[Music]
it’s January 11th 2018 and I’m standing
knee-deep in a tangled stew of mud
sewage rocks and fallen trees in fact
I’m not just standing I’m stuck a moment
ago I lost my footing as I tried to walk
across a 2×4 and when I slipped the
thick mud underneath sucked me in that
quicksand yet trying to do myself out of
the mud in that moment wasn’t my biggest
concern my biggest concern was that I
was expecting to find a dead body inside
the house that was in front of me 48
hours earlier the community of Santa
Barbara suffered what’s been called a
debris flow that name is inadequate a
half of inch of rain in under five
minutes
overwhelmed the mountains above town
causing a downhill torrent of boulders
the size of semi trucks thick eucalyptus
trees and viscous mud that wiped out
entire neighborhoods tore homes clean
off their foundations and killed 23
people so here I am two days after this
disaster sinking in the front yard of
this house I was there because a report
to come in of a body that had possibly
been left behind by first responders who
were anxious and frantic to find live
victims along with some others we tried
to force the front door open but three
feet of mud made that impossible so we
broke a small window to get inside I am
a deputy sheriff in the state of
California I’m a cop and often referred
to as a first responder in a communal
title that includes fire and emergency
medical personnel and with this title
I’m granted access to witness inspiring
acts of bravery and courage by fellow
first responders on a regular basis I am
proud beyond words for my association
with this group even with all our tools
and resources were limited and what we
can accomplish in the wake of a disaster
we all carry the tools of our chosen
professions as a cop I carry the tools
for the job I’m sworn to do and firemen
carry hoses and axes and medics carry
medicine and bandages and together we
form society’s safety net like any net
it’s filled with holes who is there to
catch the people that fall through our
net stuck in the mud of that house the
enormity of this disaster begins to
overwhelm me the house across the street
from me is missing its living room
around the corner from here a man who
just had his house destroyed found a
baby alive in the mud two doors up for
me
the house what’s left of it has a car in
front that’s so mangled at the front and
back wheels are touching north of me the
doctor who operated on my own hand died
with his daughter who was home from
college that street that I was sinking
on had become a temporary burial ground
when we finally broke our way into the
home I was relieved to find that it was
actually empty and I later learned that
how are these people going to get their
lives back in order and careful they
even start and what’s needed to rebuild
a community I looked at my gun belt and
at the fire engine out on the street and
inside the back of the ambulance we
didn’t have what this would require as I
sprayed the mud off me that day I really
had no idea that what this would require
was an orange bucket see in the days
after the disaster as efforts shifted
from rescuing survivors to recovering
victims citizens began showing up with
those orange buckets they were
organizing through social media and
going out and helping people dig out of
their homes homes that were often filled
to the second story with mud they called
themselves the bucket brigade and they
quickly swelled to dozens and dozens of
members they even made t-shirts
it was incredibly frustrating to me that
these do-gooders were getting in the way
of my important work it looked
ridiculous it really did an entire
Mountain millions and millions of pounds
of mud had slid into town and these
people stood at the base of it thinking
they were going to help what can one
person do when an entire mountain lands
on top of a community it turns out they
can do a lot I was too wrapped up in the
chaos of the event to realize it wasn’t
about what these people were hauling
away in those buckets was about what
they’re bringing in they’re bringing in
hope I am a first responder and I
absolutely love my job
but I also know that I am not enough and
that I need help I need the second
responders our success and our greatest
moments of need will always depend on
how regular people step into their role
as a second responder when you become a
second responder you become someone’s
hero my heroes are the second responders
but I’m worried about them I’m worried
that we’re in danger of losing our
ability to see these heroes that are all
around us we’re at risk of losing the
courage to be those heroes that I need
heroes that you might need one day we
should be moving closer to each other at
the exact moment that we’re actually
moving farther away I’m worried that
people are assuming a first responder
will be their hero when they’re much
more likely to need a friend a neighbor
or a complete stranger Nobel laureate
romain rolland said a hero is a man who
does what he can I love that I have at
