[Music]
[Applause]
the story’s pretty simple I run a school
that I built in the neighborhood where I
was born and where I’ll die I’ve kept my
faith in six city blocks in a
neighborhood and it’s here it’s the
result of a public school teacher that
actually saved my life I was walking
down the quarter of my high school and
my timon business and the art room door
was open and this fellow was sitting at
a potter’s wheel
he made this great big old ball and I
was transfixed by the emerges his bow so
I was standing it with my mouth open and
he said can I help you says yeah what is
that man he saw that’s ceramics this is
how much you teach me how to do that he
says well get your homeroom teacher to
sign a piece of paper says you can come
in you’re good to go so for the
remaining two years of high school cut
all my classes and I went to the art
room but I had enough street sense to
give the teachers whose classes I was
cutting the pottery I made and they gave
me passing grades that’s how I got out
of the place but more importantly mr.
Ross says you’re too smart to die I’m
not gonna let you die like your buddies
on the street you’re going to college
man and so mr. Ross hounded me during my
senior year and I filled out a college
application to a place called the
University of Pittsburgh in pencil
thinking that’d be the end of it and I
put this thing in envelopes and they
sent me this task called a scholastic
aptitude test which I had never seen
before
back then it was multiple-choice I kind
of marked the thing up and got in is a
probationary student well the better
news is I graduated from the place with
honors and now I’m a trustee of the
University of Pittsburgh
and I got it and I received a PhD from
the place and I was the commencement
speaker and I got up and said don’t give
up on the poor kids they might end up
being the commencement speaker it’s not
where you start it’s where you end up
that matters and for the next couple
minutes I’m going to tell you this story
which is turning out to be pretty
interesting story
Bidwell training center is this
vocational school and I took it over in
the 70s I was minding my own business
running my low art program Manchester
craftsmen’s guild and the guys that
built Bidwell screwed it up pretty good
and they were looking for some food to
take it over and they said well does
that build Strickland he thinks he’s
Moses he’d probably take the job
and back then I actually did think I was
Moses could lead all the Porter to
Promised Land all that so I took over
Bidwell in 1972 in a warehouse with no
windows and holes in the floor holes in
the roof and the guys were on her knees
gamblin when I showed up when Brooks
Brothers suit on and I asked the
secretary said I got here today what
were the guys gambling about you said
well they were taking bets on how long
you last in the job that was the student
body so I said okay man I leaving so I
bought the beer and I bought the paint
that’s anybody done shelf to paint this
building is fired one guy didn’t show up
and I fired him I said we’re not a
poverty program we’re a world-class
training center and this paintbrush is
going to demonstrate my commitment to
that principle that’s important for you
to understand to see what I did with it
the arts program is Manchester
craftsmen’s good I started in a row
house dragging kids off the street to
save the soul with clay I’m still doing
it on a much bigger scale I also built
that this is our school this is my
concept of how to build a school for
people to have no hope the worst part
about being poor is what it does to your
spirit man
it’s not just an economic condition it’s
a spiritual condition and so what I
figured out is that we got to get people
out of the dark and put them in the
light because the lights for everybody
on the planet not just rich kids and so
mr. Ross took this bunch of us kids to
see a very famous house called falling
water so here’s this Italian guy woody
black kids in his van you get out
through the woods and he come out into
this clearing and I saw this house with
a creek running right down to the middle
of the house I said man in my
neighborhood we spend time trying to
keep the water out of the house this
guy’s got a creek running right down to
the middle of the place that’s an
interesting way of look in the water so
I committed myself to building a center
that had water because water is life and
if the museum’s got to found I think the
kids deserve a fountain and that’s why I
put it in my school the other thing when
you come to visit is you’ll see a
