00:00Immaculate Heart High School graduating class of 2020. For the past couple weeks
00:06I've been planning on saying a few words to you for your graduation and as we've
00:13all seen over the last week what is happening in our country and in our
00:18state and in our hometown of LA has been absolutely devastating. And I wasn't
00:30sure what I could say to you. I wanted to say the right thing and I was really
00:35nervous that I wouldn't or that it would get picked apart and I realized the
00:41only wrong thing to say is to say nothing because George Floyd's life mattered and
00:50Breonna Taylor's life mattered and Philando Castile's life mattered and Tamir Rice's
00:55life mattered and so did so many other people whose names we know and whose
01:04names we do not know. Stephon Clark. His life mattered. And I was thinking about
01:12this moment when I was a sophomore in high school. I was 15 and as you know
01:19sophomore year is the year that we do volunteer work which is a prerequisite for
01:23graduating. And I remember my teacher at the time, one of my teachers, Miss Palia,
01:28said to me before I was leaving for a day of volunteering,
01:33always remember to put others needs above your own fears. And that has stuck with
01:42me through my entire life and I have thought about it more in the last week
01:46than ever before. So the first thing I want to say to you is that I'm sorry. I am so
01:54sorry that you have to grow up in a world where this is still present. I was 11 or
02:0412 years old when I was just about to start Immaculate Heart Middle School in
02:11the fall and it was the LA riots which was also triggered by a senseless act of
02:20racism. And I remember the curfew and I remember rushing back home and on that
02:30drive home seeing ash fall from the sky and smelling the smoke and seeing the
02:36smoke billow out of buildings and seeing people run out of buildings carrying bags
02:40and looting. And I remember seeing men in the back of a van just holding guns and
02:46rifles. And I remember pulling up to the house and seeing the tree that had always
02:52been there completely charred and those memories don't go away. And I can't
03:03imagine that at 17 or 18 years old, which is how old you are now, that you would have
03:11to have a different version of that same type of experience. That's something that
03:15you should have an understanding of but an understanding of as a
03:19history lesson, not as your reality. So I am sorry that in a way we have not gotten
03:25the world to the place that you deserve it to be. The other thing though that I do
03:32remember about that time was how people came together. And we are seeing that right
03:38now. We are seeing that from the sheriff in Michigan or the police chief in
03:43Virginia. We are seeing people stand in solidarity. We are seeing communities come
03:47together and to uplift. And you are going to be part of this movement. I know that
03:58this is not the graduation that you envisioned. And this is not the
04:03celebration that you imagined. But I also know that there's a way for us to
04:07reframe this for you and to not see this as the end of something but instead to see
04:11this as the beginning of you harnessing all of the work, all the values, all the
04:17skills that you have that you have embodied over the last four years and now
04:23you channel that. Now all of that work gets activated. Now you get to be part of
04:29rebuilding. And I know sometimes people say, how many times do we need to rebuild?
04:33Well you know what? We are going to rebuild and rebuild and rebuild until it is
04:37rebuilt. Because when the foundation is broken, so are we. You are going to lead
04:46with love. You are going to lead with compassion. You are going to use your
04:49voice. You are going to use your voice in a stronger way than you've ever been
04:53able to. Because most of you are 18 or you're going to turn 18 so you're going to
04:56vote. You are going to have empathy for those who don't see the world through the
05:04same lens that you do. Because with as diverse and vibrant and open-minded as I
05:10know the teachings at Immaculate Heart are, I know you know that black lives
05:13matter. So I am already excited for what you are going to do in the world. You are
05:21equipped. You are ready. We need you and you are prepared. I am so proud to call
05:27each of you a fellow alumni. And I am so eager to see what you're going to do.
05:34Please know that I am cheering you on all along the way. I am exceptionally proud of
05:39you and I am wishing you a huge congratulations on today, the start of
05:45all the impact you're going to make in the world as the leaders that we all so
05:48deeply crave. Congratulations ladies and thank you in advance.
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