Crying out loud. A, something historical already. Vegan is lining up to hear me speak and sit with you. [laughter] there is always one. How do you know someone is a vegan . Dont worry, we will tell you. [laughter] i got about 19 minutes to speak to you and im looking forward to answering questions. I want to jump right in on the theme of my campaign but more importantly, the theme of my life. I think its the most important theme of this country. Our founders were imperfect geniuses. They enshrined in our founding documents a lot of bigotry and hate. In our decoration of independence they called native americans savages and called women in our founding documents secondclass citizens and blacks were fractions of a human being but that was not the defining character of the country that has endured in the spirit they brought to humanity. They broke with the course of human events and said we would be the first a nation and the oldest constitutional democracy that would not be founded because we all look alike or t or descended from the same branch of the family tree but no, they said we would be First Society to put values and virtues w on the highest aspirational ideals of humankind. God, it has been a top experiment breaking with monarchies and theocracies to create the democracy we have right now but these geniuses got one thing right they knew that the only way you would ever make hiit in the only way this county would survive as if we made an unusual commitment to one another that we would be a people that understood that the lines that divide us are nowhere near as strong as the ties that bind us in the spiritual records of our nature is what will help this nation into her. The ending of that declaration of independence is this profound declaration of interdependence. They literally say after putting forth these ideas and this break with the powerful empire on the land they say hey, if we make it as a country these are the words, we must mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. Turn on the cable news and ask yourself about that sacred honor. Look at our own lives will be seen on social media about other americans and ask yourself about sacred honor. The call of my life raised by parents who taught me this ideal was that you are here to bring people together b for common cause, common purpose, common good. When we are divided we are weak. Look, your parents raised you. My mom has a saying that behind every successful child isbe an astonished parent. [laughter] like this guy there were not make up his fed in front of his running for president of the United States. Unlike mom, please. [laughter] i forged so many of my deals on the gridiron. I was a Football Player. I cant thank you enough for talking about me at stanford but i got into stanford because of a 4. 0 and 1600 4. 0 yards. Carry, 1600 receiving yards. [applause] i was an allamerican Football Player in the schoolyard i had this moment in the huddle when were driving on a team i would turn to myhe fellow members in e huddle and i was the captain, tell them the moment i knew we would score it was the moment i heard the other huddle arguing amongst themselves. They were blaming each other, tearing each other down because i knew that was weakness and we could exploit it when we as a nation have more indivisible in this one nation under god theres nothing we cant do. Hell, when russians put up sputnik we do not go back and saywh well but we said we wil pull this nation together and show that our way of life that freedom and justice and inclusion that we can bring together people of diversity and we will go farther and higher than ever humanity imagined possible. We are competitors. The best teams are the ones that get rid of unnecessary divisions and forged together to be strong and thats the story of some of our toughest times in america because the gardens of our democracy never been free of the weeds of hatred and bigotryme ad discrimination and fear mongering. We have always had [inaudible] there was a Political Party that was up to National Prominence that uses a lot of the same rhetoric we see heard today, if the immigration rhetoric and they were called the know nothings they were against irish and german immigrants. But how do we beaty those weeds . How to be uproot them . By taking on their tactics and their turf by further dividing us by saying we will have a zerosum game, us against them but no, we did it because of activism the call to our higher aspirations as a country. We do not be bull connor by bringing bigger dogs and bigger fire hoses but we beat him sbecause activism call to the moral imagination of this nation is that i may be black, you may be white, i may be cushion, you may be jewish to have a common cause and injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. My Early Experiences in life where this. My parents told me my origin story is incredible but no different than yours. Ole fifty years ago my family was trying to move into this mecca you may of heard of it. They were trying to move to this glorious place of a dream called new jersey. [laughter] i know you all have a problem in your the second best new state in all of america. New jersey, New Hampshire, new mexico and new york are competing but every time they came up to the northern suburbs of new jersey looking for home there was a black familyokck whe the best Public Schools they would be greeted by Real Estate Agent that with the is a black family and say im sorry, this house has already sold or this house was pulled off the market. They were lied to because the real estatehe practices were gog on in myey parents were frustrad that they were distressed. What did they find in the midst and dissemination . They found us. They found america. They found a group of people who met in the living room, mostly white folks, who said we will help you. In this country patriotism weve got to reclaim that word and its not a word to divide or say im patriotic, you are notio tht patriotism is love of country. You cannot love your country unless you love your fellow countrymen