.. this brief infil -- film.

♪ >> my mother has been a leader in the field of physical disabilities. i think she has done more than any other single human being alive and she is still striving to make sure people with special needs are equal, mainstream, are viewed as capable, viewed as athletic and she will not rest until that is a world wide acceptance. >> we had a sister, rose mary, who was challenged, intellectually, and eunice would spend the extra time with her making sure she felt included. >> that was a good 40 years ago, and i can't think of a positive experience really for our special friends in those days. they had no special education, they had no special sports. it's very hard in a classroom when you're in the sixth grade to try to compete against

somebody who is doing math or geography. but if you go with that same person out on the field and play a sport, or special friend will excel. >> is the spirit the start of the special olympics. >> today many of you will win but even more important i know you will be brave. let us begin the olympics. thank you. [applause] >> eunice is tireless and a fearless and reflects a sense of goodness, so it's very difficult for people to say no to eunice. after president kennedy was sworn in, he used to joke he feared seeking eunice because she always had an agenda. >> per fingerprints are on the

legislation, schools, institutions, perceptions, and i think most important of individual lives. [applause] >> most of all i see that i have rights. we have a right to live and enjoy life to the fullest. still today almost 3 million people take part in a special olympics, and it started with one leedy who gave 48 years of her life to show the world what we can do. ♪ >> i love to be with my special friends and i like to learn from them. i learned persistence, i learned guts, i learned courage. this is the future. love, the hope, the faith to

bring peace and bring excellence to our special friends through sports. ♪ [applause] >> what a happy event this is. it's a such pleasure to be asked to moderate a discussion about a woman who has always been a heroine of mine, and i might add she's also a heroine of benedict xvi who made her a game of the order of st. gregory just last year in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the

church and public service. the list of eunice's accomplishments we just heard is impressive. but to those of us who remember what it was like when all very much was expected of women it's more than impressive. it's mind-boggling to think of the passion, the intelligence, the energy, the sheer determination to make a difference that went into every single one of those accomplishments that paul kirk just listed. it is as though back in the 1950's, eunice, you had a kind of x-ray vision that what he pierce through the stories that society was telling about things to the real truth of the matter. and when eunice saw what she saw she was horrified and to use her own a word, she was enraged at the conditions under which mentally disabled adults and

children were being forced to live. and when she saw there was no stopping her people began to use words like human whirlwind, force of nature. even her brother, the president, as we just saw covered when he saw her coming. she harvard and relentlessly to establish national panels. it is said that franklin roosevelt had a similar job at a certain woman. [laughter] and it is said that when he went to bed at night he had a little prayer that he said. dear god, please make eleanor tired. [laughter] now i don't know if the kennedys or shriver's ever tried to use that prayer on eunice, but if they did it clearly didn't work. but as paul kirk has reminded us, because for which eunice

shriver is most famous is just one of the causes that she championed long before they were on anybody else's radar screen. in fact, in the 1970's when bioethics was a word many people didn't even know she's all danger approaching and she was instrumental in establishing the kennedy center for ethics at georgetown. in 1982, she founded the community of caring, a program for pregnant adolescents. and in each case, she had an incredible instinct for just the right way to tackle the particular problem. and the proof of that is all of her dentures have kept on growing, spreading and developing offshoots. community of caring into the character education programs that are enforced and in many schools, and of course most

famously the little camp in the backyard that grew into other camps, similar camps that prevented the special olympics and now the special olympics that has gone international and is addressed to conditions and countries where the intellectually disabled are still treated as they were here in the 1950's. those are just some of the reasons why when social historians look back at the great transformations that took place in american society in the 20th century those are the sum of reasons why they will class eunice kennedy shriver and a plant with a very select group of other white men, eleanor roosevelt, jane addams, dorothy day, a truly great american women who enlarged the since of the human family of which we are all members and for which we all bear common responsibility. eunice herself, of course, i

know what she's thinking right now. she's thinking and many other people were responsible for all these accomplishments, and she would name a first of all her husband, sergeant shriver and her five children. and we are very fortunate that four of those children are here with us tonight and are willing to share some of their memories of eunice with loss and with each other. so starting in order of seniority i don't know how you sort this out among yourselves, but starting in order of seniority, bobbie, i'm sure that your mother is very proud that each one of you in his or her own way has carried on some aspect of her work, and i wonder if he would say a little bit about her influence on you komondor choice of location, work and family. anthony wants to get in on the

