[Applause]
sex and politics where’s the booze I
mean somehow this program has to have
something in it about sex booze and
politics well I’m a recovering
politician I want you to uh I’m in about
the 50th step out of 100 and I’m working
on it David David day and I want to tell
you what when you happens to you when
you are a politician and you run for
governor and you don’t win it’s bad I
went home I went home and my dog
wouldn’t even lick me but but let me
tell you the worst thing about it about
a month after I’d lost the governorship
I was headed to my hometown of Boone and
I stopped at this little country store
and this woman in there behind the
counter looked at me funny like and she
said are you who I think you are that’s
dangerous I I said well who do you think
I am and she says ain’t you Rufus I said
yeah she said hell I thought you were
dead
I’m glad to be invited to go anywhere
because all my friends especially my
redneck friends so what are you doing
down there that bunch of people at
something called TEDx you need to be out
gardening and working on the farm but I
am very delighted to be here and I want
to tell you a few things that happen
along the way with somebody that’s been
full-throttle
all of his life let me tell you about
something that happened 44 years ago
1972 on a hot humid day in Washington DC
I made a short trip in the back of a
police car headed down to the White
House and as Sarah said I was headed on
a mission to do something that nobody
had ever done before to deliver a
subpoena on a sitting president named
Richard Nixon who had broken every law
that you can think of on the
books and believe you me we see a lot of
similarities today and not I know I’m
not getting into politics but that no
way but that was a memorable trip for me
it was a defining point in my life
because here is a 31 year old boy that
grew up on the farm in Boone North
Carolina delivering a subpoena on a
president and a subpoena is a heavy duty
piece of paper it commands you to turn
over all the books and records so these
were for the tapes and as you recall and
if you weren’t around and most of you
weren’t and you studied your history
though I know that you know that that
was a defining moment because the
Supreme Court ruled not not even a
president is above the law so I count
that it’s a very significant day and I
don’t brag about it by sure to get a
pleasure out of it and I came back to
Capitol Hill and here we were at a time
that the nation was in a real quandary
about where we headed what are we doing
now I want to flash back though after
that was over and I came back and
thought about my childhood I thought
about the things that have meant the
most to me all my life and there were
some principles and I tried to commit
those to myself on a daily basis because
believe you me my life has been a fall
and rise many times many times over and
I’ve thought about those principles and
there are those foundations that we
talked about and number one is pick your
friends don’t let your friends pick you
and the friends you pick will always
come to you when you’re into the problem
not the other way around
they’ll beat you to the problem and I’ve
been so extremely lucky all my life to
have picked the right friends you’ve
heard the old adage if you can count
friends real friends on more than your
your hands you don’t really
have that kind of friends and then the
recurring theme here today it’s been the
one that I love the most
Cindy got into it empathy now by empathy
I do not mean that you feel good about
sending ten dollars to the poor little
orphans over in Bangladesh although you
should empathy is when you really really
can say I I put myself in somebody
else’s shoes and even in today’s
terrible discourse of political life you
could actually say you know there might
be something to what they’re saying hard
to do I promise you I have to pinch
myself sometimes and say Rufus
understand that they’re trying to say
something and they may be wrong you may
think they’re stupid but listen to them
because when you’re talking you are not
learning anything so empathy has played
a great role in my life of my downs and
my ups and then the second so that the
third fundamental is always live by
don’t forget to thank the people who
helped you get where you are and right
now in this room today I promise you
they’re people that are gonna say I
really should listen to him cuz you know
right now that there are people along
the way that you haven’t thanked
recently for helping you get where you
are the man who was head of the
Watergate give me the name senator Sam
Ervin taught me this this wonderful
wonderful piece of life he said Rufus I
don’t have time for my old friends and
I’m not gonna rush out and meet new
friends since if I can take care of my
old friends so thank the people who’ve
helped you do what you need to do in
life and then the fourth principle is
watch out for that terrible thing called
hubris now we all have egos you have to
have a little ego to have done something
significant in life but hubris gets
worse you know it’s the Greek word that
says you’re beyond yourself you think
that you are so absolutely wonderful
that you you you are full of pride an
old boy in the country one time two
strategies
it’s like he said I don’t know what that
