Cynthia Kersey’s Unstoppable Giving Challenge Millionaire Mentors Program What Will YOUR $1,000,000 Idea Be?
James Cameron Rev. Michael Beckwith Robert Kiyosaki Dr. Ken Blanchard
Bob Proctor Mark Victor Hansen Bill Harris Stewart Emory
Jack Healey Wyland Dave Bach Lynne Twist
Twelve world-famous millionaires share their private secrets for generating $1,000,000 ideas...without accepting a single dollar in return...and show you, step by step, how you can create one, too…All while saving over 4,000 children’s lives!
Mentor: Jack Healey
GIVING www.unstoppablegivingchallenge.com
© 2008 Unstoppable Foundation.
THE MILLION DOLLAR IDEA:
HOW TO DEVELOP A MILLION DOLLAR IDEA
TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE
AND CHANGE THE WORLD
Cynthia Kersey interviewing Jack Healey – Mentor #9
MS. KERSEY: Hi. I'm Cynthia Kersey and welcome again to the Million Dollar Idea:
How to Develop a Million Dollar Idea to Change Your Life and Change the World. I'm
excited to bring you our next section of interviews with philanthropists, business leaders, people who really are showing their strategies for not only generating big ideas in the world, but how can we really make the world a better place. And, of course, the intention behind all of this is to raise the money to build a minimum of 40 schools in Africa. So every expert, every mentor involved in this course I'm so grateful for because they are doing it really as a way to give back. And for the listeners, I so appreciate your generosity. Because of you we are able to make a big contribution and be a part of stopping the cycle of extreme poverty in the world. So continue to share this with your friends at UnstoppableGivingChallenge.com because every penny is going to build schools in Africa, so thank you so much.
So my million dollar mentor for today is an extraordinary human being. I actually met him at the home of James and Suzy Cameron. I heard him speak and was so inspired by who he is and what he is doing in the world. When I came up with this idea I thought he has to be a part of it because when we talk about big ideas, this man is attracted to and takes on causes that I think not a lot of people would do. So briefly I'm going to give you a little background about Jack Healey.
He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the youngest of 11 brothers and sisters.
He was raised by his mother after his father died when he was two years old, and she told him words that have guided his life. She said I didn't bring you into this world to survive.
I brought you into this world to do something - and do something, indeed.
Today colleagues credit him with making human rights a major focus on governments, of advocacy organizations and organizations all over the world. US News and World
Report called him Mr. Human Rights. And he was named Person of the Week by Peter
Jennings at ABC News. In his first job at Freedom From Hunger, he devised the original idea for a walk-a-thon and through his efforts, raised over $14 million in the next five years.
In the 1980s he made Amnesty International a household name, presenting four highly successful musical tours, including the Conspiracy of Hope and Human Rights Now, which I'm sure he is going to tell us more about those tours. They featured arts such as
U2, The Police, Bruce Springsteen, Brian Adams, Miles Davis, Peter Gabriel, Tracy
Chapman and Lou Reed. During his tenure with Amnesty International he increased their membership from 30,000 to 400,000 and increased revenue from three million to $26 million. And today Jack has the Washington, D.C. based nonprofit organization called
Human Rights Action Center, HRAC. In addition to his public speaking engagements and support of fellow grass roots human rights organization, he had been an adviser to the
US government in regards to establishing sound human rights policies in other country.
Jack has brought immense creativity and passion to some really big and important ideas
and projects that have impacted the world. I know everyone on this call is going to be
inspired to think and act boldly in your ideas that are important to you.
So, Jack, welcome so much to this call. I really appreciate your participation
MR. HEALEY: My pleasure. Glad to be here.
MS. KERSEY: So tell us, I gave a pretty extensive introduction, but I'd like for you to
give us an idea of your background and what really calls you into the work that you do?
MR. HEALEY: I think I found my voice and capacity to do something because when I
was two my father was killed and my mother raised us by herself and it was a difficult time. But what she got across was that we actually had to go out and do something with
our lives; and that I took that seriously. And I think ever since then, I'm pleased to do
that. And what I found out by doing what my mother said is if you actually enjoy your
life, you actually get to see the world and know people that you never otherwise would know and get into exciting moments of history. Either you're small or little, it doesn't
matter as long as you are there when things get better and things improve in the world, and you are a little bit of it and you can feel that, and that is important to do.
MS. KERSEY: So what was your first project that you got involved in?
