than many of you
but they refuse to give up they chose to
take responsibility for their lives for
their education and set goals for
themselves and even when you’re
struggling even when you’re discouraged
and you feel like other people have
given up on you don’t ever give up on
yourself and I remember in 1979 arriving
as a freshman and doing what freshmen do
you know trying to figure out what
courses are and trying to change your
study habits and trying to identify that
food in the cafeteria what it is and we
were visited on campus by a couple of
gentlemen from South Africa who were
representatives the ANC in 1979-1980 and
they spoke about their efforts to
overcome apartheid and for about an hour
myself and a group of students listened
to these young men who were not much
older than we were describe the
extraordinary struggles they were going
through the sacrifices that were being
made people who were enduring jail and
torture and beatings because they had a
sense that somehow someway a justice
would prevail and
that that brief meeting I think in some
ways changed my life because what it
told me first of all was that ordinary
people can do extraordinary things when
they’re given an opportunity we
sometimes think that our leaders have to
be have fancy degrees or well educated
or some public office somewhere these
young men had not none of those things
but what they possessed was a anger over
injustice that they were able to channel
in a constructive positive way and I
thought to myself that they gave me some
sense of the direction that my life
might go and so I became active in the
anti-apartheid movement on campuses and
I’m not sure we were particularly
effective as I recall Occidental College
continued to refuse to divest despite
the various protests that we organized
the students I transferred to Columbia
and there were similar resistance on
Columbia’s campus but over time I like
to think that I was part of that mosaic
that applied pressure and ultimately
helped those in South Africa achieve the
extraordinary liberation that I would
witness almost 10 years later at night
as a as a law student and I remember the
image of Nelson Mandela walking out of
prison and understanding that a seminal
moment in history had occurred and that
Mandela’s long march towards freedom was
not his alone but was part of thousands
of footsteps of millions of footsteps of
people all around the world and I traced
back me getting involved in politics to
that moment because I as a consequence
of that organizing on a college campus I
became a community organizer as a
consequence of a community organizer I
after going back to law school became a
civil rights attorney as a consequence
of being a civil rights attorney I
entered the state legislature and I now
stand before you as a United States
Senator and as a candidate for president
and so the primary message I guess I
have
in receiving this award is that all of
you represent enormous potential and
enormous possibility for change because
we all know that injustice still exists
it exists it exists here in the United
States in every poor neighborhood and in
every inner city and every rural
community all across the country there
is quiet desperation
young people’s lives are filled with
sadness and desperation and anarchy and
chaos and obviously all around the world
we see those same symptoms of
hopelessness made manifest in places
like Darfur places like the Middle East
in places that too often are forgotten
about and not written about until they
flare up in tragedy so I hope that all
of you who are on the brink of doing
extraordinary things have decided to
channel that talent and that energy and
that imagination to figuring out how do
you move the process along for a better
history you know how do you put your
shoulder against the wheel and move that
boulder up the hill and I’m absolutely
confident that if all of you take up
that challenge the world is waiting for
you ready to be changed because I think
we live in this moment in history right
now where the the hunger for change the
hunger for something new the desire to
break out of the ordinary
the self-interested the petty the
trivial is is everywhere I believe we
can keep the promise of our founding the
idea that if you’re willing to work hard
it doesn’t matter who you are or where
you come from or what you look like
you love it doesn’t matter whether
you’re black or white or Hispanic or
Asian
[Applause]
a rich or poor able disabled gay or
straight you can make it here
[Applause]
don’t be afraid to ask questions don’t
be afraid to ask for help when you need
it I do that every day asking for help
isn’t a sign of weakness it’s a sign of
strength because it shows you have the
courage to admit when you don’t know
something and that then allows you to
learn something new Michelle
[Applause]
Michelle Mabon Robinson girl of this all
said
for the Fed for the past 25 years you
have not only been my wife and mother of
my children you have been my best friend
[Applause]
[Music]
you took on a role you didn’t ask for
and you made it your own with grace and
with grit on the style and humor
[Applause]
we made the White House a place that
belongs to everybody and a new
generation sets its sights higher
because it has you as a role model so
you have made me proud and you have made
the country proud
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
Malia and Sasha under the strangest of
circumstances you had become two amazing
young women you are smart and you are
beautiful but more importantly you are
kind and you are thoughtful and you are
full of passion
[Applause]
you’re the burden of years in the
spotlight so easily of all that I have
done in my life I am most proud to be
your dad
[Applause]
[Music]
to Joe Biden
[Applause]
you were the first decision I made as a
nominee and it was the best
[Applause]
a great vice-president but because in
the bargain I gained a brother and we
love you and Jill like family and your
friendship has been one of the great