and women. Love is not a sentiment or sentimentality. Love is sacrifice. Love the service. Levitate if your kids dont have a great public school, my kids are my children could be bereft of your kids a genius and potential and artistry. These patriots formed this sting operation where they sent my peers out to look at homes in sunny white couple right behind them and when my parents were told the house was sold the volunteer white couple with buying the house still for sale and in the house i grew up insey parents were told it was sold in the white couple found it for sale in the put it on the house for my parents and the bid was accepted and papers were drawn up on the day of the closing the white couple did not show uphe. [laughter] my father did any volunteer lawyer named Marty Freedman and they marched into the Real Estate Agents office and this should be the end of the story but its not because a Real Estate Agent was so upset he had been caught in this sting, i call it a conspiracy as well, that he gets up and punches my dads lawyer in the face and stick 68 dog on my dad. Let me tell you is i grew up in this beautiful town every time my dad told the story the dog would get bigger. [laughter]g eventually my dad was like i had to fight a pack of wolves to get you into this house. [laughter] every one of us here drink deeply from wells of freedom and liberty and opportunity that we did not dig in every one of us is here, descendents of immigrants who were poor and hurt and huddled in every one of us here, latino, black, all of us come from that humble story and we are all here gets people who cannot even imagine us in this day and age were willing to fight and sacrifice and put their lives on the linesfi for e ideals of america that we would be a people to buy more indivisible in this one nation under god that we would affirm the ties that bind us are stronger than any lies that divide us. Running for president because of that spirit of the policy issues we debate on that stage, none of the big ideas are possible until you understand that we need each other. God, my parents were corporate citizens. My father was the first blog i hired as a sales at ibm in all of washington. My mom was in hr and they knew thehi data, diverse teams are better teams. They knew the data. Dissemination is expensive. When you dont let lgbtq people in the workplace you lose out on their talent and skill. O poverty is expensive and what is more expensive then Society Keeping mentally ill Homeless People on streets . Or putting them in Supportive Housing . Seattle when the numbersou seate studied at 23 people and found out is far more expensive to have them on the street but the end up in jail or hospital emergency rooms. Im the only person in the senate and i made a decision with my life that i want to be in the trenches of the struggle for america and thats where i stayed at my community is a beautiful place but i think a colossal failure to come about when we have an impotency of empathy. Where we do not see our fellow americans with love and when we dont have a more courageous empathy. Across the street is the Treatment Center i see these beautiful guys walk over and bring food and they get mad at me because its vegan food. [laughter] i see the horrible story of this country that we decided to treat Mental Illness with present and we decided to treat addiction with present and weve decided w to treat poverty with present we have chided a to arrest ourselvs out of everything. Our competitor, china, just built 18000 miles of high rail of the busiest real quarter in north america goes from boston to dc, no exaggeration and runs 30 minutes lower than it did in the 1960s. What have we done with our collective treasure . We are building a new prisoner or jail in this country every ten days between the time i was in law school to the time i was city of newark. God, the grievous waste all around us. Our competitors, not only believe in science, but their policy reflects it and our competitors watched us establish the best if the structure on the planet earth which is crumbled now and they are blowing past us in common investors for the common cause. And they said were going to cultivate that that is that you guys and they started start inn children for Brain Development and has been the most are 80 plus Brain Development happens from the womb until the fourth year. So while america does nothing, all those countries had universal prenatal care. Av we dont. We leave the planet earth and infant mortality, low birth weight babies and i can see the data analysis, it is so much more expensive. It is cheaper to give every low income lower in this Country Access that is to pay the cost of low birth weight babies, crises at birth. But they go further to do the data analysis. Im a former mayor. When i was running my feet i used to say i was tired of people coming in with a lot of emotion but i used to say hey, in god we trust. Everyone else bring me data. Our competitors love data. They invest in universal preschool. We dont. I can show you a dollar invested in universal preschool produces multiple returns. Other countries affordable childcare. Other countries paid family leave. Afghanistan and the congo have paid family leave. We put millions of women every day in distressed because that to decide to be home with a sicd traumatized child or go to work because they need the paycheck. Listen, i love america but patriotism to me is what we need. Not posturing, not partisanship, not a greater divide. We need each other. This election will be about a lot of thingse but if we dont have the next president not be a demeanor or integrator or defiler, the next president must be a healer, a uniter, must call to the common cause of our country. Democrats, i saw someou of you here, we make a mistake in this election if we define a source by what we are gets or who we are against and not what we are for and who we are for. We make a mistake in this election [applause]e] if we make a mistake in the selection if we demonize republicans and say we, the Michigan