Change Notes
Friends,
When President George H. W. Bush described his vision of 1,000 points of light, I was one of a handful of 20-somethings in Atlanta trying to build a movement of people who wanted to roll up their sleeves and solve local problems. It was 1989, and we were raising money by asking people to fill up empty beer mugs with small donations.
At the same time, President Bush was assembling an influential group of business and community leaders at Camp David to launch a new voice for volunteer service supported by millions in federal funding.
Friends,
The word "supper" means different things to different people, but for me it evokes memories of a big Southern fried chicken dinner around my grandmother's dining room table with family and friends and lots of stories, arguments and jokes.
Gathering around a common table has always been central to creating community and finding solutions. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of "the table of brotherhood." And there was a reason that one of the most potent acts of the civil rights movement was the simple insistence on having a seat at the table in restaurants across the South.
Dear Friends,
Vice President Joe Biden, Dr. Jill Biden and a dozen of their kids and grandkids joined Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and nearly 10,000 volunteers at the D.C. Armory yesterday to put together 100,000 care kits for U.S. military personnel, disabled veterans and civilian first responders. In his remarks thanking the thousands gathered for donating their time, Vice President Biden said, "Dr. King imbued in the public this notion of absolute service," and noted that it was this legacy of volunteerism and service that Points of Light and President George H. W. Bush have continued.