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Tim Cook Accepts 2015 Ripple of Hope Award at RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights

Wednesday December 9, 2015 9:21 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple CEO Tim Cook accepted the 2015 Ripple of Hope Award at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights on Tuesday night, and gave a nearly twelve minute speech about the need for social change, reports Bloomberg.

Tim-Cook-RKF
Tim Cook at the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights (Image: Bloomberg)

Cook, who spoke after Evercore's Roger Altman and Unesco ambassador Marianna Vardinoyannis, discussed a wide range of ongoing social issues, including the Syrian refugee crisis, climate change, Apple's charitable work, access to quality education, privacy and discrimination.
“Today, more than half of the states in this country still don’t offer basic protections to gay or transgender people, leaving millions of people vulnerable to being fired or evicted because of who they are or who they love,” Cook said.

"Today, some in our country would turn away innocent men, women and children seeking refuge,” Cook said, “regardless of how many background checks they may submit to, simply based on where they were born. Victims of war and now victims of fear and misunderstanding."

"Today, too many children are denied access to quality education simply because of the zip code they live in. They begin their lives facing strong headwinds and disadvantage they did nothing to deserve. We could do better, Robert Kennedy would say, and because we can do better, we must act."
Cook offered praise for Robert F. Kennedy and said he has two photographs of him in his office that he looks at each day. "I think about his example, what it means to me as an American, but also more specifically, to my role as Apple CEO."

Read more about Cook's acceptance speech in the full article on Bloomberg.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Tim Cook
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Rogifan
38 months ago

"Today, some in our country would turn away innocent men, women and children seeking refuge,” Cook said, “regardless of how many background checks they may submit to, simply based on where they were born. Victims of war and now victims of fear and misunderstanding."


Sorry Tim, I don't think there's any misunderstanding with Paris and San Bernardino. There's nothing wrong with turning away people that can't be properly vetted. That doesn't mean banning anyone of a certain religion but pausing immigration from countries where groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda have a foothold...absolutely.
Rating: 16 Votes
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Rogifan
38 months ago

America would not exist if people had been turned away for whatever reason.

So just let anyone in without proper vetting and if innocent people die blame the NRA. If someone has ties to or sympathies with ISIS we better damn well be turning them away. That's common sense. The feel good gobbledygook Tim Cook is espousing is nonsense.
Rating: 10 Votes
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Even Longer
38 months ago
Seeing all these comments about Syrian refugees, I can't help but notice one big hypocrisy: US, being one of the key participants in the Syrian crisis from day one, now denies to take part in refugee solution and letting us in Europe deal with them instead.
This is Sparta, I guess...

Otherwise, nice words, mr. Cook.
Rating: 8 Votes
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aaronvan
38 months ago

"Today, some in our country would turn away innocent men, women and children seeking refuge," Cook said, "regardless of how many background checks they may submit to, simply based on where they were born. Victims of war and now victims of fear and misunderstanding."

Sorry Tim, I don't think there's any misunderstanding with Paris and San Bernardino. There's nothing wrong with turning away people that can't be properly vetted. That doesn't mean banning anyone of a certain religion but pausing immigration from countries where groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda have a foothold...absolutely.


When Apple stops hiding hundreds of billions of dollars overseas to avoid U.S. taxes, then he can lecture us about Syrian immigrants. Until then, shut-up Tim, and keep APPL (115.72, 2.13%) on the upswing.
Rating: 6 Votes
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happydude
38 months ago
well deserved. a compassionate and [given the corporate climate these days] courageous CEO for what he says, does and supports. **queue people saying "yeah, but he didn't do enough" or "he didn't give to my favorite cause so he's terrible" and so on.
Rating: 5 Votes
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2457282
38 months ago
Steve Jobs barely got involved in anything remotely politics. Although he did go to the white house and tell Obama that manufacturing jobs were not coming back to the US because of labor laws, education and salaries.

Tim on the other hand spends almost as much time on political issues (especially gay rights) as he does running Apple. I like Tim, but please spend more time doing your job as CEO.

Edit: started second paragraph with steve when I meant tim. fixed now.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Rogifan
38 months ago

You do realize while we "pause" taking in refugees from where ISIS has a foothold means more innocent dead people? ISIS and Al Qaeda kills more Muslims than westerners. These people are desperate and are literally running for their lives.

How does bringing these people into the United States solve that problem? it's not like these people come here and assimilate into our society. They're certainly not doing that in Europe. No what happens is bad ones get in too and innocent people die.

If Tim Cook cares so much about all this stuff perhaps he should go back to Alabama and run for congress or the senate and let someone else run Apple.

We don't even vet people with ties to white supremacy groups from buying guns. And the NRA is a big part of that reason.


So because our vetting sucks that means let anyone in the country? BS. How many refugees is Tim Cook planning to take in?
Rating: 4 Votes
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hashholly
38 months ago
Its always funny when people tend to forget that the United States is a nation of immigrants. No matter who you are, unless you are Native American, you can look through your family tree to find the person who's immigration here is cause for you to be an American.

We let in the good and the bad, and you could pause immigration from Syria today and it would not make American any safer. Unfortunately you can't end terrorist acts in American anymore than you can end murder, rape, theft, or any crime for that matter.

Should we do more to insure we are keeping out individuals who intended to harm us? Sure, and that should apply to every country, not just the regions that ISIS are in, however we must not forget that we have innocent people over there that are trying to flee for their lives. We can't just turn them away out of fear. Frankly thats just what ISIS wants....to isolate good Muslims to the point where they feel they have no other choice but to buy into their ideology and that will only result in more generations of hate and violence against innocent people.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Mums
38 months ago
Tim Cook should offer all the refugees residence in his house.
Rating: 4 Votes
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WarHeadz
38 months ago

Maybe it's opposite way? How about we separate politic and technology...

People usually only say that when they disagree with the political views of the company they wish to stay out of politics.
Rating: 4 Votes

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