Celebrating Courage: The Profile in Courage Award and Profiles in COVID Courage Awards

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] as mark twain said it is curious curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage be so rare courage is not rooted in reason but rather courage comes from a divine purpose to make things right without courage our action or inaction results in suffering of the few and injustice for all as president he made a controversial decision of conscience to pardon former president nixon and end the national trauma of watergate two men quite different in personal and political background came together to propose real change and reform in the financing of this country's elections we weren't really trying to be significant or to do something great or even courageous we were just trying to do something that seemed to you know have a lot of common sense yes i spoke out against george's new law it did not feel courageous for me to tell the truth if we apply love and wisdom and compassion our impact will be like president kennedy's not only for our own times real change happens in the context of relationships when diversity is absent we cannot build relationships we are here to recognize and celebrate a singular act of political courage nearly a quarter of a century ago when politics in our world were very different let us pray that when we are called upon each of us in our own special way will muster the courage to do our part to preserve the values that make our country a beacon of hope of freedom of liberty and of justice there would be no affordable care act without nancy pelosi period end of story courage courage is in the dna of america courage president kennedy knew requires something more than just the absence of fear courage true courage derives from that sense of who we are what are our best selves and to believe that we can dig deep and do hard things for the enduring benefit of others hello thank you all for joining us tonight i'm jimmy fallon and it is an honor to be here with all of you this evening tonight is going to be really special we're here to celebrate the one thing that we couldn't have done without this past year courage we hear people talking about uh profiles and courage all the time these days that was her profiles encourage moment or what will it take for them to be a profile in courage we've all heard the phrase but did you know that president kennedy actually wrote the book profiles in courage it's true in it he tells the stories of eight u.s senators who risked their careers by embracing unpopular positions for the greater good in this spirit the profiling courage award recognizes public officials today who have had the courage to take the difficult stand even if it means losing votes the courage to put aside party politics local interests or their own career to do what is right for the country the courage to follow their conscience and the constitution and to do the right thing regardless of consequences today when too many americans don't have faith and trust in their government that courage is more important than ever this past year of course has been different throughout the kova 19 pandemic we've seen incredible acts of courage in every part of our lives tonight we're celebrating the profile encourage award honoree senator mitt romney we're also excited to introduce you to seven brave people who will be honored with the special profile and covid courage award for the sacrifices they've made to keep americans safe and healthy this year to help us get started we're joined by one of this evening's co-chairs and long-time friend of the jfk library foundation david long chairman and ceo of liberty mutual take it away david thanks jimmy and thank you for being here tonight and welcome to all who come together this evening to join in and support this long and cherished tradition and thank you ambassador kennedy and jack schlossberg as we're here to honor people possessing both courage and character with our 35th president possessing both in abundance it's heartwarming to see that the strong and admirable kennedy genes have been passed from one generation to the next and the next i'm honored to share the role of co-chair with paul and sandy edgely who we'll hear from later in the programme and to partner with jfk library foundation chairman ron sargent in hosting this evening we are all deeply grateful to the many sponsors who've stepped forward to support the event an event which not only celebrates political courage but also provides critical support to safeguard and strengthen the historical and educational mission of this much admired institution for over 40 years the jfk library has served as a center of thought exchange and education it carries forward president kennedy's legacy to inspire the next generation to take up the torch of leadership today the library has reimagined its programming to reach young people in this new virtual world and tonight's event furthers these vital programs tonight's also about highlighting president kennedy's commitment to service by honoring a noteworthy and history-making public official congratulations to senator mitt romney who many of us claim as one of massachusetts own but it was a public servant who continues to serve our nation one who crosses state and yes party lines in these unprecedented times we're also thrilled to celebrate the covert courage honorees those who you'll come to know this evening they each embody the highest ideals put forth by president kennedy decades ago sometimes great service plays out on large public platforms sometimes in the quiet corners of often unknown neighborhoods all of tonight's honorees put others before self this roll call of noble citizens has offered just the tiniest glimpse of the amazing things that happen in small and big ways every day in every state in cities and towns across the united states in his inaugural address president kennedy said that the energy faith and devotion we brought to building a better future and serving our fellow citizens could light the world tonight we recognize fellow citizens lighting our world i stand humbled in their company and proud to co-chair an event that recognizes them thanks to you all and back to you jimmy thank you david and thank you to all these sponsors who make this night possible now it is my pleasure to introduce the dynamic duo of the profile encourage