 I'm back. Love you too. On behalf of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, I am excited to introduce our keynote speaker, Ambassador Carol Mosley Braun. Born and raised in Chicago, Ambassador Braun came of age in the midst of the civil rights movement. She majored in political science from the University of Illinois, and she holds a law degree from the University of Chicago. Then after graduating law school, she began a career in public service, working as an assistant US attorney in Chicago, where she made significant contributions in the housing, health policy, and environmental law areas. She was the first female African-American senator, the first African-American US senator for the Democratic Party, the first senator from Illinois, and the first woman to defeat an incumbent US senator in an election. As a senator, she was a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Banking and Judiciary Committee, Small Business Committee, and the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. She advocated for retirement security and healthcare support for working men and women. She proposed the first modern federal school construction legislation, and the first women's pension equity laws. She sponsored ethanol and environmental justice legislation, historic preservation of the underground railroad, and federal support of lupus research. Her legislative record showed her commitment to social justice, environmental issues, and fiscal prudence. She has served a country as Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, super cool, after being nominated by President Bill Clinton during his second term. She now leads the organic food supplier, Ambassador Organics, a company focused on making biodynamic organic food more widely available. Her roots in agricultural practices trace back to spending summers on a great grandmother's pecan farm in Alabama. Her great grandmother taught her many things, including herbal remedies that could be made from plants that they collected in the nearby woods, and to see the land as a source of bounty, vitality, and good health. Ambassador Braun is a visiting professor in the political science department at Northwestern University. At Northwestern, she has taught both undergraduate and graduate classes in political science and business law. Her research interests include U.S. political and military history, change in the dynamic power of the United States, of, oh, I'm sorry, change in the dynamic power, dynamic of power in the United States, and the role of diversity, race, and gender intersectionality in shaping public policy. She serves on the board of the National Organization for Women, the diplomatic advisory committee for the World War I Commission, and the board of the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company. During her career, she has received numerous awards and distinctions, including 11 honorary degrees for achievements in the public interest. In 2001, the public school, Carol Mosley Braun Elementary in Calamity City, Illinois, was named after her. The school nickname is The Ambassadors. Ambassador Braun jokingly describes herself as a recovering politician, who is on her fourth career, a proud mom. She's excited that her son, Matthew, and her wife, his wife, her son, Matthew, and his wife, are expecting twins later on this spring. It is my pleasure and honor to welcome Ambassador Carol Mosley Braun to deliver our keynote speech. Wonderful introduction, and particularly the part about my son and the twins. It's his wife, not I'll have a wife, so just, I mean, I just clarified the record on that one. To Dr. Todd Roberts, the chancellor, Dr. Tom Williams, the chair, the board of trustees, Dr. Jamie Latham, I didn't see him, but he's the reason I'm here. Where'd he go? Okay, well, anyway. Dr. Latham, are you here? Oh, in the back, yes. And to NCSSM, faculty, students, and employees in attendance, I want to also give a special thanks to my friend, Kimberly Moore, and her family, Eric Moore, and Edward Moore, to Dr. Terry Lynch for taking me around yesterday and showing me North Carolina, this area, the Durham area, and to Mr. Laird and the band, thank you very much for that rousing rendition of Mozart. I really enjoyed it, and you did a fabulous job, so thank you very much. And to all of you, thanks so much for being here. I have a sign at my house that says every day is a gift, so thank you very much for sharing the gift of this day with me. I am a lawyer and a former politician, having served at all levels of the US government, including the local, state, national, and international levels. I am currently an entrepreneur and a teacher of a retiree who has more projects and passions ongoing than I can reasonably handle. I call myself, as was just pointed out, a recovering politician. My family, as part of the Great Migration, migrated from the South to Chicago before the turn of the last century. Both my dad and my mother grew up in the segregated parts of Chicago, known then as now as the Black Belt. My mother's family were farmers in Alabama. Her father had been a soldier in the First World War, even and served in France, in fact. My father's family were musicians from New Orleans and helped to bring jazz, which was then called ragtime, up to the North. My father became a law enforcement officer, my mother a medical technician. I had three siblings, one of whom died over 25 years ago. I had been a disciple of Dr. Martin Luther King's and marched with him when he came to Chicago for social justice and housing integration. I met my husband about the same time in law school and we were married for 18 years. He is not an African American, but for a ruling of our nation's highest court a few years earlier, our interracial marriage would have been illegal. From our union came my only child, Matthew, a son who is a computer security specialist. And again, recently married himself, he will