hi everyone this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. ♪ >> i hope they think long and hard about what they have done. >> a fraternity banned over a vicious racist chant. the debate over free speech and race in america. student protests. walkouts in wisconsin over another police shooting. while the nation marks 50 years since selma. hazardous site once of the

worst toxic waste dumps in america, and the battle over cleaning it up. plus solo flight bringing american jazz to iran after decades of silence. ♪ we begin at the university of oklahoma with a video that uncovered blatant racism in a chapter of one of america's biggest fraternities. it's hard to watch, but unfortunately all too easy to believe. students singing a vicious racist chant. full of slurs, and make light of america's dark history of lynching. the fraternity has been banned from campus. >> it will not be tolerated. that is why that house is immediately closed. that is why those young men will

have to have their belongings out of the house by midnight tomorrow, and as they pack their bags i hope they think long and hard and what they have done. >> more now from erika pitzi. >> the university president is taking a hard line on this. he really wants to make the school an example to the entire country of how to deal with racism on campus. he went so far as to say these students should not have the privilege of calling themselves oklahoma sooners. so now we're hearing the individual students could be expelled from school. >> reporter: this 10-second video is said to show members of the sigma alpha epsilon

fraternity singing racist chants. as soon as the video went viral, vandals struck the fraternity house. >> i was really hurt and shocked. >> i don't think we're at all surprised by it. i believe it shows the social climate that we as african american students are attending school in. >> reporter: matthew huey studies the racial makeup of fraternities and says he was not surprised either. >> the makeup was based on a legacy and continuation of class and race and gender-based discrimination, and they still function that way in modern day u.s. society. so in many ways what we saw on the video, was a manifestation, albeit quite a vulgar one of a space of white male elitism. >> reporter: a look back show what critics say is a trend.

in 2013 at duke, the fraternity through an asia-themed party. last year at the ivy league dartmouth europe the fraternity through a gang party. arizona state university also gained national attention last year there a farparty on martin louer this king day, testimony -- thug day. >> i just saw a group of men who really were completely ignorant absolutely racist and the fact

that that idea can pass from man-to-man without any sort of checking was really frightening for me. >> reporter: at the time mr. jones was the president of the african american men, he sent a letter expressing serious concern that quote: the fraternity was permanently kicked off of campus still jones says universities need to do more. >> for me i still have to walk the streets with the people who said that. i still have to exist in a world in which these people may own bidses. expulsion would be completely appropriate, but for me i still have to walk the streets with the people who said that. >> reporter: he says while suspensions may help immediately, he says that deep-seeded hatred will still exist, that's why he wants all universities to start real pointed conversations about

racism, and have fraternity members and those they have offended at though table. >> national officials of the fraternity responded today? >> reporter: yes, and they called this disgusting and who acceptable. a rapper canceled his upcoming show at the university. and an offensive linemen has revoked his commitment to play there next year. he did it for personal reasons he says but obviously the timing with the video is interesting. >> at one point the president said he was unsure whether or not these students would be expelled but now we're hearing there is possibility they might? >> we're hearing that that's possibly on the table. the president you hear him and he is really taking a hard line saying zero tolerance across the board. he truly wants to make an

example for the entire country. >> thank you. now to wisconsin where hundreds of people protested the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a police officer. dianest tobruk is in madison, diane? >> reporter: there are obviously comparisoning being made between the shooting last night and the police shooting of michael brown in ferguson missouri. but the police chief says madison is not ferguson, he says his police officers are actually involved in the community, and his demographics mirror that of the community. but that still hasn't quelled the outrage here. >> reporter: students briefly closed down one of the intiest streets in madison, wisconsin yesterday.

