When Betty Ford suddenly and unexpectedly became First Lady in 1974 amidst the scandal of Watergate, she was like a breath of fresh air. She had the poise of Pat Nixon, a strong sense of style like Jackie Kennedy, and looked to Eleanor Roosevelt as a role model. But it was her personal candor that made Betty Ford unique among her predecessors and would ultimately help to save thousands of lives. She was born Elizabeth Ann Bloomer in 1918 and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Betty Bloomer was a lively teenager who spoke her mind and gravitated toward the freer forms of modern dance. When she graduated from high school, she knew exactly what she wanted to do, moved to New York City to become a professional dancer. She spent three years living her dream, studying and dancing with the legendary Martha Graham and even performing at Carnegie Hall. She returned to Grand Rapids but continued dancing. And after a first marriage that ended in divorce, Betty met her match in a handsome young lawyer named Gerald R. Ford. A former University of Michigan football star and World War II naval officer, Ford had a secret ambition to run for Congress. Betty was reluctant to become a congressional wife, which seemed well founded when Gerald showed up late to their wedding wearing muddy shoes he had worn on the campaign trail. The couple then spent their honeymoon at campaign rallies and a University of Michigan football game. Nonetheless, Betty threw herself into the roles of political wife and devoted mother of four children, roles that kept her mostly out of the limelight. Her life abruptly changed, however, when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned due to corruption charges. And President Nixon appointed the popular Republican Minority Leader Gerald Ford Vice President. The family barely had time to adjust to their new roles before Nixon himself resigned eight months later. The Fords, still living in their modest suburban Alexandria, Virginia home, had suddenly become first family. Betty Ford would soon find her own voice and a country that was eager to hear what she had to say. The Fords were determined to set themselves apart from the secrecy of the previous administration. So when Betty Ford had a mastectomy, just six weeks into the new presidency, she chose to speak out publicly about her battle with breast cancer, a taboo topic at the time. This led thousands of women to seek screenings, which saved countless lives. Part of the battle against cancer is to fight the fear that accompanies the disease. The First Lady's openness about other topics, however, including premarital sex, marijuana use and abortion rights, as well as her staunch support of the Equal Rights Amendment, was not always so well received, especially from her own party. I do not believe that being First Lady should prevent me from expressing my ideas. But she was speaking out about the issues of the time, with a frankness that no previous First Lady had explained. I just want to congratulate you, Mr. President. I'm glad to see you have come a long, long way. She had brought a more relaxed, accessible atmosphere to the White House, even a sense of fun, and the public found it refreshing. Betty's approval ratings shot up to 75%. Because of her popularity, she was given a grueling campaign schedule during Gerald Ford's unsuccessful 1976 presidential bid, and it took its toll, exacerbating the excruciating pain of a pinched nerve that she had been enduring for years. This brought to the forefront her addiction to painkillers and alcohol. In 1978, with the encouragement of her family, Betty began to seek treatment for her addictions, and then made the brave decision to again go public with her struggle. By putting a dignified face on addiction, Betty Ford helped to destigmatize another deadly disease and inspire thousands to seek treatment. Later, she would help to found the Betty Ford Center, which has now treated nearly 100,000 patients and their families. In the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, there is a classroom dedicated to the memory of Betty Ford. In the Betty, as it is affectionately called by students, Betty Ford's legacy is honored through the exploration of important public policy questions, including health and women's issues. When she received an honorary law degree from the university in 1976, the Board of Regents noted, your style and substance have earned the admiration of a nation. These words would ring true throughout her life, and with her death in 2011, at the age of 93, the country lost one of its most courageous and original first ladies. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome. I'm Susan Collins, the Joan and Sanford-Wile Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy here at the University of Michigan, and it is my great honor to welcome all of you here as the University of Michigan celebrates the life and the legacy of Mrs. Betty Ford. We're so pleased today that President Mary Sue Coleman, Congressman John Dingle, and Mrs. Debbie Dingle, and several of the university's executive officers and deans could be here with us today. Welcome, and thank you all so much for coming. And we could not be more honored that so many members of the Ford family are here. The Fords here today span three generations. Sons Mike and Steve, daughter Susan, daughter-in-law Gail are all here, and they're joined by several grandchildren of President Ford and even one great-grandchild. I know we're all very eager to welcome them here back to Ann Arbor, and so I'd like to invite the members of the Ford family please to stand. Welcome. It's really wonderful to have so many of you here with us today. And now it is my great pleasure to introduce our keynote speaker, Ambassador Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Coleman for the Cure. Ambassador Brinker was a very good friend of Mrs. Ford's, and I know that she will tell you much more about the inspiration and the support that she found in Mrs. Ford. Ambassador Brinker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. She served as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary from 2001 to 2003 and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She served as U.S. Chief of Protocol from 2007 to 2009, and it's really a tremendous honor for us to have her here with us today. Please help me welcome to the stage Ambassador Nancy Brinker. Thank you, Dean Collins and President Coleman for inviting me. I really am honored to be here today because the University of Michigan has always had a special place in my heart, and it's always wonderful to be with my very dear friend and longtime colleague Susan Ford-Bales, all of the Ford family who are here today, and Debbie and John Dingle, who are also very good friends. So Michigan has always been this university very important to me. I grew up on the other side of Lake Michigan in Peoria, and as a student, Michigan was number one on my very short list of universities. So in 1963, I sent in my application, crossed my fingers and eagerly awaited a response. Well, I got one almost the next day, but it wasn't what I was hoping.  Well, no one keeps you grounded like your mother, as you know. But the bottom line is I've got a lot of maize and blue in my heart, even if not on my diploma. I'm honored to be with all of you truly. Last summer I traveled to California with Secretary Hillary Clinton for Mrs. Ford's funeral. We talked about Betty's leadership and the extraordinary influence she had on all women and our culture. Our generation looked up to her because she had the courage to stand up and challenge our society to think about important issues, to change things that were wrong. She was an outspoken leader, but she led with such grace and savvy and dignity, that she moved our nation forward faster than if she had chosen a more confrontational style. And these were monumental issues, her support for gender equality and for a woman's right to choose. They were amazing positions that almost defied our culture at the time. One key to her success was a relationship with her husband and her support for his leadership and his for hers. As Mrs. Ford was an example to us, so too was President Ford to a generation of American men. He showed them that their wives needed to be heard and that we should invite their thinking into the public debate. He demonstrated that women not only deserve to play a central role in the evolution of our nation, but that we would be more united as a result. That's a lesson anyone involved in public policy should always take to heart. For me personally, Betty Ford was a true friend and a mentor, and Susan G. Coleman for the Cure wouldn't be the organization it is today without her. When we started out in the early 1980s, nobody, and I mean nobody, gave us much of a chance. Remember in those days you couldn't even say the word breast on television. The disease was discussed in whispers and it's very difficult for students today to comprehend. To comprehend that with a 24-7 news cycle, social media, and the ability to share opinions instantly across the world with a mobile device. So this was the culture we faced when we began our movement to end breast cancer, which was very unpopular at the time. That's hard to believe, but it's true. And frankly I was searching, and even a little scared, because while I was determined to keep my promise to my sister Susie, who died at the age of 36, and I had promised that I would help make her dream a reality to end breast cancer forever, I frankly didn't know how I was going to do it. Most people in Dallas circles where I lived at the time assumed we were just the latest social club who were interested in tea parties and parties and trying to change the world. They thought we'd have a fundraiser or two and eventually just give up and quit and go back to being housewives. Some men in our community wouldn't even let their wives put their names on our fundraising invitations. So it was clear we needed some kind of voice, some kind of gravitas, some kind of legitimacy, but only Betty Ford would provide that, since she was the first public figure to discuss her diagnosis out in the open and began the enormous culture change that needed to take place in this country. I thought if we could get her involved, our credibility level would go through the roof. But in 1982, we invited her to our very first fundraiser. We didn't know what else to do, so we did a women's polo tournament, and we thought it would be great to have people see women do something they hadn't seen before. Well, you can imagine the surprise I had when I had placed a call through a friend to ask Mrs. Ford if she'd come to that event, so I was very surprised when she called back. She said she only had one question, would she have to ride a horse? But she gave us far more than just her name. She gave us her leadership and courage to face the future. She said to me one day, you never know what you can do until you have to do it. That was certainly a founding principle for our organization then, as it is now. Every barrier that was thrown in our way, we just didn't take no for an answer. There was no internet, so we created events like Race for the Cure to help build awareness and reach millions of women. We couldn't afford Super Bowl ads, so we relied heavily on cause-related marketing, since it was the only way we could speak to our target audiences. We took strong and sometimes controversial positions on issues of public policy and advocated for women's health. And it was all fueled by the passion of breast cancer survivors who had had no voice, their families and their friends. And Betty was there every step in the way, every time we called for an opinion or some advice.  