brash and defiant and pioneering and joyful always to test the odds our most basic freedom religion speech and spirit embodied our ability to inventor selz. . .

, and i think we are right. thank you all for being here to share in his final farewell to mohammad. on behalf of the ali family but me first recognize our principle celebrant and also doctored timothy gm nod e.. [applause] we thank you for your dedication to helping us fulfill mohammad's desire for the ceremonies of this past week reflect the traditions of visit islamic faith. as a family we thank the millions of people who through the miracle of social media inspired by their love for mohammad have reached out to us with their prayers. the messages, that came in every language from every corner of the globe.

from wherever you are watching now that we have been humbled by your heartfelt expressions of love. it is only fitting that we gather in the city to which mohammad always returned after his great triumph, a city that has grown as mohammad has grown. [applause] mohammad never stopped loving louisville and we know that louisville love to mohammad. [applause] we cannot forget a louisville police officer joe aspe martin who embraced the young 12-year-old boy in distress when his bicycle was stolen. [applause]

he handed young cassius clay the keys to a future at doxing. he could scarcely have imagined. america must never forget that when a cop and an inner-city kid talk to each other, then miracles can happen. [applause] [applause] some struggle with parkinson's that included his closest advisers. mohammad indicated that when the end came for him, he wanted us to use his life as a teaching moment for young people, for his country and for the world. in effect he wanted us to remind people who were suffering that

he had seen the face of injustice, that he grew up in the segregation and during his early life he was not free to be who he wanted to be but he never became embittered enough to quit or two engages in violence. [applause] it was a time when a young black boy his age could be hung from a tree. emmett till in muddy mississippi in 1955 whose admitted killer went free. it was a time when mohammad's friends meant that he admired like rather malcolm, dr. king were kind -- gunned down and nelson mandela in prison for what believed in. [applause] for his part, muhammad face federal prosecution.

he was stripped of his title and is licensed to box and he was sentenced to prison but he would not be intimidated so as to abandon his principles and his values. [applause] muhammad wants young people of every background to see his life as proof that diversity can make you stronger. it cannot rob you of the power to dream and to reach your dreams. we built the muhammad ali center ali center and that is the essence of the ali center message. [applause] muhammad wants us to see the face of his religion, i'll is long, true islam is the face of love. was his religion that caused him to turn away from war and violence for his religion he was prepared to sacrifice all that

he had and all that he was to protect his soul and follow the teachings of prophet muhammad, peace be upon you. [applause] so even in death muhammad has something to say. he is saying that his faith required that he take the more difficult road. it is far more difficult to sacrifice oneself in the name of these then to take up arms in the pursuit of islands. [applause] you know all of his life muhammad was fascinated by travel. he was childlike in his encounter with new surroundings and new people. he took his world championship fight to the ends of the earth from the south pacific to europe, to the congo and of course with muhammad he believed it was his duty to let everyone

see him in person because after all he was the greatest of all time. [applause] the boy from grand avenue and louisville, kentucky grew in his wisdom when he discovered something new, that the world really wasn't lacquered white at all. it was filled with many shades of rich colors, languages and religions and as he moved with these around the world the rich and powerful were drawn to him but he was drawn to the poor and the forgotten. [applause] muhammad fell in love with the masters and he fell in love with him. in the diversity of men and their faith, muhammad saw the presence of god. he was captivated at the work of the dalai lama, by mother theresa and church workers who gave their lives to protect the poor.

when his mother died the range for multiple faiths to be represented at her funeral and he wanted the same for himself. we are especially grateful for the presence of the diverse faith leaders here today and i would like to ask them to stand once more and be recognized. [applause] thank you very much. [applause] [applause] as i reflect on the life of my husband, it's easy to see his most obvious talents. his majesty and the ring as he danced under those lights enshrined him as a champion for the ages. less obvious was his extraordinary sense of timing, his knack for being in the right

place at the right time seemed to be ordained by a higher power even though surrounded by jim crow, he was born into a family with two parents that nurtured and it encouraged him. he was placed on the path of the streams by a white cop and he had teachers who understood his dreams and wanted him to succeed olympic gold medal came in the world started to notice. a group of successful businessmen in louisville and louisville called a louisville sponsoring group saw his intention and helped him build a runway to launch his career. his timing was impeccable as he burst onto the national stage just as television was hungry for a star to change the face of sports. you know if muhammad didn't like the rules, he rewrote them. his religion, his name, his beliefs were his to fashion a

matter what the cost. the timing of his actions coincided with the broader shift in cultural attitudes across america particularly on college campuses. when he challenged the u.s. government on the draft his chance of success was slim to none. the timing of his decisions converge with the rising tide of discontent on the war. public opinion shifted in his direction followed by a unanimous supreme court ruling and a stunning reversal. [applause] he was free to return to the ring. when he traveled to central africa to reclaim his title from george foreman none of the sportswriters thought he could win. in fact most of them eared for his life but in what the africans called a miracle at 4:00 a.m. he became a champion once more. [applause]

and as the years passed muhammad was compelled by his faith to use his name and his notoriety to support the victims of poverty and strife. he served as a messenger of peace and travel to places like war-torn afghanistan. he campaigned as an advocate for third world debt. he stunned the world when he secured the release of 15 hostages from iraq. [applause] as his voice grew softer, his message he came full circle with the people of this country. when he bit a torch that seem to create good light and the 1996 olympics. [applause]

muhammad instinctively knew -- he lived in the moment. he neither dwelt in in the past or harbored anxiety about the future. muhammad love to laugh and he loves to play practical jokes on just about everybody. he was surefooted in a self-awareness, secure in his faith that he did not fear death. yet his timing is once again poignant. his passing in meaning for our time should not be overlooked. as we face uncertainty in the world of division at home as to who we are as a people, muhammad's life provides useful guidance. muhammad was not one to give up on the power of understanding, the boundless possibilities of love and the strength of our diversity. he counted among his friends people of all political

persuasions, such truth in all faith and the nobility of all races as witnessed here today. muhammad may have challenged his government but he never ran from it or from america. [applause] he loved his country and he understood the hard choices that are born to freedom. i think he saw a nation full measured by the soul of its people. for his part he saw the good soul and every one and if you are one of the lucky ones to have met him you know what i meant. he awoke every morning singing about his own salvation and he would often say, i just want to get to heaven and i've got to do a lot of good eats to get there. i think muhammad's hope is that his life provides some guidance on how we might achieve for all people what we aspire for ourselves and our families.

thank you. [applause] [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, maryum ali. [applause] >> peace be with you everyone here and on behalf of the ali family, i just want to say thank you to louisville, kentucky. all the love you have shown us in our lives has been unbelievable crud also want to thank the entire globe. my father loved all over. the processional today was overwhelming but it was so beautiful.

