0:00:00.751,0:00:05.232
We often hear these days[br]that the immigration system is broken.

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I want to make the case today that[br]our immigration conversation is broken

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and to suggest some ways that together[br]we might build a better one.

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In order to do that, I'm going[br]to propose some new questions

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about immigration,

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the United States and the world,

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questions that might move the borders[br]of the immigration debate.

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I'm not going to begin with the feverish[br]argument that we're currently having,

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even as the lives and wellbeing[br]of immigrants are being put at risk

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at the US borders and far beyond it.

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Instead I'm going to begin[br]with me in graduate school

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in New Jersey in the mid-1990s[br]earnestly studying US history,

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which is what I currently[br]teach as a professor

0:00:48.055,0:00:51.007
at Vanderbilt University[br]in Nashville, Tennessee.

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And when I wasn't studying,

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sometimes to avoid[br]writing my dissertation,

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my friends and I would go into town

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to hand out neon-colored flyers

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protesting legislation

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that was threatening to take away[br]immigrants' rights.

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Our flyers were sincere,[br]they were well-meaning,

0:01:10.622,0:01:12.665
they were factually accurate,

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but I realize now they were also[br]kind of a problem.

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Here's what they said:

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"Don't take away immigrant rights[br]to public education,

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to medical services,[br]to the social safety net.

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They work hard. They pay taxes.

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They're law-abiding.

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They use social services[br]less than Americans do.

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They're eager to learn English,

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and their children serve[br]in the US military all over the world."

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Now these are of course arguments[br]that we hear every day.

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Immigrants and their advocates use them

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as they confront those who would[br]deny immigrants their rights

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or even exclude them from society.

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And up to a certain point,[br]it makes perfect sense

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that these would be the kinds of claims[br]that immigrants' defenders would turn to.

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But in the long term,[br]and maybe even in the short term,

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I think these arguments[br]can be counterproductive.

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Why?

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Because it's always an uphill battle

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to defend yourself[br]on your opponents' terrain,

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and, unwittingly,

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the handouts that my friends[br]and I were handing out

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and the versions of these arguments[br]that we hear today,

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we're actually playing[br]the anti-immigrants' game.

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We were playing that game[br]in part by envisioning

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that immigrants were outsiders,

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rather than, as I'm hoping[br]to suggest in a few minutes,

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people that are already,[br]in important ways, on the inside.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's those who are hostile[br]to immigrants, the nativists,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who have succeeded[br]in framing the immigration debate

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
around three main questions.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
First, there's the question of whether[br]immigrants can be useful tools.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How can we use immigrants?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Will they make us richer and stronger?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The nativist answer[br]to this question is no,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
immigrants have little[br]or nothing to offer.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The second questions is whether[br]immigrants are others.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Can immigrants become more like us?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Are they capable of becoming more like us?[br]Are they capable of assimilating?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Are they willing to assimilate?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Here, again, the nativist answer is no,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
immigrants and permanently[br]different from us and inferior to us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And the third question is whether[br]immigrants are parasites.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Are they dangerous to us?[br]And will they drain our resources?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Here, the nativist answer is yes and yes,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
immigrants pose a threat[br]and they sap our wealth.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would suggest that these three questions[br]and the nativist animus behind them

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
have succeeded in framing the larger[br]contours of the immigration debate.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
These questions are anti-immigrant[br]and nativist at their core,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
built around a kind of hierarchical[br]division of insiders and outsiders,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
us and them,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in which only we matter and they don't.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And what gives these questions[br]traction and power

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
beyond the circle of committed nativists[br]is the way that they tap into

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
an everyday, seemingly harmless[br]sense of national belonging

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and activate it, heighten it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and inflame it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nativists commit themselves[br]to making stark distinctions

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
between insiders and outsiders,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but the distinction itself is at the heart[br]of the way nations define themselves.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The fissures between inside and outside,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which often run deepest[br]along lines of race and religion,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
are always there to be[br]deepened and exploited.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And that potentially[br]gives nativist approaches

