all right how’s everybody doing
good you know I’ve always wanted to be
on the red carpet and now I’m on the red
carpet but they gave me instructions
they said stay on the red carpet so if I
start to I love to you know wander a
little bit so if I start to wander you
guys yell hey all right
again I’m Dwight Bashir I flew all the
way from Portland Oregon to be here with
you today and so it’s exciting for me to
be here who knows what happened 50 years
ago this past Wednesday anybody 50 years
ago this past Wednesday which would have
been April 4th dr. Martin Luther King
jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine
Motel in Memphis Tennessee and most of
the people in this audience aren’t old
enough to remember when that happened
but uh unfortunately I am for a number
of reasons so this past Wednesday
collectively we mourned the anniversary
of his assassination and what a time
that that was back in 1968 and as I
think back to dr. King and I was I was a
young young boy then dr. King in 1963
August of 1963 went to Washington DC and
they called it the march on Washington
and that’s when he had an opportunity to
tell a nation about a dream that he had
and he talked about this dream that was
deeply rooted in the American dream he
had a dream where he thought that one
day his four little children could grow
up in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character and he
told an entire world about this dream
and so I want to dedicate my ten minutes
or so that I have left to dr. King his
memory and his dream dr. King said that
history is the long story of the facts
history is the long story of the facts
and then as this
civil rights movement moved forward and
things got very violent in in Alabama
and Bull Connor and in Birmingham and
throughout the south he changed it a
little bit and he said history is the
long and sometimes tragic story of the
facts but in spite of that he still had
a dream a dream that was for a better
future for everybody sitting in this
room including myself so I stand on his
shoulders today nineteen fifty I believe
it was Rosa Parks refused to give up her
seat on a bus and in doing so in
refusing to stand up she was standing up
for all of us in the greatness that
America represents and so I want to tell
you a little story back in in the early
80s I lost one of my best friends in a
drowning accident I tried desperately to
save his life boat capsized we’re in the
water
we’re both well you know trying to
survive and unfortunately he didn’t make
it and I did and for years I wondered
why why didn’t I die that day out on the
lake why was I here and I read something
that said that and it’s really you know
it brings back memories but I read
something that said be the change in the
world that you want to see be that
change that you want to see and I also
read that there are the two most
important days in a person’s life are
one the day that they are born and then
the second day is the day they figure
out why and they start to pursue that
as low had a theory of hierarchy and you
probably have seen it it looks like a
pyramid at the bottom of that pyramid
are the basic things that we need in
life family love security and as you get
toward the pinnacle of that pyramid
there’s something called
self-actualization and that’s when a
human being realizes their purpose in
life not the meaning of life we’ll never
figure that out but you understand why
you are here and so I went on a journey
I’m still here why am I here why is my
friend not here and so on this journey I
had to figure out who I was how did I
get here and so I put this together to
kind of show you what I found and it was
amazing to me this gentleman that you
see this is his last will and testament
he’s a gentleman by the name of dr.
Walter Brashear out of Louisiana now I
knew my family was from Louisiana my
last name is merr shear I found out that
the last name is French but I’m not so
how did I get the last name it came from
this gentleman right here he was a
doctor he was a world-renowned surgeon
he was a farmer and he was a slave owner
he owned my family but not only did he
own my family he’s my great-great-great
grandfather and I was able to find that
out through the records so I am the son
of a former slaves and the son of a
former slave owner this is page 10 from
his last will and testament you can’t
see it from there so I’ll just tell you
what it’s about on this page you will
find Clarissa who is my great-great
grandmother and then Cornelius who is my
great-grandfather and at the time of his
death in 1861 he had my entire family
valued at $6,000 and I don’t figure
we’re worth much more
now I’m just kidding I’m just kidding
you know there is no you can’t get
someone to do an appraisal of your fam I
brought somebody in and I and I you know
I have a Salvador Dali painting in my
home and they came in and they told me
what it was worth and and I have other
pieces of art and then I said well how
about I lined the family up my wife and
two kids I said what do you think he
said I don’t you know anyway so this is
page 10 had us valued at $6,000 so I
guess that was pretty good now this is a
placard you know that is put up in his
honor
he was the first surgeon to excessively
amputate a leg all the way up to the hip
on a slave a young slave person and and