MR. HEALEY: I think it was when my brother's teeth were knocked out in a fight. So
kids jumped him and my mother didn't have the money for his teeth. My mother gave me the job of getting that done. And I went up and saw the police chief and he threw me out of the place and said, you'll need the smartest lawyer in the City of Pittsburgh. So essentially what did, I was 14 years old, I went and got the smartest lawyer in the City of
Pittsburgh and went to his office and recruited him. His name was Charlie Maloney; and we won the case in about five seconds. We saw the judge and the people who had done it that filed the charges there, so we won out $300 and my brother had his teeth.
MS. KERSEY: Oh, my goodness, so first off, how did you persuade him and, secondly, how did you have the courage as a 14 year old to really walk in to the biggest lawyer and
ask him for help?
MR. HEALEY: I had to solve it because my mother asked me to solve it. And when she
asked me something, I really wanted to do that.
I went to him because I asked a number of people who is the smartest lawyer in the City
of Pittsburgh. They all said the same name. It was Charlie Maloney. I went to his office
and I didn't know when I talked to his secretary that he was in the room. I asked to see
him and she called me a little kid. I said I am not a kid. A kid is a goat and I'm a human
being. I'm person here, and I want to see Mr. Maloney. He was standing in the room,
and he said, young man, so I went in and talked to him. He was a great lawyer and he won the case for me. People were shocked he was there.
MS. KERSEY: So that had to be a pretty compelling moment in your life to see you be able to achieve something like that. How did that moment impact you?
MR. HEALEY: It essentially set the pattern for the rest of my life because I realized,
without power, without money, without anything, really, I could get done what needed to
be done - Although, that was a difficult thing to do to get a lawyer like and to win a case
in court when you are 14 years old. What I realized was that you could always get it done if you set your mind to it. And I think it is better to act than not to act; and I think most people decide not to act. If they acted more, even if it came to nothing, they'll find out that that is an experience and that is helpful.
MS. KERSEY: It is just taking action. Just the action and the experience alone is very powerful.
MR. HEALEY: There is the nature to doing something that actually benefits you and whoever you are aiming at, whether it succeeds or not. One or the other gets better, and I think people should remember that even in failures that we all pick up, even by trying to do some good, we actually are doing some good. We improve our own consciousness.
MS. KERSEY: That's for sure. So that was the beginning when you were 14 years old and then how did it unfold for you?
MR. HEALEY: Well, it unfolded because I went to the monastery and I became a
Franciscan, became a priest. I was a monk for ten years. I joined -- luckily 1962, when I
came to Washington, we had Dr. King who was on the move. He and his southern
Christian leadership were recruiting seminarians. I was one of them - Minor figure. We
seminarians responded to help to organize the March of Washington. A year later we
helped organize sort of the city and the work behind the civil rights bill in '64 and so we were part of history. Though we played minor parts, it really -- you felt part of Dr. King
and you felt part of what he did and part of the civil rights motion going forward, so it
was a very lucky wonderful period for me and I just responded to a call of decency and
justice.
MS. KERSEY: Now, I know one of your jobs earlier I guess was that from Freedom
From Hunger where you devised the original idea for a walk-a-thon. How did that come about?
MR. HEALEY: Actually, it had worked in other parts of the world that I and about 12 young people averaging about 15 and 16 years old. It was my first job out of the priesthood and we had this idea of doing this, so we enlarged it. We made it 28 miles to
32 miles; and we recruited high schools. We actually went into grade schools and high schools and spoke to everybody. We organized a very great level, but it worked and we turned out 105,000 in Buffalo. We turned out 125,000 in Chicago. We were successful in that period and raised somewhere between 14 million to 500 in the world and domestically and internationally. We were quite pleased with it, but I must tell you, they were young people. They were not older people. They were 14, 15, 16 years old and they made the decision where the money went, which was another important thing. We let them make the decisions. We helped them. We made sure they got the nonprofit, no corruption, stuff like that, but it was magical.
MS. KERSEY: How old were you at the time?
MR. HEALEY: I think I just turned 30.
MS. KERSEY: Wow. So how do you attribute your success of really being able to
implement these big ideas? If somebody listening to this and they have a cause or a mission or a project that inspires them, what do you think are some components which
enable you to be so successful? I mean, we are just scratching the surface of talking
about some of the things that you've done.
MR. HEALEY: I think when you have a difficulty like we have when my father was
killed in an automobile accident, you learn to look to the future, not to the past. If you
look to the past, you get sad and kind of depressed. If you look to the future and you
know there are answers there, kind of automatically. If you really trust the future rather
than the past and work at that, you realize you really got to move forward. Let's do that.
I try to keep my eye out to see what is coming next or what I should do next or what
society is lacking or what it might need and then try to fill the small gap in that system.
