Can I get something to drink?
May I? Yes.
You can start drinking it.
So I'm going to get it. Yeah
All right Yeah
Can you talk down here with me?
Tammy from Dallas
Carmen from Dallas
Jim from Dallas
Judy Milner from Detroit, Michigan
And I'm Laura
from Dallas, Texas
I have the great honor of having the theater
named after my mother
who's been working with the Academy since
it was in the trunk of
Curtis's car
So we go along
all the way back
And her mother's name is
Naomi Bruton
The theater downstairs
Even up until the day
about five, a week before she died
she was still selling tickets
to the King concert for us
You know, she was so committed
that's a story I'm going to tell another time
but she's amazing so we named the theater
after her. When we first named the theater
people asked me, well who is she? I said well
you don't know who she is
And her sister was saying
I'm an actress
but my mom's name come up more than my name
Well that's a tough act to follow but
I've got to be careful
I'm Theo Amazon
from McKinney. I'm also a
fraternity brother to Curtis King and
Ronnie King, five in a single, Fraternity Incorporated
I had to get that in
Paula Jenkins and I
am formerly from New York and I
had the privilege of meeting Curtis in New York
at the Apollo
This is
the Latte Brothers. This is their mother
Brenda Rainey, Dallas, Texas
I'll tell you something about Mrs. Rainey too
Mr. Rainey
Reverend Rainey is
Mrs. Reverend Rainey's wife
and when Rainey first came to
Texas, Reverend Rainey took
him in and became
like a father to him
I'm sure this was
in graduate school at SMU
so this is the other half
Thank you
Valor in the world, Dallas Southwest
Doris Hard Dallas
Monique Stone, Dallas, also
Facilities and Uses Coordinator here at the
Black Academy
Department of Medicine
No one told her she had to go buy a ticket if
she wasn't going to stick to my work today
You wouldn't expect anything else
I'm here to support you
Diane Thompson
Dallas, Texas and my mother's 92
years of age and I still
say hello to her every day two or three times a day
and she'll tell me what to do
See what
you're in for
Dorothy McClure
originally from
Tyler, Texas, but I've been here 45 years
so I guess I'm from Dallas
I'm Charlie
May Smith Tebal
It's a pleasure to be in the
presence of this great
Captain Kenya
I haven't seen her in a while
She's my other mother here
Carlos Collins, Dallas, Texas
And he's the Commissioner
of the Office of Cultural Affairs
and a great, great curator
John Paul Matisse
in Dallas, Texas
And he's also the Chair of the Arts Commission
and he was the first African American
to be the Exchange Director for the
State Arts Commission and started
first in Dallas
Thank you
I was there before the end of the day
I'm Floyd Hollins
the third member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity
I'm from Houston, Texas, but I live in
Arlington, Texas
Sheena Jai
She's a Fraternity
I'm from the Dallas area
originally from Nigeria
I'm Dennis O'Neill
originally from New York
and the reason I moved to
Fort Worth is because I heard that
God lives in Texas but
when I moved here I found out that
God lives in the Asians in New York
And before
the Captain years
I almost sound spiteful saying Captain but
normally what we do is have
at least four or five breakfasts every year
and it depends upon subjects
we discuss a lot of different subjects
we've done series
on slavery, we've done
on humanity, we've done a lot of different
projects, but this year we thought
we'd do a couple of things because war was
kind of a big issue this year
and so what happened was
about two years ago
I was sitting at my mother's dining room table
having breakfast during
Christmas holiday and
Ronnie was writing all these
sending people these
these thoughts and meditations
and then he started
forwarding to the people in the office and then
to other people and then the next day
like two or three thousand people
were getting these thoughts and meditations
so I said to him, why don't you put them in a book
I mean everybody's writing a book
and everybody's a bestseller but it's a bestseller
or not
we should do a book and so he said okay you put
it together
and I'll pay for it and so I said okay
and so then I started talking to people
and then the Latte brothers Barrett
talking to him because they had
published two or three books and then
an editor from the Dallas Morning News
and he just kind of
just mushroomed like that
and then I started looking at all these photographs
and all the things that
we can pull together with the piece
so this book was actually about a year and a half
in the making
from the meditations
so that's how it happened so I told him
I said the other day, I said now listen
if this book really, you know
he said he can't do too much pushing until
he gets out of the circle with the book because
he doesn't want the conflict
I said but now if this book really makes it
you can give us some money, he said but I got
to finish paying
for it first
but I said
it's really great to have a family
have a brother and a sister, I was home last night
he had on the bed
said you know we love you
Curtis, and he had an iPad
on the bed, so I said I got to really
give him the book
so there's nothing like
having support from your family
and if you got family
in Dallas you've been a great extended family
to me, I don't have brothers and sisters
or family here but you've been incredible
