Fired up!
Ready to go.
Ready to go!
Fired up!
Ready to go.
Ready to go!
It's Edith Childs!
How are you doing?
I'm doing good.
How are you?
It was early in my campaign,
and I wasn't doing that good.
I had promised a state legislator
from South Carolina
that I'd go down to her district,
Greenwood,
which is a pretty small town.
So we had to drive,
it was a rainy day.
I walk in and there are only about 20 people there.
And I'm thinking, man,
this is a three-hour round trip to talk to 20 people.
I’m wet.
I'm kind of grumpy.
And suddenly I hear in the background,
“Fired up!”
And everybody acts like this is normal and
they all shout, “Fired up!”
And then after that,
“Ready to go!”
And everybody says, “Ready to go.”
And I look back and I see this woman smiling
who has been leading this chant,
and it turns out her name is Edith Childs.
Edith was a longtime member of the NAACP.
“Fired up. Ready to go!” had been one of the chants,
the cheers that the NAACP had used back in the day.
I thought it was a hoot.
And it turned out that Edith
had the personality to go with it.
Just her being there cheered me up.
And as we walked away,
I said to my team,
I said, you know,
I'm feeling kind of fired up.
Are you?
And they said, “Yeah!”
And I said, Are you ready to go? Yeah.
“Yeah!”
And that chant, eventually,
we’d do in front of 100,000 people
at huge rallies as the campaign went on.
I don’t know about you,
but I'm fired up.
Fired up!
Ready to go!
Edith, hit it!
Fired up!
Ready to go!
Edith Childs shows you
what one voice can do.
One voice can change a room.
And if it can change a room,
it can change a city.
And if it can change a city,
it can change a state.
And if it can change a state,
it can change the nation.
And if it can change the nation,
it can change the world.
I stayed in touch with Edith.
Once I was elected,
I had the opportunity to bring her to the White House.
You look especially sharp tonight!
Thank you.
And, you know, I think more than anything,
what it represented was a core belief
that I had then and continue to have now
that leadership,
and power,
and inspiration
can come from anywhere.
It just has to do with spirit.
And nobody embodied that better than Edith.
Well, you know,
I heard that you were retiring
after all these years of public service.
I'm still busy
out in the community
doing what I do.
You’re going to still be out there,
you just decided
now was the time to step off the city council,
and give some young people a chance to serve.
Exactly.
What advice have you been giving young people
as they do public service
that I can pass on to
the young people that we're working with
at the Foundation?
Just be themselves.
Don't try to imitate anyone,
just be themselves.
And if you be yourself, then you'll do fine.
That's what I've done all my life.
What you see is what you get.
I think that's good advice.
Listen, you have made a difference
in the lives of your town and your community.
And you've made a difference in my campaign
and my life.
And I just wanted to let you know how much
we all love you and appreciate you and are grateful
for your service,
and just that positive attitude that you have
that keeps people fired up and
keeps them ready to go.
Exactly.
Thank you for your kindness.
I'm grateful that you're on the other side,
and that you still can talk to me.
I love you, Edith Childs.
It's great to talk to you.
Look forward to seeing you again.
Thank you so much.
And I love you back!