My quotes about a speech my Desmond Tutu. Two articles, Colorado Daily and Daily Camera. http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2004/03/29/news/news01.txt Tutu inspires CU audience By MEAGAN BALINK/Colorado Daily Campus Editor In the famously liberal town where the divergence of religion, politics and age groups often define issues as strikingly as the craggy flatirons do the horizon, a single leader Monday night imparted a message that touched each member of his captive audience. In an address hung on faith in God and hope in human morality, Desmond Tutu, the legendary Anglican Archbishop whose leadership helped end apartheid in South Africa, spoke to a crowd of 4,000 at the University of Colorado's Coors event center. The tiny 73-year-old man, whose face is almost perennially wrinkled into a smile, began his speech not, as many might have expected, with a diatribe on human injustices or a lecture on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He began with a blessing. He thanked supporters of South Africa in the United States, saying that without international support, much of which he attributed to college activists in the '80s, apartheid might have never ended. "We were prayed for for a very, very long time," he said, in a sweet, jovial voice. "We asked for help, you gave it and now we are free." Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, offered a sharp wit and pile of humorous anecdotes that charmed his audience. "When looking at the stage of the world, you begin to wonder whether God ever had a plan at all," he said. "You think, 'God, don't you think you could have planned things better?" Using example of apartheid's collapse and other events in human history such as the fall of the Berlin wall, he said that people value morality. "The collapse of apartheid demonstrates so clearly that this is a moral universe," said Tutu. "That right and wrong do matter. For this is God's world and God is in charge." He pointed to Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama as examples of the natural compassion, joy and goodness innate in humanity. "Who are the people that we revere? Not the abrasive and aggressive," he said. "Why is it that (Mother Theresa) is held in such high regard? Because she was good." He joked again with the audience. "When you are angry, you feel it in your tum-tum!" he said with delight. "Your blood pressure tells you. To forgive is good for your health!" Tutu's speech was not a grandiose lecture on his work in one of the most important events in human history, but the most simple of messages: forgiveness and oneness. "When we are a family, we are a family in which there are no outsiders. In which we are all insiders," he said. "Jesus said 'I will draw not some but all...with a love that gives up on no one.' All belong. All. All." Tutu then enumerated the membership of the family he described, listing "young and old, black and white, pretty and not-so-pretty, smart and not-so-smart, gay, lesbian, and so-called 'straight,'" to big applause. Many audience members left the events center discussing the meaning of Tutu's reverent address and the context in which it was delivered. Joe Uyokpeyi, a Boulder resident, said Tutu's address was different than what he expected, but still profound. "He didn't talk about AIDS, but it was very effective, more than a bunch of statistics," he said. Uyokpeyi's friend, CU senior Audrey Royem, said the speech was inspirational. "It instills in you to hold on to your dreams and not to give up," she said. Ashara Saran Ekundayo, director of the Denver Pan- African Film Festival, said she felt Tutu's aura fill the room. "It is always a blessing to be with such an enlightened soul," she said. "I appreciated how he was able to help the audience understand we are one people." Brian Schwartz, a CU graduate student, said that though he admired Tutu's humor when speaking about the Christian faith, he expected the speech to be more "concrete." "I am used to more academic talks," said Schwartz. "I know a lot of what he was saying was supposed to be uplifting and he has a lot of life experience. But I thought he would communicate more real-world examples." Genevieve Maricle, a CU graduate student, said she respected Tutu's frame of reference. "I do think he does come from a lot of experience...having been there and seen the turn of apartheid," she said. However, "the God references were sometimes a little much for me. Practical examples are necessary; examples of where to move forward and do something." Still, Tutu's message rung clear in Boulder Monday night. As he closed, he looked upward saying, "Well Martin Luther, I have a dream too. That all my children would recognize they are family." He pointed toward the audience. "I have no one but you and you and you to help me. Help me. Help me."
http://dailycamera.com/bdc/buffzone_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2448_2768754,00.html Tutu says goodness will prevail Nobel laureate kicks off the AIDS symposium at CU By Kate Larsen, Camera Staff Writer March 30, 2004 Bishop Desmond Tutu waved his magic wand over about 2,000 people Monday at the University of Colorado's Coors Events Center. "I wave it on you and make you all South Africans," said Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa. He then told the group of new "South Africans" to applaud all Americans who fought against apartheid. The collapse of it 10 years ago "demonstrates that this is a moral universe — that right and wrong matter," he said. The 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner's speech began the six-day "Stop the Silence" AIDS symposium at CU. The small man with gray hair wore a navy suit and stood on a step behind the podium Monday. His booming voice didn't need any extra boost, though. It dominated the arena, and his message was clear. "Might is not right," Tutu said. "Goodness and love and beauty and all of those things; those are what will prevail." War, conflict, racism and AIDS can be defeated because people have an internal antenna that hones in on good, he said. The world is one family, Tutu shouted, and that family must help those without enough to eat, people who lack clean water to drink and the AIDS victims without drugs. CU graduate student Brian Schwartz said he enjoyed the talk but that it was too general. "He talked in platitudes that no one could really disagree with," Schwartz said. Genevieve Maricle, another graduate student, found the speech more inspiring. "It makes you want to leave and find a way to do something to make a difference," Maricle, 23, said. That's the whole point, say symposium organizers. "We want to educate you this week so you'll want to act and do your part to end AIDS," said Dustin Craun, chairman of CU's Distinguished Speakers Board, sponsor of the symposium. Benjamin Waters, vice chairman of the board, told the audience that HIV and AIDS are on the rise for the first time in nine years. He added that 23 percent of sexually active students at CU recently polled said they didn't use a condom during their last sexual encounter. "This is a problem," Waters said. The symposium features 16 events that are all open to the public.