[Applause]
Alex I couldn’t agree with you more
about parents being superheroes
mine are here and they’re my superheroes
in fact I’m gonna start talking about my
mother also known as Weezy in 2000 she
start wearing the hijab
what’s a hijab this is a hijab it’s
nothing weird it’s just an Arabic word
it means veil or head cover and many
Muslim women wear a hijab it’s not
required of us I don’t wear one but my
mother’s start wearing one in 2004 prior
to that she looked like any other mother
a beautiful American woman raising her
kids and her family she was just the
all-american mom she attended all the
PTA meetings she went to all our
baseball games not mine my brothers
she went to basketball games my dad
worked tirelessly to keep the family
solvent well he also studied to go to
medical school they did the best they
could but my mother is also a refugee a
refugee someone who loses their home and
at the age of 16 my mom and 17 family
members were forced into a tank to
escape they lived in Jerusalem for many
decades many centuries peacefully with
Jews Christians and Muslims in fact my
grandfather had a very very solid
business where he employed all these
people and they lived there very happily
until one day their home was about to be
taken and so they got in this tank and
behind them was my uncle the picture of
my uncle it’s my mom’s oldest brother
he followed them in the pickup truck in
a way that he thought would protect them
but in that moment my uncle lost his
life because he was shot and killed as
he was trying to protect his family I’m
sure that was hard on my mom she doesn’t
talk about it much but the family still
escaped and they went to Jordan that’s
where they sought refuge and they
started to build a life there my mom and
her sister started sewing to help the
family make money everybody had a job in
a position and two weeks later my
grandfather who had stayed behind to
close up the family business was in a
coffee shop having discussions with
other men who stayed behind and a bomb
went off in that coffee shop and he died
I never not got to know my grandfather
but in those two weeks my mom lost her
brother and her father but my mom’s a
survivor
and she got educated and she met my
father and they came to the United
States where they both worked tirelessly
to give us the best life they could my
father always says you’re American by
chance I’m American by choice and he’s
right and then I was resonated with me
to pay attention to what I had in front
of me all the opportunity I had and to
make sure that I capitalized on
everything I could and each one of his
children I believe did the same they
built the American dream for us we look
like any other family here in the United
States they always taught us about our
roots the love of our country the love
of their country which is our country as
well but they provided for us we did
everything any other American kid did
but Alice sort of felt a little
different on the inside like I just
wanted a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich in a lunchbox with the Jetsons
on it well my mom sent me to school with
a little crumb of Sandwich in a brown
paper bag and all the kids would make
all this noise about
what is that but you guys all love from
us now right my mom was ahead of her
time but back to the hijab why did she
decide to wear it in all those years
until she was about 68 she never wore it
my mom and my dad went to do the Hajj
the Hajj is simply the pilgrimage that’s
required of a Muslim if you’re
physically and financially able to do it
and of course my parents were able to do
that and so they went performed the Hajj
which is done in Mecca the one that came
back my mom had this thing on her head
and we were like mom why you were in
that thing on your head
my dad didn’t really like it he never
asked her to wear it yeah he still
doesn’t like it and she kept it on and
we thought it was a thing and it was
gonna pass but it did not pass and
that’s when my mom start wearing the
hijab so she was probably 68 years old
but he job changed how people treated my
mother and I never realized it but I’ll
give you an example one day my mom and I
were traveling to Florida and being the
nice daughter that I am I bought her a
first-class ticket I had to wait to get
upgraded so I was getting I was late to
the gate
she was at the gate trying to board the
plane with her first-class boarding
ticket and the man was screaming at her
saying ma’am we are only boarding
first-class and so I ran up there and I
said then why are you screaming at my
mother he said I told her we’re only
born in first-class
I said well she has a first-class ticket
but he couldn’t hear her he was busy
listening to her tab and it shook me up
it really actually made me very angry we
boarded the plane and we went our way
but even last year my dad and my mom
were in Florida alone
my dad was parking the car he doesn’t
park cars very well
and some man got angry with him and he
told him to roll down his window so my
dad world down his window and the man
screamed at him go back to where you
came from
and my mom and dad actually more my dad
was scared and he pleaded with my mother
please take off that hijab they would
not know us any differently
except for you wearing that and none of
us were there with them and it actually
shook us all up but my mom did take off
the hijab for the moment and she did for
the duration of the trip but she put her
EJ bond again because it brought her
back to her roots it reminded her of her
faith and of her roots and along those
lines I always wanted to get back to my
roots I do a lot of community support
help work volunteerism but I always
wanted to do something back that would
help the people that were just like my
mom and dad who came to this country
some of them without a home like my mom
some people like my dad who just wanted
a chance to make a better life for
himself and his children and so I