MS. KERSEY: And once you have a project, what do you see as the most important
components to actually make them successful?
MR. HEALEY: I think the one thing we all must do in nonprofit work is to have a great
sense of integrity in it.
I think one of the reasons those musical tours worked for Amnesty was that we had
people like Bruce Springsteen and U2 and Sting and Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman,
people like Devlin Brothers. They have great integrity and if they say they are going to
do something, they do it and it means something to people because they are there. So I think a sense of integrity is the center of everything you do. Our walk-a-thon is the center of integrity because our young people cared. They were out doing something very positive and they were making decisions themselves. So I think that is part of the secret - to keep it with integrity. That is the important thing.
MS. KERSEY: And one thing I think you said was interesting is the young people -- you co-created it with them. They were big in making a decision, which really helped enroll
people in a very powerful way when they are a part of it.
MR. HEALEY: Yes, and I think that is always important is one is to go get the help you
need. Like, when I wanted to do music, I went and recruited Bill Gram in San Francisco.
When I worked with the young people, we let them make the decisions. When I went to
Africa, we let our Peace Corps volunteers help at the local level. I mean, that is the issue
to work from the ground up. I'm not very comfortable working from the top down. I like
working from the ground up. We try to get the organizations behind you when you go to
do something. I mean, having said that, if you are there by yourself and you are sitting in
your front room, start thinking of some big ideas and just go do them. Nothing can go
wrong.
MS. KERSEY: So, like you said, even just the act of doing it is transformational in and
of itself.
MR. HEALEY: Totally transformational. I always thought our Peace Corps volunteers
-- I was a Peace Corps director for five years in Africa, and I spent five years as a Peace
Corps director in the Kalua country called Lasutu. Just our presence in the apartheid period, because our Americans were terrific volunteers and their presence, how much
they got done, we taught school. Lots of different things, but the main important thing
was, there were really decent Americans in Lasutu showing the people that the world can
work better than what they see in south Africa with the apartheid system. It is very
important. I think our volunteers were great.
MS. KERSEY: So when you had these big ideas, obviously, you are a pioneer in many
of these areas. So I'm sure you met a lot of opposition.
How did you personally deal with that? And give me some examples?
MR. HEALEY: Well, I'm now 5'8. When I started this work I was 6'4. Only kidding.
MS. KERSEY: They are beating you down.
MR. HEALEY: You do get beat up. I mean, I do believe the government has worked for
us. We don't work for them, and I'm insistent that they do that. Though, I like bothering
governments when they misbehave and they don't like; it and I don't care whether they
don't like it. So I keep at it as best I can and try to accrue as much help as I can to bother governments when they misbehave. I think truthfully if anybody misbehaves they disserve to get corrected. So I see it like -- some people see it as radical or liberal. I see it as pretty conservative and just normal.
MS. KERSEY: Well, tell the listeners what you are doing right now regarding Aung San
Suu Kyi and your work in Burma. I mean, obviously, you've been working in this for a while.
Tell people what you are doing and, again, I mean, you are holding for the vision that she will be free one day.
MR. HEALEY: I think all of us in our lives need symbols of hope. I think she is the living symbol of the universal declaration of civil rights. She is the living symbol of the peace movement. She is the living symbol of decency in government, so my support of her, which is now over 18 years, is there. And I did 30 movies - short movies that are up on You Tube. I did a movie called Doyya about a 30-minute movie. We did an album with the best rock bands in the world in support of her.
I met Michael Artist, her husband of 19 years and promised my support. I also was one of the few westerners to every visit Aung San Suu Kyi in February 1999. I spent about a half hour with her and I promised her I would help. She won 82 percent of her vote and she is waiting to take executive power; and we hope to get that done one day.
MS. KERSEY: So she was running for a government office and she won 84 percent of the vote, and they revolted against that and essentially she has been in and out of prison for many, many years.
MR. HEALEY: She has been under house arrest practically 18 years and the military will not give up power, though, they lost the election to her, massively lost to her. They have not given up their power yet. And the other thing I'm doing is asking governments to print the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with all the passports of the world, so we all know our rights. We can all go fight for it because knowledge is power and so I
would like to see the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Less than five percent of
the world know about it right now. And by the year 2010, 42 percent of the world will be
under 21. We have to really deal with that fact, and how do we get the rule of law and
the transfer of skills and ability to younger people faster than before? So I think the
Universal Declaration is even more important than when it was written 60 years ago.
MS. KERSEY: So tell us about this because this is another really big idea, right, to print
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Passports.
How did that come about and what kinds of challenges have you experienced in this?