activity. >> we can do it in reverse order. [laughter] want to go first, anthony? the wellhead. you want to? >> no, you go for it. [laughter] >> i would say the thing i learned for most my parents and particularly my mother and i think all of us perhaps as starting thing was an entrepreneurial spirit. rage is a good word. i remember her saying that to me in los angeles about 15 years ago and was the first time i heard that word but i certainly felt it in our lives. i felt her intense determination. one of the things as people talk about her now sometimes they say your mom is so sweet and such a lovely person and so forth, which is true, but as i said to you earlier i always feel like they say that maybe because she's a woman, maybe because that's what you're supposed to

say about a woman, you know. i felt her to be extremely determined, very aggressive, super entrepreneurial. she's all opportunities -- my friend, larry, is over their laughing. it's true because he has seen that himself. you cannot in a way over state i would say mother's termination. jack howard but so does everybody else, there were determined people. i know i've heard the stories when she tried to do the first games the people in the department in certain places wouldn't allow the games and she had to go out to chicago where mayor daley controlled the soldier's field tracking and allowed it to happen. people said well, we don't have insurance, suppose athletes become upset and start crying, suppose this, suppose that. and mother just went to mayor daley and got the track and staged the olympic games. that was it.

i think in my own work i try to carry on that spirit when i fell ill fonted by whatever it is that may be happening. i find what would mother do. and the answer is run them over. [laughter] [applause] said that is what i try to do. [applause] >> maria, i know that you have not always been happy with the way the press speaks of your mother's accomplishments as though they are trying to put her into some kind of old when she's broken all the traditional wolds. >> well, i think just to follow up a little on what bobby was talking about i think one of the things that mommy taught me as a daughter was never to think that you couldn't play on the same level playing field as a man. and that you should never take no except when the one -- someone tells you know you should do exactly what you wanted to do, and i think that

sheikh -- when i think of one of the many things that i got from being raised by her with the understanding that you have to compete. nobody is interested in the struggle. they are just interested in the end result. so, don't cry if you get tackled, get up, get going. don't lie and someone hit the tennis ball or a boy tackled kube field to can go out there and compete on a level playing field because that is what she did and every time someone said no she went around them or else bobby said she will vote for them. so i think that is a very strong philosophy to get, and i think it also proves the other thing about her, that she is relentless and what she wants to get accomplished and i think that is a very important philosophy to get to anybody who wants to start anything. nobody has accomplished anything great without being relentless, so you don't have to be the sister of a president. you don't have to be born wealthy or famous. if you have an idea and vision

and our relentless you can probably get it accomplished to some degree so that is a very important lesson that she gave all of us. i think the other thing people always talk about mommy in some ways like to start this camp and it was special olympics, but life think it misses some of the plate that she is a political operative. she is a political strategist. she works both parties better than anybody i've ever seen. and i don't think -- i think teddy could probably speak to this better i don't think you would have had any of the legislation that you have of americans for disability without her relentless work leading up to that and she works as a anybody can say. you see her down on the hill today. she's been going down to the hill for 50 years and working both sides of the bill, and i think that she was -- she always looked at it and what she wanted to get and she always figured

out who she needed to talk to to get what she wanted and she didn't care what party they were in, she just knew what she needed to get from them and she accomplished so i think that is also -- she didn't get stock in label or party. she went in and accomplished what she wanted to do so i think that her breeches, the special olympics is extraordinary but her political success is also worth noting and i think that so much focus in this family has been on the the man and the women and the family had also accomplished extraordinary things so i think sometimes people forget that mommy did what she did, gene did what she did, pat did what she did, rose mary was a catalyst for so much of the work they have done so i am not taking anything away from teddy, jack or bobby -- [laughter] but there were some women in this family who were extraordinarily accomplished at a time when people expected and

women who didn't have high expectations in the beginning. citing it is even more extraordinary what they were able to accomplish winfield a little was expected of them. >> marrec and anthony, bobby and maria were in on the ground floor when this will wind got going but you live it must have been in full force. what was it like? >> i think that bobby and maria brought up three points but i think it's also very important to mass every day, and i think that the concept of social justice permeates her work. and, you know, there is a fig mother's perspective on how work i guess i would disagree a little bit with bobby and mardy on this regard, i don't think anthony -- mother is on the ground working with people and paul craig talked about her work as a social worker in chicago.

