At about this time in septembe september 1974, i reported as a Second Lieutenant to the armor school at fort knox, kentucky. In preparing my remarks today i was struck by how much my emotions today remind me of my emotions have been. In september 1974, just like today, i was a little nervous, i was humbled to wear the uniform as an army officer i was eager to get started on a new career, and i was in love pardon me and i was in love with a girl named deanie. [applause] i fell in love with deanie when she was 15. It took her a few years to come around to the idea. By i was sure that whatever life brought my way, i wanted to experience it with her. Heres the thing about deanie. Shes only one more passion than me about the military and their families. Shes a better view than i am. She has for more energy than einstein predicted could be packed into a fivefoot twoinch body come and she has shown an amazing patience during the trials that the company a military wife. In every way she has made me a better person. Because of this has been her career, just as much as mine, its fitting and proper to say that we are both retiring today. Congratulations, deanie sullivan dempsey. [applause] so im almost out of water to choke back the emotion, which means i must be near the end. What we are really doing today is transferring our passion for the standard u. S. Army nine infantry squad to our own squad of nine adorable, talented and exceptional grandchildren. They are in order to enjoy kayla, mckinney, luke, alexander, hunter, emily, braden, samuel and david. Now, if you want to know what our principal goal in retirement will become its to be the best graybeards we can be. Now lest they think we forgot them, i should note that would let our own children and their spouses. They had served our country, too. Deanie and i have made 20 moves, most of them with the kids and they have encouraged us, adaptive come resilient and willing to share their parents with a larger military family. Its been a joy watching them grow up. Althougalthough to be so we dide some difficulty convincing them that the mayflower wasnt a moving van. Im very happy that the g3 about my son christos gave to attend the military. And as i said, megan and caitlin have also served as did shane go along with julie and cory formed the best trio of inlaws we could ever imagine. I know although the leadership and you have it all as many as other extraordinary causes that make you great couples, great parents and great patriots. We very much enjoy your company. We look forward to seeing more of you, and we hope the feeling is mutual. Who stands for read him goes with joyful tread. Joyce kilmer. It has been my honor to walk with joyful tread alongside airmen and marines army for the last for just regard to invest in the world at what they do. They are our nations most precious treasure. They and their families inspire us to. Today we trust that your new chairman. You may know the hours are somewhat stingy in complex and packages. When irishman truly respect someone they say simply, youre a good man. Well, youre a good man, joe dunford. As i depart i know that you and ellyn are in the right place at the right time and the right time for our nation. Thank you both for taking on yet another challenging task for our nation. Speaking of challenges, theres a sense today that americas future is fraught with uncertainty and that the fabric that binds us is being mightily tested. However, i leave with tremendous optimism and absolute confidence in who we are and what we stand for. Our nation and its armed forces remain the worlds foremost symbols of strength, of hope and of freedom. The generation that is now blessed to serve will do its duty and will ensure that our nation remains strong. I thank god for sustaining before the 41 years, and i pray that he keeps us all stronger it has been my privilege to wear the cloth of our nation. To all who will continue to serve after me, i ask only this in parting. Make it matter. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [applause] ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. At this time would ask that you please remain seated while the president departs [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [cheers and applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [applause] general dempsey and deanie just celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary. In their honor we perform their wedding song, close to you. [applause] it has been a journey of four decades for the general and deanie, a family first. Then again, if youve served with them, you are part of the family. Is irish ballad titled the voyage puts it all into perspective. [applause] it just wouldnt be a musical tribute to the blueeyed 18th chairman without his favorite song. From the chairman of the board, old blue eyes himself, the great frank sinatra. We now perform new york, new york. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, as we bid farewell to the dempsey is, we ask the chairman to assist us in singing the parting glass. You know, anybody can sing that song with all those people standing behind you las. [laughter] all right, we will get you out of the rain and the second. Last song. Of all the money. That i should ride and you should not, ill gently rise and softly call, goodbye and joy thee to you all. Goodbye and joy thee to you all [cheers and applause] in my mind im going to carolina. Cant you see the sunshine, cant you just feel the moon shine . Aint it just like a friend of mine hit me from behind cuz im going to carolina in my mind. