And now for the recap of this past Thursday morning's events. I won't spend a lot of time addressing the National Prayer Breakfast itself since you've already had an opportunity to read the remarks from both Bono and President Bush (in my previous blog). That said, there are a few things about it I'd like to highlight. First of all, as you may know, this prayer breakfast is organized each year by an evangelical foundation. So when I got the call from DATA a couple weeks ago inviting me to the breakfast and telling me that Bono would be the keynote speaker and would be speaking right before The President spoke for a bit, I was amazed: "Were conservative church leaders finally embracing him? And even more importantly would they embrace what Bono had to say?"

Since I received my invitation later than regular invitees, I was one of the last folks to RSVP. As a result, the last 300 of us were relegated to have our breakfast in an huge overflow room complete with television monitors to watch the proceedings. (We were joined by former Attorney General John Ashcroft and a few congressmen.) As I watched the monitors along with the seven other people at my table--all of whom were at least 20 years older than me--we noticed that all the VIPs were shown seated, except for two empty seats. Obviously, those were for the President and First Lady. Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, before the main proceedings started, President and Laura Bush were shown entering the main room and then walking down the line of VIPs shaking hands.

President Bush went the handshake-only route until he got to Bono at which point the two men hugged each other fondly and...what? Did I just see Bono kiss the President of the United States on the cheek? It all happened so fast, I thought for a fleeting moment I saw President Bush kiss him back--much like that over-hyped hug the President had with Senator Joe Lieberman some months back. I was still trying to process what I thought I'd just seen when one of the older gentlemen at the table asked the rest of us, "Did he just kiss The President?" We weren't sure. I'm still not. And dang if CSPAN didn't start broadcasting until after The President and Mrs. Bush were seated, so I don't have it on tape... Whatever happened, it happened right in front of musical guests Point of Grace who were standing a few seats away from Bono, so I'll ask 'em next time I see 'em.

Speaking of Point of Grace, another personal highlight for me took place when they sang "Circle of Friends." Why? Because my longtime dear friend and groomsman Doug McKelvey wrote the lyrics to the song. Imagine that! My pal just had his song sung for the President of the United States and Bono--not to mention other world leaders who were in attendance! You go, Doug!

So Bono spoke...you read the transcript, saw the CSPAN broadcast or, if you were more fortunate than me--such as our pal Dan Pitts (who manages tobyMac, Tait and Pocket Full of Rocks) for instance--were actually in the main room when it happened. And yes, Bono's message packed a punch. But it was delivered with such grace, intelligence, humility and conviction that the atmosphere in our smaller side room afterwards was very receptive. In fact, white "ONE" (campaign) wristbands had been placed on every table, and when Bono finished, everyone seemed to pick theirs up. I looked around at the tables near ours and didn't see one remnant.

Now, about our private meeting with Bono an hour or so later... I was one of eight "faith editors" that DATA invited to a 30-plus minute post-breakfast conversation with him. In addition to CCM, outlets such the Religion News Service, Jewish Telegraph Agency, Christianity Today, The Christian Century, Charles Colson's BreakPoint WorldView, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly and Sojourners were represented. This meeting took place in a suite in the same Hilton hotel as the breakfast. While we were told this conversation would be on the record, we weren't permitted to bring recording devices or cameras of any kind. I got the impression this was due to restrictions placed on DATA by the National Prayer Breakfast folks who tend to be very protective of their attendees where media are concerned. (The only television camera permitted in the main breakfast room was CSPAN's.)

Now you can imagine the challenges of documenting an on-the-record conversation with an articulate speaker when no recording devices are permitted. Yes, I started by going "old school" and, in the end, had drafted 3 pages of written notes. Even though I was writing like a mad dog much of the time, I found that when all was said and done, I had plenty of holes--even entire gaps--in my notes. To help fill in the blanks and improve accuracy, I matched my quotes with those taken by others (in some cases after they were published online). One particularly disturbing observation happened when I found that one of my transcribed quotes--and a key quote at that--was outright contradicted when recalled and subsequently published by one of the other editors. Doubting myself in light of this more experienced veteran's work, I emailed my version of the quote to DATA and was soon selfishly relieved to find out mine was accurate.

When Bono joined us (sporting his reddish brown wraparounds, jeans, black shirt, brown corduroy jacket and purple socks), someone suggested rearranging the chairs so we could sit in a circle. We did so, and I ended up seated directly across from him. While we talked, Bono ate leftovers--fruit and muffins--from the morning's prayer breakfast out of a closeable Styrofoam to-go plate.