i just want to say we love you just like you love us. thank you very much. [applause] as you know my father was always rhyming and promoting his fights and he had spiritual poems and poems that promote and i just wrote a piece for him and honor of him on behalf of my sisters and brothers and everyone who loves my father. it's called think you are dear father. my heart was sore when your spirit soared. your physical body is no more but my mind tells the different tales of all that you taught me, your family and the masses. most importantly the belief in god who created humanity. you fight for a purpose to

uphold the principle that we as a people have divine human rights, staring right into the eyes of oppression you proclaimed your beautiful complexion. your god-given skills, your independent will and the freedom of your faith. as your daughter, i am grateful for all of our conversations about then, women and relationships guiding me to first have a loving relationship with self, or refusing anyone to chip away my -- and expects the respect of a queen. [applause] thank you our dear father for asking us to think about our purpose and showing us the beauty of service to others. we marvel that you're sincere

love for people as you traded all with dignity whether they were rich or poor. your kindness was unconditional. never perceiving anyone has been a few. so many have shared personal stories about what you have meant to them as you have exemplified values and qualities that have enhanced their lives. if i had every dollar for every story i could pay for this site. your family is so proud of the legacy you have left behind but i hope that the history of view can help turn the tide of self hate and violence because we are overwhelmed with moments of silence for tragic death. here on the soil, american soil, in the middle east or anywhere else in this world we crave for peace.

the peace that you rest in now. we will forever cherish the 74 years you grace to this. he will be greatly missed but now we sing in celebration, a blown kiss in prayer as you enter your final round. god's last spell will sound in heaven. i love you, we all of you. thank you very much. [applause] [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, rasheda ali walsh. [applause]

>> we are so honored that you have packed this room with your love. thank you all. [applause] thank you so much for being here today to celebrate our father. you were the greatest father to us and it was god's will to take you home. your family will try our best to make you proud and carry on your legacy of giving and love. you have inspired us and the world to be the best version of ourselves. may you live in paradise, free from suffering.

you shook up the world and life, now you are shaking up the world and death. [applause] daddy is looking at us now and saying i told you all i was the greatest. [applause] no one compares to you, daddy. you once said i know where i'm going and i know the truth and i don't have to be what you want me to be. i am free to be who i am. [applause] now you are free to be with your creator. we love you so much, daddy. until we meet again, fly butterfly, fly. [applause]

[applause] >> hello. i was born on muhammad ali's birthday. i was named after him. he used to call me the little greatest. we can all learn from muhammad's examples of kindness and understanding. when muhammad was asked how we would like to be remembered he said i would like for them to

say he took a few cups of love, one tablespoon of patience, one taste of generosity, one pint of kindness, he took one quart of laughter, one pension of concern and he mixed willingness of happiness. he added lots of faith and he stirred up well and he spread it over a span of a lifetime and he served it to each and every deserving person he met. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, natasha. [applause] >> before it began i would just like to say that i'm truly

humbled and honored to be here and i would like to thank the muhammad ali center and the ali family for giving me the opportunity to speak and to echo the voice muhammad has given me. so let me tell you a story about a man, a man who refused to believe that reality was limitation to achieve the impossible, a man who once reached up through the pages of a textbook and touched the hearts of an 8-year-old girl, whose reflection of herself mirrored those who could not see past the color of her skin. instead of drawing on that pain from the distorted reality, she found strength just as this man did when he stood tall in the

face of pelting rain and shouted i am the disturbance and a sea of comp licensee and i will never stop shaking your waves. [applause] and his voice echoed through hers, through mine and she picked up the rocks that were thrown at her and she threw them back with a voice so powerful that it turned all the pain that she had faced in her life into strength and tenacity and now that 8-year-old girl stands before you to tell you that ali's cry still shakes these waves today. [applause]

now we are to find strength in our identity whether we are black or white or asian or hispanic, lgbt, disabled or able-bodied muslim, jewish, hindu or christian. his cry represents those who have not been heard and invalidates the idea that we are to be conformed to one normative standard. [applause] that is what it means to defeat the impossible because impossible is not a fact. impossible is an opinion. in possible and possible is nothing. [applause]

when i look into this crowd i spiral. i smiled to recognize that he is not really gone. he lives in you and he lives in may and he lives in every person that he is touched in every corner of this world. [applause] reality was never a limitation for all a cover for us. impossible is never enough to knock us down because we are ali. [applause] we are greater than the rocks are the punches that we throw at each other. we have the ability empower and

inspire and to connect and to unify and that will live on forever. [applause] so let me tell you a story about a man. his name is mom and ali. he is the greatest of all time. [applause] he is from louisville kentucky and he lives in each and every one of us. [applause] and his story is far from over. thank you.

[applause] [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen john ramsey. [applause] >> first of all and a half of my fellow -- to the ali family we offer our condolences, our heartfelt prayers and four lonnie alia special prayer. we know that bomaco is blessed with many gifts but none more precious than lobby ali and -- lonnie ali and we thank you very much. [applause] when i was in the procession did and i saw the tens of thousands of people and all the warmth and the love and respect that was shown for my mom and that it got to tell you my heart swelled with pride.

i know he was watching from above and i know he absolutely loved it. [applause] but i don't think he would be surprised. i think muhammad would save louisville kentucky the greatest city of all time. i'm feeling good, man. i will tell you what how can we lose with the stuff we use? i am feeling so good i think i'm going to make a come back and change my name back to walnut street. that's a good i feel. [applause] you know for me i always felt connected to muhammad even though -- even for them at him. maybe it's the fact i was a local boy. maybe it's the fact that i love the local cardinals like muhammad. [applause] you know, but as their relationship evolves i found that a lot of people felt this personal connection with muhammad and that's part of the

ali magic. for a lot of men my age and certainly myself it was the athlete that i was attracted to. i mean that kind if agility, speed and grace not only not only not only made them to heavyweight champion the world three times but it made him "sports illustrated" sportsman of the century the ap athlete of the century, certainly made him the athlete, a once-in-a-lifetime athlete but i would argue that the combination of compassion, kindness, love and the ability to lift us up made him a once-in-a-lifetime person. [applause] baxam and was blessed with many gifts as i said that he was a wise and faithful steward of those gifts. their many stories about muhammad fares a couple that encapsulate for me what he was all about. in 2000 made a trip to the

summer olympics with baxam and an up one day he decided we were going to see a boxing match and i remember we were ringside, 15,000 people are chanting usa, usa and i thought this is my olympic moment. i was filled with patriotic pride. the boxer came down from the ring. he took the obligatory picture with muhammad. hundreds of for talkerson's -- photographers taking pictures and thousands of people taking pictures and muhammad being done to me whispered in my ear i want to see the loser. excuse me? i want to see the loser. so i motioned to an olympic official i said muhammad wants to see the loser can we go to the losers locking up wrecks we get to the losing locker room and there are not tens of thousands of people. there are not any photographers. there's just a kid sitting on a

stool with a towel around his neck. he is a bloody mouth under his eye or this has to be the lowest point of his athletic career at the very least. he probably felt like he left in this country cummings defeated in the five in that room was literally the lowest of the low. but then when muhammad walks in the kid recognizes them as simply an important anguish he said muhammad ali. muhammad started dancing and he said show me what you've got. muhammad starts putting out jabs in the kid starts ducking and smiling. muhammad grabs them in a bear hug and he said i saw what you did out there, you looked good. don't give up. i remember it warms my heart how we took this kid from here and he'll trim in an instant. [applause] i remember i got in the car and i said muhammad i tried to be a nice guy but i will have to tell