And because of the power of one, we turned a small start into a huge global movement. We started as a few volunteers, and now it is the largest network of cancer activists in the world. What started as a Race for the Cure with 800 people on a drizzly morning in Dallas, Texas, is now in 150 cities around the world with more than 2 million runners. What started as $200 in a shoebox and some names on cards led to a campaign which has raised and spent over $2 billion on research, treatment, care and screening, making us the largest private funder of breast cancer research outside of the federal government. And most importantly, most importantly, we've helped, along with others, increase the five-year survival rate for breast cancer when caught very early from 74% to 99% in America. Thirty years in this fight brings us to an historic juncture. While our past has been one of great progress, we face an unforgiving future unless we renew our commitment to winning the ultimate victory. An important part of the commitment is science. And the greatest renaissance in cancer research is happening right now. In fact, I'm sure many of you saw the recent feature stories in the New York Times last week about the four genetically different cancers we've identified, and much of the research behind these findings are scientists that we have funded over three decades. Some of the most promising science we fund is right here at the University of Michigan. We have funded 31 research grants totaling almost $11 million for U of M scientists. Today at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, three exceptionally talented scientists, Max Wichita, Patricia LaRusso and Jeffrey Trent, are leading a team exploring triple negative breast cancer stem cells in different racial populations. The research is now in clinical trials aimed at developing effective and safe treatment options and it's all being backed by a three and a half million dollar promise grant from Susan Coleman. Because of our global reach, the collaborative effort between Susan Coleman and U of M has strengthened the oncology infrastructure for Ghana's Comfuoci Teaching Hospital so that most breast cancers in the region are now diagnosed by needle biopsy instead of surgery. And this is only one of the kinds of programs. This is the only one-of-a-kind program on the African continent which has the potential to evolutionize the treatment of triple negative breast cancer and treat other forms of the disease as well. Susan C. Coleman for the Cure supports several scientists in their research in Ann Arbor with a host of scholar grants, postdoctoral fellowships, research awards and other special projects. Lori Pierce, Dan Hayes, Lisa Newman and Madori Havarala are just a few of the researchers doing work based on funding we've provided. This is exciting and is part of the scientific renaissance and it's all happening because of our strong partnership with this university. But I'd like to tell you it's all good news. It's not. We need to recreate the passion to end the disease that existed, the kind of passion that existed to end it 30 years ago. I was in my early 20s when President Nixon in 1971 led a bipartisan effort with academics, business people and the private sector leaders to begin the war on cancer. Cancer research was one of the most admired fields in the country. People rallied around the project like it no other time in our history. But the last time a leader in science was named, Time Magazine's Person of the Year was almost 20 years ago. We're in danger now of losing an entire generation of scientists which is a stark public policy challenge. We need to support them and it's so encouraging to see these Michigan scientists working to find cures for killer diseases instead of the next killer app. We need to put cancer research back in the hotline where it belongs so we can find the treatments faster. So science is critical and we invest heavily in it. We also know that science alone won't help anyone unless it's translated to cures and treatments. So that's where Susan G. Coleman also plays a very crucial role as a leader in civil society. Government can do a lot but it can't do it all. Our affiliates, 120 of them around the United States and a few of them in here in Michigan, focus on getting research from the desk side to the curb side and the bedside which is what we call continuum of care. It sounds simple but we've learned through our years of service that low-income women who are diagnosed need more than just treatment for breast cancer. They need other unrelated support services as well. They need to be embraced at the beginning of their care and they need other things like transportation, patient navigation, and childcare so they can stick to their regimen of recovery. When we do this, we see survival rates soar. That's where the science hits the street and it is critical for us because how much money you have or where you live shouldn't determine whether you live. That is just as true in Michigan as it is in Sub-Saharan Africa and it requires public-private partnerships to find solutions to very difficult challenges more today than ever. Simply put, these partnerships allow everyone to focus on what they do best. Things move forward, people are helped and more lives are saved. The greatest example I can share with you is one of our newest projects called Pink Ribbon, Red Ribbon. Its goal is to reduce cervical cancer mortality by 25% in Sub-Saharan Africa while increasing access to breast care.  We launched this project just a year ago in Washington with a unique partnership between Susan G. Komen, the Department of State, the George W. Bush Institute, the UN AIDS Initiative, and PEPFAR. I remember visiting one of the PEPFAR clinics and for those of you who've never been, they're quite astonishing. This was in Tanzania five years ago and I saw the great work being done. I was struck by how simple it would be to extend that work even further to perform cancer screening on a platform built to treat communicable diseases and that's exactly what has happened. Once again skeptics told us it just wouldn't work. The money or infrastructure couldn't happen. But now there is an infrastructure and before that was built we heard all the same skepticism about AIDS treatment. Yet it all came to pass and today these very structures are helping to screen and treat breast and cervical cancer in places we thought it would be impossible. Rarely do you find such a natural pairing of missions. In fighting one disease we've been able to fight more than three diseases and that's the promise of pink ribbon, red ribbon. It highlights the role that civil society and private organizations can play in public policy. Two plus two equals five. So in Africa, in the US and at the University of Michigan we're making tremendous progress in the fight against breast cancer which is a strong and our partnership has such a strong past. But the juncture I spoke of earlier is that while this is tremendous progress we face an unforgiving future unless we renew our commitment to winning this fight. I want to tell you also that nothing else humanizes this more than the courageous life story of Bridget Spence who will anchor a new Susan G. Coleman ad campaign this fall. Seven years ago at the age of 21 Bridget was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer but she's alive today because Susan G. Coleman for the cure helped her find doctors, identify treatments and get support. She's lived more than twice as long as my sister did after being diagnosed which is the sign of progress. She was supposed to tell that story last week at a great benefit we had at the Kennedy Center. She wanted to be there in person but she had to cancel her appearance. At the last minute she was admitted to the hospital. Thanks to, thank Kevin she was released and temporarily has begun a new clinical trial that will hopefully even extend her life a little more. I'm happy to say she's back at home and with her great abolience and wonderful attitude she'll fight for her life and live as long as anyone could with her disease. But that's where we are ladies and gentlemen. That optimism, courage and hope on the one hand with a gruesome reality of this disease on the other hand and so we cannot, we simply cannot give up. This is why I'm so pleased at the University of Michigan and the greater UM community is playing such a leading role in this fight because we need you more than ever and it is precisely because of the work being done here and around the country that I am confident we will win our ultimate victory against breast cancer. I encourage you, as Betty Ford encouraged me to keep up the fight because you never know how much you can do until you have to do it. Thank you for inviting me. Ambassador Brinker, thank you so much for those very inspiring remarks. Betty Ford was an accomplished dancer who made her first public performance at age eight. Throughout her school years, she was a voracious student of many styles of dance and just after finishing high school she attended a summer dance program at Bennington College in Vermont where she choreographed, where choreographer and modern dance pioneer Martha Graham was in residence and Martha Graham became Betty's inspiration. She joined Martha's troop in New York for two years before returning to Grand Rapids where she continued to teach dance. And years later Mrs. Ford's love for dance as we've seen injected style and laughter and energy into the Ford White House. The first couple brought dancing back to state dinners and hosted legendary parties that lasted well into the night. And of course we can all recall and have just enjoyed that iconic shot of her on top of the mahogany conference table in the cabinet room striking a beautiful pose so full of grace and humor. And anyone who sees that picture knows that this was a very unique first lady. In her 1978 autobiography, The Times of My Life, Mrs. Ford Reflected, Dance is My Happiness. And here to celebrate that source of Mrs. Ford's happiness it is my pleasure to introduce Miki Orihara, principal dancer of the Martha Graham Dance Company. Please join me in welcoming her to the stage. Thank you Miki, that was beautiful. That was the opening dance of Martha Graham's 1940 ballet Letter to the World. Graham took her inspiration for that work from Emily Dickinson and the dance evokes Dickinson's curiosity and eagerness to engage with life. Miki, thank you once again for that lovely performance. Next we'll hear tribute remarks from a few people who admired and loved Mrs. Ford. And as Dean of the Ford School, I have the tremendous honor of getting started. At the Ford School we prepare leaders. We prepare our students to influence and improve public policies and we take great pride in our curriculum, our professional development and our faculty research. Mrs. Betty Ford who had no formal training in public policy yet profoundly influenced some of the most important public issues of our time. How did she do it? She was of course married to a career politician and spent over 27 years as the wife of a congressman, vice president and then president. But most importantly Mrs. Ford had conviction. Outspoken and independent by nature, upbringing and life circumstance, she had the courage to speak her mind. It's no surprise that here at the University of Michigan and at the Ford School we consider Mrs. Ford and an exemplar for our students. In 1975 she told a crowd, I do not believe that being first lady should prevent me from expressing my ideas. And so Mrs. Ford did speak her mind. She proudly called herself a feminist and she actively lobbied for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. After the Watergate scandal and cover up, her husband took office promising transparency to the American people. And in that charged context, Mrs. Ford bravely decided to make public her treatment for breast cancer. Later in life her candor about alcoholism and addiction put a known much loved face on those diseases. Her outspokenness was not without cost. Well she certainly isn't the last first lady to take criticism for outspoken views on public policy issues. She was among the first. In 1975 Mrs. Ford spoke with 60 minutes about premarital sex and about her strong support for Roe vs. Wade decision to legalize abortion. The White House received a flood