After some brief pleasantries, Sojourner's Jim Wallis asked, "Was this your most deliberately religious talk ever?"

"Yes," Bono replied, and we were off.

Bono explained that his remarks during breakfast had been inspired by Isaiah 58. He had come across it again in "an old Bible I've had since I was a kid," and explained that it had been "underlined" quite a bit. And in one of the morning's most surprising moments for me, he then commented on Isaiah 58:7-8, saying, "It's absolutely the prophetic utterance of this very time in history... I believe that... What it really suggests is that if we do God's business, God will be more in ours. To use the colloquial, it's God watching our back. It literally means God will watch your back... I love the street aspect of that. And it's certainly been true in my own life."

"I appreciate the absurdity of being a rock star and quoting the Scriptures," he said at one point. And later told us that he enjoys reading The Message "by the very gifted scholar and poet Eugene Peterson." (Both during his speech earlier in the morning, and in our meeting here, he easily quoted somewhat lengthy passages of scripture from memory.)

After a few more remarks, he said, "The religiosity of America is offensive to a lot of people in Europe because they see hypocrisy in the heart of it. And it's this issue... If America is so concerned with the least of these, why do [they] give the least? They see that for all their talk, prayer breakfasts, and overt religiosity, these people are giving the least to the least of these." Bono then explained that when you combine all of America's giving, the U.S. is not in the Top 10 as far as giving a percentage of wealth. "We have to change that," he said.

"[First,] we have to look at aid itself and how it's being mismanaged... We have to restore confidence... The second thing we have to do is educate people...Americans believe the government is giving 10-20% to aid. It's actually gone from 0.1% to 0.16% since Bush became President."

"I think growing a movement that defines itself by the way it treats these issues, particularly at a time of conflict--it's so poetic actually... This is where you demonstrate the values of America."

And addressing our professional role specifically, he told us that we as media needed to "turn this from being a burden into an adventure."

"There's something going on," Bono said. "...a movement ...with heat. ...In the past, the church has been behind on some issues, but the church hasn't missed this time--it is leading... It's amazing. If me 10 years ago had heard me saying this, I wouldn't have believed it."

When one editor started his question to Bono with the statement, "You've got street cred..." Bono interrupted him with a humorous quip, saying, "I had street cred until I did this! ...We just lost a million album sales."

Asked what he wanted to accomplish with the morning's prayer breakfast speech, he responded, "I hope the church will feel some fanfare from musicians and loudspeakers such as myself..." He said faith-based groups are "a vital component" to his work. "The church is a much bigger crowd even than the stadiums we play in as U2."

He then mentioned the World Vision poll that asked evangelicals if they'd be interested in helping an orphan with HIV/AIDS and how in the year 2000, 4% of evangelicals said they would be interested in helping. He stated that now the number among evangelicals has risen to 14%, and he seemed encouraged by that.

"AIDS is the leprosy of our time," he went on to say. "It couldn't be more poignant, from a scriptural point of view, that this is on God's mind, that this is Jesus' point of view."

And a short while later, "This may be a compliment to you: We can't beat Europeans up with scripture."

Bono told us of a 2002 trip to Soweto, South Africa, where he met a young AIDS-infected widower that was trying to decide whether to keep life-saving drugs for himself or give them to the woman he loved. Bono recalled, "He said, 'I can give her my drugs and my children can lose their last parent, or we can share the drugs and both die slowly, or I can keep the drugs and lose, for the second time, my love. I stood there thinking, This is barbaric. This is actually barbaric."

I had been told going in that DATA hoped each editor would be given the chance to ask one question. A few asked two. After a few more remarks, I felt like it was the right time for me to step in. "Bono," I said. "I'd like to take this in a personal direction that connects it with some of your other passions. I've been closely following your career since Unforgettable Fire [1984], and I've noticed that even since your band's earliest days, the label 'Christian band' has given you the heebie-jeebies. Now, skip ahead to late 2002, and I'm escorting you, Jamie Drummond [DATA's executive director] and Erin [Chapman, DATA's policy director] to a meeting with 20 of the most influential Christian artists in America. How has the response of the Christian music community since then changed your perception, if at all, of Christian artists?

"I've never seen why there should be a separation," he said. "...Much of my life I've been asked, 'Why doesn't your music proclaim Christ?' ...It does!"