decided to talk to my sister Rhonda who
led audiological mission trip to the
Middle East and I said I’m gonna go with
you on this trip and she said great join
us so I went with her to do this
volunteer work and I had been to the
Middle East many times this time was a
little bit different we got there to
Jordan where my mom’s family lived it
didn’t look any different it was chaos
their dirty streets no organization but
with 30 people that went with us most of
them American we get to this dilapidated
building and all of a sudden all these
people open all these suitcases and they
retrofit this thing into a clinic
there’s one room for people to test
their hearing there’s one room to clean
the ears there’s one room for artwork
for children to express themselves
because why do they lose their hearing a
lot of them lost their hearing because
they came from war-torn countries Iraqis
Syrians Palestinians who’ve been there
for death
and we were there to help them restore
their hearing and my job this time was
to be an interpreter which should be
relatively easy is take one word and you
translate it into another word well this
particular time it was easy in the
beginning and I was following families
well as I was following this one family
I became very drained I couldn’t figure
out why I was becoming drained but this
little boy his name’s Muhammad he had to
have his ears cleaned he was screaming
bloody murder because it hurts he had
impacted wax god knows how long it was
there and he went to the drawing room to
settle down for a little bit and then I
took him into the audiologist and the
other allergist set him down on his
chair the parents stood behind him the
audiologist in front of him to help them
and she put her hand under his vocal
cords and said say mom
and he said mom she said Mohammed say
Baba
he said Baba and all of a sudden he got
this huge smile that went from one year
to the other which I learned was the
hearing smile the first time he heard
his voice again and it was amazing and
Austrian and to see his parents with the
tears in their eyes knowing that their
child had a chance to potentially go out
and get educated and get out of a
refugee camp and maybe go on with their
life was amazing to me and so here’s
some more of those hearings Myles this
trip had a huge impact on me and when I
came back it was it was incredible and I
decided that we take our hearing for
granted in fact we have so much coming
at us all the time we can’t even
discriminate what’s what’s and we have
our own biases in our head and a lot of
times we listen to things that help us
reinforce our biases and I’m no
different I do the same thing in fact
ten years ago I met a woman named
Barbara Barbara who was perfect
she had perfect hair perfect shoes
perfect purse perfect suit and in my
mind she got up in the morning and
somebody opened the door for her to
leave handed her coffee she got in her
she was whisked off to work that
was Barbara she had money and power and
she was an executive at a health care
company and I happen to be a lowly
volunteer that helped them out and my
job for that organization was to help
them raise money and I just always
inside felt like those administrators
don’t dig deep enough and so I decided
one day I want to challenge that little
Barbara thing that perfect little thing
and as we were leaving a meeting I said
hey Barbara what do you think about us
having a party at your house we could
raise a lot of money there she took the
rock out of my hand she said sure that’d
be great
and so we planned a party at Barbara’s
house and for the next five years we did
that party and we raised a lot of money
in fact at the last one we raised over a
million dollars and as we did this we
became fast friends we traveled we spent
time with family we worked together we
played together we we did good in the
world I hope together and one day she
said to me hey I want to go on that
mission trip with you and she did and
she’s gone too many of them but this
last trip something really interesting
happened you know I failed to tell you
about the refugee camps when you go
there you have to prepare yourself it’s
not very clean there’s dust
there’s beating Sun there’s obviously no
air condition the people there are just
their noses are running their clothes
are dirty and you have to decide if
you’re gonna drink any water or eat
anything by looking at the bathroom
that’s the first thing you do before you
do anything else
is there a bathroom is there a toilet is
there a toilet seat is it a hole in the
ground you make your decisions well over
those five years that we’ve been going
there Barbara never went to the bathroom
because she’s perfect remember
but on this last day of the last mission
trip that we went on Barbara said hey
can you do me a favor she’s asking me
for help I said sure
so we guard the door while I go to the
bathroom I said sure and it didn’t occur
to me right then what was happening but
I stood there guarding the door and then
all of a sudden something happened to me
I start grinning from ear to ear
that was my hearing smile seeing that
that bias I had in my head was so wrong
about Barbara and so I want to share
with you what some of these hearing
smiles look like sharing stories with
friends at home now connected
I used to feel alone
[Music]
laughs are louder
perfect
I’ve done together is gone too soon
capture every
and here the world surrounding me
bringing us together to go from me
[Music]
finally
now I hear
to me
[Music]
baby my life
the good
Misao
oddly I can hear the music
to the world
and now I can
to me
that one fading my life was given
to me
[Applause]
much
[Music]
[Music]
so while it’s important for those
children to hear it’s also important to
be heard my hope is that we can listen
to one another to be heard and that we
also hear what’s being said and I want
to thank you for listening to me
[Applause]
Alex I couldn’t agree with you more