she's out there in the backyard working with special olympics athletes on the ground floor and i think that comes from my perspective a very deep religious faith and i think that if mother misses the 8:30 mass in the morning you know where the 12:00 is, if she misses the 12th, she said the 5:00. you can track your progress every day by where she's going to the mass. i think that really permeates her relationship with my dad, too, and i want to make that point that so much of what she does is about affecting social change and she does work with powerful people, but i think when you pursue power without really grounding in the fact god is bigger than you and every day you need to spend at least half an hour acknowledging the fact god is bigger than you and she does that that is an amazing example to all of last. and my dad does it every day. they go in their every day.

they get down on their knees and they may be powerful, the brothers may be present -- of her brother may be in congress now but the bottom line is they acknowledge every day that god is more important and that what they are trying to do is affect change, but to do with fighting through a social justice mission. i don't want to give the impression that mother is -- i have a complex about mommy being jesus or anything like that. [laughter] last week i was in church and i went in with our two and half year old and abb term -- they were talking away, the baby goes and sits right next to mother in the front row and they talk from the entire service. after it was over mother says that was a great service and the he looks at me and says she didn't hear a word. laughter to the message is what she is grounded in his lot and she is grounded in every day acknowledging god's presence in our lives and that to pursue

power or pursue a policy change without acknowledging that god is important in your life is really a hollow victory and i think that is what gives her so much energy at 86 to be running around not only in this country but around the world. the fact she is down there with her special friends, she's in the swimming pool which happened to years ago, and she's had a couple of major medical issues but she's with her friends and she sees in those friends god and the fact we can work together and love each other to create a world that is based on love. so i just wanted to make that point. i don't know if you totally disagree with me. >> he said everything i was about to say. [laughter] age has its priorities or privileges. [laughter] >> especially in this family, right? teddy can relate to me on that one. [laughter] [applause] i always try to figure out what teddy and i share in, and now i know that it's being the youngest in a family of dominant siblings. [laughter]

>> poor baby. >> you feel that? >> crimea river. [laughter] >> i think they said so many good things the only thing i might add is a modification what mark was saying is her genuine commitment to the issue and i think as body was saying she has the power but i don't think people tolerate that if she didn't really did she was sincere and her values were in the right place and she was passionate because i think people -- you go to a senator on the hill and work them over hard for a particular issue and they don't think that you are genuine, they don't think that you're passionate or that it's in your heart and soul and you have the right reasons -- so it's great to say you're going to run people over but i don't think people tolerate that unless they feel your sincerity. so i think my whole life i have always tried to think no matter how big an organization may get and how many staff people we may have to keep going back why do i get up every day white light

keep going back. when your little i would go to institutions with people with disabilities and people would tell you over and over it's good enough for them and i believe it resonated for me in mind if i went in there and they had four people in the room and would say there's four people in the room that's good for them. and you would see them in a building and the building would have 90 people, this is all in the same building. wow, that's a lot of people in one building, it's good enough for them. she believed all the time that it's never good enough for any of loss and whatever we are doing it's not good enough so that's challenging for us to keep hearing that our whole life because it makes you keep wanting to keep going and going and there is now resting but that and how i think especially for people with disabilities, her willingness -- not willing to accept it's good enough, not to allow that to continue on is a thing that has driven her and why she keeps coming at

100 miles an hour, because to this day as great as the special olympics is and community caring and as great as the act for disabilities is it isn't good enough and we have got to do more and keep going. she is going to start new camps and go on the hill because the fight is never over and the energy level has to keep going up and up. it reminds me of a book i was reading, very quickly, it's a group of guys that went on the audubon and they'd never been on the audubon and the guy jumps and so excited like wow i can drive as fast as i want, he jumps in going 80 miles per hour, 90, 100, he's like this is incredible and going 120 miles per hour and all of a sudden he sees the exact same car that goes by at 180 miles per hour, exact same model. and for me at least it got me thinking that's mother. [laughter] she's in the same model all across our. we are all humans, but her model is full speed.

the car's maximum speed is 180 and i think she is 180 and we are all happy at 120 but she's not happy at 120 and that is why she still goes at 180 and people with disabilities have benefit tremendously because she is at full speed and it's a great model, too. [laughter] >> so, that takes care of one of the questions i was going to ask you. how when you hear your mother described as a human whirlwind or having a superhuman energy i was going to ask you how that comports with the eunice kennedy shriver that you know but now i see that comports exactly with the shriver that you know. i think a lot of people would be interested to know how the experience of growing up in a family where work, family, pressured keeping them in the proper balance must have been a constant challenge, how that has helped you in your lives to work

