Belmont Hill School Multicultural Alumni Partnership

Friday, October 12, 2018 — Samuel Gebru delivered the keynote address at the Belmont Hill School Multicultural Alumni Partnership 11th Annual Dinner in Belmont, Massachusetts. His speech focused on three main questions: what do you believe in, for whom do you fight, and what is your calling? Samuel shared how he was inspired to become a maternal health advocate at age 13 and how that propelled a life of service to others, including his 2017 candidacy for Cambridge City Council.

Speech as prepared — check against delivery

Keynote Speech by Samuel M. Gebru

Belmont Hill School Multicultural Alumni Partnership 11th Annual Dinner

Belmont, Massachusetts

Friday, October 12, 2018

Good evening, everybody!

Thank you for that very kind introduction, Atakelti. Folks, AT is my cousin and a lawyer. His job is to make people feel and look good—so don’t believe everything he says about me, just the good things!

I could think of no better way to begin my remarks this evening than by acknowledging this wonderful man and an excellent product of Belmont Hill School. AT is an older brother, not just to me, but to many of us in our community. We look to him as an example. When our parents moved to the United States, they had to navigate a new country, language, and culture with little to no guidance. This sometimes was challenging for us as their children since we too had to navigate everything for the first time alongside with them. Fortunately, this isn’t the case for our younger siblings and others yet to come. They’ll have people like AT to lean on for guidance and support as they seek to be better students, professionals, and human beings.

It is such an honor to be here with you today—to break bread in fellowship, and to celebrate Belmont Hill’s Multicultural Alumni Partnership. I want to thank Caleb Collins and the entire MAP family for thinking it was a good idea to ask a recovering politician to speak tonight! Like me, Caleb is from Cambridge. We grew up in the same neighborhood, The Coast. When I first met him at an open house, we quickly realized how many friends and neighbors we have in common. It is so great to see this brother in a critical role at this institution of excellence.

To Greg Schneider, congratulations on your appointment as the Ninth Head of School. It is my hope, as I know it is your expectation, that the men who come out of this school are as well-rounded in academics, athletics, and in the arts as you are. However, you’re going to have to teach me how to play the saxophone—that’s my speaking fee for tonight! I’m particularly excited by your commitment to ensuring this school remains “forward-thinking in terms of best practices for boys’ education in a global context of unprecedented opportunity and change.”

And to tonight’s honoree, Gretchen Cook-Anderson: I am blown away by your demonstrated life commitment to ensuring that the world is open to those in our country who do not have the racial privilege or the economic ability to travel and explore beyond their city limits—to explore this world of opportunity and change that Greg Schneider speaks of.

Traveling, whether it is in school, though an entity, or with family, is truly the greatest way to learn about the world. There is no book that is going to teach you how to connect with fellow humans and how to embrace this vast planet of ours as well as physically getting up and traveling. I am fortunate that despite growing up with a single mother with limited means, my mother insisted that we travel. She insisted that whatever our socioeconomic condition, that her son, that I, would know the world around me. The lived experiences I’ve been exposed to and the human connections that I’ve made—momentarily or lasting—have all informed the man I am today. So I want to especially thank you, Gretchen, for opening the doors of the world to the young women who receive your scholarship at Spelman College, and to young people across the country who utilize IES Abroad. Life truly goes full circle for you to be working at the nonprofit organization whose Japanese travel program you participated in as a student. I understand that Ethiopia is on your travel bucket list. When you do visit, it’ll be my honor to curate your itinerary.

In my visits to campus over the years and conversations with students, faculty, and alumni, it has become quite clear to me the high expectations placed on the young men at this school—and not just academically. Your mission statement hits the nail on the head: you exist to develop men of good character.

When Rick Melvoin was hired as Head of School, he was asked by The Panel what his thoughts were about critical social issues such as homophobia, gender, and sexual orientation. He remarked that Belmont Hill would have to think about what it means to be an all boys school and that thoughtful consideration was needed for issues of gender and sexuality. He said, “Our society, the society that surrounds the school, is full of difficult issues, and part of our responsibility is to address these in a responsible way so that the students are prepared to go out into the world.”