joys of our life
[Applause]
you
thank you guys so much for watching I
made this video because you’re ohm a
asked me to if there’s someone you’d
like to vote on for the next top 10
check out the link in the description
and go and have your say finally I want
to give a quick shoutout to John D
Webster John thank you so much for
picking up a cup of my book you’re one
word taking that great picture outside
the store doing the interview on your
channel I really appreciate our support
and I’m so glad that you enjoyed the
book so thank you guys again for
watching I believe in you I hope you
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one word is much love I’ll
see you soon
I will tell you this everything else is
unfulfilled if we fail at family if we
fail at that responsibility I know that
when I am on my deathbed someday I will
not be thinking about any particular
legislation I pass I will not be
thinking about a policy I promote it I
will not be thinking about the speech I
gave I will not be thinking about the
Nobel Prize I received I will be
thinking about that walk I took with my
daughter’s I’ll be thinking about a lazy
afternoon with my wife I’ll be thinking
about sitting around the dinner table
and seeing them happy and healthy and
knowing that they were loved and I’ll be
thinking about whether I did right by
all of them so be a good role model set
a good example for that young brother
coming up if you know somebody who’s not
on point go back and bring that
brother-in-law those who have been left
behind who haven’t had the same
opportunities we have they need to hear
from you you’ve got to be engaged on the
barbershop on the basketball court at
church spent time and energy and
presence to to give people opportunities
and a chance pull them up expose them
support their dreams don’t put them down
we’ve got to teach them just like what
we have to learn what it means to be a
man to serve your city like Maynard
Jackson to shape the culture like Spike
Lee to be like Chester Davenport one of
the first people to integrate the
University of Georgia law school what he
got there nobody would sit next to him
in class but Chester didn’t mind later
on he said it was the right thing for me
to do someone needed to be the first and
today Chester is here celebrating his
50th reunion where’s Chester Davenport
he’s here
[Applause]
[Music]
so if you had role models fathers
brothers like that thank them today and
if you haven’t commit yourself to being
that man for somebody else persevere
nothing worthwhile is easy no one love
achievement has avoided failure
sometimes catastrophic failures but they
keep at it they learn from mistakes they
don’t quit you know when I first arrived
on this campus it was we had little
money fewer options but it was here that
I tried to find my place in this world I
knew I wanted to make a difference but
it was big how in fact I’d go about it
I I but I wanted to do my part to shape
a better world so even as I worked after
graduation a few unfulfilled jobs here
in New York I will not list them all
even as I went from motley apartment to
motley apartment I reach that now I
started to write letters to community
organizations all across the country and
one day a small group of churches on the
south side of Chicago answered offering
me work with people the neighborhood’s
hit hard by steel mills that were
shutting down and and communities where
jobs were dying dying away the community
had been plagued by gang violence so as
once I arrived one of the first things
we tried to do was to mobilize a meeting
with community leaders to deal with
gangs and then I’d worked for weeks on
this project we invited the police we
made phone calls we went to churches we
passed out flyers the night of the
meeting we arranged rows and rows of
chairs and anticipation of this crowd
and we waited and we waited and finally
a group of older folks walked into the
hall and they sat down and this little
old lady raised her hand and asked is
this where the bingo game is
it was a disaster nobody showed up my
first big community meeting nobody
showed up
and later the volunteers I worked with
told me that’s it we’re quitting they’d
been doing this for two years even
before I had arrived they had nothing to
show for it and I’ll be honest I felt
pretty discouraged as well I didn’t know
what I was doing I thought about
quitting and as we were talking I looked
outside and I saw some young boys
playing in a vacant lot across the
street and they were just throwing rocks
up at a boarded building I had nothing
better to do late at night just throwing
rocks I said to the volunteers before
you quit answer one question what will
happen to those boys
if you quit who will fight for them if
we don’t who will give them a fair shot
if we leave and one by one the
volunteers decided not to quit we went
back to those neighborhoods and we kept
at it we registered new voters and we
set up after-school programs and we
fought for new jobs helped people live
lives with some measure of dignity and
we sustained ourselves with those small
victories we didn’t set the world on
fire some of those communities are still
very poor there’s still a lot of gangs
out there but I believe that it was
those small victories that helped me win
the bigger victories of my last three
and a half years as president we should
feel good about the progress we’ve made
understanding that we’ve still got more
work to do it’s it’s sort of like you
know I’m 54 now so I got to work out
harder to stay in shape and and you know
if I’m feeling good in the gym I want to
acknowledge that what I’m doing is
working otherwise I’d just go off and
have a big double bacon cheeseburger or
something because I’ll think well this
isn’t working no if it’s working then we
should be staying on that same path that
doesn’t mean that I’m where I
necessarily want to be it doesn’t mean
that I stopped
you know doing some hard work to to get
where we need to go
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