you i got caught up in up in the moment. i didn't get the losing fighter a second thought to muhammad you are the greatest. muhammad said tell me something i don't already know. [applause] what i don't want people to forget, no doubt to me he's the finest example of the human that i've ever seen, the finest example of the greatest human being either reseen of the kindest that human possesses. i was muhammad ali but don't forget about this muhammad was the coolest cat in a room. i mean he was good-looking, he had charm, he had charisma, he had swecker before he knew was wegger was. [applause] i remember 25 years ago he came to visit his mother and he wanted to go to outback steakhouse. he had a friend who is a big muhammad fan. it was a fireman's convention

and all of these guys had their engine numbers on their shirts. sure enough i have seen this thing a million times. i said muhammad if you would like that will play the bad guy and tell them to let you the back and you can sign autographs later. ali would have none of it. he said i will sign between bites. this one guy walked up and you could tell he was a big man. he knew muhammad. he was scared to death all this adrenaline flowing and he said champ i saw your stance against the vietnam war. i've got to tell you that you are my hero. i've had a picture of you at the firehouse. muhammad is only wanted to change the channel so we said to the guy you know you do for -- you are the real hero putting your life on the line and jumping and fires preview are the real hero and the fireman responds quickly, he knew all the big names. but you fight the bear son a-lister. you fight the rabid floyd patterson. you thought to george foreman.

you fought smokin' joe frazier. muhammad interrupts and he said yeah but joe wasn't really smoking. [applause] and i said muhammad that's a good line and he said you are right, write that down. it wasn't all about signing autographs and kissing babies. if there was a village of needed food in a third world country muhammad was on the plane will travel with chad. if there was a conflict and need to be part of the resolution again muhammad will travel. if -- as lonnie mentioned if there were hostages to be released muhammad was a man of action. what are my favorite quotes and i think it's right here in your program, muhammad said service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth and i just want to say champ, your rent is paid in full. your rent is paid in full.

[applause] your rent is paid in full. you know, in fact i think you paid it forward because he you have taught us to love rather than to hate to look for commonalities rather than differences and so therefore i think he is paying it forward for all of us. so as we all know now the fight is over but i'm here to tell you the decision is then and it is unanimous. because of muhammad ali the world went. thank you so much, muhammad. [applause] it is time for a man of peace to rest in peace. thank you so very much. [applause]

[applause] v ladies and gentlemen, billy crystal. [applause] >> thank you ladies and gentlemen. we are at the halfway point. [laughter] i was clean-shaven when this started. [laughter] dear lonnie, family and friends, mr. president, clergy and all the amazing people here in louisville. [applause] this outpouring of love and respect proves that 35 years after he stopped fighting he is

still the champion of the world. [applause] last week, when we heard the news, time stops. there was no war, there were no terrorists, no global catastrophes. the world stopped, took a deep breath and sighed. since then my mind has been racing through my relationship with this amazing man which is now 42 years that i've known him. every moment i can think of is cherished and while others can tell you if his of his accomplishments he wanted me to speak and tell you of some personal mess that we had to get a pretty met in the 1974. was just getting started as a stand-up comedian and struggling but i had one good routine. it was a three minute conversation between howard cosell and muhammad ali where i would imitate both of them. ali had just defeated george foreman and gain the heavyweight title.

sport magazine made him the man of the year and a wonderful writer and a great man was interviewed and was going to host a televised dinner honoring muhammad ali. they called my agent looking for comedian that did sports material. as fate would have it that comedian was not available and she wisely said its destiny, man. she wisely said the list and i have got this young kid and he does this great imitation of ali and cosell and he'd be perfect for you. i don't know why but he said okay, i will try him. if he stinks can cut them out of the show. i couldn't believe it. my first time on television and it would be with ali. i read the -- in the hotel i met mr. shafia became a part of my family and he said how should i introduce you? nobody knows who you are. and i said just say one of ali's closest and dearest friends. [laughter] my thought was i will get right

to the microphone and went into my howard cosell and i would be fine and i nervously went up to the ballroom and that's what i saw him for the first time in person. it's very hard to describe how much he meant to me. you had to live in his time. it's great to look at clips and it's amazing that we have them but to live in his time, watching his fights, experiencing the genius of his talent was absolutely extraordinary. everyone of his fights was an aura of a super bowl. he did things nobody would do. he predicted the round that he would knock somebody out and he did it. he was funny. he was beautiful. he was the most perfect athlete you ever saw and those were his own words. [laughter] but he was so much more than a fighter as time went on.

with bobby kennedy gone, martin luther king gone who was there to relate to women yet mom exploded in our face can wax there remains a dead man are age old to pull for the draft for war that we didn't believe in all of us huddled on the conveyor belt that was rapidly feeding the war machine but it was ali who stood up stood up rest by standing up for himself. after he was stripped of his title -- [applause] after he was stripped of his title and the right to fight anywhere in the world, he gave speeches at colleges and on television that totally reach me. he seemed as comfortable talking to kings and queens as the unrequited. he never lost a sense of humor even after he lost everything else. he was eyes himself, willing to give up everything for what he believed in. his passionate rhetoric and the plight of black people in our country resonated strongly in my house. i grew up in the house a house that was dedicated civil rights. mike father was a producer of jazz concerts and one of the

dash jazz musicians refer to my dad is the branch ricky of jazz. my uncle and my family, jewish people produced strange fruit. billie holliday's classic song describing the lynching of african-americans in this country. and so i felt him and there he was just a few feet from me. i couldn't stop looking at him and he seemed to glow and it was in slow motion. his amazing face smiling and laughing. i was seated a few seats from him on the dais and in the room and there were individual sports and great ones. ..

i rose, ali still staring at me. i went right into howard coast sell. hello, everybody, howard cosell live from zaire. some pronounced sayre, they're wrong. it got big laughs. and then i went into the ali. every talk about george foreman, george forehappy is ugly. so slow, overall was slow, and then i did rope-a-dope georgeed and i'm so fast, so fast i can turn out the lights and be in my bed before the room gets dark. [laughter] >> howard, i'm announcing got

new religious beliefs. from now on i want to be known as izzy iskowitz. i am now at orthodox jew. i am the greatest of all-time. the audience exploded. no one had ever done before, and her i was a white kid from long island immating the greatest or all-time and he was loving it. when i was done, he gave me is in big bear hug and whispered in my ear, you're my. brother. [laughter] >> which is what he always called me until the last time i saw him. we were always there for each other. he needed me issue was there he came to anything i asked him to do. most memorable. he was an honorary chairman for a dinner and a very important event where i was being honored by the hebrew university in jerusalem. he did all of this promotion for it. he came to the dinner. he sat with my family the entire evening.

