0:00:15.354,0:00:16.774
Good afternoon.

0:00:17.688,0:00:19.097
(Audience) Good afternoon.

0:00:19.097,0:00:21.103
Let's like take two, okay?

0:00:21.103,0:00:22.109
(Laughter)

0:00:22.109,0:00:23.212
Good afternoon.

0:00:23.212,0:00:24.522
(Audience) Good afternoon.

0:00:24.522,0:00:25.994
It's really good to see y'all.

0:00:25.994,0:00:27.874
I heard they're running a little under,

0:00:27.874,0:00:30.461
so I'm just going to be greedy[br]and take the extra time.

0:00:30.631,0:00:32.784
And I apologize in advance[br]for my appearance.

0:00:32.784,0:00:35.841
You're catching me[br]on a disheveled travel day.

0:00:35.841,0:00:37.070
By sheer coincidence,

0:00:37.070,0:00:39.260
I accepted this engagement months ago,

0:00:39.260,0:00:43.938
before I knew that this week was actually[br]the week of publication for my new book.

0:00:43.938,0:00:48.250
So I've been trotting all over the place,[br]essentially putting out fires,

0:00:48.600,0:00:50.956
while talking, incidentally,[br]about the book,

0:00:50.956,0:00:54.485
and this is just[br]what I look like when I travel.

0:00:54.485,0:01:00.700
So the theme today was supposed[br]to be "a sense of wonder,"

0:01:00.700,0:01:03.708
and I really don't have any idea[br]what I'm going to say.

0:01:03.708,0:01:06.202
I prepared some remarks,[br]and they were solid.

0:01:06.202,0:01:09.270
You know, I could probably[br]have turned them in in graduate school

0:01:09.270,0:01:13.418
and gotten that A that I was always[br]so determined to get.

0:01:13.418,0:01:15.414
But I don't have[br]any interest in saying it.

0:01:15.414,0:01:18.174
For whatever reason,[br]the exercise was about writing it,

0:01:18.174,0:01:21.103
and I have a great woman in my life[br]named Tennie McCarty.

0:01:21.103,0:01:23.993
She is my grandmother of choice.

0:01:23.993,0:01:26.275
I have a family of chance.

0:01:26.275,0:01:28.068
God has a sense of humor.

0:01:28.068,0:01:32.081
And I also have, today,[br]a family of choice.

0:01:32.081,0:01:34.338
And Tennie McCarty, whom I call Mennie -

0:01:34.338,0:01:35.616
it's her grandmammy name -

0:01:35.616,0:01:38.976
has taught me many, many things,[br]one of which is,

0:01:38.976,0:01:42.568
"What comes from the head[br]goes straight over the head.

0:01:42.568,0:01:46.822
But what comes from the heart[br]goes straight to the heart."

0:01:47.232,0:01:50.046
So screw the remarks -[br]coming from the heart.

0:01:50.976,0:01:53.423
A lot of people, when they think[br]of me, Ashley Judd,

0:01:53.423,0:01:55.507
wonder, "What the hell happened to her?"

0:01:55.507,0:01:57.116
(Laughter)

0:01:57.116,0:01:59.904
I semi-retired in 2004.

0:01:59.904,0:02:01.650
I did a little picture now and then,

0:02:01.650,0:02:04.629
but then they'd see me in something[br]like "Tooth Fairy" and say,

0:02:04.629,0:02:08.285
"I wonder what happened to her -[br]she's gained a lot of weight."

0:02:08.285,0:02:15.010
Well, my financial planner wondered[br]about the decision that I made too

0:02:15.010,0:02:16.762
when I walked away from everything

0:02:16.762,0:02:20.472
when, it turns out, I was actually[br]one of the highest paid women

0:02:20.472,0:02:21.935
in the history of Hollywood -

0:02:21.935,0:02:26.049
probably not adjusting for inflation,[br]because Mary Pickford was a big star.

0:02:27.279,0:02:30.649
What happened was I was sick and tired[br]of being sick and tired.

0:02:30.899,0:02:33.298
I had no idea what was wrong with me,

0:02:33.298,0:02:36.432
but I knew it all looked[br]real good on the outside,

0:02:36.432,0:02:39.363
but on the inside, I hurt.