of over 28,000 letters nearly all of them critical of the first lady. Some of those letters are on display at the Ford Presidential Library on North Campus. I've had the pleasure of spending time at the Ford Library and it really, it's one of the gems of Ann Arbor and I encourage all of you to visit especially if you've not had the opportunity so far. At the library you can read a few of those outraged letters including some from very prominent people. But after the initial wave of criticism, Americans from both sides of the political aisle came to admire Mrs. Ford and her candor and her popularity soared. In the short run her husband narrowly lost his campaign for a second term in office but in the long run their legacies are secure and profound. His as a man of integrity who helped America to heal and hers as a courageous woman who broke taboos and saved countless lives. Throughout her life Betty Ford spoke her story an honest American story about child rearing, work, illness, recovery and family. That story resonated with so many of her fellow citizens in a way that political leaders rarely do and in fact as an immigrant myself whose family is from Jamaica I can attest that it resonated in countries around the globe. I was fortunate enough to meet Mrs. Ford once when she invited me to her California home after I became Dean of the Ford School and I was struck by her grace and her graciousness. She took a deep interest in the activities of our students in particular and each year we would send her a birthday card or a birthday video and each year dozens of students in the midst of classes and assignments and problem sets and their jobs would turn out to be included in those videos. Her spirit is very much alive at the Ford School and so to our students in particular I encourage you to look to Mrs. Ford as inspiration and example. Speak out, find your conviction, tell your story, your work, your impact and your service might be just the living legacy that President Ford and the irrepressible Mrs. Betty Ford would most have treasured. Thank you. And now it is my great pleasure to introduce the 13th President of the University of Michigan Mary Sue Coleman. Well thank you Susan and thank you for your leadership of the Ford School. It is a great honor to take part in this joyful celebration of Betty Ford's life and legacy. Throughout her life as a professional dancer, wife and mother, first lady, champion of the arts and advocate for women's health and equality, Betty Ford displayed an infectious spirit of candor and courage. She once described herself as an ordinary woman who was called on stage at an extraordinary time. The grim circumstances that led to Congressman Ford becoming Vice President in 1973 and then President in 1974 after Richard Nixon resigned shocked the country. It was arguably our nation's most significant constitutional threat since the Civil War. Fortunately for us, Betty Ford proved to be an extraordinary woman and a strong player on the Ford team. Working together to restore trust in government following Watergate, President and Mrs. Ford helped the nation heal. In his inaugural address, President Ford said, I am indebted to no man and to one woman, my dear wife, Betty. As I began this difficult job, Mrs. Ford exercised her influence and successfully lobbied her husband to appoint more women to key roles in government. President Ford once said he had little choice. Appointing women was the best way to keep me out of the doghouse with Betty. Speaking at the 1976 Republican Convention, Kerry Grant told delegates it would be good for women to be there, it would be good for women if there were four more years of pillow talk in a Ford White House. Mrs. Ford once said, I don't like to be dishonest, so when people ask me, I said what I thought and speak she did. She was truthful with the American people about such sensitive topics as sexuality, women's rights and addiction.  Through interviews, press conferences, and public appearances, Mrs. Ford elevated the visibility and awareness of women's roles in the world and their right to be treated as equal. A career woman before marrying a handsome Michigan graduate named Jerry Ford, Betty was a quick study when it came to politics. She researched the job of congressman in the Library of Congress and told a biographer, I saw that I would have to grow with Jerry or be left behind and I had no intention of being left behind. She was in the vanguard on issues affecting women, their health and their families. She agreed with a 1973 Roe v. Wade decision explaining, I'm glad, abortion has been taken out of the back rooms and put into the hospitals where it belongs. She campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment. Before 1974, only two other first ladies, Eleanor Roosevelt and Lady Bird Johnson had publicly lobbied for legislation. In 1993, she joined Rosalyn Carter in urging the White House and Congress to include mental health and substance abuse coverage in proposed healthcare reform legislation. Again, Mrs. Ford was ahead of her time. She also exercised the traditional responsibilities of first lady with grace, including entertaining dignitaries and redecorating the Oval Office. She planned and hosted memorable state dinners and was involved in more than 600 bicentennial celebration events. Betty Ford was a strong energetic campaigner and represented the president on many occasions. Citizen ban radios were popular in the 1970s and her handle was First Mama. She would call truckers and urged them to vote for her husband. Vote for Betty's husband became one of the campaign's most popular slogans. In November 1976, by the end of the campaign, when Jerry Ford has lost his voice and the election, it was his teammate, Betty, who stood by his side. She was the one who read the traditional telegram of concession and congratulations to President-Elect Carter. After the Fords moved to California, she continued her focus on public health issues, establishing the Betty Ford Center. Her lifetime of work received the highest of tributes. President George H.W. Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Along with President Ford, she received the Congressional Gold Medal, and the highest honor congressman can bestow on an American citizen. Betty Ford was a role model and not just for women. She raised our consciousness and helped expand public perceptions of the roles of women to include family and professional careers. She showed all of us the value and importance of integrity, honesty, and dignity. I first admired Betty Ford from afar. After coming to the university, I had the great honor of knowing her and President Ford and calling them friends. As so many people here know, President and Mrs. Ford were absolutely delightful. And together with their children, they were steadfast supporters of Michigan. We will miss Betty Ford's dedication and enthusiasm. We are blessed with the wide-ranging impact of her words and her actions, and will always remember the gifts that she gave to our community and our nation. Family always was important to Mrs. Ford, as a girl growing up in Grand Rapids and later as a wife and a mother. We are honored to have her family, her dearest and most important legacy with us today. And it is now my great pleasure to introduce Michael Ford, the eldest son of President and Mrs. Ford, and a member of the Ford School Committee. Mike is extremely familiar with the college environment, having worked at Wake Forest University for more than 30 years. There, he is the director of student development and works closely with students to support their academic and personal growth. Mike and his wife Gail are the parents of three daughters and the grandparents to five. Please join me in a warm Michigan welcome from Mike Ford. Mike. Thank you, President Coleman. And this is a very special day for Susan and Steve. Jack can't be with us today, but my wife and our extended family, my wife Gail, and we are here to celebrate with you this special lady, Betty Ford. A year ago, this past July, our family and all the nation said goodbye to our dear mom, Betty Ford. And while in the moment it was a sad parting for all of us, her death was a joyous farewell as mom went home to be with her father in heaven. In the midst of our grief, the family knew that mom had it figured out. In her final days with us, she expressed that she had done everything here on earth that she could possibly do, that God had asked her to do for family, for friends, for the circle of people both near and far that looked to her for direction and inspiration and leadership. And besides, dad's birthday was just around the corner, July 14th, and she wanted to go home and celebrate his birthday with her best friend. And so we told her we loved her and that everything was going to be fine and okay and that we would say goodbye for now. And at the time, we remembered mom in California and we took her home to Grand Rapids to join dad in rest. And over the past year, we had the opportunity to pay tribute to mom in Vale, Colorado and Washington, D.C. two very special places in her life. And now we find ourselves here in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan to remember mom to celebrate her life and legacy. It's only fitting that we're here in Ann Arbor for mom has a wonderful history here at the University of Michigan. When dad was courting mom in the fall of 1946, he brought her back to Ann Arbor many times to cheer on the Wolverines on the gridiron. Jerry Ford loved the University of Michigan and he was falling in love with Betty Bloomer Warren. The Wolverines were having a great football season in the fall of 1947, unbeaten in the Big 10. They were so good that they were invited out to the Rose Bowl in California to play USC. And yes, my dad followed his team to California that year for the big game. This summer when my brothers and sister were going through my dad's mom's keepsakes, we came across a copy of an old Western Union telegram. It was sent to Miss Betty Warren. It was dated January 1, 1948 from Santa Monica, California, just down the road from the Rose Bowl. And it read, Miss you, dot, dot, dot. Wish you were here, dot, dot, dot. Loads of love, Jerry. On that special New Year's Day, dad had his two special loves on his heart, the Michigan Wolverines and Betty Bloomer Warren. As a historical footnote, I'm pleased to report that the University of Michigan beat USC 49 to nothing. Many of you know their love story. Dad and mom were engaged to be married. In February of 1948, they were married later that fall on October 15th in the midst of his campaign to run for the Fifth District of Congress, which he won. And their postponed honeymoon was spent, you guessed it, in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan football game, followed by a trip down the road to Detroit to participate in the campaign presidential campaign rally of New York Governor Thomas Dewey. So began the life and service of Gerald and Betty Ford. Throughout their 58 years of marriage and public service, they made many trips back to Ann Arbor and they have created many special memories here. Mom came to love the University of Michigan because she loved Gerald Ford, the son of the Maze in Blue. Many wonderful things were written and spoken about my mother when she left us for a better place. Good words about her candor and her character, her advocacy for women's health issues and for people fighting dependency and addiction, her love of the arts and her commitment to families and recovery. And then among all that has been written and spoken, I think Richard Norton Smith captured the person and the spirit of Mom best when he remembered her at her funeral in Grand Rapids. Betty Ford was at once a traditionalist and a trailblazer, a Sunday school teacher and a Seventh Avenue model. She was the feminist next door, a free spirit with a dress code. Jack and Steve, Susan and I knew how these descriptive words of contrast about Mom run so very true. In April of 2008, we all gathered together as a family in Palm Springs, California to help celebrate Mom's 90th birthday. Dad had gone home two years earlier and so the family circle was a bit incomplete. But it was a grand occasion nonetheless because there in the center of the room sat Mom Ford seated surrounded by her children, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren and each of us had the opportunity in our own words to express our love and our appreciation for Mom Ford. And there were several common themes that seemed to kind of come out through our words and stories. We thanked her for the many life lessons that she had taught us, each of us especially through the experiences of personal struggle and brokenness. We told her how much we admired and respected her for how she faced the personal crisis and those crucibles of life being confronted by cancer, battling alcohol and drug dependency and how in each crisis she demonstrated honesty, openness, courage and faith. We also told Mom that we had been instructed and inspired by how once she faced her life-threatening crisis she turned her focus off herself and reached out to those who were also struggling with the demons of cancer and alcoholism, taking her own pain and hard-won battles and with God's help turning them for the good, for the welfare of so many others who were traveling a similar road.  