-I'm going to introduce more about who we are
a little bit later when we play halfway through the program.
But for now, just so you know who we are, BWB Drumline.
We have a five-piece all-star crew here,
age ranges 12 to 20,
and we're going to do what Miss Ana asked us to do
and to help gather our energy.
So with the drummers' help,
we're going to have you stomp seven times.
I appreciate how ready you are, though.
If you're not comfortable stomping for any reason,
maybe a low sound,
like slapping your leg or something like a low sound,
and then clapping seven times with a high sound.
So we're going to do it a few times so you're ready.
Partway through this introductory song,
we're going to call upon you
again to join us using what we were born with
as percussion instruments with our feet and our hands.
All right, so check it out.
Stomp first and then clap seven times each.
One, two, ready, go.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Clap. Two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Again. One, two -- Last time.
Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.
You guys sound very ready.
Are you all ready for some music?
[ Applause ]
[ Music ]
[ Applause ]
Thank you.
We're going to be joining you partway
through this wonderful program.
Can we please give it up for all the event producers,
all the sponsors, and especially miss Ana?
Give it up, everyone.
[ Applause ]
We'll be back, BWB drumline. Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you all so much for coming today.
I just want to say the moment that I met Aaron
and his amazing team,
I was with my son
at the Meany Middle School orchestra and band concert.
And they took the stage, and I just said yes,
fell in love hard,
and had to share them with all of you as many times
as I possibly could.
So thank you all so much for coming to PechaKucha Seattle's
80th community-wide event on leadership.
[ Applause ]
Yes, I'm going to be as fast as I can,
because there are so many incredible,
special people that are going to come
and take the stage today with us.
And I'm just going to give, for those of you this is new,
a quick overview of what is PechaKucha.
So it was founded in 2003
by Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein in Tokyo
as a way of celebrating an event space
that they had created to amplify their architectural practice.
They had all these brilliant friends in Tokyo,
amazing architects.
But architects are long-winded, so they said,
y'all can come and share your work at our event space,
but 20 slides, 20 seconds, please.
And that's how PechaKucha was started.
So they did these events in Tokyo,
and they had friends from all over the world come
and experience these nights.
And these friends said, this is so much fun,
let's start it in our cities.
And so London came online, and Paris, and New York,
and San Francisco.
And when I moved to Seattle in 2005,
I was encouraged to start the chapter here.
We have become one of over 1,500 chapters worldwide and one
of the most prolific PechaKucha chapters in the world.
Since our founding, 19 years ago, we've had 80 events.
We've had over 900 speakers take our stage,
which is a remarkable thing,
and thousands and thousands of audience members,
and probably one of the most important things,
legions of community partners. Events like ours today
are impossible without the partnership and collaboration
of so many incredible organizations.
And so tonight,
I just want to say thank you to the UW-Evans School,
to the Seattle Public Library
for their incredible partnership,
to Speak With Purpose, to MOHAI, to my own program, MHC.
So these are just some of the images of the amazing events
that we've had over the past.
And what's important here is a theme that comes up over
and over and over again.
And I'm going to call out for those of you who know him,
Bill Bain up on the top there, who I know some of you
had the pleasure of knowing for many years.
Bill really exemplified the power of joy
and how joy transcends generations,
transcends backgrounds, and joy is what makes the future,
in fact, possible.
And that is what we are here to do today.
And so it is my distinct pleasure to introduce one
of the most remarkable leaders our region has ever produced,
the remarkable Sally Jewell.
Many of you know Sally as the former CEO of REI
or as the Secretary of the Interior under Obama
or as a board member for Costco
or a board member for the Nature Conservancy.
Many of you here know Sally just as a friend and a mentor
and somebody who truly exemplifies what leadership
and commitment to service are.
It is my pleasure to bring Sally Jewell to the stage.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you, Ana, for your amazing organizational skills.
And I know that you've got great speakers tonight
because I know your powers of persuasion.
They are amazing, they are legendary,
and you are making a difference in your work every day.
So thank you. [ No audio ]
-- leader, Annamari Kausai, as soon as I leave here.
But I want to open my few words with a favorite quote
from Louisa May Alcott. I'm not afraid of storms
because I'm learning how to sail my ship.
So as a sailor myself, I know that storms are not always fun.
In fact, they're frequently not fun,
especially when they come up on you quickly.
But we learn from them.
And they make us stronger and more capable.
Courage, common sense, our real compass,
but also our inner compass, leaning into our strengths
and trusting our shipmates are what it takes
to navigate through choppy waters.
I suspect you'll hear more about
how to do that this evening from each other
and from those who take the stage.
Our world is indeed in choppy waters.
Conflicts are raging on multiple continents around the world.
We're dealing with climate change,
whether people like to admit it or not,
threats to our democracy at the United States,
and an inclination to retreat to our comfort zones,
listening to those with whom we already agree.
But courage asks us to listen to others,
to learn about the choppy waters they're navigating,
which may be different from our own.
Working as a member of President Obama's cabinet,
my eyes were opened to the importance of listening.
[ No audio ]
We build trust by developing relationships with each other,
by listening to each other.
Listening and learning from tribal communities,
and you'll have an opportunity to hear from a strong leader
tonight, Jay Julius.
And I've learned so much from the tribal communities
I have worked with,
from the way they've lived in harmony with the earth
since time immemorial,
by respecting all beings who call it home.
I've learned by listening to farmers and ranchers
who provide our food and the struggles
that they face every year with weather, water,
and operating their business profitably,
where there's so many variables that they can't control.
By listening to miners and oil and gas drillers and people
that work in the factories about the dangerous work
that they do to bring us minerals and energy
that we rely on in many ways we don't recognize,
but who want the same bright future for their children
as everyone else does around the world.
And listening to environmentalists
who are committed to protecting our earth's ecosystems
for future generations
and are fearful of the threats of development,
climate change, and pollution.
So when I look back on my time in government,
my most rewarding experiences were those
that were full of conflict,
where people of very different perspectives
came together as individuals who worked hard to get to know
and respect each other,
who found the common ground to which they agreed on
and focused on the points of agreement
rather than the differences.
So I want to thank you all for being here,
for listening to each other, and also,
whether tonight or in the future,
for seeking out people who may have a different perspective.
And especially, I want to thank the young people
who have just entertained us with their drumming skills,
but the other young people who are here,
who are relying on all of those of us
who aren't children anymore,
even though we may behave like them at times,
to use our talents to move past these choppy waters,
to calmer seas
when these young people can develop their
own navigational skills.
So I want to end these few words with my favorite proverb,
and I used it regularly in contemplating some
of the difficult decisions I had to make in government.
We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors.
We borrow it from our children.
I'd give attribution if I knew.
I'll say it one more time.
We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors.
We borrow it from our children.
So I want to thank you in advance
for listening to each other
and considering how we can bring courage and leadership
in shaping a future that makes us proud
for our children and grandchildren to carry forward.
What are we going to leave to them?
And you're all here because you care about that.
So I want to thank you very much and wish you a great evening
and then move on to introducing our next speaker.
Thank you. [ Applause ]
So it is my pleasure to introduce James Williams,
my friend,
and a managing partner of the Perkins Coie Seattle office.
So just a few words about James.
He was born and raised on a small farm in South Carolina.
He obtained his undergraduate degree in political science
with honors from The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina,
and was the recipient
of a United States Air Force ROTC scholarship.
James earned his JD degree in 1988 from the University --
[ No audio ] -- duty service
with the Judge Advocate General's Corps for
the Air Force attaining the rank of captain.
I'll call you Captain James from now on.
In 1983,
James joined the Seattle office of the law firm of Perkins Coie,
and he's the first African American
to serve in the role of office managing partner
for Perkins Coie since it was founded in 1912,
more than 100 years.
So James has committed to service,
many, many organizations, national, international, local,
making a difference in the lives of people in his profession
and the lives of many people across our community.
So please join me in welcoming James Williams
to the PechaKucha stage.
James, thank you.
[ Applause ]
-All right. Good afternoon, everyone.
It's an honor for me to be with you today.
I'm going to spend my 20 slides telling you
about what I learned in my role
as the Seattle office managing partner.
The first thing that I think is most important for me
as I learned how to lead
was to understand the organization's history.
You've got to understand the history to know who you are,
where you came from, and where you're going.
And I have this quote from Shakespeare, of all people,
because it's actually true.
What's past is prologue.
You have to understand the context
within which you are operating.
Second thing is listening.
I heard you all talking about that today.
Intentional listening is a skill
that it takes a long time to really get good at.
But this is necessary for your people to understand you
and for you to understand them.
If you listen to them,
they will tell you when the time is right
for you to offer your opinion.
You also have to learn to stand in the shoes of the people
you are working with.
Empathy, that builds credibility.
When you put those together,
you have influence,
and it causes people to want to follow you.
That's the goal.
You want them to want to follow you.
Truth, indispensable part of being a credible leader.
This was said by a president of the United States.
Truth will set you free. It's absolutely true.
It also builds confidence in the people
who you are working with because they see you as someone
they can believe in.
And the message is one that they can believe in as well.
Critically important is to have all the voices
in your organization heard.
Everybody has an opinion that has to be expressed.
That expression can be cathartic for your organization.
And at the end of the day,
when you have the discussion done,
leaders have to make the hard call.
You have to make the decision and say it with one voice.
And it needs to be rooted in the vision of the organization.
This quote from Mandela, I think, says it right.
Vision without action is just a dream.
Vision creates the definition for the organization.
It gives inspiration to the people
and it gives direction so you know
and everyone else knows where you're going.
But coupled with that is execution.
This is Peyton Manning and his dad talking about it.
