Educators From The United States

"You've read about action at a distance, or quantum theory. I've always had the feeling that when I go to a meat plant I must be very careful, because God's watching. Quantum theory will get me."

"I don't like radical anything; left or right. I have a radical dislike of radicals."

"I was attending the American Society of Animal Science meetings when the flood occurred. I first learned about it when I read about it on the front page of USA Today, a national newspaper. I grieved for the "dead" books, the same way most people grieve for a dead relative. The destruction of books upset me because "thoughts died." Even though most of the books are still in other libraries, there are many people at the (Colorado State) university who will never read them. To me, Shakespeare lives if we keep performing his plays. He dies, when we stop performing them. I am my work. If the livestock industry continues to use equipment I have designed, then my "thoughts live" and my life has meaning. If my efforts to improve the treatment of cattle and pigs make real improvements in the world, then life is meaningful."

"And another reason to make sure we're not doing atrocious things at the slaughter plant is that if it is too easy to do something really atrocious to an animal; with the poor animal screaming and everything; the person who could do that might not have any problem torturing people. I remember one of the reasons that St. Thomas Aquinas said that we have to treat animals right is so that people themselves don't get corrupted."

"They may ask why nature or God created such horrible conditions as autism, manic depression, and schizophrenia. However, if the genes that caused these conditions were eliminated there might be a terrible price to pay."

"(About the workplace) Tyrants who get into power make life miserable for everyone."

"Since I think just in pictures it's sort of hard to think about abstract concepts so I have to have visual images like for example when I was a child I didn't really understand some of the stuff in the Lord's Prayer and y'know when it talks about "the power and the glory"...and I thought "electrical high tension lines, circular rainbow." "Thou art in Heaven"; that didn't make any sense to me but another autistic person says "Well I always pictured God up in Heaven with an easel.""

"Mother prepared me to live in the world, but she didn't try to make me into a social being just so I could hang out with other teenagers at the lake, or have pajama parties with other girls. Her eyes were on a bigger prize - giving me the skills and nurturing the talents that would allow me to graduate from school, attend college, find a satisfying job and live independently."

"Even today, romantic love is just not part of my life. And you know what? That's okay with me."

"It's OK to be an eccentric; it's not OK to be a rude and dirty eccentric."

"Self-destructive addiction is merely the medium for desperate people to internalize their frustration, resistance, and powerlessness. In other words, we can safely ignore the drug hysteria that periodically sweeps through the United States. Instead we should focus our ethical concerns and political energies on the contradictions posed by the persistence of inner-city poverty in the midst of extraordinary opulence. In the same vein, we need to recognize and dismantle the class- and ethnic-based apartheids that riddle the U.S. landscape."

"I want to recognize all of you who are here in this audience. We have our educators, our leaders, our young people who have been with us since we launched Reach Higher back in 2014. Now, when we first came up with this idea, we had one clear goal in mind: We wanted to make higher education cool. We wanted to change the conversation around what it means and what it takes to be a success in this country. Because let's be honest, if we're always shining the spotlight on professional athletes or recording artists or Hollywood celebrities, if those are the only achievements we celebrate, then why would we ever think kids would see college as a priority?"

"the world tends to “glamorize marriage,” while the reality is that matrimony “is hard"

"Little kids, they’re terrorists. They have demands. They don’t talk. They’re poor communicators. They cry all the time"

"couldn’t stand” her husband for a decade while the couple’s children were young"

"To describe it [Michelle Obama's 1985 thesis at Princeton University] as hard to read would be a mistake; the thesis cannot be "read" at all, in the strict sense of the verb. This is because it wasn't written in any known language."

"Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. “We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,” she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. “Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!”"

"You've come a long way, haven't you?" And then, before I could say anything, she added, "We've all come a long way."

"Occasionally, it gives campaign people heartburn. … She’s fundamentally honest — goes out there, speaks her mind, jokes. She doesn’t parse her words or select them with an antenna for political correctness."