out the difficulty that many americans are struggling with now. >> to stay in balance you mean? >> anybody been able to do that? [laughter] >> i don't think -- we grew up in a family where there wasn't that much balance. i think both mommy and daddy had lives of meaning and purpose but it was all about work and you what is on the couch. i was saying to my children the other day of my mother walks into the room today i don't sit on the couch, i jumped up and run out. [laughter] people say you have to learn how to just be. i'm like no -- i don't know that -- that is certainly not the way they live their lives. they live their lives with a goal. certainly i think mauney had a goal always which was to begin to change the world one-family at a time and i think her -- and

originally got involved in this scene the way the mother had to deal with her sister and hearing from other mothers they had no where to send their children or school their children could attend or camp and she was determined to change their world and became determined we would july and in her cause and everybody we knew would also join so people who came to our house as our friends got wrapped up in it. there was probably nobody here who knows any of us who is not involved in some capacity working for mommy. [laughter] as they say you walk in the door and walk out with pockets empty, you've given money, volunteering, involved in best buddies or special olympics because i think mauney's philosophy has been everybody has the ability to serve, everybody should serve and get onto yourself no matter what your age or where you're from you should be able to be doing something. >> that is the environment we grew up in but to be honest

people don't think they have to go around and start a bunch of things. i tried to sit on the couch a little bit more. [laughter] i think you learn a lot especially from your children -- >> i am trying to do more of it now because i feel like we crew up in an environment like that and for me and some of us are trying to i think change that a little bit and you learn an awful lot by sitting on the couch looking at your children and the allies and having a conversation for 20 minutes and not making them run up and down the field -- >> i tell my mother now i am just trying to be she says what does that mean. [laughter] i say i am just trying to be present and be today. well what is arnold during, somebody else, get on to the next thing. your brothers are doing this -- >> she doesn't like it. >> she doesn't. [laughter]

>> marks, you gave an image of the family were all of this is going on and nobody is allowed to sit on the couch but the day began by going to daily mass and in a way putting everything that was going to happen in a day in a certain perspective and relativizing power and all the other things. >> i definitely believe that and that she has a unique way of looking at power and i think she sees power from broken people. she sees it in disabled adults and the power they have which we as a society i don't think frankly value generally and we value elective office, we value money, we value the richest people in that view and mother definitely as maria said knew how to work with those folks but she also -- what makes her

unique is she is as easy and koln and comfortable with a disabled person who may have a profound physical problem as she is talking to clint eastwood or warren buffett and i think that is because she sees the value in humanity and the value and broken humanity and that is ultimately the goal to pull that together and work together and i don't think she started out in chicago or in the backyard thinking my god i'm going to change the world. as maria said she saw families that didn't have resources and started on a little basis. if you look great social movement they start with somebody who is doing it in their backyard or in their house or is upset about something and then they slowly gather steam and they can change it policy but often times it comes from the grassroots up and not

necessarily the top down. but mother knows how to work the top down and the bottom-up and i think that is where eckert unique power comes from and why she is a case with people whereas some political leaders that have more power nobody can remember what they did ten years later but they will remember people that changed their heart. they don't necessarily remember a policy that changed with 20 years ago but they remember when people affect people's hearts and those are the things like mother teresa, dorothy david had a profound impact because they didn't see power just in adduce of itself to either make money or change policy that how you change people's hearts and i think that ultimately is the great power. >> i did the other thing that's really important when you talk about mommy you can't i don't think talk about her without talking about the importance of her family. that is first and foremost i think the july of her life and i don't mean just the five of us or daddy, i mean her brothers

and sisters are really i think the great joy of her life and i think that permeates her whole life. everything is about her brothers and sisters and her parents and the lesson of her parents and the loyalty of her brothers and sisters and, you know, always singing to the fight sophos i want you to be together, i want you to become editor each other. we are all in this together. this is family and people who are friends are part of the family, your part of the work and trying to kind extend that philosophy to our friends and their friends and so on but i think the bedrock of mommy is her parents and her brothers and sisters and she talks about them all the time. that really is i think her foundation, the rock which she comes from and what she is constantly talking to people about the importance of family, the importance of faith and loyalty to family and then

purpose in life commission in life. those i think are all connected. .. and you'll see it eunice kennedy shriver and i think two really,

i would hope people would look at her entire story. yes, the family she came from is the family she created but wallace her goal, what was your vision and mission and has to go about accomplishing its? shea trade is something that didn't exist before, she was relentless senate and she was a mother, she was a wife and a sister, she was a daughter, she was a friend relate to millions and she not only changed the backyard and the community and the state, but really the world. her mission may have started in the backyard and by the results of her mission has changed across the world and i think she deserves to be on the women's hall of fame, she is the first american living women to be on a dollar and i think she deserves that. she deserves a book that details how difficult that work was a time in this country when people

