Sunny Jacobs — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00I feel so full because I think the main
2. 0:14thing is nobody can ever take away your
3. 0:16freedom to love one another I think
4. 0:20that's what I've heard here every single
5. 0:24time and with each speaker that the
6. 0:27freedom to love is something that no one
7. 0:30can ever ever take away from us and I
8. 0:34think sometimes we get mixed up because
9. 0:39there's there's so many types of freedom
10. 0:41we heard all these various types of
11. 0:43freedom this evening freedom there's
12. 0:47freedom - and there's freedom from and
13. 0:53sometimes it's the freedom from
14. 0:56oppression and sometimes it's the
15. 0:59freedom to be who you want to be and
16. 1:02sometimes people say they can take away
17. 1:04your freedom like in this place
18. 1:07everybody who resided in this place had
19. 1:10their freedom taken away but that's the
20. 1:17freedom that other people can give you
21. 1:19but there's a freedom that only you can
22. 1:23give to yourself and that's the most
23. 1:26important freedom of all and they don't
24. 1:30teach us about that there's a freedom
25. 1:34that I think we only have focus
26. 1:37unfortunately we only find its freedom
27. 1:40through through difficulty - having
28. 1:46difficulty in our life for me it was in
29. 1:50the little program so I won't tell the
30. 1:52whole story but for me my freedom was
31. 1:55taken away when I was accused of a crime
32. 2:00that I didn't commit and I was locked up
33. 2:06I was sentenced to death
34. 2:08and locked up in a cell very similar to
35. 2:11one of these in fact tonight when we
36. 2:13came here I felt compelled to go in one
37. 2:16of those cells and shut the door and
38. 2:19just stay in there for a while and
39. 2:23strangely enough as we were we were
40. 2:26talking about it among ourselves
41. 2:28it feels kind of familiar it didn't make
42. 2:35me feel panicked I kind of oh yeah I
43. 2:37remember this you know but that the
44. 2:41reason for that is because it was in one
45. 2:43of those very cells that I found a
46. 2:46freedom that I had never known before
47. 2:48and that was because all the other
48. 2:53freedoms were taken away from me I
49. 2:55couldn't leave I couldn't be with my
50. 2:57loved ones I had two young children my
51. 2:59son was nine my daughter was 10 months
52. 3:01old when this happened I had my parents
53. 3:05I had a husband and all of that was
54. 3:10taken away and I hadn't done anything
55. 3:15there was no reason for that to happen
56. 3:17that I knew of maybe in some past life I
57. 3:19did something really bad and it was my
58. 3:21Karma that's the only thing I could
59. 3:23figure out and I wasn't even sure if
60. 3:28there was God at that point in time
61. 3:29because I couldn't understand how God
62. 3:31could allow something like that to
63. 3:33happen to me and my whole family and yet
64. 3:38it was in that very place when I felt
65. 3:42the most hopeless that I realized that I
66. 3:46still had a choice that I didn't have to
67. 3:50see it the way they thought that I was
68. 3:53locked up prisoner waiting for them to
69. 3:56take my life during that in fact while I
70. 4:01still was living and breathing I still
71. 4:04was in charge of my life I might not be
72. 4:07in charge of my circumstances but my
73. 4:10life still belong to me and I could
74. 4:12still choose what I wanted to do with it
75. 4:17and how I would live it so I couldn't
76. 4:21leave the cell I couldn't be with those
77. 4:22that I wanted to be with but was in the
78. 4:25circumstances that I had to work with I
79. 4:28could choose how I would live and so I
80. 4:32chose not to live in fear and anger and
81. 4:35misery which was my right I was entitled
82. 4:41but it didn't serve me that wasn't who I
83. 4:44was and that wasn't who I wanted to be
84. 4:46and so I decided that it was instead of
85. 4:54seeing myself as a prisoner and a victim
86. 4:56waiting for my life to be taken I
87. 4:59decided that it was an opportunity for
88. 5:02me to do my spiritual work since I was I
89. 5:08had no dishes to wash I had no laundry
90. 5:13to do I had nobody to take care of I
91. 5:15didn't have to work I was sentenced to
92. 5:18death by in the electric chair so I was
93. 5:21got free electricity until savez for the
94. 5:25first time in my life I had servants
95. 5:28because after all yeah they cooked for
96. 5:32me they served me my meals cold but they
97. 5:36did my dishes they did my laundry and so
98. 5:39it was a perfect opportunity for me to
99. 5:41do my spiritual work and make myself the
100. 5:43best person that I could be while I was
101. 5:47here and so I turned my cell into a
