LOOK, LISTEN: Powell, Bush and Giuliani address motivational seminar in Des Moines
Former First Lady Laura Bush, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and retired Gen. Colin Powell were among those who spoke Thursday at a motivational seminar at the Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines.
The event was also be broadcast live via satellite in the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.
Read below for excerpts from their speeches and links to the audio:
POWELL: America is starting to pay too great a price for the increased security since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and anger has become too much a part of public life, retired Gen. Colin Powell said Thursday at a motivational seminar attended by about 15,000 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.
"We are starting to pay too much for our security," said Powell, a four-star general, former U.S. secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Foreign students who normally come to our universities are not coming. It's too hard to get a visa ... so we are losing with this contact with the rest of the world. We are losing money also."
Powell also warned that while America has always been a nation of debates, anger has lately become a large part of public life. "We're slipping into a dangerous period right now where nobody wants to listen to anybody else," he said. "The anger level is rising to the point where it is dangerous for us and dangerous for our political leaders. ... We've got to knock off the expressions of hatred and anger and racism."
BUSH: Former First Lady Laura Bush on Thursday gave Iowans insight into how she endured the criticism during President Bush's eight years in the White House, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"One of the questions I'm most often asked is, 'How did you stand it? Didn't it bother you? Didn't it make your blood boil to reap and watch this constant flood of criticism in a vacuum?' Bush told about 15,000 people at a motivational seminar in downtown Des Moines. "And of course, it bothered me. Just as it would bother anyone in this room."
She said it bothered her, but it didn't get to her, because she's confident of who she is and who her husband is -- and because this is America.
"All that blathering and bloviating -- is, in reality, a kind of sacred music or, at least, the clanking gears of democracy," Bush said. "When you live in the White House, you live not just with the ghosts of presidents, but with the echoes of citizens holding this government to account."
GIULIANI: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Thursday in Des Moines that "relentless preparation" for everything in life -- from job interviews to football games, court trials to presidential debates and even terrorist attacks -- will even help with the unexpected.
"If you prepare for everything you can think of, you'll be prepared even for the thing you hadn't thought of," said Giuliani, who was one of the final speakers in a daylong motivational center attended by about 15,000 at the Iowa Events Center.
Giuliani recalled the day of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and how he watched a man throw himself off the 101st floor of the World Trade Center. "This is much worse than we've ever faced before," he said. "We're going to have to make up our response because we don't have a plan for this."
But in the hours, days, weeks and months that followed, Giuliani pulled from his knowledge of the city's plans for blackouts, derailments, hurricanes, the West Nile virus, a nuclear attack and high-rise fires to make the necessary decisions. "Every decision I was making, I had made before," he said. "We were prepared. We didn't know we were prepared because we had prepared for other things."
posted by Administrator @ 10:09 AM
