| Taking a Stand: Challenges and Controversies in Reproductive Health, Maternal Mortality and HIV/AIDS Columbia University,June 7, 2006 New York City, N.Y |
In honor of Allan Rosenfield, M.D., dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of
Public Health and his four decades of bold leadership in public health, this World
Leaders Forum program addresses global public health issues directly related to the
Millennium Development Goals. Presentations and discussions feature public health and
policy experts from major international health organizations, the United Nations, leading
academic institutions and distinguished faculty from the Mailman School of Public Health.
Public Health and his four decades of bold leadership in public health, this World
Leaders Forum program addresses global public health issues directly related to the
Millennium Development Goals. Presentations and discussions feature public health and
policy experts from major international health organizations, the United Nations, leading
academic institutions and distinguished faculty from the Mailman School of Public Health.
The Transcript of Richard Gere speech courtesy of the Kaisernetwork.org
| Taking a Stand: Challenges and Controversies in Reproductive Health, Maternal Mortality and HIV/AIDS: Tribute Dinner Part II June 7, 2006 |
Join New York City and Columbia University in celebrating 20 years of Dr. Rosenfield’s
tenure as dean of the School of Public Health and Michael Bloomberg declares today,
Wednesday, June 7, in the city of New York as the Allen Rosenfield Building Day.
MALE SPEAKER: I would now like to introduce Richard Gere. We may first recognize Richard
for his work as an actor. But it is in his capacity as a humanitarian that he joins us
here tonight. Richard is the founder of both the Gere Foundation and the Healing the
Divide, two organizations that provide understanding and support for communities around
the world threatened by issues of injustice and inequality. For his extensive humanitarian
work, he has received awards from AMFAR, Amnesty International, and the Eleanor Roosevelt
Humanitarian Award, to name just a few. We are honored to have him join Columbia tonight
as we honor Allan Rosenfield. Richard?
RICHARD GERE: Wow. Wow. Wow.
MALE SPEAKER: One more. RICHARD GERE: Wow! I knew he was important; I had no ide- -- and
the reality is, I just like the guy! This is going to be a very short speech, because
someone very important is going to come up later, right after me, and Eleanor Roosevelt is
going to be here doing a testimonial with the mayor and with the senator and everyone
else. Oh, she’s not here, apparently. Okay, she’s not.
The only event I’ve been to like this was my father’s retirement party. And my father sold
insurance. And he’s still alive; he’s still here with us. He’s the sweetest, most
wonderful, gregarious man and everyone loved him and loves him and it was an event like
this where there were – I don't know – there were probably three or four hundred people in
his relatively small town who showed up and – just an incredibly warm, generous feeling
about him. And it’s rare to see this in New York City, this kind of – I know, it’s hard –
they’re not paid guests here. You know what I mean? I mean, everyone really likes this
guy. There’s a line at the end of – it is true. There’s a line at the end of a movie, “It’
s a Wonderful Life.” And the decisive line there is, “No man is a failure who has
friends.” And I say, aside from all the wonderful things Allan has done, he’s got real
friends in the world. I met Allan – and it feels like I’ve known Allan my whole life. And
I was talking to Bob Kelty, who runs my foundation, we were coming up here and I said,
“When did we meet Allan? Was it like 10 years ago, 12 years ago?” He said, “No, it was
actually like three-and-a-half years ago.” And there was a conference on HIV/AIDS in Asia
and we’d been doing work in India, so I was invited to come to this thing and I spent the
whole day and met some extraordinary people there, Dr. Suniti Solomon, who isolated the
first case of HIV in Chennai in 1986 and various other, really kind of extraordinary
people are
doing that NGO work, the hard work, with no money, every day, 24 hours a day. And Allan
struck me as one of those people that, no matter how much money he raised – he’d be doing
it if he had 10 cents, because it’s in his heart so deeply. And that’s what communicates.