he took photographs with everybody. the most famous muslim man in the world, honoring his jewish friend. [applause] -- and because he was there, because he was there, we raised a great deal of money. and i was able to use it to endow the university in jerusalem with something that i told him about. and it was something that he loved theory of and is thrives. peace through the performing arts amphitheater groups where israeli, arab and palestinian actors, wrighters and directors, worth together in peace, creating original works of art. [applause] and that doesn't happen without him. i had so many, so many funny, unusual moments with him. sat next to him on howard cosell's funeral. a very somber day to be sure.

closed casket on the stage. we were sitting next to each other. and he quietly whisperer to me, little brother, do you think he's wearing his hair piece? [laughter] so i said, i don't think so. then how will god recognize him? [laughter] so i said, champ, once he open obama -- opens his mouth, god will no. then we started laughing and we couldn't contain ourselves. we were at a funeral. me with muhammad ali, laughing like two little killeds who heard something dirty in --ment kids who heard something dirty in church.

then he said, howard was a good man. one time he asked me if i like would to run with him one morning, do rope work, and he said i run on a golf course in the morning, it's very private. nobody bothers me. we'll have a great time. said, champ, i can't run there. the club has a reputation for being restrictive. well restricting me. they don't allows jew there. they don't have any jewish members. he was incensed. i'm a black muss him and they let me run there. little brother, i'm never going to run there again. and he didn't. [applause] >> my favorite enemy ray -- memory was 1979. he just retired and there was a party for muhammad and one of his closest friend friends in

los angeles. i play him from the age of 18 until he is 36. ready for at the rematch with leon sphynx. i posted it on the internet last week, footage nobody had seen of me portraying ali, doing his life for him, all those years ago in 1979. 20,000 people there. but i was doing it only for him. it's one of my favorite performances i've ever done. got lost in him. i didn't even know where i was. at the end of the performance. and suddenly i'm back stage with another heavyweight champion, richard pryor, and pryor is holding on to me crying, and then i see ali coming. and he's got a full head of steam and looking only at me, and numbered mr. pryor aside and whispered in my ear with a big bear hug, little brother you made my life better than it was. but didn't he make all of our lives a little bit better than

they were? [applause] that, my friends, is my history with a man that labored to come up with a way to describe the legend. he was a tremendous bolt of lightning. created by mother nature out of then air. a fantastic combination of power and beauty. we have seen still photographs of lightning bolts at the moment of impact, ferocious in strength, magnificent in its elegance and to moment of impact it lights up everything around it. you can see everything clearly. muhammad ali, struck news the middle of america's darkest night, and the heart of its most threatening gathering storm. his power toppled the miteyest of foes and his intense light signed on america, and we were able to see clearly injustice, inequality, poverty,

self-realization, courage, laughter, love, joy, and religious freedom for all. ali forced us to take a look at ourselves. this brash young man who thrilled us, angered us, confused and challenged us, ultimately became a silent messenger of peace, who taught us that life is best when you build bridges between people, not walls. [applause] my friends, only once in a thousand years or so do we get to hear a mozart or see a picasso, read a shakespeare, ali was one of them. and yet, at his heart, he was still a kid from louisville, who ran with the gods and walked with the crippled' and smiled at

the foolishness of it all. [applause] he is gone. but he will never die. he was my big brother. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, bryant gumbel. [applause] >> the great miya angelou, who was herself no stranger to fame, wrote that ultimately people

forget what you said and people will forget what you did, but that know one will ever forget how you made them feel. as applied to muhammad ali, the march of time may one day diminish his boast and his poetry, maybe even his butterflies and bees. it may even one day dull the memories of the "thrilla in manila" and the rum "rumble in the jungle." but i doubt any of us will ever forget how muhammad ali made us feel. i'm not talking about how proud he made you feel with his exploits. or how special he made you feel when you were privileged enough to be in his company. i'm talking about how he gripped

our hearts and our souls and our conscience, and made our fight his fight for decades. people like me, who were once young, semi gifted and black, will never forget what he freed within us. some of us like him took pride in being black, bold and brash, and because we were so up paul -- unapologetic, we were in the eyes of many way too uppitiy. we were way too arrogant. yet we reveled in being like him. by stretching society's boundaries as he did he give us levels of strength and courage we didn't even know we had.

but ali's impact was not limited to those of a certain race. or a certain religion. or of a certain mindset. the greatness of this man for the ages was that he was in fact a man for all ages. has any many ever had a greater arc to his life? what does it say of a man, any man, that he can go from being viewed as one of his country's most polarizing figures to arguably its most beloved. [applause] and to do so without changing his nature or for a second compromising his principles.

yeah, you know, there were great causes, great national movements, huge divisions, that afforded ali unusual opportunities to symbolize our struggles. but harry trump had it right when he said -- harry truman had it right when he said men make history and not the other way around. or as loren hill so nicely put it, consequence is no co incidence. befitting his stature as the goat, muhammad ali never shied away from a fight. he fought not just the biggest and badest men of his day, inside the ropes, but outside the ring he also went toe to toe with an array of critics, a seemingly endless succession of societal war, the architects of

a vial, immore war, the u.s. government. he even fought ultimately to his detriment the limitations of father time. strictly speaking, fighting is what he did. but he broadened the definition by sharing historyings with us and by viewing our struggles as his. and so it was that at various times he accepted and led battles on behalf of his race, in support of his generation, and in defense of his religious beliefs, and ultimately in spite of his disease. i happened to have been overseas working in norway this past week, my buddy, matt, called and told me the champ had been taken to the hospital.

this time it was really serious. right away i called lonnie. who was, as always, a pillar of strength. as we discussed the medical details, the doctors' views and the ugly realities of mortality, lonnie said, bryant, the world still needs him. and indeed it does. the world needs a champion would always worked to bridge the economic and social divides that threaten a nation that he dearly loved. the world needs a champion that always symbolized the best of its sons, to offset a hatred born of fear.

the world needs a champion who believed in fairness and inclusion for all. hating people because of their color is wrong, ali said, and doesn't matter which color does the hating. just plain wrong. [applause] yeah, we do need muhammad ali now. we need the strength, the hope, the compassion, the conviction, that he always demonstrated. but this time our beloved champion is down. and for once he will not get up. not this time. not ever again. let me close with a quick personal story. 50 years ago, muhammad ali defeated george tavalo in

tornado, canada. the -- toronto, canada. the very next day he showed up in my hyde park neighborhood on the south side of chicago. as ali got out of a carne driveway of the home of elijah muhammad, i happened to be next door, shooting hoops in a friend's backyard. i of course quickly ran to the fence, and for the first time in my life, i shook the champ's hand. i was 17. i was awestruck, and, man, thought he was the greatest. now half a century and a lifetime of experiences later, i am still awestruck. and i'm convinced more than ever that muhammad ali is the greatest.

