england to a soldier doing relief work in africa to the board rooms of fortune 500 companies and add to a career in politics governor patrick has led an extraordinary life. throughout his journey he was guided by the advice of his grandmother. hope for the best and work for it. now is my pleasure to introduce governor patrick. [applause] [applause] >> thanks you very much. thank you all for coming out this evening. i appreciated very much. .. >> i am not running for anything, and as for political scores, there's some staff here who know i like to settle political scores in realtime and not in print. [laughter] so for all of you who thought that this would be a political kiss and tell, i am sorry toty appoint. -- disappoint. so why did i write book? i am a very hopeful person, an unrepentant idealist. and this book, as much as anything, is a gestureover gratitude to some of the people who have given me those gifts of hopefulness and idealism, the teachers who gave me a reason to believe in a brighter future, the family and strangers, too, who gave me a reason to believe in the power of kindness. the church ladies on the south side of chicago who ghei me a reason to -- gave me a reason to believe in the essence of faith, the voters and many, many others. a friend of mine described this book recently as a love story which, for me, was the most powerful compliment i could be given. i wanted to write about these people and the lessons they taught me for two reasons. first, because they've done more than help me succeed, they've helped me want to be better, to be a better leader, a better husband and parent, a better citizen. and secondly, because it's within each of us to pass these kinds of lessons on to others. in fact, i think, we have a generational responsibility to do just that. as some of you know and as bea was allude anything the introduction, i grew up on the south side of sal in the 50s and 'of 0s, most of that -- '60s, most of that time on welfare. my mother and sister and i share add two-room tenement. we lived in one of those bedrooms and shared a set of bunk beds, so you'd go from the top bunk to the bottom bunk to the floor. every third night on the floor. big, broken sometimes violent public schools, but we had a community. because those were days when every child was the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block. you messed up in the front of ms. jones, and she would straighten you out and then call home, right? so you got it two times. i think what those adults were trying to get across to us was they had a stake in the us. membership in a community was understanding the stake each of us has not just in our own dreams and struggles, but in our neighbors' as well. given the expectations that much of society has for poor black people in circumstances like mine, i am not supposed to be where i am today. my story isn't probable. but it's at the same time a distinctly american story. and it may not get told as often as we'd like in this country, but it gets told more often in this country than any other place on earth. it is a defining story. in 1970 i got a breakthrough a program called a better chance to go to milton academy. and for me that was like landing on a different planet. i saw it for the first time the night before classes began in 1970. all by myself. my family didn't see it until graduation day. i remember they had a dress code in those days, the boys wore jackets and ties to classes, so when the clothing list arrived, my grandparents splurged on a brand new jacket for me to wear to class. but a jacket on the south side of chicago is a windbreaker. so the first day of class the other boys were presidenting on their -- putting on their blazers and tweed coats, and i have figured it out. [laughter] again, there were teachers and can other adults who reached out and who helped. i went on to harvard college, the first in my family to go to college, to harvard law school. i've lived in chicago, in boston, in los angeles, in new york, here in d.c., in atlanta, in the sudan. i've done business all oh the world -- all over the world. i've had some remarkable experiences, improbable ones in the eyes of many. i've argued in the supreme court, i've hitchhiked from cairo to khartoum, i've counseled two presidents. i've served as the first black governor of massachusetts on my first time running for office. but as i reflect on each of these experiences, each has its roots in the lessons that i try to write about in this book. these lessons have given me a sense of the possible, and that has made all the difference. i write in the book about the transition from the south side of chicago to milton academy, about the experience of trying to bridge these very different worlds where each one seemed to demand that you reject the other as the price of acceptance in the one. and how important it was for me to understand, ultimately, that that was a false choice. i write about the way the old ladies in big hats in church back home taught me to see that faith is not so much what you say you belief, but how -- believe, but how you live. i write about the extraordinary courage and strength of my wife, diane, through her first marriage to an abusive husband and the toll my early days in public office took on her. and how her triumph has strengthened not just me, but thousandses of others. time and time again experiences of great trial and even turmoil have produced transcendent powers, and they have contributed to my idealism. i want to defend and encourage that kind of idealism, because i think it is what motivates people to make what seems improbable possible. that may sound corny to some of you, especially in the hard-bidden washington, d.c.. but, in fact, there is nothing at all corny about hope. and there is nothing at all empowering or ennobling about the alternative. , -- about pessimism. in fact, as governor it has been a sense of the possible that has helped us achieve more than customary odds. in these cynical times, i think people are hungry for something more positive and affirming than the steady diet of no that they get. it has implications on both a policy level and a personal level. on a policy level, without a are renewed sense of idealism, with all the risk of failure and disappointment that that entails, an essential part of the national character, our can-do spirit, will be in jeopardy. and none of the big challenges facing this country will successfully be faced. securing marriage equality or expanding health care for everyone or funding our schools at the highest level in history during the worst economy in living