-You wrote a great essay for The Players' Tribune.
-Yeah. -Which is, Derek Jeter
started this website where an athlete can go up
and actually just be honest and straight-up
and write whatever article they want to, or story.
And yours was titled "The Noise."
-Mm-hmm. -How did this come about?
-Well, it was Veterans Day, and I've kind of been
plugged into the social climate and really being a part of,
you know, how athletes use their voice and their platforms.
And I'm not an activist, by any stretch of the imagination,
but I do feel that I have a responsibility
to kind of speak my mind when I have the opportunity
and to kind of shed light on the trials and tribulations
that veterans go through.
Use Veterans Day to hopefully, you know,
spread some awareness on that, and --
-You met a veteran at -- -I met a veteran,
actually, at my wife's restaurant.
And he was kind of talking about the transition
back into civility, and it was just a lot of stories
that he educated me a lot on what needs to be done
to help our veterans, and I wanted to kind of use that
as a platform to help them.
-It was a beautiful thing, and I thought it would be cool tonight
if you read the final few paragraphs of "The Noise."
-Okay. -Are you up for that?
-I can do that for you. I appreciate that.
-You can go to that --
Read to that camera right there, yeah.
-I care about our veterans deeply,
so that's why I'm writing this.
That's my plea to y'all for this Veterans Day.
Let's please not get lost in another one of these
endless debates about who means what,
when they're doing what, or who is disrespecting whom.
Instead, let's respect, let's celebrate our veterans,
by having a conversation about the actual ways
that we, as civilians,
as their fellow Americans they fought to protect,
can hold up our end of the bargain.
Let's talk about the broken V.A. medical system
and traumatic brain injuries and PTSD.
Let's also talk about homelessness and unemployment
and mental health, and, yes, of course, racial inequality.
Let's talk about how we can do better
to make their lives easier.
Let's use our platforms and take this day
to talk about how we can be louder
than all the silence and quieter than all of this noise.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you so much, brother. -Thank you very much.