0:02:39.683,0:02:42.843
And I had really no "reason" to hurt,

0:02:42.843,0:02:46.784
but as it turns out,[br]as I've come to realize,

0:02:47.097,0:02:50.433
that I came from[br]a dysfunctional family system

0:02:50.433,0:02:52.662
which at times didn't work very well,

0:02:52.662,0:02:54.923
and the kinds of things that happened,

0:02:54.923,0:02:57.318
that happen in dysfunctional[br]family systems

0:02:57.318,0:02:59.114
happen to all of us.

0:02:59.404,0:03:02.290
But my symptoms,[br]if you will, looked different.

0:03:02.290,0:03:06.088
For example, I could be irritable[br]and unreasonable without even knowing it.

0:03:06.508,0:03:09.381
But fortunately,[br]some folks identified in me

0:03:09.381,0:03:13.595
that I had been affected[br]by alcoholism and other isms,

0:03:13.595,0:03:15.593
and they extended me[br]the same hope and help

0:03:15.593,0:03:18.023
that had been so freely given to them.

0:03:18.333,0:03:21.001
But what's so weird about all of this

0:03:21.001,0:03:25.699
is that in 2004, when I semi-retired[br]and I started traveling the world

0:03:25.699,0:03:27.781
doing feminist social justice work,

0:03:27.781,0:03:30.217
public health and human rights work,

0:03:30.217,0:03:33.547
I wanted so earnestly[br]to be useful to my fellows.

0:03:33.547,0:03:35.309
I wanted to be of service,

0:03:35.309,0:03:39.713
and yet I was trying to give away[br]something that I didn't yet have.

0:03:39.713,0:03:41.881
So I kind of had it backwards.

0:03:42.471,0:03:44.802
My first trip was to Cambodia.

0:03:45.662,0:03:49.731
I was very open-minded and very willing

0:03:49.731,0:03:54.087
yet wholly unprepared[br]for what I was about to witness.

0:03:54.087,0:03:55.247
The great Mu Sochua,

0:03:55.247,0:03:58.665
who has since that time[br]been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize,

0:03:58.665,0:04:01.024
had pulled her colleague aside and said,

0:04:01.024,0:04:04.964
"Let's take this bright light,[br]this star from Hollywood,

0:04:04.964,0:04:06.786
into the darkest corner of hell,"

0:04:06.786,0:04:08.767
and that's exactly what those women did.

0:04:08.767,0:04:11.963
They took me to[br]the child brothels of Svay Pak.

0:04:11.963,0:04:14.264
And I didn't know what to do

0:04:14.264,0:04:15.787
except sit down

0:04:16.128,0:04:17.310
and open my mind

0:04:17.310,0:04:20.528
and open my heart and open my arms.

0:04:20.758,0:04:24.215
And when the first sex slave[br]came over to me, and I said,

0:04:24.215,0:04:26.878
"What would you like[br]for me to know about you?"

0:04:27.108,0:04:32.295
And he began to weep and cry[br]and tell me his story,

0:04:32.554,0:04:33.567
and then I said,

0:04:33.567,0:04:35.877
"How did you get[br]that crazy scar on your face?"

0:04:35.877,0:04:38.736
And he said, "Well, the pimps,[br]when they were breaking me in,

0:04:38.736,0:04:41.743
had a dog maul my face[br]while they were raping me."

0:04:42.593,0:04:44.911
And all of a sudden, however improbably,

0:04:44.911,0:04:47.524
I had been entrusted -

0:04:47.524,0:04:49.230
entrusted -

0:04:49.230,0:04:51.993
with this man's story

0:04:52.093,0:04:54.984
and of the other many things[br]that Mennie has taught me

0:04:54.984,0:04:58.943
is at the end of our lives,[br]all we have is our story.

0:04:59.123,0:05:03.032
And I've been given permission[br]by people all over the world -

0:05:03.032,0:05:05.522
in slums and refugee camps,

0:05:05.872,0:05:08.722
in hospices and makeshift schools,

0:05:08.852,0:05:10.084
in clinics in buildings

0:05:10.084,0:05:13.193
which in this country[br]would be condemned structures -

0:05:13.193,0:05:14.893
to share their stories with you.