The fact that he can go out there and get the millions of dollars to create structures to
do even more good works is kind of extraordinary and unique in this world. I think we all
know people who go out there and fund-raise and kind of create institutions, but it’s a
“scorched earth” policy to get there. And Allan does it in the most incredible, joyous,
life-fulfilling, embracing, “we’re all in this together” kind of way. I remember being in
Davos a year ago – not this last one, but the one before – and everyone in the HIV/AIDS
community and the human rights community were all buzzing around. We all knew each other
and we’re kind of all doing our thing and we were all very hard into it and making our
connections and doing what we got to do to get our job done and get a little money and
make this happen and whatever, and Allan is in the middle of the same thing, too, but he
wasn’t like us. I was getting grey and shorter and, you know, and Allan had this
incredible life force. I said, “Allan, are you okay?” He says, “Yeah.” Because he was
beaming. And he said, “Yeah, and I’m going to go off skiing.” And he went off ski- -- he
went up to the – nobody even thought of that. You know, we’re in Davos. You
can go skiing. And he did. And I told him today he looks better – I haven’t talked to him
since he got sick, but he looks better than I thought he was going to look. So maybe he’s
going to last a little longer. There’s something Allan – this may be embarrassing; I don’t
know – but I do things that are embarrassing sometimes, and when I was asked to do this –
and I don’t do these kinds of things very often; there’s got to be some kind of personal
thing there or it makes no sense to me – and I genuinely like this guy and appreciate
everything that he does, and he’s helped us enormously in our foundation, whether it’s
HIV/AIDS, it’s prison projects, it’s human rights – whatever it may be – he’s one of those
people that I call – and I assume everyone else in this room calls, too, and says, “What
do you think? You know? Can you help? Can you get this done quick? I mean, what do you
think about this person?” He knows everybody, so, “What do you think about that? Should we
hire this person? Should we … ?” And he always gives the right answer. But this was – when
I said I’d be really happy to come here, this is the first thing that came to my mind, and
I hadn’t thought about this in a long time. And it was something that one of my very best
friends gave to me 15 or 20 years ago. And this is from – someone was talking before about
how Allan kind of goes off with a machete into the jungle and cuts his own path. Well,
there’s a bit of the samurai in that, and I see that with him.
There’s a kind of a blissful energy about him of the samurai. So this is the Warrior’s
Creed, and this comes from the 14th Century Japan. Somehow, it relates to you. And I mean
more in a probably in a poetic sense, but not in a natural sense, but this is you:
I have no parents: I make the heavens and earth my parents. I have no home: I make
awareness my home. I have no life or death: I make the tides of my breathing my life and
death. I have no divine power: I make honesty my divine power. I have no means: I make
understanding my means: I have no magic secrets: I make character my magic secret. I have
no body: I make endurance my body. I have no eyes: I make the flash of lightning my eyes.
I have no ears: I make sensibility my ears. I have no limbs: I make promptness my limbs. I
have no strategy: I make “unshadowed by thought” my strategy. I have no designs: I make
“seizing opportunity by the forelock” my design. I have no miracles: I make right action
my miracles. I have no principles: I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles.
I have no tactics: I make emptiness and fullness my tactics. I have no talents: I make
ready wit my talent. I have no friends: I make my mind my friend. I have no armor: I make
benevolence and righteousness my armor. I have no castles: I make a movable mind my
castle. I have no sword: I make absence of self my sword.
I love you, buddy.
tenure as dean of the School of Public Health and Michael Bloomberg declares today,
Wednesday, June 7, in the city of New York as the Allen Rosenfield Building Day.
MALE SPEAKER: I would now like to introduce Richard Gere. We may first recognize Richard
for his work as an actor. But it is in his capacity as a humanitarian that he joins us
here tonight. Richard is the founder of both the Gere Foundation and the Healing the
Divide, two organizations that provide understanding and support for communities around
the world threatened by issues of injustice and inequality. For his extensive humanitarian
work, he has received awards from AMFAR, Amnesty International, and the Eleanor Roosevelt
Humanitarian Award, to name just a few. We are honored to have him join Columbia tonight
as we honor Allan Rosenfield. Richard?
RICHARD GERE: Wow. Wow. Wow.
MALE SPEAKER: One more. RICHARD GERE: Wow! I knew he was important; I had no ide- -- and
the reality is, I just like the guy! This is going to be a very short speech, because
someone very important is going to come up later, right after me, and Eleanor Roosevelt is
going to be here doing a testimonial with the mayor and with the senator and everyone
else. Oh, she’s not here, apparently. Okay, she’s not.
