‘We Fought Like Hell Together’: Al Gore Honors Former Running Mate Late Sen. Joe Lieberman

2 months ago

During a memorial service last week, Former Vice President Al Gore remembered the late Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Hadassah, to Joe's children, Hani, Matt, Rebecca, Ethan, to his sisters, Rieta and Ellen, to

00:18all of the grandchildren, Prime Minister Netanyahu, my fellow former Vice President Mike Pence,

00:26Mrs. Pence, to all my former colleagues in the Senate and the House, Leader McConnell

00:33and Elaine Chao especially, and to all of the distinguished guests.

00:43I'm here for one reason only, to honor Joe Lieberman and to bear witness to his remarkably

00:51faith-filled life that was so rich in kindness and decency, principle and great achievements

01:00for his nation.

01:03We can say of Joe the very best we can say of any man.

01:07His was a life of constant consequence for his family, his friends, his nation.

01:16I knew Joe long before I had the honor of asking him to run alongside me in the election

01:23for President and Vice President 24 years ago.

01:27I knew him when he was Attorney General of Connecticut.

01:31And then, of course, we became colleagues and allies and very, very close friends in

01:38the Senate.

01:40We shared views on many issues, the climate crisis, women's rights, gay and lesbian rights,

01:49human rights, so many causes that we fought together.

01:58We also were allies when we were sometimes in the small minority in our own political

02:03party back when he was a Democrat.

02:09We were some of the only ones that voted in favor of President George H.W. Bush's military

02:18action in Iraq.

02:21We were in the minority in our own party on some nuclear weapons issues, and we became

02:28very close.

02:30He had friends in both parties, as all of you know, and there are people from both parties

02:34here and will speak today.

02:36There's been talk recently of Venn diagrams in our country.

02:40I think the thinnest overlay of a Venn diagram between Democrats and Republicans is right

02:46there where Joe Lieberman is.

02:50He wrote about how I became a Shabbos gloy for him, and when the Senate would run overtime

03:00on Friday evenings and the Sabbath would begin, I often offered to take him over to an apartment

03:06my parents had in the Methodist building.

03:08Here's a Southern Baptist taking an observant Jew to the Methodist building and turning

03:14the lights on and then turning the lights off when I left and so forth.

03:19And anyway, we became extremely close.

03:24And then during that campaign of 2000, we became kin, really.

03:32Our families became kin, too, Hadassah.

03:36We laughed together, and we fought like hell together, and we prayed together.

03:42We thought for a season we had won together.

03:46And I learned a lot from Joe, including a few words of Yiddish, and I was already familiar

03:54with the word mensch, but I did not know its full meaning until I got to be a good friend

04:00of Joe Lieberman.

04:01And if you want to know its full and true meaning, you can skip the dictionary and just

04:06look at the way Joe Lieberman lived his life.

04:10He put friendship over anger.

04:13He practiced reconciliation as a form of grace.

04:18I believe we can all learn from Joe's life some critical lessons about how we might heal

04:25the rancor in our nation today.

04:28I speak from personal experience, because after that 2000 race, Joe and I developed

04:35some very deep disagreements on policy and political matters, and no matter how hard

04:42I tried or how hard Joe tried, we could not convince the other of the merit of our respective

04:48positions.

04:49And those of you who've had arguments with Joe know exactly what I'm talking about.

04:55It's not an accident that he would often break out into song, usually his favorite

05:00song, Frank Sinatra's My Way.

05:03How many people have heard him sing My Way?

05:05I know, yes, all right, that was a frequent occurrence on the campaign trail.

05:12I've thought about those days a lot, because in spite of our disagreements in those days,

05:21we both knew deep down that the strong foundation of our friendship and the values that we shared

05:28in common were so much stronger than what was driving us apart in those years.

05:35I've found myself thinking about Joe frequently over the last three months since he passed

05:41and since the service in Stanbury, Connecticut, and what stands out above everything else

05:47in my memories of Joe is the way that his Jewish faith was so foundational to the purpose

05:56with which he lived his life.