I and I always say I just hope it needed
to come off and he wasn’t just
practicing I don’t know about that you
know would you want to be too Peart hey
come here you I got a plan but anyway so
he he cuts somebody’s leg off it worked
because there hadn’t there had an F it
had never been done before in the world
and he was the first so I’ve got his DNA
running through my so I’m gonna be
cutting legs off after the show now if
you remember page 10 Cornelius Brashear
Cornelius for sure decided he didn’t
want to be a slave anymore and I guess
back then that wasn’t very popular thing
to do but anyway he ran away he was a
runaway slave and he joined the first
Louisiana native guard misses a picture
of his his group and they were the first
group of slave to be mustered into the
Union Army so they fought for the good
side I guess I don’t know we’ll see we
are in Pennsylvania so it’s you know
anyway so he is my
great-great-grandfather
I mean great-grandfather and he was
injured at the Battle of Port Hudson in
Louisiana and this was a certificate I
went to the Civil War Museum in
Washington DC met with the folks there I
said my great-grandfather was in this
group and he looked it up he had a big
book and he turned to pages and dust was
flying everywhere and he says yeah
absolutely he fought in
you know we’ve got a record of him and
he said if you go down the street around
the corner he said there’s a civil war
memorial there and his name is engraved
in it and I went there and I saw them
and I was like so proud I said cool this
is my great-uncle my dad’s uncle Eugene
and my uncle Eugene now this is the same
if you got to keep in mind this is the
family line so these are some great
people he was the first African American
deep sea diver and I and I knew him he
died when I was 15 he was not only my
uncle but he was my godfather and he
used to tell these funny stories and
he’s an African American and he’s down
below 235 feet below the surface and
there’s two white guys up there whip
feeding him air and he had to really
make good friends with him because then
he said they would play with the air off
on off on off on that kind of thing but
he was he was an incredible gentleman
this picture here is from 1952
evany magazine he was 55 years old and
he was still diving so and this is
another Brashear find some humor in grim
underwater work and so he was doing his
thing had a big knife and everything
this is my cousin again the same
bloodline this is my cousin Oscar and he
he’s about 70 years old lives in Los
Angeles I talked to him probably a
couple weeks ago I asked him if it was
okay if I use this picture he said no
and but I used it anyway I mean you know
some people don’t like their picture
views but you know that’s alright if you
can’t take a joke but anyway Oscar is
they say one of the best trumpet players
in the world today and he’s been playing
he started with Count Basie’s Orchestra
some years ago the young people won’t
know who that is but anybody that’s
anybody in music Oscar is a studio
musician which means he reads music and
so he plays music and he can be he goes
to New York he plays in the orchestra
pit he was on the young people might
have heard Dancing with the Stars well
he played on on Dancing with the Stars
in the in the orchestra they’re good man
so again I’m trying to find myself right
so I end up in New Orleans Louisiana
during Hurricane Katrina I just happen
to be a transportation they called me an
expert so I get a call in the middle and
we got 80,000 people in the Superdome
and the Convention Center can you help
get them out Dwight and so I went down
to Louisiana and this is a letter from
the governor of the state of Louisiana
saying Dwight you are officially a hero
in our state and I said wow that’s
pretty cool my wife said we’re leaving
Louisiana and you’re no longer a hero
because we live now in Portland so but
anytime I go back to Louisiana I’m
considered a hero and so this is me on
the cover of a national magazine you
know just trying to find my way again
that bloodline so I I took what happened
in the past and I made I turned it into
a positive right and so I knew I had
ancestors had done incredible things I
too wanted to do something incredible
and I guess it ended up being helping
80,000 people moving them out of harm’s
way so I’ll leave you with this dr. King
six months before he was assassinated in
Philadelphia he was speaking to a group
of young people many like the young
people that are in here today and he
challenged him he says what is the
blueprint for your life you have to have
a blueprint for your life where are you
going what is your future going to be
and so he threw that out there to them
and I’m sure much like the way you’re
thinking about it now you probably
really don’t know if you’re young really
young person but it’s something to think
about you can’t put up a building the
building that were in would fall down if
there wasn’t a blueprint at some point
right so he said this he said if you
can’t be a pine on the top of the hill
he said just be a shrub in the valley
but be the best little shrub on the side
of the real be a bush if he can’t be a
tree he said if you can’t be a highway
just be a trail if you can’t be the Sun
be a star it isn’t by size that you win
or you fail be the best of whatever you
are thank you [Applause]