award ambassador caroline kennedy and her son jack schlossberg hi caroline hi jack hi jimmy thanks so much for hosting this celebration of courage the quality my father considered the most important in public life and thank you for making us all laugh throughout the past year when times have been so hard that's probably the second most important quality you've been a great friend of the jfk library for many years and we're so thankful you're here with us tonight before we get started i want to thank some special friends of our honoree and generous supporters of the library tonight's co-chairs paul and sandy edgerly and david long and liberty mutual we're also grateful to foundation board chair ron sargent and the archivist of the united states david fario whose leadership and partnership make everything possible here and to john hancock for sponsoring the profiling courage essay contest in which thousands of students participate every year each may we gather to give thanks for my father's life and example and recommit ourselves to the ideals he lived by patriotism public service equal justice the quest for peace and the rule of law it is an honor for us to be joined this evening by our profile and courage award winner senator mitt romney and the seven winners of our special profile encourage award for covet courage the pandemic has impacted everyone in every community and across the country and the world as bad as it's been we see a silver lining and the covet courage award celebrates the heroes of this pandemic whose compassion and bravery inspire us first up these two honorees demonstrate there are many ways to make a difference please join us in celebrating michigan governor gretchen whitmer and bernal kotlin owner of burnell's market in the lower ninth ward of new orleans when kovid came to the united states and to the state of michigan we didn't know a lot about this virus i sought out the smartest people i could find and i think it really showed in the policies that we ended up utilizing to keep people safe governor whitmer is really just an incredible fearless and poised leader i see her as a role model she is a mother she is a leader and she's really i think done a great job with leading the state through the cover 19 pandemic my mom is the strongest person that i know she has been through so much and in a crisis and a pandemic that has hurt so many people and everybody has opinions on what should have happened she has that that fierce determination to do what she believes is right from the very start of the pandemic she's made the politically fraught choices public health experts said were necessary to save the lives of her constituents in the eyes of history she surely will be remembered for the courage she's shown in this urgent moment we're all battling the same enemy and we helped one another through this and i'm i'll be forever grateful that those relationships were there because i know it's helped me save lives here in michigan mom i know just how strong and passionate you are and seeing you being awarded something this big is just truly inspiring i love you so much i've got an incredible team and i could not have done this and i certainly would never have gotten this acknowledgement but for the work that my whole team did so i share this with all of them [Music] the lower ninth ward of new orleans is and has always been a challenging place and after a disaster like katrina the economic redevelopment of this uh of this neighborhood has been uh glacial so it's very important that they have services like burnell's store available to them the closest grocery store it's walmart in the next city there's nothing else back here but this store here if you want to uh wash your clothes you're coming here if you want to get your hair cut you're coming here most important if you want fresh fruits and vegetables we finally have a store you're coming right here food security in the lower ninth ward has always been an issue and during covet 19 it became a much more pressing concern for many many more families he has certainly worked with families to meet them where they are in terms of their abilities to uh to compensate him in his business for their groceries never concentrate on the problem in my instance they didn't have a grocery store so the only answer was build one and i didn't i didn't know where the hammer was when i first got started he's such a part of the heart and soul of this community it's so wonderful to see and he's incredibly dedicated to his community and to recognize that is appropriate and we would love to be able to honor you for the work that you've done in your community because you've really just inspired so many and cared for others in an extraordinary way that means so much to me this means so much to me to be recognized on a level like this here there's something unheard of from a little guy like me from the lord knight ward to being recognized on a level like this is it's such an honor congratulations governor whitmer and bernal kotlin last may when caroline and jack asked the public for help finding examples of coveted courage the response was incredible thousands of people from across the country wrote in to share moving stories about the sacrifices of members of their community who put their own health and safety at risk people who are helping to heal the sick protect our most vulnerable and provide critical support services often in great danger themselves join me as we celebrate our next two covet courage honorees daryl r marks a native american academic advisor at flagstaff high school and antonio greene an amazon associate and former delivery associate [Music] my grandparents used to say that you have to do for yourself and it wasn't like do for you as a singularity but like do for yourselves what you do you do for everybody i always noticed that he was constantly in service to others on his own time late into the evening teaching his two boys the act of service he was being a fatherly figure too all these students all these young people youth our future and that if they ever need anyone anyone to talk to he's going to be there my home community of navajo and our people had to sign away water rights so that the federal government and the states could build dams and power plants and by signing away those water rights that would take away from my home community's access to water when covet hit and the