he said the the thing I would hope for is that I pray that God
really gives all of you success and also
rectifies the problems that we have
rectifies America but also rectifies the
global problems that we're facing
<ARABIC>
he said I don't think this is
an insignificant thing if the idea
praying for America because America
right now they are the pilots and the
sailors that are Manning the ship of
humanity the key need accountability
nemidoonam he said if we have mad
sailors OE and I'm not you or they fall
asleep you could listen etana he said
the safina can lose its way and the ship
can lose its way and and dragged her I
madinah termina he said this is my hope
venison oh yeah management this and this
is what I don't want it
you know I'll tell you some if you heard
the translations at the Brookings
Institute trust me i'm doing a great job
high heel a little shimmy Lysander to
the zohan chamba he said it's a
beautiful evening and I'm going to have
a recollection behind occur at least oh
dear he said I'll make mention of it in
in my recollections in Saudi Arabia from
jamia and measurement Kahuna que es hora
de vie he said I hope any of you come to
Arabia there in Jeddah that you visit
him in his house which is on the way to
Mecca Goodwin and I'm oh shoot he said
my address is known at Roca vbulletin ER
doc in pero nunca más de una he said I
would invite you to Mauritania in West
Africa but I know very few would
actually answer the invitation then
that's not the Sahara Khedira he said
people don't like the deep desert very
much a lot could be hiding Veronica
jimmied he said but we do have a
beautiful ocean with natural vn'oco
busaba and we're simple people Reginald
Ohana and and more poor people condemns
Arabic avira but we have great wealth
and dumb Elam we have knowledge we're in
dumb the throat oh and dumb one yep he
said now they're finding oil and gold as
well
like a nomad SFM you said middle he said
but we haven't been able yet to really
utilize and bring to fruition the
Minotaur agenda I'm at so I'm inviting
all the business people money or what
but every item and also the seekers of
knowledge were many way to solve and
even the seekers of Sufism any other way
down and come to Mauritania yeah jidoka
mucho fun was so my greetings to all of
you there's a big secret in that talk
because I've known the shift 20 years
that's the most humorous talk he's ever
given
miss manamana him first of all I want to
thank both ray and his wife for bringing
all of us together one of the
extraordinary things about our country
is it's a country of diversity it always
has been America has never been a
homogenous country anybody that claims
that is a liar and knows nothing about
the history of this country it's a
country that's forged in diversity our
extraordinary banner and really almost
mission statement is a pluralist una out
of many one and and this is what this
country is about we're in in really
almost four Americans sacred ground
because this is this is Mount Vernon
this is a place that represents
sacrifice a man like George Washington
was a man who had everything and he
risked everything for something better
not for himself because he was a
well-to-do businessman he had everything
that he needed he had a beautiful and
devoted wife he was from one of the most
distinguished families in Virginia he
was a millionaire by the late teens in
his life he was a distinguished military
officer and he was despite the fact he
was seen as one of the less bright
people amongst that generation of
geniuses he translated Tacitus from the
latin into english at the age of 15 so
he was no slacker in studies either the
men that founded this country and the
women because Martha was part of the
operation as well as abigail adams and
many of the other great women and our
flag was sewn by Betsy Ross as everybody
knows but these people had a vision of a
different world it was a world that was
a departure of the ways of Europe
hierarchical worlds that didn't allow
for meritocracy it didn't allow for
natural genius to flourish amongst
people that that's the type of world
that they wanted to see transformed into
a new world a world where people could
live based on merit to put it in the
words of Martin Luther King that people
would be judged by the content of their
character and not by the color of their
skin or any other arbitrary quality such
as your birthplace or the family that
you came from and that's what made this
country great it has embraced immigrants from all over the world
In my own blood flows Irish immigrants. Daniel Copelan who came to this country in 1764 fought in the Continental Army for two years, and was awarded land in Georgia; As were many of the veterans of the war.
That's one of my grandfather's, he married into the "Fields" my mother. His mother was from Georgia from Macon, Georgia.
My father's side I have Irish Catholic blood. Hanson is O'hanson; When they came here, Irish Catholics often changed their Irish names to have more anglo-saxon sounding names. They were in the Philadelphia community they were welcomed into Philadelphia. Bridget and Michael o'Hanson my great-great-grandparents were welcomed in 1838. They came to Philadelphia; in 1842 they had the Kensington riots where they burnt down 4 beautiful Catholic churches, because of rumors that the Catholics wanted to change the Protestant Bible from the public schools
This is American history. Scores of Irish Catholics were killed by Protestants in Philadelphia, that led to a major transformation in the United States. Because people were so ashamed of what had happened and that was the beginning of the transformation. The Irish Catholics succeeded in becoming fully franchised Americans and that full enfranchisement was realized with the election of John Kennedy into public office at the highest office in this country.
