you can't have a blessing with a closed fist. and a lot of us walk around with both our fists closed all the time and think that you're going to get some blessings. in baseball, you get a glove and you throw the ball back. some of you got two gloves on your hands. you got to take one off. because that's the only way you can share and god does not bless us unless you give to others first. ok? all right. i got our good friend ron brown the commerce secretary who decide -- died suddenly, he had a saying, "leave the door open and the ladder down," and i want to you remember that because far too often we don't help each other. if i have an event and al calls me or he has an event and he calls me up, i might say with,

i'll help up a little bit. so next time i need help, i call and he helps a little bit and the effort is a little bit successful. you know what happens particularly in the black community, in others too, because we don't help each other, we're not doing as well as we can do. that is a problem we all have to take responsibility for. all right. i don't know what i'm doing. i got to get back to it. the greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life without purpose and vision. the greatest treasures in the world are not the companies that make up the new york stock exchange or the oil wells of the middle east but the semteries all ofe the world because of the lost potential did you hear what i just said? in the semteries -- semeteries because of lost potential. in other words you didn't do

what god put you here to do. like the story of the chicken and eagle. a tiny eagle egg was found by a hen. she took the egg home to the coop and sat on it with all the love and patience of an incipient mother. a few weeks later the egg was hatched. out stepped a tiny eagle. the tiny bird had eagle history, eagle genes, eagle d.n.a., eagle chromosomes, eagle power, and eagle potential. but because it group -- grew up in chicken surroundings, it grew up thinking it was a chicken. you hear what i just said? it thought it was a chicken. it grew up dreaming chicken dreams and thinking chicken thoughts and entertaining chicken am bigs. am i talking to you? in fact it was even made to feel sthamed of his eagle

features. eep though he didn't know who he was, the chickens in the barn yard absolutely now -- knew who he was and they said to each other, boy, we got to keep this little bird thinking that he's a chicken because if he ever finds out he's an eagle, he'll rule over us. as a result, the little bird became ashamed of his eagle fought -- features and heritage. they made fun of his eagle beak because she had tiny narrow chicken beaks and of his talons because they had weak, scrawny chicken feet. he even became ashamed of his darkness. y'all ain't done none of that, right? and the beauty and rich heritage of his eagle feathers. at one point in his life he even considered cosmetic surgery. he thought about cutting off half his eagle beak and dyeing

half his feathers to look more like a chicken. ironically, his greatest ambition in life was one day to hop, skip, and skip on the fence post and cock-a-doodle-doo like the reast -- rooster. but one day this confused eagle was playing and he looked up jarred -- up ward and saw an eagle in flight. sure enough, this lost bird's mind was blown. he said to himself, in so many words, woirks -- wow, i wish i could fly like that. that adult eagle swoomed down from the stratosphere and said to the confused biffered, boy, you ain't no chicken. you're an eagle. your mighty talents weren't meant to scrape on the ground

for cat er pillars. he said boy, you ain't no chicken, you're an eagle. your eagle eye was not meant to be limited to the narrow confines of the barn yard but to seek out your unfulfilled potential and spread your wings. you ain't no chicken. this is the message to each of us today. i don't care what you've done up to this point in your life. i don't care if you've had chicken parents, attended chicken school, even if you had chicken teachers, chicken assignments and even some of you have some chicken jobs with chicken managers arpped -- and supervisors. don't think chicken thoughts and don't dream chicken dreams. think like an eagle. ok? all right. all right. [applause] wasted time and potential we will never be able to recover the time wasted.

i repeat, the greatest tragedy in life is wasted time and wasted potential. even at my age i wake up every day with this notion of discovery, wanting to know more and to do more. that's what this is about. don't sit on it because if you sit on it, it will go away from you because god will say hey, you ain't using it, i'll give it to somebody else. ok? the wealthiest place on earth really is the cemetery because it's are where all the hopes, dreams, goals, music, arts, inventions, are lost forever. the hardest jobs, listen to me good, the hardest job for a black preacher is to give a eulogy of an irrelevant black child. you hear what i just said? to try and console their families and try to give meaning to a life of no purpose. how many of those eulogies have

been said in our community? because we have been wayward. you remember the song "i got plenty of nothing, and plenty of nothing is good for me?" i don't like that song. i like the song "god bless the child that's got his own" because that's what i got to do. anyone that professes to love this country must know history. we were taught his-story. that george washington cut down the cherry tree and did not tell a lie. nothing could be further from the truth. because if we were taught history we would know about the great and wonderful people called african-americans and how much they gave and sacrificed to build this country and leave a rich legacy of -- to all of us. not just black folks, to everybody. this country was built by africans, yngsdz and americans. we came here in 1619, one year