protesting the shooting death of tony robinson. jt attended high school with robinson. he said he is outraged by the shooting, and frustrated by the way he thinks young black men are treated by police. >> every day i have to prove i'm not a thug. i have to prove that every single day. >> reporter: robinson's shooting drew quick comparisons to michael brown the unarmed black teen fateally shot last summer in ferguson missouri. the police chief saying he understands, but is urging the public to be patient until all facts are known. >> did he meet the legal predicate, meaning was there an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm to himself or another. that's what will be determined in terms of his criminal

culpability. >> reporter: the officer is now on leave while a state agency investigates. we have joined by the group which has been protesting the shooting of 19 year old tony robinson. >> the chief of police says it is not ferguson. we started organizing in august after the killing of mike brown, and our facebook pages ferguson to madison, so we already had an understanding that madison is a ferguson. it has different democratics, but it is definitely ferguson. we outnumber ferguson by 3. so we're three times as worse as ferguson, and we have less in black population. so the black population in madison and the area is

approximately 6% but we are arrested at a rate of 8 to 1. and we make up the jail population about 50%. but we also know that the crimes across the board between black and white are equal, so there's no way we cannot be a ferguson. we are exactly a ferguson. and this was inevitable. >> why do you say that? >> again, we have arrest rates of eight to one, we have overpolicing in all of our neighborhoods of black and brown people. we sent a letter to the chief asking him to deal with the over policing, asking him to sit down with the community and let them decide what kind of policing they want. and we said we would like the same policing model as white neighbor -- neighborhoods. police in our neighborhoods stay in our neighborhoods, and we don't even have high crime

rates, and i think that says volumes. and when people pull over our children or speak to our children, they talk to them as if they are nobody they are less than animals. they are treated as much in our schools and communities. we knew this would happen. we told the chief of police in january that this would happen. >> so what you are saying is the police chief hasn't listened to you, hasn't taken what you have said into account and made some changes? >> absolutely he has not. his response to our letter to him was mockery. he mocked us told us we didn't know what we were talking about. that his police officers were doing a good job and matter of fact he was go ing to increase the policing in our neighborhoods, and we said how can be continue to invest money in the criminal justice system that is discriminating against

us. if our local officials are serious about changing the system, that radical changes need to occur, and he did nothing. he did not even listen. >> reporter: you know the argument on the other side that black on black crime is a growing problem; that sometimes african american communities in madison or other communities have high crime rates, and serious problems and that's why they need more police there. what do you say to that? >> absolutely. but we -- we must know and understand where black on black crime even the term comes from. it's a made up term used by white folks to make them feel better. we also know there is such a thing as white on white crime. we understand that violence and criminal acts is about proximity and who is around them.

because of that white people kill white people black people kill black people we understand that. and when you restrict resources, opportunities, education, when you push people with their backs against the wall their only response is to lash out. we know that scientifically and psychological. so there's no excuse to say why are people protesting for black on black crime. in order to deal with any black on black crime or white on white crime, we must give people resources and stop building jails. wisconsin has the worse rate in the country, but we don't have the highest crime rate. we really need to think about the numbers, because somebody a lying. >> randy thank you very much. >> thank you. missouri state appeals judge has been appointed to take over the municipal system in ferguson.

that follows last week's report there the department of justice. the state supreme court judge says he will hear all pending and future cases in ferguson and have the authority to change policies there. coming up later, police profiling, how one department is trying to end that practice. we turn now to washington, d.c., where the pentagon says there is progress in the fight against isil. coalition attacks are opening internal divisions within the group. jamie mcentire is in washington. and what is the defense department saying? >> reporter: it's beginning to paint a picture of isil that is an organization that is beginning to suffer from internal strife and losing some of the cohesion it had at the beginning of its campaign. it's based on instances of foreign and local fighters at odds over how to proceed. the kinds of accomodations they

have. also the difficulty that isil is having recruiting new recruits and other indications that internal bonds are fraying somewhat. i raised the question today to the pentagon and asked what they made of these reports? >> the amount of pressure that we have placed on isil over the past several months we know for a fact has generated internal pressures that is continuing to contribute to their inability to maneuver and take any new ground. >> reporter: one of the anecdotal pieces of evidence was raised by a british human rights group who said the beheadings that isil is known for have recently been directed against his own members, who were accused of spying.