[applause] to be standing here, by virtue of his and lonnie's request, mind-numbing. the honor that ali has done me today, as he goes to his grave, is one that i will take to mine. god bless you, champ. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the 42nd president of the united states, the honorable william jefferson clinton. [applause]

>> thank you. i can just hear muhammad saying now, well, i thought i should be eulogized by at least one president. and by making you last in a long, long, long line, i guarantee you a standing ovation. i'm trying to think of what has been left unsaid. first, lonnie, i thank you and the members of the family for telling me he actually, as bryant said, picked us all to

speak and giving me a chance to come here. i thank you for what you did to make the second half of his life greater than the first. [applause] i thank you for the muhammad ali center and what it has come to represent to so many people. here's what i'd like to say. i spent a lot of time now as i get older and older and older, trying to figure out what makes people tick, how do they turn out the way they are, how do some people refuse to become victims and rise from every defeat. we've all seen the beautiful pictures of the home muhammad

ali was a boy in, and people visiting and driving by. i think he decided something i hope every young person here will decide. i think he decided very young to write his own life story. [applause] i think he decided before he could possibly have worked it all out, and before fate and time could work their will on him, he decided that he would not be ever disempowered. he decided that not his race nor his place nor the expectations of other positives, negatives, or otherwise, would strip from

him the power to write his own story. he decided first to use these stunning gifts, his strength and speed in the ring, his wit and way with words, and managing the public. and his mind and heart to figure out at a fairly young age who he was, what he believed, and how to live with the consequences of acting on what he believed. a lot of people might get to steps one and two, and still just can't quite manage living with the consequences. of what he believed. for the longest time, in spite of all the wonderful thing that have been said here, i remember thinking when i was a kid, this

guy is so smart, and he never got credit for being as smart as he was. and then -- [applause] -- i don't think he ever got the credit for being, until later, as wises he was. in the end, besides being a lot of fun to be around, and basically universal soldier for our common humanity, i will always think of muhammad as a truly free man of faith. and being a man of faith, he realized he would never be in full control of his life. something like parkinson's could come along. but being free he realized that

life still was open to choice. it is the choices that muhammad ali made that have brought us all here today and honor and love. and the only other thing i'd like to say, that we ought to think about. that the first part of his life was dominated by the triumph of his truly unique gifts. we should never forget them. we should never stop looking at the movies. we should thank will smith for making his movie. we should all be thrilled. it was a thing of beauty. but the second part of his life was more important because he refused to be imprisoned by a disease that kept him hamstrung

longer than mel son mandela was kept in prison in south africa. that is, in the second half of his life, he perfected gifts that we all have. every single, solitary one of us, has gifts of mind and heart. it's just that he found a way to release them in ways large and small. i asked lonnie if she remembered the time when they were still living in michigan, and i gave a speech in southwest michigan, an economic club there, and sort of a ritual, when a president leaves office, and you had to get reacclimated. nobody plays a song when you walk into a room anymore. you don't note what your supposed to do. and this club, called the

economic club, i think. they're used to acting like you still deserve to be listened to and. so they came and sat with me at this dinner, and he knew, somehow he knew that i was a little off my feed that night. i was trying to imagine how to make this new life, and so he told me a really bad joke. and he told it so well and laughed so hard that i totally got over it and i had a great time. he had that feel about -- you know, there's no textbook for that. knowing where somebody else is in their head. picking up the body language. then lonnie and muhammad got me

to come here when he had the dedication of the muhammad ali center and i was trying to be incredibly old gray-hairedded, older statesman, dignified, and i'm saying all this stuff? very high tones, language, and muhammad sneaks up behind me and puts his fingers up. finally after all the years we had been friends, my enduring image of him is like a little reel in three shots. the boxer i thrilled to as a boy, the man i watched take the last steps to light the olympic flame when i was president, and

i i'll never forget it. i was sitting there in that. we knew each other and i felt i had some sense of what he was living with and i was still weeping like a baby, seeing his hand shake and his legs shake and knowing, by god, he was going to make the last few steps no matter what it took. the flame would be lit. this fight would be won. his spirit would be apparent. i knew it would happen. [applause] and then this. the children whose lives he touched. the young people he inspired. the most important thing of all. so i ask you to remember that. we all have an ali story. it's the gift we all have.

that should be most honored today. because he released them to the world. never wasting a day that the rest of us could see, anyway, feeling sorry for himself that he had parkinson's. knowing that more than free decades of his life would be circumscribed in ways that would be chilling to the naked eye, but with the free spirit, it made his life bigger, not smaller, because other people, all of us, unlettered, unschooled, in the unleashing said, well, would you look at that. look at that. may not be able to run across a ring anymore, may not be able to dodge everybody and exhaust everybody anymore. he is bigger than ever. because he is a free man of

faith, sharing the gift we all have. we should honor him by letting our gift go among the world as he did. god bless you, my friend. go in peace. [applause] >> there will be time for that. right now is the time for silence.

so, will everyone rise and observe a period of silence, reflect on what the champ meant to you as the ali family exits.

>> ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. [applause] >> be seated. be seated. be seated. the program is not over. we're trying to create space for the family to be able to exit in peace. please be seated. we need -- we want to make prayer, we want to share something before we close the

program, so please be seated. as we move towards the end of the program, which will occur in a couple of minutes, i would be remiss if i didn't say the following: indeed, as we all know, and anyone who lives within a ghetto or a barrio here in the united states, that indeed there are violent, racist, reckless, policemen. that's a fact. but there also are policemen and women who are dedicated professionals, who are compassionate, who have great concern for their community, and i can say with all honesty and openness, during my past week here in louisville, kentucky, or past five days, myself, my wife,

everyone that i have spoken to, has commented on the professionalism, the dignity, of the policemen here, and women, in louisville, kentucky. [applause] that we have interacted with. and i'm sure there are bad apples here, too, but as they say, one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch. now, they asked me to make a prayer to close this service, but reverend cosby threw down the gauntlet. with that poem. so, i'm going to have to respond. this poem was written muhammad ali's house, and muhammad ali was the first one to hear this poem. and i'm glad mike tyson left.

it's two parts. part one is ali, the fighter. he floated like a butterfly stang like bee. the greatest fighter this world has yet to see. his opponentsed agree on one thing, they greater fed the ring with ali your life was in danger that night. had he lived during the time of jack johnson, joe luis, martian know some some melling his superiority would be telling. had he fought tyson or hollyfield at the height of his career, on their on the list of heavyweight champions their payment noot appear. if randier could box he would have naught -- if presidents could fight he would have fought richmond nixon, his left was relent, he beat people so bad he had to engage in acts of repentance so when you discuss who was the greatest heavyweight of all-time, to mention any name other than ali's is a crime.