0:05:14.893,0:05:18.585
In fact, they have insisted[br]that that's what I do.

0:05:18.585,0:05:22.437
And about that, I have a sense of wonder.

0:05:22.637,0:05:26.321
And they don't tell me their stories[br]because they know me from Hollywood.

0:05:26.321,0:05:31.006
They associate Hollywood[br]with archetypal words like "Mickey Mouse."

0:05:31.286,0:05:33.617
It's pretty irrelevant to them.

0:05:34.417,0:05:39.981
But I walk in the door[br]or through the little curtain

0:05:39.981,0:05:44.353
where a lot of the sex slaves[br]in their initial phase of being broken in

0:05:44.353,0:05:46.666
are brought in and kept and detained,

0:05:46.666,0:05:47.900
and something happens.

0:05:47.900,0:05:50.109
They know that they're being witnessed.

0:05:50.109,0:05:52.346
They know that they're being validated.

0:05:52.346,0:05:54.075
And even physics tell us

0:05:54.075,0:05:58.539
that something, when it perceives[br]it is being watched, it changes.

0:05:58.539,0:06:03.944
And all of a sudden, orphans[br]who are hungry and lethargic

0:06:03.944,0:06:07.326
and maybe have diarrheal disease[br]from unsafe drinking water

0:06:07.326,0:06:08.953
and have parasites,

0:06:09.233,0:06:11.334
they sit up a little straighter.

0:06:11.564,0:06:14.013
And however shyly, they begin to smile.

0:06:14.013,0:06:16.642
And they even reach out their hands,

0:06:16.802,0:06:19.152
and they begin to trust.

0:06:19.152,0:06:23.007
And about that, I have a sense of wonder.

0:06:23.727,0:06:27.945
The first orphan I met[br]was a precious girl named Ook Shraylock,

0:06:27.945,0:06:32.002
and she was unlike other orphans[br]in that she was really exuberant.

0:06:32.002,0:06:34.748
I think - the story at least[br]I've made up in my head -

0:06:34.748,0:06:38.769
is that she had her parents long enough[br]to have experienced some nurturing,

0:06:39.119,0:06:40.613
and so she had that template,

0:06:40.613,0:06:44.531
she had that feeling in her body[br]of what it's like to be held

0:06:44.531,0:06:48.687
and to be mirthful and to have fun[br]and to really love somebody.

0:06:48.687,0:06:52.495
And she gave me the greatest gift[br]I have ever been given

0:06:52.495,0:06:55.095
because she let me love her.

0:06:56.235,0:06:58.143
And I held her in my arms,

0:06:58.583,0:07:03.017
and when it was about time for me to go[br]and she clung a little tighter,

0:07:03.017,0:07:04.231
and she'd let me know,

0:07:04.231,0:07:07.324
she'd just give me[br]these subtle signals in her body

0:07:07.324,0:07:09.536
when she wanted me to rock her.

0:07:09.536,0:07:14.113
I realized that the night before,[br]the very night before I had met her,

0:07:14.113,0:07:18.500
I had had a dream[br]about my mamaw and my papaw,

0:07:18.500,0:07:21.254
my beloved paternal grandparents.

0:07:21.254,0:07:24.605
And in that dream, my mamaw,[br]who was always my safe person

0:07:24.605,0:07:26.039
and is the reason,

0:07:26.039,0:07:27.161
God as my witness,

0:07:27.161,0:07:29.033
I am alive today,

0:07:29.643,0:07:30.893
had come to me,

0:07:30.893,0:07:33.470
and she was so real in the dream,

0:07:33.470,0:07:35.587
it was as she was in life.

0:07:35.587,0:07:38.669
Every little hair in her eyebrows,

0:07:38.669,0:07:42.367
the sweet, little - just everything.

0:07:42.367,0:07:45.357
You know those dreams[br]where they're so real?

0:07:45.357,0:07:48.015
And she had held me, and she had said,

0:07:48.605,0:07:51.070
"The answer is in the book."

0:07:52.040,0:07:56.070
What a beautifully enigmatic[br]and highly suggestive thing

0:07:56.340,0:08:00.021
for this wonderful woman[br]to have told me in my dream.

