Kucinich Visit to the Aaccess Arab Youth Leadership Conference
Transcript of Kucinich's visit to Aaccess Arab Youth Leadership conference in Cleveland, Ohio
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April 16, 2005
Video transcript:
DENNIS: I had the chance to visit with many young people at the Arab Youth Leadership Conference in Cleveland at the Aaccess Center. The children are working to build a new, non-violent world, one person at a time. Please join me for a brief visit to their meeting.
MAHMOUD: Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to our congressman, Dennis Kucinich.
DENNIS: Thank you very much, Mahmoud. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be here. And I would also like to ask you to join with me in expressing appreciation for the wonderful work which Malak Jadallah does for our community as a member of my congressional staff. Malak Jadallah.
Let me begin by saying to you, ana saeed bi wujudi maa al jeel al jadeed min al jaaliah al arabia. Shukran. [Translation: "I am pleased to be here with the new generation of the Arabic community. Thank you."]. I bring you greetings from Washington D.C.; and I bring great love to the young people here, who are at a point in life where you are thinking about what you are going to do with your life. You are wondering, "Can you make a difference in this world?" I am here today to tell you, "Yes, you can make a difference in this world." You can make this world a place where there is more love, where there is more peace, more understanding. Where people from many different religions, many different colors and creeds can come together, expressing human unity.
That ought to be the goal whenever young people come together. To learn how people have so much in common. To learn that someone may be from another village, but he can be as your brother or sister. To learn that someone could be from another country, but he can be as your brother or sister. That someone can be from another religion, and he can be as your brother or sister. In fact, they are your brothers and your sisters. We need to embrace the world as one. We are all interconnected and interdependent. And acting from that vision, we then can look at someone who may be alienated from us and bring him to our hearts.
The young people of the Arab communities have a great challenge, because you have seen so much destruction and so much hate reflected in the world and so much disparagement directed towards your loved ones. But we are at a moment when it is up to us to transform the hate to love, the disparagement to appreciation, the destruction to creation, to creating new possibilities and new opportunities. And there's no better place to start than when you're young because, as young people, you have the power to create new opportunities and new ideas. As young people you have the idealism. So think big. Think about how you can make this world a more peaceful place. Start with your own relationships. Start with the people you meet. Find out how you are so much alike, with the people you meet.
So I greet you. I greet you in a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood. I greet you in a spirit of friendship and love. I greet you as the leaders of tomorrow whom we need to help nurture, help grow; and we need to make sure that you can grow up in a world at peace.
So thank you. I look forward to serving you in the United States Congress, and I also look forward to taking a few questions, here. Thanks again. Shukran [translation: Thank you].
DENNIS: How else can we make the world a better place?
PARTICIPANT: No stereotypes.
DENNIS: No stereotypes! Stereotypes are very destructive. Stereotypes put everybody in the same group and don't give anyone the chance to express their individuality, their heart, their spirit. So it's important that we do not think in terms of stereotypes.
How else can we make the world a better place?
PARTICIPANT: We have to learn how to communicate with people.
DENNIS: Learn to communicate. Now, what do you mean by that?
PARTICIPANT: Instead of fighting and going off to war, we have to communicate... to talk to each other.
DENNIS: Right! We have to learn to communicate; and to learn to communicate, first you must listen. People don't always listen to each other. So if you have a disagreement, always hear the other person, and then tell them how you feel, because it's about people's feelings. We need to be sensitive to other people's feelings, and that's a basis for communication. Communication is so important. People need to talk to one another. That's why, when Mahmoud said, "You might be from a different village," get to know people from another village. It's so important. Because then you start to realize how much we all have in common.
When I was growing up in Cleveland, we used to believe, as children, that someone who lived on the next block was different. That someone who lived on the other side of the city was different. So, we're born with this thinking. But as we come to meet people, we learn how much we are alike. People are very much the same, the world over. And that's a very big lesson to learn; that we have so much in common.
You, the young people of the Arab-American communities are wonderful. You're beautiful. You're the future. And we can be very, very proud of what you represent. This is a wonderful community here. And Aaccess, in bringing together young people, is giving you an opportunity to have a broader understanding of the world. I look forward to working with you. We have a web site at kucinich.us, which will have a special notice, Mahmoud, and a tribute to AYWA and to Aaccess for the wonderful work that you do. And also to talk about the hope of our future in the United States, which includes the beautiful children who are here today.
So, thank you very much. And let's hear it for this wonderful community.
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