times been called a hero and to me that
label makes me uncomfortable because I’m
simply here doing what I can
defending a constitution that I believe
in and a community that I care about I
can do that this definition of a hero is
important because it takes this
intimidating label out of the
stratosphere and down to eye level where
we’re beginning to see the heroes that
are all around us
in this way we get to see the heroes in
the mirror – Carlos Arredondo lost his
oldest son Lance Corporal Alex Arredondo
in Iraq in 2004 when the Marines came to
his house to give him the news
Carlos locked himself inside their van
and set it on fire
the Marines pulled him out and Carlos
regrouped and later committed himself to
a life of activism to honor his son
that’s what led him to the finish line
of the 2013 Boston Marathon where he
jumped into the fray and helped save the
life of Jeff Bauman who had just had
both legs amputated by the blast when he
was asked why he did it Carlos said I
just went to help in any way possible
Alba Sommers was a struggling punk rock
musician in Los Angeles when he struck
up a conversation with a homeless woman
he’d seen in the neighborhood Elvis was
offended by the idea that a grandmother
was living in the gutter so he did what
any struggling punk rock musician would
do he built her a house a small one and
on wheels but with her roof in a locking
door Elvis went on to build more of
these tiny homes building a bridge
between that gutter and the dignity of
having a roof when he was asked why he
did it he just shrugged and said it
gives him hope like a lot of young kids
12-year old Sammy Stryker spent some
time this summer at her homemade
lemonade stand in Saginaw Michigan
she’s been him an entrepreneur Sammy
this is her third year doing this stand
back when she was nine she wanted to buy
school clothes with her profits but then
she learned about some injured veterans
in her community I couldn’t get the
medical care they needed so she started
raising money instead Sammy credits
using extra sugar for her success and in
her third year
Sammy raised 21 hundred dollars for
injured veterans for people she never
met for people who already did what they
could when you do what you can you
become a hero as a first responder I’ve
seen sadness and acts of evil that high
I never want to retell I’ve also had a
prime seat to witness our need for hope
and our collective resilience the
greatest gift of being a first responder
has been watching how second responders
can come into our aid regular people can
step into a role and serve something
that’s larger than themselves bigger
than their own lives and become
someone’s hero now these heroes they
function in different ways so the
challenge is usually in convincing you
of your heroic status so to do that I’m
going to put on the first ever second
responder Academy here it is first and
this is something I learned only a few
years ago and is absolutely transformed
how I do my job as a first responder the
greatest thing about it is that it’s
just a thought it doesn’t require action
interaction or reaction make a wish for
another person that they may find the
meaning of happiness if you’re brave
make that wish of happiness for a
stranger the person next to you in
traffic or the beggar on the corner and
if you’re bold make it for the wicked
among us when you do this it’s the first
step towards becoming someone’s advocate
their teammate and we’re all on the same
team did you know that we share 99.9% of
our DNA with every other human being on
earth and that we share 60% of our DNA
with a banana so we are not that
different folks
we are clearly in this together the next
step to becoming a second responder is
to find the opportunities to lead and
everybody has opportunities to lead
sometimes it’s as easy as being the one
to set the example to me a guy coaching
his daughter’s soccer team on the
weekends has as much an obligation to be
a second responder as I do when I strap
on my body armor as a first responder
he’s been given the opportunity the gift
of leading young girls for a few hours a
week and showing them how they should
expect to be treated in the world
finally to be a second respondent is to
simply do what you can
that will mean different things at
different times in your life even day to
day but do what you can step up when
your community is hurting when your
neighbors community is hurting when the
youth need guidance and the elderly need
friendship but instead of just being
kind be of service ask yourself how can
you be more effective and then go do
what you can when you do that you give
people hope so who fills the holes in
that first responder safety net you do
right I can’t do it without you
the second responders who fill the holes
on our net but people who do what they
can who strive to fill one five-gallon
bucket at a time I need your help
I need you to be a second responder I
look forward to working with you thank
you [Applause]
it’s January 11th 2018 and I’m standing