MR. HEALEY: I just involved -- I've been working on this for about 20 years now since
I did the World Tour with the Amnesty in support of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights in 1988. Our musicians were Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy
Chapman. We played 16 countries in six weeks and our budget was over 26 million and
we succeeded every night. It worked very, very well - tripled the membership of
Amnesty. The idea worked. It was my idea to bond the anger in rock and roll to the
anger that people feel about governmental abuses. So I wanted to bring those two
together and that's what I did; and, of course, there was an awful lot of help. The
musicians are the geniuses, so they are the ones that carried the power and the message,
so I was just an instrument really.
MS. KERSEY: Now, when you were at Jim and Suzy Cameron's house, you told the
story of how you enrolled some of these artists.
I would love for you to be able to share with people how did you get these people to say
yes to you?
MR. HEALEY: I went to Dublin, Ireland. My first visit was Sean MacBride, one of the
organizational founders of Amnesty International. Sean was one of my heroes. His
mother was the fantasy woman of Yeats Poetry. He was tutored by Sting O'Casey, James
Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Yeats, Ezra Pound. He was the chief of the IRA at 21.
Foreign minister of Ireland at 26 and one of the founders of the Amnesty. So I wanted to
get his approval for my idea because I had this idea of this music and making it work
rather largely, if I could.
MS. KERSEY: Let me interject for one second. Now, people weren't doing these big
concerts back then, right? Now, they are more common, but when you did it, people weren't really doing this.
MR. HEALEY: No. I actually started in 1971 at the Kennedy Center with Linda
Ronstadt and Earl Shrugs, but we had more artists than we had participants, so it didn't
work the first time I tried it. I went to see Bill Gram in '81 to try to get it done. I really
only got it together when I saw U2 in '84 and then we actually got on the road in '86. So I
visited U2 after visiting Sean MacBride and within eight minutes I had a typed written
letter saying they would play anywhere in the world for two weeks, and that's what I did.
I called Bill Gram and told him we had it, and he couldn't believe it, and U2 showed up.
They did their job and recruited The Police after that -- Peter Gabriel, Brian Adams, Lou
Reed -- Lots of great artists on that tour. It was a six city tour of the United States. Gave us 45,000 new members for Amnesty and raised over $34 million fresh cash.
MS. KERSEY: You make it sound so easy, Jack, but I mean, to get a group like U2 to give you two weeks of their time, I mean, what specifically did you say to them?
MR. HEALEY: What I specifically said is I need you for two weeks and I just stared at them. Tell them what you need and state your needs simply and, you know, state it with as much integrity as you can and also, Amnesty had a great name with the British artists and the Irish artists. So if I had an imagination and creativity that worked for them, they said, okay; and same thing happened with Bruce Springsteen in '88. I met him in the bottom of Madison Square Garden. He said, what do you want? I said, I need you for six weeks, and he just looked up and said, okay, and I leaped up on him. I literally jumped up on top of him. He made an agreement. He played for six weeks. He gave up a $21 million tour and paid his own band. I mean, he is an immense generous person.
MS. KERSEY: Let me ask you. Did you research the people who you thought would be the biggest bid or they would care the most about your cause? How did you approach -- I mean, why Bruce? How did that come about?
MR. HEALEY: No. The first one really was U2. I saw them in a small show in New
York. I think it was Radio City Hall. I'm not sure, and they had showed pictures of Dr.
King and American Indians on the backdrop of the stage, and I said, this is my band. I really didn't even know about talent or sound. I mean, I saw that the boys had talent and could sing, of course, but that's what really won me over.
In the next tour, it was pretty easy. Bruce Springsteen was the only -- probably the only musician in the world that did what we needed to get done, so we had to get him. As Bill
Gram said, Jack, you have the potato; you have the salad; you have the soup; you need the steak. You need to get the steak, Jack, and the steak is Bruce Springsteen. So that's who I recruited - I went after. It took a while. Frank Barcelona helped me. John Lando helped me. Barbara Carr helped me. A number of people as any good soup, as anything
I'm talking about, there are a lot of hands in. But all those people were helpful. Very.
MS. KERSEY: So what I'm hearing is, number one -- Amnesty International did have a good name - A lot of creditability. You had a lot of integrity and you targeted people who you felt either could make a big difference or would really care about the cause that you are in line with.
MR. HEALEY: Yes. I mean, but you have to remember, U2 wasn't U2 yet. 1986 they weren't really -- they were coming up. That is for sure. There was no way to stop that missile from flying, but they weren't really -- they were well-known in -- on Bob Geldof.
That was the first time they got worldwide, I think.