My brother Steve described Mom's critical role in our family so well at her funeral in Grand Rapids. Steve used the metaphor of our family as a fleet of naval vessels, ships. Yes, Dad was the aircraft carrier which we can now call the CVN 78 soon to be commissioned. But the Ford family fleet or in that fleet Mom was the hospital ship. For there in the little moments of life Mom was always there to take care of us. She was the first one to put her arms around us as a child or also as an adult she was our biggest cheerleader. If we had a victory she was the first one to celebrate it with us. If we had a defeat she was the first to come alongside and comfort us. And this was true for Jack, for Steve, for Susan, myself, for our children and our grandchildren. Mom's unconditional love and affirmation for each of us throughout our years through the good times and the not so good times gave us incredible life and redemptive spirit. We also thanked Mom and Dad for the model of love and devotion that they had for one another throughout their 58 years of marriage. Because of her love for Dad Mom made many personal sacrifices taking on the primary role of parenting for very active and precocious children while Dad gave countless hours and days serving his constituents serving the nation in his various roles of leadership and as a public servant. And then in reverse when Mom was facing her battles with cancer and alcohol and drug dependency Dad's love and devotion to her was paramount as he stepped forward to care for her through her recovery and her healing process and then later in life to be her number one supporter with her vision for the Betty Ford Center. Finally we thanked Mom for showing us how to know and to love God well. It was through her personal struggles with her physical and mental health that Mom discovered her first love God Almighty and her relationship with Jesus Christ. Throughout her recovery Mom practiced the presence of God living one day at a time guided by the serenity prayer God grant me the security to accept the things that I cannot change the courage to change the things that I can and the wisdom to know the difference. Such an abiding faith and trust in the loving, grace giving God was Mom and Dad's greatest gift to our family. When Jack and I were young boys probably 10 and 8 and years old Dad would take us to his congressional office on Capitol Hill on Saturdays to get us out of the house and to give Mom a break. And we would love to go with him because we always enjoyed running up and down those massive government hallways and then getting an ice cream treat at the end of the day. But before we were released to play hide and seek in Statuary Hall Dad would sit down sit us both down in front of the typewriter and have us write a letter to Mom. Tell Mom that she is a wonderful mother and a wife. And tell her that you love her. Those were Dad's words to us each Saturday. And so with Dad's encouragement I speak for our family and when I say Mom you were a wonderful wife a wonderful mother a wonderful grandmother great grandmother a wonderful First Lady a wonderful advocate for women's rights a wonderful advocate for women's issues a wonderful lover of the arts a wonderful friend a servant and child of God and we love you. It's now my great pleasure to introduce Sandy Weil Chairman Emeritus of City Group. In addition to the incredible distinguished career in the financial sector Sandy has served in many capacities as director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York a lifetime member of the Council of Foreign Relations and has demonstrated unparalleled commitment to public service and philanthropy. Sandy continues to serve on many boards of top organizations and many sectors including education and healthcare and the arts. And Sandy and his wife Joan have been great friends of the Ford School and of the Ford family and I'm pleased to welcome him to the podium to share his thoughts on my mother Betty Ford. Mike those were just beautiful, beautiful words and not about me but about your mother. And I think that everybody here has said fantastic things about what your mother really accomplished and I just like to say that Joan couldn't be with us today because she spent all week and is continuing to spend time on picking a new executive director for the Alvin Alley American Dance Theater and therefore she's with her board and her executive committee and apologizes for not being here but I'd like to read some notes from her that she wanted everybody to know. She says that she's so very sorry to miss this wonderful occasion for a woman I have so much love and respect for. The very first time we were graciously invited to stay at the Ford's home for a weekend golf tournament I really panicked to stay in the home of a former president and first lady wow. So I called my mother for advice and she said make sure you make your bed. Thanks mom. However when we arrived everyone was so gracious and put us at ease immediately at least until I used my hairdryer that evening and blew out all the electricity in the house. When the Secret Service realized after searching the whole house and grounds guns ready they did inform me that I needed a different hairdryer because of the altitude. My mother did not tell me that. That weekend was the beginning for me of a very special relationship with Mrs. Ford. She was someone I so looked up to and respected. Her honesty and openness taught me a lot. I could talk to her about my troubled son and she gave me good advice. We traveled together a lot for the company and I learned so much from her including how to shop in China. The message was bring a 727. I feel so privileged to have spent time with this very special lady. Those memories will always live with me always. I would like to tell you a little bit about my background with President and Mrs. Ford and then talk a little bit about how they can really help influence the future. Before I do that Mike, you know that we really live in a very changing world and it was interesting for me to hear that was it 1949 that Michigan beat Southern Cal 49 to nothing? In 1951 I was a freshman at Cornell University. I think I've told you this before and Cornell beat Michigan in football 13 to 7. Never ever to be repeated again. I met President Ford and spoke to him the first time in 1981 right after he decided to get out of active politics and not run against Reagan for the Republican nomination for the president. I was told to call him up because he might be very interested in going on a board like the company that I ran at that time. I wrote down in very big print as I dialed the number to call him. Remember call him Mr. President. Don't call him Jerry. I remember that first call and we made a date to meet the next week when he was in New York at the World Office Doria and I told him a little bit about what we were doing and he joined our company which was then called Shears and Low Broads. A year later we merged our company with American Express and President Ford went on the board of American Express with me and for the next 25 years he participated in every company that I ran right up through a city group. He was an incredible contributor to our company through his common sense and talking about things from his experience and Betty was always at his side at all the meetings we went to. We went literally all over the world with President Ford and Betty from places like Singapore to Geneva, Paris, London, Hawaii all over the United States and they were terrific role models for the people in our company. Everybody looked up to them and it was really a great relationship but I think the most important stop that I think about was when we broke ground for the Ford School here at the University of Michigan and President Ford and Betty were there and we all had shovels shoveling that dirt which was supposed to be the dirt where the building was going to be built and talking about how this school can really make a difference and how the Ford School can really be a legacy for what Betty stood for and what President Ford stood for. All the things that have been spoken about today but really their special relationship that they had with each other that Joni and I really saw firsthand so many, many times and helped us get through different arguments that one has in the relationship but understanding the value of a partnership and we've now been married 57 years in trying to keep up that thing that they taught us. I think when we think about our government today and when we think about what the world looks like today I think we should all think about Betty and her leadership and President Ford and what they did as a team and think about how the Ford School can really turn out better leaders of tomorrow. People that understand that you've got to work together. People that understand that, you know, America should be a partnership and we've all found out through the great recession that we've just gone through that even though America did some bad things and created a lot of problems there's nobody yet to take the place of the leadership that our country can and should provide to the world and so I would hope that all of us would think about Betty and think about President Ford every day and think about how we can make this institution at this university the kind of place that will turn out the leaders that we need to create the world that they would have loved to see. Thank you very much. Well thank you so much Sandy and Mike and Mary Sue and I should thank Joan as well for her remarks too. Ambassador Brinker our wonderful dancer, Miki Bukahara I have to say that it has been an honor for us to host this tribute and really an honor to be able to bring together and to share so many wonderful remembrances of the legacy but also of the impact and the power that Mrs. Betty Ford has had on so many lives and continues to have and so again I'd like to thank everybody who joined us both on the podium speaking, dancing all of you who have joined us in the audience and have come to help us celebrate and recognize her legacy. A special thanks to all of the members of the Ford family including those who are here with us today. Again the University of Michigan is so proud of our continued connection with your parents and so pleased that their legacies are alive and well here on campus as we look forward to the many ways that we will continue to keep that vibrancy and that impact alive. So thanks to all of you for coming to join us today. If you're curious to learn more about this remarkable First Lady again I'd like to encourage you to visit the Ford Presidential Library and Museum. Again our honor to celebrate and to look forward thank you very much for joining us.