world-class culinary program set up by a
guy named John Hines who did OK in the
ketchup business and he came by the
seamy courtesy of a man named Leroy
ervice and Senator Hines walked in and
said man I’ve been hearing about this
bidwell program and what an
extraordinary story you got and I was
wondering if you could start training
some black folks for the culinary
industry well back then Bidwell was a
building trades program I said senator
I’m reluctant to go into a field I don’t
know anything about but man give me the
money I built this program and then
we’ll get back to that culinary thing
maybe in a couple of years and he said
well what would your answer be if I’d
give you a million dollars I said
senator piers were going into the food
training business and John did give me a
million bucks but as importantly he
loaned me two-headed hot research for
the Heinz ketchup company and we built a
world-class culinary program ten minutes
from where you guys are sitting tonight
and these are some of the students and
we built an amphitheater and that’s
lunch at the school why because it’s
tough to teach people when they’re
hungry
so the answers that give them something
to eat and I can improve the literacy
rate in Pittsburgh by two grades you
know how I’ll do it
giving the kids something decent to eat
because if they’re hungry they’re not
learning that’s lunch at our school
that’s lunch at our school so anybody
that tells you you can’t serve
world-class food to poor kids you send
them the Pittsburg man I’ve been doing
it for 25 years you just have to want to
do it bad
we even got the black people and white
people eating together voluntarily
without a civil rights treat what we’ve
discovered is world-class environments
create world-class behavior you treat
people like people they tend to treat
each other like that and I didn’t stop
to study this in the sociology course
I’m telling you what I see with my own
eyes every day we also train
pharmaceutical technicians for the
pharmacy industry you come over to my
Center and I’ve got people with no
background in science to inform a
suitable application to 12 months and
they’re going to work for all the
healthcare systems and they’re doing
fine this fellow is now working for the
water treatment authority he was that
bount down to his last unemployment
check and now he’s making about $50,000
a year he’s uh he’s got a job his kids
are doing fine and we solved the problem
so what we’ve been able to demonstrate
is that we can take people regardless of
their economic environment and I can
have them doing world-class technology
in 12 months in the tough inner-city
neighborhood with a high crime rate we
also have people in this library who
can’t read the diplomas they’ve been
given not mine
ones that have been given in other
educational institutions and I’m telling
you we’re going to lose this country and
we got guys walking the street with
diplomas on the pocket that they can’t
read they read mine or I won’t sign it
so we got that problem figured out this
is the arts program remember I’m the
black guy from the 60s making pottery
how many of you even around in the
sixties raise your hand what time I did
the speech nobody raised a hand so I got
check out who I’m talking to it at jokes
don’t work well I was around during the
disturbances
back then they were what we call them
what they were they were riots and guys
were getting shot so I set up this
little tent ministry to save silver clay
and it’s worked out pretty good it’s one
of our guys his brothers already at Penn
State he’s going there
this is oh by the way this is these are
kids who have no artistic ability well
90% of them graduated from our program
in 90% of them went to college within 36
months of enrollment in an inner-city
arts program in a black neighborhood
we’ve doubled the effect of graduation
rate from minority kids in 36 months and
we do not teach the academics you know
what we teach life life and hope are
married at our Center this little kids
work I’ve had kids get four-year
scholarships right out of the center man
look at his kids eyes this is the kid
who supposedly has no hope why does he
show up for after-school arts program
and a tough inner city neighborhood why
because he’s taken control of his life
look at his eyes that’s the kids that’s
engaged in technology big time so we’ve
been at the kid it took at pictures now
working for Walt Disney Studios the
fellow on the left is one of my students
I had in seventh grade he’s now the
director to program and this is actually