didn't expect them from women and really the political mind, the complicated mind that is in their. that is as people say to me i did not fund took a course so from my mother but i learned how to tackle a guy or hit a ball or accomplish things and that really is, she wants her kids and everybody to bring over to learn how to get things done. and that is her story and that she did with her family and captive family intact and after marriage intact and she kept her faith intact and she never sat on the couch. [applause] >> it is the custom of the kennedy library at these forms to take questions from the audience and now i will open the envelope and the first one is in a house full of children do have

a favorite funny story that exemplifies you're mother's personality? >> i would say there are some money i don't know where to start the one vivid memory is an image when i would come home from school she did make a big effort to pick me out and we would come home into a parked the car, she would tell me that we're going to have races. she would go out and line them next to me into would be like i'm going to give you a heads aren't and let's see who can win. she would mark down the road and race me a little day after school and be me every day after school. [laughter] i think that is a pretty good image of what her personality was like. [laughter] >> i will take that and say that last year mother busted her hip a couple years ago and her house in potomac, it is circular and the house, a circular loop and she started in the middle and my

seven year-old son and his body had to run in the loop and she ran half a new and she did win a pair of [laughter] the kids with lupine she would do a short cut and my son almost cluster a couple times and to do the multiple times. the this is about 9:00 o'clock on a saturday morning and my mother turned to genie and said i'd be taurus son pierre and [laughter] he said in a running race and my wife was like my god. so is still going on. >> when we were little or younger mamey always hired people with intellectual with the abilities to work in the house and some my memories and a lot of times people wouldn't want to come over to our house because they thought it was like there were 100 kids in the backyard with intellectual

visibility and then there were people who were gained in the house as he was trying to train for jobs -- >> the funniest part is it the volunteers from the local prison. [laughter] >> we have a couple of monte. >> in addition, she did high air convicts as volunteers and then i would say these people came from the prison issue said don't tell anyone. [laughter] it proves that we are where then them. >> is it true that some of the counselor is drinkable you're fathers of wine? >> yes and dad had come back from being a bachelor in france, a lucky fellow had gone in a case of very nice one for mr. rothschild on his departure. there was plunged on friday and

one friday for some reason that the punch guy had not delivered the punch the summit did to take the case of one in m2 did and made the plunge and when daddy got home he got quite exercised. [laughter] mother was like forget it, what do we care. >> i think that is mommy use our house as a training ground for all of her philosophy is still while she wanted to see that people with intellectual disabilities could afford to hire people with disabilities. she believes that prisoners could be rehabilitated because you brought them to our house and tried to turn them into counselors even though they were in for murder. [laughter] she did this stuff like that where she would try all different kinds of sports. our jury. [laughter] >> we are not making this up.

>> so this next question from the audience, i don't know what kind of a pandora's box this is opening, is is what did you discuss around the dinner table? >> i think mommy i always remember my mother would put pictures from the newspaper all over the dining room and on to the kitchen and of starving people and talk about it and what was our role and not let us see to. it too would put a piggy bank in the middle of the table and she would say our dinner tonight would have been $30 so i'm putting it in this piggy bank and she will eat cereal because we can save the children. and now she would call for example, the children in darfur and my kids will go she is insane, i don't want to talk to her on the phone so don't make a with her. she has a peanut butter projects

in malawi that are other nieces is making her put peanut butter through malawi where she is trying to, she reads the paper and then demands why you're not doing something about it and literally she will send in magazines and books every week to our house telling our kids when they're not in a project and what they're doing in that are terrified that of heard today. >> alice in the article on the been a bother is extra and rich pay a better use for children that are starving to death and every school full id is 300 calories. as you read this in "the wall street journal" because they're doing this in africa. and if she harassed me and other parts of the world and i run the u.s. side, but she will this and got it done and she did get a

letter back to save the children and is now impacting the way foundations are finding nutrition programs in certain countries in africa because mother put up the money with a friend of hers and got our knees to do it as a summer project so it is not let's put peanut butter in africa. in it is read in "the wall street journal" and was tenacious and got it done and it is an amazing story. there is definitely been a better in africa. it is definitely she sees the idea and understands the value and got it done. is really impressive. >> i know as far as the audience is concerned of this discussion could go on for a long time and a has been so wonderful but we have come to a point in the program where i must welcome senator edward kennedy and it eunice kennedy shriver to the