102. 5:51sanctuary and I began to do yoga and
103. 5:54meditation and prayer and I even had the
104. 5:59choice whether to believe there was a
105. 6:00God or not and I chose to believe in God
106. 6:03because I chose to believe in hope
107. 6:04rather than hopelessness that's what
108. 6:07they wanted me to believe and so I
109. 6:09actually found a freedom that I never
110. 6:12knew before while I was sentenced to
111. 6:15death while they had supposedly taken my
112. 6:17freedom away
113. 6:20and that that realization has served me
114. 6:26ever since of course like every prisoner
115. 6:30like every prisoner that was within
116. 6:32these walls
117. 6:33I thought all they need to do is let me
118. 6:36go that's all I need and as they just
119. 6:40let set me free and then my troubles are
120. 6:43over this is you know that that's what
121. 6:45we all think and then finally one day my
122. 6:50sentence was changed from death to life
123. 6:51and things improved my husband
124. 6:54unfortunately and his sentence was never
125. 6:57changed and he was executed again for
126. 7:01something we didn't do and at that point
127. 7:06when our daughter who had been 10 months
128. 7:08old was at about 15 and when she heard
129. 7:12how terrible the execution was because
130. 7:16he didn't just die when they put him in
131. 7:18electric chair
132. 7:19he caught fire because the electric
133. 7:23chair malfunctioned and when she heard
134. 7:26that she tried to take her own life and
135. 7:29I was helpless to help her and I wished
136. 7:34for that freedom to be there I thought
137. 7:38if I could just be there I could make a
138. 7:39difference and so finally about two and
139. 7:45a half years after his wrongful
140. 7:47execution with the help of lawyers who
141. 7:52work for free and friends who always
142. 7:53believed in my innocence I was released
143. 7:58but freedom wasn't it wasn't what I
144. 8:02thought it was going to be I didn't have
145. 8:04any money see freedom that kind of
146. 8:07freedom isn't free you know so know who
147. 8:12was gonna feed me and where would I
148. 8:14sleep I had no money I had this little
149. 8:17cardboard box of stuff that was all I
150. 8:19owned in the world and I was a 45 year
151. 8:22old woman who no one was going to hire
152. 8:24and so I found out that that was a
153. 8:30different aspect of freedom that I
154. 8:32hadn't been aware
155. 8:34but it forced me to go back to that to
156. 8:40the lessons that I learned while I was
157. 8:42sentenced to death and that was that
158. 8:45there's this kernel of freedom this
159. 8:47essence of freedom that that only you
160. 8:51can give yourself and once you find that
161. 8:54then nobody can take it away from you
162. 8:56and so I went back to what I knew which
163. 8:59was yoga meditation and prayer and I
164. 9:03employed myself teaching yoga and I
165. 9:08determined that again I wasn't going to
166. 9:11be a victim and live in misery and anger
167. 9:14and fear and those were not the legacies
168. 9:17that I wanted to leave to my children
169. 9:18and so I taught them that freedom is a
170. 9:23gift that you give yourself and you can
171. 9:26free yourself from your past and from
172. 9:28your circumstances not that you can
173. 9:30change them but you can change how you
174. 9:35behave within those circumstances and
175. 9:38the main thing that I taught them is
176. 9:40that no one can take away the freedom to
177. 9:43love one another and I think that's the
178. 9:46most important lesson that we've heard
179. 9:48here tonight and when I think about the
180. 9:52people that not only were in these cells
181. 9:54but the people that were in the cells
182. 9:56below us there were cells below us where
183. 9:59people were locked up completely
184. 10:01isolated from the world and I feel sure
185. 10:04that some of them found the same freedom
186. 10:06that I did and when they were taken out
187. 10:10to be killed and they wrote those last
188. 10:13letters to their mothers and their wives
189. 10:15and their children that they had found
190. 10:17that freedom and I'm glad we got to
191. 10:20share that with you here tonight and I
192. 10:22just like to leave you with another
193. 10:26little song it's a song that if you open
194. 10:30up your heart and let your little light
195. 10:32shine out of your heart no one can
196. 10:35extinguish that this little light of
197. 10:38mine I'm gonna let it shine this little
198. 10:42light of mine I'm gonna let it shine
199. 10:46this little light of mine I'm gonna let
200. 10:51it shine let it shine let it shine let
201. 10:54it shine and always remember that peace
202. 10:59is away and love is the answer
203. 11:05[Applause]