WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:08.090 (relaxed trumpet music) 3 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 4 00:00:08.090 --> 00:00:11.330 - [Narrator] An attorney called him "a thug for the Lord." 5 00:00:11.330 --> 00:00:14.580 His daughter dubbed him "the rescue machine." 6 00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:16.690 To those who loved him, he was a hero. 7 00:00:16.690 --> 00:00:20.260 A tough, tenacious, cantankerous, lovable hero. 8 00:00:20.260 --> 00:00:22.640 A proud Marine who took the heart both on 9 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:25.823 and off the bench the motto, "Leave no one behind". 10 00:00:26.830 --> 00:00:28.930 To his critics, he was a bleeding heart liberal 11 00:00:28.930 --> 00:00:32.180 on the notorious Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 12 00:00:32.180 --> 00:00:35.750 a would-be social engineer, a judicial activist 13 00:00:35.750 --> 00:00:38.283 who ruled with his heart instead of his head. 14 00:00:39.150 --> 00:00:41.994 He was a judge for over 50 years. 15 00:00:41.994 --> 00:00:45.657 When he died still on the bench at 94, it was said, 16 00:00:45.657 --> 00:00:49.730 "In the field of law and public interest, there are stars, 17 00:00:49.730 --> 00:00:54.730 there are superstars and then there's Harry Pregerson." 18 00:01:02.924 --> 00:01:06.840 (relaxed violin music) 19 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:09.530 - This morning, Harry's family and I laid 20 00:01:09.530 --> 00:01:13.770 his body to rest at the VA Cemetery in Westwood. 21 00:01:13.770 --> 00:01:18.170 We said Kaddish for his soul and we laughed 22 00:01:18.170 --> 00:01:21.230 at the certainty with which we knew that Harry 23 00:01:21.230 --> 00:01:23.790 after surveying his new surroundings 24 00:01:23.790 --> 00:01:27.220 would have said, "It's about time, 25 00:01:27.220 --> 00:01:30.703 I have always wanted to live on the Westside." 26 00:01:30.703 --> 00:01:32.340 (audience laughs) 27 00:01:32.340 --> 00:01:33.930 That was Harry. 28 00:01:33.930 --> 00:01:35.283 Funny as hell. 29 00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:40.120 He did not care about convention or much else, 30 00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:43.530 other than living in the best tradition of the Hebrew 31 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:47.530 prophets who railed against oppression and hypocrisy 32 00:01:47.530 --> 00:01:52.450 and stupidity and anything or anyone that subverted 33 00:01:52.450 --> 00:01:56.733 the rights of the poor or the powerless or the vulnerable. 34 00:01:59.170 --> 00:02:01.033 - We all recognize this, right? 35 00:02:03.310 --> 00:02:06.440 This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. 36 00:02:06.440 --> 00:02:08.520 First of all, I want to thank you all 37 00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:11.290 for coming today to honor my dad. 38 00:02:11.290 --> 00:02:12.670 I loved him so much. 39 00:02:12.670 --> 00:02:15.130 I have to tell you, he was the best father 40 00:02:15.130 --> 00:02:19.980 in the entire world and I know you loved him too. 41 00:02:19.980 --> 00:02:24.980 On the night that he passed away, I sat in his office. 42 00:02:25.170 --> 00:02:26.860 At first glance when you walk in, 43 00:02:26.860 --> 00:02:30.050 it looks like Hurricane Katrina just blew through it. 44 00:02:30.050 --> 00:02:31.480 There are papers everywhere. 45 00:02:31.480 --> 00:02:34.280 There's books everywhere, pictures, mementos. 46 00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:36.850 You name it, it's all stuffed into this 47 00:02:36.850 --> 00:02:40.420 very messy office and you could learn a lot 48 00:02:40.420 --> 00:02:43.973 from him just studying what was on those shelves. 49 00:02:47.200 --> 00:02:52.200 As I went through his desk, I found hundreds of letters, 50 00:02:52.310 --> 00:02:54.773 handwritten notes and cards. 51 00:02:56.010 --> 00:02:58.760 There were lots and lots of pictures, 52 00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:01.723 mostly pictures of my beautiful mother, Bern. 53 00:03:02.760 --> 00:03:05.290 There were pictures of my brother Dean and I. 54 00:03:05.290 --> 00:03:07.510 There were pictures of the late Congressman 55 00:03:07.510 --> 00:03:09.920 Jim Corman, who was very dear to him. 56 00:03:09.920 --> 00:03:12.930 Pictures of guys he served within the Marines 57 00:03:12.930 --> 00:03:16.100 and finally pictures of lots and lots of people 58 00:03:16.100 --> 00:03:20.610 in this audience from the Bell Shelter or the Courthouse 59 00:03:20.610 --> 00:03:23.640 or any one of the hundreds of charity events that 60 00:03:23.640 --> 00:03:26.820 he was schlepping to almost every night of the week. 61 00:03:26.820 --> 00:03:30.800 If you really wanted to understand what made my dad tick, 62 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:33.750 all you had to do was sit in that office. 63 00:03:33.750 --> 00:03:35.240 - Robert Alton Harris was strapped 64 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:36.670 in a chair in the gas chamber. 65 00:03:36.670 --> 00:03:38.190 The acid bath was filling beneath him 66 00:03:38.190 --> 00:03:40.240 and then the telephone rang. 67 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:41.080 - [Newswoman] That's when Federal 68 00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:43.930 Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson jumped in. 69 00:03:43.930 --> 00:03:45.540 - Evidently Federal Courts have ruled 70 00:03:45.540 --> 00:03:48.120 that San Diego County can make welfare applicants 71 00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:50.620 submit to unannounced searches of their homes. 72 00:03:50.620 --> 00:03:54.127 Bleeding heart judges called San Diego's program 73 00:03:54.127 --> 00:03:56.600 "shameful," an "attack on the poor." 74 00:03:56.600 --> 00:03:59.280 One of them added "The government does not 75 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:01.120 search through the closets and medicine 76 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:03.420 cabinets of farmers receiving subsidies. 77 00:04:03.420 --> 00:04:05.870 They do not dig through the laundry baskets and garbage 78 00:04:05.870 --> 00:04:09.580 pails of real estate developers or radio broadcasters." 79 00:04:09.580 --> 00:04:13.320 Of course not, because those people aren't on welfare. 80 00:04:13.320 --> 00:04:17.530 They receive corporate subsidies, totally different. 81 00:04:17.530 --> 00:04:20.750 The Federal Appeals Court based in San Francisco has 82 00:04:20.750 --> 00:04:24.480 refused to reinstate President Trump's immigration order. 83 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:26.000 - [Newswoman] President Trump's travel ban 84 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:29.524 met its end at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 85 00:04:29.524 --> 00:04:30.550 - [Protesters] The people united- 86 00:04:30.550 --> 00:04:32.260 - [Newswoman] By this afternoon, the President 87 00:04:32.260 --> 00:04:34.610 was telling The Washington Examiner he would 88 00:04:34.610 --> 00:04:37.570 absolutely consider breaking up the Ninth Circuit. 89 00:04:37.570 --> 00:04:40.050 - You go to the Ninth Circuit and it's a disgrace 90 00:04:40.050 --> 00:04:42.570 and I'm gonna put in a major complaint 91 00:04:42.570 --> 00:04:45.020 because you cannot win, if you're us, a case 92 00:04:45.020 --> 00:04:48.049 in the Ninth Circuit and I think it's a disgrace. 93 00:04:48.049 --> 00:04:50.500 - [Harry] I'm not gonna sign any order that's gonna have 94 00:04:50.500 --> 00:04:54.340 the effect of kicking out of this country kids who were 95 00:04:54.340 --> 00:04:58.120 born here and who have the birthright as American citizens. 96 00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:02.486 I'm just not gonna do it because I think it's morally wrong. 97 00:05:02.486 --> 00:05:05.450 (soft piano music) 98 00:05:05.450 --> 00:05:08.800 My father was born in the Ukraine 99 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:10.263 in a village called Kusrilla. 100 00:05:11.460 --> 00:05:15.603 He came here about 1904 and he landed in Boston. 101 00:05:16.690 --> 00:05:20.177 Ended up working in Chicago and then the War came 102 00:05:20.177 --> 00:05:23.080 and he was drafted in the American Army 103 00:05:23.080 --> 00:05:26.260 and was in the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne 104 00:05:26.260 --> 00:05:28.783 campaigns and he was badly wounded. 105 00:05:29.910 --> 00:05:32.410 My mother came here as the young girl. 106 00:05:32.410 --> 00:05:34.167 She lived in Philadelphia and worked 107 00:05:34.167 --> 00:05:38.550 in one of the sweatshops for like $3 a week. 108 00:05:38.550 --> 00:05:40.451 They met here in Los Angeles. 