an old slide before I got real fancy
with my little PowerPoint I actually had
slides if you remember them
well actually had one and it was in a in
a carousel with duct tape on the corner
and I got called out to a place called
the Silicon Valley so I showed them what
my slide projecting these people looked
at me like I was from Pluto man but
that’s cool I blew off the dust took
talk to you gave him a little talk and
this kid came out he said man that was a
heck of a talk he had tennis shoes and
blue jeans and said what do you do for a
living he said oh I built a company
called eBay I said oh that’s cool you
got a card I ain’t the techy guy so I
took the kids card and I went back to
Pittsburgh NASA wanted little Chucky kid
it’s a year or something called eBay he
said yeah that’s the electronic commerce
Network I said holy smokes I met the guy
that built the company so I called him
up I said mr. skull I’ve come to have a
much deeper appreciation who you are man
yes I thought you figured out here’s a
million dollars why Jeff Skoll 25 years
ago said I think you can scale this
globally and as you’re going to see in a
couple of slides I think he was right oh
that’s our digital imaging center for
inner city kids who supposedly can’t
learn technology well what’s that if
they can’t learn technology
what are they sitting at the machines
doing oh we also built a music hall
trumpet player named Dizzy Gillespie
showed up and I said why did you come
here he said a fella named Herbie
Hancock said a black guy built this
thing and I don’t believe it and so
dizzy and I stood right on that stage
and these are by the way these are kids
from the school system look at their
faces man these are children who are
engaged in life for a change and what
we’ve discovered is if you build schools
where kids are smaller than when they
walk in the door they’ll probably leave
the same way there’s Disney just in case
you saw with lion he was there
oh we also won seven Grammys yarr the
Grammys well we won seven of them and we
have the highest win rate of any record
small record company in the world on the
north side of Pittsburgh in a tough
neighborhood don’t tell me what’s
possible man I’m telling you what’s
possible in these slides that’s the view
open that was an opening night if you
drop the bomb in that room eater wiped
out all of rich people in Pennsylvania
because they’re all sitting there man
including my mother and father who in
the left-hand row and they’re both gone
now but they live long enough to see
their kid open up to senator black tie
and it worked out ra the next night I
had the neighborhood come in and I had
the same food both nights
why because I wanted to establish the
principle that you don’t have to have a
tuxedo to be treated like a world-class
citizen we also grow orchids on the
north side of Pittsburgh
when tech we took first place in the
Home and Garden Show our guys now this
is where the story takes an interesting
turn remember mr. Scholl and he said I
think you can scale this idea well guess
what these centers are now open and
operating I’ve got nine of them open and
operating and we just opened up Israel
I have Jews and Arabs going to school
together today man
that’s mr. skull on the right really
long and the kids in San Francisco this
is the one we opened up in Grand Rapids
these are the photographs of dr. King
taken during the last two years of his
life and we wanted the children to know
who he was this is the one we opened up
in Cleveland we’re training medical
technicians this is when we opened up a
New Haven oh by the way every Center is
beautiful I will not build it no used
equipment everything’s got to be
first-class because I’m in the business
of curing cancer of the human spirit and
what I’m showing you is the cure for
cancer of the human spirit
it’s called sunlight and good food and
hope you put that together you can solve
this problem
just when we opened up in New England
this is when we open up in place called
Brockway Pennsylvania you all know where
Brockway is okay well I didn’t but a
Republican legislature came to see my
sentences I want to see what everybody’s
talking about with his bidwell program
so I went up to Brockway Pennsylvania
and it’s a tough neighborhood eight
thousand people that’s been given up on
four dead and we opened it up and now we
got Israel open in that place and that
fellas name is Jerome Perez he was my
friend and unfortunately God took him
before I had a chance to open up the
center because he had planned to come to
the opening and you know what Shimon