word means but I can’t say what what it
really means he said it’s like a guy
that gets the drink he goes to the bar
he says drinks on the house and
everybody can’t even pay his rent in the
second stage of whatever that word you
said it was ruthless is that he thinks
that he’s the most beautiful guy in the
world
he stands around preening looking in the
mirror saying ain’t that great
I’m Purdy he said though the most
dangerous and the most incredibly
killing one you think you’re invisible
and how many times do we see people not
only in politics in church life in
business life hubris takes them over and
then the other enduring principle that I
want to talk a little bit about today in
this short amount of time for a
recovering politician is spirituality
I’m not talking about any particular
brand of religion yours might be
something mine’s a lot of working in the
garden taking walks in the garden you
need some sort of spirituality now let’s
go back a little bit I was born on a
farm and boom there were four brothers
one sister my father was a wildlife
protector and most of this stuff I got
on my myself through osmosis for my
mother and father but some of it you
have to sort of work at every every
single day I’ll get all the high school
things you can do you know I was even
class president student body president
and believe it or not you’re you’re not
gonna believe this
I was a state champion wrestler away
from 154 and my little niece Lucy said
by gosh uncle ruthless have you gained
some weight
well that is true though go back and
check it so I’m I was I was set on being
a veterinarian I wanted to work with
animals because I’ve grown up on the
farm loving to work with all kinds of
living creatures like the ones we have
on here
and faith though came into play faith is
so much a part of your life each of you
got here today and fate didn’t take you
into some horrible accident
think of that most of you met the people
that you met you marry you want to marry
through fate so my whole idea is how do
you handle fate
what are your principles and having
faith that those are the ones I’ve used
I went to down to I got a letter in the
mail one time to go down and try out for
the Morehead scholarship at Chapel Hill
well I got down there and you know what
I have to see we’d get Chapel Hill you
can get in bad trouble over there but
but I decided I liked that place over
there and I’ve always wanted to be a
politician of some sort because I
admired senator Sam urban the chairman
of Watergate community even back in
those days and I decided to stay
although I didn’t get the scholarship it
was a failure and I felt real bad about
it but I always was brought up to think
my goodness looked for the good part and
the good part is that they gave me a
$200 a semester scholarship to go to
Carolina and I went to Carolina and then
fade again struck after that was over I
decided I wanted to go work in
Washington and I went up there without
any notion of ever getting the job but I
wrote senator Ervin the letter and I
said I’d like to work with you someday
senator I liked all that stuff of
Washington the thrill of it and you know
whatever had taught the third grade for
a year in a Catholic boys school and
here I was a shallow-water badness from
the Boone and I taught the third grade
and got a call from careful he’ll come
over interview with us and then there’s
a lot of history after that I finished
law school at night five nights a week
four seasons a year cruel and unusual
punishment and I vowed that someday
somebody would pay for that and the tax
did for 28 years and when I graduated
law school he made me as Sarah said the
chief counsel and staff director at 28
years old the Senate Subcommittee on
separation of powers nobody should have
a job like that at that age and then a
thing called Watergate occurred where
there was a slight article one time and
President Nixon said well that was just
a third-rate burglary and look what
happened to Watergate Watergate
crescendoed into the nation’s most dried
dynamic domestic crisis ever we didn’t
know what was going to do with Nixon
left office he might have decided to
armed forces and take over the country
but anyway I got back home and of course
I used what a gauge I ran for attorney
general I loved that job because I was
able to help people my training and
empathy came through because I thought
okay the big shots they can hire all the
fancy people they want to all the fine
lawyers I tried to look out for the
little person and that’s where my that
wonderful empathy came into play because
of what I had been taught at home all
those years and then I ran for governor
didn’t work out here it’s okay one of my
friends going back to my friend said I
was walking around holding my head down
feeling sorry for myself and he said
stop it Rufus how many people are there
in North Carolina I said close to 8
million he said how many people got the
nomination for governor that’s not only
two of us he said ok cut it out cut it
out you did something that so many other
people didn’t do my attitude changed
because my friends were willing to tell
me what I needed to be told now folks
were getting into something here now I
worked hard and faded again faith struck
again the man who had been secretary of
state longer than I had lived he had
been secretary second 52 years mr.
