Conclusion

If students were watching this interview, this fascinating conversation about your political education and your political journey, what lessons would you hope that they might draw from the life of Ron Dellums and the extraordinary work he's done?

Well, I appreciate the compliment.

I would think that I would say to young people, do not get caught up in the cynicism of this moment. You have to believe, in the very essence of your being, that your active involvement with other human beings can change the course of events. Don't buy into this overstated notion of cynicism that things can't change, things are the way they are, politicians are corrupt, frustrating human beings. People compromise, people sell out, people are corrupt because they choose to be, that's not inherent in the process. And your active involvement and participation in it, I always believe, can be a cleansing process, it can inform the decision. The extent to which you opt out of the process, the extent to which you become an armchair spectator, the extent to which you allow your cynicism to deny your need to grapple with, and your sense that you can change the nature of your circumstances -- it's in overcoming all of that, that you can do anything.

So if Ron Dellums is here to say anything, it's not being a celebrity. It's like I used to tell young people when they came to my office. I said, if I wanted to be a celebrity I would have taken rock guitar lessons and become a rock star, made a lot of money, signed autographs, and I'll be your celebrity all day. But I'm not a celebrity. This is not Hollywood. This is not New York. This is Washington, D.C. I'm your representative. I'm here to grapple with you eyeball to eyeball. Don't look up to see the celebrity, look straight at me to see the person that is responsible for helping to make decisions that affect your lives on a daily basis. The only difference between us is age and area of responsibility, but we're all equals in this. This is a democracy.

The second point I want to make to you is that your engagement, your involvement, your participation, can change things. Don't ever think that just because somebody went inside the process, that that going inside in some way is a corrupting factor. If there's anything that this life is trying to tell you it's that you can go in, you can fight the good fight, maintain the fidelity of your ideas, be willing to step up to the fight and engage. And you never know, you may just change the world.

Congressman Dellums, thank you very much for telling us your story and what you learned. It was a great honor to have you here today.

It was my pleasure to be here, thank you.

And thank you very much for joining us for this Conversation with History.

Photos by Jane Scherr

To the Conversations page.
To the Ron Dellums page.
See interviews with other legislators at the Globetrotter Research Module on Politics, Legislation, and the Work of Democracy.