"...Creation has its own proclamation [of its Creator]," he continued. "I'd like to think our music has had the same qualities to it."

"When I read scripture, there are no compartments to your life... When I read scripture, these men are wild with a greed for God and mammon."

"[Making music] without truthful telling of where you are in your life is bull---t," he went on to say.

Bono referenced "happy clappy" songs that were short on "grit," explaining this was his impression of Christian music. "...until I met you and others who looked and acted like myself... These artists upheld humility... And some of them, I heard their music and found that I liked it. I stopped thinking of their music as 'Christian music.' ...They also made very effective student activists."

He affirmed he had a remaining discomfort with the label "Christian music" and then said, "Now, I'm not talking about worship leaders, I'm talking about songwriters and recording artists. Being a worship leader is a calling to the highest of all art forms, to worship and call people into the presence of God." Bono then stated that some of his favorite worship music includes Charles Wesley's hymns, Handel's Messiah, Jewish liturgical chanting, and songs with "raw" emotion.

Well, there you have it, friends. The highlights of the meeting as I could best remember and then, with help, reconstruct them.

If you haven't already done so, be sure to sign the ONE Campaign Declaration today by visiting http://www.one.org . And for those of you that may not be familiar with the summit Bono held with 20-plus Christian artists a few years ago, I think you'll find the two articles below informative...

Thanks and good night,

Jay

FLASHBACK:

The Nashville Summit: Behind the Scenes with Bono, DATA, and the Christian Music Industry

http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=3086

Sidebar: Jars of Clay's Dan Haseltine on the Nashville Summit

http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=3087

# # #

Printer Friendly E-mail to Friend

Saturday, February 4, 2006

Bono Addresses The National Prayer Breakfast

I recently returned from Washington, DC, where I had the chance to attend this year's National Prayer Breakfast, thanks to a special invitation from Bono's DATA organization. While I'll give you a recap of my trip (which included a 30-minute Q&A conversation between Bono and 8 of us "faith editors") in my next blog, which will follow shortly, I first wanted to get you an accurate transcript of Bono's speech.

As it turns out, even the official transcripts of Bono's address are incomplete--including DATA's, which carries a bold "CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY" disclaimer at the top. Hence, I took the "official" version and made corrections to it as I viewed a videotape of CSPAN's live broadcast of the event. I assume the transcript that's circulating the internet must be Bono's prepared speech, because his actual presentation did not include the final few "written" paragraphs. And what's missing from the official transcript? Nothing too major: a few humorous quips, a couple shout-outs and a notable statement painted in humility (in response to the way he was introduced), among other things.

The corrected transcript appears below, along with President Bush's remarks concerning Bono...

BONO'S REMARKS TO THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST

February 2, 2006

INTRODUCTION OF BONO BY SENATOR NORM COLEMAN (REPUBLICAN/MINNESOTA):

In my day, I have introduced the President, I once introduced Dr. Billy Graham, but as a former roadie for 60 rock bands, 10 years after, this ranks right up there as one of the high points of my introducing career. Mark [Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat/Arkansas] and I were joking, "This kind of makes us the rhetorical warm-up act for U2."

Our message today comes from a person who has gotten the attention of the world, by walking with God, talking about things that matter, letting his light shine. He's an extraordinary musician, charismatic leader, and unabashedly, uniquely himself. We have an expression that a celebrity is a person who is famous for being famous. But our speaker this morning is known around the world as a person of conscience, a person of influence, but most of all, a person of faith. His organization is called DATA--Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa. They are working to bring people, organizations, leaders and politicians together to make a unified effort to change the future of Africa. On your tables are these white wristbands which are appropriately printed with the word "ONE." He's come to challenge us to reach across the boundaries, to care for the poor and to walk the talk of our faith. Ladies and gentlemen: Bono.

[applause]

BONO'S ADDRESS:

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. President, First Lady, King Abdullah of Jordan, Norm [Senator Coleman], distinguished guests...

Please join me in praying that I don't say something we all regret.

[laughter]

That was for the FCC.

If you're wondering what I'm doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather.

[laughter]

I'm certainly not here because I'm a rock star. Which leaves only one possible explanation: I've got a messianic complex.

[laughter]

It's true. [For] anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation.

Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something unnatural... something even unseemly... about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, then disappearing to their villas in the South of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough to have Jesse Helms come to a rock show… this is really weird.

[laughter]

Now, one of the things I love about this country is the separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind. [Looks over at President Bush, who is seated to his right] Mr. President, are you sure about this?