Sadler and I ran from secretary say that
was 42 years old after having been
Attorney General and I
and let me tell you what pains me very
much today to be talking to you about
toward the end of that two-year term I
did a lot of things that I’m ashamed of
I’m not talking about it till today
because if you’ve done some things like
that
you were told try to let it go don’t
bring it up well I’m ashamed I got full
of hubris I had forgotten all the things
I’d been taught all that I had seen
Richard Nixon his people do I fell into
it I started doing things that was they
were so hubris ridden that it got to be
funny the newspapers got after me the
TVs got after me it got so bad that
frankly I’d left office in disgrace
total disgrace I’ve never felt as low in
my life I was afraid to come out of the
house my dear wife is in this audience
today she said you’re not staying in
this house
she said you’re getting out of here and
you’re gonna go to work Monday morning I
did and because of my friends within two
weeks I had clients and I was having a
hard time holding my head up and another
friend said look hold your head up high
you can get over this if you try and you
use the principles you have told us
about so many times in your speeches
well I was under investigation for eight
week eight months under investigation by
the SBI which had been under my charge I
would have nightmares about going to
jail it was a terrible time but then
again I reverted back to the empathy
that people gave me and I thought man
you’re getting along just fine here now
and I’ve put a law practice together I
again back was helping people because I
thought that was my mission as we’ve
talked about today and lo and behold you
won’t believe it
another thing happened along about ten
years ago I came into my office I felt
so bad I said did I have too much to
drink last night and that wouldn’t been
unusual for me
I climbed the stairs and I fell like a
sack of flour that got dynamite a little
little doctor I called him the gorilla
doctor because he would had an office in
an old converted service station he said
step up on the stool I stepped up and I
collapsed again I said doc what’s wrong
he said you have guillain-barre syndrome
I says that bad he said yes it could be
very bad we have to get you to the
hospital immediately that was the
longest ride over the Rex hospital spent
a week there and I was totally paralyzed
could not lift the finger could not talk
because yeah I’m very syndrome it lets
the cells eat one another and you don’t
know whether you’re gonna get better or
not but here’s my part of how life could
be gracious and wonderful I got over to
wake med and had all these doctors had
five of them folks I cannot remember
their name to save my life and who I
remember I remember Deborah Deborah was
the one they called a medical tech you
know what she did she wiped my rear
frankly yes the people that helped you
that we forget about that make the
minimum wages and you talk about empathy
she had empathy for me she did not know
that I had been the Big Shot that I’d
done all those things and she at times
and softly Hum Amazing Grace and I’ve
cried like a baby so I survived because
of those wonderful things that I told
you about having friends showing empathy
never forgetting to thank your people
and also having a spirit of religiosity
as I mentioned to you a while ago when I
was lying there on that bed thinking I
would never walk again
you think the worse every day a
secretary Cheryl a my dear wife would
come in with a brown paper sack and to
be letters cards from people to North
Carolina and that sort of forgotten the
roots of my brain
through for the Three Forks Baptist
Church and they said we’re praying for
you
we formed prayer groups I didn’t laugh
about that because I loved it and I my
heart was pounding because they were so
gracious to what helped me and that heal
making it help me heal I’m back I am
still going full throttle and I wanted
to say to you that if you ever think
that you don’t have something to offer
then sometime do like I did two nights
ago
have dinner with a young lady who we
chose the foundation I have called super
kids who was in the worst shape you can
think of she had never had anything
she’s now in the Carolina med school and
I sat there with her and had a fine meal
and my heart was so full of admiration
and grace and I almost want to sing
amazing grace right now why not
Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me I once was lost
but now I’m found was blind but now I
see there’s something great thank you
you
sex and politics where’s the booze I
mean somehow this program has to have
something in it about sex booze and
politics well I’m a recovering
politician I want you to uh I’m in about
the 50th step out of 100 and I’m working
on it David David day and I want to tell
you what when you happens to you when
you are a politician and you run for
governor and you don’t win it’s bad I
went home I went home and my dog
wouldn’t even lick me but but let me
tell you the worst thing about it about