And that's run the play.
At some point,
the hand wringing and the second guessing has to stop.
And someone has to make the decision to move on.
And that's what leaders do.
And that's what I mean by running the play.
So people take you seriously and understand
that you mean what you say.
My former leadership comes from this guy, Greenleaf.
I believe that the best leaders are the ones
who lead for service.
Service is leadership. Leadership is service.
And your people can see that and feel
that when you are working with them.
And believe it or not,
service becomes contagious after a while.
It works best when you're dealing with people
who are really smart.
Leaders should be putting their people first,
especially when you're talking about good times and victory.
But when the danger arises is
when the leader needs to step to the front of the line
and take the shot.
Because that's the person who needs to take the risk.
And that's the person
the people in the organization are looking to.
Sometimes that means you will be standing alone.
There's nothing wrong with standing alone occasionally,
especially if you're doing it for the right thing
and for the right reason.
That means you may not be popular sometimes,
like Brian Baird.
Every now and then, you take a position that others don't like,
but it's the right thing. Like this guy.
I think his quote about how you judge people is as important now
as it was when he said it in the '60s.
How do they operate in times of challenge and controversy?
That's when you see true leadership coming to the fore.
And, you know, character has got nothing
to do with race or gender or wealth.
That's why I have this guy up here, Gandhi.
The power of the message and the action can be the thing
that influences the people in your organization.
This man changed the world, not with guns, but with nonviolence.
The power of the message itself was the way he influenced.
This quote is about teamwork.
The Greeks got it right a long time ago.
That quote is from Aristotle.
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
That was true then. It's true now.
Good leaders are the ones
who are able to find that point of commonality
that makes people in the organization see
that the team is important.
That's how you win.
Speaking of winning,
my all-time favorite basketball player also said,
there's no I or U in team.
And he was absolutely right because inclusion is the way
to get the best of your people and to lead.
Steve Jobs.
He was a big fan of hiring smart people and promoting them.
That's why Apple was so successful.
And it's still true today.
People understand when you're cultivating them
and you're trying to give them the platform to shine.
This brings out the very best of the people in your organization
when they know you care and it instills loyalty.
There will be mistakes.
All leaders have to deal with them.
But I think Vince Lombardi had the right view.
You publicly praise, but if you've got to criticize,
do it quietly, do it politely, do it lovingly in private.
The goal is to make people better at what they do
and not to punish them.
This is what all leaders should be about, the future.
You plant trees that you'll never see the shade from.
You are looking to create an organization or system
that will last beyond yourself because it can't be about you.
It is normal to have succession,
and you have to be willing and ready to give up power
when the time comes.
This one is a little controversial,
but I still believe in it.
Leaders are responsible for setting the stage
and setting the bar, determining what success looks like.
And if they do it the right way,
they will encourage their people to actually exceed,
and everybody loves it when you exceed expectations.
That cannot, however, substitute for your values.
This is a perfect example of what value looks like
in the form of Rosa Parks.
She inspired an entire generation
with a 1955 bus boycott
because of her values that she refused to let go,
and that's one of the reasons
why we have civil rights in this country today.
Last but not least,
the Constitution is the most important piece of paper
you will ever see as an American because that is the thing
that level sets what the rule of law is.
Without it, we are nothing,
and that is something that is worth fighting and dying for.
So my law firm sued the government for that reason,
and I will say that we are willing to ride
or die for the U.S.
Constitution. [ Applause ]
-Amazing, amazing, amazing.
My experience of James is just summed up
in these simple words, watch and learn.
And now, it is my distinct pleasure to bring
to the PechaKucha stage one of the most remarkable people
I've had the pleasure of meeting recently,
somebody who I just was able to say rewrote my molecules,
helping me understand what is possible.
She is the executive director and founder
of Speak With Purpose.
At a time when public discourse is under threat and
youth voices are being pushed to the margins,
Toyia Taylor is building something revolutionary --
classrooms where students speak not just when called on,
but because they have something to say.
She is the visionary behind Speak With Purpose,
the only public speaking program integrated
into public school classrooms across King County
as part of the curriculum.
Tonight, she joins us to show what it looks like
when education, justice,
and leadership are not just about youth,
they're powered by youth voice.
Let us give Toyia the warmest PachaKucha welcome.
[ Applause ] -That's the only child in me.
I leave a mess everywhere I go because I just feel
like all the room is my room.
But I want to just say, first of all, please clap it up for Ana.
[ Applause ]
This woman is brilliant.
She is selfless.
She's been doing this for over 18 years,
bringing people together to listen to each other,
to learn from each other, and to lift each other up.
These are the conversations today and tomorrow
that we need in order to make a difference.
So I thank you.
So my name is Toyia Tanay Taylor.
I am the founder and executive director of a small
but mighty organization called Speak With Purpose.
And so Speak With Purpose is about youth voice.
But what is also true about voice is it doesn't just appear.
It has to be cultivated, respected, and practiced.
And that is the work of Speak With Purpose.
We work inside of classrooms.
We are the only public speaking classes offered,
integrated into the classroom day
throughout King County Public Schools.
So what does that mean?
That means every single day we go into a classroom,
we have the opportunity to elevate and motivate
and inspire a child
who's sitting silently in the back of the classroom
to be motivated and understand
that their stories are worthy of being heard
and their leadership is worthy of being praised
in the front of the classroom.
So it's always my honor and my privilege
when we give them the stage.
So you'll see them here tonight.
But we invite all of you
to come back out on January 14th at the Museum of Flight
when over 20 -- June 14th, what did I say?
I'm always -- y'all, time goes by too fast.
That's what it is.
I promise you,
because this is not the first time that's happened.
Thank you, Bindiya.
June 14th, because if you show up on January 14th,
it's going to be a problem.
At the Museum of Flight,
over 24 students as young as --
what grade do you think we start?
Third grade,
teaching these students to write all original speeches
about their stories, their self-authored identities,
and how they need us to show up for them.
So come out on June 14th.
This is an all-age free showcase
where we get to listen to our scholars.
So I get the honor and the privilege
of introducing our first speaker, Camden Clayton.
Now, something I want you to know.
Camden, you were in fourth grade when you wrote this piece?
Camden was in fourth grade when he wrote this original speech.
Now, one thing that has to be true in this space,
it's all about energy, people. So with our children,
when they say something that you really get excited about,
it's okay to snap it.
Snap it up. When they say something
that really needs to be lifted, clap it up.
[ Applause ] When you truly understand
and you feel it in your heart, I agree.
This is what we do in the schools.
Or we can say, me too.
And from my down south, my grandparents,
my grandmother would have said,
when it gets real good to her, yes.
Mm-hmm. I want to hear a little bit of that as well.
So I've taken up enough time.
Please give a warm round of applause for Camden.
[ Applause ]
-My name is Camden Clayton,
and I go to Mercer Middle School, and I'm in sixth grade.
Racism. It needs to stop.
A black kid walking down the street with his hoodie on,
and all people see is criminal,
and a reason to kill an innocent kid.
It needs to stop.
Black adults getting shot on the way to work
because all people see is the color of our skin.
It needs to stop.
Black kid getting shot on the way to school
because he looks shady.
Can you believe that 164 deaths happened
in the first eight months of 2020
to unarmed black people minding their own business?
And two years ago, in 2023,
92 black people died at the hands of cops.
Repeat after me.
George Floyd.
-George Floyd. -Trayvon Martin.
-Breonna Taylor.
-Dante Wright.
-Manuel Ellis.
-It's like, because of the way I was born,
I should be seen as a weapon, as a reason to go to jail.
There are kids getting shot like Trayvon Martin.
There are kids getting beat up until they look like monsters,
like Emmett Till, because of the color of their skin.
We shouldn't be seen as weapons.
I don't want to be seen as a weapon.
I am not a weapon.
[ Applause ] One of the biggest reasons
I wanted to share this with you today
is to let you know we have a voice.
Not just you, not just me, but all of us.
We have a right to protest.
We have a right to stop what's happening.
But most of all, we have a right to speak up.
Whether you're a kid or an adult, it doesn't matter.
Just know you have a voice.
And you have to use it to stop what's happening.
No one should have to hear on the news
that a police officer suffocated a man
by putting his knee on his neck.
And I could keep on going all day,
but I only have a few minutes.
So let me just say this.
In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
injustice to one is injustice to all.
And it's not just a phrase. It's the truth.
Because if you put one person down
because of the color of their skin,
you're putting everybody in that race down.
And we're supposed to lift each other up,
not put each other down.
The Civil War started in 1861. 1861.
Now it's 2025, and these things are still happening.
Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-This is what happens. This is the type of brilliance
that can happen in a school classroom when we listen
and we give children the stage and the platform
to be gifted, young, and brilliant, and talented.
All the things they rightfully are.
He memorized this piece,
not because it needed to be memorized,
but because it's what he felt in his heart.
That makes it easy.
So this is the last thing we do after every --
this is what we do in class.
When we hear something that's powerful,
say words to him about how his peace made you feel.
Strong, motivated, focused, truth tellers, respect,
courageous, inspired, seen.
Heard, loud, honorable, ready,
justice, meant to be you, and that's enough.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-Are your molecules rearranged?
I think so. I think so.
Now, it is my distinct pleasure to bring forward to this stage
one of the most remarkable and impactful leaders in our region
and in our nation,
Dean Jodi Sandfort of the Evans School of Public Policy.
I want to just say it's been an honor
to be part of her learning community,
and I just want to share a little bit about her.
Jodi is the dean of the Evans School of Public Policy,
where she leads initiatives focused
on democratic engagement, social policy implementation,
and expanding access to public service careers.