[applause] >> part two is ali the man. with the grace of a butterfly, and the tenacity of a bee, he struck many a blow against injustice and indignity, and inequality. coming of age during a time of legal segregation, he came to embody the highest values of the nation. standing up for the truth, defined the war mongering throng, he declared i ain't got no quarrel with them viet cong. he refused to pull the trigger. he said ain't no viet cong ever called me nigge re. knowing when to attack and when to retreat he brought an entire nation to its feet. not to cheer for his exploits going down in the ring but to

fall right in line with malcolm and king, willing to give up his title, the money, the light, he dedicated himself to a higher fight. the fight for truth and justice, to liberate lanes occupied by the highest court in the land his case would not be denied. with a heart made of gold and a spirit to match, he was able to rebuild his life almost starting from scratch. with the torch of love and the flame of good, he lit the fire of hope in the hearts of many boys and girls in the hood. not knowing the word, i can't, he was never deterred, and because of his example, many a dream was not deferred. on the heart of every life he touched, he left an indelible stamp and he will always be known as the people's champ. [applause]

now, we have to make the prayer. muhammad ali's spirit, his body is down, but his spirit is up. and it will stay up as long as we keep it up. and we keep it up as long as we live with the grace and dignity he lived with. as long as we love with the passion he loved with. as long as we share and care and give with the boundless generosity he exemplified. so god, as we leave this hall and depart from this august gathering, may have we be blessed do love as he loved. to live as he lived. to share as he shared. to care as he cared. to the extent of our various capacities, and to float as

freely as he floated. god bless, and blessings and peace upon muhammad. good evening,. [applause]st over an hour.

[inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon, everyone. welcome back. if i could ask everyone to take their seats. we'll get started with our program once again for the 2016 arms control association annual meeting. i'm darryl kimball. still the executive director of the arms control association and

very happy to see an even larger set of people here. we have for those of you having a hard time with seating we have after joan flow room -- an overflow room in the building. and we have the privilege and honor to have with us for our second keynote address, someone who has been involved in the are particular layings and implementation of president obama's strategy to address the threats posed by nuclear weapons, the dep any national security advisor for security, benjamin rhodes. ben is a long-time and key member of president obama's national security team. from the period preceding president obama's april 5, 2009 speech in prague on his vision regarding the steps towards the peace and security of the world without nuclear weapons, to president barack obama's historic visit just ten days ago to the peace park where he recognized and reflectioned on

the tremendous suffering of that war and the meaning of the atom county bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki which we heard about this morning from a survivor. we have asked them to come here today, about sevenears after the prague address to review and reflect on what the president has accomplished over the past several years, a lot has been accomplished. we have asked ben to talk about why that's important. for the world, for u.s. security, and perhaps what more the president and his team believe needs to be accomplished. as the president said, in his eloquent remarks in hiroshima, quote, persistent effort can roll back the possibility of catastrophe. we can chart to course that leads to the destruction of the stockpiles. we can stop the spread to new nations, and secure deadly materials from fanatics.

and thanks to probe-'s leadership efforts a great deal has been accomplish evidence but even as he has acknowledged there's much more to be done, and on behalf of all our arms control association members here today, and i know many others out there who have been concerned about these issues, let me just say, of ben, we hope the president can and will use the power of his office in the months that remain to take the inspiring message from hiroshima toed a veins further common sense steps that would move us closer to a world without nuclear weapons. so, we thank you for being with us here today. taking time out of your busy schedule, and we appreciate your personal contributions to these issues and we look forward to your remarks. please come up to the podium, and after wards we'll take questions from reporters who are here, and then we'll take questions from the general

audience on three by five cards on your table, and the staff will collect them and we'll try to get to as many of them as possible. so, ben, thank you for being here. >> well, thank you, darryl, for inviting me here today. anyone who has worked on arms control issues in government, which includes some people in this room, gets used to receiving occasional thousand world e-mail from darryl. usually laying out exactly what we should be doing and i thought the arms control association could save a lot of additional time by just publishing your collected e-mails every quarter as the road map for the u.s. government. i want to thank you, though, sincerely and all the other group here's for your tireless advocacy on these issues, and as i said in a note to darryl, and i'll come back to this in my remarks, but when you go to heir

row seem mark it gives you an -- hiroshima it gives you greater appreciation of the work done by the aways control association and many others. i just want to begin to set the context with a quick story about a different time and a very different presidential campaign from the current one. nine years ago in december of 2007, i recently left the will son center for a job as a speech operator for then senator obama. if you can believe it, some people were calling me young and inexperienced back then. and i had a lot more hair. that's the problem with these events, everybody i know looks the same and i always feel like i look older, but that summer and fall, a key issue in the campaign was the iraq war. and then senator obama's on is to it from the beginning. and october 2, 2007, the campaign was gearing up to mark the five-year anniversary of a speech that obama gave opposing the iraq war in 2002, where he warned of an occupation of undetermined length, with undetermined costs and undetermined consequences.

but instead of giving a speech he canada to prepare a speech about the need to pursue a different foreign policy course, and the centerpiece of the speech was a call for the united states to pursue a world without nuclear weapons and to engage in direct diplomacy with iran over its nuclear program. and we even had the incomparable ted sorensen introduce senator obama, calling on the united states to rethink our approach to nuclear weapons in the cold war. the first of many efforts we made to follow the path laid in that american university speech. so as we enter the home stretch of the obama presidency, it's worth remembering that he came into office with a very personal commitment to pursuing diplomacy and taking arms control seriously. the first major foreign policy speech he gave is a president focused on the issues, putting more meat on the bones what he talked about as a candidate. and now this early focus was also rooted in concerns about

the status quo in 2009, and north korea recently conducted a nuclear test, iran was steadily advancing its nuclear program. mer's own commitment to arms control had been called into question for a variety of reasoning including the withdrawal from the treaty and our nuclear guidance under the bush administration, and nuclear security effort wes felt were lagging behind our other counterterrorism policy. the central objective of the prague speech was to put nonproliferation, nuclear security and diplomacy back where they belong, at the center of american national security policy. we got a stark reminder the night before the speech when north korea tested a missile. that was in first time i had to meet the president of the united states in the middle of the night after he had been woken up and was in a sparse blue tent in a hotel in prague, not exactly the glamor one dreams about but helped drive home for us the seriousness of these issues. so today i'd like to revisit the

prague speech and the prague agenda. what we said we would do in that speech, what we have done and what we haven't done, and i'll be straightforwards up front. i know that the work is uncomplete. i've read enough of darryl's e-mails and many of your words to know there are areas where many people in this room would like us to do more. and i'll get to that. and i'm glad that's the case. as i said, having been to hiroshima i would like there to be more people and organizations consistently pressing for bolder action on these issues itch think that president obama has set and followed a course that has profoundly changed the status quo that he inherited. and one of the overarching objectives of the prague speech was to create a sense of urgency. as the president said in that speech, more nations have acquired these weapons, terrorists are determined to buy, build or steal one, our efforts to contained these are in other worded on a nonrow live regime but as people and nations

break the rule's we could reach the point where the center, not hold so this disease threats required efforts in coordination so we weren't just taking individual pieces but trying to look at the issue broadly and act broadly. against that backdrop let me just review the three broad objectives that the president set in prague. what we have done, and then what we remain to do in our term and would hope happens in the future. the first, we believe we have made a substantial progress in securing vulnerable nuclear materials around the worlds. in the most urgent danger we face today i a terrorist organization acquiring a nuclear weapon or the materials to make one. that is why the president launched the nuclear security summit process so that this issue would be elevated within our own system, within other governments, and on the international agenda. since that first summit in washington, 3.8 tons of enriched ded uranium -- enough