a month after I’d lost the governorship
I was headed to my hometown of Boone and
I stopped at this little country store
and this woman in there behind the
counter looked at me funny like and she
said are you who I think you are that’s
dangerous I I said well who do you think
I am and she says ain’t you Rufus I said
yeah she said hell I thought you were
dead
I’m glad to be invited to go anywhere
because all my friends especially my
redneck friends so what are you doing
down there that bunch of people at
something called TEDx you need to be out
gardening and working on the farm but I
am very delighted to be here and I want
to tell you a few things that happen
along the way with somebody that’s been
full-throttle
all of his life let me tell you about
something that happened 44 years ago
1972 on a hot humid day in Washington DC
I made a short trip in the back of a
police car headed down to the White
House and as Sarah said I was headed on
a mission to do something that nobody
had ever done before to deliver a
subpoena on a sitting president named
Richard Nixon who had broken every law
that you can think of on the
books and believe you me we see a lot of
similarities today and not I know I’m
not getting into politics but that no
way but that was a memorable trip for me
it was a defining point in my life
because here is a 31 year old boy that
grew up on the farm in Boone North
Carolina delivering a subpoena on a
president and a subpoena is a heavy duty
piece of paper it commands you to turn
over all the books and records so these
were for the tapes and as you recall and
if you weren’t around and most of you
weren’t and you studied your history
though I know that you know that that
was a defining moment because the
Supreme Court ruled not not even a
president is above the law so I count
that it’s a very significant day and I
don’t brag about it by sure to get a
pleasure out of it and I came back to
Capitol Hill and here we were at a time
that the nation was in a real quandary
about where we headed what are we doing
now I want to flash back though after
that was over and I came back and
thought about my childhood I thought
about the things that have meant the
most to me all my life and there were
some principles and I tried to commit
those to myself on a daily basis because
believe you me my life has been a fall
and rise many times many times over and
I’ve thought about those principles and
there are those foundations that we
talked about and number one is pick your
friends don’t let your friends pick you
and the friends you pick will always
come to you when you’re into the problem
not the other way around
they’ll beat you to the problem and I’ve
been so extremely lucky all my life to
have picked the right friends you’ve
heard the old adage if you can count
friends real friends on more than your
your hands you don’t really
have that kind of friends and then the
recurring theme here today it’s been the
one that I love the most
Cindy got into it empathy now by empathy
I do not mean that you feel good about
sending ten dollars to the poor little
orphans over in Bangladesh although you
should empathy is when you really really
can say I I put myself in somebody
else’s shoes and even in today’s
terrible discourse of political life you
could actually say you know there might
be something to what they’re saying hard
to do I promise you I have to pinch
myself sometimes and say Rufus
understand that they’re trying to say
something and they may be wrong you may
think they’re stupid but listen to them
because when you’re talking you are not
learning anything so empathy has played
a great role in my life of my downs and
my ups and then the second so that the
third fundamental is always live by
don’t forget to thank the people who
helped you get where you are and right
now in this room today I promise you
they’re people that are gonna say I
really should listen to him cuz you know
right now that there are people along
the way that you haven’t thanked
recently for helping you get where you
are the man who was head of the
Watergate give me the name senator Sam
Ervin taught me this this wonderful
wonderful piece of life he said Rufus I
don’t have time for my old friends and
I’m not gonna rush out and meet new
friends since if I can take care of my
old friends so thank the people who’ve
helped you do what you need to do in
life and then the fourth principle is
watch out for that terrible thing called
hubris now we all have egos you have to
have a little ego to have done something
significant in life but hubris gets
worse you know it’s the Greek word that
says you’re beyond yourself you think
that you are so absolutely wonderful
that you you you are full of pride an
old boy in the country one time two
strategies
it’s like he said I don’t know what that
word means but I can’t say what what it
really means he said it’s like a guy
that gets the drink he goes to the bar
he says drinks on the house and
everybody can’t even pay his rent in the
second stage of whatever that word you
said it was ruthless is that he thinks