good you know I’ve always wanted to be
on the red carpet and now I’m on the red
carpet but they gave me instructions
they said stay on the red carpet so if I
start to I love to you know wander a
little bit so if I start to wander you
guys yell hey all right
again I’m Dwight Bashir I flew all the
way from Portland Oregon to be here with
you today and so it’s exciting for me to
be here who knows what happened 50 years
ago this past Wednesday anybody 50 years
ago this past Wednesday which would have
been April 4th dr. Martin Luther King
jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine
Motel in Memphis Tennessee and most of
the people in this audience aren’t old
enough to remember when that happened
but uh unfortunately I am for a number
of reasons so this past Wednesday
collectively we mourned the anniversary
of his assassination and what a time
that that was back in 1968 and as I
think back to dr. King and I was I was a
young young boy then dr. King in 1963
August of 1963 went to Washington DC and
they called it the march on Washington
and that’s when he had an opportunity to
tell a nation about a dream that he had
and he talked about this dream that was
deeply rooted in the American dream he
had a dream where he thought that one
day his four little children could grow
up in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character and he
told an entire world about this dream
and so I want to dedicate my ten minutes
or so that I have left to dr. King his
memory and his dream dr. King said that
history is the long story of the facts
history is the long story of the facts
and then as this
civil rights movement moved forward and
things got very violent in in Alabama
and Bull Connor and in Birmingham and
throughout the south he changed it a
little bit and he said history is the
long and sometimes tragic story of the
facts but in spite of that he still had
a dream a dream that was for a better
future for everybody sitting in this
room including myself so I stand on his
shoulders today nineteen fifty I believe
it was Rosa Parks refused to give up her
seat on a bus and in doing so in
refusing to stand up she was standing up
for all of us in the greatness that
America represents and so I want to tell
you a little story back in in the early
80s I lost one of my best friends in a
drowning accident I tried desperately to
save his life boat capsized we’re in the
water
we’re both well you know trying to
survive and unfortunately he didn’t make
it and I did and for years I wondered
why why didn’t I die that day out on the
lake why was I here and I read something
that said that and it’s really you know
it brings back memories but I read
something that said be the change in the
world that you want to see be that
change that you want to see and I also
read that there are the two most
important days in a person’s life are
one the day that they are born and then
the second day is the day they figure
out why and they start to pursue that
as low had a theory of hierarchy and you
probably have seen it it looks like a
pyramid at the bottom of that pyramid
are the basic things that we need in
life family love security and as you get
toward the pinnacle of that pyramid
there’s something called
self-actualization and that’s when a
human being realizes their purpose in
life not the meaning of life we’ll never
figure that out but you understand why
you are here and so I went on a journey
I’m still here why am I here why is my
friend not here and so on this journey I
had to figure out who I was how did I
get here and so I put this together to
kind of show you what I found and it was
amazing to me this gentleman that you
see this is his last will and testament
he’s a gentleman by the name of dr.
Walter Brashear out of Louisiana now I
knew my family was from Louisiana my
last name is merr shear I found out that
the last name is French but I’m not so
how did I get the last name it came from
this gentleman right here he was a
doctor he was a world-renowned surgeon
he was a farmer and he was a slave owner
he owned my family but not only did he
own my family he’s my great-great-great
grandfather and I was able to find that
out through the records so I am the son
of a former slaves and the son of a
former slave owner this is page 10 from
his last will and testament you can’t
see it from there so I’ll just tell you
what it’s about on this page you will
find Clarissa who is my great-great
grandmother and then Cornelius who is my
great-grandfather and at the time of his
death in 1861 he had my entire family
valued at $6,000 and I don’t figure
we’re worth much more
now I’m just kidding I’m just kidding
you know there is no you can’t get
someone to do an appraisal of your fam I
brought somebody in and I and I you know
I have a Salvador Dali painting in my
home and they came in and they told me
what it was worth and and I have other
pieces of art and then I said well how
about I lined the family up my wife and
two kids I said what do you think he
said I don’t you know anyway so this is
page 10 had us valued at $6,000 so I
guess that was pretty good now this is a
placard you know that is put up in his
honor
he was the first surgeon to excessively
amputate a leg all the way up to the hip
on a slave a young slave person and and
I and I always say I just hope it needed
to come off and he wasn’t just