pulpit. [applause] [applause] >> i think they did terribly well. [applause] and i thank professor glendon for her good work. just a brief word because we all

want to hear from eunice and i think all of the members of the families captured and eunice in such a special way. i always have wealth as a member of the larger family that the great qualities that they have picked up tonight so well was that eunice absorber for my mother was faith. an extraordinary believe and know one that clearly impressed all of the children and certainly made the mark on all of us. the second was the family and you hear that all the residents was really from my mother and thirdly that no one should really be left behind. she had that sense that no one should be left out or left behind me. she picked this up and obviously in a very early age all of us in the family could see that special relationship that eunice had with rosemary. from my father it is the love of

competition. eunice, you have heard those lessons of competition in the belief in the political system, not in it the politics that is glamorize or condemn today but as an instrument for change. and when it's done well and done right as the way describe today about building coalitions it could make a difference in people's lives and that was something that my father believed in very deeply. eunice picked that up but i've certainly learned from that and then we heard about the drive. you can use that extraordinary word and perseverance. there was a marvelous line from shakespeare, perseverance make on a bright, and that has been eunice. the final point that i mention is that i think she demonstrated in our family, we were all taught that we can make a difference and all of us should

try and what a difference eunice has made but also that you didn't have to be a u.s. senator to make a difference and i think really a great power of her life although she has had extraordinary advantages is the pathway that hopefully will be inspiring millions of people across this country. you hear the example about peter brodeur and all this other example starting something in the back yard. working with volunteers. any person, any family in a place. massachusetts and in a part of our country can pick up those seeds of examples, they are inherently a part of our value system and our great society and the recently part of our value system in our family and they are part of the systems that we see in everyday family says some many of whom are here and have been such a support for eunice. let's give her a really kennedy

library welcome, my sister. eunice kennedy shriver. [applause] >> thank you very much. in thank-you, wonderful introduction and one of all thank you very much. i think she is going to see your

marks. thank you very much. [applause] i want to also thank john who has been the president for over 15 years and has been enormously grateful for all other murders that have come here tonight to. paul kirk and everybody at the library. we have worked into the evening in a very grateful am proud to read all of you tonight. most people believe that the i spent my whole life interested in one thing. and that one thing is working to make the world a better place. for people with intellectual disabilities. that has been a huge part of our life and inspired one to work in research when i was young to create a sports camp, an olympics and other programs and to join other chosen and the many causes and as political leaders to make more comments

about health to all the people. but as important as it has been it has not, the whole story of my life. my life is about being lucky as a child to be raised by parents who wrote me and may be relieved and possibilities. it is also about those who have had this extraordinary children. i think you've got them all here tonight. [applause] and my friends and might work in my life up every time. it is also about being especially lucky for the wonderful husband and five extra their children who married a store and their wives and husbands. with 17 extra grandchildren and this also has been my life. but in a strange way perhaps my line also includes be lucky with

adversity i encountered. i am lucky that i experienced this thing of rejection who is told that the real power was not for me. i am lucky that i saw my mother and my sister rosemary treated with unbearable projection. i am lucky that i've had to confront political and social injustice around the world throughout our career. he might say why are we lucky to have such a difficult experience. and if the answer is simple. the combination of the love of my family, they help me to develop the confidence that i needed to believe that i can make a difference in a positive direction. you would not be surprised to know that i believe that those same qualities or also the experience that shaped president kennedy. truthfully i believe rosemary's

rejection had farmer to go with the brilliance of his presidency than anyone can understand that. yes, he was our country's greater champion of what we all call mental retardation. two this day his legacy of innovation and in creating a i see hd, the university affiliated center is, the president's council remains today one of the great histories of our country. but beyond the work he did for people with intellectual disabilities and i believe it was rosemary's influence incentivize him and all of us to be a reverse of the vulnerable and weak people. i think i can say that not one among the thousands who have written about him has understood what it was really like to be a brother of a person who has mental retardation. and tonight i want to say that i have never said before more than

any single individual rosemary had the greatest influence. as of tonight with great attitude to jack and also to my wonderful sons and daughter, first i wish to give the love of the family but that is impossible. the love of the family who would treat you like a family because there is no love substitute for love. everything else as a matter. if you haven't got a family, go find one man. [laughter] [applause] secondly, i wish he to be the gift of being able to channel would ever in justice, insure or frustrations you have a tune a change. you can do it. the only person you can convince is yourself. and finally i also want to offer you the chance to play and go to school and be friends with one of the 200 million people on

earth who have an intellectual disability. i guarantee that you'll never go back. who knows, you may even become future presidents of the united states so thank you for the evening and then he for enforcing the power of faith hope and love and neville is believed these to be the most important yes of all. i hope that many of you join in a special mission to make what the world safe for people with intellectual disabilities and to make the world safe for human dignity. thank you very much. [applause]

