Next up, we're in
for a real treat.
Geoffrey Canada is going to
be speaking about his work.
20 years ago, Geoffrey founded
the Harlem Children's Zone.
Now, anybody who is interested
in the cause of youth, the
cause of education, or just
even lives in New York, you
know, looks at Geoffrey
as a real hero.
And the work that he's done
is just so unbelievably
remarkable.
You know, he's an author, a
visionary, but somebody who has
really dedicated his life to
bettering the lives of young
people living on the
streets of Harlem.
And I can't resist the urge
to also note that I believe
Geoffrey is a third-degree
black belt in karate
or -- tae kwon do.
Even better.
Please join me in welcoming
Geoffrey Canada.
Geoffrey Canada: Well, I am
absolutely thrilled to be here,
and I was really worried about
what to wear because they said
everything was casual, casual.
And I thought, I bet will.i.am
is going to wear just what he
wants to wear and I'm not going
to be able to touch that so I'm
going to just wear my regular
clothes up here and be happy.
[Laughter]
That was just brilliant, by
the way, and I -- lots of
things sparked in my mind.
But we've had -- we've had an
incredible year because a
number of different forces
have come together to, I
think, support our work.
We've had the -- "60
Minutes." We've done
"60 Minutes" two times.
We've got a book that
Paul Tough wrote called
"Whatever It Takes."
American Express decided they
were going to do a commercial
and sort of highlight our work.
The President of the United
States put $200 million in the
budget to replicate our work in
20 different places
around the country.
And I have really been excited
to see a collection of
businesses and politicians and
other folk come together around
some of the things
that I care about.
I have to tell you one
thing, though, about
"60 Minutes," right?
So I've done "60 Minutes" two
times, and I grew up -- now,
this is a young audience and
I'm not young, but I grew up
watching "60 Minutes" because
in the late '60s, early '70s,
if you were a social justice
person, the place you went to
every Sunday to see justice
was "60 Minutes."
And it was the same
format forever, right?
Sunday, it would come on.
You'd have some
scoundrel, right?
He was polluting the rivers.
He would come on "60 Minutes."
Mike Wallace would be
interviewing him and I would
still there and think, "Why do
they go on '60 Minutes'?"
[Laughter]
It's not like it's a surprise!
It's the same format
every Sunday!
[Laughter]
So the guy's on "60 Minutes."
He's saying "No, Mike, my
company never pollutes the
rivers," and right in the
middle of that Mike Wallace
would like rip out the picture
of the guy dumping sludge
into the river, right?
[Laughter]
And I would sit there and
say, "Why do these idiots
go on '60 Minutes'?"
Then they called me!
[Laughter]
So I just -- the second
time I did it, I did it
with Anderson Cooper.
I did say to Anderson, I said,
"Anderson" -- he said, "Okay,
we're going to start."
I said, "Wait, Anderson.
Look, if you've got
something, could we just
get to it right away?
Like don't drag
this thing out."
[Laughter]
So I thought if you needed to
get a message to America --
right? -- the place you needed
to go on was "60 Minutes"
because 20 million viewers,
a hard news format, right?
I was wrong.
Do you know whose show you have
to do if you really want to
get a message out to America?
Oprah!
Oprah!
I was totally sleeping.
Oprah!
I mean, I know Oprah.
Everybody knows Oprah.
But I didn't have a clue.
This is how I got
my first clue.
If I'm going to do something,
I'm going to do "60 Minutes," I
say to my wife and kids, "Oh,
I'm doing '60 Minutes.'"
They say, "Oh, great, dad.
Have a great time."
"Oh, I'm going to the White
House, the President."
"Oh, yeah.
Oh, great.
Say hi to the first
lady for us," right?
Like nothing.
So I'm sitting around the
dinner table, I say, "Oh, I'm
going to Chicago next week,
I'm going to do Oprah."
And they said, "Oprah?
You?"
Like what would Oprah
want with you, right?
[Laughter]
And I was sitting there,
and I said, "Yes, I'm
going to do Oprah."
And they said, "Well,
did you get tickets?"
[Laughter]
And I'm looking at them.
That doesn't even occur to me.
I'm like, "Tickets?"
I call Marty, my
communications guy.
I say, "Look, Marty, call
the Oprah folks, see if you
can get me some tickets."
Oprah does the worst
thing possible.
She gives me seven tickets.