0:08:00.021,0:08:03.880
And so holding this girl,[br]I told her about my dream

0:08:03.880,0:08:09.500
and suggested that it's possible[br]for us to renurture ourselves,

0:08:09.830,0:08:12.235
that when we have been loved,

0:08:12.475,0:08:18.712
we can, through our imagination,[br]vicariously conjure those sensations

0:08:19.262,0:08:22.992
and remind ourselves[br]of our very preciousness,

0:08:23.162,0:08:25.317
our intrinsic sense of worth

0:08:25.517,0:08:30.860
and remember that to somebody,[br]at some time, we mattered.

0:08:31.770,0:08:34.783
And then I told her[br]I would never forget her.

0:08:34.933,0:08:36.440
I did not give her false hope.

0:08:36.440,0:08:39.738
I said, "I don't know[br]if I'll ever see you again,

0:08:40.128,0:08:42.411
but I will tell your story."

0:08:44.901,0:08:47.533
And that I have this strange platform,

0:08:48.043,0:08:54.598
given to me in a culture and in a media[br]that I don't even pretend to understand,

0:08:54.748,0:08:57.981
in which I could bring to you her story

0:08:58.901,0:09:02.473
is something about which I wonder a lot.

0:09:03.153,0:09:05.839
And when I get too caught up in my head,

0:09:06.419,0:09:08.583
I remember what Mennie said:

0:09:08.583,0:09:11.463
"What comes from the head[br]goes over the head."

0:09:11.813,0:09:17.631
And I make that recommitment to take[br]the most difficult journey I ever take,

0:09:17.821,0:09:24.185
the one that is more harrowing[br]as the roads in Congo,

0:09:25.075,0:09:28.202
the one to here, my heart.

0:09:28.682,0:09:33.624
I do a lot of horizontal travel,[br]and it takes planning.

0:09:34.705,0:09:37.694
There's the passports[br]and the visa and the bureaucracy,

0:09:37.694,0:09:39.927
all the inoculations,

0:09:39.927,0:09:43.850
making sure that everything[br]is set up on the ground, that it's safe.

0:09:44.600,0:09:47.820
But there's nothing more important[br]than the vertical journey,

0:09:47.820,0:09:49.731
and it is this one here

0:09:49.731,0:09:55.063
that enables all the other traveling[br]to happen and to have meaning,

0:09:55.413,0:09:58.271
for it is from this place, ultimately,

0:09:58.271,0:10:02.523
that meaning is constructed[br]and that change happens.

0:10:04.333,0:10:05.803
Where's the timer?

0:10:06.763,0:10:08.018
How am I doing?

0:10:08.018,0:10:09.093
(Man) Great.

0:10:09.093,0:10:11.892
Well, I know I'm doing great,[br]but how much time do I have?

0:10:11.892,0:10:13.255
(Laughter)

0:10:14.930,0:10:16.516
You walked right into that, pal.

0:10:16.516,0:10:17.764
I have seven more minutes?

0:10:17.764,0:10:19.800
Wooh! I'm just getting started.

0:10:19.800,0:10:20.924
(Laughter)

0:10:22.724,0:10:27.983
So that first day, when I was in Svay Pak,

0:10:29.073,0:10:30.107
for my next trip

0:10:30.107,0:10:33.762
I went to the Genocide Museum[br]in Phnom Penh,

0:10:34.062,0:10:38.033
and I saw, briefly

0:10:38.033,0:10:42.965
and only to the level which a person[br]of privilege like I can absorb it,

0:10:42.965,0:10:47.993
what it would have been like[br]to live in a genocidal and murderous time

0:10:48.273,0:10:51.433
under the lunatic Pol Pot.

0:10:52.653,0:10:57.810
And a man who had survived that era,[br]who was a doctor, told me

0:10:57.810,0:11:03.512
that for the duration of the Khmer Rouge,[br]he pretended to be an illiterate peasant

0:11:03.512,0:11:08.741
because the educated classes[br]were all massacred.

0:11:09.091,0:11:12.677
And he talked about what[br]an anguishing choice that was for him

0:11:12.677,0:11:14.530
because he could be sitting or standing

0:11:14.530,0:11:17.322
alongside one whose life[br]he could have saved,

0:11:17.322,0:11:20.740
but it would have potentially[br]cost him his own

0:11:20.740,0:11:24.777
if he had betrayed his education.