Her career combines academic scholarship,
nonprofit leadership, innovation in public policy education,
including founding initiatives
like the Evans Policy Innovation Collaborative
and the Hubert Project.
An elected member
of the National Academy of Public Administration,
Jodi is widely recognized for her contributions
to public affairs through her research, her leadership,
and her participatory approaches to systemic change.
Let's give it up to Dean Jodi Sandfort.
[ Applause ]
-Well, that was a little bit of a sobering person to follow.
Thank you so much for your wisdom and brilliance.
As Ana said, I am the dean of the Evans School,
and these days clearly we have seen the importance
of public policy from the restrictions of vaccines
to restrictions in access to national parks.
We understand that policy is significant.
And in the way the president is interacting with Congress
and the courts, we understand that governance is as well.
For years, researchers have documented that government trust
has been decreasing and that civic engagement,
what we call bowling alone, is on the rise.
But what we're seeing now is the consequences of that,
of the fragile democratic house that we're living in.
It's making me think differently about patriotism
and what it takes to create the democracy
we need rather than the democracy we have.
In my field, we've been talking about this for a long time,
trying to document what is. For example,
obviously, there is a long and persistent history of racism,
racial hatred and division,
of ignoring inequities.
But there's also a per same kind of tradition
of speaking truth to power, like we just heard.
We talk about public values and tensions
between efficiency and equity, tolerance.
And in the past,
policy debates are where those values played out.
But now we're seeing the demolition
of our democratic house. It's dangerous, actually,
because we don't know where we're going to live
or where we're going to work.
The executive office of the president
has issued 152 executive orders.
And it is not partisan, but it is an attempt to create chaos.
Yet the Constitution clearly establishes the separation
of power at the national level between the president,
Congress, and the Supreme Court.
It gives authorities to state and local governments.
In reality, the federal government isn't that powerful.
But right now,
the executive office of the president
is trying to say they are more powerful than they are.
So what I think we need to do is lean in
and focus on creating plans
and implementing programs for a significant renovation
of our democratic house. At the Evans and UW,
we've designed a civic health initiative
that provides a blueprint for
how we can be part of the solution.
We need to go down to the studs
and see where we have structural inequities.
Where are the fundamental faults
and how can we build better systems,
more secure and integrated data sets,
so we can improve public service and not just surveil people?
We need to work with people who are already in the state
and local government.
At Evans, state and elected city leaders said yes
when we invited them into a program
on collaborative leadership. State agency officials said yes
when we offered to teach them about human-centered design.
Local government managers said yes
and are working to build a resilient government.
But we have to look at the structures
and shore up what's there.
When things were set up in Washington State
a long time ago,
decisions were made, like to have a state with no income tax
or to have local boards with little authority.
It was different then.
And we have to ask, what does the current environment need?
How can we retrofit it?
And so at the UW,
we have design-build teams that are here to help.
We allow them to --
although Washington has very progressive policies,
we don't actually implement them very well.
And so at EPIC and other places,
we're working on issues of housing and other things,
but the reality of it is that higher ed is in the firing zone.
And that's really because of our focus on evidence and freedom
of speech, engagement, and hope.
UW is clear in our commitment to the state and Washingtonians,
but it isn't just what we do, but how we do it that matters.
In any renovation project,
it's important to pay attention to the things
that have beauty and try to make them better.
So this window comes from the Evans School,
and that building was built nearly 125 years ago,
but this window, it leaked all the time.
In our own renovation,
we work to preserve the grace of the old
and build functions for the new.
And so although public institutions are battered
right now, when we bring people together,
when we set the conditions for learning,
for inquiry, for listening, it can be powerful.
To me, the highest stakes right now are for young people,
for the hearts and minds of them.
First-year college students were born in 2007.
Many did not learn about civics in their high school classrooms.
They were 10 years old
when the first Trump administration came in.
They were 13 when COVID hit,
and they were 14 when January 6th happened.
And yet, they are a group of young people who think globally.
They're used to multicultural, information-rich environments.
And when encouraged and invited,
as we have seen here tonight,
they are powerful in their understanding of this world.
From what I see and what I do, I see so many of them.
Images here of the young people, the ones at the top,
worked with me and the lieutenant governor
to facilitate a conversation with hundreds of people
in the state of Washington
about how we can improve connections with each other.
The other photos of them are engaging with state
and local officials and volunteering at food shelves.
I think we have to be simple about this
and start with civic health.
People deciding, like you did tonight,
to show up, to serve the community and work together,
even when we disagree.
It's about listening, finding what we have in common,
and when we disagree, doing so respectfully.
The work ahead is significant and involves all of us.
First of all,
we have to invest in the people
who are going to lead in the public sphere
and acknowledge this is hard.
Some things have worked and some things haven't.
We need to retrofit the house
and invest our resources to making the democracy
that we need, and we need to practice doing things together.
While we are far from perfect, our multiracial,
multi-ethnic democracy has been a beacon to the world.
I've come to see that that is patriotic,
and it's patriotic to claim the need to renovate
our democratic house and make it stronger.
The time is now for us to engage in this effort.
We cannot wait.
[ Applause ]
-Jodi, you inspire, and that is facts.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Our next speaker is the executive director
of Leadership Tomorrow.
Leadership Tomorrow has had a profound impact on our region,
uniting leaders from across the Puget Sound
based on Robert Greenleaf's servant leadership model.
Thank you, James Williams.
So Bindiya Patel is the executive director of LT,
an organization that inspires
and connects thousands of community leaders
across the Puget Sound.
She has over two decades of experience
in equity-focused nonprofit organizations,
doing work both locally and around the world.
Thank you, Bindiya, for being here with us tonight.
[ Applause ]
-What a beautiful room, y'all.
See, if I stall now, I have more time before I hit the thing.
Okay, I'm ready. I was running out the door
and checking my trunk for the 14-hour day ahead.
Do I have my gym shoes? Do I have my lunch?
Do I have those fancy shoes and the things
that I'll need for the costume change before the donor dinner?
I certainly have my guilt for leaving my parents behind
at home, and I haven't connected with my kids.
I was also thinking about this talk,
and the phrase came to me,
do you ever feel like you're doing too much?
As many of you hear,
I have been lauded and rewarded for the hustle.
It has served me well, and I now get to lead an organization
where leadership is our first name.
And I am hustling so fast that I'm waking up
in the middle of the night,
I'm losing things like my husband's favorite coffee mug,
and I am not operating at my best these days.
So did I stop at that moment? Nope.
I got in the car, I ate my peanut butter toast,
and I recorded the beginning of this talk on voice memo,
because we've got to keep going, y'all.
But a few days later, I took a friend to the beach
on this beautiful spring morning.
As is one of my favorite traditions,
I asked her to stop and stand quietly.
I've done five-day silent meditation retreats, y'all.
But you know what?
Stopping for four minutes in silence can still feel
pretty jarring, because things come up, right, when you stop.
But for those four minutes, I was able to stop the hustle.
I looked around.
I didn't need to talk to anybody or do anything.
I just let myself be still for the first time in days.
And so I thought,
what if I got a room full of people to do the same?
Maybe not for four full minutes,
but maybe for three 20-second slides.
Maybe we could just --
I promise it's going to come back to leadership,
I promise, but just for a minute.
So we're going to try it. You ready?
So three 20-second slides.
You can just sit. You can stand if you want.
Plant your feet on the ground if you can.
You can lower your gaze.
You can look at these beach slides.
Roll your shoulders back. Unclench your jaw.
Whatever feelings or thoughts come up are okay.
Let them come.
Take a deep breath and listen to the silence.
[ Silence ]
Welcome back.
Thank you for trying that with me.
It was really powerful to witness.
And I see you all.
I see you all doing a really great job being parents,
being kids, being speakers, being organizers,
being advocates, being siblings and coworkers and friends.
The thing is, people are hurting right now.
We are in a moment of time that is full of chaos and fear,
insecurity and scarcity.
There are so many things coming
at community organizers and leaders,
and it is easy to feel overwhelmed.
It is hard to feel like we have enough or we are enough.
We're all trying to balance so many things,
and it can feel precarious. So what leadership means to me
right now is to take these moments to pause and regroup.
When faced with hard choices,
a new funding cut, a new challenge,
when we feel scared or scattered or nervous or exhausted,
I want us to pause.
To remind ourselves of our own worth
so we are not looking for that worth from other people.
To take a beat.
To take a moment.
To make sure we are speaking from our values,
from our own purpose, from our own power.
Does this feel mundane? Maybe.
Do I need reminders absolutely every single day?
Absolutely. This is my parents.
They are modeling this for me every day of what it looks like
and feels like to stop and notice.
I used to think that these kinds of pauses
or these meditations had to be in, like,
some idyllic setting up in the mountains
and that I had to achieve some state of Zen
and I had to, like, I wasn't doing it right
if I wasn't doing it for 20 or 30 minutes every morning.
And now I realize you can do it in three slides.
You can do it in four minutes.
You can do it in the car before you get out.
We each have the power to ground ourselves,
to pour care into ourselves.
We have all these hopes and needs and aspirations
for our leaders in this moment.
We want them to be courageous and curious
and capable to dream and
to help us find our way through this current moment.
To do that,
we all need our leaders to be able to find their own joy,
to work from their values,
to know their power, to be grounded.
A phrase I keep coming back to is, this is how it is right now.
No matter how hectic things are,
I can take a beat
and I can notice and accept what's going on
and then I can make wiser choices
and find joy even in those precarious moments.
Once we can do that for ourselves,
then we can model it for other people
and we can support and teach others
how to do the same in their own way,
in whatever way that looks like for them.