recommendations were wash your hands i knew my community was going to struggle with that because we already had the drought that was impacting our community i noticed that daryl was driving to another state to get supplies to take out to the nations and even before kova 19 this is a part of the fabric of him he is a person of service i don't think he gives himself enough credit for what he does and how he helps us he's like i didn't really i didn't do anything but i think he doesn't give himself credit for what he does or like how he impacts people's lives we're supposed to do this if there's a special recognition for doing this work then that means not enough people are doing it and that's scary because i don't want my children to be responsible for that it gives me one more thing to say why are we sitting on our butts at home get up let's go let's go do for ourselves what we need to do for our community [Music] so that our grandparents can smile down at us i was doing a typical delivery and when i was going up to my the customer's door i saw a sign and said someone in this house is going through chemo and they're having a tough time i was like oh man i want to do something special for this this customer and so i felt the need in my heart to go to the store and buy a card and some flowers just a smile or a you know how are you doing it just it went so far during the pandemic and i think antonio really took this a step further to let a customer know that he was there thinking about them and was there for them during their journey with cancer it makes me feel good when i can set that package down and knowing that hey when they come and pick it up it's something they really need but i know it's going to make a difference my mother taught me always to be kind to people you know i always treat people the same way you want to be treated so yeah they motivate me a lot i still think about them every day so they always had the positive influences on my life antonio is one of the most selfless and thoughtful people that i have ever met the world really needs more people like antonio and i can really think of nobody more deserving of this award than him every year in honor of my father's memory we give out a profile encourage award and we would love to honor you with with that award as one of them yes my grandmother always had a picture of your dad and bought dr king in her house when i was growing up yes ma'am that was the two big biggest pictures she had in her living room to have you know the kennedys um call me via zoom i was like oh my gosh i'm just i'm shocked i can't believe this is caroline kennedy talking to me and acknowledging the story it makes me feel good i know my mom and dad will be proud congratulations to antonio and daryl your stories inspire us all every nomination that we received was deserving of recognition it was so hard to narrow down the list so we gave that impossible task to our profile encourage award committee i think after hearing the stories of our honorees tonight you'll agree that the committee picked seven deserving people who together represent the courage and sacrifice we've seen in so many aspects of american life i'm proud to introduce our final three honorees dr amy acton the former director of the department of health in ohio captain fred freeman a registered nurse and captain of the hanover massachusetts fire department and lauren leander an icu nurse at banner university medical center in phoenix arizona if i would describe dr acted in one word it would be compassion she really has an understanding of meeting people where they are at any given moment in time she took action at a point and made difficult decisions when we had so little information we had one mission and that was to get our citizens through everyone reached across to help each other my scientists have this knowledge i have this data because we recognize that if we waited for more evidence it would have been too late and so her courage to really act at that point on what she best understood in that situation to protect ohio was very impressive and i do hope people will see that we are not done and that this actual next phase we're in is the most important time for re-emerging and if we rush by too quickly or fall back into old ways of being we will miss what we can rebuild there's a sincerity about her commitment to the health and welfare of the community which is really both inspiring and that everybody should recognize we wanted to call and tell you that the john f kennedy library foundation has selected you as one of the recipients of our first ever covid profile before so um we're really huge fans huge work and all that you did during the past year and you were nominated along with thousands of other people who really were just so outstanding it was really an inspirational process for us please know that this is um the courage of everyone on the front line and um i just say thank you so much because it's an honor to represent the courage in them thank you i think one of the things about fred is he's so gracious and humble and such a genuinely nice guy that people just rally around him fred basically ended up heading a department that we'd never had before which was this mobile integrated health and we had to take a number of different town departments and get them to work together in order to make this happen we all came together and we were able to to go to these people's homes they didn't have to come to us we had set up a phone line a phone bank at the beginning of the pandemic and and then we dispatch the paramedics out to their homes and and see whatever they need and we try to meet whatever need they had at the time it's one thing to dream up and see the vision of this program and it's not a thing to every day for over a year to carry it out day after day uh through some of the most challenging uh times that we've ever had and and to do it with such uh grace and humility and poise we had someone that was was very capable and dedicated and we put in the time and effort necessary to get it done and he he excelled at it i feel really proud of what we did here in hanover it wasn't just the right thing it's our honor and our privilege to serve them i want to say thank you to ambassador kennedy and to jack schlossberg i was quite surprised when they when they zoomed in and notified me of this award and i'm very proud and honored to receive this award