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, please remain in place for the departure of the official party. In my mind im going to carolina. Cant you see the sunshine, cant you just feel the moon shine . Aint it just like a friend of mine hit me from behind cuz im going to carolina in my mind. Yes, im going to carolina in my mind [applause] when you look at the role that the Supreme Court is playing in our society now, our history series had to have relevance. And so as we thought about what can we do to get relevance to our current programming, a series on the court made all the sense in the world. The court is an equal branch of government, its the third branch of government. It still has fundamental impact on america. Inside this elegant building is a courtroom where cases are heard and decisions are made that impact all of our lives. Theres so many incredibly interesting cases in the courts history. Weve all heard about roe v. Wade, weve heard about brown v. Board of education, but for so many people theyre just names in a textbook. And what we want to do is really talk about not only the legal side of the cases, but the people involved in these cases. They are human beings who felt so passionately that their rights were being abridged that they brought their cases to the court. I think what people will find most fascinating about these cases are the personal stories. One of my personal favorites is mapp v. Ohio and the story of dahl v. Lamb. I think when the people hear the personal story of this woman and this situation, that they will fall in love with these cases, that they will feel passionate about what happens in the courts and why they matter and why you should care. Picking the 12 cases was a really difficult and arduous task. It was a fun task, because we learned a lot. But those 12 cases represent really our evolving understanding of rights in america when you take a look from dred scott to the koramatsu case, you learn about the history of is the country and the evolving america. Historic Supreme Court cases produced in cooperation with the National Constitution center, delving into 12 Supreme Court cases that significantly innuanced our nations story influenced our nations story. Live monday nights at 9 p. M. Eastern beginning october 5th on cspan and cspan3. And as a companion to our new series, landmark cases, the book. It features the 12 cases weve selected for the series with a brief introduction into the background, highlights and impact of each case written by veteran Supreme Court journalist tony morrow, published by cspan in cooperation with Congressional Quarterly press, an imprint of Sage Publications incorporated. Landmark cases is available for 8. 95 plus shipping and handling. Get your copy at cspan. Org landmarkcases. The Family Research council recently held its annual values voters summit here in washington which included speeches by several president ial candidates. Heres part of the event with senator john mccain and president ial candidates marco rubio and ted cruz. Senator cruz won the events president ial straw poll. This is an hour and 20 minutes. [applause] good morning. Thank you very much. Welcome to the tenth annual values voter summit. And i want to thank you for being here. I know many of you went through a lot of trouble to get here, especially with the commun communist leaders staying in the hotel across the street. Yeah. Were getting a little taste of what its like to live in china. Nonetheless are, we are grateful that you are here because your voice is will be heard across america. We gather at a time when the threats to our faith, our family and our freedoms have are probably never been greater since the founding of our nation. We face enemies within and enemies without. In fact, our enemies within are aiding our enemies without. But there is good news. Our founders were inspired to create for us a government under which by using our freedoms we could preserve our freedoms. And what you are doing here this weekend is preserving those freedoms that are is so dear and precious to us as americans and essential to the future of this great country. In short, the way we keep our freedoms as we is that we use those freedoms. And i want to use one of the freedoms that i believe is under the greatest assault of any freedom that we have today in america under president barack obama and his administration, and that is our religious freedom. And i want to start this morning and open this summit by reading a portion of scripture. It is america, and i refuse to give up my right to practice my religious freedom in public. [cheers and applause] i will give up my life before i give up that freedom. Psalm 146 says, praise the lord, praise the lord, o my soul, while i live i will praise the lord. I will sing praises to my god while i have my being. Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man in whom there is no health. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth. In that very day his plans perish. Happy, happy is he who has the god of jacob for his help, whose hope is in the lord, his god, who made heaven and the earth. Given the crisis that our nation is facing, the time for being a spectator, my friends, is over. It is time for all godfearing, all values voters to take a stand for our faith and for our freedom, and i ask you will you join me in standing for our freedom . [cheers and applause] now is the time for every american to come to the aid of their country. [applause] there is a grave misconception that has been foisted upon this country that religious liberty is simply the freedom to pick the church that you want to attend or the ability to believe as you wish as long as you keep those beliefs between your two ears. My friends, nothing could be further from the truth. Now is not the time to shrink back into silence, nor is it the time to be intimidated by the intolerant voices of the left. Now is the time to stand boldly and courageously for the truth, for it is the truth that makes us free. [applause] as we begin this summit this morning, i want to remind you of what have become, i believe, prophetic words that were spoken by president Ronald Reagan in august of 1984. He said this. He said without god there is no virtue, because there is no prompting of the conscience. Without god, were mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without god there is a coarsening of the society, and without god democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that were one nation under god, then we will be a nation gone under. My friends, fellow values voters, social conservatives, patriots, americans, we must not let that happen on our watch. [applause] it is now my privilege to introduce our first speaker, senator john mccain. A 22year career naval