before the mayflower. we did not come here as enslaved people. we came as indentured certify vanlts just like whites did and the people of jamestown were starving until black folks came there in 1619 and showed them how to grow tobacco. any time y google it, because we're in that age. do you know in 1624 euro and isabella johnson had their first child. it wasn't out of wedlock, they were married. william tucker, 1624. i want you to know that we are just full of myths. we are full of myths and we bought them all and what we have do is to say that we're not going to deal with it. how many -- who told the colonies that the british were coming? no, no, that was the first

person killed in 1770 but who rode off and told the british was coming. paul revere. nothing could be further from the truth. ever heard of israel bizle. he run 346 miles on horse back from boston to philadelphia to warn not just boston, but all of the colonies in that upper area about the parish were coming. in other words, there are stories that made america and there are stories that america made up. you hear what i just said? there are stories that made america and there are stories that america made up and too often the myth becomes the choice and you believe rather than the facts and here's one thing and i'm going to close it here. he give me 15 minutes. i say, how are you going to give

me 15 minutes? it takes a day of my time to come up here and give me 15 minutes. but i'm going to take what i need to take. what else are you going to do when you get up here? i'm going to leave you with this and you got to listen to this. the myth of absent. in american history as in american life, black americans are invisible presence. did you hear what i just said? you got to just listen to that a little bit because it's got to sink in a little bit. they are not seen not because of their absence but because of the presence of a myth that prepares and requires their absence. did you hear what i just said? they are not seen not because of their absence but because of the presence of a myth that prepares and requires their absence. the myth of absence which expresses this idea and intention operates not by

misinterpretation and slander but by silence and exclusion. by simply not mentioning certain realities and by removing black actors from scenes in which they played supporting roles, the manipulation of the myth changes the color of the past and controls the perception and acts in the present and it's no accident that the dominant images of popular history are white. do you follow me? if you think about the myth of absence, if you look in all, every aspect of history, or even if you go to a place that you see nobody of color -- i went into an insurance company two days ago and the pictures on the wall was from 1937 and 1951. there was not a black face, there was not a woman and there was not a latino in the picture. that's the myth of absence. and if you see it long enough,

you will believe that that is how it's supposed to be and for many of us, we've swallowed the pill, o.k.? we've swallowed the pill and i'm going to close right there, i got one poem and i'm going to get off of here so al can get his program back. me and this boy go back 100 years so we can talk like this, you understand. all right, here we go, do it anyway. people really are unreasonable, illogical and self centered, love them anyway. if you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives, do good anyway. if you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies but succeed anyway. the good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow but let's do good today anyway. honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable but let's be honest and frank anyway. the biggest ideas with the can

be shot down by the smallest of minds. what you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. let's keep building anyway because people need help but they attack you when you help them but let's keep helping them anyway and give the world the best you got and you'll get kicked in the teeth, but guess what, give the world the best you got anyway. thank you very much. ♪

[music] paratransit is specialized transportation for seniors and people with disabilities who are unable to use the muni system. in san francisco, we're proud that we've had a paratransit program since 1978 long before it was mandated by the americans with disabilities act in 1990. san francisco is a unique city and our paratransit program reflects this. we have a network of services, including sf access van service, paratransit taxi, including wheelchair accessible ramp taxi and group van which serves groups of individuals going to a single location like a senior center. [music]

>> i'm elsa scott and i'm a retired federal employee and i'm a native of san francisco. i use paratransit because, i've been using it for about six years because six years ago i had to start dialysis treatments at cpmc. so i'm very dependent on paratransit three times a week, coming and going.. my current driver is brian berquist.; he's just such a friendly, sort of a teddy bear kind of a guy. i don't know what it is about brian, but all of us old ladies want to feed brian. [music] >> hi, my name is fred lein. i'm most proud of driving a

ramp taxi since the beginning of the program in 1994. [music] >> fred, you are the absolute best! thank you fred for providing transportation for me and opening up my social life, and taking care of medical appointments, taking care of my mother [music] >> hi, my name is ann bailey and i've driven for luxor for almost five years now. i drove for desoto cab for 10 years prior to that. i drove in 1976 for the old, old yellow cab. this is frances mecchi and i've

been driving her for about 11 or 12 years to her alzheimer's day program, which we call the memory club. every day when we drive through the presidio she'll say, "oh goody, you're taking me through the enchanted forest." [music] >> my name amr a.mahmoud. i am like 49 years old. i have been driving cab more than 13 year in general. then i drove a ramp more than 3 years. this is my fourth now. i have been enjoying doing the job. i like every moment of it.