for me
and my brother you know
we spend a lot of time together but the last
thing my father said before he died
he said you boys take care of the whole board
you boys take care of your mother, you take
care of
each other, and if your brother comes
to ask you to loan you some money
don't expect to pay it back
because if he could pay you back he would ask you
to loan it to him, so you may
give it to him, and so
we've been that way
forever, we talk
we share, we give money
and it's just a joy
at this particular time just to even be alive
and my brother
has been my spiritual advisor
when I'm disappointed, when I'm disgusted
you know about
a lot of stuff
with this institution
he'll send money, he'll
pray, he'll keep on the prayer list
and things like that, and then my mother
will say don't worry about this
we'll take care of it, do you need me to
pay this for you, and so I said no
so I'm telling everybody that's here
and particularly these two brothers here
if you have a mother, if you've got
a family, there's nothing like
having your family in your corner
they will be there with you through thick and thin
so I am incredibly pleased
to introduce my brother
to you all this afternoon
of course you have our book before you leave
but he's going to talk
a little bit about booking, maybe do a kind of Q&A
I know some people have to leave
but it's a table so we'll have
a discussion and a discourse
so this is Captain Ronnie King (applause)
well first of all I'd like to say
thanks for all of you
attending this morning
I want to thank Phi Beta Sigma for
I believe that you sponsored
me here along with the TBAAL
and so I want to thank you for that
and of course I'd like to thank
Curtis for making all this
happen because truly
it really was
his vision
I just simply wrote the thoughts for
the day for my
Marines and Sailors
primarily at that time
it was Marines and Sailors because I was
stationed at Second Marine Aircraft
in Cherry Point, North Carolina
one of the workers there asked me about
doing thoughts for the day and I'll be honest
with you initially I didn't want to do
it because I'm one of these individuals
if I'm going to do it then I want to do
it right and I
didn't want to go online
and pull someone else thoughts for the day
and then send it out to my people
so I said if I wanted to
if I'm going to do it I want to do it right and
I actually
prayed about it and I said Lord this is a big commitment
because I have to do this
every day five days a week
and I didn't want to make that
commitment but I prayed about it and God kept
placing it on my heart and He said go ahead
I'll give
it to you and so I started
with as Curtis said a very small
group of
individuals and it just blossomed
and bloomed and spread
and so
as he stated sitting around my mother's
table talking about a book and I gotta
tell y'all something there was a time when I
was going to
say forget that book
I told
I told Sharon who was
my editor the last time
she sent me a copy I said do not send
me this anymore I don't want to see this book
again I said you read it
more than I have
you know my
you know my thinking you know the direction
I wanted to go in so
I don't want to see it and I really got frustrated
I almost told my dad forget this damn book
and so
he would say
oh it's going to be okay
I said well you told me it was going to be out
this time
and it's not out this time he said okay
well calm down I said well I ain't putting no
more money
in it but then I go ahead and write the check
and so
when I saw the
the first draft
I remember him calling me and saying what do
you think
I said wow that's
that's pretty interesting
so I was at a
loss for words because
the outcome of the book
exceeded my expectation in all
honesty I never thought about God
giving me meditation
and then those meditation turned into
a book
that has been published
I share this book with many people
wherever I go
as he stated there are also restrictions
because I'm still in active duty
initially he had asked me about
wearing my uniform and I said really that's a
conflict of interest I can't wear my
uniform and sell the book
he said well are you going to get in trouble
just by
showing up I said no I think I'm okay
if I just show up but I will wear
a polo shirt that says
Navy Chaplain and I'll
say to them I was advertising
the Navy Chaplain Corps so I think
I'm okay but
if something is said and
God get the blessing in I'm willing to
accept the criticism
for 28 years
God has taken care of me in the military
I gotta tell you
I love it as I was sharing
during the interview
I'm not a person that you want to talk to
about talking people out of
the military because I think
it's a great calling and for me
it's been a calling it's not a
profession it's a calling
that's very important
because I was thinking
about last night some of the things
that I would say and I gotta tell you
it's been a blessing that I made the
rank that I have
attained and I give God all of the praise
and glory because at
every junction I've
gone from 02-06
and every time
I was up for promotion
I was under investigation
and some of that my family don't
even know so this is
probably the first time he's heard this too
and I made the investigation
from sexual harassment
hostile working environment
to creating
just an
atmosphere of just
total people
wanting to destroy me
and so some of my friends would say
man after it was over after each one