109 00:05:40.451 --> 00:05:42.748 (upbeat trumpet music) 110 00:05:42.748 --> 00:05:46.060 It was up real hustling, bustling place. 111 00:05:46.060 --> 00:05:48.393 People moving up and down the street, 112 00:05:48.393 --> 00:05:52.260 the Five & Dime and the pool halls, delicatessens, 113 00:05:52.260 --> 00:05:57.260 creameries, bakeries, all the great smells, the markets. 114 00:05:57.314 --> 00:05:58.810 You had poultry stores where 115 00:05:58.810 --> 00:06:00.760 the live chickens would running around. 116 00:06:01.890 --> 00:06:04.917 We lived on Sea View Avenue for the first 12 years 117 00:06:04.917 --> 00:06:07.700 and it was heavily Jewish but not completely. 118 00:06:07.700 --> 00:06:10.640 There were many Japanese families, 119 00:06:10.640 --> 00:06:14.235 Mexican families, Slavs, Italians. 120 00:06:14.235 --> 00:06:17.282 It was heavily Italian too. 121 00:06:17.282 --> 00:06:20.204 In grammar school, junior high school, high school, 122 00:06:20.204 --> 00:06:23.790 there was always an emphasis on respect for others, 123 00:06:23.790 --> 00:06:27.400 respect for others' cultural backgrounds, religious beliefs. 124 00:06:27.400 --> 00:06:29.140 This was emphasized. 125 00:06:29.140 --> 00:06:33.057 In my high school, we had 52 different ethnic groups 126 00:06:33.057 --> 00:06:36.487 but everybody got along and that was very important. 127 00:06:38.363 --> 00:06:41.790 - [Interviewer] Did you experience any anti-Semitism? 128 00:06:41.790 --> 00:06:43.890 - [Harry] These kids, I think they were Mexican, 129 00:06:43.890 --> 00:06:45.810 they asked me "Well, like what are you?" 130 00:06:45.810 --> 00:06:47.367 So I said "I'm a boy." 131 00:06:47.367 --> 00:06:50.223 "No, no, no, we want to know whether you're a Jew or not." 132 00:06:50.223 --> 00:06:52.010 I said "Yeah" and then they 133 00:06:52.010 --> 00:06:53.883 wanted to know why I killed Christ. 134 00:06:54.960 --> 00:06:57.360 Then I worked for The Broadway in Pasadena. 135 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:01.010 That was a good job because that paid like $5 a day. 136 00:07:01.010 --> 00:07:02.350 I was there for a few days 137 00:07:02.350 --> 00:07:05.140 and they found out I was Jewish and they fired me. 138 00:07:05.140 --> 00:07:06.614 - [Interviewer] That was really your first experience? 139 00:07:06.614 --> 00:07:09.849 - [Harry] That was the real first experience, yeah. 140 00:07:09.849 --> 00:07:11.114 - [Interviewer] When did you first 141 00:07:11.114 --> 00:07:13.190 begin to think about being a lawyer? 142 00:07:13.190 --> 00:07:16.070 - [Harry] Well, I think it all came from my father. 143 00:07:16.070 --> 00:07:19.720 He used to go and listen to Darrow in Chicago. 144 00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:22.840 He had Darrow's debates on capital punishment 145 00:07:22.840 --> 00:07:25.050 and from earliest childhood, 146 00:07:25.050 --> 00:07:26.850 I knew I was gonna go to law school. 147 00:07:27.792 --> 00:07:31.341 (upbeat carnival music) 148 00:07:31.341 --> 00:07:33.874 I used to go to the Ocean Park Pier. 149 00:07:33.874 --> 00:07:36.685 There were a lot of fishermen on the wharf 150 00:07:36.685 --> 00:07:39.317 and this guy's caught a big one 151 00:07:39.317 --> 00:07:41.760 and it's on the ground, so it's flopping. 152 00:07:41.760 --> 00:07:44.833 I just ran over and threw it back in the ocean. 153 00:07:46.303 --> 00:07:49.582 Well the guy was mad as hell, it was probably his supper. 154 00:07:49.582 --> 00:07:51.553 So the guy starts to run after me. 155 00:07:52.606 --> 00:07:55.133 But I just couldn't leave that boy alone. 156 00:07:55.133 --> 00:07:58.450 He was a humanitarian, but I'll never forget that. 157 00:08:01.910 --> 00:08:05.620 - All of us were the center of Harry's universe. 158 00:08:05.620 --> 00:08:09.420 He made sure that I felt like a girl who could do anything, 159 00:08:09.420 --> 00:08:11.490 who was tough, who had the fortitude 160 00:08:11.490 --> 00:08:15.530 to really take care of myself, to weather any storm. 161 00:08:15.530 --> 00:08:17.950 A turning point came when I was in 162 00:08:17.950 --> 00:08:19.900 the seventh grade and my mom announced 163 00:08:19.900 --> 00:08:23.700 that she was going back to school to study microbiology. 164 00:08:23.700 --> 00:08:27.370 Bern told Harry that he needed to step up 165 00:08:27.370 --> 00:08:30.270 to the plate and assume some responsibilities 166 00:08:30.270 --> 00:08:33.330 of parenting and because my dad was totally 167 00:08:33.330 --> 00:08:36.260 helpless in the kitchen, we went out every night. 168 00:08:36.260 --> 00:08:37.670 Over dinner, he would tell me 169 00:08:37.670 --> 00:08:39.610 what a mediocre student he was. 170 00:08:39.610 --> 00:08:41.610 By far and away, the brightest 171 00:08:41.610 --> 00:08:44.550 in the class were always the girls. 172 00:08:44.550 --> 00:08:47.850 He'd say, "And what happened to those girls?" 173 00:08:47.850 --> 00:08:50.390 Well, those girls got married out of high school, 174 00:08:50.390 --> 00:08:52.210 they put their husbands through college 175 00:08:52.210 --> 00:08:53.650 put 'em through graduate school, 176 00:08:53.650 --> 00:08:57.440 raised the kids and then what happened? 177 00:08:57.440 --> 00:08:59.343 Sometimes the husband would die. 178 00:09:00.490 --> 00:09:02.800 Sometimes, 179 00:09:02.800 --> 00:09:04.620 the husband would get bored 180 00:09:04.620 --> 00:09:07.790 and the marriage would end in divorce 181 00:09:07.790 --> 00:09:10.200 and it was too late for the woman at that point 182 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:14.870 in her life to start over and have a career. 183 00:09:14.870 --> 00:09:18.900 It bothered him so much 184 00:09:18.900 --> 00:09:21.550 that these women never had an opportunity 185 00:09:21.550 --> 00:09:23.900 to really live up to their potential 186 00:09:23.900 --> 00:09:27.220 and then he'd tell me, "That's why Katie, 187 00:09:27.220 --> 00:09:29.700 you need to get a good education. 188 00:09:29.700 --> 00:09:32.930 You need to be your own boss. 189 00:09:32.930 --> 00:09:34.680 You need to make your own money. 190 00:09:34.680 --> 00:09:38.530 You need to determine your own destiny, even if 191 00:09:38.530 --> 00:09:42.170 you're lucky enough to marry the man of your dreams." 192 00:09:42.170 --> 00:09:44.570 - What was it like to grow up with Harry? 193 00:09:44.570 --> 00:09:49.460 Just imagine you're a barely literate young teenager. 194 00:09:49.460 --> 00:09:53.760 You are happily reading "The Hardy Boys" mystery series, 195 00:09:53.760 --> 00:09:57.230 maybe watching a little "Sea Hunt" on TV. 196 00:09:57.230 --> 00:09:59.897 Harry strides up and hands you a poem. 197 00:09:59.897 --> 00:10:04.033 "Read it, it's called 'Invictus.'" 198 00:10:04.033 --> 00:10:05.675 (audience laughs) 199 00:10:05.675 --> 00:10:07.176 "But why?" 200 00:10:07.176 --> 00:10:08.276 "It builds character." 201 00:10:10.157 --> 00:10:12.800 "Out of the night that covers me, 202 00:10:12.800 --> 00:10:15.710 black as the pit from pole to pole, 203 00:10:15.710 --> 00:10:20.710 I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. 204 00:10:21.020 --> 00:10:23.770 In the fell clutch of circumstance, 205 00:10:23.770 --> 00:10:26.600 I have not winced nor cried aloud. 206 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:29.230 Under the bludgeonings of chance, 207 00:10:29.230 --> 00:10:31.223 my head is bloody but unbowed. 208 00:10:32.330 --> 00:10:35.360 Beyond this place of wrath and tears 209 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:38.170 looms but the horror of the shade 210 00:10:38.170 --> 00:10:40.690 and yet the menace of the years 211 00:10:40.690 --> 00:10:44.520 finds and shall find me unafraid. 212 00:10:44.520 --> 00:10:47.250 It matters not how strait the gate, 213 00:10:47.250 --> 00:10:51.053 how charged with punishments the scroll, 214 00:10:51.053 --> 00:10:54.170 I am the master of my fate, 215 00:10:54.170 --> 00:10:56.653 I am the captain of my soul." 216 00:10:58.470 --> 00:11:00.930 When Harry was working his way through UCLA 217 00:11:00.930 --> 00:11:03.780 washing dishes at fraternities and sororities, 218 00:11:03.780 --> 00:11:07.350 he decided that he was gonna run for Student Body President. 219 00:11:07.350 --> 00:11:09.060 Those were different times. 220 00:11:09.060 --> 00:11:11.563 Anti-Semitism was not in the shadows. 221 00:11:12.500 --> 00:11:14.940 There were restrictive covenants and deeds. 222 00:11:14.940 --> 00:11:17.110 Some schools had quotas, 223 00:11:17.110 --> 00:11:20.380 private clubs had Jews not allowed policies, 224 00:11:20.380 --> 00:11:24.310 anti-Semitic slogans and jokes were common. 225 00:11:24.310 --> 00:11:26.530 No one who was Jewish had ever been 226 00:11:26.530 --> 00:11:29.050 elected Student Body President of UCLA. 227 00:11:29.950 --> 00:11:33.260 The other side smeared Harry, his heritage 228 00:11:33.260 --> 00:11:37.200 and just said terrible, terrible things about him. 229 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:40.677 Harry in despair went to see the campus Rabbi. 