Bill Clinton Addresses ICANN Conference

Clinton gets standing ovation following address to ICANN community.

I just finished watching Bill Clinton give a keynote address at the ICANN meeting in San Francisco. I’ve never seen him speak in person ahead of, and it was cool to be only 20 feet away.

I get the distinct feeling that he could talk gibberish up there and we’d still all be wowed. But a (one of his) messages regarding the differences between the haves and the have-nots really resonated. It’s something I’ve been thinking regarding more lately. The problem in America is we think the haves are rich Americans and the have-nots are middle class Americans. Or heck, even welfare recipients.

But this pales in comparison to the have-nots in most countries around the world who’d be delighted just to get clean drinking water.

Clinton stated a billion people around the world couldn’t even fathom the very event where he spoke. His stated the audience would be surprised if the microphone, projector, or lights stopped working during his speech. In much of the world people would be surprised if they were all working at the same time.

In American we know if we work hard, follow a semi-prescribed path, and do good, we’ll be rewarded. In many other places there is no guarantee or even a chance.

Clinton pointed out that you can give every poor person a computer but it wouldn’t do much good alone if they don’t live in a place with hope and no moral framework.