MS. KERSEY: When you see about what Bono has done and how he has made an impact in the world, did you see that when you met them in the '80s?
MR. HEALEY: I think -- yeah. I mean, he and Sting and Peter and all those people, really all those musicians, practically every one that I named or was on one of those tours, all are like that. They were very kind. Very big people, and when they come to work, they are never late. They played perfect. They get off the stage when they are supposed to. They are highly disciplined. I mean, those are an amazing bunch of people
to work with. That is not hype. That is the truth. Like, every night when we went
around the tour 16 times, we sang Get Up Stand Up by Bob Marley in the stadium before
anybody got in there just to honor Bob Marley, we did that every night in 16 places and
no one was in the stadium to hear it, but every artist showed up on time and sang that 16
times.
MS. KERSEY: Wow. So what did you learn? Now, I mean, you've got all these years
of wisdom behind you. What have you learned from this process that people who have
dreams and goals and would just love to be able to align with someone as powerful and as well-known as these people, what would you share with people about how they could do that, too?
MR. HEALEY: I think with all these things you have to learn to ask for what you want.
I don't always do that as well as I should, but I think I do it better than a lot of people.
Just first thing is ask for what you want. The second thing is, when you see a problem, try to be creative about it that will correct it in some way. That will actually have impact and will work, and don't be afraid to be creative and imaginative. Think up something and go for it. Even if you fail, walking yourself through the process is a benefit.
I think the other thing you want to do is realize that you are really all the time working with yourself. Have the strength of character inside of yourself. Have your sense of integrity. If you don't have that sense of integrity, find it. Get a book. Go to a guru. Go to church. Go to wherever, but get your sense of integrity working for you. That is all you need and you can do it a heck of a lot without power or money or influence. Don't look up to the celebrities all the time. Just look up to yourself or to your family and the
tradition in your family. Find your own energy and your own force, and the only thing
I've done is listen to good people, I think. I listen to Fannie Lou Hamer. I listen to Dr.
King. I listen to Father Guppy who is a close friend of mine. I listen to Dick Gregory.
There is a number of people I listen to and my mother. You just take the best of what you are hearing and try to go and do what they say you should do.
MS. KERSEY: What is the longest that you've worked on a specific cause?
MR. HEALEY: I think the longest specific cause is my own. I have been working on myself for 17 years.
MS. KERSEY: That is great answer. Isn't that the truth? What a worthy cause you are.
MR. HEALEY: Oh, dear. Pete O'Shea, 16 and David 26 years in prison, you know, in human rights work, you must be a long distance runner. You can't be a dasher. You got to be ready for the long hall. So if it takes ten years, 20 years, we are going to win. We will be there. No problem.
MS. KERSEY: Wow. I mean, I am just so inspired by what you are doing and your work regarding Aung San Suu Kyi and, I mean, I can't even imagine, you know, doing something for that long.
What keeps you going with that and when do you see this actually -- her getting released?
I mean, what kind of an idea do you have about that?
MR. HEALEY: I really don't know. The Chinese are supporting the verbiage against us,
so we have to work with the United States Nations, but luckily the Americans in the west
are supporting our cause, so we have a new president coming in who, again, will support
it again. A lot of the presidents have. We just work hard. That's all. It is like when we
had Sol Sharansky and Sarnoff in jail in the Soviet Union we had to keep working until
we won. That is all. We are long distance runners and we don't mind that. We just keep
working at it, and so a projection of victory we don't have, but what we do is to honor
those who suffer and die, who disappeared or tortured and thrown into jail for nothing, as
thousands are in Burma and Darfur now. We honor those people. They are the real part
of the human rights movement. They are the real human rights movement.
MS. KERSEY: How does your faith impact your life and your work?
MR. HEALEY: My faith is a driving force. I'm quiet about it. I am an Irish Catholic - kind of humble people about that. My mother's religion was quiet and humble, but steely and strong once pushed. I feel that myself. I love the tradition of St. Francis and nonviolence and peacemaking. I love the tradition of Dorothy Day, who is a Catholic radical kind of person who set up soup lines for the poor. I like the Catholic Worker
Movement. There was a priest who went into Nazi Germany to work in the factories to be able to talk to the people who were being persecuted. It's that tradition I come from.
Liberation theology I like. A lot of the Vatican doesn't like it today; but I do. I admire those priests. I've known them all over the world. Central America, Philippines, Chili,
Argentina. Those are some magnificent human beings. Among them, Archbishop
Romero in El Salvador, who was shot. Those people are majestic to me and I like them. In a personal way, my guess is, Fannie Lou Hamer and Father Guppy are two of the biggest -- they are my friends. They influence me deeply.
