Transcriber: Delia Cohen Reviewer: Ellen Maloney
So here we are.
Eight years ago I was in this very same prison,
this very same yard.
I sat in the same exact cells
where I wondered about my own humanity.
I questioned life, its meaning, my destiny.
Most unforgettable, however, was when I sat brokenhearted,
realizing that I'd lost the courage to dream beyond the barbed wire
and dream beyond these prison walls.
And I go back to those days of wondering just what was it
that had stripped that courage.
Now I'm thankful that somewhere I found the courage
to dream beyond the bars
and have mentors that helped me
see that I, too, could be something.
And then I went on to Loyola and started succeeding,
I guess some would say.
And I was dreaming and I was dreaming big, as big as could be.
And then my dreams were fortunately interrupted.
And they were interrupted by my drive from Marina del Rey
back to Watts in South Central,
and as trees turned into liquor stores into graffiti.
And it reminded me of my days when I sat in this exact same prison.
And it hit me: my phobia to dream did not start when I walked into prison.
In fact, it started way back when I was a kid.
I realized that the children in areas such as Watts and Compton,
the Bronx, Oakland,
are being denied the simple right to just dream of a dream.
I decided that I would give children the framework or the landscape
so that they can dream again.
The successes that I've had in my own mind
are marginal to the bulb that goes off in children's faces
when I see them light up and believe in themselves again.
That led us to create a camp program where we brought
four major housing projects in the area together,
and the whole focus was to bring these kids together
to see one another as friends - at least this is what I thought -
to begin to rebuild community,
bring elected officials and officers all together
to communicate as one,
and I thought this was how we were actually going
to change the overall community.
It is changing it, and it's certainly a part of it.
But from there, I realized that we actually needed more,
which then led to us creating a summer camp this summer.
And then, I was like, well aesthetically, it's not nice.
I go to work every day as an engineer, and I'm paid to dream.
People pay me a high amount of money
to dream of ideas to build.
And that's when it hit me that all our collective services
are not about this one piece of service
that we give to our subjects, our kids,
the folks that we're helping, but in fact we're creating
an overall, far-stretching concept
that is allowing people to dream again.
And it's incumbent upon every single one of us in this audience,
every single one of us who's watching this
that when we begin to learn to dream, and dream as big as possible,
no matter if someone tells you those dreams are unreal and impossible,
you have to dream it.
And when we do that, we allow people
and we allow children to begin to see themselves and see who they could be
and who they really are.
And when our children begin to dream again,
and dream exactly the way our forefathers dreamt of this nation,
when our children are able to look at our current problems and realize
that our current problems in the words of Obama:
"are much bigger than the smallness of politics"
and that actually we come together as a united whole
and that's the only way we're going to change that,
will we actually see change.
So, the message I'm coming here today,
and this is for my brothers who are in blue,
this is for the folks who are home,
is that you have an obligation.
Not only to yourselves
but to our children.
To make sure that every single child can dream again.
That is your obligation in life.
I don't want to hear about your stature,
your title, your accomplishments.
Tell me about the child who believes he can be an engineer.
Tell me about the child who believes that yes he can make money,
but the only reason he wants to is to actually affect the overall society.
And when you do that, that's when we have succeeded.
And it seems extremely big and far-reaching,
but I'll leave you with this, and it's a quote that I live by.
Thomas Jefferson said,
"It is far better to dare mighty task
although checkered by failure
than to rest in that gray space
that knows not victory nor defeat."
Dare to dream again, please.
Thank you.
(Applause)