Perez told me keep going
you’re on it man just keep going oh
these are the first-class Jewish guys on
the Left Arab guys on the right do they
look like they hate each other
right hello it’s called common sense
which is very short supply in our
country right now and I’m telling you we
better solve this man
now I got to keep doing my time check
here how we doing five coup Chicago
Denver Sharon Vancouver
Erie Pennsylvania snout signed up Tacoma
US Virgin Islands Dallas Los Angeles
Laura Valley and these are the cities
that were working on building and Nassau
and London we just signed up NASA
yesterday and let me tie this up for you
I agreed to do this because of Chris and
his brilliant team too I’m in a hurry
my mother implanted a gene at the base
of my brain stem that prevents me from
blocking out images of human suffering
and so at 3 o’clock in the morning when
I’m wide awake and I see the kids in
Africa with flies in her mouth I can’t
get back to sleep this has got to stop
and don’t tell me there aren’t answers
because I just showed it to you if I
could pull off the Center for Jews and
Arabs in Israel from a center on the
toughest neighborhood and Pittsburgh
don’t tell me what’s possible man
number two in my remaining three minutes
I’ve met a fella named a Dalai Lama nice
guy hey the bowl of soup with the guy in
waddell Austria and so I’m either both
profit this man and I said what keeps
you going man
the Chinese are trying to kill you you
don’t even have a country and he said
it’s here bill it’s inside of you man
the answers in you and so his physician
came to Pittsburgh to see my center
because less holy this apparently told
him about the work I was doing and he
said this is the center that His
Holiness has wanted to build only you
did it now if I can get him to come to
Pittsburgh would you agree to help build
a center with the Dalai Lama I said yes
sir
sign me up and I think we got an outside
shot my Chairman’s here someplace got
lambing where we are talking to his
holiness as people
right now and we pulled it off and Barry
said why did you do this I said because
his holiness says it’s in the inside I
would figured out that light was the
cure for cancer the human spirit he said
you’ve done it he knows it but you built
the center wouldn’t it be an honor if
the Dalai Lama and Bill Strickland were
able to pull this together and actually
build this thing
I think we’re odds on favorites to do
that and then finally a big consulting
firm came to Pittsburgh to work with us
and said the issues not a hundred cities
which we plan to build by the way he
said the issue is going to be 5,000
cities and so we are odds on favorites
we already signed up 200 that’s done
it’s the 5,000 I’m after and here’s what
I want to leave you for a lesson
we can’t live like this anymore
– we got to stop the suffering man and
we have to do it together and I will not
be able to sleep soundly unless I know
that we have made every effort to do
this right when I go to Washington DC
there’s one grave I’ll always go to see
Bobby Kennedy and you know why because
you have to search for the grave because
there’s a little cross about that big in
a former life I used to fly airplanes
for a living so flew 727 and in the
simulator there are only two grades s
and u all I want is an s for doing my
job
and I would like to be able to enhance
that s with the energy that is in this
room right now and thank you for
listening to what I had to say tonight
thank
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
the story’s pretty simple I run a school
that I built in the neighborhood where I
was born and where I’ll die I’ve kept my
faith in six city blocks in a
neighborhood and it’s here it’s the
result of a public school teacher that
actually saved my life I was walking
down the quarter of my high school and
my timon business and the art room door
was open and this fellow was sitting at
a potter’s wheel
he made this great big old ball and I
was transfixed by the emerges his bow so
I was standing it with my mouth open and
he said can I help you says yeah what is
that man he saw that’s ceramics this is
how much you teach me how to do that he
says well get your homeroom teacher to
sign a piece of paper says you can come
in you’re good to go so for the
remaining two years of high school cut
all my classes and I went to the art
room but I had enough street sense to
give the teachers whose classes I was
cutting the pottery I made and they gave
me passing grades that’s how I got out
of the place but more importantly mr.