pilot, a decorated war hero, he is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee where he has worked tirelessly to defend religious liberty. And i will say this, i know it, because i have worked with him. And he has made religious liberty a top priority as he is chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee. He was the republican nominee for president in 2008, and i will tell you as ive told him, he and i do not agree on everything. But then again, im a baptist, and i dont agree with myself on everything. [laughter] but this i can say with confidence, without hesitation, unequivocally had he won the 2008 president ial election, we would not be arming our enemies with Nuclear Weapons, nor would our military have become a laboratory for social experimentation. And americans who simply are seeking to live out their lives according to their orthodox religious beliefs would not be considered enemies of the state. Elections have consequences, my friends, and we must not repeat the mistake that america made in 2008. [applause] i want to ask you to do me a favor. I want to ask you to join me in giving a warm values voter welcome to my friend, senator john mccain of arizona. [applause] thank you, thank you to my friends and your stalwarter servant leaders, tony perkins and general point kin. Id also like to thank kathy her rod that she and the center for arizona policy do for promoting our shared values. Indeed, thank you all, thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you about some of our shared concerns in the world. I know youve got a lot going on today, youre going to hear from many important speakers including a number of candidates for president of the United States. Im the warmup act for marco rubio [laughter] and lindsey graham. So listening to a former unsuccessful candidate from two president ial elections ago, which is practically a century in washington years, probably isnt your first priority. [laughter] by the way, after i lost i slept like a baby. [laughter] sleep two hours, wake up and cry, sleep two hours, wake up and cry [laughter] so i mean pit sincerely it sincerely when i say thank you for the privilege of addressing you on a subject close to my heart and yours, the cause of Human Dignity in a world plagued with too much tyranny, too much injustice, too much violence, too much suffering with too much evil. Thats a rather dark introduction to my remarks, and i dont want you to think im disheartened or resigned to a world where suffering and evil are always on the ascent. On the contrary, its in the american character to see the good in things, to see the glass half full, to face adversity with hope and optimism. We must see plainly and fully the threats to our value ares in order to defeat them values in order to defeat them. But considering the remarkable global advances our values have made in our lifetime alone, we should have confidence in their continuing power and progress. I have always believed no matter how long it takes, how many setbacks are suffered, how resilient the forces of tyranny are are, the righteous will prevail. Those who terrorize and persecute and destroy can be overcome with moral and physical courage. We are on the right side of history, and we have been since our Founding Fathers forged a government that existed not to preserve the privileges of a regime or a class, but to protect peoples god given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Its also important to remember that our founding belief in in inherent Human Dignity is not limited to our own society, to the experiences of americans alone. We believe our political values to be universal. We believe that the dignity of all human life should be recognized and supported through shared respect and responsibilities. My friends, ive had differences of opinion over the years with former president jimmy carter who is in our prayers as he suffers ill health with grace and courage. But he was never more right or wiser than when he observed that america didnt invent human rights. Human rights invented america. And our allegiance to our country cant be separated from allegiance to our founding ideals and our conviction that they are the birthright of all mankind. We can manage to retain our freedoms while other populations are denied them, but not the sense of virtue that we refer to as american exceptionalism. And that made our revolution a moral as well as a political and military crusade. Accepting the degradation in other countries of values we believe are are god given and universal is to relinquish some of our own humanity. The older we get, the more we realize that the pursuit of genuine happiness is so much more than the experience of pleasure. It requires us to serve causes greater than selfinterest, causes that might encompass us but are not defined by our existence alone. I believe the same holds true for the conduct of nations as well as individuals. And no cause is greater than defending Human Dignity wherever it is threatened, at home or abroad. We are morally obliged to confront evil. That might seem obvious when it comes to terrorists who behead their innocent victims in front of cameras and murder us in our own country. But what is less obvious, in fact, what doesnt necessarily ring true to Many Americans, is that confronting evil is a much broader responsibility than killing terrorists who are trying to kill us. It includes the responsibility not to turn a blind eye to threats to the peace and security of our friends and allies and even to threats to people with whom we share nothing other than our own humanity. It includes, it includes opposing assaults on Human Dignity wherever they occur and whenever they occur. Our opposition cannot always be military, obviously. But it should always be clear in the conduct of our policies and our public and private diplomacy, in the material and rhetorical support we give the victims of tyranny and in our relations and communications with their oppressors. There is no more fundamental right in a free society than the free practice of religion. No society that denies religious freedom can rightly claim to be good in some other way, and no person can be true