about parents being superheroes
mine are here and they’re my superheroes
in fact I’m gonna start talking about my
mother also known as Weezy in 2000 she
start wearing the hijab
what’s a hijab this is a hijab it’s
nothing weird it’s just an Arabic word
it means veil or head cover and many
Muslim women wear a hijab it’s not
required of us I don’t wear one but my
mother’s start wearing one in 2004 prior
to that she looked like any other mother
a beautiful American woman raising her
kids and her family she was just the
all-american mom she attended all the
PTA meetings she went to all our
baseball games not mine my brothers
she went to basketball games my dad
worked tirelessly to keep the family
solvent well he also studied to go to
medical school they did the best they
could but my mother is also a refugee a
refugee someone who loses their home and
at the age of 16 my mom and 17 family
members were forced into a tank to
escape they lived in Jerusalem for many
decades many centuries peacefully with
Jews Christians and Muslims in fact my
grandfather had a very very solid
business where he employed all these
people and they lived there very happily
until one day their home was about to be
taken and so they got in this tank and
behind them was my uncle the picture of
my uncle it’s my mom’s oldest brother
he followed them in the pickup truck in
a way that he thought would protect them
but in that moment my uncle lost his
life because he was shot and killed as
he was trying to protect his family I’m
sure that was hard on my mom she doesn’t
talk about it much but the family still
escaped and they went to Jordan that’s
where they sought refuge and they
started to build a life there my mom and
her sister started sewing to help the
family make money everybody had a job in
a position and two weeks later my
grandfather who had stayed behind to
close up the family business was in a
coffee shop having discussions with
other men who stayed behind and a bomb
went off in that coffee shop and he died
I never not got to know my grandfather
but in those two weeks my mom lost her
brother and her father but my mom’s a
survivor
and she got educated and she met my
father and they came to the United
States where they both worked tirelessly
to give us the best life they could my
father always says you’re American by
chance I’m American by choice and he’s
right and then I was resonated with me
to pay attention to what I had in front
of me all the opportunity I had and to
make sure that I capitalized on
everything I could and each one of his
children I believe did the same they
built the American dream for us we look
like any other family here in the United
States they always taught us about our
roots the love of our country the love
of their country which is our country as
well but they provided for us we did
everything any other American kid did
but Alice sort of felt a little
different on the inside like I just
wanted a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich in a lunchbox with the Jetsons
on it well my mom sent me to school with
a little crumb of Sandwich in a brown
paper bag and all the kids would make
all this noise about
what is that but you guys all love from
us now right my mom was ahead of her
time but back to the hijab why did she
decide to wear it in all those years
until she was about 68 she never wore it
my mom and my dad went to do the Hajj
the Hajj is simply the pilgrimage that’s
required of a Muslim if you’re
physically and financially able to do it
and of course my parents were able to do
that and so they went performed the Hajj
which is done in Mecca the one that came
back my mom had this thing on her head
and we were like mom why you were in
that thing on your head
my dad didn’t really like it he never
asked her to wear it yeah he still
doesn’t like it and she kept it on and
we thought it was a thing and it was
gonna pass but it did not pass and
that’s when my mom start wearing the
hijab so she was probably 68 years old
but he job changed how people treated my
mother and I never realized it but I’ll
give you an example one day my mom and I
were traveling to Florida and being the
nice daughter that I am I bought her a
first-class ticket I had to wait to get
upgraded so I was getting I was late to
the gate
she was at the gate trying to board the
plane with her first-class boarding
ticket and the man was screaming at her
saying ma’am we are only boarding
first-class and so I ran up there and I
said then why are you screaming at my
mother he said I told her we’re only
born in first-class
I said well she has a first-class ticket
but he couldn’t hear her he was busy
listening to her tab and it shook me up
it really actually made me very angry we
boarded the plane and we went our way
but even last year my dad and my mom
were in Florida alone
my dad was parking the car he doesn’t
park cars very well
and some man got angry with him and he
told him to roll down his window so my
dad world down his window and the man
screamed at him go back to where you
came from
and my mom and dad actually more my dad
was scared and he pleaded with my mother
please take off that hijab they would
not know us any differently
except for you wearing that and none of
us were there with them and it actually
shook us all up but my mom did take off
the hijab for the moment and she did for
the duration of the trip but she put her
EJ bond again because it brought her
back to her roots it reminded her of her
faith and of her roots and along those
lines I always wanted to get back to my
roots I do a lot of community support
help work volunteerism but I always
wanted to do something back that would
help the people that were just like my
mom and dad who came to this country
some of them without a home like my mom
some people like my dad who just wanted
a chance to make a better life for
himself and his children and so I
decided to talk to my sister Rhonda who