230 00:11:40.677 --> 00:11:43.210 "What should I do, Rabbi?" he asked. 231 00:11:43.210 --> 00:11:47.190 The Rabbi said one word, a word that carried 232 00:11:47.190 --> 00:11:50.683 Harry through the rest of his life, "Fight." 233 00:11:51.940 --> 00:11:55.382 Harry the dishwasher won by a good landslide. 234 00:11:55.382 --> 00:11:59.412 (anxious trumpet music) 235 00:11:59.412 --> 00:12:02.495 (explosions booming) 236 00:12:04.287 --> 00:12:09.110 It was 1944, the survival of America was at stake. 237 00:12:09.110 --> 00:12:11.910 Harry enlisted in the Marine Corps and soon 238 00:12:11.910 --> 00:12:15.463 found himself in Officer's Training in Quantico, Virginia. 239 00:12:17.500 --> 00:12:18.910 Harry and three of his Marine 240 00:12:18.910 --> 00:12:21.510 buddies are sent to the Pacific. 241 00:12:21.510 --> 00:12:24.903 One is killed, one loses an eye and one a leg. 242 00:12:26.070 --> 00:12:28.230 For Harry, it meant Okinawa. 243 00:12:28.230 --> 00:12:32.740 More than 200,000 perished in the 82-day struggle, 244 00:12:32.740 --> 00:12:36.300 twice the number of Japanese lost at Hiroshima 245 00:12:36.300 --> 00:12:40.709 and more American blood than had been shed at Gettysburg. 246 00:12:40.709 --> 00:12:44.709 (anxious violin, trumpet music) 247 00:12:46.180 --> 00:12:49.370 It's May 3rd, 1945. 248 00:12:49.370 --> 00:12:51.660 Harry is wounded both ways by bullets 249 00:12:51.660 --> 00:12:55.303 from a machine gun shooting Dum Dum exploding rounds. 250 00:12:55.303 --> 00:12:58.090 He's able to like flat in a small depression 251 00:12:58.090 --> 00:13:01.420 of dirt while ordinance flies in both directions. 252 00:13:01.420 --> 00:13:03.360 He slows the bleeding by using 253 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:06.490 his belt and clothing as tourniquets. 254 00:13:06.490 --> 00:13:09.187 Through that long night alone, he hears 255 00:13:09.187 --> 00:13:12.330 "Marine, tonight you die. 256 00:13:12.330 --> 00:13:15.490 Marine, tonight you die." 257 00:13:15.490 --> 00:13:18.590 At dawn, two guys run through hell to get him. 258 00:13:18.590 --> 00:13:21.990 They dropped him several times sliding down embankments, 259 00:13:21.990 --> 00:13:25.240 trying to escape, trying to stay alive 260 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:27.100 and this is where we remember that Harry 261 00:13:27.100 --> 00:13:29.860 is from East LA and proud of it. 262 00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:32.520 His friends were working class Latinos, 263 00:13:32.520 --> 00:13:36.820 Jews, Asians, Italians, Irish, you name it. 264 00:13:36.820 --> 00:13:40.280 The guys that saved his life were the Martinez cousins. 265 00:13:40.280 --> 00:13:42.433 He didn't know them, but he knew them. 266 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:47.150 They were just like his buddies from the old neighborhood. 267 00:13:47.150 --> 00:13:49.603 The greatest guys in the world. 268 00:13:50.670 --> 00:13:53.920 (anxious violin tones) 269 00:13:56.411 --> 00:13:59.661 (somber trumpet music) 270 00:14:02.700 --> 00:14:04.410 Harry had spent about a year 271 00:14:04.410 --> 00:14:07.150 at the Naval Hospital in San Diego. 272 00:14:07.150 --> 00:14:12.020 His weight went up from 110 to a healthy 175. 273 00:14:12.020 --> 00:14:14.690 He had a limp and he had a cane. 274 00:14:14.690 --> 00:14:18.250 One day, he was playing pool with one of his buddies. 275 00:14:18.250 --> 00:14:21.120 Harry said "Hey, do you know any girls I could meet?" 276 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:24.040 His friend said "Well you know, I'm going on a date 277 00:14:24.040 --> 00:14:28.020 with this girl and I'll ask if she has any friends." 278 00:14:28.020 --> 00:14:32.000 Well, this car drives up and Bern is sitting 279 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:35.430 in the front seat with Harry's friend who's driving. 280 00:14:35.430 --> 00:14:39.920 Harry opens the door, looks at Bern, 281 00:14:39.920 --> 00:14:43.580 looks at his date in the back seat 282 00:14:43.580 --> 00:14:45.647 and he sits in the front seat. 283 00:14:45.647 --> 00:14:48.480 (audience laughs) 284 00:14:51.130 --> 00:14:52.930 Is anyone surprised? 285 00:14:52.930 --> 00:14:54.770 And from that day forward, 286 00:14:54.770 --> 00:14:57.620 he knew he was going to marry her. 287 00:14:57.620 --> 00:15:01.610 - When I first met Harry, he was on crutches. 288 00:15:01.610 --> 00:15:04.010 He was this handsome Marine 289 00:15:04.010 --> 00:15:07.861 and what could be more romantic than a handsome 290 00:15:07.861 --> 00:15:11.143 Marine on crutches to an 18 year old girl? 291 00:15:12.101 --> 00:15:14.550 It was after about five or six times 292 00:15:14.550 --> 00:15:16.380 that I had gone out with Harry, 293 00:15:16.380 --> 00:15:19.850 I said "What do you want to do with your life?" 294 00:15:19.850 --> 00:15:22.017 And he said without a minute's hesitation, 295 00:15:22.017 --> 00:15:24.010 "Oh, I want to help people." 296 00:15:24.010 --> 00:15:26.350 And he said, "So I'm gonna go to law school 297 00:15:26.350 --> 00:15:29.407 and acquire the tools that I'll need to do that." 298 00:15:31.890 --> 00:15:35.970 My background was living in Boyle Heights 299 00:15:36.860 --> 00:15:40.630 during the Depression, growing up very poor. 300 00:15:40.630 --> 00:15:43.510 My father never had a permanent job. 301 00:15:43.510 --> 00:15:46.210 In fact, most of the time he didn't have a job at all. 302 00:15:46.210 --> 00:15:51.210 He was a mechanic and they were not hiring mechanics 303 00:15:51.830 --> 00:15:56.650 and so there were six children and sometimes 304 00:15:56.650 --> 00:16:01.650 it was lean pickings when it came to food 305 00:16:01.740 --> 00:16:03.700 and I felt poor 306 00:16:03.700 --> 00:16:08.700 and so when I went to UCLA the semester I met Harry, 307 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:11.800 I couldn't believe how beautiful those homes 308 00:16:11.800 --> 00:16:14.580 were around UCLA and I thought to myself 309 00:16:14.580 --> 00:16:17.130 you know, I'd really like one of those. 310 00:16:17.130 --> 00:16:20.260 So when Harry said he wanted to help people 311 00:16:20.260 --> 00:16:23.163 and I'm thinking about those beautiful houses, 312 00:16:25.140 --> 00:16:29.730 it didn't seem to me, as naive as I was, that maybe 313 00:16:29.730 --> 00:16:34.510 helping people was not such a money-making proposition. 314 00:16:34.510 --> 00:16:38.030 That maybe those houses would be out 315 00:16:38.030 --> 00:16:41.410 of range with Harry working on helping people. 316 00:16:41.410 --> 00:16:44.070 But I thought it was such an unusual thing 317 00:16:44.070 --> 00:16:47.890 for him to say and when I dated him more and more, 318 00:16:47.890 --> 00:16:50.390 I realized that I would probably never meet 319 00:16:50.390 --> 00:16:54.240 anybody as unique as this man and so that's 320 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:57.363 when I decided that maybe this was the guy for me. 321 00:16:59.334 --> 00:17:03.834 (up tempo Jewish style wedding music) 322 00:17:09.380 --> 00:17:13.170 Harry took any case that came through the door 323 00:17:13.170 --> 00:17:17.670 and I mean any case, he did wills for maybe $10. 324 00:17:17.670 --> 00:17:19.890 Never thought about billable hours, 325 00:17:19.890 --> 00:17:21.920 just whatever they could pay. 326 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:24.380 I remember Harry coming home with a package 327 00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:27.460 of chicken legs or we got a free tire. 328 00:17:27.460 --> 00:17:29.980 It never occurred to him to limit himself 329 00:17:29.980 --> 00:17:33.880 to people of position, people of influence 330 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:37.720 and that's when he first embarked on the idea of 331 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:42.720 trying to find a way for the little guy to be represented. 332 00:17:43.889 --> 00:17:46.010 - In the late 50s, I got to hanging around 333 00:17:46.010 --> 00:17:48.600 with what was then the neighborhood gang. 334 00:17:48.600 --> 00:17:51.340 My mother's optometrist was Dr. Edward Lamar 335 00:17:51.340 --> 00:17:54.110 and every afternoon from about 2:00 to 4:00, 336 00:17:54.110 --> 00:17:57.060 he'd put an out to lunch sign 337 00:17:57.060 --> 00:18:00.750 and him and his receptionist would 338 00:18:00.750 --> 00:18:05.290 basically have a lovemaking session in the afternoons 339 00:18:05.290 --> 00:18:07.480 with their lunch and so we knew that the car 340 00:18:07.480 --> 00:18:10.450 wasn't going anywhere for at least two hours. 341 00:18:10.450 --> 00:18:13.000 So we actually went joyriding twice 342 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:14.870 before the third time, we got caught. 