Democratic party is to be republicans. Dear god, this calls for a party to standnd up and says our missn is to unite americans, not in partisanship writing aspiration, in ideal, and moving this country forward because our competitors are playing from her playbook and outplaying us. I got to the United States senate with a high sense of self regard. I decided to write a book and if your name is booker its a lot of pressure, people. The expectations are so high for crying out loud. Its like the ted cruz designed a car. It would have to cruise while heres my name is booker, and so i decide to go back and find those people who let d my family moved in. The patriots who were white and some black folks who were republican and democrat. I would back andt found the hed of that organization, her name is lee porter, 92. She was easy to find because at 92 years old, she still had her that organization in new jersey. Fair housing council. She doesnt represent black peoplenc anymore. Lots of black people in my community. She represent samesex couples and muslim families and americans with disabilities because there is no race,on orientation. It is one love, one justice, one nation under god. She confirmed the stories that was not apl a pack of wolves, people. She sends me to the lawyer who organize everything. She confirmed the story, politics. I gotot a great chapter but higy i suddenly said why. There was a young man back in the 60s just started his business, so busy very supporting his family. I had to ask them why would help black families . Fears of real estate crisis going down, why would you help a black families. He goes under the moment i made the decision. It was march 7, 1965. I go thats very specific. What we doing . I was sitting on my couch watching tv. This is backed in days well had three channels. I know its scary to some of you to think about those days and most of america is watching whai he was watching a movie called judgment at nuremberg. Some of you not know this first work day. Hes watching tv and something happens. Breaking news. They break away from an ongoing movie to show a bridge in alabama called the Edmund Pettus bridge, and he watches these marchers start in someone could get to montgomery and it stopped unabridged by Alabama State troopers who would not let them pass. Then he watches in horror as they are gassed with tear gas and then they charge into them and viciously beat them over their heads. What does a white guy on a couch 1000 miles away away due at this moment . Does he do the trap that i fall into, all that trap the sometimes without our inability to do everything to undermine tur determination to do something . No. He gets up in the name of patriotism, in the name of love. He says injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. So he says im going to do something. Im going to go too alabama. He chuckled to himself. He cant afford a ticket. He stresses for a little while, the best guy collision i can afford one hour, just one hour a week of pro bono work but dear god im going to the best i can with what i have come where i am. He calls about it and he finds this young woman named lee porter, now 92 and they still working on a skiing. They get other people to volunteer, 65 turns to 66, turns to 67 and now that more people involved, lawyers volunteers. He said i remember that day. Then i get a case have had to be in 1869,ha this Family Moving up from the south looking for help, distressed. The names on that case outcome that family, cory, the names gary and carolyn booker, your parents. I am here right now before you running for the highest office in the land here i hear right now, a United States senate are only the fourth ever elected in our country, im here because a white guy on a couch in a time of moral trial in our nation did not just sit there. He didnt care that my skin was a different color. Didnt care i was from a different geography turkey didnt even know i would when they exist, but he stood up for the ideals of america. And what am i running for president . Because in peril, our dreams are in trouble. The first generation of americans to have a lower lifee expectancy than our parents. The first generation of baby boomers 90 is better economically than their parents did for millennials and its down to a coin toss. The country that lead humanity and education, innovation, infrastructure is now falling behind our competitors. Some of them are totalitarian governments. I running for president because i want our dream to live. If you go where Martin Luther king was playing, the hero i heard about going up whose pictures were on walls, my parents told he wasnt a great black american, a great christian american. He was a red, white and blue dreamer of this country, and where he was slain at the lorraine motel, go there, its a museum now but but i was shockd when i saw was on the ground. It gave me chills because what they wrote is not attribute to king. They use that sacred space to challenge to everyone of us with breath in her lungs and blood in our veins. It is a challenge and i leave you with that now. To use words from scripture that is nothing to do with religion. It is about our civic gospel. The words they wrote are the words fromm josephs brothers, the words that at or before they grabbed joseph entered into a pit with his coat of many colors to kill him. But for those of you know who your tour or koran or bible. He didnt die in the pit. He rose and lead a nation through egypt. America we are in a pit right now. We are in a pit when we sing the song we are the home of the brave our veterans come home and it disproportionately homeless. We are in a pit right now with the most powerful nation on the lan tells our children we cant protect you so werere going to send you s to school and teach u how to hide. More sheltered place drills now done in america than fire drills. We are in a pit right now where we hate each other just because we vote differently. And so what was the message where king was slain . The great uniter who called to the conscious of our country, wh