Now, look, if Oprah gives
me two tickets -- right?
-- that's my wife
and my mother.
Seven?
Everybody in your family thinks
they're in the top seven.
[Laughter]
Right?
So my whole family's like,
"We're going to Oprah!"
I'm like, "No, you're not!"
[Laughter]
So if you ask -- you say,
"So Geoff, what is it?
Why do you want to go and
get on these shows?"
I am convinced, without
a shadow of a doubt,
that our nation's very
future is in peril.
I don't have a
doubt about this.
If our country continues to do
what it has been doing, because
we'll -- everyone's innovating
except in one place.
Education is not
innovating at all.
There's a group of educators
who have no intention of
changing anything around how
our children learn, despite
what's happening in the rest
of the world, and our country
is absolutely in peril.
Now, I think -- I know people
are saying, "Well, Geoff,
that's a little hyperbole.
How bad could this thing be?"
Well, in some places, it's
really clear what's going on.
You know, the Schott Foundation
just put out a report on the
graduating rates from
high school for
African-American males.
Less than 50%.
Some places 75% of the kids,
African-American males, aren't
graduating from high school.
We're talking about
from high school.
We're not talking about from
college, we're talking
about from high school.
Now, if you look at what
happens when you don't have
a high school diploma just
in general, 54% of those
kids end up unemployed.
Do you know what the rate is
for African-American males?
69% unemployed!
69%!
I will tell you this: You find
me a place on the face of the
earth that has that kind of
unemployment in a group.
It's just impossible
to imagine.
I mean, how could
we be doing that?
And by the way -- by the way,
a quarter of those folks
are going to be in jail.
Now, here's what our
nation has done.
We have made a strategic
decision that we are not going
to educate all of our kids at
very high levels, but we are
going to be prepared to lock
these folks up when they don't
have jobs and they end up
breaking the law, which is a
pretty straightforward
line, right?
No jobs, 25, 30 years, people
do what they have to do,
they end up in jail.
Do you know our country locks
up more people per capita
than anyplace on the
face of the earth?
By --
No one's close to us!
No one's close to us!
It is staggering.
The last numbers we had, 2.3
million Americans in jail.
You think of the worst country,
you think of the place that you
wouldn't want to be near,
you start thinking
about North Korea.
Not even close.
What's it costing the nation?
The last numbers we had,
about $68 billion in
adult correction.
So here, you know, I have
this program, right?
We spend about
$5,000 per child.
There's a huge national debate.
"Oh, my God, Geoffrey Canada
spends $5,000 a child to get
these kids in college and do
-- and we -- you know, people
tell me it's honest."
They say, "Geoff,
it's not scalable.
It's just not scalable.
That is not scalable.
We need a number that we can
scale across the country."
I say, "Wait a second now.
Let me -- let me
just get this."
I have to end up in a lot of
criminal courts because of what
happens with my kids, and I
have yet to be in a court where
I've seen a judge say to a kid,
"Look, Rahim, look, this is
your second armed robbery.
I told you what was
going to happen.
Now we're going to have to
send you for 10 years.
Let's see, at $35,000 a
year, that's $350,000.
You know what?
I can't do that.
It's not scalable."
[Laughter]
[Applause]
Never heard it!
Never heard it!
Never!
So wait, wait, wait!
So here's one part of
our system that is
totally scalable.
We are prepared to spend
10 years, 20 years.
We're prepared to spend as much
money as we need to to keep
Rahim locked up and
no one bats an eye.
And what are the social
positive outcomes
we get from that?
Nothing.
Does Rahim come out
able to get a job?
No.
Does he fake care
of his family?
No.
Is he able to go on?
No.
We have essentially spent a
fortune to produce nothing.
And we are totally
comfortable doing that
all over this country.
Everybody -- no one
blinks an eye.
And now you've got me out
here yelling, "We ought
to -- we ought to stop.
We know where the Rahims are.
They've been in the same
places for 50 years.
We know it by the block.
We know it by the projects.
We know exactly where
this is going on.
And you know what's
going on there?
Those folk are not
getting an education.
They are simply not
getting an education!
They can't come out
and compete."
So we have a small little
thing we think we ought to
do as a nation, which is to
educate you're children.
We ought to educate them!
We ought to realize that this
is a globally competitive
market we're preparing American
children for and we're going to
pay for these kids one
way or the other.