that he’s the most beautiful guy in the
world
he stands around preening looking in the
mirror saying ain’t that great
I’m Purdy he said though the most
dangerous and the most incredibly
killing one you think you’re invisible
and how many times do we see people not
only in politics in church life in
business life hubris takes them over and
then the other enduring principle that I
want to talk a little bit about today in
this short amount of time for a
recovering politician is spirituality
I’m not talking about any particular
brand of religion yours might be
something mine’s a lot of working in the
garden taking walks in the garden you
need some sort of spirituality now let’s
go back a little bit I was born on a
farm and boom there were four brothers
one sister my father was a wildlife
protector and most of this stuff I got
on my myself through osmosis for my
mother and father but some of it you
have to sort of work at every every
single day I’ll get all the high school
things you can do you know I was even
class president student body president
and believe it or not you’re you’re not
gonna believe this
I was a state champion wrestler away
from 154 and my little niece Lucy said
by gosh uncle ruthless have you gained
some weight
well that is true though go back and
check it so I’m I was I was set on being
a veterinarian I wanted to work with
animals because I’ve grown up on the
farm loving to work with all kinds of
living creatures like the ones we have
on here
and faith though came into play faith is
so much a part of your life each of you
got here today and fate didn’t take you
into some horrible accident
think of that most of you met the people
that you met you marry you want to marry
through fate so my whole idea is how do
you handle fate
what are your principles and having
faith that those are the ones I’ve used
I went to down to I got a letter in the
mail one time to go down and try out for
the Morehead scholarship at Chapel Hill
well I got down there and you know what
I have to see we’d get Chapel Hill you
can get in bad trouble over there but
but I decided I liked that place over
there and I’ve always wanted to be a
politician of some sort because I
admired senator Sam urban the chairman
of Watergate community even back in
those days and I decided to stay
although I didn’t get the scholarship it
was a failure and I felt real bad about
it but I always was brought up to think
my goodness looked for the good part and
the good part is that they gave me a
$200 a semester scholarship to go to
Carolina and I went to Carolina and then
fade again struck after that was over I
decided I wanted to go work in
Washington and I went up there without
any notion of ever getting the job but I
wrote senator Ervin the letter and I
said I’d like to work with you someday
senator I liked all that stuff of
Washington the thrill of it and you know
whatever had taught the third grade for
a year in a Catholic boys school and
here I was a shallow-water badness from
the Boone and I taught the third grade
and got a call from careful he’ll come
over interview with us and then there’s
a lot of history after that I finished
law school at night five nights a week
four seasons a year cruel and unusual
punishment and I vowed that someday
somebody would pay for that and the tax
did for 28 years and when I graduated
law school he made me as Sarah said the
chief counsel and staff director at 28
years old the Senate Subcommittee on
separation of powers nobody should have
a job like that at that age and then a
thing called Watergate occurred where
there was a slight article one time and
President Nixon said well that was just
a third-rate burglary and look what
happened to Watergate Watergate
crescendoed into the nation’s most dried
dynamic domestic crisis ever we didn’t
know what was going to do with Nixon
left office he might have decided to
armed forces and take over the country
but anyway I got back home and of course
I used what a gauge I ran for attorney
general I loved that job because I was
able to help people my training and
empathy came through because I thought
okay the big shots they can hire all the
fancy people they want to all the fine
lawyers I tried to look out for the
little person and that’s where my that
wonderful empathy came into play because
of what I had been taught at home all
those years and then I ran for governor
didn’t work out here it’s okay one of my
friends going back to my friend said I
was walking around holding my head down
feeling sorry for myself and he said
stop it Rufus how many people are there
in North Carolina I said close to 8
million he said how many people got the
nomination for governor that’s not only
two of us he said ok cut it out cut it
out you did something that so many other
people didn’t do my attitude changed
because my friends were willing to tell
me what I needed to be told now folks
were getting into something here now I
worked hard and faded again faith struck
again the man who had been secretary of
state longer than I had lived he had
been secretary second 52 years mr.
