John
Kenney and guy and I thank you Dan for organizing this and i UVA for inviting
me down and hosting me I'm you give me a mic in audience numbers my happiest as
any of your friends will tell you so so arm and you'll see a pic my friends
very carefully they all know the flattery will get you everywhere with me
seller I thank you again I just want to offer small she's not here tonight but
i wanna thank the single most important person in in all of my endeavors in
life are my wife Susan arm who are we hope we see the video tape this I wanna
say I love you and thank you arm we have three little girls and she does
yeoman's work chasing after them in raising them properly so to some extent
frees me up to I go out on my various crusades to try and improve the world a
little bit I also I think my parents and yeah I get the question a lot why
Whitney why do you spend its it frighteningly enough I try not to Tom investors
this probably half my waking hours on various a non-profit endeavors and are
why do I do an ass I question myself a lot especially in winter fun has a bad
day or worse yet a bad month for a bad year mom and I thought about it a lot
because its it's not particularly rational arm and I guess there are there are
three reasons are not one is genetic are my parents were the first couple to
meet and marry in the Peace Corps in day arm they heard.
I'm John F Kennedy ass now not weak your
country can do for you but what you can do for your country in a row where a
lot of people were feeling I suppose some word how they feel today arm and in
really my parents up feel this is the first time in forty six years and that
they felt similarly hired today and so there's a Anderson a genetic element if
I guess do-gooder -ism that I was born with and then was lectured about this
about you know throughout my entire childhood was told in reminded that up all
the people who've ever walk the face of the earth I'm in the top one-tenth of
one percent or the one percent of the luckiest in terms of all the gifts I've
been given from having great parents to on not born into any kind wealth but
certainly all of my basic needs were met at cetera and that ya had a great
education was lucky enough to go to Harvard I and Harvard Business School on
all in been basically I have never really suffered any major calamities in my
life by in pretty much.
Everything
is turned up roses and when you when you have that kind of fortune in your life
there's a there's a sense of duty and obligation to hard to give back rather
than use all those gifts to just me on pursue your own self-interest or and
become as wealthy as possible and that's it so part of its genetic part of its
my lectures that I got in the last piece that is arm is I'll say it's because
I'm selfish Tom and you might see a scratch your head and say well how is it in
your self-interest I to come to spend half your time doing this kinda stuff and
I was actually sorta writing down among nonprofit boards to give you an idea of
how extreme this missile behaviors arm and up its now I didn't know that until
five minutes ago honestly mom I thought it was eight minute remember to others
arm and that doesn't even count the list project the benefit the organization
that's benefiting from tonight that's just one of my sort one of Crusades and
I'll let me just tell you a little bit more about it cuz it's a wonderful
organization but I was watching sixty minutes um and they did a piece on Kirk
Johnson.
The
young man who was serving in Iraq are who suffered a he was working he wasn't
in the military but was working for USA I D and a while he was on leave he
suffered an injury didn't go back to Iraq but he started hearing from the Iraqis
who were on his payroll who'd worked for him and because they had worked for Americans
they were despised and targeted for death in Iraq and arm they either had to go
into hiding in Iraq and many of them fled to Syria Jordan cetera so there are
hard to know the exact numbers but certainly hundreds of thousands %uh Iraqis
who cannot return home or who live every day in fear are for their lives
because they worked with us as translators when out with the troops are on
missions diet center in many cases risking their lives in many cases there was
one Iraqi on minutes to the interviewed lost his leg in a because he was out
there with our troops and their ran into a firefight arm and there he was in Jordan
arm unable he could not the United States nobody wanted him in Jordan he
couldn't go back to Iraq in the United States wouldn't give him a visa to come
to the United States despite having not only you know served but lost his leg
you know trying to help our troops arm and I sorry got outraged and I thought
this was just completely immoral and wrong-headed and so I went to the website
and donate a thousand box and never thought I'd hear from it again what Kirk
Johnson.
The
young man who was profiled the minutes piece called me up turned out he lived
in New York comment and you know we sat down for lunch nom and he told me about
you know the incredible work he's doing I’m too for perspective on the United
States has taken fewer than Iraqi refugees in total Sweden has taken Sweden
which has no troops in Iraq has no interest at all in Iraq has taken forty
thousand after we left Vietnam we took a hundred thousand Vietnamese who had
cooperated with us and helped our troops in Vietnam who were whose lives were
in danger we took them out of Vietnam and resettle them in the United States um
yet we are doing virtually nothing I just spoke with Kirk this afternoon arm
and a he said he was really pleased that the total number of Iraqis through his
efforts that we've been able to resettle I is now about families so maybe a
thousand people
No comments:
Post a Comment