That's me hiking last weekend.
That was joy. So I invite you to join me.
Today we did it for one minute.
Tomorrow for four minutes
and the next day and the next day
to seek out whatever your way is to pause,
to find your joy, to find moments of beauty,
to find the rest you need
so we can all operate from our own values
and from your own power. Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-Bindiya, thank you so much for helping us find
our center again.
And now I'm going to invite Toyia to introduce
our next youth speaker.
[ Applause ]
-Bindiya, thank you.
Oh, do you feel a little more relaxed in your shoulders?
A little lighter for that?
So it is an honor to bring to the stage an incredible scholar,
Sam Pederson-Spaulding. [ Applause ]
Okay. All right. Some fans in the house, Sam.
Tenth grader at Franklin High School,
Sam Pederson-Spaulding is a 16-year-old student
at Franklin High School with a deep passion for art and acting.
With several years of public speaking experience,
he has discovered a love for connecting with the audience
and using his voice to inspire and engage.
Show some love.
[ Applause ]
-My name is Sam Peterson Spaulding,
and I am here today thanks
to city council member Grimai Zahalai.
He came to my Speak With Purpose Speakers Bureau workshop
and told us about his process as running
for King County Executive
and asked us what we would talk about
if we were running for King County Executive.
He was a huge inspiration,
and when I was given the opportunity to speak here today,
I knew exactly what I will talk about
when I am King County Executive.
I chose this topic because it's something very important to me.
It's something that I feel isn't talked about enough.
So thank you.
My name is Sam Pederson-Spaulding,
and I am running for King County Executive.
[ Applause ]
Did you know Washington is ranked number 23rd
in the nation for drug abuse?
In my own life, I have had to watch my dad, uncle,
and classmates all struggle with substance abuse.
This is a big issue,
and so many people are struggling with it alone.
My goal as King County Executive
is to have more support for people struggling
with depression and substance abuse,
so you and those around you do not have to struggle alone.
[ Applause ]
If you are concerned about someone
who might be struggling with addiction,
you can offer your support,
educate yourself about addiction,
support your loved ones throughout the recovery process,
and take care of yourself.
You can text or call 988 for suicide and crisis support.
In 2023, King County faced 1,338 fatal overdoses.
We are losing brothers, sisters, pillars to our community.
9.6% of children aged 12 to 17
have reported drug abuse in the past month in Washington.
By coming together,
we can build clinics, support groups, and personally,
I would like to see more family counseling.
So together, let's break down the stigma around addiction.
My name is Sam Pederson-Spaulding,
and I hope you vote me as your next King County Executive.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-I get excited.
I get to witness this brilliance all the time.
Now, we need some affirmations.
Process what you've heard and pour into Sam.
Leadership. You got my vote. Standing in power.
Commitment. Business. Vision. Let's go.
Let's go. Courage. Imagination. Doing what feels right.
Vulnerability.
I will see you in office, sir, in the future,
doing whatever it is that you want to do,
lifting up your community, lifting your voice,
not being silent, always being heard,
because it's what we need today and tomorrow.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-You know, sometimes the future feels like a scary place,
but then Sam takes the stage,
and you know it's going to be all right.
Thank you, Sam, and you have my vote for sure, 100%.
100%, some fundraising and some convening,
fundraising, all you need.
So it is my pleasure to introduce our next speaker, C.
Marie Taylor. C.
Marie is a visionary executive and founder
of Equity Through Action.
She is a strategic advisor with deep experience
in equity-centered leadership
and organizational transformation.
For C. Marie, leadership isn't a solo act.
It's a shift from we to us.
In a world that fractures and isolates, the call is clear.
Do the inner work so that you can lead with kindness,
clarity, courage, and care.
Let the collective be your compass,
because anything less misses the moment.
Let us give a warm welcome to C. Marie Taylor.
[ Applause ]
-Well, she just gave the speech so I can sit down.
So it's fantastic. Do I just hit that forward?
Here we go.
So I want to go back to this day,
to this little weird JC Penney's where I had this outfit on,
living my best life,
not thinking about what it means to be a leader,
to stand in front of you into these painful
but cute shoes, right?
I want to go back to where there is calorie-free cookies,
no Spanx,
living my best whole life trying to figure
out what it means to be a leader, being on a lake,
eating cookies that are calorie-free.
Imagine what a world it would be like,
what kind of leader one could be,
living on a lake trying to figure out
how I'm going to show up in these spaces, right,
how I'm going to center my humanity,
how I'm going to show up for you every single day.
And in that, I've got to figure out, well, who am I?
How am I showing up?
What are the things that I'm bringing, right?
So I bring these things with me.
I'm a fast talker, thank God for this, right,
a visionary, and I have to use a little bit of humor.
And I realize that these are strategies.
There are ways to survive, particularly this moment.
I've got to find some humor
because otherwise I'd just spend all day crying, right?
And that's okay, too,
which helps me figure out how to embrace my truth, right?
And so my truth is I'm awesome, we're awesome,
but we have to figure out how to create space, right?
How to find the humanity that I have that somebody else has.
And so in that,
we've got to figure out how to adjust
because my 15-year-old says
that I was going to be brunching with Oprah,
but that's not true.
I'm in this fight every single day trying to figure out
how to show up,
how to share my humanity with you,
even when you don't see mine, right?
Because that's what's happening right now.
So I've got to figure out how to adjust in this world
that's broken and to figure out how to tread the line
and show up as my actual self
when I'm actually challenged not to be.
It's so easy to pretend to be someone else and to think, ah,
I'll just be someone else.
But that's not who we are right now.
It's in these moments we've got to look in the actual mirror
and figure out, well, what's my discomfort?
Where did it come from? Who told me this?
What do I need to do different, right?
Because when I face myself,
that's where the inner work shows up,
and that's when I can do something different,
when I can step out on the stage and actually say, hmm,
I didn't get that right,
but that's okay, and I'm going to figure it out.
I'm going to go back to my sources of strength, right?
And they're going to tell me what's good and what's not good,
and they're going to tell me the truth,
and they're going to hold and support me
so I can show back up for you all.
So who are your sources of strength?
How are you taking the chance to be something different,
something not prescribed that the world made up for you,
right?
How are you going to take the risk
and actually show up different?
The problem is we're not taking the risk, right?
We're just not taking it.
I'm taking it out for myself,
but I'm not moving from I to we to us, right?
That's the problem, and we're forgetting our core values,
so I've got to go back to them every single time.
That's why I put the paper down, y'all.
My core values are I've got to be here
for y'all, not that paper.
So if the slide is right, the slide is right.
If the slide ain't right, the slide ain't right.
But what I know is right is I've got to be here.
And you have to be here,
and you've got to stick up for somebody
who does not look like you. That's the problem.
We're not showing up for people who don't look like you,
and we're forgetting our principles, right?
So I go back to these all the time, right?
Be impeccable with your word. People aren't doing that, right?
Don't take things personally. Don't make assumptions, right?
It makes a you-know-what out of you-know-what, right?
There's kids here, I won't say it.
And find and do your best, right?
Whatever your best is that day.
And when that is not working, go back to your people.
These are the people who hold and support me
and tell me when I'm doing it right
and when I'm doing it wrong.
Give me space to cry, cookies,
things that I need to carry on and then show back up.
Because it's starting over and over again,
and remembering that kindness actually is a strategy.
It's undervalued in this world, and that's not okay.
But I'm here to tell you,
I stay kind even when people are not kind to me.
And that's okay,
because I'm going to keep this strategy
and remember that it holds me.
It holds you. It can actually hold us.
And so I'll continue to do that.
And that takes courage. It takes clarity.
It takes purpose.
And the thing that I know to be true
is that I have to be kind and clear.
When you're clear, it actually means that you're kind.
Even if it's hard. Right?
So that's the thing we keep forgetting.
And we keep not showing up and say, that's actually not right.
Right? It's actually not okay.
Which is this practice
where you've got to put yourself out there.
And y'all,
I put myself out there on this frigging trampoline
with my daughter.
It was ridiculous.
But it was courage and it's a practice.
Somehow I made it. Right?
And if we would do the same, actually taking that leap,
what a different world we would have.
The things and the stats that were reported before,
we wouldn't be listening to,
if we actually took the leap, right,
and took care of ourselves, right?
Bindiya talked about that.
You've got to pour into yourself before you can pour into others.
Right? So what are the things that you have to do?
What breaths do you have to take
to make sure you're taking care of yourself
so that the collective is your compass?
Because where we forget, we keep sticking an I
and not going to the we and then the us.
If we listen to the actual collective,
what you actually want,
so I mean, deciding what you want, what a different world.
Me stopping and listening and then showing up with my why.
My why is I believe in humanity,
even when it doesn't believe in me.
So I hold true to that every single time.
And one day, it will be true for all of us.
But I hold on to it because it's my why.
And when it gets really hard, I go back to it
and remember that that's what success looks like.
It's not trophies and awards and dollars and monies.
It's taking one foot and putting it in front of the other,
in front of the other, in front of the other.
That's success. That's joy. It's reimagining.
It's going back to that chair,
to that JC Penney's,
and finding that joy and being here for each other.
Because leadership is not a solo act.
It's all of us together.
[ Applause ]
-C. Marie, you help us find the joy.
You are the joy. Thank you so, so much.
And now to amplify C.
Marie, it is my pleasure to bring to you
the PachaKucha stage for the very first time, Furmata.
Furmata is the University of Washington's
premier mixed-voice a cappella group.
They just took home second place in
the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella.
Oh, yeah.
[ Applause ]
Yes, they did.
This is a tournament that spanned across three months
and had nearly 500 competing groups.