Sadler and I ran from secretary say that
was 42 years old after having been
Attorney General and I
and let me tell you what pains me very
much today to be talking to you about
toward the end of that two-year term I
did a lot of things that I’m ashamed of
I’m not talking about it till today
because if you’ve done some things like
that
you were told try to let it go don’t
bring it up well I’m ashamed I got full
of hubris I had forgotten all the things
I’d been taught all that I had seen
Richard Nixon his people do I fell into
it I started doing things that was they
were so hubris ridden that it got to be
funny the newspapers got after me the
TVs got after me it got so bad that
frankly I’d left office in disgrace
total disgrace I’ve never felt as low in
my life I was afraid to come out of the
house my dear wife is in this audience
today she said you’re not staying in
this house
she said you’re getting out of here and
you’re gonna go to work Monday morning I
did and because of my friends within two
weeks I had clients and I was having a
hard time holding my head up and another
friend said look hold your head up high
you can get over this if you try and you
use the principles you have told us
about so many times in your speeches
well I was under investigation for eight
week eight months under investigation by
the SBI which had been under my charge I
would have nightmares about going to
jail it was a terrible time but then
again I reverted back to the empathy
that people gave me and I thought man
you’re getting along just fine here now
and I’ve put a law practice together I
again back was helping people because I
thought that was my mission as we’ve
talked about today and lo and behold you
won’t believe it
another thing happened along about ten
years ago I came into my office I felt
so bad I said did I have too much to
drink last night and that wouldn’t been
unusual for me
I climbed the stairs and I fell like a
sack of flour that got dynamite a little
little doctor I called him the gorilla
doctor because he would had an office in
an old converted service station he said
step up on the stool I stepped up and I
collapsed again I said doc what’s wrong
he said you have guillain-barre syndrome
I says that bad he said yes it could be
very bad we have to get you to the
hospital immediately that was the
longest ride over the Rex hospital spent
a week there and I was totally paralyzed
could not lift the finger could not talk
because yeah I’m very syndrome it lets
the cells eat one another and you don’t
know whether you’re gonna get better or
not but here’s my part of how life could
be gracious and wonderful I got over to
wake med and had all these doctors had
five of them folks I cannot remember
their name to save my life and who I
remember I remember Deborah Deborah was
the one they called a medical tech you
know what she did she wiped my rear
frankly yes the people that helped you
that we forget about that make the
minimum wages and you talk about empathy
she had empathy for me she did not know
that I had been the Big Shot that I’d
done all those things and she at times
and softly Hum Amazing Grace and I’ve
cried like a baby so I survived because
of those wonderful things that I told
you about having friends showing empathy
never forgetting to thank your people
and also having a spirit of religiosity
as I mentioned to you a while ago when I
was lying there on that bed thinking I
would never walk again
you think the worse every day a
secretary Cheryl a my dear wife would
come in with a brown paper sack and to
be letters cards from people to North
Carolina and that sort of forgotten the
roots of my brain
through for the Three Forks Baptist
Church and they said we’re praying for
you
we formed prayer groups I didn’t laugh
about that because I loved it and I my
heart was pounding because they were so
gracious to what helped me and that heal
making it help me heal I’m back I am
still going full throttle and I wanted
to say to you that if you ever think
that you don’t have something to offer
then sometime do like I did two nights
ago
have dinner with a young lady who we
chose the foundation I have called super
kids who was in the worst shape you can
think of she had never had anything
she’s now in the Carolina med school and
I sat there with her and had a fine meal
and my heart was so full of admiration
and grace and I almost want to sing
amazing grace right now why not
Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me I once was lost
but now I’m found was blind but now I
see there’s something great thank you
you
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