343 00:18:14.870 --> 00:18:16.820 Detectives came that evening to the house 344 00:18:16.820 --> 00:18:19.410 and told my dad that they knew that I was in the car 345 00:18:19.410 --> 00:18:23.590 and after my dad got through straightening 346 00:18:23.590 --> 00:18:26.620 me out with his belt, we had to go to court 347 00:18:26.620 --> 00:18:29.710 and that's when I met Harry and he was hard. 348 00:18:29.710 --> 00:18:32.850 I never met somebody that could scare me like he did. 349 00:18:32.850 --> 00:18:35.000 I still remember one thing he said 350 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:40.000 that just kind of stuck with me and that was that if that's 351 00:18:40.460 --> 00:18:43.490 the kind of life I wanted to lead, then I wasn't a very 352 00:18:43.490 --> 00:18:46.923 good person and that they should throw the book at me. 353 00:18:47.820 --> 00:18:49.940 But if I wanted to change, 354 00:18:49.940 --> 00:18:51.560 then the change had to be with me. 355 00:18:51.560 --> 00:18:52.970 It couldn't be anybody else 356 00:18:52.970 --> 00:18:55.080 and I couldn't blame anybody else 357 00:18:55.080 --> 00:18:57.510 and my father made the comment that he was a Marine 358 00:18:57.510 --> 00:19:02.180 and he was a combat Marine and a decorated Marine 359 00:19:02.180 --> 00:19:06.290 and that Marines didn't put up with any nonsense. 360 00:19:06.290 --> 00:19:08.480 So that put the idea in my head that maybe 361 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:11.650 these Marines were a pretty tough outfit to belong to. 362 00:19:11.650 --> 00:19:14.550 I wanted to be a Marine if they could make you that tough. 363 00:19:15.760 --> 00:19:18.770 - It was when Jim Corman, the Congressman 364 00:19:18.770 --> 00:19:21.990 who was very close to Harry said to him one day, 365 00:19:21.990 --> 00:19:24.910 he said, "You know, you'd make a fine judge." 366 00:19:24.910 --> 00:19:26.440 And he said "I'm going to try 367 00:19:26.440 --> 00:19:28.657 to see whether that's possible." 368 00:19:29.590 --> 00:19:32.050 Pat Brown, who was Governor Brown 369 00:19:32.050 --> 00:19:34.440 was impressed with my husband. 370 00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:37.320 He liked what Harry was doing 371 00:19:37.320 --> 00:19:40.500 and so it just happened there was an opening. 372 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:44.710 Harry first became a Municipal Court Judge. 373 00:19:44.710 --> 00:19:47.170 One year later, he was appointed 374 00:19:47.170 --> 00:19:49.960 to be a Superior Court Judge. 375 00:19:49.960 --> 00:19:52.300 He was appointed to the District Court 376 00:19:52.300 --> 00:19:54.413 by President Lyndon Johnson. 377 00:19:55.635 --> 00:19:58.552 (gunfire clacking) 378 00:19:59.642 --> 00:20:01.607 (explosion booms) 379 00:20:01.607 --> 00:20:05.340 Harry was torn when it came to Vietnam. 380 00:20:05.340 --> 00:20:08.030 He felt that everybody should serve 381 00:20:08.030 --> 00:20:11.903 but he understood why others didn't feel that way. 382 00:20:13.130 --> 00:20:16.620 - The War was just heating up when I got out of high school 383 00:20:16.620 --> 00:20:19.430 and you could go into college, you could get a deferment 384 00:20:19.430 --> 00:20:22.980 and avoid going in the service at all 385 00:20:22.980 --> 00:20:25.930 and so I took that deferment and I went to college, 386 00:20:25.930 --> 00:20:29.030 not necessarily because I wanted to go to college 387 00:20:29.030 --> 00:20:31.340 but because I could get a deferment. 388 00:20:31.340 --> 00:20:33.750 A couple of years down the line when the War began getting 389 00:20:33.750 --> 00:20:37.883 worse, I decided I had to take personal responsibility 390 00:20:37.883 --> 00:20:40.990 for my position on the War and that I had sort of white 391 00:20:40.990 --> 00:20:44.050 privilege going to school when other kids couldn't. 392 00:20:44.050 --> 00:20:47.970 So I sent in my 2-S and they made me a 1-A. 393 00:20:47.970 --> 00:20:50.050 They called me for a physical 394 00:20:50.050 --> 00:20:54.863 and I refused to take the physical and then I was indicted. 395 00:20:55.740 --> 00:20:58.120 When they said "The People of the United States 396 00:20:58.120 --> 00:21:00.630 of America versus Robert Paul Zaugh," 397 00:21:00.630 --> 00:21:04.910 I felt this huge wave of adrenal fear 398 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:08.640 jolt me and pass through my body 399 00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:12.230 and once it did, I was not nervous. 400 00:21:12.230 --> 00:21:15.520 The Judge didn't have to let you defend yourself. 401 00:21:15.520 --> 00:21:16.847 They could just keep it to 402 00:21:16.847 --> 00:21:20.380 "Did you refuse induction or did you not?" 403 00:21:20.380 --> 00:21:21.980 It's a yes or no answer 404 00:21:21.980 --> 00:21:24.360 and that could be the end of your case. 405 00:21:24.360 --> 00:21:28.230 Even though the prosecutor objected to my presentation, 406 00:21:28.230 --> 00:21:32.190 Pregerson said, "I want to hear what Mr. Zaugh has to say." 407 00:21:32.190 --> 00:21:35.640 So I spoke for, I don't know, 20 minutes. 408 00:21:35.640 --> 00:21:37.727 He acquitted me of refusing induction 409 00:21:37.727 --> 00:21:40.550 and he convicted me of refusing to take a physical. 410 00:21:40.550 --> 00:21:44.170 He sentenced me to work in the national interest. 411 00:21:44.170 --> 00:21:48.010 I told them that I was working at Peace Press, 412 00:21:48.010 --> 00:21:52.030 that we printed for Angela Davis, Daniel Ellsberg, 413 00:21:52.030 --> 00:21:55.770 the Communist Party, the Black Panthers, et cetera 414 00:21:55.770 --> 00:21:57.900 and that that was the national interest and that's 415 00:21:57.900 --> 00:22:01.680 what I was going to do and they never challenged that. 416 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:04.440 I thought perhaps it was my so-called 417 00:22:04.440 --> 00:22:08.930 brilliant defense that had kept me out of prison. 418 00:22:08.930 --> 00:22:13.560 But what Pregerson said was that he visits everybody 419 00:22:13.560 --> 00:22:16.920 he sends to prison and that he went up to Lompoc 420 00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:19.480 to visit a bank robber and he looked on 421 00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:22.920 the prison manifest and he saw the name of Mike Swartz. 422 00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:26.400 He thought Schwartz was picking corn in Safford, Arizona, 423 00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:28.070 the minimum security prison 424 00:22:28.070 --> 00:22:30.040 that most resisters were sent to. 425 00:22:30.040 --> 00:22:33.240 It wasn't my argument that got me off. 426 00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:35.950 It was one, he didn't like the conditions 427 00:22:35.950 --> 00:22:39.550 in that prison and two, he realized how serious 428 00:22:39.550 --> 00:22:42.700 the draft resisters were about what they were doing 429 00:22:42.700 --> 00:22:45.250 and he decided personally he was not gonna 430 00:22:45.250 --> 00:22:48.310 send any more draft resisters to prison 431 00:22:49.210 --> 00:22:52.247 and lo and behold, I was the next case. 432 00:22:52.247 --> 00:22:55.580 (relaxed guitar music) 433 00:22:55.580 --> 00:22:59.780 - They came home, they had to find a job. 434 00:22:59.780 --> 00:23:03.080 Many of them had been gone for a number of years. 435 00:23:03.080 --> 00:23:08.080 They hadn't had training to move into the mainstream 436 00:23:08.120 --> 00:23:11.610 and so many of them wound up on the streets. 437 00:23:11.610 --> 00:23:15.370 They were homeless and they were needing 438 00:23:15.370 --> 00:23:18.230 help and nobody was giving them help. 439 00:23:18.230 --> 00:23:22.090 So Harry just went crazy over that idea 440 00:23:22.090 --> 00:23:25.370 that you have people serving, putting their life 441 00:23:25.370 --> 00:23:29.340 on the line, as he saw all these men do, 442 00:23:29.340 --> 00:23:30.173 Marines 443 00:23:31.714 --> 00:23:34.390 and Navy and Army guys 444 00:23:34.390 --> 00:23:38.377 and gals and he said, "How can you treat them so poorly?" 445 00:23:40.193 --> 00:23:43.510 - In Los Angeles alone, there were about 24,000 homeless 446 00:23:43.510 --> 00:23:47.620 veterans and he really took it to heart that these guys 447 00:23:47.620 --> 00:23:50.420 were out on the street and they and they couldn't get help 448 00:23:50.420 --> 00:23:53.370 and tears came to his eyes, 449 00:23:53.370 --> 00:23:56.820 just showing that he cared deeply about everyone, 450 00:23:56.820 --> 00:24:01.820 about every veteran who wasn't being helped in the world. 451 00:24:01.870 --> 00:24:04.580 Harry and I really connected early on in that. 452 00:24:04.580 --> 00:24:06.640 He found out that I was a Marine. 