I love this speech Kerry gave at last year NAACP Image Awards. So many great points. We all have a voice and a story to tell, never take that for granted. Speak your truth, even if your voice trembles :)
Human beings are complicated and flawed and unique, but we all have a story to tell. Gone are the days when our lead characters can only look like someone else. Heroes look like all of us. We see ourselves in each other's stories, we see who we are, we see who we want to be. Sometimes we see who we don't want to be and through that we have greater understanding of ourselves and acceptance of each other. I consider it an honor to be an advocate of the arts and to serve on Obama's Committee for the Arts because just as we must ensure that "we the people" includes all Americans regardless of race, class, gender and sexual orientation; we must also work to ensure that the stories we take, the movies we make, the television we produce, the theatre we stage, the novels we publish are inclusive all those same ways. I stand here tonight on the shoulders of those who have blazed a path of art and activism. Harry Belafonte, I stand on your shoulders. I stand on your shoulders Diane, I stand on your shoulders Ben, with gratitude for what you've sacrificed so that we can tell the stories that we are all telling. I receive this award with great humility and I hope that I may one day live up to that legacy of service, not for me but for us and for the next generation of story tellers. Thank you.
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