Speaking at the close of the 2010 Teamsters Women's Conference, held in Minneapolis, MN over the weekend, Arianna Huffington urged individuals to do their part to help restore the American dream that has come under assault by the current economic crisis.
"We have a choice," she told an audience of mostly union members. "We can either respond to the legitimate anger by operating from our basest instincts or tap into our better nature. That choice will determine what kind of country we have."
One choice, she said, is to look outward, "[Let's] use our skills, our time, our resources to help others," she said. "This is not just good to those you're helping, it's also incredible to ourselves. If you've lost your job, and you suddenly can do something to help others, you stop seeing yourself as a victim and you see yourself as someone who's helping."
Huffington received a standing ovation when she urged audience members to pressure elected officials to leave Afghanistan:
"The final thing we need to do is to get out of Afghanistan. Please don't let your elected officials off the hook on that, whether they are Democrats or Republicans," she said. "It is absolute insanity for this country to be pursuing an unnecessary war, to be propping up a corrupt regime, to be allowing young men and women to be dying for no reason that has to do with national security and to be wasting $2 billion a week that should be coming back home."
WATCH the entire speech here:
Part 1 of 2:
Part 2 of 2:
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