knee-deep in a tangled stew of mud
sewage rocks and fallen trees in fact
I’m not just standing I’m stuck a moment
ago I lost my footing as I tried to walk
across a 2×4 and when I slipped the
thick mud underneath sucked me in that
quicksand yet trying to do myself out of
the mud in that moment wasn’t my biggest
concern my biggest concern was that I
was expecting to find a dead body inside
the house that was in front of me 48
hours earlier the community of Santa
Barbara suffered what’s been called a
debris flow that name is inadequate a
half of inch of rain in under five
minutes
overwhelmed the mountains above town
causing a downhill torrent of boulders
the size of semi trucks thick eucalyptus
trees and viscous mud that wiped out
entire neighborhoods tore homes clean
off their foundations and killed 23
people so here I am two days after this
disaster sinking in the front yard of
this house I was there because a report
to come in of a body that had possibly
been left behind by first responders who
were anxious and frantic to find live
victims along with some others we tried
to force the front door open but three
feet of mud made that impossible so we
broke a small window to get inside I am
a deputy sheriff in the state of
California I’m a cop and often referred
to as a first responder in a communal
title that includes fire and emergency
medical personnel and with this title
I’m granted access to witness inspiring
acts of bravery and courage by fellow
first responders on a regular basis I am
proud beyond words for my association
with this group even with all our tools
and resources were limited and what we
can accomplish in the wake of a disaster
we all carry the tools of our chosen
professions as a cop I carry the tools
for the job I’m sworn to do and firemen
carry hoses and axes and medics carry
medicine and bandages and together we
form society’s safety net like any net
it’s filled with holes who is there to
catch the people that fall through our
net stuck in the mud of that house the
enormity of this disaster begins to
overwhelm me the house across the street
from me is missing its living room
around the corner from here a man who
just had his house destroyed found a
baby alive in the mud two doors up for
me
the house what’s left of it has a car in
front that’s so mangled at the front and
back wheels are touching north of me the
doctor who operated on my own hand died
with his daughter who was home from
college that street that I was sinking
on had become a temporary burial ground
when we finally broke our way into the
home I was relieved to find that it was
actually empty and I later learned that
how are these people going to get their
lives back in order and careful they
even start and what’s needed to rebuild
a community I looked at my gun belt and
at the fire engine out on the street and
inside the back of the ambulance we
didn’t have what this would require as I
sprayed the mud off me that day I really
had no idea that what this would require
was an orange bucket see in the days
after the disaster as efforts shifted
from rescuing survivors to recovering
victims citizens began showing up with
those orange buckets they were
organizing through social media and
going out and helping people dig out of
their homes homes that were often filled
to the second story with mud they called
themselves the bucket brigade and they
quickly swelled to dozens and dozens of
members they even made t-shirts
it was incredibly frustrating to me that
these do-gooders were getting in the way
of my important work it looked
ridiculous it really did an entire
Mountain millions and millions of pounds
of mud had slid into town and these
people stood at the base of it thinking
they were going to help what can one
person do when an entire mountain lands
on top of a community it turns out they
can do a lot I was too wrapped up in the
chaos of the event to realize it wasn’t
about what these people were hauling
away in those buckets was about what
they’re bringing in they’re bringing in
hope I am a first responder and I
absolutely love my job
but I also know that I am not enough and
that I need help I need the second
responders our success and our greatest
moments of need will always depend on
how regular people step into their role
as a second responder when you become a
second responder you become someone’s
hero my heroes are the second responders
but I’m worried about them I’m worried
that we’re in danger of losing our
ability to see these heroes that are all
around us we’re at risk of losing the
courage to be those heroes that I need
heroes that you might need one day we
should be moving closer to each other at
the exact moment that we’re actually
moving farther away I’m worried that
people are assuming a first responder
will be their hero when they’re much
more likely to need a friend a neighbor
or a complete stranger Nobel laureate
romain rolland said a hero is a man who
does what he can I love that I have at