It's not like we cannot do the
investment and then we end up
like, "Well, we'll just save
all that money and do something
else." We're going to
spend that regardless.
And so we thought we
ought to do this.
Now, you know what?
I thought, because of how I
grew up, that, you know, I -- I
wasn't going to get Americans
to understand that.
People who were not
in my business.
I just honestly thought,
"They don't care.
I haven't convinced them
that they ought to
get involved in this.
It's messy work.
People are unsure about
what the outcomes are."
But over the years -- I've been
at the same job for going on 28
years -- I've found that you
can unite people in this
country around certain kinds of
issues, if people know there's
a crisis and there's something
that needs to be done.
I mean Matt Blank, one of my
board members, is here, who
is the president of
Showtime Networks.
Matt was one of -- his company
is one of the first companies
where they came in and Matt
said, "Geoff, I'm in.
Whatever we can do to help in
this effort, we're going to do.
I believe that it is in the
nation's best interest
to solve this problem."
Why?
Okay.
So -- "Geoff, I understand
there's African-American kids
and there's Latino kids and,
you know, that's a problem but
you're making this into
a national crisis."
This is an interesting -- you
ever get something and you
read it and you say, "Well,
that can't be true."
That happens every
now and then.
I get some information and I
read it and I say, "Well,
that can't be true."
Someone gave me this report and
it's called "Ready, Willing,
and Unable to Serve," signed --
the authors are top military --
43 of the top retired military
people in the United States.
You've got generals and
lieutenant generals and vice
admirals and major generals and
rear admirals and brigadier
generals, and it goes on and on
and on, all of the folk
who sign onto this.
And what is the basic
thesis of this?
75% of young adults cannot
join the military.
Now, I got that report, and
I said, "Wait a second.
What was -- what did you say?
Did you just say 75% of
young adults cannot --
did you say black kids?"
They said, "No, no.
We're not talking black kids."
I said, "Did you
say Latino kids?"
"No, we're not talking
about Latinos kids."
I said, "So you're telling me
in America, 75% of our young
people in America can't
join the military?"
They said, "Oh, yes."
Now, I don't know about you but
I never thought the high
benchmark that we were shooting
for in America was to
join the military.
Right?
I mean I have nothing wrong
with joining the military.
I just never thought that that
was a standard that we were
shooting for, and you're
telling me that --
I didn't believe it.
I said, "That data's
got to be wrong."
It's not wrong.
It's not wrong, when
you get the numbers.
First you have to graduate
from high school.
I told you about some
of those numbers.
That's ugly.
You're going to wipe out
30% of the American
population right there.
Then you find 30% of the folks
who graduate from high school
cannot pass the entrance test
to get into the military.
I said, "Okay!"
Now, you have a felony?
Can't join.
Oh, we mentioned there
was a problem in some
groups with that.
Well, I say, "Well, that's
still not enough people."
But then to join the
military, you have to be
in relatively good health.
I mean, you have to be able to
not like run a marathon, right?
But you should be able to run
from this wall to that wall
without needing to
catch your breath.
[Laughter]
Right?
I mean, we have allowed our
children to become so unhealthy
that they cannot join -- it's
staggering what we've done to
children in this country.
It is staggering!
And so the military leaders are
saying "Because of that, we
can't even accept these
kids in the military."
This is a national
defense crisis!
If we really needed to
mobilize this nation,
how would we do it?
Now, these folks understand
there's a crisis here.
They're calling for early
childhood education.
They're calling for investments
in our young people.
And I'm sitting here saying
to myself "Wait, wait, wait.
Doesn't anybody else
see this thing?
Doesn't anybody see what's
going to happen?"
I mean, if you love America
-- I love this country.
I'm not talking about wearing
the flag and you do -- I'm
just talking about for real.
If you love this country and if
you think like everybody says,
"Well, the children
are our future" --
See, I really believe that.
I don't mean it as a slogan.
I really believe that if you
want to see what America's
going to be in 20 years, look
at where our children are right
now and you'll be scared.
But, see, you're probably
thinking like I was thinking.
I said, "Wait a second, now.
I know a lot of people
love this country.
The leaders aren't
going to lose America.
I mean, come on!
I know that people have
an answer to this
education problem.
Right?
Because, I mean, after all, we
know a small number of folk get
together and really
run the world."
I'm from the '60s.
I just can't help
myself, right?
I never saw a conspiracy
I didn't like.