[laughter]

It's very humbling, and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned--I am Irish.

[laughter]

I'd like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I'd like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws... but of course, they don't always. And I presume that, in a way, is why you're all here.

I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us are here--Muslims, Jews, Christians--are all searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God... And some of us are not very good examples, despite what Norm says. I am certainly searching. And that, I suppose, is what led me here.

Yes, it is odd, having a rock star at the breakfast, but maybe it's odder for me than for you. Because you see, I have avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it's something to do with having a father who was a Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, often a battle line. Where the line between church and state was... at the very least, a little blurry, and hard to see.

I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.

For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land... and even in this country, seeing God's second-hand car salesmen on their TV cable channels, offering indulgences for cash... In fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment.

I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.

So, even though I was a believer--and perhaps because I was a believer--I was cynical... not about God, but about God's politics. There you are, Jim [Wallis, author of the book "God's Politics"].

In 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian Christians--British, as it happens--went and ruined my shtick--my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the Millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, described this year as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord's call--and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic's point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty. But they got together to declare the year of Jubilee.

So… Jubilee. Why "Jubilee"?

What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lord's favor?

I'd always read the Scriptures, actually, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus 25:35...

"If your brother becomes poor," the Scriptures say, "and cannot maintain himself... you shall maintain him... You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit."

This is such an important idea, Jubilee, that this is how Jesus begins his ministry. Jesus is a young man, he's met with the rabbis, he's impressed everybody, people are talking. The elders say, he's a clever guy, this Jesus, but, you know, he hasn't done much public speaking.

When he does, his first words are from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," he says, "because He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor." And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord's favor, the year of Jubilee. I think that's Luke 4 [Luke 4:18].

What he was really talking about was an era of grace--we're still in it.

So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, is now incarnate--in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn't a bless-me club... it wasn't a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out on the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions... making it really hard for people like me to keep our distance. Ruining my shtick. I almost started to like these church people.

But then, my cynicism got another helping hand.

It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called A.I.D.S. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. And the one's that didn't miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behavior. Even on children... Even if the fastest growing group of HIV infections were married, faithful women.

Ah, there they go... [lightly but firmly pounding on podium] "Judgmentalism is back," I thought to myself.

But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age. Love was on the move. Mercy was on the move. God was on the move. Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet... We had conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen from the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS... See, miracles do happen. We had hip-hop stars and country stars... This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy, crazy stuff happens. Popes were seen wearing sunglasses! Jesse Helms had a ghetto blaster now! Evidence of the Spirit moving. It was really...it was breathtaking. It literally stopped the world in its tracks.

When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened--and acted. When churches starting organizing, petitioning, and even--that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying... on AIDS and global health, governments listened--and acted. I'm here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; and you changed the world. So, thank you.

[applause]

Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone. I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill... I hope so. He may well be with us in all manner of controversial stuff... maybe, maybe not... But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths, all ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and the poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house... God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives... God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war... God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.

[applause]

"If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and the speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire even in scorched places."

It's not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time. You know, the only time Jesus Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor. "As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me." I believe that's Matthew 25:40. [Quick glance at President Bush]--see, I've been doing my homework.

[laughter]

As I say, good news to the poor.

Here's some good news--[looks at President Bush]--for you, Mr. President. After 9-11 we were told America would have no time for the World's poor. We were told America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it's true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors.

In fact, you have doubled aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. And Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support of the Global Fund--you and Congress--have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria.

[applause]

Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive, I think you'll admit. But Historic. You should be very, very proud.

But here's the bad news. [looks at President Bush] There is so much more to do. There is a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.

And finally... getting to higher levels, higher callings, this is not about charity in the end, is it? It's about justice...the good news yet to come. I just want to repeat that: This is not about charity, it's about justice.

And that's too bad. Because we're good at charity. Americans, Irish people, are good at charity. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it. But justice is a higher standard.

Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.

6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about justice and equality.

Because there's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we would let it happen anywhere else. If we really accepted that Africans are equal to us. I say that humbled--[looks over at Senator Barack Obama, Democrat/Illinois, who is seated to his left]--in the company of a man with an African father.

Look at what happened in South East Asia with the Tsunami. 150, 000 lives lost to the greatest misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature." Well, in Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe.