was over they would say why didn't you tell someone
and I would always say well telling me is
not going to do any good because I told it was God
I remember the last time
I was in
Cherry Point, North Carolina and if I get
emotional with this one then forgive me because
that one
was the one that really
probably affected me the most
young lady walked
in and then I'll get into my golden
nuggets but young lady
walked in she was working for my boss
I was the deputy and I was
interviewing her and saying hey how you doing
are you married do you have kids
and so from that somehow
she stated that I had invited
her invited myself to her
house I wanted to cook dinner
for her and I told my boss I said
well it's two things that
you don't have to be concerned about
number one I don't cook
I said number two she's
not my type and I said
number three she's just telling a
bald faced lie and so
it got to the point where I really
thought my command was going to go after
me and they started saying
that's why I hate the terminology
of smoking gun
I hate that terminology because
I remember one day my boss called
me he said well the command seemed to think
they have a smoking gun I said what they
have is a smoking lie
and I said I'm not going down easy
so I went and talked to an attorney
and the attorney said he said hey chaps
don't worry about it as long as they haven't
read you their rights
then don't worry about it
and so I
went into the chapel and
I laid flat down on the
ground in the chapel
on the floor this was one of those times
where standing up praying
looking up wouldn't work
and being on my knees either
looking up wouldn't work I had to
lay flat on the ground and I remember
tears were crying tears were coming
everywhere and I said Lord
I said you know this woman is lying
you know that this is a setup
and I remember
God saying to me
I asked him
I said why
why is this happening
and God has a strange and interesting
way of answering your questions
and he has a way
of making you remember
things that you have prayed for
and we forget about those things
until years later
and so he said to me
he said you remember when you was like
nine years old he said
you was reading the Bible
and you read in the Bible where
God said that David was a man
after his own heart
I said yeah Lord I remember that he said
remember what you asked me to do for you
then when you were like nine years old
I said not really
he said well you asked me
to make you one after
my own heart
he said what you failed to realize
was that he said
you looked at the glory part of being
and you think it's so neat
for God to say you're after my own heart
he said what you failed to realize
was David was a warrior
David fought
his whole life
he did nothing
but kick people's butt
and only one time
did he semi get his butt kicked
and that was because he didn't want to destroy
his own son
but up until then
every battle that David fought
and he said to me
he said you are a warrior
he said I made you
a warrior and you are
after my own heart
he said now get up
get up and dry your tears
he said because
I am for you
he was for you more than
they will get you
God worked that thing out
to that young lady
her health got bad
I can't say it was because of me but I believe
it was
her health got bad
her car quit she lost her house
and ended up getting kicked off the base
barred from the base
and so
my career
has been a very interesting career
but it has only been because of God
so the military
is a great life
now how did my golden nuggets
come up with these thoughts
I would pray and God would give me
things sometimes people would
would share
personal things with me as a chaplain
we have what is called
confidentiality total
confidentiality where the only
one in the United States military
that you can walk in and tell
me I just murdered someone
and I can't tell a soul
a judge can't order
me to tell it and a lawyer
cannot force me to tell it
because once you confess
it to me as a chaplain
it is totally confidential
and that's very important
as a chaplain because that's
what make people
look at chaplains differently
from how
they look at anyone else they trust
us and they know that whatever
they say to me is going
to stay right there and so some
of my thoughts for today
they derived out of the pain
that people were going
through and so I thought I would share
some of them with you but before
I got to tell you my claim to fame
is the picture
that you would see on page
you probably if you have
the book you already see it it's the opposite
of page three
that's not a cropped picture
that really is me and
now president Barack Obama
so this is
real I did not pull this
off the internet actually
we took this picture when he was in
Djibouti Africa and I would
tell you a quick funny
story the night that
before this picture was taken
we played basketball with him
so there were about
10-15 of us we played
basketball he really is
a pretty good basketball player
and he was joking with me and he said
Chaplain he said I really
hope you are better Chaplain than you are basketball
and I
said to him well sir I hope you
are better sitting and I said okay
then you better be
able to take it and he
said oh I can take it and then
during the conversations he asked
me to pray for him and
so I went back to my
what we call our quarters and
that night I actually wrote him
a prayer and the next morning
during breakfast