times been called a hero and to me that
label makes me uncomfortable because I’m
simply here doing what I can
defending a constitution that I believe
in and a community that I care about I
can do that this definition of a hero is
important because it takes this
intimidating label out of the
stratosphere and down to eye level where
we’re beginning to see the heroes that
are all around us
in this way we get to see the heroes in
the mirror – Carlos Arredondo lost his
oldest son Lance Corporal Alex Arredondo
in Iraq in 2004 when the Marines came to
his house to give him the news
Carlos locked himself inside their van
and set it on fire
the Marines pulled him out and Carlos
regrouped and later committed himself to
a life of activism to honor his son
that’s what led him to the finish line
of the 2013 Boston Marathon where he
jumped into the fray and helped save the
life of Jeff Bauman who had just had
both legs amputated by the blast when he
was asked why he did it Carlos said I
just went to help in any way possible
Alba Sommers was a struggling punk rock
musician in Los Angeles when he struck
up a conversation with a homeless woman
he’d seen in the neighborhood Elvis was
offended by the idea that a grandmother
was living in the gutter so he did what
any struggling punk rock musician would
do he built her a house a small one and
on wheels but with her roof in a locking
door Elvis went on to build more of
these tiny homes building a bridge
between that gutter and the dignity of
having a roof when he was asked why he
did it he just shrugged and said it
gives him hope like a lot of young kids
12-year old Sammy Stryker spent some
time this summer at her homemade
lemonade stand in Saginaw Michigan
she’s been him an entrepreneur Sammy
this is her third year doing this stand
back when she was nine she wanted to buy
school clothes with her profits but then
she learned about some injured veterans
in her community I couldn’t get the
medical care they needed so she started
raising money instead Sammy credits
using extra sugar for her success and in
her third year
Sammy raised 21 hundred dollars for
injured veterans for people she never
met for people who already did what they
could when you do what you can you
become a hero as a first responder I’ve
seen sadness and acts of evil that high
I never want to retell I’ve also had a
prime seat to witness our need for hope
and our collective resilience the
greatest gift of being a first responder
has been watching how second responders
can come into our aid regular people can
step into a role and serve something
that’s larger than themselves bigger
than their own lives and become
someone’s hero now these heroes they
function in different ways so the
challenge is usually in convincing you
of your heroic status so to do that I’m
going to put on the first ever second
responder Academy here it is first and
this is something I learned only a few
years ago and is absolutely transformed
how I do my job as a first responder the
greatest thing about it is that it’s
just a thought it doesn’t require action
interaction or reaction make a wish for
another person that they may find the
meaning of happiness if you’re brave
make that wish of happiness for a
stranger the person next to you in
traffic or the beggar on the corner and
if you’re bold make it for the wicked
among us when you do this it’s the first
step towards becoming someone’s advocate
their teammate and we’re all on the same
team did you know that we share 99.9% of
our DNA with every other human being on
earth and that we share 60% of our DNA
with a banana so we are not that
different folks
we are clearly in this together the next
step to becoming a second responder is
to find the opportunities to lead and
everybody has opportunities to lead
sometimes it’s as easy as being the one
to set the example to me a guy coaching
his daughter’s soccer team on the
weekends has as much an obligation to be
a second responder as I do when I strap
on my body armor as a first responder
he’s been given the opportunity the gift
of leading young girls for a few hours a
week and showing them how they should
expect to be treated in the world
finally to be a second respondent is to
simply do what you can
that will mean different things at
different times in your life even day to
day but do what you can step up when
your community is hurting when your
neighbors community is hurting when the
youth need guidance and the elderly need
friendship but instead of just being
kind be of service ask yourself how can
you be more effective and then go do
what you can when you do that you give
people hope so who fills the holes in
that first responder safety net you do
right I can’t do it without you
the second responders who fill the holes
on our net but people who do what they
can who strive to fill one five-gallon
bucket at a time I need your help
I need you to be a second responder I
look forward to working with you thank
you [Applause]
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