but they believe those fighters simply wanted to flee and get away from the battlefield. >> jamie thank you. still ahead a toxic site in texas. the battle to clean up one of the worst sites in america. plus does america still need the voting rights act?

the environmental protection agency keeps a list of america's most hazardous toxic waste sites. here the top of that list, a riverbed outside of houston. it was capped and temporarily contained in 2011, but some residents say it still poses a serious threat. heidi zhou castro reports. >> reporter: this is a thoroughfare for barges a retreat for water front living and the site of one of the worst toxic waste dumps in the u.s.

how bad is this site? >> this site is pretty bad. >> reporter: in 1965 a waste disposal company covered 15 acres of river side land with sludge from a nearby paper mill. at the time no one knew it contained dioxins, which can be lethal to humans. >> we used to swim in there. >> reporter: sam was a child when the waste begin filling pits across the river from his home. he still lives on the same street. by 1968 the paper mill and waste company had abandoned the site and soon the river widened, permanently submerging the pit. a seafood advisory has been in effect since the '90s but it wasn't until 2005 that a state

agency rediscovered the site. >> the pits were leaking and uncontained for over four decades, and nobody let us know that they were there, or we shouldn't reck rate in the river. >> reporter: jacky young says she became sick soon after her family moved into the neighborhood. she was a 17-year-old track star when she started feeling ill. two years later she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. >> my dad has a rare form of bone morrow cancer and we know several people here who also have the cancer. and we're talking a town of 7 8,000 people. >> reporter: the cancer's privilege in the general population is 6 out of 100,000. the department of health is currently investigating. >> everyone is working diligently to do the very best thing for this site. >> reporter: ken is a contract

for for waste management. he says the waste is now covered by an armored cap, and 60,000 tons of rock a temporary containment solution ordered in 2011. how do you know it's working >> >> it's regularly monitored and carefully subject to review. >> reporter: so far there has been no indication of dioxins escaping, he says that's why the epa should allow the site to remain permanently capped rather than order the company remove the waste. >> we want to take care of the problem, and make sure the cleanup occurs. >> reporter: are you interested in doing it the cheapest way possible? >> no not at all. >> reporter: the community has been vocal in wanting the waste

gone for good. >> i look at it like this if you put it here then you need to come and get it out. >> reporter: you don't think this armored cap is working? >> no. it's like putting a band aid on a cut off arm. >> reporter: the companies also argue removing the waste would require opening the cap and reexposing the toxins to the environment. and the removal process could take over than a year. what about a risk of a hurricane? >> right. i think the risk is short-term for removing the waste pits. there is a much greater risk of an natural event unleashing those toxic chemicals again into our environment. >> reporter: if you lived next to this cite and you had children, would you not want this out of your backyard for good? >> i think the main thing is that the best solution for this

site will come as a result of the science that's being put into it the analysis that is occurring under the regulatory agency. >> reporter: the epa says it continues to study the site and is expected to make a decision to contain the waste or remove it by fall. heidi zhou castro, al jazeera, bay town texas. >> jennifer rock is a program director with houston advanced research center. jennifer welcome. so you have heard what the people have to say about their concerns. what do you think? are the people in danger? >> well i think the cap went a long way to reducing the immediate danger that people face. i think the question right now that the epa is working on is to try to figure out what is the best long-term solution.

so i -- i appreciate that the cap has stopped these short-term explosions that people are having, but we want to make sure that that isn't going to happen again in the future. >> they say it hasn't leaked into the water around there, how do they know for sure? and if it does then what is the best solution? >> well, right now, the cap -- the waste pits are covered with plastic and rock and what the responsible parties are doing, the people who put the waste there in the first place, or are responsible for paying for it. they are surveying the elevation of the cap to make sure it stays the same. so that's how they know that things aren't moving the way they had been. >> but if there is a leak -- if -- if -- if those chemicals come out into the water, then what do you begin to do? how do you -- how do you fix it? you are saying that is impossible? >> well it's not impossible,

