We All Have a Responsibility to Create a Just Society

Script written for a Microsoft virtual concert benefitting the Equal Justice Initiative on 10/28/2020.

Hello and welcome to our Microsoft GIVE concert benefitting the Equal Justice Initiative! 

It’s been a great GIVE month so far benefitting a variety of non-profits near and dear to each of us.  

I’m grateful to work for Microsoft, a company that empowers its employees to support non-profits not just during Give Month in October but year-round. With generous financial matching for donated money and time by its employees, Microsoft allows each of us to make an even greater impact for causes most important to each of us.  

Today, we gather to support the Equal Justice Initiative. The Equal Justice Initiative is a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons.   

The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. 

Let’s rewind the tape to the Digital Transformation Academy in Las Vegas last summer. I actually had the opportunity to DJ on the big stage to kickoff the conference. While I was stoked to share the same stage as musical legends like the Rolling Stones and Prince as well as Microsoft leaders such as Kate Johnson and Kelly Rogan, it was Kate’s interview with Bryan Stevenson that really stole the show.  

Bryan told his story from humble beginnings in rural Delaware to graduating from Harvard Law and fighting justice on a national stage. He stressed the lesson that we are all more than the worst thing we’ve ever done, along with highlighting the importance that we at Microsoft have to change centuries of wrongdoing by creating proximity and having empathy.  

Microsoft didn’t just highlight Bryan’s work at DTA, but also gave each of us the opportunity to attend a the premier of Just Mercy, a movie summarizing his life’s work. Like many of you, I was moved to do more within my local community to further these initiatives. I’ve founded a non-profit, Chicago Technology Council, with several of my Microsoft teammates, Anthony Sadarangani and Mandela Sheaffer, and we’re actively building a chatbot to connect those in need of legal services with lawyers offering pro bono support. If anyone is interested in helping us, please fill out a form we’ll post in the chat window and we’ll be glad to provide you with more detail.  

I’m pleased to kickoff tonight’s event as a celebration of a great month of giving here at Microsoft and also a challenge for each of us to help create a just society around us. We have a stacked lineup today with Microsoft performers as well as a former American Idol along with plenty of trivia and raffle prizes, so make sure to stick around until the end!