It's annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain in the [butt]... Seriously. I mean, you think of these Jewish sheep-herders going to meet with the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh goes, "Equal?...Equal?" And they say, "Yeah, that's what it says here in the book here--'We’re all made in the image of God,' sir."

And eventually the Pharaoh says, "Look, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews--but not the blacks...not the women...not the gays...not the Irish. No way."

[laughter]

So on we go with the journey of equality. On we go in the pursuit of justice.

We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than two million Americans...five million by the next election, I can promise you...united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.

We hear that call even more powerfully today, when we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King--mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only really getting started. Because these issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and they cross the seas.

Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market... That's not charity; that's a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents... That's not charity; that's a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents... Well, that's not charity; to me, that's a justice issue.

And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject. That's why I say there is the law of the land... and then there's a higher standard. And we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us--these laws--so that they say it's OK to protect our agriculture but it's not OK for African farmers to protect their agriculture to earn a living.

As the laws of man are written, that's what they say. But God will not accept that. Mine won't. Will yours?

[pause]

I close this morning on...very thin ice, probably.

This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God... vs. no God. It's very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.

And this is a town--Washington--that knows something of division. But the reason I'm here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call the least of these... It's not a Republican idea. It's not a Democratic idea. It's not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor is it unique to any one faith.

"Do unto others as you would have them do to you." Jesus says that [Luke 6:30].

"Righteousness is this: that one should... give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives." The Koran says that [2.177].

Thus sayeth the Lord: "Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard." The Jewish Scripture says that. It's Isaiah 58 [verses 7-8] again.

It's a very powerful incentive: "The Lord will watch your back." Sounds like a good deal to me, especially right now...

[laughter]

Right? "The Lord will watch your back." [looks over at President Bush] You like that? OK.

[applause]

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, big and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I'd be saying, "Look, I've got a new song--would you look after it?"..."I have a family, I'm going away on tour, please look after them."..."I have this crazy idea--could I have a blessing on it?"

And this wise man asked me to stop. He said, "Stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is doing--because it's already blessed."

[applause]

Well, let's get involved in what God is doing. God, as I said, is always with the poor. That's what God's doing. That's what he's calling us to do.

I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to ten percent of the family budget. I mean... How does that compare to the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Well, it's less than one percent of the federal budget.

Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America: I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing... Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional one percent of the federal budget tithed to the poor.

Now, what is that one percent that we're asking for in the ONE Campaign? It's not merely a number on a balance sheet or pulled out of the air. One percent is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. One percent is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. One percent is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business, thanks to you. One percent is not redecorating presidential palaces. One percent must not be--or don’t give it--money down a rat hole. This one percent is digging waterholes to provide clean water--[looks at Senator Bill Frist, Republican/Tennessee]--like I saw with Bill Frist there in... Uganda.

OK, that's what we're asking for.

[applause]

One percent is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism towards Africa, a new partnership with Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from the boondoggles and white elephants that we've seen before.

America gives less than one percent now. We're asking for an extra one percent to change the world, to transform millions of lives--but not just that, and I say this to the military men now--not just transform hundreds of thousands, indeed millions of communities, but transform the way they see us, which might be smart in these dangerous times.

One percent as national security, one percent as in enlightened economic self interest, and a better safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, one percent is the best bargain around.

Thank you very much.

[extensive applause as Bono shakes hands with President Bush and senators]

THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT FROM PRESIDENT BUSH’S SPEECH TOOK PLACE MOMENTS LATER...

PRESIDENT BUSH: You know, I was trying to figure out what to say about Bono...

[laughter]

BONO: Careful.

[laughter]

PRESIDENT BUSH: And a story jumped to mind about these really good Texas preachers. And he got going in a sermon and a fellow jumped up in the back and said, "Use me, Lord, use me." And the preacher ignored him, and finished his sermon. Next Sunday he gets up, and cranking on another sermon. And the guy jumps up and says, "Use me, Lord, use me." And after the service, he walked up to him and said, "If you're serious, I'd like for you to paint the pews." Next Sunday, he's preaching, the guy stands up and says, "Use me, Lord, use me, but only in an advisory capacity."

[laughter]

So I've gotten to know Bono… He's a doer. The thing about this good citizen of the world is he's used his position to get things done. You're an amazing guy, Bono. God bless you.

[applause]

To read the transcript of President Bush's speech in its entirety, visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060202.html

Sign the ONE Campaign Declaration today by visiting http://www.one.org .

# # #

Printer Friendly E-mail to Friend