practicing I don’t know about that you
know would you want to be too Peart hey
come here you I got a plan but anyway so
he he cuts somebody’s leg off it worked
because there hadn’t there had an F it
had never been done before in the world
and he was the first so I’ve got his DNA
running through my so I’m gonna be
cutting legs off after the show now if
you remember page 10 Cornelius Brashear
Cornelius for sure decided he didn’t
want to be a slave anymore and I guess
back then that wasn’t very popular thing
to do but anyway he ran away he was a
runaway slave and he joined the first
Louisiana native guard misses a picture
of his his group and they were the first
group of slave to be mustered into the
Union Army so they fought for the good
side I guess I don’t know we’ll see we
are in Pennsylvania so it’s you know
anyway so he is my
great-great-grandfather
I mean great-grandfather and he was
injured at the Battle of Port Hudson in
Louisiana and this was a certificate I
went to the Civil War Museum in
Washington DC met with the folks there I
said my great-grandfather was in this
group and he looked it up he had a big
book and he turned to pages and dust was
flying everywhere and he says yeah
absolutely he fought in
you know we’ve got a record of him and
he said if you go down the street around
the corner he said there’s a civil war
memorial there and his name is engraved
in it and I went there and I saw them
and I was like so proud I said cool this
is my great-uncle my dad’s uncle Eugene
and my uncle Eugene now this is the same
if you got to keep in mind this is the
family line so these are some great
people he was the first African American
deep sea diver and I and I knew him he
died when I was 15 he was not only my
uncle but he was my godfather and he
used to tell these funny stories and
he’s an African American and he’s down
below 235 feet below the surface and
there’s two white guys up there whip
feeding him air and he had to really
make good friends with him because then
he said they would play with the air off
on off on off on that kind of thing but
he was he was an incredible gentleman
this picture here is from 1952
evany magazine he was 55 years old and
he was still diving so and this is
another Brashear find some humor in grim
underwater work and so he was doing his
thing had a big knife and everything
this is my cousin again the same
bloodline this is my cousin Oscar and he
he’s about 70 years old lives in Los
Angeles I talked to him probably a
couple weeks ago I asked him if it was
okay if I use this picture he said no
and but I used it anyway I mean you know
some people don’t like their picture
views but you know that’s alright if you
can’t take a joke but anyway Oscar is
they say one of the best trumpet players
in the world today and he’s been playing
he started with Count Basie’s Orchestra
some years ago the young people won’t
know who that is but anybody that’s
anybody in music Oscar is a studio
musician which means he reads music and
so he plays music and he can be he goes
to New York he plays in the orchestra
pit he was on the young people might
have heard Dancing with the Stars well
he played on on Dancing with the Stars
in the in the orchestra they’re good man
so again I’m trying to find myself right
so I end up in New Orleans Louisiana
during Hurricane Katrina I just happen
to be a transportation they called me an
expert so I get a call in the middle and
we got 80,000 people in the Superdome
and the Convention Center can you help
get them out Dwight and so I went down
to Louisiana and this is a letter from
the governor of the state of Louisiana
saying Dwight you are officially a hero
in our state and I said wow that’s
pretty cool my wife said we’re leaving
Louisiana and you’re no longer a hero
because we live now in Portland so but
anytime I go back to Louisiana I’m
considered a hero and so this is me on
the cover of a national magazine you
know just trying to find my way again
that bloodline so I I took what happened
in the past and I made I turned it into
a positive right and so I knew I had
ancestors had done incredible things I
too wanted to do something incredible
and I guess it ended up being helping
80,000 people moving them out of harm’s
way so I’ll leave you with this dr. King
six months before he was assassinated in
Philadelphia he was speaking to a group
of young people many like the young
people that are in here today and he
challenged him he says what is the
blueprint for your life you have to have
a blueprint for your life where are you
going what is your future going to be
and so he threw that out there to them
and I’m sure much like the way you’re
thinking about it now you probably
really don’t know if you’re young really
young person but it’s something to think
about you can’t put up a building the
building that were in would fall down if
there wasn’t a blueprint at some point
right so he said this he said if you
can’t be a pine on the top of the hill
he said just be a shrub in the valley
but be the best little shrub on the side
of the real be a bush if he can’t be a
tree he said if you can’t be a highway
just be a trail if you can’t be the Sun
be a star it isn’t by size that you win
or you fail be the best of whatever you
are thank you [Applause]
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