led audiological mission trip to the
Middle East and I said I’m gonna go with
you on this trip and she said great join
us so I went with her to do this
volunteer work and I had been to the
Middle East many times this time was a
little bit different we got there to
Jordan where my mom’s family lived it
didn’t look any different it was chaos
their dirty streets no organization but
with 30 people that went with us most of
them American we get to this dilapidated
building and all of a sudden all these
people open all these suitcases and they
retrofit this thing into a clinic
there’s one room for people to test
their hearing there’s one room to clean
the ears there’s one room for artwork
for children to express themselves
because why do they lose their hearing a
lot of them lost their hearing because
they came from war-torn countries Iraqis
Syrians Palestinians who’ve been there
for death
and we were there to help them restore
their hearing and my job this time was
to be an interpreter which should be
relatively easy is take one word and you
translate it into another word well this
particular time it was easy in the
beginning and I was following families
well as I was following this one family
I became very drained I couldn’t figure
out why I was becoming drained but this
little boy his name’s Muhammad he had to
have his ears cleaned he was screaming
bloody murder because it hurts he had
impacted wax god knows how long it was
there and he went to the drawing room to
settle down for a little bit and then I
took him into the audiologist and the
other allergist set him down on his
chair the parents stood behind him the
audiologist in front of him to help them
and she put her hand under his vocal
cords and said say mom
and he said mom she said Mohammed say
Baba
he said Baba and all of a sudden he got
this huge smile that went from one year
to the other which I learned was the
hearing smile the first time he heard
his voice again and it was amazing and
Austrian and to see his parents with the
tears in their eyes knowing that their
child had a chance to potentially go out
and get educated and get out of a
refugee camp and maybe go on with their
life was amazing to me and so here’s
some more of those hearings Myles this
trip had a huge impact on me and when I
came back it was it was incredible and I
decided that we take our hearing for
granted in fact we have so much coming
at us all the time we can’t even
discriminate what’s what’s and we have
our own biases in our head and a lot of
times we listen to things that help us
reinforce our biases and I’m no
different I do the same thing in fact
ten years ago I met a woman named
Barbara Barbara who was perfect
she had perfect hair perfect shoes
perfect purse perfect suit and in my
mind she got up in the morning and
somebody opened the door for her to
leave handed her coffee she got in her
she was whisked off to work that
was Barbara she had money and power and
she was an executive at a health care
company and I happen to be a lowly
volunteer that helped them out and my
job for that organization was to help
them raise money and I just always
inside felt like those administrators
don’t dig deep enough and so I decided
one day I want to challenge that little
Barbara thing that perfect little thing
and as we were leaving a meeting I said
hey Barbara what do you think about us
having a party at your house we could
raise a lot of money there she took the
rock out of my hand she said sure that’d
be great
and so we planned a party at Barbara’s
house and for the next five years we did
that party and we raised a lot of money
in fact at the last one we raised over a
million dollars and as we did this we
became fast friends we traveled we spent
time with family we worked together we
played together we we did good in the
world I hope together and one day she
said to me hey I want to go on that
mission trip with you and she did and
she’s gone too many of them but this
last trip something really interesting
happened you know I failed to tell you
about the refugee camps when you go
there you have to prepare yourself it’s
not very clean there’s dust
there’s beating Sun there’s obviously no
air condition the people there are just
their noses are running their clothes
are dirty and you have to decide if
you’re gonna drink any water or eat
anything by looking at the bathroom
that’s the first thing you do before you
do anything else
is there a bathroom is there a toilet is
there a toilet seat is it a hole in the
ground you make your decisions well over
those five years that we’ve been going
there Barbara never went to the bathroom
because she’s perfect remember
but on this last day of the last mission
trip that we went on Barbara said hey
can you do me a favor she’s asking me
for help I said sure
so we guard the door while I go to the
bathroom I said sure and it didn’t occur
to me right then what was happening but
I stood there guarding the door and then
all of a sudden something happened to me
I start grinning from ear to ear
that was my hearing smile seeing that
that bias I had in my head was so wrong
about Barbara and so I want to share
with you what some of these hearing
smiles look like sharing stories with
friends at home now connected
I used to feel alone
[Music]
laughs are louder
perfect
I’ve done together is gone too soon
capture every
and here the world surrounding me
bringing us together to go from me
[Music]
finally
now I hear
to me
[Music]
baby my life
the good
Misao
oddly I can hear the music
to the world
and now I can
to me
that one fading my life was given
to me
[Applause]
much
[Music]
[Music]
so while it’s important for those
children to hear it’s also important to
be heard my hope is that we can listen
to one another to be heard and that we
also hear what’s being said and I want
to thank you for listening to me
[Applause]
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