I said Sir the Bible
says that you have not because
you ask not I said last night
you asked me to pray for you
I wrote you a prayer and
I'd like to give it to you and so he asked
everyone he said do you mind if the Chaplain
will read the prayer
and so of course everybody said
no of course not we don't mind
at all and so I actually read
the prayer to now be president
of Morocco and
he took the prayer and he said thank you Chaplain
I really appreciate that and he
actually a friend of mine sent
a picture to him with this prayer
and recently I would say about 2 or 3
months ago I got him back where he
actually signed the prayer and gave him
a nice little letter and I said
thanks for all of the prayers
he's a
great guy
he is cool
they say he's cool
he's cool but I tell them
he's a brother
no quantity
but he's a brother
he's cool
he does have that swag about him
he does have that
that self confidence
but the man is really
down to earth he took his
time and he talked to every
one of us he took our
questions he shared
with us his perspective
we really enjoyed
just having to play basketball with him
I mean if you came under the goal
they'd elbow him like they did everybody else
they treated him just like he was one
of us and so
that is my claim to
fame so I'd like to share a couple
of them a couple with you
one is obedience and that is
on page 31
if you don't mind I'll read that
and I'll tell you why
it says the scripture says come I will
send you to Pharaoh
that you may bring my people
the children of Israel out of Egypt
and that devotion God gave
me that day said God does not always
call us to do easy things
many times he will
call us to do what appears to be
impossible or if not impossible
at least very challenging
I'm sure
it was not easy for Moses to go
before a powerful king and say to him
the God of Abraham Isaac
and Jacob told me to tell you
to let my people go
I can only imagine
the look that Pharaoh gave Moses when
he uttered those words
in this day and time Pharaoh's
response would probably be
yeah right
scary thing for Moses to do
I'm sure it was
a necessary thing for Moses to do
I'm sure it was
a necessary thing for Moses to do
definitely it was necessary
because God had
ordered him to do it
Moses could have refused the orders
and gone UA
which is unauthorized absence
but he would have been running for the rest
of his life also
he would not have been at peace
because he would have been out of the
will of God so what did
Moses do he said
yes Lord then God told him
these awesome words
I will be with you
my brothers and sisters when God calls us
to do something he does
several things one
he goes with us two he
equips us for the journey and
the task that he has called
us to do three
he gives us the tools to accomplish the job
think about it
God gave Moses a shepherd's staff
seems simple
to the human eye but to the faithful
that Shepherd's staff turned
into a snake at Moses
command to the faithful
that Shepherd's staff
swallowed up Pharaoh's snakes
to the faithful that Shepherd's
staff turned water into blood
the point is
God calls you to do a job
the job may be tough
but he will equip you with his
shepherd's staff go in peace
go in faith go into
blessed assurance if God
has assured you as he did
Moses that I will be with you
the reason I selected
that one because I recall
once when I
had to go in and talk to my
boss for two
reasons the first
reason my boss had made a decision
to send one of our marines
away from we were deployed
to Okinawa Japan and
because that Marine had decided
that his wife who was Japanese
national could come over to
Okinawa Japan my boss
decided that he was going to keep that
marine away from Okinawa for six
months just so he could never
see his wife
and so the company
commander came and told me about it
they said chapter this is what the
colonel is talking about doing
and I said okay I'll go and talk to
the colonel now to put this
into proper context this is a colonel
that really didn't like me
this is a man
that literally
pointed his finger in my face and
said some pretty mean things to me
and I'll share
that with you in a second so I had to go and
talk to him so I walked
in this office I said sir do you mind if I talk
to you
he said no come on in chapman and I
said about the marine and the situation and
that's as far as I could get
and he said these words to me so
pardon my language he said get the
fuck out of my office and if you
don't support me I will fire you like this
and he
said to the exo exo
get the chapman out of here if he can't
support me I'll fire him
so I walked out and said
yes sir I went back to my
office and I prayed and I said you know
Lord he's wrong
he's wrong he's treating that marine wrong
so God said don't worry about it
but I heard the colonel
walking down the what we call
the pee way the passageway
he was a smoker he was also
a drinker and he went
outside and God said go talk
to him and so I
walked outside and I said sir you mind if I talk
to you
he said no come on
I said sir I'm your chapman
I said more than that I'm your
pastor and I said
the Lord told me to tell you sir you're wrong
I said now you can fire me
that's your job that's your
if you want to fire me that's okay
I said but
your blood is on your hand now
but I've done what God has told me to do
I said but he told me to warn
you that if you do that
that's going to be a terrible mistake
and so interestingly enough