make me a grandmother in the spring. I was the first woman of color in the United States history to be elected to the Senate and the first woman to serve on the powerful finance committee. When I lost reelection, I flirted with the idea of becoming a farmer, but after the terrorism of 9-11, I shelved that idea in favor of returning to Chicago to be near to my family. It was then that I started the company, Good Food Organics, doing business as an ambassador organics, a beverage company specializing in organic products. We are part of the growing movement to provide healthier food for the American people. I now also teach government at Northwestern University. Teaching at this prestigious institution allows me to bring my qualifications to bear on the programs of that school and also allows me to pursue my passions learning about World War I, particularly and its impacts. My journey has taken me from the south side of Chicago to the family's farm in Union Springs, Alabama, to the legislature in Illinois, an agricultural state, to the debates of the United States Senate, to an ambassadorship in New Zealand, a place that I call paradise, but it is also known as having more sheep than people. I also ran a brief unsuccessful campaign for president of the United States in 2002 cycle, prompted by my 10-year-old niece's naive question why all the presidents were boys. That was sort of, I take care of why are all the presidents boys, so I had to step up and try to do that. But change in the status of women and the elimination or diminution of racism actually come from the same societal impulse. Both relate to the liberation of the human spirit from external features such as color or gender or disability or sexual preference. Now that we talk about disability, by the way, I wanna congratulate also the award winners. I'm sorry that you have to get a boot and get your leg messed up in order to win one, but okay, there we are. Both of them had boots on. You notice that problem, right? But anyway, this is a vision of community that is grounded in morality and finds its expression in the notion that in every person is a reflection of our shared humanity. It is also a reflection of what has been called the American Dream, the notion that successive generations will do better in life than the ones that preceded it. The American Dream is not just about materialism, but it's about values, a concept, an idea that opportunity be extended to all without regard to external conditions of existence. That impulse is affirmation that the essential challenge to society is to access human potential by the liberation of the human spirit. This is why equality for women will one day be the norm because the expectation no longer exists that women will be kept out of the public sphere or spheres of endeavor that suit them or for which their talents make them qualify. This represents an evolution of perspective as much as a cultural maturation and it has come about and continues to evolve because public opinion in favor of freedom and equality have grown. The people who chose to do whatever they could to be good and decent and caring in their time put the higher angels of our nature to work in our lives. They moved us all to build community by calling on each person to a contribute to the maximum extent of their ability. Those people may or may not be known to you personally. Indeed, they may not show up in the scholarly journals and histories, but I can assure you that without the many individuals and sometimes unnoticed contributions of people of goodwill to make the world what it should and could be, there would be no way we could be here in this place, in this way, at this time. The point I hope you will take with you today is this. What you do, what you say, what you think matters and your actions will make things better or not for many more people than you will ever know. Whether in your personal life or in the life of your community or your world, your decisions drive outcomes. You can define the world we will live in or you can acquiesce in it. Either way, by your conduct, you will have voted in an election that will shape today and create tomorrow. You create the future with your actions in present time. Your personal choices matter. Dr. King, and I say this because it's a younger audience, Dr. King was only 25 years old when he took on the mantle of leadership in the fight against segregation. James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerman were 21 and 24 years old, respectively, when they were murdered for trying to give people the vote. The Little Rock Nine, who were persecuted for desegregating a school, were all teenagers. These were all dreamers who had the courage to face their fears and stand for the right thing, even to death, but they changed the world and made my life and yours possible. I share a little story with you. This is a true story, actually, from my own life, background, when I was nine or 10 years old, my parents took us on a wonderful train trip from Chicago down to the family farm in Union Springs, Alabama. When we got to the train station in Montgomery, we were thirsty and wanted a drink of water. The problem was that at the time, the water fountains were segregated. There was a fountain for white people and a separate fountain for colored people. My mother, being the modern woman of the 1950s that she was, wouldn't let us drink out of the dilapidated colored water fountain. Wait till we get to my grandmother's house, she whispered to me and my little brother. I did just as I was told and stood quietly, obedient, and thirsty. My little brother, however, was having none of it. In a temper tantrum, he threw himself in the floor in the middle of the train station and started screaming, I want some colored water, I want some colored water, I want some colored water. It was not until we got him to stop crying that we discovered he thought colored water would come