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Thank you for those kind words of introduction.
David and Michelle, distinguished guests and participants, I am very pleased and delighted to be here today to be part of this national conference on volunteerism.
Before I get started, I want to make a quick announcement.
As some of you may know, I was lucky enough and senior enough to be made the Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee of the United States Congress.
And in my role, I often meet with or called am upon to meet with members of the nonprofit community.
I'm always glad to hear from you and invite you to visit my office whenever you're in Washington.
Through my work, I have learned about and heard of people who received AmeriCorps Education Awards, after reaching out to an underserved population in our society, struggling to pay their tax bill at the end of the year.
These education awards are subject to taxes that eat away this benefit.
I want to tell you today that I intend to sponsor a bill that relieves AmeriCorps participants from this burden. [cheers and applause]
So this award and volunteer service is treated more fairly.
I'm going to urge all of my colleagues to co‑sponsor this piece of legislation.
We're going to get it passed, send it to the Senate, and the Senate will pass it, and send it to the President's desk.
We must do it. [applause]
The Urgency of Now.
Many, many years ago when I had all my hair, and was a few pounds lighter, at the age of 18, in 1958, I met Martin Luther King, Jr.
I heard about him three years later.
I heard his voice.
On the old radio.
And the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired me to find a way to get in the way.
When I was growing up in rural Alabama and would visit the little town of Troy, and would we visitMontgomery, Tuskegee and Birmingham and I saw the signs that said white men, colored men, white women, colored women. I would come home and ask my mother, ask my father, ask my grandparents, my great grandparents: why segregation? Why racial discrimination?
They'd say that's the way it is.
Don't get in the way.
Don't get in trouble.
But I was inspired to get in the way.
I was inspired to get in trouble.
I got in trouble.
It was good trouble.
It was necessary trouble.
[cheers and applause]
I want to thank each and every one of you as volunteers serving this nation, helping those that have been left out and been left behind, for getting in trouble.
The Urgency of Now. The Urgency of Now.
I was there at the March on Washington when Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke.
Dr.King spoke number 10.
I spoke number six.
And I said in my little speech, you tell us to wait.
You tell us to be patient.
We cannot wait.
We cannot be patient.
We want our freedom, and we want it now!
The Urgency of Now.
The people that are suffering, the people that are hurting.
Things that we can do to make our country, make our society, make our world a better place.
We must do it, and do it here now.
We cannot wait for someone else to do it.
We have to do it and we must do it.
[applause]
Just think, a few short years ago, during the sixties, we didn't have a Web site.
We had never heard of the Internet.
We didn't have an i‑Pod.
We didn't even have a fax machine.
We sure didn't have a cell telephone.
But we used what we had to bring about a non‑violent revolution, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas.
You, too, must continue to push and pull, and create what I like to call the beloved community.
A community at peace with itself that is all inclusive, that recognizes the dignity and the worth of every individual.
Just think, a few short years ago, here in this region, it was almost impossible for people of color to be able to register to vote.
And my old organization, the Student Non‑Violent Coordinating Committee, recruited more than 1,000 volunteers, primarily students, but lawyers, doctors and teachers.
And the summer night of June 21, 1964, three young men that I knew-- Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman -- went out to investigate the burning of an African-American church.
These three young men were arrested, taken to jail, later taken from jail by the sheriff and his deputy, turned over to the Klan where they were beaten, shot and killed.
These three young men didn't die in Vietnam or Eastern Europe; they didn't die in Africa, they didn't die in Central or South America; they died right here in our country.
Volunteers today, hopefully will not be beaten, will not be jailed, will not be killed.
But you must get in the way.
You must do your part and encourage others.
Thank you for all that you do.
I'm going to tell one little story and I'll be finished.
When I was growing up outside of Troy, Alabama, 50 miles from Montgomery, I had an aunt by the name of Seneva.
My aunt lived in what we called a shotgun house.
I know as people and individuals and volunteers from all across America, you've never seen a shotgun house.
Well, I know what I'm talking about, because I was born in a shotgun house in rural Alabama.
My aunt Seneva didn't have a green, manicured lawn. She had a simple, plain, dirt yard.
And sometimes at night you could look up through the holes in the ceiling through the tin roof and count the stars.
When it would rain we got a pale, a bucket or tarp and would catch the rainwater and from time to time she'd walk out into the woods and take branches from a dogwood tree and tie these branches together and make a broom.
She would sweep it very clean sometimes two and three times a week, but especially on a Friday and Saturday because she wanted it to look good on the weekend.
For those of you who may not know what a shotgun house is, there's one way in, and one way out with a tin roof where you can bounce a basketball through the front door and it will go straight out the back door.
My aunt lived in a shotgun house.
But one Saturday afternoon a group of my brothers and sisters and a few of my first cousins were playing in the dirt yard and an unbelievable storm came up.
The wind started blowing, and the lightning started flashing, and the rain started beating on the tin roof of this shotgun house.
My aunt became terrified and started crying.
She got all the little children together and told us to hold hands and we did as we were told.
The wind continued to blow, the thunder continued to roll.
The lightning continued to flash, and we cried, and we cried.
When one corner of this old house appeared to be lifting from its foundation, my aunt walked to that corner to try to hold her house down with our little bodies.
When the other corner appeared to be lifting, we walked to that house to hold the house down.
We were little children walking with the wind but we never left the house.
I say to you that are doing so much:
To build and not to tear down.
To reconcile and not to divide.
To create the beloved community.
You must stay with the house.
You must stay with the house and not give up.
Maybe our foremothers and our forefathers all came to this great land in different ships.
We're all in the same boat now.
It doesn't matter whether we're Black or White or Hispanic or Asian‑American or Native American. [applause]
We are one people. We are one family. We are one house.
So continue to walk with the wind.
And let your spirit of volunteerism be your guide.
Stay with the house.
Don't give up.
Don't give in.
Don't get loss in a sea of despair.
Keep the faith.
Thank you very much. [cheers and applause]
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