American Valor Quarterly Issue 10 - Summer 2013 | Page 23

that you could have a black guy as
president and another black guy as
secretary of state and chairman.
Women, three of the last four
secretaries of state have been women.
It really gets on my nerves. You know,
give me a break. But that’s how much
this country has advanced.

Prior to his remarks at the American Veterans Center’s conference, Colin Powell is introduced
by student representatives of the U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Air Force
Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, and Virginia Military
Institute. All veteran speakers are introduced by participating students, providing them an
additional opportunity to meet with and further learn the stories of our miltiary heroes.

Another story in my book and I
promise I’ll close on this. It’s called,
“The Street Sweeper.” And it’s a story
I saw on television about a black
gentleman who was a street sweeper
in Philadelphia and he had one of
those metal cans behind him and he
swept the streets. And he was very
good at it and he loved being a street
sweeper and his family admired him.
And he had only one ambition in life
and that was, maybe one day, after
maybe twenty years, they’ll give me
one of those street sweeping machines
with the brushes, you know, with one
parking and one parking off so he
could sweep the streets. That’s all he
wanted. And he finally got it. And so,
the last clip on this video is a picture
of him driving his street sweeping
machine down the street cleaning the
street and his family was waving at
him, two kids and a wife, as proud as
they could be. He had a great family,
he was providing for his family, he was

providing a service to his community,
and he was doing what he wanted to
do and what he