0:11:25.497,0:11:30.344
And I said, "What ... did you ..."

0:11:31.008,0:11:32.719
I mean, what do you say to someone

0:11:32.719,0:11:38.675
who's describing going through[br]a regime like that?

0:11:38.995,0:11:41.860
And he said, "I used to take rocks

0:11:41.860,0:11:45.225
and on the ground spell out S-O-S

0:11:45.225,0:11:50.390
and hope that the Americans[br]flying overhead would see the SOS

0:11:50.390,0:11:51.952
and help us."

0:11:52.722,0:11:55.376
We were busy bombing Laos [inaudible].

0:11:55.876,0:11:58.877
So when I went that night[br]to the American ambassador's residence

0:11:58.877,0:12:03.607
to make the remarks and meet[br]the high-ranking ministers of government,

0:12:03.607,0:12:05.496
I said to him, "Where were we?

0:12:05.496,0:12:11.371
Why did the United States allow,[br]at times even contribute to this?"

0:12:11.371,0:12:15.941
And he was a really lovely guy,

0:12:15.941,0:12:19.362
rather honest fellow and diplomatic.

0:12:19.362,0:12:22.592
He said, "We were in rectal defilade."

0:12:22.592,0:12:24.285
(Laughter)

0:12:24.285,0:12:29.987
When I got back to my hotel room,[br]I was so astounded and shattered.

0:12:29.987,0:12:33.570
I didn't have anywhere in my brain[br]to put this information;

0:12:33.570,0:12:35.023
I was so flooded.

0:12:35.023,0:12:37.275
And my heart was just absolutely broken.

0:12:37.275,0:12:41.135
I mean, remember, I came into the work[br]with kind of a broken heart to begin with.

0:12:41.135,0:12:44.579
There was a reason[br]why I was attracted to trauma.

0:12:44.579,0:12:47.983
There was a reason why I intuited

0:12:47.983,0:12:52.119
I had a very strange capacity[br]for emotional extremes.

0:12:52.119,0:12:55.945
How many of you want to go[br]to refugee camps for your next vacation?

0:12:55.945,0:12:59.156
It is my idea of fun in a perverse way.

0:12:59.486,0:13:00.764
So back at my hotel room,

0:13:00.764,0:13:02.569
I remember being like -

0:13:02.933,0:13:07.712
spinning in these little circles,[br]not even knowing where to turn,

0:13:07.712,0:13:08.988
so I did what I do best

0:13:08.988,0:13:11.021
because I'm compulsive about the internet,

0:13:11.021,0:13:12.386
and I checked my email.

0:13:12.386,0:13:15.171
And I had an email from a friend[br]here in town, Cathy Lewis.

0:13:15.171,0:13:18.449
She's a remarkable chef,[br]and she was asking me about the food.

0:13:18.449,0:13:20.468
Very innocent, travel-type questions,

0:13:20.468,0:13:22.293
and, you know, she had some concern

0:13:22.293,0:13:26.294
about American franchising[br]pushing out local, cultural institutions,

0:13:26.294,0:13:29.423
and she said, "Oh, gosh.[br]Is there any Starbucks yet?"

0:13:29.503,0:13:31.484
And I was just aggressive.

0:13:31.484,0:13:32.721
(Laughter)

0:13:32.721,0:13:36.030
And I said, "No,[br]there's not any Starbucks yet.

0:13:36.030,0:13:38.192
There's just intergenerational trauma,

0:13:38.262,0:13:40.254
sexual exploitation,

0:13:40.444,0:13:43.450
agonizing deaths of children[br]through starvation,

0:13:43.450,0:13:45.563
some really screwed up[br]immigration policies

0:13:45.563,0:13:47.371
from the United States

0:13:47.371,0:13:50.734
where we're sending survivors[br]of the Khmer Rouge's children -

0:13:50.734,0:13:54.051
we're deporting them back[br]to a country that they don't know,

0:13:54.051,0:13:59.382
because of little, stupid[br]immigration things.

0:14:00.852,0:14:04.803
And the next thing I knew,[br]she wrote me back, and she said,

0:14:04.803,0:14:07.443
"I am praying for you."

