At an event celebrating 30 years of community outreach, retired Archibishop Desmond Tutu encouraged a sold-out crowd in Tacoma, WA, to make a difference in the world by doing simple things.
“It’s not that we have to be doing spectacular things,” Tutu told the crowd of 15,000 at the Tacoma Dome. “Sometimes, it’s just sitting … in a bus … and refusing to move,” he said, referencing Rosa Parks and her action that sparked the U.S. civil rights movement. It was one of his last scheduled public appearances in the U.S. before retiring from public life.
Tutu, 79, was introduced by Canadian youth advocate Craig Kielburger, who started the group that would become Free the Children when he was 12 years old.
In 1984, Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1961, became the first black dean of the Anglican cathedral in Johannesburg and was appointed the first black archbishop of Cape Town in 1986.
In 1995, South African President Nelson Mandela appointed him chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, charged with investigating the human rights violations that occurred under apartheid.
In 2008, Tutu joined the Dalai Lama in Seattle at The Seeds of Compassion. In addition, Tutu co-authored The Charter for Compassion with 2008 TED Prize Winner Karen Armstrong. He is the author of the book, “God has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for our Time” and one of The Elders, “an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela, who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.”
Be the Spark was started by The Greater Tacoma Community Foundation “to inspire each other to take action and make our community a more positive, caring place to live.” Other partners in the evening’s event, which also featured local youth entertainers, included the University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran University.
Video by Jeris Miller, @dakini_3, Seattle
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