I am I'm so grateful a to be

a recipient this award to be keeping such extraordinary company

I first of all wanna thank

All of you were involved in making this possible

but the main thing that I want to do here is to just say I'm inspired

by young people who are representative because I think that's the purpose

ultimately this foundation and I want to tell just a brief story because

archbishop 22 is here one of my heroes

and let you know where I was when I was about your age

I'm really dating myself now although I'm

also betting their expression because a

back in nineteen 79

I was a freshman in college

at Occidental College and California and

I had had a somewhat rocky youth and and

teenage years my father was not home I

was growing up partly with my grandparents in high school

I got in trouble occasionally was what my mother called a good time Charlie

a meaning I wasn't really serious in terms of my

studies in terms my work had some awareness of the world around me

had some sense of injustice in on fairness

but it wasn't finally home that was well developed

and I remember in 1979 arriving as a freshman and doing what

freshman do your trying to figure out what courses

are in tryna changes study habits and try and identify about food in the

cafeteria what it is

%uh and a

we were visited on campus by a couple of gentleman from South Africa who

were represented as the ANC

in 1979 1980 and

they spoke about their efforts to overcome apartheid

and for up

an hour myself in a group of students

listened to these young men who were not

much older than we were describe the

extraordinary struggles they were going through the sacrifices that were being

made

people who it were in during jail and torture and beatings

because they had a sense that somehow

some way a justice would prevail and

that brief meeting I think in some ways changed my life

because why did told me first of all was that ordinary people can do

extraordinary things when they're given an opportunity

we sometimes think that our leaders have to be

have fancy degrees are well educated or some public office somewhere

these young men had not none of those things

about what they possessed was a

anger over injustice that they were able to channel in a constructive positive

way

and I thought to myself that

Bay gave me some sense the direction that my life

might go and so I became active

in the anti-apartheid movement on campuses and I'm

not sure we were particularly effective as I recall Occidental College

continued to refuse to divest despite the various protests that we organize

the students I transferred to Columbia

there was similar resistance on Columbia's campus but over time I like

to think that

I was part love that mosaic bat

apply pressure and ultimately helped

those in South Africa achieve the extraordinary liberation

that I would witness almost ten years later

night as a as a loss to

and I remember the image Nelson Mandela walking out of prison and

understanding that a seminal moment in history had occurred

and that mandela's long march towards freedom

was not his alone but was part

love thousands the footsteps love millions of footsteps of people

around the world and i trace back

me getting involved in politics to that mall

because I as a consequence is that organizing on a college campus I became

a community organizer as a consequence welcome your organizer a

after going back to law school became a civil rights attorney

as consequence a being a civil rights attorney I

entered the state legislature and I now stand before you as a

United States Senator and as a candidate for president

and so the primary message I guess I am

in receiving this award is that

all love you represent

enormous potential enormous possibility for change

because we all know that injustice still exists just

exists here in the United States in every

for neighborhood and every inner city and every rural community

all across the country there is quiet desperation

young people's lives are filled with

sadness and desperation anarchy and chaos

and obviously all around the world we see

those same symptoms hopelessness

made manifest in places like Darfur

places like the Middle East

in places that too often forgotten about another written about until the flare-up

in

tragedy so I hope that all %uh view

who are on the brink of doing extraordinary things

decide the channel that talent in that energy

and that imagination to figuring out how do you

move the process along for better history

you know how do you put your shoulder against the wheelman move that boulder

up the hill

and I'm absolutely confident that if I love you take up the challenge

the world is waiting for you ready to be changed

because I think we live in this moment in history right now where

better the hunger for change the hunger for something new

the desire to break out above the

ordinary the self-interested the pedi the trivial

is is everywhere and

the waiting for you and so I hope for that as you see the recipients of this

award

you recognize that

it's actually more VA towards a

give you a little spark and drive you

im the wonderful directions that I hope your lights take

in the years to come so thank you very much