I really believe --
[Laughter]
I mean, you know, I'm sitting
here saying, "Well, I know that
people aren't going to lose
America, that they're going
to -- there's a solution.
It's just above my
pay grade," right?
So over the last seven, eight
years, I've met a few
presidents, a few secretaries
of education, a few secretaries
of labor, directors
of domestic policy.
There is no plan.
There is no plan!
When I meet these folks, they
say to me, "Geoff, what do
you think we ought to do?"
I say, "You asking me?
I'm here in Harlem trying
to save my kids."
Nobody knows!
So if we're going to save
America's children, then we're
going to have to do it.
We're going to have to do it.
It's not like someone -- I know
you all are thinking, "Well,
Geoff, isn't that your job?"
Oh, I'm telling you, I'm going
to save my 10,000 because
that's what we decided
we're going to do.
That's my capacity.
I'm going to save my 10,000.
But the rest of America's
children are in peril unless
we decide, as a nation, that
we've got to tackle this.
Now, let me tell you,
I get in trouble now.
This is the easy part.
Everybody when I say this,
everybody says, "Okay, Geoff,
yeah, we're with you, we hear
you, we got to do something."
Let me tell you when
I get in trouble.
Because if we're going to save
children, then it means that
we're going to have to do some
things that people think that
I'm really a radical when I say
these kinds of things, and I
hope I don't leave you -- lose
you here because I say things
-- and people get mad at
me all over the country.
I say things like, "If you
really cannot teach and we can
prove you can't teach, then you
probably shouldn't teach."
[Laughter]
Right?
[Applause]
Now, I know.
I know that's radical and
there are a lot of people who
think I'm an extremist for
saying things like that.
They say, "He did not
just say that!"
Yes, yes, yes, I fundamentally
believe that people who can't
do their job should be fired.
That doesn't mean they should,
like -- you know, we shouldn't
put them in chains or arrest
them, but it just means they
probably should find
another career.
Do you know that teaching is
one of the few places where
98% of them cannot be fired?
I don't care how well
we demonstrate they're
lousy for kids.
You cannot fire them.
You have to ask yourself: That
system is great when it's
working, but what if
it's not working?
What if it's not working
and you can't get rid of
folk who aren't good?
What if you can't even figure
out if they are any good?
You talk to people -- you
know what one of those
radical things are?
When you say, "Well, we ought
to figure out how we could
test to see whether; or not
you're a good teacher."
"Can't be done!"
"What do you mean?
Of course it can be done.
We've figured that out in every
other industry in America.
You can't tell me we can't
do it for teaching."
There are groups of folk whose
education innovation is -- this
is their theory -- you can
change anything in education
you want as long as you
don't change anything.
And that's the deal.
[Laughter]
And we have had debates in
education that have gone on for
decades around these areas that
allow no innovation, and I
think we've got to have
innovation in education.
There's absolutely no reason --
there is no reason! -- that
this -- which is a huge,
huge industry, by the way.
We're not talking
a minor industry.
We're talking a huge industry.
That in this huge industry,
we don't have competition.
You know, this is --
this is education.
Because I'm old, y'all
are young, y'all don't
know about this stuff.
I was one of the first kids
when I was in high school to
have a computer delivered
to their high school.
They had to bring this thing
in an Mack truck, right?
I'm serious.
The computer went from here
over to here -- right? --
and I thought -- you see
-- you see how smart I am.
So you had to type
these cards, right?
You had to punch in these
cards, and we used a language
no one's ever heard of called
FORTRAN, and you'd use that
language and you'd punch
in all of this stuff.
It took you about an
hour and a half.
You'd load the cards in the
deck, it would spit out all the
cards, and the computer would
tell you what 9 times
27 was, right?
[Laughter]
And I sat there and said, "This
is not going anywhere."
[Laughter]
"I'm not investing any
money in this thing here.
This has no future," right?
So what did I know?
But y'all know I'm
being serious.
I'm being serious.
Now, just imagine --
just imagine where
we are from there.
Let's get into phones -- I
can't even say in phones.
In people's toasters they have
more computing power than
we had back there in '68.
Education has not innovated
one iota in all of that time.
The same way we ran school when
I was a child and when my
mother was a child is the same
way we run school today.
We have not done one
thing different.
If it was up to educators, we
would still be having those
big clunky computers.
Right?
That's where we would be.
Now, how is that allowed?