Ross says you’re too smart to die I’m
not gonna let you die like your buddies
on the street you’re going to college
man and so mr. Ross hounded me during my
senior year and I filled out a college
application to a place called the
University of Pittsburgh in pencil
thinking that’d be the end of it and I
put this thing in envelopes and they
sent me this task called a scholastic
aptitude test which I had never seen
before
back then it was multiple-choice I kind
of marked the thing up and got in is a
probationary student well the better
news is I graduated from the place with
honors and now I’m a trustee of the
University of Pittsburgh
and I got it and I received a PhD from
the place and I was the commencement
speaker and I got up and said don’t give
up on the poor kids they might end up
being the commencement speaker it’s not
where you start it’s where you end up
that matters and for the next couple
minutes I’m going to tell you this story
which is turning out to be pretty
interesting story
Bidwell training center is this
vocational school and I took it over in
the 70s I was minding my own business
running my low art program Manchester
craftsmen’s guild and the guys that
built Bidwell screwed it up pretty good
and they were looking for some food to
take it over and they said well does
that build Strickland he thinks he’s
Moses he’d probably take the job
and back then I actually did think I was
Moses could lead all the Porter to
Promised Land all that so I took over
Bidwell in 1972 in a warehouse with no
windows and holes in the floor holes in
the roof and the guys were on her knees
gamblin when I showed up when Brooks
Brothers suit on and I asked the
secretary said I got here today what
were the guys gambling about you said
well they were taking bets on how long
you last in the job that was the student
body so I said okay man I leaving so I
bought the beer and I bought the paint
that’s anybody done shelf to paint this
building is fired one guy didn’t show up
and I fired him I said we’re not a
poverty program we’re a world-class
training center and this paintbrush is
going to demonstrate my commitment to
that principle that’s important for you
to understand to see what I did with it
the arts program is Manchester
craftsmen’s good I started in a row
house dragging kids off the street to
save the soul with clay I’m still doing
it on a much bigger scale I also built
that this is our school this is my
concept of how to build a school for
people to have no hope the worst part
about being poor is what it does to your
spirit man
it’s not just an economic condition it’s
a spiritual condition and so what I
figured out is that we got to get people
out of the dark and put them in the
light because the lights for everybody
on the planet not just rich kids and so
mr. Ross took this bunch of us kids to
see a very famous house called falling
water so here’s this Italian guy woody
black kids in his van you get out
through the woods and he come out into
this clearing and I saw this house with
a creek running right down to the middle
of the house I said man in my
neighborhood we spend time trying to
keep the water out of the house this
guy’s got a creek running right down to
the middle of the place that’s an
interesting way of look in the water so
I committed myself to building a center
that had water because water is life and
if the museum’s got to found I think the
kids deserve a fountain and that’s why I
put it in my school the other thing when
you come to visit is you’ll see a
world-class culinary program set up by a
guy named John Hines who did OK in the
ketchup business and he came by the
seamy courtesy of a man named Leroy
ervice and Senator Hines walked in and
said man I’ve been hearing about this
bidwell program and what an
extraordinary story you got and I was
wondering if you could start training
some black folks for the culinary
industry well back then Bidwell was a
building trades program I said senator
I’m reluctant to go into a field I don’t
know anything about but man give me the
money I built this program and then
we’ll get back to that culinary thing
maybe in a couple of years and he said
well what would your answer be if I’d
give you a million dollars I said
senator piers were going into the food
training business and John did give me a
million bucks but as importantly he
loaned me two-headed hot research for
the Heinz ketchup company and we built a
world-class culinary program ten minutes
from where you guys are sitting tonight
and these are some of the students and
we built an amphitheater and that’s
lunch at the school why because it’s
tough to teach people when they’re
hungry
so the answers that give them something
to eat and I can improve the literacy
rate in Pittsburgh by two grades you
know how I’ll do it
giving the kids something decent to eat
because if they’re hungry they’re not
learning that’s lunch at our school
that’s lunch at our school so anybody
that tells you you can’t serve
world-class food to poor kids you send
them the Pittsburg man I’ve been doing
it for 25 years you just have to want to
do it bad
we even got the black people and white
people eating together voluntarily
without a civil rights treat what we’ve
discovered is world-class environments
create world-class behavior you treat
people like people they tend to treat
each other like that and I didn’t stop