Our very own, Furmata. Let's give it up.
[ Applause ] -Hi, everyone.
We are a group at UW, as Ana said.
We're stoked to be here.
We're going to sing some songs for you today,
our first part of our set,
because we'll be performing later as well.
Our first set will be consisting of the song, Man in the Mirror,
by Michael Jackson, and a song from our competitive set.
I think we're doing Alesis, right?
-Yes.
-Alesis. Thank you so much for having us.
We're really excited.
And much like what I've heard in a lot of the other speeches
today, we really encourage audience feedback.
So if you hear something you like, cheer.
If you hear something fun, do whatever.
-Sing along.
-Sing along, right.
[ Singing ]
[ Applause ]
Thank you so much for having us.
We have been really enjoying all the presentations.
We look forward to performing again shortly.
Thank you so much. [ Applause ]
-I don't know about you, but I just need a moment.
That was absolutely incredible.
And what Furmata shows us
and what every single speaker here has shown us as well
is the power of togetherness, that we can do anything
when we synchronize our voices towards a common purpose.
And it takes courage, and it takes practice,
and it takes getting lost, and it takes getting found, as C.
Marie tells us.
It takes us taking a moment to reflect,
taking that 60-second pause, and makes space.
And now, with some spaciousness,
it is my pleasure to introduce our final speaker
before intermission,
Peter Ahern, a graduate of the Speak With Purpose program.
Peter is a proud West Seattleite who practices
and teaches martial arts and loves all things nature.
He works with Speak With Purpose
to amplify young scholars' voices.
He highly recommends you stop by Bakery Nouveau
if you're ever in the neighborhood.
Let's give a warm welcome to Peter Ahern.
[ Applause ]
-Hey, how are you all doing tonight?
Can we get another round of applause
for the wonderful, wonderful a cappella group?
[ Applause ]
You guys were really, really amazing.
Thank you all so much. All righty.
If you had told me, even a week ago,
that I would have the opportunity to be standing
on this stage,
presenting alongside all of you wonderful people,
I would have told you that you were crazy.
Because, let me tell you,
to get up on this stage in front of you all is terrifying.
But it's because of wonderful leaders like Ms. Taylor and Ana
that I get to stand up here and give this speech.
But being a leader is about so much more
than just giving people opportunities.
It's about being empathetic.
It's about making difficult decisions.
It's about the big and the small,
the everyday acts that you do,
along with the overarching impacts of those acts.
I learned about this opportunity last Saturday.
And I'll be honest, I was incredibly apprehensive.
Five days is not a lot of time to prepare a speech,
let alone one in a format I can barely even pronounce.
But I asked my mentor if she thought I could do it,
and she said yes.
She advocated for me
and supported me in my decision to be up here today.
In addition to my mentor,
I have been blessed to know many great leaders
throughout my life.
Some are VPs of companies with tons to deal with,
while others are classmates.
But both kinds of people are great leaders,
because being a great leader
isn't about the amount of people you influence.
It's about how you influence those people.
As a leader,
all eyes are on how you act and the decisions you make.
Being a leader means acting as a role model
for the people who follow you.
Your interactions with people will shape how the people
who follow you act.
Therefore, you need to consistently be ethical
and responsible in your actions.
The goal of a leader is to be a bridge of communication
between different parties.
There will rarely be a scenario in life
where every group can get what they want.
So sincerely listening to what all parties want
is critical to finding a middle ground
that everyone can agree on.
There are so many different beliefs held in our world,
and there are thousands of valid arguments on any given topic.
As a leader,
you need to be able to consider the arguments of every party,
especially those opposed to your own,
because other people's views are important
if you want to continue to cohabitate our Earth in peace.
Unfortunately, attached to this
comes one of the unfortunate truths that, as a leader,
you need to stomach.
You will never be able to get everything that everyone wants.
Often you will end up fighting for what is most important
and leaving behind the rest of the arguments.
This leads us into the heart of what I think
being a leader is about.
When the people you lead are dejected,
when you're running on fumes
and all you have left is trust
that you'll find a way out of the storm.
At the end of the day,
being a leader is about making tough choices
with limited information and often limited time,
then being accountable for what happens next.
With how volatile our world has become,
the need for leaders has skyrocketed.
We're facing challenges
that require more than control to solve.
They require compromise.
Leaders help us to swim amidst ever-changing waters.
They give us a base to rest on.
Without leaders,
our world would be lost,
plunged into a never-ending sea with nothing to help us float.
And this naturally leads to the question of
how do you cultivate leadership in people?
I believe that there are many different ways to do this.
However, I think that they all need to follow one core tenet.
Leadership is something that's built over time.
One person is rarely able to move
from managing 8% of the workload
to suddenly managing 95% of the workload at once.
Leadership is a lot like a muscle.
It requires care and persistent training for it to be strong.
And just like how some people are genetically stronger
than others,
some people are naturally better leaders than others.
But even if someone is a natural leader,
their skills still need to be cultivated.
One of the best ways
for someone to learn how to be a leader
is to work with an existing leader.
New leaders get to learn to take on more as they work
and grow their leadership muscle.
The key is that leadership is progressive,
and existing leaders can help new leaders develop
their leadership muscles much faster.
This leads us to one of,
if not the most important, jobs of a leader.
To pass on the torch to the next generation.
To ensure that the leader's knowledge is passed on
and that their work can be continued.
But why does this matter to any of you guys?
I mean, it's all really difficult.
You need to be a good example to people
and listen to them
and be a bridge between people you disagree with.
I mean, it's hard enough to get up from bed in the morning,
let alone pass on the torch to the next generation.
But there is a reason.
If we don't step up to be leaders, then who will?
Think about it.
We are all gathered here to listen to speeches
about what leadership means.
We have the knowledge to lead.
It doesn't take a perfect person to be a leader.
It just takes someone brave.
And I can stand up here and tell you everything
that I think leadership is.
But until you start leading
or start cultivating leaders of the next generation,
everything that I've said will remain a thought.
So if you are a leader, I invite you
to give opportunities to people who follow you.
And if you're not a leader,
I encourage you to ask local leaders what you can do.
Leadership is built through small, everyday acts.
And in order to cultivate capable leaders,
we need to encourage people to make those everyday decisions.
Because today, more than ever before, we need strong leaders.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
-Oh my goodness gracious me.
Peter, thank you. Thank you so much.
So many amazing lines in your talk.
I am really glad that those five days existed.
Your invitation,
your reminder that we don't need to be perfect to be a leader,
we just need to be brave.
Well, what I'm looking at over here in this amazing audience
is a community of some of the bravest leaders
this town has ever known.
And so what I want you all to do is invite you all to get up,
stretch your legs, grab some cookies and some water,
and do what is at the heart of PechaKucha.
So for those of you who know, PechaKucha is an onomatopoeia.
It comes from the Japanese word chit chat, PechaKucha.
And actually, an essential part of the program
is just taking a moment to get to know each other.
So we're going to take 10 minutes, get to know each other,
try to circulate the room.
For those of you sitting over here,
try to make it all the way over to the other side
of the room and back.
And then we're going to come back together again
with amazing presentations. We have Derrick Wheeler-Smith,
Executive Director of the Office of Civil Rights,
coming back after our intermission.
Congressman Brian Baird and Surya Vanka and others
and offer the Furmata Choir and the BWB drum line.
So discuss, cookies, water, let's come back.
[ Applause ]
-If you didn't see us in the beginning,
we are the BWB drum line,
which is an intergenerational percussion collective
from Big World Breaks, which was started in 2004, 21 years ago.
And we're very excited to once again have five
incredible young artists between the ages of 12
and 20 rocking with us tonight.
I'll introduce them after our first piece.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
[ Music ]
[ Applause ]
Thank you.
As we have a couple personnel changes over here
with instruments before we do our next piece,
let me introduce, on base,
make some noise for Raniyah, everybody.
[ Applause ]
On snare and quads, Talia. Give it up.
[ Applause ]
On snare and quads, Sayir.
Make some noise. On snare tonight,
but sometimes you'll see him on quads as well,
give it up for Sam, everybody.
[ Applause ]
And first official opportunity on stage,
specifically with this all-star crew of BWB drumline,
give it up for Brian, everybody, on snare and quads.
[ Applause ]
My name is Aaron Walker-Loud.
I'm the founder and director of Big World Breaks,
and we started in 2004.
Coming after years of working in the childcare community,
specifically growing up in the Central District,
and then after graduating,
I then was inspired by my work in the music industry
as well as working with youth and families
to find a way to take everything I love
and put it into one movement.
That movement involves so many people, artists,
musicians, people in multimedia, young people and families,
all in the stage, in the studio, in the classroom.
The last piece we did is entitled Congo Square.
Some of us might know what that is.
That's a very significant place culturally
and historically in New Orleans.
The people that put me on, that turned me into who I am,
are from Louisiana. First and foremost,
who mentored me at Washington Middle School, Mr. Robert Natt.
Rest in peace.
And who mentored me at Garfield High School, Mr. Clarence A.
Cox.
And beyond that, what we've been doing, one event at a time,
one class at a time,
and these young people here
have helped me in many ways also educating people their age
or younger in so many situations in the CD,
the South End, and other schools.
And what we're working on is taking the power of music,
the foundations of rhythm,
the bridges that can connect as music
is a language internationally more so than
many types of expression.
And so we're looking forward to take Seattle
and the feeling of Seattle
and the international connectivity of Seattle
back to our backyard here in many places
in learning environments and cultural environments,
but also finding more and more ways
to be connected to people outside of Seattle,
outside of the state, outside of the country.