How is that allowed?
So I think, you know, we've
got to shake the system up.
We've got to go out and we've
got to get innovation.
And the thing of it, you
innovate in education --
you know, people do
charter schools.
Oh, yeah, the charter schools
-- or people say there are
lousy -- there are a lot
of lousy charter schools.
Close them down.
They tried some stuff.
It didn't work.
Guess what!
That happens in life, right?
That's sort of how
it goes, right?
If you don't do well, you
kind of go out of business.
Everyplace except in education.
So my belief is, let's allow
innovation to flourish.
Here's a radical idea.
We ought to hold
people accountable.
If you take the money, you
ought to deliver a product
that's good and that
has quality to it.
When I talk of --
Here's another thing
people don't like.
You know, when we started our
school, I told our mayor, I
told my board -- Matt and
everyone -- and I told the
community, "If I don't have a
better school in five years
than the other public schools
in Harlem, I'm going
to fire myself."
I said it.
People said, "What's the date?
Geoff said he's going
to fire himself."
When everybody left,
I got my team near.
I said I just want you all to
know I'm last one leaving.
Let's just be clear.
[ Applause ]
Let's just be clear.
All of us have some skin
in the game here, right?
This is not something you
can just do and accept.
Can you imagine if
failure was okay?
I mean, I know it's
incomprehensible for
a lot of you here.
Just imagine if there was
no penalty for failure.
Just imagine if you could fail
for 25 years and we could prove
it and we could demonstrate it,
and yet not one thing happened.
Not one.
I say educators -- I was
at the Harvard Ed School.
I know my ed school is going
to be mad at me, right?
They actually told us that
teaching was so hard that you
could only do it about eight
months a year; and then you
needed a lot of time
off to recover.
Right?
I'm being serious.
So here it is.
You're running a school.
The school you can
prove it's failing.
What happens?
June, everybody goes.
That's the end of that.
Your kids are failing.
You work late?
No, you may not work late.
You work weekends?
No, you may not work weekends.
So what happens if all
the kids are failing?
Nothing, tough on them.
We adults collect
our paychecks.
We go on as if it's all good.
Now, look, if the nation
wasn't imperiled, I
wouldn't need you all.
Right?
I need people who care about
this, who say look, leave
it to the educators.
We can't leave it
to the educators.
We're in trouble.
We're in trouble as a country.
We're going to have to do
something about this.
We've decided we're going
to create a comprehensive
strategy in Harlem.
We call it the Harlem
Children's Zone.
We took 97 blocks.
We said we're going to save
those kids, and we're
going to do everything.
We're going to do health; we're
going to do mental health;
we're going to do education;
we're going to do job training.
We're going to guarantee
our kids are going
to get into college.
We're going to start at
birth and stay with these
kids through college.
People find that very
controversial that that's
what we want to do.
And we're going to spend money.
But that's our strategy.
I don't think it's the best
strategy in the world.
That's the only one I know
that's going to work.
You know what?
We'll improve it.
And, if it doesn't work,
we're not going to do it.
We'll go out of business.
That's the deal.
But we've got to have real
innovation in education if
we're going to save this
nation's children.
So I'd like to end with a poem.
I like to write poetry that
advocates -- this -- you
know, sometimes I get very
frustrated in this work.
Because some of things
I'm talking about are
so commonsensical.
But it is a huge raging debate
in America around these
very basic ideas.
And there are many people
who see me sort of as
like the anti-Christ.
Right?
He says those kind
of horrible things.
And some people think, "Oh,
that Geoff is a real sort
of visionary leader."
I believe that we've all
got to weigh in on this.
So let me close with a poem
I wrote that's called
"Don't Blame Me."
"The girl's mother
said, 'Don't blame me.
Her father left when
she was three.
I know she don't know
her ABCs, her 123s.
But I am poor and work hard,
you see?' You know the
story, it's don't blame me.
"The teacher shook her head
and said, 'Don't blame me.
I know it's sad.
He's 10.
But, if the truth be
told, he reads like
he was six years old.
And math, don't ask.
It's sad, you see.
Wish I could do more,
but it's after 3:00.
Blame the mom.
Blame society.
Blame the system.
Just don't blame me.'
"The judge was angry,
his expression cold.
He scowled and said,
'Son, you've been told.
Rob with a gun, and
you'll do time.
You've done it again.
Have you lost your mind?'
