President Obama presents the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to the 2009 winners Magadonga Mahlangu and her organization Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on November 23.
The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award was established 24 years ago to shine a bright light on injustice and those who are fighting it. Obama spoke of how the award is based on Robert ("Bobby") Kennedy's "belief that in this world, there is right and there is wrong and it is our job to build our laws and our lives around recognizing the difference. "
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) began operating in 2003 and is dedicated to empowering women to speak out on issues that impact their families and their country such as hunger, public health, rape, domestic violence and poverty.
"WOZA's guiding principle is tough love. The idea that political leaders in Zimbabwe could use a little discipline. And who better to provide that than the nation's mothers," Obama said.
Over the past 7 years, WOZA has staged more than 100 protests. They have been gassed, abducted, threatened with guns and badly beaten but continue their work. Magadonga Mahlangu has been arrested 30 times and jailed numerous times. She has been beaten badly by police yet she continues to fight.
"When asked how they can endure so much violence and what keeps them going in the face of such overwhelming odds, the women of WOZA reply simply, 'each other.' That may be Magadonga's greatest achievement. She has given the women of Zimbabwe each other...She's given them a voice they can only have collectively said Obama." "By her example Magadonga has shown the women of WOZA and the people of Zimbabwe that they can undermine their oppressors power with their own power. They can zap a dictators strength with their own."
This weekend I was at the Agape International Center for my weekly Toastmasters meeting. As I passed through the hallway, I saw these words posted on the wall. They seem as appropriate today as ever so I went to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website to view the entire speech, originally presented by Robert "Bobby" Kennedy at the University of Kansas on March 18, 1968. Here is the excerpt that caught my attention:
Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans. View the entire trascription at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website.
This weekend I was at the Agape International Center for my weekly Toastmasters meeting. As I passed through the hallway, I saw these words posted on the wall. They seem as appropriate today as ever so I went to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website to view the entire speech, originally presented by Robert "Bobby" Kennedy at the University of Kansas on March 18, 1968. Here is the excerpt that caught my attention:
Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
View the entire trascription at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website. 