0:14:09.193,0:14:13.502
And she asked my permission to send[br]that diary to other friends and family

0:14:13.502,0:14:15.397
who would support me spiritually

0:14:15.397,0:14:19.226
while I continued to take[br]this improbable journey.

0:14:20.146,0:14:23.142
And the next day and the next week

0:14:23.142,0:14:24.922
and the next country -

0:14:24.922,0:14:26.967
And all of a sudden

0:14:26.967,0:14:29.218
I'd been to 13 countries around the world,

0:14:29.218,0:14:31.549
I'd been to Congo[br]and Rwanda multiple times,

0:14:31.779,0:14:36.398
and I had written 650 pages[br]of those diaries.

0:14:36.808,0:14:40.079
And that is the book[br]that was published this week.

0:14:40.549,0:14:43.460
And in those diaries,[br]I tell many stories -

0:14:43.460,0:14:45.881
because that's really all that they are

0:14:45.881,0:14:50.722
is a way for me to have received,

0:14:50.722,0:14:52.314
like a sacrament,

0:14:52.314,0:14:56.182
an exploited and disempowered[br]person's story

0:14:57.302,0:14:59.836
and celebrate with you

0:14:59.836,0:15:04.002
not only their narrative of trauma

0:15:04.002,0:15:09.022
but to tell you how beautiful they are

0:15:09.152,0:15:13.081
and how resilient, how creative,

0:15:13.491,0:15:19.511
and the ingenuity of the poor[br]is mind-blowing.

0:15:22.161,0:15:23.995
Such a woman is Kika.

0:15:23.995,0:15:27.213
I met Kika recently[br]when I was in eastern Congo.

0:15:27.673,0:15:31.912
She had crawled[br]to the Panzi Clinic in Bukavu.

0:15:32.412,0:15:33.547
She sat very straight.

0:15:33.547,0:15:35.810
She was a fierce kind of a tender woman.

0:15:35.810,0:15:37.287
She would often dissociate,

0:15:37.287,0:15:41.347
but when she was present, she was magical.

0:15:42.117,0:15:46.948
And I said, "How did you get here?"

0:15:46.948,0:15:48.518
And she said, "Well, I crawled."

0:15:48.518,0:15:50.549
I didn't think[br]I was hearing her correctly,

0:15:50.549,0:15:53.599
so I said, "What would you[br]like for me to know about your story?"

0:15:53.599,0:15:56.229
And she said, "Well,[br]I was fetching water one day,

0:15:56.229,0:15:58.984
and I was attacked by armed militia

0:15:58.984,0:16:02.523
who rove the area exploiting[br]my country's vast mineral wealth."

0:16:02.523,0:16:03.732
Minerals, by the way,

0:16:03.732,0:16:08.281
in the very computer that I used[br]to type up my remarks for today.

0:16:08.281,0:16:09.278
She said,

0:16:09.278,0:16:10.999
"When they attacked me, I screamed,

0:16:10.999,0:16:14.342
and I screamed loudly enough[br]that my brother heard me and came running.

0:16:14.342,0:16:16.631
And when he got there,[br]they heckled him and said,

0:16:16.631,0:16:21.493
"Oh, ha. Now that you're here,[br]rape your sister."

0:16:21.493,0:16:22.896
And he said, "I will not."

0:16:22.896,0:16:25.280
And they said, "Oh yes, you will.

0:16:25.280,0:16:26.932
Rape your sister."

0:16:26.932,0:16:28.761
And he said, "I cannot.

0:16:28.761,0:16:30.273
She is like my mother."

0:16:30.273,0:16:33.378
So they stabbed him to death[br]with their bayonets in front of Kika,

0:16:33.378,0:16:35.009
gang-raped her multiple times.

0:16:35.009,0:16:37.442
And when the villagers came[br]after it was over,

0:16:37.442,0:16:40.322
they carried their bodies -[br]his dead and hers broken -

0:16:40.474,0:16:41.420
back to the hut.

0:16:41.420,0:16:43.029
But after two weeks,

0:16:43.029,0:16:45.462
Kika smelled so bad[br]from her internal injuries

0:16:45.462,0:16:46.463
that they said,

0:16:46.463,0:16:49.244
"We're sorry, Kika, but you've got to go."

