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C.T. Vivian: When it first started, I thought --
you know, unexpected.
And I didn't think much about it,
when I was busy with one thing or the other.
The closer we've gotten to it, the more exciting it has become.
The more you look forward to it.
The more you begin to understand the kinds of things
that could come as a result of this, right?
That you can do some good
that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise.
How it fits into your life's work, you see what I mean?
Is that everything that I have done, or once done.
I created Upward Bound, right?
Is that -- and just because a lot of kids got kicked
out of school, because of racism, right?
And I kept trying to figure, how are we going to make
those young people leadership for a new south?
And that's -- I was with Dr. Martin Luther King, right.
So, what we were doing was creating a new south.
And it's a part of a whole new concept of our participation
in the nation, right?
And so that when you see people who are thinking like that,
for a lifetime, how important it is,
is that you know that it opens doors,
and that people take you seriously,
more seriously than they did before.
It sounds so pat when you say it.
But where are your values?
Hold on to them, right?
Go with it.
There's going to be a number of things you want to do.
Some of them will make you far more money,
but is that what you want to do?
Some of them you want to do, but you won't be able to do
because you just don't have it, right?
And then so do what you can do, and do it well.
But always ask your question.
Is it serving people?
Now, the point being is, you don't have to worry
about asking yourself that truthfully.
Because you know whether you want to help folk or not, right?
And to me, that's a number one thing.
If you're not changing things for the benefit
of the greater society, right?
Then you're not about much anyway, right?
At the level we're talking.
If you -- if it's the level for your survival,
that's another thing.
Right?
But if you're really free enough and open enough
and have opportunities enough, always think
about the good it's going to do for other people,
because you've already been honored, right?
I don't mean by a medal, you've already been honored
by being in the position to help somebody, right?
And if -- but if you don't get upset and seeing people hurt,
suffer, put in bad situations, put in situations they're
never going to get out of for the wrong reasons,
if that doesn't really make you -- a little angry,
really, right?
Angry enough to do something about it,
then you wouldn't think about it, anyway.