453 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:09.950 We are taught to protect those around us. 454 00:24:09.950 --> 00:24:13.960 We become a unit and we watch each other's back, 455 00:24:13.960 --> 00:24:16.490 which in combat is absolutely essential. 456 00:24:16.490 --> 00:24:19.400 So he identified a building, he found 457 00:24:19.400 --> 00:24:22.240 the people who would give the down payment on the building. 458 00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:23.370 He really put together 459 00:24:23.370 --> 00:24:26.373 the building blocks of what became US Vets. 460 00:24:27.300 --> 00:24:29.450 Our workers go out into the streets, 461 00:24:29.450 --> 00:24:32.280 go under the bridges, by the freeways 462 00:24:32.280 --> 00:24:35.090 and when they see an encampment of homeless people, 463 00:24:35.090 --> 00:24:36.960 they'll say, "Are any of you veterans?" 464 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:37.960 - Are you a veteran? 465 00:24:40.310 --> 00:24:41.150 You got any vets out here? 466 00:24:41.150 --> 00:24:42.943 And Army, Navy, Marines? - Army. 467 00:24:48.395 --> 00:24:49.897 - Are you a veteran by any chance? 468 00:24:49.897 --> 00:24:50.980 Are you a United States veteran? 469 00:24:50.980 --> 00:24:55.800 - Once be bring them in, we assess them, try to determine 470 00:24:55.800 --> 00:24:59.530 what are those things that led them to homelessness? 471 00:24:59.530 --> 00:25:01.460 - We got guys that just got out 472 00:25:01.460 --> 00:25:04.297 of the military last year, you know? 473 00:25:06.722 --> 00:25:11.157 We have from World War II all the way up. 474 00:25:11.157 --> 00:25:14.103 (plane humming) 475 00:25:14.103 --> 00:25:17.783 The only family they have is right here, this community. 476 00:25:19.230 --> 00:25:20.970 - You see, it started 35 years ago. 477 00:25:20.970 --> 00:25:24.580 Harry was watching television and on the news, 478 00:25:24.580 --> 00:25:26.160 the Salvation Army was managing 479 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:28.980 a homeless shelter, a cold winter shelter. 480 00:25:28.980 --> 00:25:31.560 It was a very bleak and cold winter 481 00:25:31.560 --> 00:25:34.680 and many of the homeless were dying on the streets. 482 00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:37.090 The city announced that the shelter would 483 00:25:37.090 --> 00:25:39.270 be closed and that the Salvation Army would cease 484 00:25:39.270 --> 00:25:41.983 to manage it because there were no more funds left. 485 00:25:43.060 --> 00:25:47.580 They asked my father, "What are these homeless going to do?" 486 00:25:47.580 --> 00:25:49.620 And he says, "They're gonna probably 487 00:25:49.620 --> 00:25:52.447 have to go back to sleeping on the streets." 488 00:25:53.610 --> 00:25:55.860 Well, Harry saw that interview on television 489 00:25:55.860 --> 00:25:58.770 and just within about an hour after my father 490 00:25:58.770 --> 00:26:03.510 got back to his office, he got a phone call from Harry 491 00:26:03.510 --> 00:26:06.240 and you know that when you get a phone call from Harry, 492 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:09.840 something's about to happen, something's going to be done 493 00:26:09.840 --> 00:26:11.570 and it's probably gonna challenge you to do 494 00:26:11.570 --> 00:26:14.400 a lot more than you ever thought you were gonna do. 495 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:16.300 The Judge drove him down to Bell, 496 00:26:16.300 --> 00:26:19.010 government land that wasn't being used. 497 00:26:19.010 --> 00:26:21.920 He said, "What could you do with this?" 498 00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:25.170 500 men and women from that day forward were 499 00:26:25.170 --> 00:26:29.265 housed at this complex because Harry made it happen. 500 00:26:29.265 --> 00:26:31.830 (relaxed guitar music) 501 00:26:31.830 --> 00:26:34.250 - [Harry] If you want to meet wonderful people, 502 00:26:34.250 --> 00:26:37.990 kind people, sharing people, decent people, 503 00:26:37.990 --> 00:26:41.200 you go to a homeless shelter and you sit down with them. 504 00:26:41.200 --> 00:26:44.670 They'll share whatever they have with the next person. 505 00:26:44.670 --> 00:26:47.450 They're concerned about others' problems. 506 00:26:47.450 --> 00:26:49.320 There's so much talent there. 507 00:26:49.320 --> 00:26:51.470 We've had lawyers who were homeless. 508 00:26:51.470 --> 00:26:53.810 We've had bankers who were homeless. 509 00:26:53.810 --> 00:26:56.720 We've had NBA basketball players. 510 00:26:56.720 --> 00:26:58.810 We've had a lot of folks that 511 00:26:58.810 --> 00:27:02.170 are just struggling to survive every day. 512 00:27:02.170 --> 00:27:05.550 They come to our place and we have a total array 513 00:27:05.550 --> 00:27:08.633 of programs to help 'em get back on their feet. 514 00:27:10.980 --> 00:27:12.990 - When the Pregerson family 515 00:27:12.990 --> 00:27:16.023 asked me to share a few reflections, 516 00:27:17.160 --> 00:27:19.850 I wanted to speak from my heart and think of what's 517 00:27:19.850 --> 00:27:23.340 the truest thing I can say to honor this magnificent man 518 00:27:23.340 --> 00:27:25.330 and it occurred to me it is somewhat ironic 519 00:27:25.330 --> 00:27:28.910 that as a Catholic and Christian, the person 520 00:27:28.910 --> 00:27:32.350 who most has reminded me of Jesus on my journey 521 00:27:32.350 --> 00:27:34.950 was a man of Jewish persuasion named Harry 522 00:27:35.890 --> 00:27:38.180 and I had mentioned this to my wife, 523 00:27:38.180 --> 00:27:40.470 my most honest critic, Denise. 524 00:27:40.470 --> 00:27:42.130 She said "No, you're not gonna say that. 525 00:27:42.130 --> 00:27:44.430 First of all, Jesus was a Jew. 526 00:27:44.430 --> 00:27:45.680 You're gonna sound like an ignorant 527 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:46.900 Catholic boy who doesn't know his history. 528 00:27:46.900 --> 00:27:48.250 You're not gonna say that." 529 00:27:49.151 --> 00:27:51.560 It kinda reminded me of those moments when you've been 530 00:27:51.560 --> 00:27:55.280 at those events that honor Harry and as was mentioned, 531 00:27:55.280 --> 00:27:56.960 he has a tendency to kinda go on and on 532 00:27:56.960 --> 00:27:59.120 with his enthusiasm and so finally Bern 533 00:27:59.120 --> 00:28:01.080 pops up and says "Harry, get down, 534 00:28:01.080 --> 00:28:03.120 you're done, get off the stage." 535 00:28:03.120 --> 00:28:05.400 God bless our wives. 536 00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:08.210 Harry recognized that as devastating 537 00:28:08.210 --> 00:28:10.513 as material poverty can be, 538 00:28:11.430 --> 00:28:16.430 it is the disconnection from a community of care 539 00:28:16.790 --> 00:28:20.483 that most depresses the plights of our homeless neighbors. 540 00:28:21.320 --> 00:28:25.590 I am convinced that this is why the individual attention 541 00:28:25.590 --> 00:28:29.490 he devoted to the poor and powerless surpassed that 542 00:28:29.490 --> 00:28:31.913 which he directed to the powerful and the elite. 543 00:28:33.250 --> 00:28:37.040 His message to the homeless was you deserve more 544 00:28:37.910 --> 00:28:42.910 and I believe in you, don't give up on your dreams. 545 00:28:43.090 --> 00:28:45.517 The message he conveyed to the powerful was 546 00:28:45.517 --> 00:28:49.658 you need to do more or I won't believe in you because you'll 547 00:28:49.658 --> 00:28:54.097 be giving up on the dream of what we must be as a community. 548 00:28:55.170 --> 00:28:59.100 - In 1979, Harry was nominated to the Ninth Circuit 549 00:28:59.100 --> 00:29:03.200 Court of Appeals by President Jimmy Carter. 550 00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:04.610 He went before the Senate 551 00:29:04.610 --> 00:29:07.193 Judiciary Committee for confirmation. 552 00:29:08.650 --> 00:29:12.970 Harry was asked by one of the Senators 553 00:29:12.970 --> 00:29:16.287 and pushed by one of the Senators, 554 00:29:16.287 --> 00:29:18.180 "What would you do, Judge, 555 00:29:18.180 --> 00:29:22.950 if you had a case in which you had to decide 556 00:29:22.950 --> 00:29:26.230 according to the law or your conscience?" 557 00:29:26.230 --> 00:29:29.510 And Harry really said afterwards to me 558 00:29:29.510 --> 00:29:32.060 and others that that made him very uncomfortable 559 00:29:32.060 --> 00:29:34.110 to try to answer a question like that 560 00:29:35.590 --> 00:29:39.410 and he finally, because they pressed him, he finally 561 00:29:39.410 --> 00:29:43.700 said "My conscience is the product of the 10 Commandments, 562 00:29:43.700 --> 00:29:46.800 the Bill of Rights, the Boy Scout Oath 563 00:29:46.800 --> 00:29:48.343 and the Marine Corps Hymn. 564 00:29:49.220 --> 00:29:53.290 If I had to follow my conscience or the law, 565 00:29:53.290 --> 00:29:55.277 I would follow my conscience." 566 00:29:58.950 --> 00:30:00.680 Harry could not lie. 567 00:30:00.680 --> 00:30:02.620 Harry had no guile. 