In 1999, I was 22, and I had just graduated from Emerson University in downtown Boston, majoring in screenwriting, specifically in cartoons and children's programming. My debt was pretty bad, so when Nickelodeon Studios offered me an internship at the studio in California, I accepted immediately. I jumped at the chance to get away from dead-end job at Benjamin Franklin Tour Guide. Many of you ask to see Cry Baby Lane, but if you want to see the original Cry Baby Lane, you never will, even if Nickelodeon somehow consents to releasing it to you.  I don't even think Nickelodeon has the original cut of the movie anymore, and if they do it's in only backup copies. If the backup copies exist, they must be locked away in some vault, along with all the deleted episodes of Ren and Stimpy, and the never-before-mentioned episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants. I'm pretty sure the director, Peter Lawyer, has the original copy, and it's probably on his mantle next to his snuff films, that's creepy as fuck. Anyway, I was hired in 1999, and immediately I was put on a creative production team for the movie, Cry Baby Lane. It would be almost a year before the movie was due to be broadcast, all in all, it was a pretty low effort kind of thing. There were only four people on the creative team and I was the only steady one, lore would replace them on a whim. He said it was to keep it fresh. I thought it was because he was hiding something, and I was right. We had a little over a year to make a made for TV movie, not just to write it and cast it, but to film it and get it edited. Lawyer didn't work fast at all, after the first three weeks, we only had the ideas for the first 15 minutes of an 85-minute movie. Lawyer, even at this point, was a weirdo. He was tall and lanky, and he carried himself awkwardly. He stuttered when he talked and sometimes, when you were hunched over a piece of paper during those endless brainstorming sessions, you'd look up and you'd catch him staring at you, smiling. He'd look away when you caught his eye, and I guess that was the creepiest part, he always looked like he had something to hide. The brainstorm sessions, at first, were alright. We got the premise of it down pat, two brothers and Alicia demon and they get into a mischief trying to get everything back to normal. Not exactly daytime Emmy stuff, but you know, it was an alright start. I thought the movie should be goofy and spooky, kind of like a courage the cowardly dog sort of deal. However, from the very beginning, Lawyer made it clear that he wanted the film to be as scary as possible. He didn't want it to be cheap thrills, with a good wholesome ending. He wanted to push it farther than are you afraid of the dark ever dreamed of, and I guess he did. It was about three weeks into production, when I first noticed something, Lawyer had the absolute power of persuasion over everyone else in the creative production team. No one thought him and by the third week, he was already suggesting some morbid things. I remember he said he wanted the little brother to die halfway through the movie, getting hit with a dump truck. I immediately shot it down. I was the only one who said anything, and it stayed that way, until I left the studio entirely and never came back.  I'd give him an idea, which most of the time he would end up using, like, how about the movie starts with a morbid undertaker who reads them stories, to which he'd reply.  He made those jokes a few times in the early stages. Then he got serious. He'd stand up like he was Jesus or something, clear his throat loudly, and proclaim his idea. I'd be the only one to shoot it down.  One day near the end of our brainstorming sessions, Lord cleared his voice and stood up. We all fell silent and looked at him like we normally would. He stood up and said, Gentlemen and females, I have an idea. I remember what he did. He paused and looked right at me as he said. The story will revolve around the legend of a pair of Siamese twins. Have you ever heard of the Donner Party? Everyone nodded, except for me. I didn't like where the conversation was going. They ate themselves when it got cold. They ate each other. Everyone nodded again. I closed my eyes. What would Siamese twins do if they had nothing to eat? Would one wait until the other twin dies, then consume her own sister's flesh? Would they claw out each other's eyes until one of them died, then dine upon them like a vulture tearing at the skin of a dead deer? I do not know. It is interesting indeed.  I opened my eyes and looked around the room.  Everyone's eyes were on lower, except for mine, and when I looked at him, he was still staring at me. Children like violence, they revel in it. Children like to be scared. So we'll scare them, won't we Johnny? He leaned over the table, getting pretty damn close to my face.  I stared back at him.  He smiled, then backed away.  His grin expanded. Literally. Right now, I'm going to show you some pictures that will spark some of your imaginations. He got up, and locked the door from the inside.  Let's not make any errors in judgment, Jonathan. Sit down. No, sit. For some reason, I did. Laura pulled out one of those shitty overhead projectors. He turned on the switch and he speak shouted, in an unusually high-end semifrantic voice.  This is what every child should see.  He put the image down on the glass surface of the overhead. It was silent. The image was in black and white, but it was grainy.  The only thing that was clear was his face. He was bleeding from the mouth. Laura almost threw the paper off the overhead, slamming down another one. It was a zoomed-in shot of the boy's face. It was in color.  Then, his eyes opened, and I screamed.  The pupils were completely black. The rest of the eye was normal. The longer I stared, the more the eyes opened, widening and widening, until it looked like the skin above his eyebrows and eye sockets was going to rip in half. Then they started to bleed. Blood started as a trickle, and I swear to God I could hear it. More, now it was like a full-blown stream. More, more, until the brick on the floor was a leak of blood. I could hear it, like I was hiking and I came across a stream, and now I could smell the kid.  I leaned underneath the table and vomited. When I rose back up, the images were gone. Everyone else in the room was expressionless. Laura turned on the lights. You may go. He said, unlocking the door.  This happened near the end of the brainstorming process, and by the time I left, the casting was done, and the script was almost fully written. They were desperately behind schedule. I think Laura planned it that way, so there wouldn't be time for proper editing. I never watched the real thing when it aired, but I heard from a friend who was working at the editing department that they had to cut a good 15 to 20 minutes of disturbing footage from the film before it was fit to be released, and it was only fit to be released. They didn't have enough time to check the footage frame by frame. I guess he got his wish, unless they cut every single scene that had the pictures in them. Every child watching Cry Baby Lane has an unconscious memory of those pictures, and I wait for them.  There's something I should tell you first, though. Early on, Laura posed an idea of the two brothers capturing a squirrel, putting said squirrel in a jar, and slowly drowning it before filling the jar with sand and dropping it into the bottom of a pond. Soon after this was suggested, Sandy from SpongeBob SquarePants appeared in Tee at the Treatum.  Squidward soon appeared as a major character in SpongeBob SquarePants. It was suggested that the two B-step brothers forced to live in the same house after the first one's mom was found dead in a shallow grave, her body heavily cannibalized by her own husband, a local weatherman. A show with the vaguely premise, Drake and Josh started in 2004, and the stepfather is indeed a weatherman.  As told by Ginger, debuted soon after. A man who captures the souls of children in a vacuum cleaner and sends them to Hades, Danny Phantom.  My life as a teenage robot. The list goes on and on. Nickelodeon knows, and they're continuing the legacy of Laura, sometimes subtly, and sometimes overtly. And there's nothing you and I can do about it. Do you want to see it? You got it.


