WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.479 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:03.479 --> 00:00:06.470 align:middle line:90% 00:00:06.470 --> 00:00:07.040 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:12.770 align:middle line:90% 00:00:12.770 --> 00:00:15.340 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much. 00:00:15.340 --> 00:00:16.480 align:middle line:90% I want to make sure that-- 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:17.757 align:middle line:90% I want to read a few things. 00:00:17.757 --> 00:00:19.840 align:middle line:84% But I want to make sure that we have a discussion. 00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:22.180 align:middle line:84% And that we really make the most of this evening, 00:00:22.180 --> 00:00:23.800 align:middle line:90% since you're all here. 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:28.960 align:middle line:84% That it become, really, your evening not so much my evening. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:30.760 align:middle line:84% I do have some news to relate to you 00:00:30.760 --> 00:00:33.260 align:middle line:84% and I'm going to read some poems related to this. 00:00:33.260 --> 00:00:36.280 align:middle line:84% As some of you know, been working really hard 00:00:36.280 --> 00:00:39.820 align:middle line:84% with my son, who's in a gang in Chicago. 00:00:39.820 --> 00:00:41.920 align:middle line:84% We've been doing a lot of work together. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:43.870 align:middle line:84% And he helped start a group called 00:00:43.870 --> 00:00:45.490 align:middle line:84% Youth Struggling for Survival with me 00:00:45.490 --> 00:00:48.910 align:middle line:84% last year, in which we involved a gang and non-gang kids 00:00:48.910 --> 00:00:50.560 align:middle line:90% in Chicago. 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:52.390 align:middle line:90% We got them active. 00:00:52.390 --> 00:00:54.160 align:middle line:84% The whole idea was to empower them, get 00:00:54.160 --> 00:00:56.080 align:middle line:90% them to do their own activity. 00:00:56.080 --> 00:00:57.860 align:middle line:90% They now meet weekly. 00:00:57.860 --> 00:01:00.130 align:middle line:84% They have retreats, they have conferences, 00:01:00.130 --> 00:01:04.300 align:middle line:84% they have a video production component, they do teatro. 00:01:04.300 --> 00:01:07.210 align:middle line:84% They're moving into drug recovery 00:01:07.210 --> 00:01:09.220 align:middle line:90% for kids, court advocacy. 00:01:09.220 --> 00:01:11.050 align:middle line:90% Just a number of various things. 00:01:11.050 --> 00:01:14.020 align:middle line:84% And I have to say that my son has been very active in it 00:01:14.020 --> 00:01:17.770 align:middle line:84% and I really am proud of what he has done. 00:01:17.770 --> 00:01:24.430 align:middle line:84% The news is that he has also gotten into a lot of trouble. 00:01:24.430 --> 00:01:29.440 align:middle line:84% And last Friday morning, he got picked up in a shooting. 00:01:29.440 --> 00:01:33.760 align:middle line:84% And I think he's going to have to do some heavy-duty prison 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:35.382 align:middle line:90% time. 00:01:35.382 --> 00:01:37.090 align:middle line:84% It's something that I was trying to avoid 00:01:37.090 --> 00:01:38.548 align:middle line:84% for him because, obviously, I spent 00:01:38.548 --> 00:01:42.700 align:middle line:84% most of my life trying to keep myself out of a prison 00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:45.920 align:middle line:84% just to see my own kids have to go through it. 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:48.700 align:middle line:84% I just don't think it's a personal issue. 00:01:48.700 --> 00:01:51.430 align:middle line:84% I just don't think it's an issue just for me. 00:01:51.430 --> 00:01:53.280 align:middle line:84% And if it was, maybe I wouldn't-- 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:55.450 align:middle line:84% I could just feel bad and say, well, you know, 00:01:55.450 --> 00:01:56.650 align:middle line:90% it's me or something. 00:01:56.650 --> 00:01:59.570 align:middle line:90% But it's an issue for all of us. 00:01:59.570 --> 00:02:01.720 align:middle line:90% And this is why I do what I do. 00:02:01.720 --> 00:02:03.520 align:middle line:84% I want to read some poems and some writing 00:02:03.520 --> 00:02:05.770 align:middle line:84% because this is the best way that I can express it. 00:02:05.770 --> 00:02:10.630 align:middle line:84% And I want to start by reading a poem that I wrote for him when 00:02:10.630 --> 00:02:14.800 align:middle line:84% he was younger and I had gone to Chicago and he was still in LA. 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:17.563 align:middle line:84% And I guess he was kind of confused 00:02:17.563 --> 00:02:20.230 align:middle line:84% and trying to figure out his way and he didn't know where to go. 00:02:20.230 --> 00:02:21.820 align:middle line:84% And it's called "The Boy of All Boys," 00:02:21.820 --> 00:02:25.760 align:middle line:84% because when he was born, that's what I used to call him. 00:02:25.760 --> 00:02:26.495 align:middle line:90% It's to Ramiro. 00:02:26.495 --> 00:02:29.030 align:middle line:90% 00:02:29.030 --> 00:02:32.420 align:middle line:84% "The 10-year-old child hopped a freight train departing 00:02:32.420 --> 00:02:35.180 align:middle line:90% from Los Angeles to Chicago. 00:02:35.180 --> 00:02:37.040 align:middle line:84% Police pulled him out of the boxcar 00:02:37.040 --> 00:02:39.650 align:middle line:90% just before it left the city. 00:02:39.650 --> 00:02:42.660 align:middle line:84% He said he was going to see his father-- 00:02:42.660 --> 00:02:45.550 align:middle line:90% He had missed the voice. 00:02:45.550 --> 00:02:50.500 align:middle line:84% To me he was the smile of a boy; the boy of all boys. 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:53.500 align:middle line:84% I only recalled the good times, like 00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:56.290 align:middle line:84% when I took him to the park, rented a boat 00:02:56.290 --> 00:03:00.340 align:middle line:84% and watched as he maneuvered it toward the wading ducks. 00:03:00.340 --> 00:03:02.950 align:middle line:90% I failed to sense the despair. 00:03:02.950 --> 00:03:05.080 align:middle line:84% It came in a midnight phone call. 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:07.480 align:middle line:84% It came in the demands for fatherhood. 00:03:07.480 --> 00:03:10.960 align:middle line:90% It came as I began a new family. 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:13.630 align:middle line:84% The boy never wanted me to forget. 00:03:13.630 --> 00:03:17.320 align:middle line:84% He never wanted the hearts to stop beating between us. 00:03:17.320 --> 00:03:18.940 align:middle line:90% He hopped a train. 00:03:18.940 --> 00:03:21.190 align:middle line:90% He sought my voice. 00:03:21.190 --> 00:03:25.440 align:middle line:90% I only recalled the good times." 00:03:25.440 --> 00:03:27.710 align:middle line:90% That's for my son, Ramiro. 00:03:27.710 --> 00:03:29.000 align:middle line:90%