to study this in the sociology course
I’m telling you what I see with my own
eyes every day we also train
pharmaceutical technicians for the
pharmacy industry you come over to my
Center and I’ve got people with no
background in science to inform a
suitable application to 12 months and
they’re going to work for all the
healthcare systems and they’re doing
fine this fellow is now working for the
water treatment authority he was that
bount down to his last unemployment
check and now he’s making about $50,000
a year he’s uh he’s got a job his kids
are doing fine and we solved the problem
so what we’ve been able to demonstrate
is that we can take people regardless of
their economic environment and I can
have them doing world-class technology
in 12 months in the tough inner-city
neighborhood with a high crime rate we
also have people in this library who
can’t read the diplomas they’ve been
given not mine
ones that have been given in other
educational institutions and I’m telling
you we’re going to lose this country and
we got guys walking the street with
diplomas on the pocket that they can’t
read they read mine or I won’t sign it
so we got that problem figured out this
is the arts program remember I’m the
black guy from the 60s making pottery
how many of you even around in the
sixties raise your hand what time I did
the speech nobody raised a hand so I got
check out who I’m talking to it at jokes
don’t work well I was around during the
disturbances
back then they were what we call them
what they were they were riots and guys
were getting shot so I set up this
little tent ministry to save silver clay
and it’s worked out pretty good it’s one
of our guys his brothers already at Penn
State he’s going there
this is oh by the way this is these are
kids who have no artistic ability well
90% of them graduated from our program
in 90% of them went to college within 36
months of enrollment in an inner-city
arts program in a black neighborhood
we’ve doubled the effect of graduation
rate from minority kids in 36 months and
we do not teach the academics you know
what we teach life life and hope are
married at our Center this little kids
work I’ve had kids get four-year
scholarships right out of the center man
look at his kids eyes this is the kid
who supposedly has no hope why does he
show up for after-school arts program
and a tough inner city neighborhood why
because he’s taken control of his life
look at his eyes that’s the kids that’s
engaged in technology big time so we’ve
been at the kid it took at pictures now
working for Walt Disney Studios the
fellow on the left is one of my students
I had in seventh grade he’s now the
director to program and this is actually
an old slide before I got real fancy
with my little PowerPoint I actually had
slides if you remember them
well actually had one and it was in a in
a carousel with duct tape on the corner
and I got called out to a place called
the Silicon Valley so I showed them what
my slide projecting these people looked
at me like I was from Pluto man but
that’s cool I blew off the dust took
talk to you gave him a little talk and
this kid came out he said man that was a
heck of a talk he had tennis shoes and
blue jeans and said what do you do for a
living he said oh I built a company
called eBay I said oh that’s cool you
got a card I ain’t the techy guy so I
took the kids card and I went back to
Pittsburgh NASA wanted little Chucky kid
it’s a year or something called eBay he
said yeah that’s the electronic commerce
Network I said holy smokes I met the guy
that built the company so I called him
up I said mr. skull I’ve come to have a
much deeper appreciation who you are man
yes I thought you figured out here’s a
million dollars why Jeff Skoll 25 years
ago said I think you can scale this
globally and as you’re going to see in a
couple of slides I think he was right oh
that’s our digital imaging center for
inner city kids who supposedly can’t
learn technology well what’s that if
they can’t learn technology
what are they sitting at the machines
doing oh we also built a music hall
trumpet player named Dizzy Gillespie
showed up and I said why did you come
here he said a fella named Herbie
Hancock said a black guy built this
thing and I don’t believe it and so
dizzy and I stood right on that stage
and these are by the way these are kids
from the school system look at their
faces man these are children who are
engaged in life for a change and what
we’ve discovered is if you build schools
where kids are smaller than when they
walk in the door they’ll probably leave
the same way there’s Disney just in case
you saw with lion he was there
oh we also won seven Grammys yarr the
Grammys well we won seven of them and we
have the highest win rate of any record
small record company in the world on the
north side of Pittsburgh in a tough
neighborhood don’t tell me what’s
possible man I’m telling you what’s
possible in these slides that’s the view
open that was an opening night if you
drop the bomb in that room eater wiped
out all of rich people in Pennsylvania
because they’re all sitting there man
including my mother and father who in
the left-hand row and they’re both gone
now but they live long enough to see
their kid open up to senator black tie
and it worked out ra the next night I
had the neighborhood come in and I had
the same food both nights
why because I wanted to establish the