thank you so much we didn't really know what was happening in the state of arizona and she said you know hey mom they're opening a coveted unit specifically to treat covet patients and and they're looking for volunteers and i said well who would volunteer to do that and she was just quiet and she had already volunteered i felt the responsibility of an icu nurse as a lot of us did to step up and care for these patients in a way that probably won't happen again in my lifetime i really wasn't super familiar with a lot of the protests that were going on and then eventually they made their way over to the capitol and that's where things got really intense i think that there's a lot of nurses that if they've had that opportunity to be at that protest that day they would have and so there really wasn't a decision to be made i just i knew i had to be there there were people wishing them death wishing them harm i felt that they were in danger even though there were police officers around and it just kind of felt like david looking up at goliath for that second and feeling the weight and the power of this anti-mass movement that had really started to snowball i was amazed at how calm they were that the louder it got the crazier it got the calmer they were and they just stood their ground i realized these are people that would probably be my patients within the next few weeks and these were people who were probably going to lose loved ones themselves from covid to be recognized by the john f kennedy foundation in this way about her courage is truly an honor and a recognition that is well deserved it just feels like a gift to be able to represent the millions of other nurses across the country that have been fighting this alongside me and all our co-workers it just is a gift to be able to be their voice and i hope i've made them proud as well what an absolutely inspiring group thank you for all of your service and sacrifice and congratulations to each of you now stay with me everyone as we go from covid courage to political courage this past year in politics was one for the history books it's never been more clear that our democracy depends on the courage of our elected leaders let's bring caroline and jack back to tell us more about this year's profile and courage award honoree growing up in a political family one that is almost as big as the romneys and participating in this award has taught me that politics is a family affair it's hard to enjoy the happy times and fight the tough fights without the support of family and friends and often the backlash from an unpopular decision is even harder for family members than for the official following their conscience that's why we always celebrate the family of the honoree and ask them and a few friends to tell us a little bit about the person they know best when you're trying to play a role in a political realm it's hard because it's easy to get focused on how do you say what's popular rather than how do you do and say what's required and i think mit as long as we've known him he's always done what he thought was best for the country whether it was popular with the people who supported him or not he's always done things for the right reason i've never been more proud of my dad than over the last few years when he's really had to follow his conscience to speak out rather than conveniently remain silent and hidden in the background i watched him march for the black lives matter movement and vote to impeach a sitting president from his own party he's always had a strong desire to do the right thing some might call that integrity others might call it a strong sense of duty or honor but whatever you call it it's clear to those who know him best and he always tries to do what he thinks is good i cannot adequately express my admiration for mitt romney for the votes he has cast for his courage and for his commitment to always and repeatedly standing for his principles over any political considerations congratulations mitt i think the most important thing by far that i learned is uh is love the way he treated not only my mom but the boys we were without question the most important thing in his life so i honestly couldn't be more blessed to have a dad who's instilled such incredible character in me and my brothers he just is my hero an example in so many ways from him i've learned the joy of helping others who are in tough circumstances and doing so for the right reasons thanks dan dad i love you and i still hope to be like you someday my dad's defining characteristic has been his commitment to a life of service his life would not be judged by the things that he attained but by the things that he gave he's also someone who was incredibly generous and i saw him quietly helping those who were in need throughout my childhood and had left a real impression on me it's in his case less of a single act than it is just a you know a cumulative thing which he will always do what he thinks is the right thing to do well we were so thrilled to be asked by ambassador caroline kennedy and our good friend ron sargent to co-chair this evening's gala an award for senator romney along with our co-chair david long you know we've always appreciated what the kennedy library stands for what the award profile encourage stands for and we feel like there's no better recipient than our good friend mitt romney last year senator romney did what no senator in history had ever done when he voted to convict the sitting president and leader of his party facing impeachment a vote he called the most difficult in his career he followed his conscience and his faith to defend our country and our constitution and it made a difference because this year six of senator romney's republican colleagues joined him to hold president trump accountable in an unprecedented second impeachment vote following the january 6 attack on the u.s capitol senator romney is a profile in courage in our time and a worthy successor to the senators my grandfather wrote about 60 years ago i want to thank the committee of the profiles encourage award for this honor in particular i want to thank caroline kennedy and her son jack for overlooking the decades our families have been on opposite political teams i ran against caroline's uncle ted as you would have all surely forgotten in a testament to the american tradition of placing people above politics he and i later came together to promote