but it is a much larger challenge. so if something happened to the cap, and the chemicals began to be released the way they had been for decades before the cap was in place, those dioxins would move into the sediment along the river and get to be part of the food chain again. the biggest concern we have right now is the dioxins that are in the fish. it's one of the reason that there is the fish-consumption advisory. and that's an ongoing problem. >> it doesn't sound like a place you would want to live. >> well i -- i don't know about living there, but i certainly wouldn't want to eat the fish. >> that's not a resounding endorsement, based on your knowledge -- i mean if it's in the fish where else is it? >> well, and the responsible

parties in the epa have done a lot of testing of the fish and the sediment. >> can you understand why the people there probably don't trust the epa? >> i absolutely do. and that is why the epa gave funding to the galveston bay foundation which is a local organization for issues around the galveston bay area and said hire whoever you would like to help provide more information -- >> or to convince them it's okay? >> well the foundation then found hark because we are a non-profit research signs-based organization, and so i have been working on superfund site issues for 20 years and part of what my job has been is to review all of the documents that have been produced and provide comments

and feedback. it's because of some of the comments and feedback that me and other community members gave the epa where we were concerned about some of the modeling that some of the responsible parties did about the cap, where we weren't confident that this was truly going to be protective. >> right. >> so that was why the epa went to the army corps of engineers, and has asked them to separately do modeling. >> and clearly this test willing be going on and we'll be checking back in the future. jennifer thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. 50 years after selma, civil rights leaders talk about what has changed and what hasn't. and another train crash raises concerns about rail safety nationwide.

hi everyone this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler.

marching on 50 years after selma, we talk about the legacy of the voting rights act and debate its future. racial profiling. >> it's not just a white theme. it's an american theme. >> black drivers unfairly targeted across america. at a cross roads another frightening collision on the rails. what could be done to make crossing safer? plus jazz diplomacy. the american sacks player building a musal bridge to iran. 50 years later, selma, alabama is a remind ever of the sacrifices made to pass the voting rights act. today some believe that law is in jeopardy. a bill to restore and strengthen the law is before congress but has been sitting there for years. ♪

there were stars, dozens of politicians, an ex-president who joined president obama to commemorate the selma march of 1965. bloody sunday was the watershed event that lead to the voting rights act. >> we were beaten tear gassed some of us was left bloody right here on this bridge. 17 of us were hospitalized that day, but we never became bitter or hostile. we kept believing that the truths we stood for would have the final say. >> but the law that barred racial discrimination in voting has been weakened. >> we have not come this far to turn around and go back. we're at a moment when our voting rights act is in emapparel. >> some of the laws required

people to take a reading test or interpret a passage from the constitution before they would be allowed to vote. some tests were unimaginable. >> on one occasion a man was asked to count the bubbles in a bar of hope. and another man was asked to count the number of jelly beans in a jar. >> the act outlawed those practices. but in 2013 the supreme court struck down the heart of the role. since 2010, 21 states have passed new laws restricting voting. critics say they make it harder for minority voters like eric kenny to cast ballots. he says he has voted in every general election since he turned

18, but since texas started requiring voters to show a valid id, kenny has been locked out of the voting booth. to resolve the error, he would have to legally change his name which he can't afford do. >> i want to go vote but there wasn't nothing i could do. >> in states like texas and north carolina where the laws have changed proponents say ids are necessary to stop people from voting more than once or voting where they are not registered. but studies suggest voter fraud is exceptionally rare. one study found only 31 cases of voter fraud out of a billion votes cast in 2000. a new bill to reinforce the voting rights act is languishing in congress, and this weekend, president obama said the memory of selma should inspire congress to act. >> if we want to honor this day,

let that hundred go back to washington and gather 400 more and together pledge to make it their mission to restore that law this year! liz kennedy is counsel at a public policy organization that focuses on voting rights issues. welcome. >> thank you. >> let me start with a quote from chief justice john roberts in 2013 when the court struck down part of the voting rights act. he said: what do you say? >> say that we absolutely need a strengthen and restored voting rights act, so congress needs to pass the amendment to address the current problems with racially discriminatory voting rights -- >> so how have things changed since 50 years?