The young man opened
his mouth to beg.
'Save your breath'
he heard instead.
'Your mama didn't
take care of you.
Your Daddy left
when you were two.
Your school prepared
you for this fall.
Can't read, can't write,
can't spell at all.
But you did the crime
for all to see.
You're going to jail, son.
Don't blame me.'
"If there is a God or a person
supreme, a final reckoning for
the kind and the mean, and
judgment is rendered on who
passed the buck, who blamed the
victim, who proudly stood up,
you'll say to the world,
'While, I couldn't save all, I
did not let these
children fall.
By the thousands I
helped all I could see.
No excuses.
I took full responsibility.
No matter if they were black or
white were cursed, ignored,
were wrong or right, were
shunned, prejudged,
were short or tall.
I did my best to save them all.
And then I can bear witness for
eternity that you can state
proudly 'Don't blame me.'"
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
Jared Cohen: Back by popular
demand, I'm going to ask
Geoff one quick question.
And then we're going to have
the treat of having him back up
on the panel toward the end.
Since Zeitgeist is about
framing challenges and also
taking action, how many people
in audience, by show of hands,
hear the challenges that
Geoffrey is identifying and
what to know what you as
individuals and your
companies can do to help?
Tough question to answer,
but what should all these
people as individuals --
Geoffrey Canada: This
is what's interesting.
I am a usual suspect, right?
So, when I go in and fight
about these issues, people
know "Here comes Geoff.
We know what his issue is."
People honestly don't believe
other people care about this.
First, they don't believe
anyone knows about it.
And, secondly, they don't
believe anyone cares about it.
An interesting opportunity
that's going to happen is
Davis Guggenheim, who did
"Inconvenient Truth" and has a
new movie called "Waiting for
Superman," a documentary which
is going to be opening.
It tackles these issues,
these same issues.
It's going to tackle them
and put this in the
front of America.
People wonder what
is it we can do?
And this is what I'm
going to say to you all.
Because some of it is
technical, and you have
to get in the weeds.
And some of it is really
straightforward.
We need innovation.
We need the ability to have
folk come out, try things to
see if it works, get rid of
what doesn't work, and then
know that some things that do
work we're going to move
forward these ideas.
You are going to hear over the
course of the next six months
a bunch of folks try to
figure out how to stop this
innovation from happening.
People know this is coming; and
they're really, really scared.
And they're going to assume
that this is going to go away.
I need you to connect in local
communities around this issue.
This is a very simple question.
How did the kids do?
And in lots of places
you're going to find
they didn't do so well.
What are we going
to do different?
Now, at the point you ask that
question, you're going to hear
people -- remember how I told
you in education you can change
anything as long as
you change nothing?
And we have a whole 30 years of
research and history of how to
answer that question without
really doing anything different
than what we did last year.
And so the question is: Are
we going to work longer
for the children?
And the answer will be no.
And you ask them why.
You know what they're
going to tell you?
We can't.
You'll say why can't we?
They're going to start talking
about union contracts
and things like that.
Right?
That's the problem.
Is there another answer?
No, there is not.
We've got to work harder.
We've got to work longer.
We've got to make sure we use
data to drive instruction.
And It doesn't exist except in
the best -- and schools that
are succeeding, you don't
have to worry about this.
In schools that are
failing, it won't exist.
So I need, not me -- people
know exactly where I
stand on these issues.
They're going to come in
and say, "Yep, Geoff,
I understand."
I need regular citizens in
America to ask what are we
going to do different and not
accept someone saying we're
going to stay within the same
lines that haven't worked
for the last 50 years.
If you learn about what's going
on in your local communities,
people understand this is an
agenda item you care about,
everyone will hear
this differently.
The only reason we got the cap
on charter schools -- we moved
in New York state -- was a
group of business people
got together and said
we're backing this.
And everybody was
caught off guard.
They were like who?
And you know what?
They're not scared of me.
They are scared of you.
Sort of an interesting thing.
You might be thinking why
would they be scared of me?
Because they understand the
power that resides in folk who
don't have a vested interest in
an issue but do it because
they believe it's right.
That is a very powerful force.
And all the politicians and
policy makers understand that.
So I need folk to be prepared
to tackle these issues locally
and be clear that this is
something you care about.
And, when people understand you
care about it, it allows folks
like me to do my job easier.
Jared Cohen: Thank you, Geoff.
[ Applause ]