the colonel looked at me and he
simply said okay
chapman and he never
said that Marine wrong
the next thing that I had to do
that said God does not
call us to do easy things
that same colonel
he had a drink for
us and people in the
unit were getting ready to
call what we call the
inspector general the IG line
and they were going to complain about his drinking
problem because he would get so
drunk until even the
marines would talk about
him being unfit and
they were going to call and say
I'm a chapman
and we need to report
that the colonel is an alcoholic
but they weren't going to give the chapman name
and so when they told me
I said you're a coward I said first of all
the only one chapman in the unit
so you basically
are going to call and say you're a chapman
and say that I reported the colonel and I said hey
don't do anything I'll talk to the
colonel now this time
I was really really nervous
and so I went to another a senior chapman
and I told him I said sir this is what is
going on and he told me
he said run it he said go and talk to the
colonel he said but when you talk to him
don't talk to him in his office
he said wait until he's off
the job in his room
and then go and talk to him and so
I said you know Sir
he already doesn't like me
this man has cursed me he's put his finger
on my face and so it's not
going to be pretty he said
I know but you're a chapman you got to go talk
to him
and so
I went back to him there were about five of us
we used to have a prayer
there were five guys
I call them my sidekick we would
fast and pray and we actually
fasted and prayed three four
days and then
one evening I knocked on
the colonel's door and I
walked into his office shaking just like this
and I said sir I need to
talk to you and God gave
me the words to say
and so God does not always
call us to do
easy things but the colonel
was receptive to
my words he never
fired me he
gave me the lowest evaluation
that I've ever received in 28 years
and he said to me these
words you should never serve
with the marine Corps ever again
you're not a good officer
he said oh yeah you pray and all
that stuff but you're not a good officer
and I looked at him and said
actually sir you give me a great compliment
he said what do you mean
I said you recognize that I'm a
child you tell me that you recognize
that I pray I said that's what I'm
all about I'm about praying
and preaching I said so
he said well here's your evaluation
it wasn't good I said
sir you know I don't care about that piece of paper
I said really
if you want to make it lower that really is
okay now some people say well you
kind of cocky I said I was being for real
I said because he knew
that I was not concerned
about what he could put on the people paper
cause I said
to him I said hey Sir God writes my evaluation
so it doesn't matter
what you put on that piece of paper
that man never made 06
but I did
if I saw him
today he'd have to salute me
and I used to have to salute you
God does not always
give us easy things to do
but he did
say I
will be with you
so this may seem like some
preaching when I read this but
I have to tell you that's
what I am that's what I'm all about I'm a
preacher my job is
I was sharing during the interview
as a chaplain my job
is the same in war as it is in
peace I was at my high school
about 3 weeks ago maybe a month
and I was talking to the
high school football team
was getting ready to go to play for the state
championship and I was giving them
motivational speech and tell them how they
can win and you know the only thing they wanted
to know was whether I killed someone
so I said no
I'm not killing anybody I'm a chaplain
they were really startled and amazed
at the fact that I go into war
and I never carry a weapon they said
you don't even hide one I said no I don't
hide one now there are some chaplains that
really gotta put one
in their pocket but I've never
I've never carried a knife I've never carried
a weapon I've never carried a
gun I've never carried anything
other than the Word of God
and so when people say to me
well why do you do that I
say because it is more powerful
for me to go to
war knowing that bombs
are being dropped and flying through
the sky and people
are shooting at us and yet I have
no protection other than the Word of God
you tell me what testimony
who has a greater
testimony the person with the gun
or the person without the gun
I said now make no mistake about it I have
some pretty powerful folks around me that if
you try
to do something to me they gonna take you out
and I do that is
the truth because those marines
would protect me I remember
once we was getting
ready to go
up to Iraq
we were stationed out in the boonies
in the sands of Kuwait
and my general a very good friend of
mine now occurs and met him
General Coleman he knew that
I wanted to go to Babylon
because I said sir I really want to go to
Babylon that's what they I mean that's what
Daniel you can read about
the streets of Babylon I want to go to
where Daniel saw the writing on the wall
and so
he took me with him
and some of the staff said
you don't need to take the chaplain we gotta add
more security
he's combatant non combatant
so I mean we get in a
fight he can't even fight
but the general said nope that's my chaplain
I'm taking him and so
we went to Babylon
and tell you how the marines are
we was in our getting ready
in the Humvees in the jeep