MS. KERSEY: You've come up -- you talk about having a creative idea to solve a problem.
Give us an idea of some of your creative ideas that you developed and implemented and, you know, what worked and some of them that didn't work and what did you learn from them.
MR. HEALEY: I think one that did work is I wanted to be in South Africa, so I became a
Peace Corps director, though, I had a job as a Peace Corps director full-time. I did everything I could while I was Lasutu to help the African nationals conquer -- to overturn apartheid. I became a director. I worked in Africa for five years. I purposely did that and I was very pleased with it. And so it was very helpful to me. I learned a lot about torture and disappearance and how brutal government could be. It was very, very good.
In human rights work we lose all the time, so we enumerate our losses with thinking encyclopedia. We lose a lot to government. There is thousands and thousands people that disappear every day. They are tortured every day, you know, Darfur has been going four years now. They are over 400,000 women raped in Eastern Congo now. Burmese hold 5,000 in prison. Just put a whole mess of great leaders in jail, so our losses are a lot.
I did the first concert at Kennedy Center. We failed to produce anybody. We had more artists than we had people in the audience. That is a failure. Some of our walks never materialized. We tried. We hang in there and tried to use our creativity to move things
forward.
I once had on Dick Gregory who has already used running as a tool against world hunger
and he and I decided, he’d do the running. I talked him into running from LA to New
York; and he actually did that. And we won the Dotson Award; and we raised a lot of
money and consciousness for world hunger. It was just Dick running by himself, and
Dick sent me to recruit Muhammad Ali with George O'Hara. I went ahead and did that.
George and I got that done and Muhammad joined us on that run. It was a great moment
for us. Dick did a great job.
MS. KERSEY: See, the thing that is really different about you, I mean, you really are unstoppable. When things don't work for so many people the first time they quit and yet you are in a work, a life's work where you probably lose more than you win when you talk about human rights. So --
MR. HEALEY: I'm Irish. So we don't like losing. We don't like getting beat, so, you know, when you grow up in a tough area, you realize the bully is a weakling. Once you face the bully and knock him down, knock down your biggest fear, you are free. You are a free person, and I am a free person, and I feel that all the time, and I want others to feel their freedom. That is what this country was for. That is how it was founded. So we use our freedom for other people's un-freedom. That is magical. If you keep the contract between those who have and those who have not - if that contract is kept - this is a lot better world - A lot less painful world for everybody.
MS. KERSEY: So taking you back to that Kennedy Center when you had more artists show up than people, psychologically, how did that impact you?
MR. HEALEY: I thought I'll do it better next time. I'm sorry to the artists, but by the way, they've done things before that they've failed. Nothing new. Artists are used to things not working. They electric guitar breaks. Their bus breaks down. They are used to that kind of thing, so I don't have great apology. When you try to do something really good and it doesn't work, and I know people get upset and start yelling and all that. It doesn't matter to me because I tried my best here. Hey, back up.
MS. KERSEY: Right. That is very powerful. That is so powerful. It is like, what would be possible in this world if people just were willing to show up and with really no attachments to how it ends up, and if it doesn't work out, oh, well. You gave it your best.
MR. HEALEY: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, you have to -- one is you have to believe in yourself. And you have to feel that you want to do something nice and if you are doing that goodness, if you are trying to -- really trying to get better, trying to help the world, feel good about it. There are things, don't pay attention to them. Just keep moving. You know, and it is the part of -- a nice thing about growing up in Pittsburgh being raised poor, actually. You realize it doesn't matter whether you win or lose the fight because the next day someone bigger might show up or someone weaker. If you just keep going, the bully might be big or small. It don't matter. You keep going. You might win. You might lose. It is okay. Keep moving.
MS. KERSEY: Well, that is the theme of your life. You have just done so many things and I just really see, you know, the mindset that you have is the distinction. You know who you are. And the projects that you tackle are not for the weak of heart. You know, it takes a lot of strength and you just continue to hold that vision of love and what is right and --
MR. HEALEY: I would say I am not very strong. I think I would say I'm very committed. I think strength comes and goes through one's life ups and downs, your failures and your successes. But I think through it all, you try to keep respect for yourself and what you want to do next. Don't look back too much. That is my personal advice.
Look forward. When you get up in the morning, how can I make this a better day?
Period. Get into it.
MS. KERSEY: Have you ever felt like quitting?