568 00:30:02.620 --> 00:30:05.710 He just was what he was. 569 00:30:05.710 --> 00:30:08.350 People would take him for what he was 570 00:30:08.350 --> 00:30:12.900 and I think everybody recognized that this was a man of 571 00:30:15.170 --> 00:30:16.690 great 572 00:30:16.690 --> 00:30:17.523 honor, 573 00:30:18.410 --> 00:30:21.962 of great morality, of integrity. 574 00:30:21.962 --> 00:30:25.545 (soft piano, violin music) 575 00:30:54.180 --> 00:30:56.060 - I was asked to speak on behalf 576 00:30:56.060 --> 00:30:59.890 of HP's law clerks past and present. 577 00:30:59.890 --> 00:31:02.670 There are over 150 of us 578 00:31:02.670 --> 00:31:06.050 over his 45 years on the Federal bench. 579 00:31:06.050 --> 00:31:07.580 He has sworn most of us 580 00:31:07.580 --> 00:31:10.230 into the Bar and into other positions. 581 00:31:10.230 --> 00:31:13.150 Since he's been a Circuit Judge, he has taken 582 00:31:13.150 --> 00:31:16.413 the liberty of embellishing the State Bar Oath. 583 00:31:17.580 --> 00:31:21.387 He adds the promise, which he makes us all repeat, 584 00:31:21.387 --> 00:31:24.761 "I will never file an oversized brief." 585 00:31:24.761 --> 00:31:27.250 (audience laughs) 586 00:31:27.250 --> 00:31:29.490 He bragged about other people's kids 587 00:31:29.490 --> 00:31:32.463 and shared pictures as if they were his own. 588 00:31:33.350 --> 00:31:36.760 He took the cane, an item that some might view 589 00:31:36.760 --> 00:31:40.510 as a symbol of weakness and made it powerful and fun. 590 00:31:40.510 --> 00:31:42.690 He used to do tricks with his cane. 591 00:31:42.690 --> 00:31:46.970 HP regularly hired female law clerks from the get-go, 592 00:31:46.970 --> 00:31:49.160 long before many of his colleagues 593 00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:51.970 would even consider such a hire and if you got 594 00:31:51.970 --> 00:31:55.100 pregnant while you were working for him, no problem. 595 00:31:55.100 --> 00:31:57.300 Just bring the crib in. 596 00:31:57.300 --> 00:31:59.413 He had it all set up as a nursery. 597 00:32:00.350 --> 00:32:02.030 He was always on the phone, 598 00:32:02.030 --> 00:32:04.900 moving and shaking, wheeling and dealing. 599 00:32:04.900 --> 00:32:07.740 It was so frustrating if you were trying to keep him 600 00:32:07.740 --> 00:32:12.070 on a deadline or help him get an opinion out but he taught 601 00:32:12.070 --> 00:32:16.710 us how to get amazing things done by personal contact. 602 00:32:16.710 --> 00:32:19.040 When he saw a wrong that needed to be righted, 603 00:32:19.040 --> 00:32:20.520 he gathered the law clerks 604 00:32:20.520 --> 00:32:23.480 and he gave us our marching orders. 605 00:32:23.480 --> 00:32:27.200 Find the law and build to the right decision. 606 00:32:27.200 --> 00:32:30.400 He said the law is like going to Builder's Emporium, 607 00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:32.690 figure out what you want to build 608 00:32:32.690 --> 00:32:35.950 and then use the law as a tool to build it. 609 00:32:35.950 --> 00:32:38.763 And he had amazing legal vision. 610 00:32:39.920 --> 00:32:43.777 His dissent in Sullivan versus United States in 1985 611 00:32:45.890 --> 00:32:49.770 lamented the failure of the Court and our government 612 00:32:49.770 --> 00:32:54.713 to recognize the importance of a party's same-sex marriage. 613 00:32:56.310 --> 00:33:00.270 In 1998 in US versus Lipman, 614 00:33:00.270 --> 00:33:03.680 long before the DACA controversy, 615 00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:06.860 he authored a little-known opinion that 616 00:33:06.860 --> 00:33:11.203 gave legal recognition to real life on the street. 617 00:33:12.110 --> 00:33:15.320 That it is no surprise that children 618 00:33:15.320 --> 00:33:19.040 brought to this country illegally by their parents 619 00:33:19.040 --> 00:33:22.223 become as American as the rest of us. 620 00:33:23.370 --> 00:33:25.760 - He was obviously incredibly impactful 621 00:33:25.760 --> 00:33:29.120 as a jurist and I think for two different reasons. 622 00:33:29.120 --> 00:33:32.673 One, he personified idealism. 623 00:33:33.560 --> 00:33:35.863 The law was there to protect people. 624 00:33:36.970 --> 00:33:41.420 It was infused with values, equality and fairness 625 00:33:42.560 --> 00:33:47.280 but he also was the consummate pragmatist. 626 00:33:47.280 --> 00:33:51.150 He measured whether something was just 627 00:33:51.150 --> 00:33:56.150 based on its actual effect on real people's lives. 628 00:33:56.300 --> 00:33:59.467 (relaxed piano music) 629 00:34:02.780 --> 00:34:05.130 - In the mid-80s, it came to light that the city 630 00:34:05.130 --> 00:34:08.460 of Los Angeles had been inadequately treating its sewage 631 00:34:08.460 --> 00:34:10.190 and was essentially dumping everything that 632 00:34:10.190 --> 00:34:13.293 was flushed down a toilet into Santa Monica Bay. 633 00:34:14.680 --> 00:34:18.130 - The Hyperion Treatment Plant was not coming close 634 00:34:18.130 --> 00:34:20.720 to meeting the requirements under the Clean Water Act. 635 00:34:20.720 --> 00:34:23.640 We had a dead zone in the middle of Santa Monica Bay. 636 00:34:23.640 --> 00:34:25.790 We had sewage spills closing the beaches 637 00:34:25.790 --> 00:34:28.380 even in the height of summer and people were 638 00:34:28.380 --> 00:34:30.780 just sick and tired of the poor water quality. 639 00:34:32.620 --> 00:34:34.530 It was very much under the radar. 640 00:34:34.530 --> 00:34:37.180 Then Assemblyman Tom Hayden held hearings. 641 00:34:37.180 --> 00:34:38.790 Then all of a sudden, the sorry state 642 00:34:38.790 --> 00:34:41.103 of sewage became front page news. 643 00:34:43.020 --> 00:34:45.360 Judge Pregerson had been the District Judge 644 00:34:45.360 --> 00:34:48.500 who had been presiding over the enforcement case. 645 00:34:48.500 --> 00:34:51.990 It then got put on hold for many, many years and by the time 646 00:34:51.990 --> 00:34:54.880 it reopened, he was an Appellate Court Judge but he kept 647 00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:58.090 on the case because he already had the experience. 648 00:34:58.090 --> 00:35:00.250 He required all of us to go on a tour 649 00:35:00.250 --> 00:35:02.860 of the Hyperion Treatment Plant and he made sure 650 00:35:02.860 --> 00:35:04.900 that everybody got up close and personal 651 00:35:04.900 --> 00:35:06.750 to what's known as the headworks, 652 00:35:06.750 --> 00:35:08.550 where there are bar screens that screen 653 00:35:08.550 --> 00:35:11.930 out the crazy large items and things that people dump 654 00:35:11.930 --> 00:35:14.880 into sewers down manholes and flush down the toilets. 655 00:35:14.880 --> 00:35:17.750 It's the most odorful area. 656 00:35:17.750 --> 00:35:20.160 - [Mark] We ended up meeting once a quarter. 657 00:35:20.160 --> 00:35:23.530 Judge Harry Pregerson presided to run those meetings. 658 00:35:23.530 --> 00:35:26.560 - Stuck in a room having to go through everything, 659 00:35:26.560 --> 00:35:29.230 we started to develop some honest relationships. 660 00:35:29.230 --> 00:35:30.547 Being able to ask questions, you know, 661 00:35:30.547 --> 00:35:33.130 "Would you let your daughter go swim 662 00:35:33.130 --> 00:35:34.720 in the beach out near the plant?" 663 00:35:34.720 --> 00:35:35.990 And the answer was no. 664 00:35:35.990 --> 00:35:38.730 - He was so down earth and so folksy 665 00:35:38.730 --> 00:35:41.780 and he just had this incredible way 666 00:35:41.780 --> 00:35:44.830 of making everybody in that room feel at ease 667 00:35:44.830 --> 00:35:47.720 and also feel that their voice was important. 668 00:35:47.720 --> 00:35:50.830 We I think realized, somewhat to our horror, 669 00:35:50.830 --> 00:35:52.740 that we had approached talking about 670 00:35:53.690 --> 00:35:57.850 the men and women of the Public Works Department 671 00:35:57.850 --> 00:35:59.700 as if the folks who went to work at the sewage 672 00:35:59.700 --> 00:36:02.260 treatment plant went there every morning to manufacturer 673 00:36:02.260 --> 00:36:05.210 sewage for the joy of dumping it in the ocean 674 00:36:05.210 --> 00:36:08.530 as opposed to it being hardworking men and women 675 00:36:08.530 --> 00:36:10.650 who were dealing with a river of human waste 676 00:36:10.650 --> 00:36:13.210 coming at them 24 hours a day that they hadn't been 677 00:36:13.210 --> 00:36:16.822 given the resources they needed to deal with adequately. 678 00:36:16.822 --> 00:36:20.489 (soft piano, trumpet music) 679 00:36:22.493 --> 00:36:25.350 I think Judge Pregerson and his very humanity 680 00:36:25.350 --> 00:36:28.510 in forcing us to come together as people to figure out 681 00:36:28.510 --> 00:36:31.410 what could be done as opposed to fighting in the 682 00:36:31.410 --> 00:36:35.283 traditional sense really brought the best out of all of us. 683 00:36:57.980 --> 00:37:00.133 - We hear the term activist judge. 