WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.410 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.410 --> 00:00:06.750 align:middle line:84% I am on the countdown to this program. 00:00:06.750 --> 00:00:09.600 align:middle line:84% Before I came up, I looked up in front 00:00:09.600 --> 00:00:12.960 align:middle line:84% see if there was a clock because I didn't want 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:15.900 align:middle line:90% you to see one I couldn't see. 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:17.950 align:middle line:90% And I look back there. 00:00:17.950 --> 00:00:21.780 align:middle line:84% And then the last I saw over there. 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:25.153 align:middle line:84% So I'm sure you will be on schedule make it out 00:00:25.153 --> 00:00:26.820 align:middle line:84% of the parking lot in time and all that. 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:29.490 align:middle line:90% 00:00:29.490 --> 00:00:32.970 align:middle line:84% But I want to read a poem that's a whole page long. 00:00:32.970 --> 00:00:36.340 align:middle line:90% 00:00:36.340 --> 00:00:43.210 align:middle line:84% And I'm hesitating because I put it in as a, well, 00:00:43.210 --> 00:00:44.680 align:middle line:90% it's like this. 00:00:44.680 --> 00:00:50.350 align:middle line:84% Traveling around many campuses through the last 15 or more 00:00:50.350 --> 00:00:51.620 align:middle line:90% years. 00:00:51.620 --> 00:00:57.010 align:middle line:84% I've met all kinds of campus climates and so on. 00:00:57.010 --> 00:00:59.470 align:middle line:90% One of them is free speech. 00:00:59.470 --> 00:01:01.480 align:middle line:84% And I'm interested in free speech. 00:01:01.480 --> 00:01:06.790 align:middle line:84% It's something though that's really bigger than four letter 00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:07.780 align:middle line:90% words. 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:11.620 align:middle line:84% It's something about being able to talk to each other directly 00:01:11.620 --> 00:01:14.710 align:middle line:90% about things that concern us. 00:01:14.710 --> 00:01:17.362 align:middle line:90% So this is a different kind. 00:01:17.362 --> 00:01:18.070 align:middle line:90% It's called Bess. 00:01:18.070 --> 00:01:21.790 align:middle line:90% 00:01:21.790 --> 00:01:26.785 align:middle line:84% Hours are the streets where Bess first met her cancer. 00:01:26.785 --> 00:01:30.890 align:middle line:90% 00:01:30.890 --> 00:01:34.030 align:middle line:84% She went to work every day past the secure houses. 00:01:34.030 --> 00:01:36.820 align:middle line:90% 00:01:36.820 --> 00:01:41.380 align:middle line:84% At her job in the library, she arranged better and better 00:01:41.380 --> 00:01:42.940 align:middle line:90% flowers. 00:01:42.940 --> 00:01:45.610 align:middle line:84% And when students asked for books, 00:01:45.610 --> 00:01:47.320 align:middle line:90% her hand went out to help. 00:01:47.320 --> 00:01:50.260 align:middle line:90% 00:01:50.260 --> 00:01:53.740 align:middle line:84% In the last year of her life, she 00:01:53.740 --> 00:01:59.320 align:middle line:84% had to keep her friends from knowing how happy they were. 00:01:59.320 --> 00:02:05.740 align:middle line:84% She listened while they complained about food, or work, 00:02:05.740 --> 00:02:08.650 align:middle line:90% or the weather. 00:02:08.650 --> 00:02:14.140 align:middle line:84% And the great national events danced their grotesque fake 00:02:14.140 --> 00:02:17.200 align:middle line:90% importance. 00:02:17.200 --> 00:02:21.760 align:middle line:84% Always pain moved where she moved. 00:02:21.760 --> 00:02:24.940 align:middle line:90% She walked ahead. 00:02:24.940 --> 00:02:26.920 align:middle line:90% It came. 00:02:26.920 --> 00:02:29.740 align:middle line:90% She hid. 00:02:29.740 --> 00:02:31.840 align:middle line:90% It found her. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:34.780 align:middle line:84% No one ever served another so truly. 00:02:34.780 --> 00:02:38.680 align:middle line:84% No enemy ever meant so strong a hate. 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:42.895 align:middle line:84% It was almost as if there was no room left for her on Earth. 00:02:42.895 --> 00:02:45.530 align:middle line:90% 00:02:45.530 --> 00:02:49.790 align:middle line:84% But she remembered where joy is to live. 00:02:49.790 --> 00:02:52.580 align:middle line:90% She straightened its flowers. 00:02:52.580 --> 00:02:57.690 align:middle line:84% She did not weep when she passed its houses. 00:02:57.690 --> 00:03:01.640 align:middle line:84% And when finally she pulled into a tiny corner 00:03:01.640 --> 00:03:06.650 align:middle line:84% and slipped from pain, her hand opened again 00:03:06.650 --> 00:03:10.160 align:middle line:84% and the streets opened, and she wished all well. 00:03:10.160 --> 00:03:13.150 align:middle line:90% 00:03:13.150 --> 00:03:14.230 align:middle line:90% I don't know if you feel. 00:03:14.230 --> 00:03:22.740 align:middle line:90% 00:03:22.740 --> 00:03:25.110 align:middle line:84% I was going to say I didn't know whether you felt. 00:03:25.110 --> 00:03:28.160 align:middle line:90% This has a place poetry reading.