>> sure. people mobilized and congress responded within five months. they passed the voting rights act, which enabled people who had previously gotten these rights to vote through the bloody civil war, to actually be able to vote. >> so there's no poll tax anymore -- none of these -- none of these -- this sort of situation where john lewis says they ask these questions -- we don't do that anymore, right? >> texas's photo id law requires people to spend money as your reporting showed to update a birth certificate and buy a new photo id these are restrictive barriers that hit more populations than others -- >> what populations? >> racial minorities poor people the elderly.

so we really do need congress to recognize that current conditions still require the voting rights act. which is the point that justice ginsburg made. she said it's like getting rid of an umbrella in a rain storm because we're not getting wet. >> but why not require an id. any voter fraud is bad, and there is some so why not have an id. >> your own reporting shows 31 out of a billion votes cast so that is a completely diminishing problem, whereas you clearly have more than 31 eligible voters who's constitutional rights to participate in our self government are overly burdened by these laws and a lot of them have an voterly discriminatory tinge -- >> do you have estimate of how many people are not able to vote because of this. >> in texas they said something

like 600,000 eligible voters don't have the required photo id. because the point is that suddenly whoever shows up can cast a ballot. we have an effective system in this country. we don't need to change it but we need to expand access to the ballot. make sure americans are being brought into the process. >> you want to make it easier to vote? >> absolutely. voting in america should be free, fair and accessible to everyone. that's the way our government is able to functionally represent all of us together -- >> how do you do that? >> reduce barriers to rej vagus. allowing registration and voting on the same day. we should have a universal voter registration program, when government has the technology in place, the dmv you can confirm

your name citizenship status, and residency. those databases should be speaking to each other so government can maintain these voter roles. >> we'll seeing whether or not congress agrees. thanks so much. >> thank you. tonight we continue our special report on race in america. in time we lead to southeast michigan where a police chief found out his officers were targeted black drives. in kalamazoo, more than 20% of the population is black, but only 21 of the 212 police officers are african american. >> reporter: do you think the police force adequately

represents african americans. >> i don't. >> reporter: a year and a half ago, the chief confronted an ugly reality. concrete data that his officers were racially profiling blacks in the city. >> it kind of takes your breath away, and so -- but what do you do? do you sit there and act like a dear in headlights? do you dismiss the study that you asked for? or do you just kind of pull yourself up by the bootstraps and say, okay what are we going to do from here? >> reporter: for this sergeant a 12-year veteran and many others on the force, the study's conclusion that police seem to be targeting blacks came as a shock. >> we were offended at first, because we thought how dare we do this to us? it's make us look bad, when we really mean well and we're trying to do the best we can. >> reporter: but the numbers were as stark as black and

white. the study exam mined police stops at 12 different locations in kalamazoo over 12 months beginning in march 2012. >> this is where i was picking my friend up and was pulled out of the car by the police. >> reporter: for some young african american men including these friends, getting stopped by the police seemed par for the course growing up in kalamazoo. >> yeah, just think about growing up and experiences with the police in kalamazoo and just feeling intimidated by think police. not like there's that feeling of police being here to serve and protect me but more so to harass and come get me. >> reporter: did you trust them? >> no. no, i have never trusted the police in my time in kalamazoo. >> reporter: if the profiling study shocked police officers, it was hardly a revelation for them. so the chief reached out to community leaders like lewis

walker who advised him to give police specific trains in race relations. >> it is important to me that police officers understand implicit bias. and not fight it but understand that we're all socialized, this country socializes us to be bias. it is not just a white thing. it's an american thing. >> reporter: after the study the chief made three major changes, requiring officers to undergo racial bias training ordering them to document possible cause for every suspect they searched and rewarding them for interactions with the public meant to build better relations. on this frigid winter night, officers are out on foot patrol talking to people who live in a high crime neighborhood. >> one of the supervisors that work here at night. >> uh-huh. >> officer paul. >> hi.