684 00:37:01.280 --> 00:37:04.290 That doesn't really encompass 685 00:37:04.290 --> 00:37:08.680 the activist judge that Harry Pregerson was. 686 00:37:08.680 --> 00:37:10.930 He taught us it's not just what you do in law 687 00:37:10.930 --> 00:37:13.970 with your hands in the opinions that you write 688 00:37:13.970 --> 00:37:17.470 but it's what you do with your feet outside the courtroom. 689 00:37:17.470 --> 00:37:20.130 When a freeway going through South Los Angeles was going 690 00:37:20.130 --> 00:37:24.810 to uproot low income families, he stopped it in its tracks. 691 00:37:24.810 --> 00:37:27.980 The first time in the history perhaps of this nation 692 00:37:27.980 --> 00:37:30.840 that a judge stopped an infrastructure project 693 00:37:30.840 --> 00:37:34.130 like that out of justice, to make sure that something that 694 00:37:34.130 --> 00:37:38.653 was supposed to serve all of us did not leave anyone behind. 695 00:37:39.690 --> 00:37:42.490 - The Century Freeway was planned 696 00:37:42.490 --> 00:37:47.490 deliberately to go right through the urban area 697 00:37:47.530 --> 00:37:51.370 and in doing so, it would destroy 698 00:37:51.370 --> 00:37:54.803 approximately 8,000 housing units. 699 00:37:55.740 --> 00:37:58.410 We were very young, still very green 700 00:37:58.410 --> 00:38:00.450 and trying to figure out what 701 00:38:00.450 --> 00:38:03.920 public interest law could be about. 702 00:38:03.920 --> 00:38:07.110 Judge Pregerson understood the need to act quickly 703 00:38:07.110 --> 00:38:10.440 and Judge Pregerson kept going back to Caltrans 704 00:38:10.440 --> 00:38:12.320 and saying "You need to do a better job 705 00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:15.250 of addressing the problems of blight." 706 00:38:15.250 --> 00:38:19.923 He continued the injunction in effect for seven years. 707 00:38:21.330 --> 00:38:26.330 Judge Pregerson clearly understood that a very robust 708 00:38:26.510 --> 00:38:31.510 mitigation plan was going to be the optimum solution. 709 00:38:31.900 --> 00:38:35.210 He delivered that message and that was critical 710 00:38:35.210 --> 00:38:37.570 to getting both the Federal and the State 711 00:38:37.570 --> 00:38:40.910 government to agree to a plan that was 712 00:38:40.910 --> 00:38:44.680 going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. 713 00:38:44.680 --> 00:38:48.480 The settlement provided that roughly half the cost of the 714 00:38:48.480 --> 00:38:53.250 freeway was going to be put into the mitigation measures. 715 00:38:53.250 --> 00:38:56.920 Pregerson was more responsible than anybody 716 00:38:56.920 --> 00:38:59.860 for establishing the Apprenticeship Program. 717 00:38:59.860 --> 00:39:02.660 You should have certain numbers of women, 718 00:39:02.660 --> 00:39:05.450 you should have certain numbers of the minority. 719 00:39:05.450 --> 00:39:07.030 You should try to have as many people 720 00:39:07.030 --> 00:39:09.329 from the impacted area as possible. 721 00:39:09.329 --> 00:39:12.800 That proved to be extremely difficult 722 00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:15.320 because a lot of people that you would want 723 00:39:15.320 --> 00:39:18.600 to get those jobs didn't have the skills. 724 00:39:18.600 --> 00:39:22.130 Pregerson said "Well, let's have an Apprenticeship Program 725 00:39:22.130 --> 00:39:25.070 where we teach these people the skills from the beginning, 726 00:39:25.070 --> 00:39:27.210 how to hit a hammer into a nail, 727 00:39:27.210 --> 00:39:30.728 then go up from there and drive the bulldozer." 728 00:39:30.728 --> 00:39:32.400 (bulldozer rumbles) 729 00:39:32.400 --> 00:39:35.430 He had a great concern for minorities. 730 00:39:35.430 --> 00:39:37.290 Maybe it was his Jewish background, 731 00:39:37.290 --> 00:39:41.150 that he felt he was a minority religiously 732 00:39:42.150 --> 00:39:44.840 and that the Jewish community was one 733 00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:47.550 of many minority groups as he grew up 734 00:39:47.550 --> 00:39:50.310 and so he felt concerned for other minority groups. 735 00:39:50.310 --> 00:39:52.073 I'm not sure where he got that. 736 00:39:53.482 --> 00:39:56.815 (relaxed trumpet music) 737 00:40:02.550 --> 00:40:05.030 - This is a letter from a Congressman, 738 00:40:05.030 --> 00:40:09.000 Chuck Holifield of the 19th District in California 739 00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:14.000 and he writes to my husband on September 11th, 1945, 740 00:40:14.217 --> 00:40:17.420 "Dear Harry, I rejoice with you 741 00:40:17.420 --> 00:40:20.600 in the restoration of your Commission. 742 00:40:20.600 --> 00:40:22.960 The most important thing in this whole affair 743 00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:25.130 is that you've proven your ability 744 00:40:25.130 --> 00:40:28.727 to overcome what seemed to be a very great tragedy." 745 00:40:30.710 --> 00:40:32.783 Oh, where to begin? 746 00:40:35.760 --> 00:40:40.760 There's no question that my husband suffered from PTSD. 747 00:40:42.440 --> 00:40:47.080 I've known it, Harry has known it and you could say well, 748 00:40:47.080 --> 00:40:49.180 he certainly suffered in the battlefield. 749 00:40:49.180 --> 00:40:51.920 He had these severe wounds in Okinawa 750 00:40:52.820 --> 00:40:57.470 but by far the greatest suffering that my husband had 751 00:40:57.470 --> 00:41:00.110 was when he was in Quantico, Virginia 752 00:41:00.110 --> 00:41:03.330 in the Officer's Training Facility 753 00:41:03.330 --> 00:41:06.403 to become a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. 754 00:41:07.430 --> 00:41:11.300 When Harry and his friend Mike graduated from the ROTC 755 00:41:11.300 --> 00:41:14.993 program at UCLA, they were then sent to Quantico. 756 00:41:16.697 --> 00:41:19.100 They were absolutely shocked 757 00:41:20.733 --> 00:41:23.530 by the outrageous racism, 758 00:41:23.530 --> 00:41:24.673 bigotry, 759 00:41:25.680 --> 00:41:29.290 anti-Semitism that would permeate 760 00:41:29.290 --> 00:41:33.013 every aspect of their military life there. 761 00:41:33.960 --> 00:41:36.850 Right after they had taken an exam, 762 00:41:36.850 --> 00:41:40.590 they were called into the office of an officer 763 00:41:40.590 --> 00:41:45.590 who they considered not very friendly towards Jews and told 764 00:41:45.870 --> 00:41:49.840 that they had been found to have cheated on the exam 765 00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:52.707 and of course they denied it and then the officer said, 766 00:41:52.707 --> 00:41:54.720 "Well then now that you've denied it, 767 00:41:54.720 --> 00:41:57.007 you're not only a cheat but you're liars." 768 00:41:58.010 --> 00:42:01.500 Just before graduation, they were called in 769 00:42:01.500 --> 00:42:05.463 and told they were going to be dishonorably discharged. 770 00:42:07.660 --> 00:42:11.953 That was probably the greatest pain that Harry's ever known. 771 00:42:13.970 --> 00:42:17.480 The day that they received their dishonorable discharges, 772 00:42:17.480 --> 00:42:20.330 Harry decided that he would enlist 773 00:42:20.330 --> 00:42:24.373 the very next day in the Marine Corps as a Private. 774 00:42:25.400 --> 00:42:27.373 He was going into that War. 775 00:42:30.830 --> 00:42:33.380 And then a strange thing happened. 776 00:42:33.380 --> 00:42:35.700 Evidently there were enough people 777 00:42:35.700 --> 00:42:39.790 in high places who said this is terrible travesty, 778 00:42:39.790 --> 00:42:42.350 what was done to these two boys. 779 00:42:42.350 --> 00:42:43.640 Harry was told 780 00:42:45.290 --> 00:42:48.050 that he would get back his commission 781 00:42:48.050 --> 00:42:50.320 and it would be a field commission. 782 00:42:50.320 --> 00:42:52.330 But what happened was he was severely 783 00:42:52.330 --> 00:42:55.653 wounded with these badly mangled legs. 784 00:42:56.640 --> 00:42:59.603 The doctor came to see him and he said, "Son, 785 00:43:00.490 --> 00:43:03.920 one of the requirements is you're going to have to walk. 786 00:43:03.920 --> 00:43:05.357 You're gonna have to walk." 787 00:43:07.700 --> 00:43:08.690 And so 788 00:43:11.240 --> 00:43:12.180 Harry got up 789 00:43:14.120 --> 00:43:15.433 and he walked. 790 00:43:18.490 --> 00:43:21.750 He walked about 10 steps 791 00:43:21.750 --> 00:43:25.910 and the doctor had a wheelchair waiting for him and 792 00:43:28.450 --> 00:43:30.200 he got his commission back 793 00:43:31.330 --> 00:43:36.330 and so, this wound that Harry suffered 794 00:43:36.670 --> 00:43:39.440 was rectified and yet it wasn't. 795 00:43:39.440 --> 00:43:41.610 He never wanted to talk about this. 796 00:43:41.610 --> 00:43:44.860 He didn't tell our children for years and years 797 00:43:44.860 --> 00:43:48.563 because he felt it was a stain on his character. 