memory, these would be a couple of examples of letting our idealism and our highest values guide us at home in the common wealth of massachusetts. on a personal level, before anyone can change their circumstances people need a faith in their own capacity to shape a better future. they have to be able to imagine something better. and then apply themselves to achieving it. hope for the best and work for it. and that's why i chose to write a book about personal values before i write the one about policy or politics. you have to stand by for that. one of the lessons i write about is forgiveness. as a predicate to moving forward. my parents split up when i was 4 years old, and my father moved to new york with his band which was ab avant-garde very popular jazz band, but an acquired taste. [laughter] he was a gifted jazz musician, totally committed to his music, and he would have also been described as a black militant. hoping for a reconciliation that would never come, my mother worked hard to keep my sister and me in touch with him, and i generally believe that he regretted not being able to watch us grow up. but as i grew older and started to spread my own wings, he and i had a tortured relationship. i write about how disapproving he was of my going to milton, how concerned he was that it was going to make me white, not black enough. he was also convinced that my mother was poisoning us with unflattering opinions of him and his life choices as a father and as a man. none of this was true, but it was a powerful dynamic in our fractured relationship as i was coming into adulthood. we found -- finally found a way to reconcile tentatively, but meaningfully. and i want to read a passage about that. if i can find it and my glasses. here are my glasses. it's come to that. [laughter] the summer before my third year of law school, i worked at a law firm in washington, d.c.. i turned 25 that july, and on my birthday my father happened to be playing in a local jazz club called pig foot and invited me to join him. i hadn't spent a birthday with him since i was 3, but i agreed. i arrived near the end of the first set just before the break, and my father was playing the sax phone, jamming with a skilled quartet. i took my seat at a little table, and he nodded when he saw me come in. when they finished the number, he took the microphone and said to the crowd, it's my son's birthday, and i want to play this next tune for him. there was warm applause and an approving glance or two my way from other patrons. then the place got quiet, and he played an old standard, "i can't get started." the no vocalist, but by then i had developed by own love for jazz, and i knew the words. i'd been around the world in a plane, i've started revolutions in spain. [laughter] the north pole i've charted, still i can't get started with you. he looked me straight in the eye while he played, long and soulfully, full of regret and longing all at once. i gazed right back at him knowing what he was trying to say. life is too short to go on like this, let's find a way to come together. no words were spoken, but the music gave us our own language. we communicated more in those few moments than we ever had before. and it was clear how much we both wanted simple understanding. we weren't quite there when i graduated from law school. he did not attend the commencement. but we were moving closer, and it seemed my father never felt threatened by my choices again. i had saved a place, and so had he. i've given a lot of thought over the years to this idea of generational responsibility, that old-fashioned lesson each of us was taught by our grandparents that we're supposed to do what we can in our time to leave things better for those who come behind us. i have thought about what that means in the context of budget deficits and health care services and educational policy. and i've thought about what it means as the father of two extraordinary young women and many young men who might as well be mine and of whom i'm equally proud. and i am convinced that the most important gift that we can give our heirs is the ability to dream about a better life. a better community. a better country. that's a gift i was given by grand parents and teachers or and more than a few total strangers. and that's what i'm trying to pass on with this book. and i hope you enjoy it. thank you very much for coming. [applause] and, bea, if you want, i'm happy to just shout out to people. we don't have to write 'em all down, if that's easy. >> okay, that would be great. >> yeah, sure. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> well, you went to all that trouble. you want me to read it? >> [inaudible] >> in the first one? >> yeah. >> you know, that a's funny you should ask me. i had a question put to me recently at a gathering of psychiatrists, and someone said why did you run for governor? i said, you know, you're in a better position to answer that than i am. [laughter] i ran, i ran for governor because, um, in business one of the things i noticed -- and i've spent most of my life in the private sector -- one of the things i noticed is this incredible pressure, particularly in large public companies, to manage for the next quarter to get the short-term results, sometimes i think sacrificing the long-term interests of the enterprise. and i have worried that is creeping into the way we govern, where we govern for the next election cycle or the next news cycle. and we aren't making the kinds of decisions in our time that leave things better over time. that generational responsibility i was talking about. especially if they don't have a he short-term political payoff. so that had been bothering me for some while. and very much related to that is what i describe as conviction politics, the idea that -- or this question i had whether others were as hungry for me, for someone who was running willing to lose, meaning that there was something they were so committed to doing, something they so believed in from a values point of view that they were willing to put political capital in their own political future on the line. and to engage at the level of adults with other voters. and so i wanted to try that. and we did it very much on the grassroots, you know? we went -- i had a 1% name recognition, i think. and no money. but we, we spent a tremendous amount of time just walking neighborhoods and knocking on doors and building. and i believe in the grassroots, in the power of the grassroots, and we invited people to come to see their state in their own civic -- stake in their own civic and political future. won the primary against