material for 150 nuclear weapons. 14 nation and taiwan have disposeses of their highly enrich evidence uranium. when poland and indonesia fulfill their commitment the same will be truthful central europe and southeast asia. so these are not headline grabbing event, one country who destroyed it was ukraine and contributes to global security that it does not include access to nuclear material. at the same time, we have strengthened international efforts to counter-nuclear smuggler. there are now more than 100 nations nations in the initiative and we have been able to work with these countries. with our partners we have installed radiation detection equipment in more than 300 international border crossings, airports and importants, and terribly 102 nations joined the amendment to the convention on the physical protection of nuclear material which allowed that treaty amendment to come

into four on may 8th. so there's a lot more work to be done on these issues which i'll get to in a few minutes but we secured important commitments, strengthened institutions instid hope we developed habits of cooperation that will outlive this administration in waits that make the world safer. the second the president has taken steps towardses his vision of this path of security of a world without nuclear weapons. to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in america's own security strategy we revised our policy to make-under cheer he would not use nuclear weapons against a nonnuclear nation and meat the onlitive of -- made the deterrence the sole purpose of our arsenal and rulessed the possibility of attack to help avoid catastrophic misjudgment. the new start treaty which must be met by february of 2018, include significant reductions in u.s. and russian deployed nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

the treaty includes an ongoing comprehendingsive verification regime and precisely at tmeses when there are tensions between the united states and russiaes when we need to be grateful for strong averages control agreements that come with the verification imbedded there are now just over 4500 nuclear weapon thursday our stockpile. 85% -- the lowers it's been in several decades. he further determined we can sustain our deterrent while deploying extractishing under nuclear weapons by a third. we have continued to step by step pursuit of a world wife nuclear weapons and philadelphia our agreement. this leads me to the third objective laidout in prague which is fortifying the global nonproliferation regime in prague the president put forward several principles. president obama said that we needed more resources and authority to strengthen international inspections. and the united states provided

more funding for the eye iaea, investing in security fundings, exalt of inspectors and the peaceful use initiative announces testify 2010 conference. president obama said we should build a framework for civil nuclear cooperation, including an international fall -- fuel bank so countries can -- we have reach self new fremonts with other countries, including vietnam, and we have supported the iaea in kazakhstan and their efforts to open a fuel bank that can serve as a supplier of last resort for countries to fuel peaceful reactor, and finally president obama said we need real and immediate consequences for countries caught breaking the rules or leave the treaty without cause and since then he dedicated an enormous amount of time and effort tadpoling through on the principle. and indeed much of the word we did at the outsed of the administering -- out set of the administration set the context for the capacity to hold a

country like iran accountable for failing to meet its commitments. we had affirmed our own commitment to meet our obligations to the new start negotiations we security support for the prague agents through a urn security council resolution a session chaired by the president in 2009. president obama said in prague we will support iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy with -- and demonstrates our withing nose for -- we presented clear evidence of iran's violation, its development of a covert facility. all of those efforts allow evidence us to make the case to other nations and at the u.n. that imposing consequences on iran was not simply a national security interest of the united states. this wasn't a bilateral issue, a bilateral concern or regional one but was essential to the np and a world becaused

international order there there be consequences for violations and the president made sure to say that sanctions was a means to an end, mean to strengthen diplomat with iran. we had numerous falls -- false startment busts follow -- the he ickes of president rouhani there was an opening and we took that opening to pursue negotiations. of court it took awhile to negotiate this negotiations dem mott statement ited the enormous value of having both extraordinary diplomats and experts at the table to solve hard problems and here, again issue think the tag team of john kerry and moniz holds a great example for the future in terms of howl we address these issues and i will tell you that we all found ourselves in meetings with ernie moniz that felt like basic nuclear physics lessons. he was at the level of detail but ultimately that made an enormous amount of difference. and in that process we benth

fitted from support from groups outs of the government. there's been a little commentary about this recently but the obvious truth is this. the white house did not have to convince the arms control association or nibblings to defend the iran deal. you thought about these issues for many years. you advocated for diplomacy, you shared ideas about what a deal could look like before we even had one and that helped in the negotiations. and again i think that's an underappreciated element of the work that what done. we had tough issues to solve in many different areas around verification, around how we think about the design of the iranian program, and we were able to draw from the advice of outsiders in thinking through ways to get over the hurtful that was set -- to get around a challenge in the negotiations. and so all of that input was essential. and so,ey, the arms control association and many other allies successfully defended the deal because it was a good deal.

then went back to criticizing other aspects of our nuclear policy afterwards. for critics aisles easier to have a debate about messaging than the results of the deal itself because the results singh for themselfed. iran has taken significant steps to roll back its program, and cut off its pathways to a nuclear weapon. steps that have been verified with through iaea. these are facts and they match how we describe the deal. to address the enriched uranium pathway, iran replaced 2/3 of this centrifuges and shipped 98 of their stick poile out of the done trip enough for ten nuclear bombs. the stockpile is now less than 300-kilograms of uranium. and this activity is under 24/7 monitoring and to address the plutonium pathway iran removed the core of its racketer and filled it with concrete,

rendering it wholly inoperable now and in the future. so before the keel, iran's breakout time to gain enough material to boiled one nuclear weapon was two or three months. today i would take a year and if they cheat we'll know because this -- the most complex -- continued to indicate that iran is acting in line with it commitments and iaea inspectors remain on the end grounden conducting young verification and monitoring activelies, keeping a watchful eye on iran's entire nuclear supply, from billing and mining to spent fuel. so, again, part of what we were able to do is learn from past efforts, learn from some of the challenges in north korea, and try to think through ways to design a very, regime that was much broadded and income passed

the entire nuclear supply chain and hopefully this mail be a type of model that could be drawn from the in the future... the truth is iran took up an enormous amount of time and energy building the sanction regime, negotiating that deal and ensuring it could be implemented. i know there other areas where more work needs to be done. let me touch on a few of those and give you a sense of a sense of how we are looking at the last seven months. i think president obama has shown that he is not unwilling to work through the tape as it will.

we have many sports metaphors, i'll add that to it. we have not stop the advance of north korea's nuclear program. the continued testing of both nuclear weapons and missile systems by the north koreans is the most serious proliferation challenge we face today. the most recent resolution does include the toughest sanctions i've ever faced. if implemented we believe it can have a significant difference. it's a further indication that the international community, including china's taken very seriously the provocations coming out of north korea. we have also worked hard to cut up north korea's capacity to sell materials overseas. trying to break their relationships to some of their defense partners, shipments, and tightening and that among north

korea so that they are not the proliferator they have sought to be in the past. we have advanced our missile defense systems in northeast asia. this will be a top priority through the end of this demonstration and for the next indeed. we have not been able to lock in for the stockpile reductions beyond the start. given her interest in pursuing that reductions with russia, the largest obstacle has been president putin's unwillingness to come to the table. indeed, given all that has happened between our two countries it's easier to forget the main reason we canceled the summit and 2013 as we had nothing of substance to talk about this particular space. we have not been able to secure all vulnerable nuclear material. this effort has been impacted by russia's reduced enthusiasm for shared initiative along with others who proceed cautiously. moreover, pakistan has opposed efforts to negotiate a treaty of its material for nuclear weapons. we have not been able to ratify the test -- in getting that