06:00I spent some time trying to capture that in my own words and did some research since the

06:10service in Connecticut, and ultimately I found that he, not surprisingly, said it better

06:14than I possibly could.

06:16So if you will allow me, I would like to share with you some of Joe's words about the

06:21connection between his faith and his purpose.

06:25He wrote, I was raised in a religiously observant family, which gave me the clear answers of

06:33faith to life's most difficult questions.

06:37My parents and my rabbi, Joseph Aaron Krentz, taught me that our lives were a gift from

06:44God the Creator, and with it came a covenantal obligation to serve God with gladness by living

06:50as best we could according to the law and values that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai.

06:59He continued, the summary of our aspirations was in the Hebrew phrase tikkun olam, which

07:06is translated to improve the world or to repair the world, or more boldly, to complete the

07:12creation which God began.

07:15In any translation, this concept of tikkun olam presumes the inherent but unfulfilled

07:22goodness of people and requires action for the benefit of the community.

07:29Now I want to note that he was not naive in believing that his faith would automatically

07:34clear away all obstacles and lead to the success of any endeavor.

07:39He went on, speaking of tikkun olam, he said, it accepts our imperfections and concludes

07:45that we as individuals and as a society are constantly in the process of improving and

07:51becoming complete.

07:54Each of us has the opportunity and responsibility to advance that process, both within ourselves

08:01and in the wider world around us.

08:05He quoted Rabbi Tarfin in the Talmud who said, the day is short and there is so much

08:10work to be done.

08:11You are not required to complete the work yourself, but you cannot withdraw from it

08:16either.

08:18And he concluded, these beliefs were a powerful force in my upbringing and seem even more

08:26profound and true to me today.

08:30Even as a college student, he started the work of tikkun olam by going to the deep south

08:36in a time of danger for those pushing for civil rights and voting rights there.

08:44He took this philosophy to heart on an issue that we worked on together, addressing the

08:49global climate crisis.

08:52He talked about how extreme events were becoming a more regular and now daily occurrence.

08:59He once said, today we can see with our own eyes what global warming is doing.

09:05And in that context, it becomes truly irresponsible, if not immoral, to not do something.

09:12By the way, yesterday was the hottest day in recorded history.

09:18It broke the record of one day earlier.

09:22Today may break it again.

09:26What to do?

09:27He argued, and I quote, global warming is not a conquer to kneel before, but a challenge

09:33to rise to, a challenge we must rise to.

09:38And he was brimming with ideas on how we could solve this challenge, first and foremost by

09:45putting a value on improving the world, on putting a value for the fate of future generations

09:52over politics.

09:54Just two years ago, Joe wrote of the urgent need for bipartisanship on the climate crisis.

10:02And for those of you gathered here who admired his commitment to the highest values and morals,

10:12listen, please.

10:14He said there is much more that our government will need to do to avoid future climate clause

10:18disasters, and it will be done best if members of both parties are working together to find

10:26solutions.

10:34Here in America, we continue to grapple with the vitriol and fear that have threatened

10:40to drive us apart.

10:43Around the world, democracy is under threat.

10:46Society itself faces an existential crisis of our own making if we continue to use the

10:53sky as an open sewer.

10:57These parallel crises beg the question, can the world be repaired?

11:03Can we muster the courage to reject the rancor that threatens to define this current moment?

11:11I believe we can.

11:14I believe the concept of tikkun olam that was central to the life and work of Joe Lieberman

11:22can be found in all of the morally based movements that have characterized humanity's progress.

11:31In all those movements, advocates at times felt despair.

11:36But when the underbrush was cleared away and the central issue was defined as a choice

11:43between right and wrong, then at a very deep level, the outcome became foreordained.

11:51Repairing the world is our moral imperative.

11:55Joe Lieberman lived his life fully with a deep awareness and appreciation of that moral

12:05imperative and the responsibilities it required of him.

12:11So today, to remember him is to refresh not only our hope, but our dedication to tikkun

12:18olam.

12:21May God bless the Lieberman family.

‘We Fought Like Hell Together’: Al Gore Honors Former Running Mate Late Sen. Joe Lieberman

Category

Transcript

Recommended