What's up everybody this is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. If you are new here my channel is all about mental health as well as addiction recovery but today we are going to be talking about forgiveness and how to forgive your parents which is a topic that hits very close to home with me and it's something that fellow YouTuber Shane Dawson has been going through lately. So just to kind of recap Shane Dawson has been doing a series lately where he's confronting people from his past kind of meeting up with them talking about things that went wrong and all that stuff and it's been kind of a healing experience for him. Shane's father left when he was young and he's had a couple interactions but not many but if any of you follow Shane Dawson you know that he's done a lot of videos in the past about his father and how it's affected him through his life. So finally he was ready to meet up with his father and talk about some things that are pretty uncomfortable. And I didn't want to make it worse and I knew that you were venting I knew that you were struggling with life in general and I figured a time would come when we could talk about it. The whole thing that I realized is that I looked at my childhood like you were this like quiet angry guy who didn't like me or didn't understand me or any of that. As I grown up and talked to mom I realized that you were probably just in a bad relationship. So yeah that clip you just saw I'll put a link to it in the description below if you would like to watch the whole video. But this is a topic that I've been meaning to do for a while and Shane kind of inspired me to move one of my other videos over and talk about this today. So forgiving our parents is one of the most difficult things to do. A lot of us if you're watching this channel and you're trying to get mental health help or emotional help it might be from a lot of stuff that happened in your childhood and it could have a lot to do with your parents.  So growing up it was very very difficult. If any of you are children of alcoholics or drug addicts you know exactly what I'm talking about. As of recording this this is right after Thanksgiving almost coming up to Christmas and the holidays were the worst time of year for me. I couldn't understand why I just couldn't have a normal childhood. I couldn't understand why Christmas Eve involved me being with my drunk mother and driving on our way home from my grandma's house with her passed out in the front seat after causing a big scene in front of our whole family and losing her mind. But other than that this was a regular routine and at a very young age probably around 13 or 14 years old I decided that I didn't want to visit my mom anymore because when my parents divorced when I was about four years old I went and I lived with my dad so at a very young age I separated myself from my mom. Now shame for Shane a lot of his issues manifested in sadness and depression. For me there was some depression but a lot of it was mainly anger all right. I've had a lot of anger issues throughout my life and it's one of the reasons I made this channel because getting rid of my anger is part of the way that I've healed myself mentally and I just had so much anger towards my mother like why couldn't she just be a normal mom? Why couldn't she? And I also had a lot of resentments towards the rest of the world like I love my friends but I resented them because they had this perfect family that I wish I had and I just started hating the world and I started resenting just if there is a God why did you put me in this terrible situation? Now on my father's side like I said my dad raised me and you know I'm the kind of kid who grew up in bars. My dad I'm his only child I have a half sister but my dad's only child so you know growing up I grew up in bars I was a kid five six years old over in the corner drawing on a placemat and stuff all my dad was at the bar drinking with his friends and you know hitting on the ladies and all this stuff trying to find me a new step mom or whatever the hell he was doing and you know growing up like I loved him because he was there for me when my mother wasn't but he was also out he worked a lot and when he wasn't working he was out with his friends and stuff like that and a lot of the times like I was pretty much you know raising myself and growing up even though I love my dad I also had some resentments towards this so I just had a lot of anger with the way that I was parented I grew up watching a bunch of tv shows and movies where it's just these picture perfect families and I'm just sitting there like why can't I have that that's actually something I touched on in a video I recently did leading up to the Thanksgiving holidays so for me for me personally I am a drug addict in recovery and what I learned about my addiction was a lot of it was based on my anger and my resentments as well as my depression I turned to drugs and alcohol I jokingly but not really jokingly say that drugs and alcohol were my anger management tool that's pretty much how I kept it together and I wasn't running out beating the hell out of people punching holes in the walls because I was a prescription pill addict and it helped calm me down and not many people can make me mad when I'm pretty high um alcohol was a little bit different of the story but I'll never forget um you know my mom got sober uh 12 years ago and when she was seven years sober she helped me get sober but when my family had that intervention you know I was in a blind rage and every piece of anger that I ever had towards my mom came out I was calling her names that you should never call anybody let alone your own mother and just telling her you know it's your fault that I'm the way I am this way and you know just losing my mind on her and you know and then I was taking it out on my dad and my family's crying and trying to get me to get help now when I got sober and this is something that no whether you're in recovery or not there's something I can't stress enough like just because you start working on yourself doesn't mean that you instantly forgive people like just because my mom helped save my life and my mom helped me a lot when I first got sober like I still had a lot of anger towards her when you have a mother who's been a drunk the first 20 years of your life you don't just get rid of that anger I still had a lot of resentments towards her and you know when I started working on my mental health I remember a lot of people saying you know resentments are like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies and it made sense but I just didn't know how to let go of this anger and something I also talked about in my other video was these expectations of what a mother should be of what a father should be and all these other things and I could not accept her the way she was and I couldn't forgive her for the past but like I say all the time we talk about the problem but we focus on the solution the best lesson that I've learned in life in life in general is this so pay attention forgiveness isn't an act so much for the other person as it is an act for yourself when we do not forgive people we are holding on to like this hot coal and it's just basically burning us and all we have to do is let go and we let go by forgiving these people and that's when I started to find some of my emotional freedom was just by simply forgiving my parents and a lot of it came from writing and writing these things down and talking about my resentments now if you're a parent if you're a parent watching this you will probably have the same epiphany that I did as I started writing down my resentments towards my parents I started to see that I wasn't doing too much better than they were when my son was still in my ex's stomach I had all these ideas of what I was going to be the perfect father the perfect parent and all these things and as I'm writing about my parents I'm seeing that like oh my god I do these things I don't spend time with my son I don't pay attention to him I'm not there for him emotionally and keep in mind he was only three years old and like I was looking at that and I started to realize that I'm parenting the way that I was parented and what that did was it helped me forgive them any even more what I started to realize is that my parents were simply just a product of their own parents not to give you you know too much info on my parents but I just want to let you know about some of their struggles my mother grew up in the 60s and 70s and for those of you who don't know I'm half African American my mom pretty much only dates black dudes um my dad's black my stepdad was black my sister's father is black so I am half black well as a young Sicilian girl growing up in the 60s and 70s my mom used to get her ass beat for um dating African Americans and sticking up for them during the civil rights movements and all these things and my mom's parents weren't all too happy about that either my mom ended up having to run away at 16 years old she dropped out of high school later getting her GED and turning that into a PhD so if any of you need to meet a strong powerful woman meet my mom um but I have to look at the way that she was parented right my dad like I mentioned he is African American and he grew up during the 50s and 60s and he dealt with a lot and he had some very hardcore strict parents you know what I mean and this is all about empathy you know we're so focused on ourselves and how we're affected by everything we don't think about what the other person is either A going through or B has been through and this has helped me not only with my parents but with human beings in general just having this empathetic view of like there's something underneath that surface that I don't know about maybe this is the reason they're acting that way you know I want people to forgive me for my past because I had a rough childhood I ended up getting the disease of addiction and screwing a lot of people over I want people to forgive me but at face value a lot of people don't even realize that those are the things I've been through so I had to start cutting my parents a break and just realize like it's a cliche saying but they were just doing the best they could and if you've watched the Shane Dawson video that's pretty much what he learns in this video is that his dad you know he did what he thought was best and if you're a parent out there like I am my little boy is about to turn nine in a few weeks like it ain't easy we mess up a lot we make a lot of mistakes some are bigger than others you know but I learned from my parents mistakes and I forgive my parents for their mistakes and now I have a beautiful amazing relationship with them um let's bring up some pictures real quick these were just taken last week when I was in California visiting my family I got to spend time with my mom I got to spend time with my dad my son was there and my mom's like my best friend now my dad and I we've rekindled our relationship and all that kind of stuff and you know like I said I'll repeat it one more time for all of you in the back who weren't listening remember forgiveness is an act for yourself the sooner you can let go and start forgiving your parents for the things they've done you'll start healing more and more on the inside so if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and again hit that little subscribe button right below this box because I'm always making videos to help you with your mental and emotional health also click or tap to the left of me right there I have a ton of videos on my channel that'll help you out so thanks for watching go forgive somebody today and I'll see you next time