legislation that provided health care for all massachusetts citizens at the signing ceremony he captured the moment moment with this line he said when mitt romney and ted kennedy are celebrating the same piece of legislation it proves only one thing one of us didn't read it uh now in accepting this award i recognize that i'm a stand-in for the hundreds of thousands of our fellow americans who've been profiles encouraged these last many months the health care workers flight attendants grocery workers bus drivers first responders male and delivery people men and women in uniform pharmaceutical researchers and so many many many more i also want to represent my senate colleagues who have taken votes of conscience now many of us have been disappointed late by the actions of some people who chosen the easy way playing to the crowd itching the ears of the resentful with conspiracies and accusations i take part in the fact that such displays are still newsworthy and are generally met with disdain but today many of us in public life are guilty of a fault less reprehensible though similarly consequential some of us on the right infect the nation with claims of election fraud tech and media outrages even vaccine fantasies from the left come hyper woke accusations and antipathy towards free enterprise the very means of our prosperity our domestic political squabbles divert our national attention from the three great challenges america faces challenges which if ignored may be tragic the first of these is the rise of china it's on track to become the global hegemon china will have the largest economy by far the most powerful military and the most sway over the standards and principles by which nations interact what a world led by china might look like is evidenced by life in china today genocide of a million uyghurs and other ethnic minorities brutal repression of the people in hong kong censorship of all forms of the media a mass surveillance state aimed at crushing any dissent and rampant corruption a second challenge is global climate change politicians play to our respective bases with small bore laws and regulations that have no or diminished de minimis actual impact on global emissions we shrink from effective measures such as placing a price on carbon border adjustment tariffs nuclear power and so forth a third challenge is the degradation of our national balance sheet in good times and bad we add trillions to our national debt in our political campaigns we conveniently promise not to even touch the two-thirds of federal spending that's automatic and which is part of the federal spending that is growing faster than the economy and left unchecked the interest on all this debt will choke our kids future to take on these enormous challenges we'll chart the future course of our civilization we need to cr had the courage in our elected leaders that can match the courage we've witnessed from our countrymen and country women during the pandemic and so i join with you in this charge and i call to mind the words of president john f kennedy quote let us not despair but act let us not seek the republican answer or the democratic answer but the right answer let us not seek to fix the blame for the past let us accept our own responsibility for the future thank you hello everyone first i i want to congratulate you senator romney for receiving this honor uh going against the grain is is never easy and you followed your heart and reminded us all what it looks like to serve the american people with integrity um senator romney did you ever imagine that you would receive a john f kennedy profile in courage award and how does it feel no that that is not something i would have imagined uh more likely to have found little green men on mars i'm afraid jimmy uh an extraordinary honor and and and particularly the time when there have been so many profiles and courage in our country dealing with kovid from people who work on the front lines and grocery stores and taxi cabs and drivers of all kinds and postal workers and men and women in the armed forces it's uh it's very humbling but but a great honor and obviously which comes from a family that has sacrificed enormously over the years for our country senator romney you worked with senator ted kennedy as governor of massachusetts and and ran against him for u.s senate what do you what do you think you might have been able to accomplish together in the senate if we were alive today boy that's a uh that's a great question and one i wish i had a great answer for i mean senator kennedy had the the passion of uh let's say bernie sanders all right he's a man who knew what he wanted but he also had the judgment on how to get things done that you saw in someone like lamar alexander and and so he would have had the passion for what america needs but also the skill and the judgment of the experience to say okay how can we work across the aisle to actually get something done so i think with regards to health care immigration tax policy balancing our budget those are the kinds of things he'd be able to tackle uh and uh i got to tell you the truth i wish you were still here caroline what kinds of courage do you hope to see from congress or elected leaders today well senator romney has set a great example and i think what we all want is for our public officials to follow their conscience to speak the truth to uphold the rule of law to act courageously when necessary alone but also to have the courage to compromise sometimes and get things done for the american people so senator romney laid out a list of health care and immigration and um we have big problems in this country right now we're coming back from a pandemic and i think we really need our public officials to show us the way forward and work together to do that yeah uh jack how about you how can senator romney's courage be an inspiration for your generation i think senator romney showed everyone my age that faith and courage aren't outdated qualities and that politics can be a noble profession and uh i voted for um barack obama in 2012. i i didn't vote for for senator romney then uh then the republican presidential candidate i think it shows everyone my age that things can change and you know we can find uh things to be inspired by in the people um who don't agree with us on on every issue we can still recognize them when they do stand up and do what's right uh jack what have you