and so they had me in the second or the third
vehicle and it was pretty
loaded to them it was a lot of coffee
it's a nickname in the city where they get it all
they got everything
they got the ammo
in the pouch and they ready to go
and so we was getting ready to go
and one of the colonel he walked
back he said Marine
that's my chaplain
better not let any damn thing happen to my chaplain
you hear me
so we driving down the street
and my marines they knew they got me
I like people so I would be
driving down the street sometimes I'd be
saying hi to the little kids
and they'd be trying to come and they'd say so
you can't
do that you can't do that because this is
dangerous so I really do have
some pretty neat people around me
that make sure
that I'm protected whenever
I go into a hostile situation
so God has been with me
for 28 years
I've seen
people that were injured
the toughest job
that I think I have
those men you have to
you have to be a part of what we call
a casualty assistant call officer
and you see it
on TV sometimes
you'll see when
a person walks up in uniform
and usually there's about 2 or 3 of them
most of the time one of those
individuals is a chaplain
and you're walking up to a
family to a home and they know
it's never anything good
and when you pull up sometimes
they will open the door and they'll see
your uniform they'll close the door
sometimes they will
immediately start lashing out at you
because they know that you're coming
to either tell them that the loved
one has been in a serious injury
or they've been killed in action
so if you ask me the toughest
thing about being a chaplain
is really you have to go
to deliver
bad news to a family member
and that's pretty tough
they've asked me many times they say
sir how do you do it what do you say
and I say to them
there is no easy way to
tell someone that your loved one
has been killed in action
there's no easy way to tell someone that your
loved one
has been injured
in a serious injury and we're not
sure whether they want to make it
and then sometimes there are things that
they question that they ask you
that you just can't tell
because there are investigations
that are going on and so
you can't tell them everything
that they want
all the questions that they ask you
because of the investigation
so I would say out of the
28 years that I've been in
that's the hardest part
those are the
times when
emotionally it's the
toughest on me because they ask you
why and
I think I told my mom
once I said
if I ever get
captured if I ever get
injured please do not go
on CNN and give an interview
and bad mouth to the military
I said because if you do that
you are disrespecting
the organization that I love that I
served with for 20 plus years
because as I was sharing in the
interview the reason why
America has never had a coup
in the history of our country
is because we don't swear an allegiance
to a political party
in fact as a chaplain I can't get
up and say that President Bush
was an antichrist
I can't get up and say that President Obama is
I can't do that so I can't
get up and publicly say
that I'm for a Republican or
Democrat or Independent because
I swore an allegiance to
a document that's called the Constitution
of the United States
and my brothers and sisters let me tell you
you may think that that's strange
but you don't want it any other way
you do not
want in this country
the military leadership
to start lining themselves up
with the political party
you want us to always say
I will support and defend
the Constitution
of the United States against all
enemies foreign and domestic
and that I will bear true faith
and allegiance to the same
trust me you do not
want it any other way
than that I don't care what you hear
on TV I don't care how much
you hear Texas saying they're going to succeed
you do not want
people to do that
you do not want generals
to start lining up with
political parties because then we're
headed for some serious problems
within America and there is
no country
that does it that way
other than the United States of America
that's why I do not believe
we will ever have a coup because our
generals if President Obama
says we're going they're going
to say aye aye if they say
we're not going then he's going to fire them
so you always want
the military to work for the
civilian and not the civilian
to work for the military because
that just doesn't work so
when I travel I've been to about
47 different countries
and they ask me questions like that and I say
to them you know they ask me
some of my counterparts ask me about
don't ask don't tell they say how do you deal
with that
I say it's the law
we follow the law I don't have to agree with you
but I will die for your right
to believe what you believe
so I work with Muslims
I work with Jewish
I was in Africa for
7 months I tell you I met some very
nice Islamic leaders those brothers
they had it together and so
that's pretty
much been my career
as a Navy chaplain so
I'll stop there because I really
can't go on
if you get me started
any questions? (applause)
anniversary an enduring
marriage like yours is truly
golden your support for each
other through the joys and challenges of
your half century together
is an inspiration to us all
we send our best wishes to you
on this wonderful occasion
sincerely Barack Obama
and Michelle Obama (applause)
one last thing who has
a program that has a gold ribbon tied around it.