Hi everyone, I'm Yuan from RQED, I'm a maintainer of Argo workflows and co-chair of Kubeflow training working group. Hi everyone, I'm Andrei, I'm the software engineer Apple and also I'm the co-chair of working group, AutoML and training in Kubeflow. So today we're going to speak about how we leverage Argoflow in KTIP and how we can manage thousands of automated machine learning experiments with this integration. So let me first jump to the Kubeflow. So KTIP is part of Kubeflow umbrella. So if you don't like know, Kubeflow is the open source project for ML ops on top of Kubernetes. Kubeflow contains different components to perform a different way of ML activities such as it has known solution for notebooks and Jupyter labs also has the components for this butchering operator with wide support of open source ML framework such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, MXNet, XGBoos and MPI. Also Kubeflow leveraged the functionality for ML metadata and has an own component for ML pipelines, which I think many of you know about. Also Kubeflow has a component for AutoML specifically KTIP for hyperbaramutuning and neural hardware search. And we have this serving component for model serving in clouds, which with a lot of like very unique functionality. Also Kubeflow can be easily deployed on any sort of the public clouds or on-prem and can offer the BIPI interface SDKs or kubectl to make interaction with these components. Let me jump to the KTIP because this would be our main focus in this presentation. So KTIP as I mentioned before is part of the Kubeflow components and it's the project for AutoML specifically for HP tuning, early stop making and neural hardware search. In the meantime, we are working on making additional support for feature engineering and model compression to allow you to do other like AutoML features on top of the cloud. Also you can run KTIP to perform your custom AutoML algorithms. So we provide you a platform to do it like in a cloud native way. Also we can have a new feature to actually orchestrate any Kubernetes custom resources and I will just jump to this to the next couple of slides how we can do it. And since we are on top of the Kubernetes we are like agnostic to ML frameworks and have a native integration with Qflow components such as training, notebooks and the pipelines. So jumping to the KTIP architecture it's quite straightforward. So when the user submits the experiment, have the experiment controller which is reconciled this experiment and then we have a suggestion controller which is responsible to spawn the algorithm service. When the algorithm service is completed the couple of services which is produced the hyperparameters based on the experiment specification, then these hyperparameters pass to the trial controllers and trial controller basically spawns trial in the parallel execution. So we have a new feature to support any type of the trial worker to be run as a trial whether it can be a simple commercial job, TF job or even Argo workflow. And in this worker you basically produce the training and then we have a metrics collector which parse the necessary metrics from the workers and send this metrics to the DB. Then these metrics pass back to the experiment controller and we're getting these evaluation results to the algorithm service to produce new hyperparameters. This process repeated again and again when the hyperparameter job is finished user can get the best hyperparameters and use them in production training. So jumping to why we actually need Argo and what are the current problems we have. The main problem that's in the evaluation step in hyperparameter we have a couple of problems such as usually the training process is not like quite straightforward when you can just perform a simple job to run your training maybe you need to run some pre-processing data maybe you want to run some post-processing data and all of these steps can be done during your evaluation. So basically the simple commercial job doesn't like give us the functionality to cover all these problems and that is why we're moving forward to using the complicated workflows such as Argo to be able to resolve these issues. Also have problems with the multi-object optimization when we want to tune experiment in the different objective and also we can do some parallel training with which Yvonne will be talking about in the next couple of slides. So next let me just pass to Yvonne and he will speak about the Argo flows and how we can solve these problems. With all those challenges in real-world machine learning pipelines I'm going to talk about how Argo workflows mix it easy and then introduce a few common use cases for machine learning pipelines. So Argo workflows is a container native workflow engine for Kubernetes. The main use cases for Argo workflows include machine learning pipelines, data processing, ETL, infrastructure automation, continuous delivery and integration. On the right hand side is a screenshot of what the Argo workflows UI looks like. The diagram at the bottom gives some example ecosystem projects that use Argo workflows. More can be found at the awesome Argo GitHub repository linked below. Let's first talk about memorization cache functionality in Argo workflows that will be leveraged when dealing with the pre-processing challenges that Andrew mentioned previously. Argo workflows controller creates cache which can save the output of a step to be used in the next step. For example here step B requires the output from the previous step A. When the workflow is executed for the first time Argo workflows will create a cache for step A. The cache contains the result of step A and is saved as a key value pair in a Kubernetes config map. Once step A finishes step B will be executed. The next time so when the same workflow executes again it will check whether a cache from step A already exists and whether it's still fresh. For example if the cache is created 10 seconds ago and that step B thinks this is fresh it will retrieve the saved output from the cache and use it directly in step B without wasting resources and time to re-execute step A. Here's how to use the memorization functionality in Argo workflows. In the template spec on the left hand side we can specify the memorization spec. Here we specify the key in the cache to be cache key. The max age represents the maximum duration before we consider a cache as old when future workflows or steps try to use the cache. We also specify the name of the config map that we want to save the cache to. Here's what the config map looks like on the right hand side. The key is cache key and the data contains the output parameter produced from this particular step which is the parameter hello with value world. Let's take a real-world machine learning workflow as an example to see how memorization can be leveraged. Assume that we triggered a Cative experiment that executes a machine learning pipeline using Argo workflows. A simple machine learning workflow may look like this. First there's data ingestion step that's responsible for ingest data from the data source. You may have a cache store that's in place using Argo or Kubernetes to check whether the data has been updated or not recently in order to steep this particular data ingestion step if nothing changes in the data set. Otherwise you would have to execute that data ingestion from scratch which casts a lot of computational resources. After we've ingested the data we start model training step. The model training can have multiple workers and multiple data charts depending on the selected distributed training strategy. Here for example we are running the distributed model training step using all reduce. The model training may consist of code written in frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch and then you can use Kubeflow to submit a distributed TensorFlow training job so that the algorithm developers or data engineers they don't have to worry about the infrastructure side of things. Kubeflow will communicate with Kubernetes requests necessary to request necessary computational resources for each of the workers and parameters that TensorFlow can just focus on the algorithms or the models. We can also use CARTIP for more complicated model training that leverages hyperparameter tuning, neural architecture search, early stopping and so on. Let's take a look at how this can be achieved with Argo workflows. On the left hand side we define the entry point of the workflow which consists of sequential steps for both data ingestion and distributed TensorFlow training. The data ingestion step picks a parameter that represents the location of the data that we will save to once the data ingestion is finished. In the data ingestion step we save the data set to the specified S3 path and then cache the location with the max age of one hour and then in the distributed model training step we are training a TensorFlow model using Kubeflow's TF job with the data set that we just saved. When this workflow gets executed again within an hour the data ingestion step will be skipped and the training step will reuse the previously generated data set. Next let's take a look at the more complex pipeline that involves multi-objective optimization in order to achieve better overall performance for machine learning problem. Here we'd like to build three different models with three different model architectures such as logistic regression, neural networks and decision trees and with different objectives. Here we're using accuracy, AUC and loss. There are two different data ingestion steps that ingest two different data sets. In model we use the different data set and the other models. After we've trained, finished training these three models we then trigger a cut-tip experiment that collects the metrics and suggestion and suggests an optimized set of hyperparameters. Once the suggestion is made we will trigger a new workflow that uses the suggested hyperparameters. Here's how to implement this pipeline in Argo workflows. First we construct the bag that consists of the major components that we showed in the previous diagram. The data ingestion step consists of steps to execute data ingestion from two different data sources. We use the with sequence syntax to loop through different data sources. The model training steps consist of step templates for different model types, different data sources and objectives. We assume that the single model training template used in these model training steps support these different parameters.  