MR. HEALEY: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I think when you slam away at an idea when you are trying to -- like, when you are trying to work with the government in Lasutu where I was placing volunteers and they would say there are positions there and they weren't there. And the volunteers would be standing there looking at you like you did a terrible job where you actually did a pretty good job. They would come, like, 6,000 miles to be a good volunteer. They were pretty upset - pretty angry. You get down. You're sort of, geez, I'm sorry I let you down. I mean, you kick the dust and all that, but then you realize, hey, you are alive. You are healthy. You had a good meal. I did, too. We are both, you know, going to go back to a good family. Good country. Don't worry about it. We can handle this. Take your time. Get in the hotel. I'll come back to you with a good job. Recoup and come back to that. That is my issue. Recoup and come back to it. Just realize, you know, that the frog that swims well in the milk if he drowns
he will turn the milk into butter and he'll float on the damn butter and he'll be okay.
MS. KERSEY: So it is just staying in the game and if you need to take a time out or, you
know, like you say, recoup, rejuvenate.
MR. HEALEY: Yes. We all get weak. We all get tired. You know, all of us, but I think
out in the world someone needs you. Some cause needs you and you can do a lot for it.
That is my issue. You can pitch in and do a lot. You can take time off, too, and relax.
Go easy.
MS. KERSEY: I love what you said about it doesn't matter how little power or money or celebrity that you have, if you are really willing to do something.
MR. HEALEY: I think in some sense it is like looking up into the sun. Looking into the fame and money and power it's like looking up at the sun and it blinds you. I think you're better off if you just look around at your fellow human beings and keep your eye on that.
Don't look for fame, power and money. Just look around you. Sort of don't look up into that sun of that kind of wealth and power. Just look around you and find your fellow human beings. You'll do better. You'll feel better and you'll work faster and better, and you'll be more creative.
MS. KERSEY: And don't you -- go ahead.
MR. HEALEY: I just feel that sometimes that the celebrity of a Bono or of a Bruce Springsteen overwhelms people and they don't think they can do anything. They are too
big to reach. They are too big to be like that - Whereas, no, they are not. They are just singers.
MS. KERSEY: Exactly.
MR. HEALEY: Real good singers with big hearts.
MS. KERSEY: With big hearts. But don't you find people who have done extraordinary things, they are not doing it to win the Nobel Peace prize. You know, like Muhammad
Unis, he wasn't out there to win a Nobel Peace prize. He was out there to solve a problem - a very simple problem.
MR. HEALEY: I think that guy deserves a Nobel every year for what he does.
MS. KERSEY: Isn't that the truth? He is absolutely amazing.
MR. HEALEY: I would give him one every year.
MS. KERSEY: I know. I know. I've had an opportunity of meeting him a couple of times when he was saying that now they have taken the micro lending down to the beggar level and they'll give them things to sell while they are out there begging. And he said, a
100,000 people have clothes - their begging division. You know, he treats people with such deep respect.
MR. HEALEY: Well, that is a simple idea is reduced loans to the smallest level and that
was his genius and look at the good it has done. It is a simple idea, basically, and the guy is, oh, boy. What a person.
MS. KERSEY: Yes, he is extraordinary. So what most inspires you right now of all the things that you are working on?
MR. HEALEY: Well, I think first my lady, I won't name, but certainly her. I think the victims who suffer and stand up to their government have the courage to live and die in front of guns by sticking to their opinion to their religion they belong to or whatever. It is the strength of the people who suffer and we realize we are pretty safe and pretty good and we should do a lot for them. Use our freedom for them. That is inspiring all the time to me. God knows there are a lot of them every day.
MS. KERSEY: Wow. And, you know, most people if they are not in the work you are in, I mean, you don't hear a lot about that, you know, and I really appreciate you for really making people -- even on this call aware of the things that are really happening and
that we can make a difference.
MR. HEALEY: It is a world -- the world is filled to a great extent with an awful lot of pain and misery that could be released. Maybe we can't get to it all. We certainly can get to a lot more than we are now. We certainly can do that.
MS. KERSEY: What are you most proud of when you look at your life? What are you
most grateful for maybe is another way of putting it?
MR. HEALEY: I guess two things that, one, is I feel like I might have become the boy my mother wanted. And I think to be the person that my lady wants me to be and I try to
be that. I think the people that are closest to you, you must honor the most.
MS. KERSEY: Of all the projects that you've done, Jack, which ones are you most proud
of?
MR. HEALEY: I really don't know. I guess if it is anything is -- I've been lucky to work
with young people all my life, and if they hear me, whoever they are back when or now,
that is where I get most excited. I feel like I'm still alive if that happens. No matter what
happens to me, I'm still there and maybe bothering governments and getting other people
bothering governments. That pleases me to no end - that there are other people bothering
these people that need to be bothered.