And so we are looking forward to collaborating
with people in this room in that effort.
You can find us more,
BigWorldBreaks.com, and also the socials
that are pretty easy to find.
This next piece we're going to do, the last for tonight,
is going to be something that is really a fusion of rhythms,
Afro-Latin and Afro-Caribbean rhythms that are from Jamaica,
Trinidad, Cuba, and an interesting fusion.
This is called Trinidad Remix.
And you can find us this summer,
supported by the Office of Arts and Culture
through the Hope Corps Grant.
Wednesdays, the entire summer, downtown on the waterfront,
we're going to be doing events,
and we're going to have open drums
and invite you to play drums with us.
So on Wednesdays in the summer, just keep in mind,
out on the waterfront, you're going to hear us,
see us, and hopefully rock with us.
One more time,
can we give it up for all these young drummers
giving us their talent tonight? [ Applause ]
[ Music ]
[ Applause ]
Thank you again.
Thank you to Miss Ana and all the presenters.
Thank you to the Seattle Public Library.
Thank you to all the talented people
who have shared the stage with us tonight and who will.
One more time, Sam, Brian, Raniyah, Sayir, Talia.
Thank you. [ Applause ]
We are going to quietly take our drums which direction?
Off the stage.
We're going to move which way, Ms. Ana?
What's the best way? This way. Okay.
We're going to try and be super quiet
because we're in the library.
We're going to move these out.
Thank you.
And we look forward to hearing more
of the wonderful presenters.
Appreciate everybody. Thank you.
[ Applause ] -That was a tour de force.
Like, again, rearranged molecules, rearranged molecules.
I had an out-of-body experience.
I hardly know my own name.
But the good news is I don't need to remember my name
because I just need to remember the name of the next speaker
who is so incredibly amazing and inspiring.
It is my honor and privilege
to bring to the PechaKucha stage Derrick Wheeler-Smith,
who is the director of Seattle's Office of Civil Rights,
which enforces local and federal laws on illegal discrimination
and oversees the city's race and social justice initiative.
Derrick is a native son of Rainier Valley,
whose impact on racial equity and community empowerment
in Seattle and King County has spanned more than two decades.
Since his beginnings as a youth outreach worker and coach
at Franklin High School in the late 1990s,
through his most recent role as director of Zero Youth Detention
for King County Public Health,
Derrick's bold ideas, courageous voice,
and ability to inspire community action
has been a tidal force for progress in our region.
Let's give the warmest welcome to Derrick Wheeler-Smith.
[ Applause ] -Good evening.
Honored to share space with all of you on tonight.
There's a Zulu phrase that comes to mind, sawubona.
And when you offer someone a sawubona,
you respond with a sakona.
But the basic idea is,
is that because you see me, I am now here.
And so thank you, Ana,
for curating this beautiful space on tonight.
Our Constitution actually begins
with three iconic words, we the people.
But we have to ask,
when did we the people come to mean all the people?
Thirty lines after proclaiming that all men are created equal,
the Declaration of Independence refers to native people
as merciless Indian savages. The line between who is equal
and who was expendable was made clear.
Women aren't mentioned in our Constitution.
Native people are excluded
and Africans are counted as three-fifths a person.
So who then is actually protected?
White landowning men. Our Constitution isn't broken.
It's doing exactly what it was designed to do.
Protect the interests of its original beneficiaries.
Women earn 70 cents on the dollar.
The Constitution is working.
Our prisons are filled disproportionately
with people of color.
The Constitution is working.
Corporations granted political speech rights in 2010.
The Constitution is protecting white landowning interests,
just modernized.
Our founding document is white supremacist sexist by design.
And it assumes
that white landowning men define who is human and who is not.
America suffers from historical amnesia.
The white majority remembers a myth of discovery,
expansion, and exceptionalism.
Communities of color live a history of stolen land,
slavery, segregation, genocide, internment,
mass incarceration, and separation.
System exclusion is seen and experienced through our systems,
policies, practices, and our culture today.
The challenges that we're facing in relationship
to the federal administration
right now reminds me of the four stages
of ideological subversion.
These four stages were unpacked recently by Yuri Bezmimov,
a journalist and former Soviet KGB defector.
And the first idea or concept connected to these four stages
is demoralization.
Demoralization centers around this idea.
And these four stages should all sound familiar to all of us.
Undermining a society's faith in itself,
its institutions, and its values.
Sound familiar? We need the kind of leadership,
and I believe the antidote to what we're experiencing
as it relates to demoralization right now,
are leaders who will strengthen cultural
and institutional confidence.
The second of the four stages is destabilization.
This idea of encouraging internal conflicts
in key areas like our economy, politics, and security.
I believe the antidote to that calls for leaders
who will strengthen social cohesion.
Similar to what Ana is doing here tonight in this space.
The third stage is crisis.
You push a nation into chaos through political,
economic, and societal upheaval. The antidote to that,
I believe, is empowering local communities
and strengthening local governance and grassroots
problem-solving capabilities,
recognizing that the people closest to the problem
are also the closest to the solution.
And finally, there's normalization.
This idea of establishing a new status quo,
often under authoritarian control.
This requires the kind of leadership
that will uphold democratic principles
and make a commitment to building bridges
across difference. In this moment,
I believe that we need leaders who are heroes --
or not heroes,
but who are hosts, in the words of Margaret Wheatley.
Ella Baker,
a foundational figure in the civil rights movement,
faced efforts to limit her influence by relegating her
to the role of secretary,
a reflection of the gendered power dynamics
within the movement.
She once said, strong people don't need leaders.
It's easy to think about prominent civil rights leaders
like Dr. King and wish we had someone like him
to lead us in this moment today.
But Ella believed that the messianic model of leadership,
that messianic model of leadership,
sidelined the voices of ordinary people.
Dr. King's power wasn't his own.
It was the power of the collective.
The movement was built by ordinary people.
King may get the credit,
but Joanne Robinson sparked the Montgomery bus boycott
with 33,000 mimeograph leaflets and Bayard Rustin
forced behind the scenes
because he was a same-gender-loving black man
who wrote speeches and trained activists
and organized the March on Washington.
Ordinary people driving extraordinary change.
And I have to ask you,
why do we know the stories that we know
and don't know the stories that we don't know
and who benefits from that? We need leaders who are host.
And this is a picture of a beautiful man named George,
who I actually met at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
And George was actually there on Bloody Sunday
and he has a gash on his forehead to prove it.
And while they're at the Edmund Pettus Bridge,
George walks up and tells me
that he's gone to the Edmund Pettus Bridge
every day to pray that God would raise up bridge builders.
And he looks at me and says,
and you young man are an answer to my prayers.
It was a really powerful moment
to think about what it means to bridge across difference
and to do the work of widening the circle of human concern.
And I believe it's in that place
that we can have the right conversations
and we can begin to support the emergence
of the kind of collective wisdom
that allows us to co-create a world big enough
to hold all of our similarities and all of our differences.
And while everyone can't do everything,
everyone can do something.
We need leaders who do not have historical amnesia,
who are willing to be honest and transparent about
how our policies systemically exclude people
from the circle of human concern.
Leaders who are committed to building systems
and structures of belonging.
People have simply lost faith in our institutions
and we need leaders who can transparently share
how community input and civic participation
can lead to real change.
We need leaders who are willing to fight for causes
they may not necessarily get to benefit from.
Leaders who are willing to plant seeds
they might not see bloom in their lifetime.
Coretta Scott King once said,
struggle is a never ending process.
Freedom is never really won.
You earn it in every generation.
We need leaders who can affirm democratic values
and be accountable to their community
to uphold equitable policies.
We need a national dialogue on race, gender and class
on par with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
that took place in South Africa, Rwanda and Canada.
Lastly, I would say to you
as I go to my seat that leaders as hosts
can empower communities of courage
as we the people work to widen the circle of human concern
and build a world big enough for all of us.
Without a shared memory, a community cannot truly exist.
It will only coexist.
Real unity begins with recognizing
and remembering the truths that actually shape us.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
Thank you.
Thank you. Toyia? -Thank you, Derrick.
The kids, the scholars were down here
and we were winking at each other
because everything you said were in alignment
with what you will hear in the next two speeches.
So it is with pleasure
that I introduce you to a firecracker.
Una, small but mighty.
So this is Miss Una Smith, fifth grader at Orca K-8.
Una loves dancing, playing soccer,
reading and hanging out with her friends.
She likes public speaking
because it gives her the opportunity to share her voice
with her family, her friends and her community.
So show some love for Una.
[ Applause ] -My name is Una Smith.
I am in fifth grade and the title of my speech
is called Women's Rights.
Have any of you ever been discriminated against
because of your gender?
Ever had someone say, you can't do that,
or, you don't belong here?
Because I have.
Throughout my 11 years of life, I've heard other people say,
stupid girl, or, you can't do this.
And that doesn't just happen to people my age.
This makes me feel enraged because my gender
should not determine what I can or cannot do.
We are all humans.
Did you know that for every $1 a man makes,
a woman makes about 85 cents doing the same job?
I calculated this myself.
And if I made $50,000 a year for over 50 years of work,
guess how much money I would make less than a man?
Raise your hand, guess.
Over $375,000. This is information
that I gathered from the Pew Research Center.
And speaking of women's rights, in 1973, the U.S.
Supreme Court recognized the decision whether to continue
or end a pregnancy should belong to the individual
and not to the government.
However, in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v.
Wade, eliminating the federal right to abortion
and leaving the decision up to the states.
This abortion ban is in states such as Texas, West Virginia,
Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, and many others.
Did you know that until 1974,
women were not even allowed to have credit cards
or get a business loan to start their own business
without a male cosigner until 1988?