>> reporter: this sergeant and fellow officer also go door to door. he says the new softer approach is paying off. >> he gave us specific information about an individual and where this person tends to hide a gun, recent shots fired along with drug activities >> reporter: and now he sees how overly aggressive policing can backfire. >> when you blanket an area with strict enforcement there are people affected that aren't causing the problems. >> reporter: for police and african americans in kalamazoo, the change in attitude is a work in progress. what is your level of trust with the police department? >> it is very limited. it is very limited. i don't feel like there is enough accountability within urban communities to people of color. >> reporter: the chief knowing

expectations are high cautions that his officers won't ever resemble those from that classic tv sitcom. >> i'm not going to sit here and paint some picture like every interaction is going to be andy and barney in mayberry. we deal with some complex stuff. >> reporter: in the last year even with police making far fewer traffic stops, the chief says overall crime has dropped by 7%. no city this size will ever be like the mythical mayberry the chief says but police can take significant steps to keep it from becoming another ferguson. from michigan to washington where the white house is criticizing a letter 47 republican senators sent to iran. the obama administration says the letter could undermine nuclear talks. it warns iran's leaders that any deal with the president could be overturned by a future

president. the white house called the letter an attempt to undermine the foreign policy efforts. the fbi has lowered the reward to a disappeared agent to $5 million. u.s. officials suspect iran of holding levinson, which iran denies. . in guatemala, an unlikely resource is empowering women. >> we have a story tonight about the most low-tech clean-energy economic solution to a group of women in ecuador. we're talking about earthworms and how these creatures have transformed the lives of women in a small farming community. earthworms are kept in a trough with waste that normally ends up in landfills.

the women recital that waste, and then turn it into fertilizer that they sell to farmers. >> it improves the quality of soil for farmers. they are very positive and they have a lot of faith in worms. >> reporter: the women are making money from the enterprise and say they feel empowered as a result. we're going to bring you this story in our next hour. >> sounds interesting. all right. stephanie thank you. general motors now said 64 people died in accidents caused by its faulty ignition switches. the victim's families have been found eligible for compensation. they expect to play between $4,000,006,000,000 in damaging. an amtrak train detailed this afternoon in halifax

county, north carolina. it crashed into a tractor trailer at a railroad crossing. 40 passengers hurt. no life-threatening injuries reported. there have been a string of recent crashes at railroad crossings. is enough being done to keep those crossings safe? lisa stark reports. >> reporter: about half of all collisions between trains and vehicles in the u.s. occur at crossings with flashing greating. it is often the fault of the driver. who tried to beat the train. there are more than 200,000 grade crossings in the u.s. locations where vehicles and

trains can come together. education campaigns have made a huge difference. in 1978 there were more than 13,000 accidents. in 2013 that dropped to just over 2,000, an 85% decrease. and the number of deaths has dropped from a high of 1,115 in 1976 to about 251 in 2013. a 77% decline. still, about every three hours in the u.s. a person or a vehicle is hit by a train. here on this mta video, you can see commuters testing their luck. running across the rails, trying to catch their train. operation lifesaver, runs safety campaigns like this one, targeting distracted drivers.

>> near train tracks stay focused, stay alive. >> reporter: drivers often misjudge the speed of the train and how it takes to stop. it takes 18 football fields to stop once the engineer pulls the emergency break. about 60% of the crossings in the u.s. have warning lights and gates. federal regulations require the lights to flip on and the bells to sound at least 20 seconds before a train comes by. but youtube is full of videos where drivers don't always heed the warnings. this driver got out in time but most often these accidents are deadly. lisa stark, al jazeera, washington. this week marks 50 years since the u.s. became directly involved in the vietnam war.

