It is rare that I am interested enough in a speaker at BYU that I take the opportunity to get out of bed early for the 11 a.m. forum talks held on Tuesdays. Earlier today Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., spoke to those present at the Marriott Center.
Reid spoke [full text of speech here] at length about the challenges of love, the strength he garnered from the support of peers and how important his own family has made his life.
I only scrawled a few things in my notebook that I wanted to keep with me. I'm going to list them here along with some thoughts about why I chose to remember these moments.
"In the struggle against evil, only faith matters," Reid said, quoting an old Jewish saying. This applies to so much more than simple religion. It appeals to the hope that resides in each of us for a better world.
"I'm a Democrat because I'm a Mormon, not in spite of it."
Independent thinking is necessary for progression. Active, informed decision making leads to opinions. Those opinions are fought for, and if any type of evil needs to be overcome, it is by the conviction of those fighting evil that the struggle may be won. Democrats aren't always right. Republicans aren't always right. But together they legislate in an effort to do the best for the people of this country.
"We can. We will. We must."
Reid's mother kept a purple pillow with gold lettering hung on the wall with this quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It's a mantra worth repeating until it becomes ingrained in each of us. We can create a better world. We will create a better world. We must create a better world.
"Education was the equalizer in my life – it must be for you and for all of us."
Our backgrounds take us so far. What we learn, and what we do with that knowledge takes us beyond the reach of what we could only imagine without that knowledge.
"Crisis leaves people with only family, government and God."
This makes me think of so many things. Darfur. Iraq. Hurricane Katrina. Crandall Canyon mine collapse. Death.
Borrowing from Harry Reid's speech given at BYU I adapt these statements.
I'm a journalist because I'm a human being, not in spite of it. In the struggle against evil, truth will be the most successful and damning weapon. I can continue to tell the stories of the world around me. I must share these stories with the world around me. I will continue to listen to the world I live in. In the great crisis that is mortality, we are left accountable for our actions.
Not every story will change the world. But the world can never change without our stories.
Thank you Harry Reid for sharing some of your personal history with each of us.
