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 its 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 Im not trying to romanticize poverty, he said after singing tales of his uncles and grandparents. I like everybody who gets rid of it. Thats not what Im trying to do. Im 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.
Dont ever romanticize poverty. Its way overrated. But dont 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 hed 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, Im a southern Baptist. Im not eligible. He said I read your test papers. Its not possible. You think like a Catholic.
But nonetheless I was who I was and I didnt become a priest. And I think life worked out pretty well for both of us, Clinton added.
The former president claimed theres 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.
And I asked him if I had to become a Catholic first, he said. And he said what do you mean? I said, Im a southern Baptist. Im not eligible. He said I read your test papers. Its not possible. You think like a Catholic.
It might have happened.
He could be Pope Bubba.
Getting his jollies listening to to confessions, to say nothing of the prospects he could pick up.
Punchline? Priesthood of what?
With news of the ‘movie’ in the works about the grand love story of billy bob and hillary, I expect to hear even more stories of lore. This is such a joke and a nauseating one at that, yet, don’t you see how beautiful it will fit in the narrative of how they were just destined to be together?
To go on and do such wonderful things for the whole world, such benevolent beings those to 60’s kids. bleeech
Now IF he had gone on to priesthood, where would this nation be without the decades of their influence? I see where this garbage is going. All designed for the idiots who see moochele’s new hair due and believe all is right in the world.
This has to be satire!
Well yes!!! Then he would have full and free access to young boys!!!!!
Had he known that the church would allow altar girls. History may have changed.
Yes, he was asked to join Judas Priest.
You right wing nuts need to give me a break ... I mean, do you have any idea the things people confess to their priests ... and do you know how many good leads I can get in just a few hours in the box?
My GrandDad use to say, “He would tell a lie when the truth would sound better”. GrandDad never knew slick, but he sure about people like slick.
Post 16 is equally apropos......
oh, puh-leeeeze
klintoon has committed every sin known and thinks he can get by with “what the meaning of is, is”.
what folking lie
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