MS. KERSEY: Right. You know, you talk about working with young people. I was --
Feed The Children. Do you know Craig Kielburger?
MR. HEALEY: Sure.
MS. KERSEY: He is one of the people that we are supporting through this Africa project
and I was at there once a week conference where 8,000 young people came standing for
the elimination of extreme poverty in their lifetime, and it was so inspiring.
What have you found in working with young people as really effective in supporting them and really getting involved in things like this?
MR. HEALEY: I believe in putting them to work and work with them as equals. Not old
people working with young people or big deals working with little deals or anything like
that. I believe in quality and parity. And I think if you transmit that to the young people
you are working with, they feel fully empowered and, therefore, they are as much of an
agent of change as you are. And I think if you get that across, that is magical. I hope, I pray I do. I hope that I get across to the people I work with.
MS. KERSEY: I know this is kind of a silly question, but are you hopeful about the future knowing as optimistic as you are, how are you feeling about the future and what is really coming forward right now?
MR. HEALEY: I think I worry about a few key things. The major governments of the world got to move away from the machinery of death and the machinery of torture. Need to get away from executions and torture. I think if those two things were accomplished in my lifetime, I would be very happy. I think they are symbols of destruction and symbols of going backwards. I think if we moved forward, we got to move away from the machinery of torture and the machinery of death. If we do that, I'm very optimistic. If
we continue to use torture as a weapon and the death penalty here or around the world, I
think we are barbaric and moving in the wrong direction.
MS. KERSEY: So to tackle such a broad reaching issues as you said the machinery of
torture and death, how do you tackle that? I'm guessing it is very multifaceted. How are
you?
MR. HEALEY: You bang on them at the United States Nations. Bang at them in your
own government. You bang at them at the retention ability to hold a person for how long
they can hold them without trial or getting to a lawyer. You stop places like Gitmo. You
you support your human rights groups that do their monitoring and research. You pound away at them at every possible way. But the machinery of death and machinery of
torture has to be removed really to prove to the world. The governments are interested in
the future and not always moving backwards to disappearances, torture, killing and
abuses of all types. 150 million people were killed by government in the last century.
MS. KERSEY: 150 million?
MR. HEALEY: Yes, and that is a conservative estimate.
MS. KERSEY: How do you want to be remembered?
MR. HEALEY: I'm not sure I do. I think the main thing --
MS. KERSEY: You do?
MR. HEALEY: No, not really. I think the real thing for me is I keep my house and keep
on the way I like. I now work as a single person at the dining room table. I don't have --
I have people who help me, of course, I have volunteers and wonderful, wonderful
support system. But I work by myself at my dining room table and I love it and I enjoy it
very much. I'm just like another person on the street - just trying to get a few things done. You know, I don't have power. Don't have money. Don't have influence and I enjoy it.
MS. KERSEY: Well, I think you have definitely a lot of influence, Jack. I mean, all the things you've done. I think you are an extraordinary person and you've really inspired me, you know, just to continue to stand and to do things, even with this project it really is each person that supports it is really being a part of telling the world, telling these children that we care. I mean, it is so simple to care and to do something.
MR. HEALEY: I'm pleased to be involved because, I spent five years in Africa. And
Africa contact gave me so, so much in my five years there. And I'm so pleased to be part of that and giving something back to Africa by this project. So thank you for doing this, too.
MS. KERSEY: Thank you. It is very exciting. So in closing remarks, what would you say just to kind of wrap it up with people who are listening that feel inspired to do something that is way out of their comfort zone. What would you say to them?
MR. HEALEY: I would say to them, look into their own sense of creativity and their own sense of decency. Find something they want to work on. Just give it a try. Give it a moment. Give it a, you know, go to a meeting or do something you haven't done before.
Get acting rather than thinking. Be more doer than thinking. You know, like we say about lawyers - when lawyers finish a meeting, they want a memo. We activists want to get over the meeting and go do something. So I'm saying to whoever is listening, go do something and it will make them feel better and they will like it better, too.
MS. KERSEY: Well, very well said, and I really appreciate your time, Jack. As I said, you inspire me; and I know you are going to be inspiring everyone listening to this, so thank you for your time.
MR. HEALEY: My pleasure. Thank you and all the best.
MS. KERSEY: Thank you so much, and to the listeners, thank you for making all of this possible. Go to UnstoppableGivingChallenge.com and if you haven't done so already, become a school builder, and that simply means all you have to do is share this with your friends.
So God bless you all. Thank you so much. Until then, be Unstoppable. Bye-bye.