Hold them up. If you have a gold ribbon
tied around it, they have something to give you.
Linda. You have one.
Okay, at this time we're going to hear words
from our honorees and then we are going to
have our band to come up. You will not want to
miss this presentation from our band. Please,
we want to be here at least during this first
session of our band. So at this time our honorees
are going to come up and speak. I just want to
say on behalf of TL and myself, we just
thank you all so very much for sharing this
special time with us. We have been just truly
blessed. Somebody asked me, it's been 50 long
years or 50 short years? It's been 50 short
years because of the love and friendship that
we are friends. We are best friends. And it
makes the marriage just, we have fun, we love
each other, we travel, we listen, we like
good music of all kinds, country and western,
blues, rock and roll, you name it, just about
we like. And we just have a great time. And I
am so glad to see every face out here, but
I have a cousin that moved to Arlington and he
and his wife are here tonight and that
was a big, big surprise. And I just want them
to stand and wave their hands. Come on George
and Betty. Oh, on my father's side. So I am
just, thank you all so very much and everybody
that has spoken, those that didn't, just
knowing you love us and we love you guys and we hope
that we are an example for those of you who are
married because marriage, I love this
man more than I did 50 years ago. Thank you all
so very much. This has truly super been
great and it's far beyond anything that we
could imagine. Just thank you all so much,
so much. And I could say so much about a lot of
you guys and dolls that are here tonight,
but I just got to take time out to say to RS,
will you please stand up RS? This man
is my brother, he go farther than a friend. We
are, we've been together. I was his dishwasher
back in the, oh, how many years ago? Over 50
years ago I was his dishwasher and he was
the cook. And I said, I always wanted to be
like RS. And the reason I'm married today,
and this is the truth, because if RS could get
a wife, I wasn't as good looking as RS,
but I felt like I'd get a wife too. And so this
man is the reason I cooked for 24 years.
I was his dishwasher and I always really did
want to be like RS. I used to just had the
most for him when he would come out of that
kitchen with his shelf hat on. I was a little
jealous and a little happy too. And then we
wasn't, we didn't know Jesus then y'all.
And we drank and RS, RS would get drunk and
turn so red. And I said, if I ever grow up,
I don't want to be that red. RS thank you. He
lived in Inglewood, California and he came
all the way here. He is beautiful. Yeah. Come
on. And Thank you. His fiance's
with him. Thank you for coming down. And she's
not in the greatest of health, but she's specialized
in making sure RS keep a smile on his face. And
that's what glory have been doing. That's
what glory been doing for 40 years. We've been
married 50 today, 50 today. Thank y'all.
And I want you to stay in here. This band,
these are my members at my church, but every
night then I let them let their wings out and
tonight I'm going to fly a little bit
of weather and I'm still saved y'all. Ain't
gonna hurt. It ain't gonna hurt nobody. But
on down. Okay. Band, you can go ahead. And like
I said, after this, we have after they
do this one selection, you will want to stay
here for this next election. Thank you.