As a school, I believe it is incumbent upon you to ensure that the men you send into our society are well-prepared to engage the world beyond Belmont and beyond Massachusetts.

And this brings me to what I want to speak about tonight. I want to talk to you about beliefs.

What do you believe in?

For whom do you fight?

What is your calling?

I want to tell you a story about a turning point in my life—my first major “aha moment.”

I had childhood dreams about becoming a commercial airline pilot. However, as an 8th grade student, I quickly discovered a greater calling.

I had returned to Cambridge from a summer vacation in my native Ethiopia when one afternoon I stumbled across an Oprah episode about Ethiopia. Oprah’s guest was Dr. Catherine Hamlin, an Australian gynecologist who has committed over six decades of service to the women of Ethiopia. Along with her late husband, Dr. Reginald Hamlin, the Drs. Hamlin arrived in a country in the 1950s that had no resources for pregnant women. If you were pregnant in Ethiopia at that time, the prevailing message was simply: good luck! 

Catherine and Reginald established a midwifery training program at a local government hospital in the capital city of Addis Ababa. What was supposed to be a short-term assignment in Ethiopia turned into a life calling when they learned about obstetric fistula, a horrific childbirth injury common in developing countries. If you’re unfamiliar with obstetric fistula, you’re not alone. Over two million women worldwide live in silence with untreated obstetric fistulas. Not only is it non-existent in the developed world, but precisely because it’s a women’s health issue it isn’t given the critical attention it deserves.

As I learned about the untold horrors these women face in countries like Ethiopia, I also learned about the opportunity for treatment, the opportunity to restore dignity. I became compelled to act. This was my “aha moment”—my true calling wasn’t flying airplanes, it was public service.

I grew up in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and one of my favorite Bible verses is Galatians 5:13: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”

Scripture tells us not only to use our freedoms—our privileges—to serve one another, but to do so humbly in love. Scripture underscores the common sense of humanity that is enshrined in Belmont Hill’s mission statement.

Public service is the undying, burning, impatient, loving desire to serve others before self, to commit yourself to others with limitless compassion, and to do it with humility and love.

My rights end when yours end. My freedoms end when yours end. I am because you are. This is the African philosophy of Ubuntu. This is the philosophy that inspired rebels such as Nelson Mandela to fight against the status quo.

As an 8th grader, I organized a group of 13 young Ethiopian Americans in Greater Boston to raise funds to finance the fistula repair surgeries of 11 women in Ethiopia at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, founded by Catherine and Reginald in 1974. We had no leadership experience—we really didn’t know what we were doing. No one attended our first event, not even all of our parents. Later we realized it was because we never actually marketed the event, we never actually invited anyone. We just thought that securing a venue and saying we’re hosting an “event” meant we’d be at capacity. After that initial failure, we sold candy, t-shirts, and raffle tickets; we solicited donations from friends and family, and we held a successful benefit event. We were guided by our belief that women’s rights are human rights; what impacts women impacts us all—not because those women are someone’s daughter, mother, aunt, or sister, but because they are human beings. I’ve never heard someone say to treat men with respect and dignity because they’re someone’s son, father, uncle, or brother.

That was a pivotal year for me. It’s when I learned that I have a voice. The enduring commitment of the Drs. Hamlin to the women of Ethiopia inspired me. It revealed to me my vocation. The word “vocation” has Latin roots meaning “to be called”—and for me, this was my spiritual summons to do God’s calling.

In his book Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC, author Frederick Buechner correctly states: “The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” That place, that intersection, is vocation. My deep gladness is serving others. And in this instance, the world’s deep hunger was maternal health. I was moved to act. I believe that every woman regardless of where she is and what she believes in has the right to safe childbirth.

Men, we ought to be feminists. It’s not enough to be allies, we’ve got to be co-conspirators. We must be leaders the fight for women’s equality.

A problem doesn’t have to be your problem for it to be worth solving. In fact, the hallmark of a true public servant is to take on an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with you.

Since there are some students in audience, I want to remind you that your age should never limit the power of your voice. When I was a high school senior, I led the successful student campaign to recognize a Muslim holiday on the Cambridge Public School District’s official calendar, making us the first in Massachusetts to do so. I fought for my Muslim classmates because I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to celebrate their religious traditions.