"The fact that people don't see me going out on a date with my husband sparks rumors of the end of our marriage. It's like, "OK, so we don't Instagram every minute of our lives. We are 60. We're 60, y'all. You just are not gonna know what we're doing every minute of the day."

"So I think I kind of squelched my ambition. But now is a time for me to embrace my own ambition and to define it for me. So maybe the answer is, "We'll see." Because I think I'm just now stepping, fully stepping, into my own ambition. And right now, I have not regretted it."

"One of the major decisions I made this year was to stay put and not attend funerals and inaugurations and all the things that I'm supposed to attend. That was a part of me using my ambition to say, "Let me define what I want to do, apart from what I'm supposed to do, what the world expects of me.""

"I wanted them to have the freedom of not having the eyes of the world on them, And so when people ask me would I ever run, the answer is no. If you ask me that, then you have absolutely no idea the sacrifice that your kids make when your parents are in that role."

"Barack and I did everything we could to give our girls as normal of a life as possible. When we were at the White House, we made sure they were doing things like making their beds every morning and as they got older, getting summer jobs."

"That's the thing that we as women struggle with — disappointing people. I mean, so much so that this year people couldn't even fathom that I was making a choice for myself. That they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing."

"I think if I'm honest with myself, I could have made a lot of these decisions years ago. But I didn't give myself that freedom."

"Let me unwind some old habits. Let me sort through some old guilt that I’ve been carrying around. Let me talk about how my relationship with my mother has affected how I think about things, So, I’m getting that tune-up for this next phase because I believe this is a whole other phase in life for me, And I now have the wisdom to know— let me go get some coaching while I’m doing it so that I have other voices other than the people who know me best. I’ve got a new person that’s getting to know me, and seeing me completely new and hearing all these emotions."

"At this phase of my life, I’m in therapy right now because I’m transitioning, you know? I’m 60 years old, I finished a really hard thing in life with my family intact. I’m an empty nester. You know my girls are in — they’ve been launched. And now for the first time, as I’ve said before, every choice I’m making is completely mine."

"I now don’t have the excuse of, ‘Well my kids need this,’ or ‘my husband needs that’ or ‘the country needs that.’ So how do I think about this next phase, and let me get some help."

"Don’t complain if no one from the campaign has specifically reached out to you to ask you for your support. There is simply no time for that kind of foolishness. You know what you need to do. So, consider this to be your official ask: Michelle Obama is asking you — no, I’m telling y’all — to do something. Because, y’all, this election is gonna be close. In some states, just a handful — listen to me — a handful of votes in every precinct could decide the winner. So we need to vote in numbers that erase any doubt. We need to overwhelm any effort to suppress us. Our fate is in our hands. In 77 days, we have the power to turn our country away from the fear, division, and smallness of the past. We have the power to marry our hope with our action. We have the power to pay forward the love, sweat, and sacrifice of our mothers and fathers and all those who came before us. We did it before, y’all, and we sure can do it again. Let us work like our lives depend on it, and let us keep moving our country forward and go higher — yes, always higher — than we’ve ever gone before, as we elect the next President and Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz."

"Kamala and Tim, they have lived amazing lives and I am confident that they will lead with compassion, inclusion, and grace. But they are still only human. They are not perfect. And like all of us, they will make mistakes. But luckily y’all, this is not just on them. No, uh-uh. This is up to us, all of us, to be the solution that we seek. It’s up to all of us to be the antidote to the darkness and division. Look, I don’t care how you identify politically — whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or none of the above. This is our time to stand up for what we know in our hearts is right. To stand up, not just for our basic freedoms but for decency and humanity; for basic respect, dignity, and empathy; for the values at the very foundation of this democracy."