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
far beyond those who consider[br]themselves anti-immigrant,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and remarkably even among some[br]who consider themselves pro-immigrant.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, for example,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when immigrants act allies

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
answer these questions[br]the nativists are posing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they take them seriously.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They legitimate those questions,[br]and, to some extent,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the anti-immigrant assumptions[br]that are behind them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When we take these questions seriously[br]without even knowing it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we're reinforcing the closed,[br]exclusionary borders

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the immigration conversation.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So how did we get here?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How did these become the leading ways[br]that we talk about immigration?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Here we need some backstory, which is[br]where my history training comes in.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
During the first century

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the US's status[br]as an independent nation,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it did very little to restrict[br]immigration at the national level.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In fact, many policymakers[br]and employers worked hard

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to recruit immigrants

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to build up industry

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and to serve as settlers,[br]to seize the continent.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But after the Civil War,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
nativist voices rose[br]in volume and in power.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Asian, Latin American,[br]Caribbean and European immigrants

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who dug Americans' canals,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
cooked their dinners,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
fought their wars,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and put their children to bed at night,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
were met with a new and intense xenophobia

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which cast immigrants[br]as permanent outsiders

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who should never be allowed[br]to become insiders.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
By the mid-1920s, the nativists had won,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
erecting racist laws

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that closed our untold numbers[br]of vulnerable immigrants and refugees.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Immigrants and their allies[br]did their best to fight back,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but they found themselves[br]on the defensive,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
caught in some ways[br]in the nativists' frames.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When nativists said[br]that immigrants weren't useful,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
their allies said yes, they are.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When nativists accused[br]immigrants of being others,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
their allies promised[br]that they would assimilate.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When nativists charged that immigrants[br]were dangerous parasites,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
their allies emphasized[br]their loyalty, their obedience,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
their hard work, and their thrift.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Even as advocates welcomed immigrants,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
many still regarded[br]immigrants as outsiders

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to be pitied, to be rescued,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to be uplifted and to be tolerated,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but never fully brought inside[br]as equals in rights and respect.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
After World War II, and especially[br]from the mid-1960s until really recently,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
immigrants and their allies[br]turned the tide,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
overthrowing mid-20th century restriction

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and winning instead a new system[br]that prioritized family reunification,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the admission of refugees,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and the admission of those[br]with special skills.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But even then,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they didn't succeed in fundamentally[br]changing the terms of the debate,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and so that framework endured,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
ready to be taken up again[br]in our own convulsive moment.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That conversation is broken.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The old questions[br]are harmful and divisive.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So how do we get from that conversation

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to one that's more likely to get us[br]closer to a world that is fairer,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that is more just,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that's more secure?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I want to suggest that what we have to do

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is one of the hardest thing[br]that any society can do:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to redraw the boundaries of who counts,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of whose life, whose rights,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and whose thriving matters.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We need to redraw the boundaries.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We need to redraw the borders of us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In order to do that, we need to first[br]take on a worldview that's widely held

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but also seriously flawed.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
According to that worldview,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
there's the inside[br]of the national boundaries,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
inside the nation which is where we[br]live, work and mind our own business,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and then there's the outside,[br]there's everywhere else.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
According to this worldview,[br]when immigrants cross into the nation,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they're moving from[br]the outside to the inside,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but they remain outsiders.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Any power or resources they receive

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
are gifts from us rather than rights.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Now it's not hard to see why[br]this is such a commonly held worldview.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's reinforced in everyday way[br]that we talk and act and behave

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
down to the bordered maps[br]that we hang up in our schoolrooms.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The problem with this worldview[br]is that it just doesn't correspond

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to the way the world actually works[br]and the way it has worked in the past.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Of course, American workers[br]have built up wealth in society,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but so have immigrants,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
particularly in parts of the American[br]economy that are indispensable

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and where few Americans work,[br]like agriculture.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Since the nation's founding,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Americans have been inside[br]the American workforce.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Of course, Americans have built up[br]institutions and society