I am because you are.

So again: what do you believe in?

For whom do you fight?

What is your calling?

I am encouraged by Belmont Hill’s tradition of sending into the world generations of young men who are thoughtful and informed. I know many of these men; some are my family. In our current political climate, your motto speaks to me in a powerful way.

Do our actions as a society suggest we have foresight?

Are we unapologetically zealous for equity and justice?

What or whom are loyal to?

I ran for Cambridge City Council last year to ensure that no one is left behind in any of our 13 neighborhoods. I ran because I believed then, as I still do today, that together we can build an inclusive Cambridge—a city where everyone is afforded the same opportunities to thrive, a city where all residents are true stakeholders in our shared future. Despite Cambridge’s relative prosperity as a city we still have an underbelly of issues that we are not addressing.

I argued that affordable housing and economic inequality are the biggest issues in Cambridge. I believe that much of the issues everyday Americans face can be addressed through policy changes that create greater social and economic mobility.

13% of our families with children live in poverty, and one third of families headed by single mothers live in poverty. This is unacceptable.

78% of our low-income families can’t afford to pay rent. This is unacceptable. 

There are 500 chronically homeless residents in our city. This is unacceptable.

30% of our public housing residents can’t afford the Internet. This is unacceptable.

I felt then as I still feel now that while we are growing and thriving as a city, we’re leaving some people and neighborhoods behind. Of course, this isn’t the image people have of Cambridge, affectionally known as the People’s Republic of Cambridge because of its progressive policies.

Our campaign developed a broad progressive agenda for Cambridge and engaged residents in a grassroots effort. We believe in 100% Internet access for every Cambridge resident, so we fought for a municipal broadband network. We believe in providing every child the opportunity to compete in the innovation economy, so we fought for an integrated Computer Science for All program. We believe in providing entrepreneurs with the information and access they need to succeed, so we fought for the creation of a small business resource center. We believe in housing for all and greater pathways to wealth creation through homeownership, so we fought for greater investments in affordable housing.

However, if we’re not in the room, if we’re not sitting at the table, we need someone who is going to bang their fist on the table on our behalf. There’s clearly something wrong in our country, the richest in the history of our planet, when someone must work two or three jobs just to be considered low income. Be it in local, state, or federal government, an election is a social contract, and it’s something we cannot afford to take lightly.

We are reminded quite often that elections have consequences. We are reminded quite often that the very values that make our country extraordinary are under attack. We are reminded quite often that certain people just aren’t welcome. This is unacceptable.

It’s not enough to tolerate diversity, we must celebrate the ways in which we differ! We know that—it’s why we’re here at MAP’s 11th annual dinner. 

And that’s the beauty of our extraordinary country. Ours is a country of immigrants and refugees—a country of rejects—where everybody belongs. Ours is a country that welcomed and took care of my single mother and me in 1995. Ours is a country where people do whatever it takes to get to, even risking death or imprisonment. That’s how blessed this country already is—so abundant is our blessing that people will give it their all just to arrive on our shores with nothing but the money in their pockets and the clothes on their backs.

Diversity and inclusion ought not to be some fancy words that we write about in an annual report. From Belmont Hill to Capitol Hill, there’s clear evidence that bringing people together from diverse backgrounds is going to lead to diverse solutions to problems we face.

And just as important as it is for us men to be co-conspirators in the fight for gender equity, those of you white allies in this room must be co-conspirators in the fight for racial equity. This country will be the most inclusive place on earth if we work for it—and that starts in rooms like this.

They say a rising tide lifts all boats, well, let’s be that tide! Let’s go out and make some good trouble. 

My friends, despite all the horrors in our country, despite all the division and unrest, despite all the child-like bickering, I’ve never been more inspired. We’ve seen darker days as a country. My optimism is impatient—it’s why I ran for office, it’s why I’m constantly urging other young leaders to step up and run. When you have a personal mission statement such as service to others before self, you cannot wait to be invited.

We must build coalitions and lift each other. Together, we can realize our highest aspirations. We have a responsibility to leave this planet and to leave our society better, more whole, than we found it.

But it starts with defining your beliefs. So, I ask you again:

What do you believe in?

For whom do you fight?

What is your calling?