The only event I’ve been to like this was my father’s retirement party. And my father sold
insurance. And he’s still alive; he’s still here with us. He’s the sweetest, most
wonderful, gregarious man and everyone loved him and loves him and it was an event like
this where there were – I don't know – there were probably three or four hundred people in
his relatively small town who showed up and – just an incredibly warm, generous feeling
about him. And it’s rare to see this in New York City, this kind of – I know, it’s hard –
they’re not paid guests here. You know what I mean? I mean, everyone really likes this
guy. There’s a line at the end of – it is true. There’s a line at the end of a movie, “It’
s a Wonderful Life.” And the decisive line there is, “No man is a failure who has
friends.” And I say, aside from all the wonderful things Allan has done, he’s got real
friends in the world. I met Allan – and it feels like I’ve known Allan my whole life. And
I was talking to Bob Kelty, who runs my foundation, we were coming up here and I said,
“When did we meet Allan? Was it like 10 years ago, 12 years ago?” He said, “No, it was
actually like three-and-a-half years ago.” And there was a conference on HIV/AIDS in Asia
and we’d been doing work in India, so I was invited to come to this thing and I spent the
whole day and met some extraordinary people there, Dr. Suniti Solomon, who isolated the
first case of HIV in Chennai in 1986 and various other, really kind of extraordinary
people are
doing that NGO work, the hard work, with no money, every day, 24 hours a day. And Allan
struck me as one of those people that, no matter how much money he raised – he’d be doing
it if he had 10 cents, because it’s in his heart so deeply. And that’s what communicates.
The fact that he can go out there and get the millions of dollars to create structures to
do even more good works is kind of extraordinary and unique in this world. I think we all
know people who go out there and fund-raise and kind of create institutions, but it’s a
“scorched earth” policy to get there. And Allan does it in the most incredible, joyous,
life-fulfilling, embracing, “we’re all in this together” kind of way. I remember being in
Davos a year ago – not this last one, but the one before – and everyone in the HIV/AIDS
community and the human rights community were all buzzing around. We all knew each other
and we’re kind of all doing our thing and we were all very hard into it and making our
connections and doing what we got to do to get our job done and get a little money and
make this happen and whatever, and Allan is in the middle of the same thing, too, but he
wasn’t like us. I was getting grey and shorter and, you know, and Allan had this
incredible life force. I said, “Allan, are you okay?” He says, “Yeah.” Because he was
beaming. And he said, “Yeah, and I’m going to go off skiing.” And he went off ski- -- he
went up to the – nobody even thought of that. You know, we’re in Davos. You
can go skiing. And he did. And I told him today he looks better – I haven’t talked to him
since he got sick, but he looks better than I thought he was going to look. So maybe he’s
going to last a little longer. There’s something Allan – this may be embarrassing; I don’t
know – but I do things that are embarrassing sometimes, and when I was asked to do this –
and I don’t do these kinds of things very often; there’s got to be some kind of personal
thing there or it makes no sense to me – and I genuinely like this guy and appreciate
everything that he does, and he’s helped us enormously in our foundation, whether it’s
HIV/AIDS, it’s prison projects, it’s human rights – whatever it may be – he’s one of those
people that I call – and I assume everyone else in this room calls, too, and says, “What
do you think? You know? Can you help? Can you get this done quick? I mean, what do you
think about this person?” He knows everybody, so, “What do you think about that? Should we
hire this person? Should we … ?” And he always gives the right answer. But this was – when
I said I’d be really happy to come here, this is the first thing that came to my mind, and
I hadn’t thought about this in a long time. And it was something that one of my very best
friends gave to me 15 or 20 years ago. And this is from – someone was talking before about
how Allan kind of goes off with a machete into the jungle and cuts his own path. Well,
there’s a bit of the samurai in that, and I see that with him.
There’s a kind of a blissful energy about him of the samurai. So this is the Warrior’s
Creed, and this comes from the 14th Century Japan. Somehow, it relates to you. And I mean
more in a probably in a poetic sense, but not in a natural sense, but this is you:
I have no parents: I make the heavens and earth my parents. I have no home: I make
awareness my home. I have no life or death: I make the tides of my breathing my life and
death. I have no divine power: I make honesty my divine power. I have no means: I make
understanding my means: I have no magic secrets: I make character my magic secret. I have
no body: I make endurance my body. I have no eyes: I make the flash of lightning my eyes.
I have no ears: I make sensibility my ears. I have no limbs: I make promptness my limbs. I
have no strategy: I make “unshadowed by thought” my strategy. I have no designs: I make
“seizing opportunity by the forelock” my design. I have no miracles: I make right action
my miracles. I have no principles: I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles.
I have no tactics: I make emptiness and fullness my tactics. I have no talents: I make
ready wit my talent. I have no friends: I make my mind my friend. I have no armor: I make
benevolence and righteousness my armor. I have no castles: I make a movable mind my
castle. I have no sword: I make absence of self my sword.
I love you, buddy.