WEBVTT

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I spent the 12 years
I was locked up

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working in the classroom
teaching men things like, well,

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appreciation for
nature but also math.

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And the GED program, I
worked quite extensively

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with guys trying
to earn their GEDs.

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We would have these--

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they had a radio in
the classroom a--

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walkie talkie the cops carried,
and we'd hear little events

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going on around the yard.

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Sometimes there'd
be something like,

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there's a report of
a rattlesnake down

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at one of the tent sections.

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And I'd see my students
look up and I'd look up

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and we'd, go field trip.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And off we go.

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One of my students, Corey
Black, great, big Black man.

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Wonderful guy.

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I took him outside--

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we had a desert willow tree
outside the education building

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and there would be these--
during the spring and fall,

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there'd be this migration
that would come through

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and once in a while, I'd
see warblers in there.

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And once, there was this
yellow-rumped warbler

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that came, and it stayed
around for a few weeks.

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And I pointed it out to some
of my students and to Corey,

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I said, look, there's
a yellow-rumped warbler

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in that tree.

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And he looked at me and
he said, if somebody

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called me a yellow-rumped
warbler, I'd have to hurt him.

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[LAUGHTER]

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So I'm going to read
just a short little scene

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about the classroom.

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"Last night during class, Oscar,
my Mexican national friend,

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brought me a large
male tarantula

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he found outside the building.

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'Ken, I have a present
for you,' he said,

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the unshaven non-compliant
spider clinging to his arm.

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Oscar complained
about an irritation

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on the inside of
his forearm after I

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took the spider from him.

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'Tarantula hair,' I said.

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'You don't want to
get it in your eyes.'

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After an impromptu
classroom show and tell,

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the spider quietly rode on
my shoulder for the evening.

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I considered leaving
it in a desk drawer

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as a locked and loaded
present for an officer who's

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been snooping around lately.

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But decided it
wouldn't do to find

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him dead on the floor in
the morning, the officer.

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My wife is right.

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I'm not devious enough
to be a proper criminal.

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She says I'm
misusing my knowledge

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about nature and weeds and bugs,
that I should be doing more.

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'Like how two entomologist
brothers,' she says,

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'both in separate prison camps,
treated their captors during

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the Vietnam War with lice,
and assassin bugs, and mites,

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and ticks, and fleas they'd
collected and slipped

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into their clothing.'

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'Their fellow prisoners thought
they were crazy,' she explains,

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'until they realized
what the two were doing.

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Then everyone joined
in the bug hunting,

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helping the guards with their
jackets, shaking their hands.'

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Karen would make a
better criminal than me.

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She would do so much
more than show and tell."

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And one last little piece.

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This is poetry--

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I'm going to quote a little
bit of poetry from my daughter,

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but this is also a
little bit of politics.

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I moved into the politics
section of the book.

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"My 13-year-old
daughter, Melissa,

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spent yesterday at
the Capitol, having

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brunch with legislators,
former governor Rose

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Mofford and Governor Jane Hull.

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Melissa was among
about a dozen students

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who won a statewide poetry
contest focusing on an Arizona

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theme.

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She won first place for
her junior high division

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with her long poem called
"Arizona Deserts," which

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begins 'creosote
sings its scent to me,

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the desert stills under
the warm touch of the sun.

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Here, the wind has no purpose
except to buffet and pound

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on the silent rocks,
shaping their solid bodies.

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Karen told me that
during the event,

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Rose Mofford mentioned
to her that she has much

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to be proud of.

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You have no idea, Karen thought.

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We've talked about the
many ironies in our lives.

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How our youngest daughter
writes a poem glorifying

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Arizona's wilderness,
winning an award ceremony

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with Arizona's governor,
while her father

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sits in an Arizona prison.

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No one has any idea.

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Many children of
prisoners follow

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the example of their parents.

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I've taught literacy to a father
and son in the same class.

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It's a prison class.

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But here's what's really
crazy, poetry contests aside,

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recently, our Republican
governor, Jane Hull,

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spoke about Arizona's
public schools,

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listing problem after problem.

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She was aware of them all.

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But, she said, she would not
increase funding for education.

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Arizona would remain
dead last in the country

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for school spending.

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The prisons bulged at the news."

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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