learned about political courage in your work on the profile courage award committee well i've learned that my mother is usually right if not always exactly right um and i've learned how to how to wait uh until the conversation is just at the right time to suggest that senator romney be the one to win the award and to lay out a perfect argument for why caroline what do you hope people watching take away from tonight's event well i think um people really are looking for how to navigate their own lives now we feel that the world has changed but i think these eternal values really can guide us they're timeless and i think the example of senator romney of our other winners uh tonight really shows us how we can all act in our daily lives to do more for those around us to to sacrifice and give and um and to follow our consciences so i think that it's so important in public life but i think all of us can um can take you know courage and take heart from from the example in our own private daily lives as well last question for you senator romney do you have any advice for young people out there who are thinking of running for elected office yeah i guess i do which is you know i was in politics and have been in politics for some years and i wish i could tell you that i've never made a decision based on politics that i've always followed my conscience and the truth is i've cut the corners more than one time and uh and i regret that and those things haunt me and i decided when i came to the senate that i was not going to do that that i was going to very carefully do what i believed was right every opportunity that came to me and and i can tell you you sleep a lot better life is a lot more full if you don't have to worry about about having ignored your conscience yeah and so throughout your life whether it's in business or medicine or law or politics making a decision where you can sleep well knowing that you've done what your conscience tells you is right is without question the the decision that will give you the greatest sense of accomplishment and achievement and satisfaction well thank you for that congratulations again senator romney thanks jimmy good to see you and to be with you thanks for hosting this this evening and so so much appreciation to to caroline kennedy and to jack and for the entire community that uh has helped organize this wait wait before we go before we go jimmy we just have one more thing we're hoping you could help us with sure we heard you are really good at writing thank you notes and there are a few people we need to thank tonight do you think that you could give us a hand thank you notes is that's kind of my thing yeah that's uh it's my favorite thing i would love to help okay great okay we're ready how do we how do we do this how do we start first you need you need some thank you note writing music can we get some music please second you need a list of people that you want to thank okay okay good yep finally you need the perfect writing technique and this here's how you do it you wait for the part and you go it's a it's an arc to it and uh it's patented but i'll i'll let you have it for free tonight okay for my first note i want to write to the amazing group of people who led us to success tonight thank you david long and liberty mutual ron and jill sargent paul and sandy edgerly nancy donahue and the entire donahue family raytheon technologies and bain capital speaking of bain capital for my first thank you note i want to thank everyone on baines leadership team who has joined us to celebrate our honorees tonight josh and anita beckenstein jonathan and jeannie levine steve and debbie barnes john and stephanie connaughton mike krupka and steve and judy pagluca jack you gotta jack you gotta do this jackie you gotta you gotta do that that starts the music yeah yeah yeah that's all right no big deal you get you're working caroline show him how it's done okay okay for the next one we are so grateful oh my gosh the leading corporate partners without whom we could not have had this celebration of courage thank you to atg bank of america eversource energy john hancock vertex and wilmer hale [Music] wow it's wild last but definitely not least there are so many generous individuals and friends who support the jfk library's mission ken feinberg and camille b rose robert kraft ted hoff and kathleen o'connell david weinstein trudy and dan simmons and most importantly thank you jimmy for helping us celebrate courage tonight and teaching us how to write a proper thank you note we couldn't have done any of this without you well thanks jack i guess you didn't need me uh caroline and jack i couldn't have done that better myself you're a very quick study uh well that's all we have folks on behalf of the jfk library foundation thank you all for joining us tonight well this year has been challenging in so many ways it's also brought out the best in so many again i want to congratulate senator romney and the seven incredible coveted courage award and honorees i also want to thank the front line and essential workers who over the past year have made incredible sacrifices to provide critical support services to those in need we could not have gotten through the pandemic without your courage and a final thanks to the profile encourage award committee that works so hard behind the scenes of choosing the inspiring group of people we just honored i'm going to let them and some friends of the kennedy library help give president kennedy the final word here tonight good night courage requires no exceptional qualifications no magic formula no special combination of time place or circumstance it is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all politics merely furnishes one arena which imposes special tests of courage in whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage whatever may be the sacrifices they face they follow their conscience the loss of their friends their fortune their contentment even the esteem of their fellow men each person must decide for themselves the course they will follow the stories of past courage can define that ingredient they can teach they can offer hope they can provide inspiration but they cannot supply courage itself for this each person must look into their own [Music] soul [Music] so [Music] you

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Length: 51min 30sec (3090 seconds)

Published: Wed May 26 2021