[applause] >> speaking of lucky, how lucky we all are to be in her company tonight and how lucky the world is that she has done which he continues to do to make this world a better place. we all know that this institution is dedicated to the memory of former president of the united states. he inspired citizens of this country and around the globe, but at least as an equal part of the store that is told here is the other members of the

president's family did it and continue to do what they do and set examples any to of their lives and in eunice and story is a parable as any of those. when i think a first jury i also think of what her brother said. the energy, the faith, the devotion we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it to appear in and the glow from that fire will to lead the world. eunice, he had to be thinking and you and we love you and we thank you for all. with thank you for your family and we think senator kennedy. we think machine and we think all of you for being here tonight is special mind about a

special lady who has done a somewhat. i only ask you as a final thank you to respect her and her family's time in just and setting the stage and in doing so you're welcome to stand and give them all a rousing thank you. thank you all very much. in [applause]

now the author of "foreclosure nation" shari olefson, she is a florida real-estate attorney who

explains why she believes the credit crisis developed and what the future looks like for the housing market. this event took place at the fort lauderdale hyatt regency in florida. it is 50 minutes. >> we are here tonight to really talk about what began as a subprime crisis and what really sped into the broader economy after the rest of us started becoming impacted by it and i think it's the beginning of the crisis a lot of us thought this wasn't going to be asinine did not refinance ended up by some not going to fall under the reader screen of course, that's not the way it turned out. just that curiosity how many of you own you're own or home or other real estate? did anyone a by -- by during the bubble? so some people did in how many people are thinking now about may be buying some real estate as they seem to be -- good for you. we are going to talk about some of the things the impacts of the crisis having on us but i think even more important than that we

will talk about the impact we can have on the crisis in some of the ways we can take back the power and make a difference for ourselves and also for our country. during the middle of the bubble and worth a mention that i was running for title companies so you may have gone into a title insurance company to do the closing. they're the people who show how to sign the documents. and during the course of that i observed a couple of things that some of you may have seen that are leading up to this ball without the benefit of 2020 hindsight we don't realize they're happening so i saw things i'd the price is going to the rough and anyone happen to observe during the bubble? i saw things like people seeming to stretch to buy a home and someone who seem to be a first-time home buyer which meant a modest two-bedroom home where we're by these half million dollar mcmansion. did anybody happen to notice

that? the other thing i saw what the fungi loan products and you might have seen them to appear in the reason i saw them was overseeing these different auspices and the closing information and did and pick up the phone and call me and fax the document and asked to explain now have to tell you i've been doing this for 20 years and sell other products i did not understand so i don't understand how the people were signing them got it. so in addition to those things i found one other thing that struck me was everyone was in the real-estate business and was anyone surprised to learn that someone so became a mortgage broker or they are selling real-estate or the rules to cut my hair had bought three condos and i did not get how they were able to buy three condos. the other thing i summer people doing cash out refinances. does everyone here know -- i know diane will tell us what is

a cash out refinance. >> [inaudible] >> it is done basically, the phrase has become using your home as an atm and take the of the equity and did anyone see in the last three or four years any of the financial burrows we're watching on tv? suggesting to us that we pay off our high interest credit card debt and taking out a low-interest home equity loan. wouldn't have been a great idea and a great concept except for in this in the company's i was overseeing most to reduce and that would come and pay off credit-card debt and we didn't have a machine to stuff is out of the brain and they go out and rack of the credit card debt and 56 months later they would be in office and taking out of the equity that had accrued and paying off another 20 credit

cards so we saw a lot of those things. you'd think the writing was on the wall but for me i did not put that together and i think most people during the building of the bubble didn't put those things together. the tipping point came in for anyone who is a fan of a welcome glad well, the tipping point came when allison a mortgage brokers defaulted missing conference in san diego at the end of 2006. do you all know what the fault servicers are? and not by to make her tell us. those of the people who once a loan is in default they work with the permit and is transferred into the bank and their department and their the ones who services the loans once they are not paying. .. you are going to foreclose or how they're going to handle. so there's a conference in san diego and i went to see what's going on in the market. you know when you're at these conferences you hang out at the bar a lot. aside from these sessions i've learned from every single person