through was that easy, many people assume may have scars from that fight and it seemed like a tough one until the iran one. but then, following the 2010 midterm elections the composition of the center change. we had not seen a viable pathway in the senate. finally, i know the skill of our planned modernization program has generated debate and opposition in the arms-control community. even improv president obama is clear about the need to sustain a strong deterrence. we have also invested in systems that make them less relevant to strategic planning. we takes her sleeve the argument for been made on different sides of the issue. where does that leave us? i can promise you today that president obama is continuing to review a number of ways that he can advance the prague agenda over the course of the next seven months. presently, our work is not done on these issues. it is not close to come for this is something that we are actively working and actively

reviewing a number of different proposals. with respect her stockpile, president obama already decided to accelerate the dismantlement of retired nuclear warheads by 20 percent. we'll continue to look at how we address our nondeployed weapons. we will continue to review if there are additional steps that can be taken to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our own strategies and to reduce the risk of inadvertent use. while senate ratification is not going to happen this year, we will continue to consider ways to affirm the international norm against testing nuclear weapons. that is something we can do with our international partners. we will focus on nuclear security, working to put morning clear interior under appropriate monitor and security regimes and institutionalize the cooperation the president advanced to the summit. finally, it is simple fact that the modernization plan was put together in a different budget environment, with a different congress, and varied expectations of our arms control efforts going for. the ministration has made our

concerns that the budget will have difficult trade-offs in the coming decades. so the president will continue to review these plans as he considers how he wants to hand the baton off to his successor. this is something that we will also be continuing to look very carefully at. the other thing the president will do is speak about these issues as he recently did in hiroshima. one of the questions they usually get is whether the president should have put board such such an ambitious, idealistic vision and prod. why put forward a host of goals knowing full well that not all of them would be achieved even in two terms of office. let me close why that idealism is entirely necessary. first, in a city, washington, and worlds, where young stars have to settle for half a loaf, you sometimes have to start by pursuing the very biggest local possible. the goal set by progress still

big but they could make the stork progress look smaller. that's fine. as the president recently repeated in hiroshima, we may not achieve the goals of without deadly weapons in our lifetime, it then darrell has argued with me about the formulation that we can set a course and we can do what we can with our time and set a pathway that makes it easier for that course to be followed in the future. second, let me return to that john f. kennedy speech at american university where he said the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war. frequently the words of the pursuers follow deaf ears. of course those course those words are just as true today. that is why it's imperative that we force these issues backing into the public conversation, push back into the fatalism that suggest it's not with the effort. that we do our part is the president said in hiroshima to feed a moral wakening on these issues. again, the further we get from the use of a nuclear weapon, or the more distant some of the

challenges in the world may seem from the united states, the easier it is to get complacent. sometimes i think it takes putting for significant vision and forcing of conversation that would not otherwise happen to make the progress that is necessary. the present make clear in hiroshima, ensuring a new entrée nuclear weapon is never used again is not simply a matter of arms control, it is a a matter of how and when we are able to choose peace over war. no president or even successor of presidents can fulfill the prague agenda in a vacuum. it will require operation from congress, it will require a change a change in global dynamics, just as we are able to reach an agreement with iran, it will require continued work with respect to our relationship with russia, continue progress even when it seems retracts a bill in peninsula. the ability to pursue diplomacy in south asia and beyond.

ultimately, the diplomatic work that allows for trust to be built is just as essential as the arms-control work that charts a pathway and ultimate destruction of stockpiles and nuclear weapons. that again is the core message the president had in hiroshima, this combination of people with arms-control efforts coupled with the need to reinvigorate the efforts to avoid the type of calm flicked the retract ability people seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and tragically a nation using nuclear weapons. so it's it's very easy to say that's impossible. it's very easy to say that we can't possibly envision how we are going to get around some of the structural impediments to eliminate nuclear weapons today. but, if you go to hiroshima, that tells you that history can change and it should change.

we're driving in for from the airport, we were surprised to see huge a very friendly crowds greeting the presidential motorcade. it is not something we could have imagined seven years ago that the united states and japan would have a friendship like they do today. presidential motorcade's dry pretty fast but every now and then you're able to lock in on a face in the crowd. for me it was a small japanese boy was smiling and holding a sign that said in english, welcome to your shema. when you see that, course you think about what would happen to that child 31 years ago he was standing in the same place. but you also think about the necessity of the work that is done to assure that never happens. and it's work that includes what we are doing to fulfill a vision related to arms-control but also

what we're doing to force the type of relationship that we have with japan. and that we have sought to build with many other countries around the world. so, let me conclude by saying the work that is done by groups is essential to this effort. dealing with that governments are able to pay attention is one citizens citizens and civil society and never to see groups insist their voice be heard. ultimately if you put this to the people everywhere, generally they would favor a world without nuclear weapons and a world without that looming catastrophe. we do have the assurance that this is the right work to be doing and their differences about tactics by for the next seven months we look for to continuing the dialogue with you. we look look forward to what we can complete during our time in office, and we hope to continue to work on these issues even after january 20, 2017.

not that that data circled on my calendar anything. thank you very much. [applause]. >> thank you very much. we have a good deal amount of time for your questions. on the latest note, my staff will be coming around taking some of the questions you have written on your three by five cards and sort through and get through as many as possible. we'll start with questions from journalists who are here and i would ask that you raise your hand, the microphone will come to you and we'll start with a gentleman in the front who is good enough to come in the front. >> as you know, i'm jeff with the public integrity. as you know there's hundreds of separate items in the budget

[inaudible question] >> as i mentioned, the the administration's modernization program consists of hundreds of items. i'm just wondering since you said you are reviewing the modernization program if you can name just two or three that might be near the top of your list for potentially tweaking or eliminating? >> first of all, i'm not going to be specific because i'm not here to suggest that we have made a determination about an aspect of the modernization budget. what i would say is we recognize the plan was developed, as i said at a different time when

number one, we anticipated a different budgetary picture going for particularly with the respect of our defense budget. some of that plan was developed in the context of an earlier congress including related to the new start ratification process. also with the expectation that we might be able to be further along in our own negotiations about further reductions of russia. and frankly, we now now sit at a point where we absolutely believe in the necessity of maintaining and sustaining an effective and incredible deterrence for there's going to have to be a significant investment in that. the question presented is simply whether or not the scale of the plan fits into the long-term budgetary picture. what trade-offs without force on

future administrations, including on important convention capabilities. then how do we want to leave this issue at least leave the next administration with a sense of how president obama believes we should move forward. so, we will be looking at the modernization plan of courses in the budget, but if we determine we want to be more specific of course, you will hear from us. i think i would just indicate that again, this and other issues are not close to us. i think someone said you're almost done and you for the last on the president on this, not just this but a number of areas we're going to want to continue to explore. there's a lot to be done in the next seven months and that can both advance the agenda of the president in prague