this is America the African
Americans have been here for 500 years
many of them brought in Chains they've
struggled they've survived
many of them are still struggling and
just barely surviving but their part in
American tapestry they're now in the
highest offices in this country Arab
Americans have been here from the
beginning we forget that we had a
massive Arab emigration a hundred years
ago Henry Ford in the 1920s was looking
for people that didn't drink because he
had such an alcoholic problem with the
factory workers in Detroit and so he
decided to import Yemenis who didn't
drink and so he brought hundreds of
Yemenis led to thousands of Yemenis
immigrating to this country they'd been
here for a hundred years now one of the
most important Arab communities is in
Michigan this is America this is the
America that I'm part of where our
country right now is being faced with a
grave crisis it's a crisis of the values
that this country was established on and
the values that we have renegotiated for
two hundred and some-odd years we have
renegotiated these values all men are
created equal was an ideal when that was
first articulated in our foundational
document that we are much closer to that
ideal than we were when it was first
articulated in this country by men some
of whom owned slaves but there were not
all of them dr. Benjamin Rush the great
signer of the Declaration of
Independence was one of the most fervent
opponents of slavery in this country at
the founding of the country and he
wanted to see it abolished in the
original documents that did not occur
the great compromise it led to the civil
war that now we're looking at his
hundred and fiftieth anniversary this is
America but we as a people of diverse
and very backgrounds represent a hope
for this planet the possibility of
people of different creeds of different
colors
of different persuasions to actually
live together in conviviality in respect
and if not respect at least tolerance
because tolerance is an underrated
virtue this is what we're looking for I
want to see the leadership in this
country not just the political
leadership the economic leadership the
social leadership the movers the Shakers
the mavericks the influencers the mavens
I want to see these people really rise
to the occasion that this present
circumstance is demanding that we
recognize that it is unacceptable what's
happening in this country I listened to
a man yesterday at the Brookings
Institute today I'm sorry I listened to
men today from an Arab background say
how Islamophobia was a meaningless idea
there was no problem this is America
everybody's entitled to their opinion I
find that utterly unacceptable we have
Arab and South Asian bashing that's
going on day in and out on talk radio
and other places and it's time for good
Americans that believe in the ideals of
this country for too long we have
sublimated our ideals to our interests
Socrates in the apology which is worth
reading every once in a while Socrates
in the apology said one of the most
extraordinary political statements that
I'd ever heard he said the state worries
far too much about its interest if the
state concerned itself more with its
virtue its interest would take care of
itself George Washington in his farewell
address and I once read a book of all
the farewell addresses of the
president's is one of the most
interesting reads I ever had because
they always tell the truth on the way
out
George Washington said he wanted to see
America a land of Commerce and
benevolence he wanted to see America
trade with the world not in the Articles
of War and he was very worried about a
war economy emerging in this country he
did not want to see a standing army we
now have a massive war economy it's
creating great problems economic
problems in this country we're talking
about a 14 trillion dollar deficit 54
trillion dollars in liabilities double
the amount of dollars in circulation and
yet the sacred cow of our budget is our
military expenditure which is nine times
greater than all the military budgets on
this planet I think we've got a lot to
think about as a people if we want to be
the beacon and the guiding light the
sailors that are that are taking care of
the ship of humanity I think we really
need to reassess that and one place that
I absolutely found it necessary to do is
in how we treat our Muslim Americans
because this is an important community
if the doctors from the Muslim community
got up and left America today we would
have a health care crisis in this
country of unprecedented proportions and
that is not hyperbole Americans put
their hands in Muslim doctors every
single day we had David Letterman said
on national television I went to my
doctor today and he said face Mecca and
cough and everybody in the audience
laughed because people have Muslim
doctors we've got engineers we have
entrepreneurs we have business people we
have an extraordinary and talented
community we also have an
african-american community that is
Muslim and has been here for a very long
time and increasingly a Hispanic and a
Caucasian American community
euro-american were diverse we have a lot
of problems but we are part of America
and we need to hear the rest of
America acknowledge that and embrace
this community and and and the panderers
of fear they'll always be there but
their voices will only be drowned out
when the voices of sanity the voices of
reason the voices of good are amplified
in order to drown those voices of
stupidity out the malaise can't
pronounce the H in Arabic so they say
for the stupid in Malay is in Arabic
it's I'm up the Malay said amok so
running amok is is acting foolishly and
stupidly we have a lot of people that
have lost their heads of late in this
country and it's the people that still
have their heads on that really need to
to come together in solidarity and help
these other people help them they're
afraid there's a lot of fear in this
country they're afraid but we're a great
country we've been through a lot of
difficulties we're in a current crises
there's a lot of difficulties but the
truth is I believe in this country
that's why I'm still here this is my
country it's been the country of my
father who was a world war two veteran
who signed up to defend this country at
the age of 17 with his mother's
permission and left high school who's
given an early graduation this is my
country I believe in this country I
believe in the goodness and the
fortitude of this country and its people
but I really want to see more of what
needs to be done from all of us thank
you