0:16:49.244,0:16:51.505
And that was when she,[br]with her 11-year-old son,

0:16:51.505,0:16:53.952
began to crawl to the Panzi Clinic.

0:16:53.952,0:16:55.125
It took her a month.

0:16:55.125,0:16:56.530
And I said, "Crawl?"

0:16:56.530,0:16:57.981
And she said,

0:17:00.240,0:17:03.609
pedaling the air,[br]showing me how she crawled.

0:17:05.539,0:17:08.385
And I when I said, "Kika,[br]how have you done this?

0:17:08.805,0:17:10.306
How have you done this?"

0:17:10.306,0:17:12.554
she would just bend[br]imperceptibly at the waist

0:17:12.554,0:17:14.293
when she talked about her brother

0:17:14.293,0:17:18.225
and used her cloth from the kitchen[br]to silently mop her tears.

0:17:18.225,0:17:19.329
And she said,

0:17:19.329,0:17:22.965
"When I arrived at Panzi[br]and I was nearly dead,

0:17:22.965,0:17:24.745
they did not abandon me.

0:17:24.745,0:17:29.024
And when I did not get well,[br]they did not abandon me.

0:17:29.024,0:17:30.498
And when I could not go home

0:17:30.498,0:17:33.851
because my area is instable[br]and my trauma too bad,

0:17:33.851,0:17:35.379
they did not abandon me.

0:17:35.379,0:17:39.845
And when I did get a little better,[br]they found me a job in the kitchen,

0:17:39.845,0:17:42.941
and they did not abandon me."

0:17:43.061,0:17:44.461
And I told her that day,

0:17:44.461,0:17:47.241
"Kika, in my own way, however small,

0:17:47.241,0:17:48.383
with God as my witness,

0:17:48.383,0:17:50.949
I will not abandon you."

0:17:55.598,0:18:00.434
There are simple, cost-effective,[br]grassroots programs

0:18:00.434,0:18:04.788
operated within local contexts[br]by survivors like Kika

0:18:04.788,0:18:09.398
that disrupt cycles[br]of poverty and violence.

0:18:10.168,0:18:12.192
They make a difference,

0:18:12.192,0:18:15.062
and I have an enormous sense[br]of awe and wonder

0:18:15.062,0:18:20.540
about the people who persevere[br]when the world seems so senseless.

0:18:20.660,0:18:23.105
It is hard work; it is grueling.

0:18:23.105,0:18:28.062
And there have been times[br]when I was debilitated with grief.

0:18:28.062,0:18:31.244
But when I remember[br]Kika and Ook Shreylock,

0:18:31.244,0:18:33.886
and I connect between my head and my heart

0:18:33.886,0:18:37.375
and take my own vertical journey

0:18:41.055,0:18:44.970
and show up at places like this[br]on sunny spring days

0:18:44.970,0:18:46.919
with people like you,

0:18:46.919,0:18:48.713
who could be out enjoying

0:18:48.713,0:18:52.637
everything that middle Tennessee[br]has to offer on the ninth of May

0:18:52.824,0:18:57.403
but instead share with me[br]in the sacred narratives of these people.

0:18:58.523,0:19:01.468
I feel a sense of wonder about that too.

0:19:02.388,0:19:04.356
And now you know,

0:19:04.356,0:19:07.505
and with knowing comes responsibility.

0:19:07.985,0:19:11.424
When you walk out of here,[br]you have a choice:

0:19:12.354,0:19:14.675
Will you abandon Kika?

0:19:16.135,0:19:19.879
Or will you allow yourself[br]to be vulnerable enough

0:19:20.239,0:19:23.976
to have witnessed,[br]to have seen, to have validated?

0:19:23.976,0:19:27.700
It is the birthright of every child[br]to be listened to.

0:19:29.570,0:19:35.143
Will you allow yourself[br]to be recruited to her welfare?

0:19:35.623,0:19:40.446
Because that's the risk that comes[br]with having a sense of wonder

0:19:41.686,0:19:46.861
and being willing[br]to witness and to validate.

0:19:53.282,0:19:55.916
Thanks for letting me share[br]with you today.

0:19:55.916,0:19:57.487
I appreciate your time.

0:19:57.487,0:19:59.323
(Applause)