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that guaranteed rights,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but so have immigrants.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They've been there during[br]every major social movement,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
like civil rights and organized labor,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that have fought to expand[br]rights and society for everyone.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So immigrants are already inside

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the struggle for rights,[br]democracy and freedom.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And finally, Americans[br]and other citizens of the Global North

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
haven't minded their own business,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they haven't stayed[br]within their own borders.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They haven't respected[br]other nations' borders.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They've gone out into[br]the world with their armies,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they've taken over[br]territories and resources,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they've extracted enormous profits[br]from many of the countries

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that immigrants are from.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In this sense, many immigrants are [br]actually already inside American power.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
With this different map[br]of inside and outside in mind,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the question isn't whether[br]receiving countries

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
are going to let immigrants in.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They're already in.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The question is whether[br]the United States and other countries

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
are going to give immigrants[br]access to the rights and resources

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that their work, their activism,[br]and their home countries

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
have already played[br]a fundamental role in creating.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
With this new map in mind,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we can turn to a set of tough,[br]new, urgently needed questions

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
radically different from the ones[br]we've asked before,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
questions that might change[br]the borders of the immigration debate.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Our three questions are[br]about workers' rights,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
about responsibility

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and about equality.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
First, we need to be asking[br]about workers' rights.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How do existing policies make it harder[br]for immigrants to defend themselves

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and easier for them to be exploited,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
driving down wages, rights[br]and protections for everyone?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When immigrants are threatened[br]with roundups, detention and deportations,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
their employers know[br]that they can be abused,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that they can be told

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that if they fight back,[br]they'll be turned over to ICE.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When employers know

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that they can terrorize an immigrant[br]with his lack of papers,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it makes that worker hyper-exploitable,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and that has impacts[br]not only for immigrant workers

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but for all workers.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Second, we need to ask questions[br]about responsibility.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What role have rich, powerful countries[br]like the United States played

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in making it hard or impossible

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for immigrants to stay[br]in their home countries?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Picking up and moving from your country[br]is difficult and dangerous,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but many immigrants simply do not[br]have the option of staying home

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if they want to survive.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Wars, trade agreements,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and consumer habits[br]rooted in the Global North

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
play a major and devastating role here.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What responsibilities[br]do the United States,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the European Union, and China --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the world's leading carbon emitters --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
have to the millions of people[br]already uprooted by global warming?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And third, we need to ask[br]questions about equality.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Global inequality is a wrenching,[br]intensifying problem.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Income and wealth gaps[br]are widening around the world.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Increasingly what determines[br]whether you're rich or poor

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
more than anything else[br]is what country you're born in,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which might seem great[br]if you're from a prosperous country,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but it actually means[br]a profoundly unjust distribution

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the chances for a long,[br]healthy, fulfilling life.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When immigrants send money[br]or goods home to their family,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it plays a significant role[br]in narrowing these gaps,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if a very incomplete one.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It does more than all[br]of the foreign aid programs

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the world combined.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We began with the nativist questions,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
about immigrants as tools,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as others, and as parasites.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Where might these new questions[br]about worker rights,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
about responsibility,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and about equality,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
take us?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
These questions reject pity

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they embrace justice.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
These questions reject[br]the nativist and nationalist division

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of us versus them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They're going to help prepare us[br]for problems that are coming

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and problems like global warming

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that are already upon us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's not going to be easy to turn away[br]from the questions that we've been asking

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
towards this new set of questions.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's no small challenge

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to take on and broaden the borders of us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It will take wit, inventiveness

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and courage.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The old questions have been[br]with us for a long time,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they're not going[br]to give way on their own,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they're not going[br]to give way overnight.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And even if we manage[br]to change the questions,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the answers are going to be complicated[br]and they're going to require

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
sacrifices and tradeoffs.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And in an unequal world, we're always[br]going to have to pay attention

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to the question of who has the power[br]to join the conversation

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and who doesn't.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But the borders of the immigration debate

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
can be moved.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's up to all of us to move them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thank you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Applause)