a great guy, well established sort of -- how should i describe -- the sort of, the heir, if you will, to the nomination. and then, and then won election and then the hard business of governing began. and then won again just this last year. and what have we done? well, we're fist in the nation in -- we're first in the nation in massachusetts, 98% of our residents have health insurance. first in the nation student achievement, first in the nation in clean energy initiatives. we're growing jobs faster than 45 other states, coming out of recession stronger. we're the only state since 2007 whose bond rating has actually strengthened in the last few years. we've got a lot to do. but we're making hard choices, engaging and in some cases even upsetting some of our friends. but in the name of generational responsibility. and i'm really, i'm really proud of that. we don't have term limits, but i am not going to run again. because i'm no fool. [laughter] and i miss the private sector, i will say, especially on payday. [laughter] but it's been a great run. thank you. yeah? >> um, well, i'm also an alum of the better chance program. >> thank you. >> and a native of the south side of chicago. >> excellent. where'd you go to school? >> saint park school? is. >> okay, in new hampshire? >> okay. >> he knows something about st. paul school. do you know cannon hand ball? he used to be -- when were you there? >> i graduate inside 2001. >> oh, he's old. [laughter] he was a chaplain. >> oh, okay. well, i'm interested in knowing how your transition from chicago to new england affected your choices later in life or how it changed your perspective and how you deal with things now. >> what a great question. well, you know, i'm still there. i live in a house that was on my paper route when i was a student at milton academy. and we have for 22 years now. and i've been, you know, in and out and traveled and lived in other places. but boston, which was a very fractured place around race in those days, but boston and massachusetts have been very good to me and my family. i will say, though, i tease -- you know, i have occasions now in my current line of work to speak publicly from time to time. [laughter] and we're doing a lot of work in how we transition our economy in massachusetts to the innovation economy of tomorrow because we've got so many strengths that are natural for this, the concentration of brain power and all the research institutions and hospitals, venture capital and what have you. and i tease our business community who are, you know, have new england ways. and i talk about how, you know, when i grew up in the midwest -- and you'll understand this -- when you're new in the neighborhood, everybody bricks a pie, right -- brings a pie, right? everybody. [laughter] when you're new in massachusetts, you are the one who's expected to bring a pie, right? is. [laughter] you're nodding your head. but you understand what i mean? the sense of welcome is different. now, you get past that, and you make friends for life. deep friendships. but you've got to get past that. and in this an economy and a society that's much more fluid than it has ever been before, i mean, people talk about the global, the globalization of our economy. i happen to believe capital is globalized, labor is not yet. but it is more fluid than it's ever been before. we have to understand that a part of our job creation strategy and economic expansion has got to include a sense of welcome. and so i'm, i'm pleased that for the first time in 20 years young people and families are moving into massachusetts faster than they're moving out. and i think that some of our sense of, you know, the notion that we all, all of us -- not just people, not just officials, not just business leaders, but everybody -- has got to get the attitude of welcome right, i think it's coming around. it's a part of that. come on back. yeah, sure. one, two, flee. three. this is the shy side, so i should just come to -- [laughter] yes. >> governor, i thank you. it's great to see you tonight. >> nice to see you. >> i had an interview this morning, and the first question was, which politician do you admire most? my answer was deval patrick for a number of reasons, but from entering your office in 2009 when we dealt with, you know, transportation, ethics and pension reform, you know, i'm seeing the mentality. and with hearing the story about your grandmother you said, you know, we were never allowed to say we were poor, we had to say broke -- [laughter] but my question is, i graduated george washington university in four weeks. >> need a job? is. [laughter] let's cut right to it, shall we? [laughter] >> i'm not -- that's not what i do as a mentor. what advice do you have for someone who is looking for a job, yes, but loves politics -- >> yeah. >> and in this day and age the economy's bad, and it's so much about who you know. >> yeah. >> so what is the advice you would give to someone that made it happen? >> well, so, first of all, thank you for the -- thank you for helping in the office and caring about it. and i would say that caring about it and caring about service is the right place to start. i do not think that is or ought to be limited to government service. but service ought to be not just about what we do, but who we are. this i do think is connected to this point i was making at the outset about seeing our stake in each other. i think in terms of looking for a job, i mean, i'm not kidding, we should talk. if you want to come home. we should, we should talk. does that mean we have to have two different lines? one line for the book and the other line for people looking for work? [laughter] some of you look a little young -- yeah, i see you nodding your head. no, we're always looking for talent. we've, as you know, had to reduce head count, but we're always looking for talent. i guess the advice i would give you is this: do something. don't worry about it being pert. don't worry about what it leads to. do something. and bring your whole heart to it. and things open up, right? things happen. i never, i didn't start out planning to be governor of the commonwealth of massachusetts. if i had, my wife probably never would have married me 27 years ago. [laughter] but, you know, you sense, you begin to get a sense of yourself, what your strengths are and how you want to contribute and where and when, and then you move in that direction. the other thing i would say is i have -- and i'm going to say this to you as someone who's about to get a fancy degree. i remember being in the company of others who were about to get a fancy degree when i w