Bill Clinton headlined at the Third Annual Empower Change Summit, along with other incredibly inspirational speakers this last Saturday, November 3rd. The event was held at UCLA and hosted by the American Democracy Institute. Their focus is to encourage the involvement of young people in American democracy and to promote and facilitate activism..
We were there to hear these lectures and above is a video of President Clinton for your pleasure. I highly recommend viewing it, because I think in the past 7 years many of us have forgotten what a good presidential speech sounds like. His calm demeanor, personal conversational tone and straightforward way of speaking, reminded me of what a great speech should look, sound, and feel like. Now that he is out of office he is doing even more, and he is doing it as a citizen, just like you and me. Whatever your political views may be, this is a great speech to listen to. It made me feel inspired to be an active citizen and motivated me to try and make a change in the problems I see around me day after day. If the speech does it’s job and you feel inspired, check out empowerchange.org they are a great place to help you get started.
The Empower Change Summit lasted six and a half hours, broken up by a networking period hosted by Power 106 FM. This was followed by workshops led by locals who have constructed their own organizations. Some of the subjects covered were: Ecology, Economy & Equity: Transforming Education, Empowering Change through Film, Using New and Emerging Media, and Making Change your Career.
After everyone finished with their respective workshops, we all filed into the stunning Royce Hall to hear Clinton speak. Other speakers included: Wendy Carillo - host of “Knowledge is Power” on FM radio station Power 106, John Hart - CEO and founder of the American Democracy Institute, Araceli Ruano - the CEO of Fundacío ALAS - a foundation devoted to improving health and education for children in the Americas, Blake Mykoskie - founder of TOM’s Shoes, Melissa Fitzgerald - Actor and co-founder of Voices in Harmony and Voices of Uganda, and Gene Nichol - the president of William and Mary college who gave an exceptionally rousing address.
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14 responses so far ↓
1 Michael Wayland // Nov 6, 2007 at 8:42 am
I have to say that because of my youth I never quite appreciated what a great leader Bill Clinton was. I hope that for our generation he continues to use his influence to do what our current government is not. His sincerity is incomparable and he is the reason I may end up voting for Hillary despite my misgivings about her.
2 Education Futures » Empowering young people // Nov 6, 2007 at 9:04 am
[…] LA Cityzine: …I think in the past 7 years many of us have forgotten what a good presidential speech […]
3 1 // Nov 6, 2007 at 9:23 am
Too bad he screwed it up as Pres, other wise he’s a partially decant man.
4 Ryan // Nov 6, 2007 at 9:45 am
Im so glad that asshole is no longer president.
5 gaius octavius augustus caesar // Nov 6, 2007 at 11:18 am
just wanted to say…first!
hahha seriously though President Clinton gave a great speech that i found very insightful. i would also be interested in hearing from the other speakers as well. i will say though upon hearing that it was about empowerment i was disheartened to find out there was a notable omission from the panel of speakers and that is noam chomsky. professor chomsky has done more to empower me by showing me that information is out there on what our government does and why. which is why his not speaking at that engagement is very disheartening to me. i hope that the folks that put this on plan on rectifying this in the future because while he’s led a full life he may not have much time left. i feel it’s imperative that young folks today get a chance to hear him because he can really empower folks to take charge of politics with way of cutting through the “spin” of government to get to meat of what’s really happening with u.s. foreign policy and how it affects the world. that’s my two cents.
6 RyanC // Nov 6, 2007 at 11:38 am
“Screwed up as president” ? “so glad he’s no longer president” ?!?
Not bad guys .. for slugs crawling out of Bush’s ass, you actually seem more literate then many would imagine ! Bravo !!
.. now perhaps you could progress onward and read up on some history to find out what a wonderful country and world this used to be - or rather, just stick to “my pet goat”.
7 grins // Nov 6, 2007 at 2:47 pm
this clapping thing is getting out of hand… it’s almost like they are only listening for an opportunity to clap and holler. “women rights”… “WHOOO”, “i sold drugs to 3rd world countries”… “WHOOO”. grow up.
8 Emberly // Nov 6, 2007 at 7:04 pm
i thought the clapping was a bit out of hand too.
as far as “screwing up as president”, i don’t think the person who wrote that has done their homework.
if the only thing that president clinton had done in his whole 2 terms was refusing to allow drilling for oil in the alaskan wildlife refuge that would have been enough for me.
i don’t want this to sound like i encourage infidelity, but the stress of a job like The Prez of the United States almost earns a little bj.
9 Louis // Nov 6, 2007 at 7:41 pm
You think being president is hard? Try being a freelance web / graphic designer!
What does THAT earn me? A half and half? A reach-around? A Tokyo Sucker-Punch? A SubClubStubHub?
10 Jake Anderson // Nov 6, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I was there promoting quarterlife the new social networking site. Yeah it was nice having a President that can form complete sentences. Being from Little Rock, I can’t help but love Clinton, though I don’t approve of NAFTA
11 g.e. // Nov 10, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Clinton expressed liberal and conservative as a thing of the past. We need to work together.Like are currrent pres says you’re either with me or with America!
12 Emberly // Nov 11, 2007 at 11:59 am
louis what in the hell is a tokyo sucker punch or a subclubstubhub?
13 Louis // Nov 11, 2007 at 12:14 pm
If you work hard enough, some day you might find out…
14 Wendy Carrillo // Nov 12, 2007 at 4:28 pm
i thought Bill did a pretty good job considering he did it all from memory.
i think some people have lost sight about the actual content of his speech… good video though.
wendy
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