principle that you don’t have to have a
tuxedo to be treated like a world-class
citizen we also grow orchids on the
north side of Pittsburgh
when tech we took first place in the
Home and Garden Show our guys now this
is where the story takes an interesting
turn remember mr. Scholl and he said I
think you can scale this idea well guess
what these centers are now open and
operating I’ve got nine of them open and
operating and we just opened up Israel
I have Jews and Arabs going to school
together today man
that’s mr. skull on the right really
long and the kids in San Francisco this
is the one we opened up in Grand Rapids
these are the photographs of dr. King
taken during the last two years of his
life and we wanted the children to know
who he was this is the one we opened up
in Cleveland we’re training medical
technicians this is when we opened up a
New Haven oh by the way every Center is
beautiful I will not build it no used
equipment everything’s got to be
first-class because I’m in the business
of curing cancer of the human spirit and
what I’m showing you is the cure for
cancer of the human spirit
it’s called sunlight and good food and
hope you put that together you can solve
this problem
just when we opened up in New England
this is when we open up in place called
Brockway Pennsylvania you all know where
Brockway is okay well I didn’t but a
Republican legislature came to see my
sentences I want to see what everybody’s
talking about with his bidwell program
so I went up to Brockway Pennsylvania
and it’s a tough neighborhood eight
thousand people that’s been given up on
four dead and we opened it up and now we
got Israel open in that place and that
fellas name is Jerome Perez he was my
friend and unfortunately God took him
before I had a chance to open up the
center because he had planned to come to
the opening and you know what Shimon
Perez told me keep going
you’re on it man just keep going oh
these are the first-class Jewish guys on
the Left Arab guys on the right do they
look like they hate each other
right hello it’s called common sense
which is very short supply in our
country right now and I’m telling you we
better solve this man
now I got to keep doing my time check
here how we doing five coup Chicago
Denver Sharon Vancouver
Erie Pennsylvania snout signed up Tacoma
US Virgin Islands Dallas Los Angeles
Laura Valley and these are the cities
that were working on building and Nassau
and London we just signed up NASA
yesterday and let me tie this up for you
I agreed to do this because of Chris and
his brilliant team too I’m in a hurry
my mother implanted a gene at the base
of my brain stem that prevents me from
blocking out images of human suffering
and so at 3 o’clock in the morning when
I’m wide awake and I see the kids in
Africa with flies in her mouth I can’t
get back to sleep this has got to stop
and don’t tell me there aren’t answers
because I just showed it to you if I
could pull off the Center for Jews and
Arabs in Israel from a center on the
toughest neighborhood and Pittsburgh
don’t tell me what’s possible man
number two in my remaining three minutes
I’ve met a fella named a Dalai Lama nice
guy hey the bowl of soup with the guy in
waddell Austria and so I’m either both
profit this man and I said what keeps
you going man
the Chinese are trying to kill you you
don’t even have a country and he said
it’s here bill it’s inside of you man
the answers in you and so his physician
came to Pittsburgh to see my center
because less holy this apparently told
him about the work I was doing and he
said this is the center that His
Holiness has wanted to build only you
did it now if I can get him to come to
Pittsburgh would you agree to help build
a center with the Dalai Lama I said yes
sir
sign me up and I think we got an outside
shot my Chairman’s here someplace got
lambing where we are talking to his
holiness as people
right now and we pulled it off and Barry
said why did you do this I said because
his holiness says it’s in the inside I
would figured out that light was the
cure for cancer the human spirit he said
you’ve done it he knows it but you built
the center wouldn’t it be an honor if
the Dalai Lama and Bill Strickland were
able to pull this together and actually
build this thing
I think we’re odds on favorites to do
that and then finally a big consulting
firm came to Pittsburgh to work with us
and said the issues not a hundred cities
which we plan to build by the way he
said the issue is going to be 5,000
cities and so we are odds on favorites
we already signed up 200 that’s done
it’s the 5,000 I’m after and here’s what
I want to leave you for a lesson
we can’t live like this anymore
– we got to stop the suffering man and
we have to do it together and I will not
be able to sleep soundly unless I know
that we have made every effort to do
this right when I go to Washington DC
there’s one grave I’ll always go to see
Bobby Kennedy and you know why because
you have to search for the grave because
there’s a little cross about that big in
a former life I used to fly airplanes
for a living so flew 727 and in the
simulator there are only two grades s
and u all I want is an s for doing my
job
and I would like to be able to enhance
that s with the energy that is in this
room right now and thank you for
listening to what I had to say tonight
thank
[Applause]
[Music]
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