Posted on 05/02/2013 4:28:47 PM PDT by drewh
Clocking in at nearly two hours, former President Bill Clinton gave the first in his new lecture series at Georgetown University yesterday in a speech that meandered from terrorism to public service.
Clinton said this century “requires every thoughtful person to try to do some public good.”
“Most people get in real trouble and abuse power when they forget that the purpose of their power is not to impose their will on others but to let other people be empowered to live their own lives better,” he said. “Or as I always say, have better stories.”
He spent much of his time sharing stories of poor relatives growing up in Arkansas and said “it’s a mystery” how he ever became president.
“When I was born in Arkansas at the end of World War II, I think our per capita income was 56 percent of the national average. Only Mississippi was poorer. No one in my direct family had ever been to college,” Clinton said.
“And I’m not trying to romanticize poverty,” he said after singing tales of his uncles and grandparents. “I like everybody who gets rid of it. That’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to get you not to belittle people who know less than you do, have less than you do, are less credentialed than you are.”
“…Don’t ever romanticize poverty. It’s way overrated. But don’t denigrate the people who live in it because there is a mountain of evidence that there is a lot of dignity there. And I saw those stories when I was young.”
Clinton also related a tale of a Catholic priest asking him in college if he’d ever thought about becoming a Jesuit.
“And I asked him if I had to become a Catholic first,” he said. “And he said ‘what do you mean?’ I said, ‘I’m a southern Baptist. I’m not eligible.’ He said ‘I read your test papers. It’s not possible. You think like a Catholic.’”
“But nonetheless I was who I was and I didn’t become a priest. And I think life worked out pretty well for both of us,” Clinton added.
The former president claimed there’s just “one remaining bigotry in America.”
“I mean, the people are organizing massive living patterns in this country around being with somebody that agrees with them,” Clinton said. “…So do I think it matters what purposes there are to your politics and what policies you adopt and how you conduct politics in or out of the public arena? Oh, I think all that matters.
But you have a much better chance of living both a successful and a rewarding life of service if you begin by finding something to learn from everybody you run into. If you begin by believing there is a certain inherent dignity to people who will never be on television, never be in a newspaper article, are just a statistic to most people who talk about politics.”
Yeah, I remember the nuns asking all the Baptist kids if they wanted to join up.
O can only say....I’m ROTFLMAO on this one....
I don't find it funny. I find it ridiculous. You're describing someone who wants to serve two masters and the Lord says that can't be done. By their works ye shall know them, not by their verbal diarrhea.
“But Ah’ decided Ah’ like raping women too much to be celibate”
And Catholics world-wide breathe a sigh of relief that the priestly vow of celibacy kept at least one bozo out of the clergy.
I've met him and you are exactly right. Makes me wish I had done more with my Philosophy degree. I coulda been President.
Wait until he is on stage at the 2016 DNC if his wife is the nominee.
What religion, Moloch?
Now, now, old BJClinton only became president because old man Bush broke his no new taxes claim, and that vengeful Ross Perot climbed under the hood. And really now how 'good' are you on the 'social justice' tour... See now that mentality is a natural concept to the leftist brain. Nobody is ever except a 'right-winger' accountable for his/her own actions. Everybody must contribute to the religious cause via taxation (or in religious circles charity).
Ole BJClinton sure made a heap of money doing his lord's work.
I thought the article was funny and then I read your comment...Now THAT’s Funny!
BJC is such a joke...yet he just keeps on lying his ass off.
Was he asked to be a doggy too? (Jesus forgive me and bless the pygmies)
Why in the heck with Georgetown University invite that idiot womanizer to speak.
Sometimes, I don’t understand things that my Church does...........
I always wondered if those remarks about “You owe me a keyboard” were true. Yes!
I'm a man....and have cheated my ass off thousands of times...in my mind.
Yes, we are all sinners.......I'm not perfect.
Paul was a murderer...I think your last sentence is very accurate.
That said...I know people. Bill Clinton is a lying deadly snake...and is no Paul.
I don’t think any are claiming to be perfect. It’s just that Clinton was particularly unashamed in his hypocrisy and could twist logic on it’s ear to defend himself.
Hmm. Which Catholic would that be? Ah, yes! Teddy Kennedy! Or Nancy Pelosi! Or Joe Biden! Or, Andrew Cuomo! Or, John Kerry! Or, Chris Dodd! Or, Dennis Kucinich! Or, Carol Moseley Braun! Or, Jerry Brown!
Wow! That's more than one.
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