My mom was 12 at that time, older than me.
I believe that if we want an equal world together,
we have to fight for our rights.
And I strongly believe
that everyone should have the same rights,
no matter their race,
no matter their face, and no matter their gender.
So to all the girls and women of the world,
be the person you decide to be
and not what anyone tells you to be.
Women's rights! Say it with me. Women's rights!
-Women's rights! [ Applause ]
-Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-See what I'm talking about?
This is the firecracker right here.
And Una wrote this speech in the fourth grade.
[ Applause ]
Affirmative words, affirmations for Una.
Wow. Powerful. They're saying so many words.
You go, girl. Future leader. Today's leader.
Thank you. Leader now. You have empowering.
You have my vote in whatever it is you choose to do in life.
You are going to stand up for women's rights
because of the passion, the conviction
that you convey that we feel and that we need.
Thank you, Ms. Una.
[ Applause ]
-Just wow. Just wow. Just wow.
More molecules being rearranged
and more faith in this future that we share.
Speaking of which,
Surya Vanka, futurist, kindest, most empathetic, vision,
visionary, global design leader, here to take the stage.
From classrooms to corporate boardrooms,
he has dedicated his life to making design more inclusive.
Let's give Surya Vanka a warm welcome.
[ Applause ]
-It feels like our world is breaking.
It feels like our world is on fire.
I will speak about how the purpose of leadership
is to spark joy, foster courage, and create resilience,
and how we must lead, not in spite of the fire,
but through the fire.
Our global systems are fraying. Peace is retreating.
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030
feels like a distant dream.
The top 10% own 80% of global wealth.
Democracy is backsliding all around the world.
Today's difficulties drain us all.
Joy, on the other hand, has a strange power.
It slips past fear and gives people courage.
Joy helps us reclaim our energy, our sanity, our agency.
It grounds us. It connects us.
It reminds us why we fight for a better world.
Good designers create joyful futures.
Good leadership does the same.
Both are optimistic and shape the future.
When done well, they build justice and beauty.
Design itself is a systematic, rigorous,
and a repeatable process used to tame chaos
and create elegant solutions that bring calm and joy.
It's worth studying when we think about leadership.
The science of design itself
has evolved in at least through four stages.
It began with creating beautiful things.
It expanded to making joyful experiences,
then became the catalyst for entire organizations.
And today,
it is evolving to address systemic challenges
on a planetary scale.
To understand this journey,
let's go back to the origin story.
Let's travel back to 14th century Florence,
where the Renaissance sparked some
of the earliest parts of design.
A single city birthed Da Vinci, Botticelli, Galileo,
Michelangelo, and more.
But Florence, interestingly, wasn't a paradise.
It was a divided, oppressive, feudal society.
The rich enjoyed extraordinary lifestyles,
dispatching ships around the world for silks and spices.
In an ironical twist,
one of those ships brought back the black rat and the plague.
The black death
that devastated Florence cracked the oppressive systems open
and that collapse became the canvas
for the reinvention called the Renaissance.
Crisis was catalyst.
Let's fast forward to the early 20th century New York.
Another explosive design moment.
Visionaries create what we call industrial design,
driven by creativity that shaped modern life,
furniture, transit, media, cities,
and a new role for design.
And again, this didn't come from peace.
The Great Depression, economic collapse,
the Spanish flu impacted a whole generation.
Design became a way to restart America to bring dignity,
clarity, and jobs.
Once again, crisis is the catalyst.
Just a few years later, in Europe,
the Bauhaus movement offered a radical rethinking,
form follows function, truth and materials.
It was no longer about objects. It was values, organization,
ideas that are still current today.
But even the Bauhaus arose amidst a fascist state,
war, and collapse.
European society is broken, and again,
the next evolution of design.
This repeating pattern is worth noticing.
From that early 1.0 design to 4.0 design,
each shift has followed a shock.
This evolution continues.
Today's design concerns are not just about gadgets.
They are about systems.
Sustainability, trust, equity,
a disciplined learning to serve humanity at scale.
Now, interesting, one of the recent nudges was COVID-19,
which nudge design hard into its next era.
It exposed fragility in healthcare, education,
governance, media.
We learned that resilience needs creativity.
And suddenly, everyone was tinkering
and adapting and surviving. Today, platforms are rising.
Platforms that empower billions to create,
from TikTok to 3D printing,
mutual aid to movement organization.
A planetary wave of citizen power is rising.
This is a great opportunity.
8 billion people designing better ways to live joyfully.
And importantly, guided by a new kind of leadership.
This new leadership cannot be about command and control.
This new leadership has to be about orchestration.
Like a conductor bringing out the power of every instrument,
today's leaders are called to unlock collective intelligence.
And to do that with a new mindset, a skill set,
and a world view.
The mindset of this orchestra leader
is that of a system thinker, a connector.
One driven by purpose, not prestige.
One who's endlessly curious, humble, and bold.
One who embraces regeneration and renewal.
These leaders have an elevated skill set to enable
and elevate others.
They know how to navigate disciplinary boundaries,
to navigate AI.
They know how to prototype joyful futures.
And they work to design a world with a world view
where justice is at the core.
And they lead from a place of humility and care.
They understand intrinsically and deeply
what the poet Rumi meant when he wrote,
the wound is where the light enters.
And so we are at this moment.
We did not ask for this broken
and wounded world that we are in.
But this is our moment of leadership.
Kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken pottery
with gold, doesn't hide the cracks.
It honors them.
And as we build the leaderships among others and ourselves --
[ No audio ]
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-Surya. An enchantment. May we lead with light.
May we mend with gold. Thank you for leading the way.
Thank you.
Now I'd like to bring Toyia Taylor back to the stage.
Where are you, Miss Toyia?
There you go. Our next speaker.
-So last but not least, this is Salea Milard,
sixth grader at Washington Middle School.
Salea, winner
of the 2024 fifth grade Rising Voices Oratory Competition,
which you are all invited to June 14th,
is a dynamic speaker with a passion for science,
baking and cooking. When she's not on the mic,
she enjoys spending time with her little brother, Kiano,
playing video games and sharing laughs.
Her energy and bright smile light up every room she enters.
Let's clap it up for Salea.
[ Applause ] -Hi, everyone.
My name is Salea Milard, and I'm going to be sharing
my untitled passion piece with you all today.
Oh, say can you see?
By the dawn's early light, my people are fearing.
My people are falling, but we rise.
Above your red stripes and white stars,
we break the barriers of your star-spangled banner,
because this is not the past. Because no amount of water
under the bridge can wash away the scars of your stripes
and your stars on my people.
Your eagles nor your egos scare us,
because this is not just your America, this is our America.
An America built off of the red, white, and blue blood,
bones, and tears of our people
that some of us cannot even call ours,
but take from us no longer.
This land is stolen, our spirits are broken,
but we still remain.
In a world where our differences are not appreciated,
so give us what we are owed.
Give us the truth in your history books.
Our stories, our people deserve to be heard.
So, oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave.
Or the land of the thieves and the home of the chains,
because no matter how you hurt us, we will not be restrained.
Because we are, and always will be, strong, powerful, and brave.
Thank you. [ Applause ]
-So powerful words, affirmations for Salea.
Chills. Miracle, visionary.
Fierce, poetic, helpful, beautiful, hopeful, strong.
Believable. The rise. Riveting. Leader.
Honest, powerful, poised, brave, hopeful.
Determined, brilliant, truthful.
Influential, role model, determined.
You are going to be up here next year.
I'm going to see to that. I can't wait.
Poet. Amazing. Madam President.
[ Applause ]
So before we leave the stage, I have a vision.
I have a dream that I would like all of you to make a reality.
June 14th, Museum of Flight.
Take a flyer. Show up.
If you can't show up, tell somebody to show up.
Because our children deserve to have a packed room
celebrating them, elevating them, listening.
I've heard a lot of that tonight,
about listening to the next generation
because they hold the answers.
But we have to hold them up in order
for them to be able to move forward.
So if you can't come, donate.
Become a sponsor. Hopefully you are in the room.
It's a free event, all ages.
That is my dream.
Please help us make it a reality.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you. Thank you. Oh my goodness gracious me.
Again, the future.
See, we walked into this room
and we thought the future was this dark, scary place.
But now we know that it is a beautiful place full of light
and bright and power and belief and opportunity joy
to be realized together.
Which brings me to these troublemakers.
Let's give it up to the Furmata A Cappella Choir
for their last song with us.
[ Applause ]
-So we actually have two more songs.
We're going to be singing a modern hit, Good Luck,
Babe by Chappell Rone.
And then we will be doing our closer of our competition
set called Butterfly Net.
I'd also just like to take a moment to give a shout
out to our soloist from the previous two songs,
Tristan, right there.
[ Applause ]
And these two jokers are Steven and Tim,
our rhythm singers.
[ Applause ] Thank you guys for having us.
[ Singing ]
[ Applause ]
So if you're wondering about the aaaahh,
we did this thing on stage in New York
and consistently throughout our competition set
where when you play with the microphone's
like sound drop off, like over here you can't really hear me,
then you can hear me.
If you wave it around like aaaahhh,
I don't know if you can really hear it.
Let me try to turn it up a little bit.
Sort of tremolo effect that we were able to get,
and it sounded so cool with all of the other voices.
Just doing aaahhhh on stage.
And we unfortunately cannot recreate that
when we're all not mic'd, so we do the aaahhh.
[ Laughter ]
Thank you so much for having us.
We've been so inspired by all the speeches
that we've seen today, especially, like, hearing like,
about, like, leadership and, like, passing the torch.
