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This one's personal.
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I know what it's like
to have the government say,
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"We're going to kill you in the morning."
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I know what it's like
to leave a country on six hours' notice
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and land on someone's couch.
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Because of that, I wrote a book
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on why countries do well
and why they don't.
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Let me summarize 250 pages.
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Countries have to be compassionate,
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they have to be kind,
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they have to be smart,
they have to be brave.
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Want to know what doesn't work?
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When you govern through fear
and you govern through cruelty,
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it just doesn't work.
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You can play Genghis Khan for a while,
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you can play Stalin for a while,
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you can play Pinochet for a while.
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It does not work in the long run.
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And it doesn't work in the long run
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because to govern
through fear and cruelty,
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you have to create a division.
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You have to take big chunks
of the country and convince them
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that they're not like them.
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That they shouldn't associate with them,
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they shouldn't talk to them.
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That those people are nasty,
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those people are criminals,
those people are rapists.
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And the country is in danger
because of them.
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And if you spend millions of dollars
doing that in your country,
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you will make enemies abroad,
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and you will create divisions within.
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And that has consequences.
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Three quarters of the flags
and the borders and the anthems
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around the United Nations today,
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they were not there a few decades ago.
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Those lines that are there today,
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those flags were created
because somebody said,
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"the Scotts are not like us,"
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"the Welsh are not like us,"
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"the Basques are not like us,"
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"the northern Italians are not like us,"
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"the Muslims are not like us,"
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the blacks, the whites, the Christians.
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You create "us versus them" ...
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you destroy nations.
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Part of the problem
from creating us versus them
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is it's hard to do.
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What you have to do
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is you have to make people
believe absurdities.
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And once people believe absurdities,
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then they start to commit atrocities.
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That's the dynamic of this thing.
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You can't create "us versus them" --
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you can't have the massacres
you had in Rwanda,
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you can't have the massacres
you had in Yugoslavia --
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unless if you create this dynamic.
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Let me summarize
current immigration policy.
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Let's deter "Them"
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by being as cruel as we can possibly be,
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and let's target their children.
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They are going after the children.
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You have US lawyers arguing
that kids do not need
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soap or hugs or showers,
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adult help or a release date.
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Somebody gets pulled over
for a broken tail light,
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who's worked here for 20 years,
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gets thrown into jail,
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maybe for life,
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with no legal representation.
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The terrorists that blew up
the World Trade Center get lawyers.
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These kids, these parents,
they don't get lawyers.
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Governments are telling
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some of the most desperate,
hurt people on earth,
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"I took your child, pay me 800 dollars
for a DNA test before you get it back."
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Three-year-olds are appearing in court.
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Look, we've all watched these
courtroom dramas.
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And it's exciting,
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because the wise judge sits up there,
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and the defense lawyer attacks
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and the prosecutor counterattacks,
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and then you figure out
how it's going to happen.
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I want you to understand
what is happening right now.
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Prosecutor's there --
it's the tough prosecutor.
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Accusing, attacking,
on behalf of we the people.
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The judge is up there, Judge Muckety-muck,
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with his black robes,
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and he's questioning the defendant
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from up there.
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And the defendant is three years old
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and the eyes don't reach
the side of the table.
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The defendant does not speak the language.
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The earphones for the translator
have fallen off the defendant's head,
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because there are no headphones
for three-year-olds in US courtrooms,
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because they are not supposed
to defend themselves.
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This makes a mockery of justice,
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it makes a mockery
of the prosecution system,
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it makes a mockery
of who we are as a nation.
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These are absurdities.
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These are atrocities.
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This is unbelievable.
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And we're looking
at a bunch of statistics,
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but I want you to understand,
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this is happening to the housekeeper
who brought up your kids.
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This is happening to the gardener
who took care of your house.
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This is happening to the guy
who washed the dishes
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in the fancy restaurant
you went to last week.
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This is happening to the people
who deliver the newspaper in the mornings.
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This is your community,
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these are the people who have lived
side by side with you.
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Treated you well,
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treated you with respect,
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taken care of your kids,
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taken care of your grandparents.
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This is Luis, this is Laura,
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this is Jaime.
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This isn't some abstract,
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"Oh, it's happening at the border" --
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this is happening
in our community, right now.
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And the danger in this stuff
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is once you start normalizing
absurdities and atrocities,
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people think that
those instruments are legitimate.
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So you get school boards
sending out letters like this:
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"Dear Parent,
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because your kid owes
lunch money to the cafeteria,
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the result may be that your child
will be taken away
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and put in foster care."
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This is going out from school boards
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because people think,
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"Well, that seems to be
an instrument of deterrence."
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When you board an airplane,
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before kids, before first class,
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soldiers in uniform board.
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Some of them are immigrants.
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Here's a contract: join the army,
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serve your term, be honorably discharged,
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get citizenship.
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We are rescinding those contracts
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after they have been signed.
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And if those soldiers
are killed in action,
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we are deporting their wives,
and sometimes, their children.
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These are the people who protect us.
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These are the people that we honor.
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These are the brave.
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And this is how we're treating them.
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These are not the people
who cross the border illegally.
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Once you start allowing
this kind of behavior,
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it normalizes into a society,
and it rips the society apart.
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Countries are built on the hard work
and grit of immigrants;
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we are all immigrants.
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We just came at different times.
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Fifty-five percent
of this country's main businesses,
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the most successful businesses
in this country, the unicorns,
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are built by people who came
as foreign students or as immigrants,
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and they're the founders
or the cofounders.
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Well, here's what's happened
over the last three years
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to the best brains in the world.
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Forty-two percent of them
did not get visas
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or chose not to get visas.
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This is how you wipe out an economy.
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This isn't about kids and borders.
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It's about us.
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This is about who we are,
who we the people are,
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as a nation and as individuals.
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This is not an abstract debate.
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A lot of us like to think
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if we had been back
when Hitler was rising to power,
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we would have been out in the street,
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we would have opposed him,
we would have stopped Mengele.
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A lot of us like to think,
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if we had been around during the '60s,
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we would have been
with the Freedom Riders.
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We would have been
at that bridge in Selma.
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Well, guess what?
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Here's your chance.
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It's now.
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And as you're thinking about this stuff,
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it's not just the giant acts,
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it's not just go and block the bridge
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or chain yourself to something.
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It's what you do in your daily lives.
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The Harvard Art Museum just opened a show
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on how artists think about immigration
and building a home somewhere else.
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And people come out of that show
and they're pretty shaken.
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There was a blank wall at the end.
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And the curators did something
that usually doesn't happen --
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they improvised.
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They drew four lines,
and put in two words:
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"I belong."
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So you come out of this exhibit,
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and you can take a picture in front of it.
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I can't tell you the impact
that has on people --
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I watched people come out of this,
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and some of them sat
in front of that picture,
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took a picture, and they had
a great, big grin on their face,
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and some people just had tears.
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Some people hugged
and brought in strangers,
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others brought in their family.
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Small acts of kindness
go a long, long, long way.
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There is pain going on in your community
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like you cannot believe.
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So next time you're with a cab driver
who may be one of "Them,"
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according to certain people,
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give that person an extra five bucks.
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Next time you see a hotel maid,
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thank her and tip her double.
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Next time you see your gardener,
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you see your nanny,
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you see somebody like this,
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give them a great, big hug,
and tell them they belong.
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Make them feel like they belong.
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It's time for big policies,
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but it's also time
for big acts of kindness.
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Because we have to reclaim who we are,
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we have to reclaim this nation.
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(Voice breaking) And we cannot sit there
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and watch this shit going on.
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This has got to stop,
it's got to stop now.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)