Thanks, Yuan. I'm going to give you a demo regarding to the cache how we can leverage in catip. Let me quickly jump to the UI first of all. This is Kubeflow UI. I hope you're familiar with that. I'm going to jump directly to the catip one which is part of the Kubeflow umbrella. As you can see here, this is Kubeflow UI where we can submit new experiments. We can specify the necessary information for your hyperparameter experiment such as metadata, trial threshold, for example, how many trials you want to run in parallel, what is the maximum number of trials, what is the maximum file number of trials. Also, you can specify the objective. The main metrics you want to tune, the additional metrics you want to collect, the goal for your objective metrics and other necessary information. For the search algorithm, catip out of the box supports various number of different algorithms. We continually evolve into adding new algorithms and even like, as I mentioned before, provide an option to deploy custom algorithms. We can also specify the earliest of the techniques to avoid overfitting for your hyperparameter experiment. Then we can set the hyperparameters. We can add a new parameter with support of various number of distributions, a categorical double integer and discrete. We can specify the range of hyperparameters. You can specify the step. You can also edit the hyperparameters. Then we can jump to the metrics collector specification and to the trial template, which is actually executing the training during your hyperparameter evaluation. In this particular example, I want to take the example with our workflow as trial template. Let me just copy first of all the whole YAML to our UI and just to submit this experiment where we can analyze the results. Before I jump into this UI, I just want to quickly introduce what kind of experiment we are running. We are running a simple catip experiment with the ARC workflow as a trial. In terms of the objective, we are going to tune validation accuracy with the additional metrics that we are going to collect is the training accuracy. For the algorithm, we just select a simple random algorithm and we are going to run two parallel trials and the maximum number of trials of five. Basically, in this example, each trial is the ARC workflow. We are going to try to spawn the separate ARC workflow in parallel and we are going to execute the workflow inside the ARC workflow. Basically, we are going to tune learning rate and with these kind of ranges. Let me jump directly to the trial template. What do you need to specify in a trial template to be able to run ARC workflow? You just need to set primary pod labels, primary container name, the success condition when your workflow is finished and the failure condition when your workflow is failed. In terms of the workflow, if you are familiar with ARC, it will be very easy to understand how it looks like. Basically, we have two steps. The first step is data preprocessing and the second step is the model training. In the first step, data preprocessing, we are going to generate the number of examples. This is a super simple tool example, but it just shows the power of using Argo and Caddyp because you can have very complicated preprocessing here. As you all mentioned before, we can store the value of preprocessing in the cache. Basically, we are generating the random value and we try to store this value in the cache. Then we are reusing this value in the next workflows to not run preprocessing again and again. Then we just basically pass this number of examples to our second step, which is model training. As you can see here, we are getting the number of examples from the previous step and we are getting the learning rate from the suggested Caddyp parameters. Then we can run this training with these two parameters. The first one is number of examples. The second one is the learning rate. Then we run training. Again, as I mentioned before, memorization is very important because you don't want to run preprocessing for maybe you just want to run it only once. In the next step of the evolution, you just want to run only training and collect the metrics, which is important for hyperparametry and job. Let me jump back to the Caddyp UI. As you can see here, the experiment is currently running. This is the experiment I ran before. In this UI, we can analyze it. We can get the optimized trial. We can see some of the metrics that we collected. We can jump to this UI just to see what is the name of the experiment, what is the current status, what is the best trial for now, what is the best trial performance. Also, we can see some experiment conditions. We can jump to the trials just to see their metrics, their metrics that we collect, the best hyperparameters. Also, we can see some distributions in this UI. Again, as I mentioned, each trial here is a separate argor flow. We can jump even to the argor flow UI. We're going to see that, for example, let me take one of the Caddyp trials. For example, this one. We're going to see that this represents the whole argor flow. Inside argor flow, we have different steps. Let me jump to one of the workflows here. Basically, we have the data preprocessing step, which is storing value in the cache. Then we have a model training, which is reused as well from a cache. As you can see here, we basically have a number of seven, six, nine. If we're going to check other workflows, we're going to see the same number for each step. If we go and click here, we can see seven, six, nine again. If I click to the model training, I'm going to see the exact training which is happening. We're just collecting the results from the training, basically. This is very powerful. Again, jumping to the UI, we can click to the trial. We can see which metrics have been collected, how the metrics are going to produce. You also can analyze the data based on these trials, so you can see what is the performance, which is produced. You can also collect more metrics if you need. Just to use this UI in terms of the metrics tracking process, at all, you can see some details of the experiment. This is a very simple example, but at the end, you can create more sophisticated examples. Again, as I mentioned, you can create even some multi-objective experiments with the deck when you have more than one model with strength and parallel and one evaluation step, and you can even run whatever you want, which are goal flow offers. Let me jump back to our presentation. At the end, I really want to quickly mention a couple slides regarding the community, because all of these amazing features won't be available without the great work from the open source community. If you want to check this experiment and just try to run it by yourself, you can follow this guide. Also, I strongly encourage you to join the art workflow and creative community meetings, so we meet almost every week. We're pretty open to the new contributors. We're pretty open to the new proposals and the future requests that we can integrate in our projects. Also, please check our GitHub repositories, our Slack channels, and if you're using KDeep or Argo, please update the adopters list, so we really want to have an interaction with the customers to see what kind of pain point you have and what is should be our next roadmap. If you want to learn more about KDeep, please check this presentation list to learn more about AutoML and how to use it within Argo. Just at the end, please conclude to just fingers if you have any questions. We're happy to answer all of your questions. With that, thank you so much for listening to us. We're happy to answer all of your questions. Hello. Can you hear me? Okay. Thank you, everyone, for watching our pre-recorded video today. So, Andre will be on our Argo Slack for any offline discussions and questions, and I'll be here for Q&A. Yeah. Let me know if you have any questions and I can answer them now. Raise your hand if you have any questions? No questions? So, how many of you are working in machine learning-related applications? Okay. I see a couple of hands. Are you using Argo workflows? Okay. What do you use for like distributed training, for example? Sorry, I can't hear you. SageMaker? Okay. Do you find it easy enough for you to run all sorts of experiments? Okay. Yeah. I hope you guys will try out many of the sub-projects are available in Kubeflow, and we have distributed training operators in this project that we just mentioned. It's for managing AutoML experiments, and there are a lot of built-in algorithms, for example, high-performing tuning and architecture search, and so on. Yes. I have an intern pursuing a master's degree, and we have him doing a machine learning research project, but I don't think he's picked his tech stack yet, actually. So, kind of like more generally, I was looking for something that I could take back to him and kind of show him this because probably gives him most everything he needs, I think, maybe. He'll feel no better than I do. So, like just like basic, like some of the same stuff you showed here, is there any of that like I could, like, is it going to be basically like a, like I can get like your Slack information or something and like introduce him so he can maybe get some help with his project? My recommendation is if you are running things in the cloud or on Kubernetes already, I'll go workflow to be the de-facto choice for workflow orchestration, and since it's really scalable and easy to use, and if you are running distributed machine training, especially on Kubernetes, then Kubeflow training operator is definitely something you want to look into because you can describe a distributed training job in CRD. It's very easy to use once you install the operators. Yes? Is it possible to run KTIB without the Kubeflow infrastructure? For example, we have, say, Argo and Metaflow sort of integrated for distributed training. Can I leverage KTIB independently from the Kubeflow? But you still want to use KTIB, right? Yeah, so KTIB is kind of independent of other independent on other Kubeflow ecosystem. Like you can run any custom CRD as an experiment, as a trial, and then you can spin up a lot of experiments using KTIB. And then using KTIB, you can also automatically start in different experiments with different parameters if needed. So if you can describe your Sage maker job in terms of CRD or a script, then I think you can use it directly. So somebody developing this, how much skillful they need to be in Argo workflows, writing all the workflows and writing the DAGs and all that stuff. So how much skillful do they need to be when writing the DAGs and the Argo workflows and DAGs? How much skillful? How much skills do they need to... It's just like Kubernetes CRDs.  And there's also Python SDK, Java and Go SDK that you can also use. I think it's pretty easy to use.  Do they need to know Argo workflows? Yes, you would need to know the basic concepts, but there's also integration. So I know you mentioned Metaflow, right? They also added the integration with Argo workflows so that you don't have to understand all the concepts behind workflows. You can just write the regular Metaflow steps and then underlying it to our invoke and create Argo workflows without having the users to worry about it. Does that help? Okay. Any other questions? Any questions from here? No? Okay, we can take additional questions offline either on the ArgoCon Slack and I'll be at the Acquity booth if you want to stop by. Thank you.