out of that fountain like a rainbow, blue and green and yellow and red and he had to have some of that. Well, we can in this time and place laugh at that story because the illogic of racial segregation seems to us ridiculous and laughable. But not that long ago in my own lifetime, what was enticing to my little brother and is funny to us now was a painful reality that defined the lives of millions of people, both black and white. The change in attitudes which changed policy that changed the law that in turn created attitudes, created the reality that we enjoy today. This transformation was nothing less than revolutionary, but it came about through the actions and sacrifice of ordinary people, everyday folks, individuals who acted out of simple virtues and changed the world for us. The key is personal and the answer lies in what individuals choose to do or not do. What you say or don't say, who you say it to, whether you follow your joy or follow the crowd, all these contribute to creating an atmosphere in which other's decisions and choices will be made. A climate of opinion shapes perspective as well as conduct and can change hearts as well as minds, but it starts with each one of us, sometimes in meetings like this, but more often than not in small ways. Little steps, quiet interactions, personal connections and conversations sometimes it's all that's required to shape the opportunities and directions of another person or community or nation. You never know, but you could be the person who sets the tone of the conversation and the direction of life of one person or one community, one country, or indeed the world will take. Each and every person makes a difference in shaping the direction that any other person's life can take and by extension, any one community, any one nation. When you decide to give back just a little of the good that has been given to you, you make life better for more people than you will ever know. As we take on our generation's issues, our challenges and the controversies, we help to define the battlefield on which the struggle for the future is fought. The human dynamic that binds our fortunes, one to the other is shaped by every step that you take to show the world a better way. The most important truth, however, lies in knowing that whether in your personal life or in the life of your community or your work, your decisions drive outcomes. You create the future with your actions in present time. You can weigh in on behalf of your values or you can empower someone else's worldview. Either way, by your conduct, you will have served in ways that will shape the world. Whether our society will glorify violence and greed or community and compassion will in large part be dictated by popular opinion and popular opinion starts with you. Another story dramatically illustrates the point and this reaches back a little bit. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution that gave women the right to vote was ratified on August 18th, 1920. Tennessee was the last in a tortured state-by-state process to give women a nationally secured right to vote. A legislator named Henry Byrne had been a vote against suffrage and the opponents were all but sure that they had stopped suffrage in its tracks in that state. However, the night before the crucial vote, Byrne received a letter from his mother that said, and I quote, vote for suffrage and don't keep them in doubt. Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Cat put the rat in ratification. The next day, Byrne's vote was the decisive one that put Tennessee behind the 19th Amendment and Tennessee's approval passed it for the entire country. When the press questioned Byrne about the surprise which he responded, I quote, I changed my vote in favor of ratification because a mother's advice is always safest for her boy to follow and the opportunity was mine to free millions of people from political bondage, end quote. Well, we know about Byrne and about his vote and we know about his mother's letter. All that can be found in the history books but we will probably never know who spoke to his mother, what conversations she had, who inspired her to write the letter that changed his mind and then his vote and then history. Some anonymous person took up the initiative to speak up or speak to someone else whose voice changed another person's mind and then his voice, his vote and then history. American women have ever since enjoyed the right to vote because someone in shows to engage the debate. The impact of that single letter or of a single conversation is amplified by today's technologies more than we could have imagined even 10 years ago. Now, I will not presume to suggest what role you should play. That is as personal decision as any you will make in your life. My only appeal is that you choose to do. Whatever role you take, your participation in the conversation today will create the future our world will inherit tomorrow. In closing, I'd like to share with you an anonymous poem I found while I was in New Zealand and I'll start the poem now. One song can spark a moment. One flower can wake a dream. One tree can start a forest. One bird can herald spring. One smile begins a friendship. One hand class lifts a soul. One star can guide a ship. One thought can frame a goal. One vote can change a nation. One sunbunk beam lights a room. One candle wipes out darkness. One laugh will conquer gloom. One step must start each journey. One word must start each prayer. One hope will raise our spirits. One touch can show you care. One voice can speak with wisdom. One heart can know what's true. One life can make a difference. One person just like you. I want to thank you not only for inviting me here today but for continuing to care about the world in which we live. It gives me great hope for the future that you are here and I'm happy and honored to share a part of the gift of this day with you. Thank you all so much.