"Look, it’s his same old con: doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better. Look, because cutting our healthcare, taking away our freedom to control our bodies, the freedom to become a mother through IVF like I did — those things are not going to improve the health outcomes of our wives, mothers, and daughters. Shutting down the Department of Education, banning our books — none of that will prepare our kids for the future. Demonizing our children for being who they are and loving who they love — look, that doesn’t make anybody’s life better. Instead, it only makes us small. And let me tell you this: Going small is never the answer. Going small is the opposite of what we teach our kids. Going small is petty, it’s unhealthy, and quite frankly, it’s unpresidential."

"Of the two major candidates in this race, only Kamala Harris truly understands the unseen labor and unwavering commitment that has always made America great. Now, unfortunately, we know what comes next. We know folks are going to do everything they can to distort her truth. My husband and I, sadly, know a little something about this. For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black. Wait, I want to know: Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those “Black jobs”?"

"Kamala has shown her allegiance to this nation, not by spewing anger and bitterness, but by living a life of service and always pushing the doors of opportunity open to others. She understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third, or fourth chance. If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No. We don’t get to change the rules so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No. We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something. And throughout her entire life, that’s what we’ve seen from Kamala Harris, the steel of her spine, the steadiness of her upbringing, the honesty of her example, and yes, the joy of her laughter and her light."

"Kamala knows, like we do, that regardless of where you come from, what you look like, who you love, how you worship, or what’s in your bank account, we all deserve the opportunity to build a decent life. All of our contributions deserve to be accepted and valued. Because no one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American. No one."

"Kamala Harris, is more than ready for this moment. She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency. And she is one of the most dignified — a tribute to her mother, to my mother, and to your mother too. The embodiment of the stories we tell ourselves about this country. Her story is your story. It’s my story. It’s the story of the vast majority of Americans trying to build a better life."

"Kamala went out and she worked hard in school, graduating from an HBCU, earning her law degree at a state school. And then she went on to work for the people fighting to hold law breakers accountable, strengthening the rule of law, fighting to get folks better wages, cheaper prescription drugs, a good education, decent healthcare, childcare, elder care. From a middle class household, Kamala worked her way up to become Vice President of the United States of America."

"Kamala Harris and I built our lives on those same foundational values. Even though our mothers grew up an ocean apart, they shared the same belief in the promise of this country. That’s why her mother moved here from India at 19. It’s why she taught Kamala about justice, about the obligation to lift others up, about our responsibility to give more than we take. She’d often tell her daughter: “Don’t sit around and complain about things. Do something.”"

"The last time I was here in my hometown was to memorialize my mother, the woman who showed me the meaning of hard work and humility and decency. The woman who set my moral compass high and showed me the power of my own voice. Folks, I still feel her loss so profoundly. I wasn’t even sure if I’d be steady enough to stand before you tonight, but my heart compelled me to be here because of the sense of duty that I feel to honor her memory and to remind us all not to squander the sacrifices our elders made to give us a better future."

"Hello, Chicago! Something, something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it? Yeah. You know, we’re feeling it here in this arena, but it’s spreading all across this country we love. A familiar feeling that’s been buried too deep for far too long. You know what I’m talking about. It’s the contagious power of hope, the anticipation, the energy, the exhilaration of once again being on the cusp of a brighter day. The chance to vanquish the demons of fear, division, and hate that have consumed us and continue pursuing the unfinished promise of this great nation. The dream that our parents and grandparents fought and died and sacrificed for. America, hope is making a comeback."

"“The light we carry helps us see beyond the darkness — in ourselves and in the world.”"

"“Our differences make us interesting, and our common humanity makes us whole.”"

"“Confidence is not about pretending to be something you’re not. It’s about owning who you are.”"

"“The power of one honest conversation can shift an entire day.”"

"Being seen fully is one of the most beautiful gifts we can give one another."

"“Connection is the antidote to fear.”"

"“We become more ourselves when we are brave enough to show our real selves.”"

"“You don’t have to know exactly where you’re going to get there.”"

"“Small things can be big when done with a full heart.”"

"“You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.”"