Stephen and I have been the music directors for this group
since just like October of this year, really.
September. [ Applause ]
So those last two songs were songs that we both
arranged for the group ourselves.
We pride ourselves on like taking leadership
to the next level, especially since this group,
since the genesis of the group in 2008.
We've been trying to self-lead our arrangement process,
our audition process, our choreography process.
We try to do it all ourselves because of, like,
really keeping that power within, like,
us in a group context is really important.
And Stephen and I will not be the music directors next year.
We're passing it along to, raise your hands, Tristan and Jaden.
[ Applause ] Thank you all.
Such an inspiring, like, series, such an inspiring few hours.
We're really, really,
really, like, stoked to be able to be here
and share this moment with all of you guys.
Cool.
[ Applause ]
And just to like put everything all together,
like, I am pretty much more currently taking
an education class at UW
and we've been really trying to, like, have the power of names,
like, knowing each other's names.
I'd like everyone to just,
like, introduce themselves real quick before we head on.
Starting here. -Oh, hi, I'm Jaden.
-I'm Anna Maria. -I'm Jenna.
-I'm Emmy. -Brie.
-I'm Tristan. -I'm Grace.
-I'm Atiyama. -I'm Brady.
-I'm Mac. -I'm Alex.
-I'm Robin.
-I'm Tim. -And I'm Stephen.
[ Applause ]
-Where can we find you guys?
-Good point. Okay, so we have an Instagram.
If you look us up, we're just FurmataAcappella.
Unfortunately, it's two Ps. That was totally our bad.
If you get the FurmataAca part, you're good.
But, yeah, if you just look up Furmata online,
you can find us on YouTube, you can find us on Spotify,
you can find us on Apple Music, you can find us on Instagram.
We're all over the place, and what else?
We also are having a concert coming up here on UW campus
that we have yet to post any information about,
so you're kind of getting an insider scoop all here today.
We're going to be doing our senior showcase,
a bit of a send-off to all of the older members of the group
who have either only spent a year with us
or spent all four of their college career.
I don't know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, yeah, so keep the eye out.
Huh? June 7th at 7:30 p.m.
at the Ethnic Cultural Center -- Ethnic Cultural Theater
on UW campus,
so if you'd like to come support us, that's what we'll be.
We'll have more information about that on our Instagram
and on our social media very soon, so thank you all.
[ Applause ]
-I can think of no better setup
of these transcendent voices
who deliver us into a new state of being
with every song than Furmata Choir
as the frame for our final speaker,
Congressman Brian Baird. [ No audio ]
His dedication to the state of Washington
and to service and to leadership is legion.
He served for 12 years as the U.S.
House of Representatives, serving Southwest Washington,
where he was known for his work on science,
technology, mental health, and bipartisan integrity.
He authored key legislation, including the STOCK Act,
which banned insider training by members of Congress, families,
or staff,
along with leading legislation on ocean acidification,
science education, and diplomacy, national parks,
and mental health.
Beyond Congress, Dr. Baird holds a Ph.D.
in clinical psychology,
chaired the Department of Psychology
at Pacific Lutheran University,
and was president of Antioch University in Seattle.
He is the founder
of the National Museum and Center for Service
to honor and inspire civic life.
Let us give the warmest welcome to Congressman Brian Baird.
[ Applause ]
-Ana, I want to take just a moment
before I start prepared remarks.
You know, we've heard about leadership tonight.
Our friend James Williams
started off with sort of a checklist of what leaders do.
And as I've watched you prepare for this event,
the fact that you're doing this event,
the way you've done the event,
brought people together, put other people forward,
built a team, honored the team, inspired the team,
you have embodied leadership, the topic of us tonight.
And we're very grateful for that.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
And also, I'm going to ask the young people here
to help me out here. Okay? I need you to help me.
There's going to be about slide three.
I'm going to ask the audience.
And I'm starting with young people.
You're fearless. I have seen that.
I'm going to think about three or four people in your life
who you would like to be honored for their service.
Okay? Can you think of it? Could be a teacher.
Could be a friend. Could be your parents.
Could be somebody.
You think about three or four people.
And then think about three or four groups
that you think provide important service.
Can you do that for me? Especially the young people.
I know this tiger can. She's amazing.
She can do that. Right?
So about slide three, I'm going to give you a chance.
And then you're going to shout out those names.
Okay. So thanks, Ana.
So James Williams started it off the same way
I'm going to finish it off.
Leadership is service.
The only legitimate form of leadership and purpose
for leading is service.
And service is a form of leadership.
Two other things I want to add to this slide.
One, leadership is fundamental to democracy.
Fundamental.
And leadership can be of any age.
And there are so many ways to serve
and so many people who are serving.
All around the world, as we speak,
sometimes in really scary places,
people are serving in so many different ways.
These are all the ways you serve.
Now, when you see the next slide, shout out the names.
Ready? People who serve. Your teacher.
Others. Others? Who? All right.
Now we're going to organizations.
Organizations. Right. Lots of them.
This one is an organization that serves.
Now, here comes a harder question.
Hmm.
Where in our community do we honor all forms of service?
Oh, we've got crickets for this.
We honor some service.
We honor military service and that's fitting.
[ No audio ]
Other ways to serve, we don't honor.
Think about it.
Every school has an athletic trophy display case.
Almost no schools have a display case that honors service.
If you go to this city, you go to almost any city,
you see lots of other memorials, but volunteers,
Red Cross, teachers, choir directors, doctors, nurses.
And when we do honor service, it tends to be a service award.
We nominate 40 people.
A blue ribbon panel turns 39 of the 40 into losers.
So we can honor one winner, one night of the year for two hours.
There's got to be a better way than that.
What if we honored everybody who serves all the time?
You know, Dr. King said,
everybody can be great because everybody can serve.
Dr. King was right.
But if everybody can be great and everybody can serve,
let's find a way to honor everybody all the time
in all places so that we feel good about ourselves and people
who are giving of themselves get recognition.
That's our mission.
We've created this organization called
the National Museum and Center for Service.
Some members are here to help us with that.
The idea is to honor service in all its forms
all across the country, in a signature museum in D.C.
and in college campuses,
on our high schools, and in public places like libraries.
How do we do it?
Every school or community has three ingredients.
People who serve, places where you can create displays,
and I know these young people have the talents
to create displays to honor service.
I know they can do it.
So if we can do that, let's see some examples.
This is not just theoretical. Here's how it works on campus.
You get young people and you say, interview people who serve.
Write that down. Create a graphic.
Put it on a poster.
Find places on your campus where people will see it.
Spread it around and then share the light.
Spread the word around your whole community
and say, this is how people are serving in our community
to make everybody feel good.
These are examples that have actually existed
that we've helped create.
Students working with faculty, working with communities,
telling the stories of graduates from the school who serve,
current people who serve.
And these are compelling stories.
And young people did this.
You don't have to have a Ph.D., kind of like Dr. King said.
You can use your skills. We're in a public library.
This is a place of service.
Wouldn't it be great when you walk out of here tonight
and say, you know what?
You could put a poster there.
You could honor this service group.
You could honor this person. There's some organization.
Just bring them together.
People who serve with places to honor service.
Finally, we want a signature building in
our nation's capital.
Wouldn't it be great if you went to D.C.
and there was a building that honored all forms of service,
a vibrant, inclusive, experiential place,
not just the inanimate objects behind glass,
but real-life stories of real-life people
making a real-life difference?
We're working to make that happen as well.
Schools, public spaces, a signature building in D.C.
And what do we do? What do we get?
We can do this more affordably, more rapidly,
honor more people who serve,
more often in more public places for more days,
more exposure, and more power to that.
And we can do this once we start it.
It will last forever.
These exhibits, you change them, keep them fresh.
What do we get out of this?
You'll inspire service participation and contributions.
You'll attract more volunteers, more staff,
more support for service.
You'll meet vital needs of our community.
That's what service does.
And you can help heal the divisions in our country
and strengthen our democracy,
something we so desperately need.
We've got a chance to showcase this.
Some of our founding documents
did not correspond to the reality that we wish.
But the final words of the Declaration are aspirational.
We mutually pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
We're going to put it all on the line for other people,
not just for ourselves, not selfishness.
But here's something sad.
People are doing this every day,
but our country is losing the commitment to do that.
All across the world where we've been helping, we're gone.
And there's no place to tell the story,
and there are fewer stories to be told.
We're going to close with a black
and white description of what we need to do.
Democracies fail when people, guided by selfishness,
use the democratic process to gain power
and then use the power to undermine the democracy.
The people in this room are the solution to that.
People motivated by service.
People who want to give.
And why is this leadership now?
Because when you participate in service,
and when you tell the story of service in all its forms,
what's going to happen is kindness, generosity,
and compassion are going to replace selfishness,
meanness, and short-term thought.
And that's our vision.
And you can be part of that vision.
It will change our society,
transform how we think of service when we use the word,
transform how we honor service,
and transform how we understand our nation.
Thank you to each and every one of you for your service
and for being here tonight.
And thank you, Ana, for putting this together.
[ Applause ]
Thanks to all of you for your service.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
I am in awe of you. I am in awe of all of you.
The purpose of this event was to bring forward the joy
that we all possess.
That was the purpose.
And I think that together,
hearing all of your beautiful voices,
the heartbeat of your courage, the strength of your vision,
it reminds us of who we are and what we can achieve together.
We can do anything.
And I truly believe, given the beauty in this room,
that we can make the world ever beautiful still.
So thank you all so much for coming.
Thank you for believing in being together
and for all the incredible ways that you serve your own vision,
each other, and the world around you.
Thank you so much.
[ Applause ]