at first the military sent 3500 marines to the shores. american troops remained in vietnam for almost a decade. by the time the war came to a close, more than 50,000 americans had died. today we are still learning from the military actions during that war. rory kennedy made the documentary about flaws in the government's troop withdrawal and i asked her why she felt it was important to make this film now? >> i feel like this is such an important story, and it's a story that i think we all think we know as a nation what happened at the end of vietnam. i think the truth is is that many of us are familiar with that iconic image of the helicopter leaving what we think is the top of the embassy, but we actually don't know what happens. i thought i knew the events and i was blown away by what actually hand. and i felt like it's a hugely

important part of our history. it's a hugely important chapter in american history. and we deserve to know. and i think it's very important and timely today as we are trying to get out of iraq and afghanistan. >> you were born in 1968 and some might ask since you really didn't -- you weren't there, and didn't experience that period of time, why would it interest you? >> well my father robert kennedy ran his final campaign in 1968 because he really wanted us to get out of vietnam. so for me growing up in the aftermath of that i was very aware from a very young age of vietnam. i had an appreciation of the importance and relevance of war, and i think that drew me to the subject matter. but what was really exciting to me about telling this story, buzz when i started to uncover the personal stories.

>> the part that struck me was the american officials who refused to get it; who didn't understand that there were so many south vietnamese who were vulnerable and needed to get out. >> that's right. as a nation when we think about vietnam, we think about promises made promises broken, we abandoned our allies. it's not a bright shining moment in our nation's history, and yet despite the wave of history going in the wrong direction these men stood up and did the right thing. >> for some of those people are the feelings still raw? >> extraordinarily so. absolutely. for most of the people i interviewed, i would talk to them days later, and they would say they were still recovering from talking about it. >> talk about this comparison that you make between what is going on today, and what went on in vietnam. >> we tried to get out of vietnam gracefully and failed

miserably. and as a result of that tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people were left behind and faced real consequence because of that. and i think that one of the issues that this film raises about what we're facing today as a nation is what is our responsibility to the people and these countries? what is our responsibility to the people in iraq and afghanistan who have been our translators, make our cooks, worked with us in our consulates, and on the front line. and when we leave they face greater vulnerability because of their association with the americans. >> congratulations on this film. and i encourage everybody to go see it. great to see you. >> thank you, john. it's a great to be here. coming up on this broadcast. ♪ >> why an american was invited to iran to share his music. ♪

>> why an american was invited

tonight fans of the simpsons are remembering writer producer sam simon, he died in his home in california after a battle with colon cancer. he won nine emmy awards during his career. he wrote for taxi and cheers before helping to develop the simpsons. that is the longest-running sitcom in history. after leaving the show in 1993 simon devoted his life to philanthropy, giving away much of his wealth. one man is using jazz music to find common ground between america and iran. we speak with gramly award winner bob belldone the first american to play in iran since

1979. ♪ >> we were the first jazz group american-based group to perform in iran since the islamic revolution of 1979. ♪ >> our performances represented many ground-breaking levels. the fact that we were the first american group to go over of any concept of any genre in music for 35 years, was historical. it was for us the entire band an amazing experience. to go to someplace which you have been told has problems with us being u.s. citizens only to find out that they have no problems with us whatsoever. [ applause ] >> i think the iranian people were happy to see us on many levels. for one the fact that we were willing to show up and perform and be there among them without

the united states government saying that we're representatives of the government. ♪ >> i was surprised at the iranian jazz audience that was at our concert. when i mentioned the name miles davis they applauded. so they are well aware of our culture. american music, american jazz especially translates everywhere, because it doesn't require a written language. it's a language of the soul of the spirit of the heart. and because we were there playing music that they could relate to was just this incredible synergy between an audience and an artist that you just -- it is something that people who are not musicians can never quite understand. [ applause ] >> that's bob belldon. now our picture of the day, an aerial day of cross country

skiers climbing up a hill. part of a marathon in switzerland. 13,000 skiers participated in a 26-mile race. that's our broadcast, thanks for watching. i'm john siegenthaler. the news continues next with antonio mora and stephanie sy.