Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer spoke at the Youth Engaging Compassion press conference on Thursday. In an exclusive CSPN interview, Mayor Fischer emphasized the importance of Louisville being compassionate and standing up to injustice.

“I just happen to live in Louisville. I think [compassion] is important anywhere,” Fischer said. “People are searching and longing for a connection and it’s important when you live in a city or you’re visiting a city and you feel like your fellow human beings have your best interest in mind, that’s what we should be doing as human beings. We should model that here in our city.”

The Dalai Lama, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, is coming to the KFC Yum! Center Louisville on May 19-20, 2013 for a two-part public speaking session. As a part of the Engaging Compassion project, the Tibetan Buddhist leader will speak on world-peace and compassion activism and Buddhist philosophy.

“[The Dalai Lama’s visit] elevates our consciousness in terms of what think is god work and good deeds. I think it’s a violence reduction effort. We’re going to have a lot of visitors to the city that will be getting their first impression on our city as a city of compassion, which is good,” Fischer said.

“Stand up to injustice. Be familiar with social justice work, and understand that that’s a cool thing to do when you can help raise people up,” Fischer said about how teenagers can be compassionate. “It shows you’re a strong person, and that you understand that it’s about all of us together and not just one person.”