798 00:43:50.670 --> 00:43:53.330 One of the things that Harry learned 799 00:43:53.330 --> 00:43:58.330 from this experience was that a little person like Harry 800 00:43:58.540 --> 00:44:02.680 who was barely out of his teens when this event happened, 801 00:44:02.680 --> 00:44:07.530 a little person who had no power and had no network, 802 00:44:07.530 --> 00:44:11.170 no resource, no person who could help him 803 00:44:11.170 --> 00:44:16.170 was totally at the mercy of whatever powers might be 804 00:44:17.220 --> 00:44:20.440 and so I think Harry learned 805 00:44:20.440 --> 00:44:25.030 that one of the things he needed to do was to get power, 806 00:44:25.030 --> 00:44:29.083 to have some voice and then to start networking. 807 00:44:30.600 --> 00:44:33.673 I'll never forget his last words. 808 00:44:35.467 --> 00:44:38.370 "I'm so sorry. 809 00:44:38.370 --> 00:44:43.370 I regret so much that I can no longer help anybody." 810 00:44:52.620 --> 00:44:53.920 - I'm gonna bring it home. 811 00:44:57.330 --> 00:45:00.410 When I was eight years old, my grandfather gave me 812 00:45:00.410 --> 00:45:05.410 a stone with the inscription "Never, never, ever quit." 813 00:45:06.850 --> 00:45:11.499 Being eight, I didn't have anything yet to quit from. 814 00:45:11.499 --> 00:45:14.110 (audience laughs) 815 00:45:14.110 --> 00:45:17.457 When I was 10 years old, he bought me the book 816 00:45:17.457 --> 00:45:20.507 "How to Win Friends and Influence People." 817 00:45:22.070 --> 00:45:24.120 Win friends? 818 00:45:24.120 --> 00:45:26.150 Influence people? 819 00:45:26.150 --> 00:45:29.593 I was just focused on trying to be like Michael Jordan. 820 00:45:31.770 --> 00:45:36.770 As I got older, my grandpa continued to buy me books. 821 00:45:37.090 --> 00:45:39.340 Autobiographies of Abraham Lincoln, 822 00:45:39.340 --> 00:45:41.890 speeches of Winston Churchill 823 00:45:41.890 --> 00:45:45.580 and of course, Strunk's "Elements of Style." 824 00:45:45.580 --> 00:45:48.840 One summer, we went through this book cover to cover. 825 00:45:48.840 --> 00:45:51.170 He would call me each Sunday 826 00:45:51.170 --> 00:45:54.617 and say without any introduction, 827 00:45:54.617 --> 00:45:56.990 "Turn to page 57." 828 00:45:56.990 --> 00:46:00.310 (audience laughs) 829 00:46:00.310 --> 00:46:03.540 During one weekend session that I will never forget 830 00:46:03.540 --> 00:46:07.170 because it was a particularly beautiful summer day, 831 00:46:07.170 --> 00:46:09.903 I asked him if we could skip that day's session. 832 00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:14.290 Grandpa, I said, "It's a beautiful day. 833 00:46:14.290 --> 00:46:18.290 I want to go outside and have fun with the other kids." 834 00:46:18.290 --> 00:46:20.963 He said "Brad, let me tell you something. 835 00:46:23.030 --> 00:46:25.349 Fun is bullshit." 836 00:46:25.349 --> 00:46:28.850 (audience laughs) 837 00:46:28.850 --> 00:46:32.370 And I'll never forget that but it was ironic 838 00:46:32.370 --> 00:46:36.110 coming from someone who loved to make people laugh 839 00:46:36.110 --> 00:46:39.243 and even at 12 years old, I knew what he really meant. 840 00:46:40.250 --> 00:46:43.080 Don't waste time, work every day 841 00:46:43.080 --> 00:46:47.560 towards bettering yourself and strive to be better. 842 00:46:47.560 --> 00:46:49.620 In his later years, I went with him 843 00:46:49.620 --> 00:46:53.160 to many dinners and charity events and at those events, 844 00:46:53.160 --> 00:46:56.240 he would be seated at a table and a stranger would 845 00:46:56.240 --> 00:47:00.550 inevitably approach him and introduce themselves. 846 00:47:00.550 --> 00:47:02.633 He would slowly extend his hand. 847 00:47:03.570 --> 00:47:06.970 They would shake and suddenly the stranger 848 00:47:06.970 --> 00:47:10.843 was confronted with a Kung Fu grip they could not escape. 849 00:47:12.840 --> 00:47:17.620 The crippling grip continued as pleasantries were exchanged 850 00:47:17.620 --> 00:47:20.813 while the stranger pretended everything was normal. 851 00:47:23.300 --> 00:47:26.040 The handshake would continue an unusually 852 00:47:26.040 --> 00:47:28.880 long period of time where this stranger 853 00:47:28.880 --> 00:47:32.070 would finally begin to smile or laugh, 854 00:47:32.070 --> 00:47:36.110 I'm sure thinking this crazy old judge 855 00:47:36.110 --> 00:47:39.863 is squeezing the crap out of my hand and won't let go. 856 00:47:41.400 --> 00:47:44.400 Eventually grandpa would release his grip 857 00:47:44.400 --> 00:47:49.400 and a conversation or rather a history lesson would ensue. 858 00:47:49.517 --> 00:47:54.040 "Where do you live? Near downtown, near Pershing Square? 859 00:47:54.040 --> 00:47:56.746 Do you know about General Pershing?" 860 00:47:56.746 --> 00:47:58.080 (audience laughs) 861 00:47:58.080 --> 00:48:01.120 Soon contact information was requested 862 00:48:01.120 --> 00:48:05.900 and then exchanged and then the stranger unknowingly 863 00:48:05.900 --> 00:48:09.870 had enlisted as a member of grandpa's army. 864 00:48:09.870 --> 00:48:13.840 The truth is that all the good deeds he was able 865 00:48:13.840 --> 00:48:18.800 to accomplish were not the result of his efforts alone. 866 00:48:18.800 --> 00:48:22.320 No, there was an army of people who stood 867 00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:26.380 and fought with him who began as strangers, 868 00:48:26.380 --> 00:48:29.490 who were brought in with a Kung Fu grip 869 00:48:29.490 --> 00:48:31.983 and soon became lifelong friends. 870 00:48:32.940 --> 00:48:37.210 But grandpa wasn't afraid to take bold action, 871 00:48:37.210 --> 00:48:41.120 inspiring others to join him and they did 872 00:48:41.120 --> 00:48:44.850 because they knew he was fighting the good fight. 873 00:48:44.850 --> 00:48:49.850 He was a good man and he would never, never, ever quit. 874 00:48:51.100 --> 00:48:52.315 Thank you. 875 00:48:52.315 --> 00:48:55.315 (audience applauds) 876 00:48:57.376 --> 00:49:00.626 (somber trumpet music) 877 00:49:14.307 --> 00:49:18.690 - [Narrator] In his last days, Harry knew his work was done. 878 00:49:18.690 --> 00:49:21.693 That it was time for others to carry on his legacy. 879 00:49:23.110 --> 00:49:27.703 His message was we have to make this world a better place. 880 00:49:28.610 --> 00:49:31.763 We have to leave it in better shape than when we entered it. 881 00:49:33.277 --> 00:49:37.243 "God puts us here to take care of each other," he once said. 882 00:49:38.367 --> 00:49:39.763 And I really believe that. 883 00:50:00.056 --> 00:50:03.292 (soft piano music) 884 00:50:03.292 --> 00:50:06.459 (audience applauding) 885 00:50:12.190 --> 00:50:14.193 - I grew up in East LA. 886 00:50:15.211 --> 00:50:16.633 It was a wonderful place. 887 00:50:18.090 --> 00:50:19.383 In my high school, 888 00:50:20.830 --> 00:50:24.140 the students' parents came from 889 00:50:25.070 --> 00:50:26.880 over 50 countries 890 00:50:28.300 --> 00:50:29.403 around the world. 891 00:50:32.401 --> 00:50:34.700 You know, we all got along. 892 00:50:34.700 --> 00:50:36.920 We were like brothers and sisters. 893 00:50:36.920 --> 00:50:40.970 People worked together, they respected each other. 894 00:50:40.970 --> 00:50:45.210 I've looked at people that way, that they're all 895 00:50:46.680 --> 00:50:47.713 important. 896 00:50:48.920 --> 00:50:53.920 That they all have so much goodness within them. 897 00:50:54.570 --> 00:50:58.033 It's been a great journey for me, it's not finished. 898 00:51:01.044 --> 00:51:04.044 (audience applauds) 899 00:51:09.997 --> 00:51:12.387 I guess that means I should sit down. 900 00:51:12.387 --> 00:51:13.620 (audience laughs) 901 00:51:13.620 --> 00:51:16.370 But I just want to say this. 902 00:51:16.370 --> 00:51:17.463 As a country, 903 00:51:19.690 --> 00:51:21.793 we have a great future. 904 00:51:23.490 --> 00:51:27.063 We have great strength, we have great resources. 905 00:51:29.146 --> 00:51:30.596 But we need to come together. 906 00:51:31.670 --> 00:51:35.920 We need to embrace each other as brothers and sisters 907 00:51:37.650 --> 00:51:38.590 and we need 908 00:51:40.780 --> 00:51:44.690 to devote so much of our resources 909 00:51:45.560 --> 00:51:50.560 to educating our children and the parents of our children. 910 00:51:51.060 --> 00:51:56.060 Every child that is here today, every child born here 911 00:51:56.730 --> 00:51:59.200 and every child who is brought here 912 00:52:00.440 --> 00:52:02.430 is a precious asset 913 00:52:05.440 --> 00:52:10.440 and the wealth of our country is in the minds of our people. 914 00:52:10.780 --> 00:52:13.573 The other thing I want to say, and I'll 915 00:52:15.080 --> 00:52:19.520 probably get half the people in this room mad at me but 916 00:52:22.340 --> 00:52:25.030 I feel very good about the future 917 00:52:25.030 --> 00:52:27.983 of our country, and you know why? 918 00:52:29.260 --> 00:52:32.574 Because the women are gonna take over and run it. 919 00:52:32.574 --> 00:52:35.128 (audience applauds) 920 00:52:35.128 --> 00:52:36.295 - Good ending. 921 00:52:41.855 --> 00:52:45.188 (relaxed trumpet music)