RAW;Medal of Freedom Recipient- Oprah Winfrey,broadcast journalists creator ...

Transcript

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freelancing now

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on my head

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a show on myself welcome to the White House this is

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one my favorite events every year especially

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special issue as I look

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this extraordinary group prevent vigils

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and our opportunity to honor them

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where our nation's highest civilian honour

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the presidential metal-free and this year

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its just a little more special because this marks the fiftieth anniversary

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President Kennedy establishing this award

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were honored by the way today

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to have with us one my favorite people

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Ethel Kennedy and a pretty good basketball player

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president kennedy's grandson Jack

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and those metal has been bestowed on more than

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500 deserving people tonight i'm looking forward to

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joining some of these honorees as well as members the Kennedy family as we pay

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tribute to these fifty years

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excellence and this morning we're honored to add 16

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new names sack after having first her first child she said she'd like some

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time out

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focus our family devoted almost ten years

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to raising five children but

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Patricia never lost the is to practice law while

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so-called

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early on Oprah Winfrey's career her bosses told her she should change her

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name

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to Susie I have just pause here to say I got the same advice

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of they didn't say I should be named Susan but they're

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suggest I should change my name people can relate to Susie

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that's what they said it turned out

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surprisingly that people can relate to Oprah just fine

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in more than 4500 up a so-so her shop

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her message was always you can

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you can do and you can be

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you can grow can be better and she was looking for

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rising from childhood poverty and abuse to

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the pinnacle the entertainment universe by

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even with forty emmys the distinction of being the first

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black female billionaire oprah's greatest strength has always been

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for Billy to help us discover the best in ourselves

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my show Nikon ourselves munger

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many devoted fans and friends

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as well those fans rope I didn't know I had a light in me

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until hope ur told me it was there what a great gift

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and finally we salute public servants to strengthen our nation difficult to wrap

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your brain around annual

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I watched other people receive it i watch Maya Angelou received hers and

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Sidney Poitier and never even imagined that I would

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even ever be considered it's not the kind of thing that you

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grow up I hope I get the matter love freedom so when i receive the call

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from the president himself saying that this was happening

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I hung up and I thought gee I didn't have an appropriate response because

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there is no appropriate response I to be honored by your country

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the highest honor in the land that says really the work that you have done

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we respect and one are you for it

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i mean there are however I don't know how you have a response to that

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other than deep deep deep gratitude

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which is what I feel today I was standing looking out over the

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White House line in you know the Sun on my face in thinking about

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the nearly five hundred other people who receive this award who

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to me our American heroes to be

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a on the same list with people like

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ernie banks in mike got gloria steinem had there not been gloria steinem in her

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fight for women's rights

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I wouldn't even have had an opportunity in the work that I've done

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on patricia wald in CT vivian until right so

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to be considered in that Levi love

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all those people is I would say the greatest

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honor my life this is the greatest honor of my life and

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officially as I was saying to the president I don't know if you need to

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get another win

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this is it learning how

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to live a life a passion that if you follow your heart's desire and your

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passion that your passion will lead you to your purpose

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this is what I know for sure and that every person who was born has a calling

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and actual real job in life to figure out what that calling is

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and that calling will be that hard to desire that thing that burned inside you

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that says

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yes I can and I love this is this gives me my juice this makes me feel alive the

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thing that makes you feel most alive

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is the thing that you are to give back to the world and every person is here

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to offer what they have to the rest of the world so

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I tried to share that with young people and also a

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the the need to be authentic you know I have built a career

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analyte I'll be myself which

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you know in the beginning I thought I could you know

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watch barbara walters in for a while I think I was pretending to be Barbara

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Walters and talk like barbara walters in

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soon discovered early in my career that I could be a better

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me better Oprah than I could ever be apart in barbara walters so I tried to

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encourage

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young people to look for a the

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the the real work is to discover who you are

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and to use who you are Oprah

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G when free

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Oprah G when free is a global

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media icon when she launched the Oprah Winfrey Show

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in 1986 there were few women and even fewer women of color

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with a national platform to discuss the issues

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and avenge shaping our times but over the twenty-five years that followed

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Oprah Winfrey's and Nate gift for tapping into our most fervent hopes

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and deepest fears drew millions of viewers across

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every background making her show the highest-rated talk show

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in television history off-screen Oprah Winfrey has used her influence

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to support underserved communities and to lift up the lives of young people

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especially young women around the world in her story

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we are reminded that no dream can be deferred when we refuse to let life's

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obstacles keep us down

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freedom honorees place

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right well be a back concludes the formal part

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today ceremony I wanna thank

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all of you for being here obviously

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we r deeply indebted to those who we are here today

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and we're getting up to take some pictures with the honorees and their

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family members

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the rest of you I i understand the food here is pretty good

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so I hope you enjoy the reception

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and I hope we carry away from this

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a reminder love what JFK

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understood to be the essence of the American spirit

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that it's represented here and

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songs maybe less talented but we all have the opportunity to

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to serve them open people's hearts and minds

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you know and and are smaller orbits

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so I hope everybody's been inspired as I have been participating in being with

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these people here today

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thank you very much