that was there that they were completely swamped. they had never seen this many late payments and earl redefault on residential mortgages and something started clicking a little bit so i get on the flight to go back -- how many people here like flying? [laughter] need to. i get on the flight to go back from san diego to miami. i have my plan eight, i have the law covers and a blanket and i have my ipod with great music and here's the plan, i'm going to get on the plane come as soon as it takes off and they start serving drinks i'm going to have to scotches and take a nap. so i am sitting next to a very nice gynecologist from pampered planes. [laughter] the [laughter] the conversation is limited i do not want to know about his last patient i go to reply in this seat and tell me if this is ever happened to you, it is a seat that does not be kline? it is time for plan b cell

that is take out my laptop and to do something with it and that is how it started i started to write the book on the plane at that point* but if you go back late 2006 or just before that if you rewind five or 10 years ago raise your hand if you lose somebody that lost their home to foreclosure five or 10 years ago? i did not either private 1% to was a mortgage broker from california schwinn she confided in me she says she had lost a home to foreclosure and if the two be out. it was maybe 20 years ago and she seemed like be so i thought that is something that could happen to me. than the more i got to know her she was a person that would totally steal your husband. [laughter] it is carved up. and i thought i would be okay. a few fast forward now to our

situation and 9,000 americans per day are losing their homes to foreclosure 14 million people are under water and of course, that means negative equity that you owe more on your home than what it is worth. 40 million people and here in florida we are ground zero for the crisis. our numbers it are one in every 50 homes are in foreclosure. it is huge. last week we read of alcohol think united the second largest failure and since indymac. i have a question but they were talking about one of the guys who ran the group that will take over baying united then that he is 62 years old. why do they do that? if he was 12 that is newsworthy but 62?

i did not understand up and hopefully he will do a good job because it is a good bank with good assets but just had bad decisions. all of a sudden this book i started to write seemed to becoming more relevant and the other thing that is interesting is the way that i was envisioning the way this might play out which is the way i defined "foreclosure nation" but in a nation that became something like this where foreclosure became commonplace where everybody knew somebody where they were in foreclosure i were kids to approve hearing that word denver very accustomed to hearing that as an american institution i envisioned a country where if somebody made a bad financial decision and was upside-down, walking away would be like a financial planning to wall. i envisioned a country where maybe the government would

step been if the company that seemed like it should be able to support itself was having a hard time maybe the government would step in and help them out and i envisioned a company where bailouts were commonplace broke and last week was thinking when i was writing the book that maybe if this played itself out then maybe we would have a situation where government could change the rules so maybe people who had invested in these loans and were promised by contract to a certain rate of return on their investment may be government would sit down at the poker table and impressive play with an entirely sets of different chips all of that sounded very scary as i started to write the book but suddenly it became pretty relevant. one of the things that i was asked to talk about two-day is a crash course saw i am

wondering from you i guess you have heard a two what is called the blame game of but i don't call it that as long as we are learning but the clauses are delivered in a three minute a sound bite has anybody had the extremely stressful pleasure to deliver a three minute sound bite on television? they tell you to be engaging, enthusiastic, upbeat and if you have something to say shocking or sexy that is cool because that will engage the audience. it is true because of the few occasions i have had the opportunity to do that and i don't people i will do that but sometimes they catch it on tv afterwards, they will call me and nobody has mentioned what you said me gelato says our that got me thinking. there is one comment that every single person who watches who has ever seen me

says and you have any idea what that might be? >> your hair looked great. [laughter] it is funny, but it is not because that is our americans are getting their news and that is what people are paying attention two and that tells us something about our country and the information coming to us about this crisis either that or some people who i came out with but either way does anybody have any ideas about what causes? who is to blame for the crisis? banking? anybody heard the banking industry which is gone from the industry where our grandparents would go win to get a loan and the banker knew at were grandfather and he would repay that he would put that in a chore and be responsible to a system that is delocalize were it is sold and they do not know your grandfather and they do not really care. wall street? who learned how to securitize

the loans and a chop them up and sell them in bits and grew banking to start more those loans with the mortgage industry which became an industry and there are good mortgage brokers out there but it was the industry with a low barrier of entry very easy to get into which is completely the opposite of the amount of trust that we place in mortgage brokers you would think people that we trust that much there be a high barrier or what about the way the industry is structured? we are learning mortgage brokers are paid more money for selling high risk loans. one of the things we found out is a lot of people who were put into the subprime mortgages would have qualified for a normal conventional mortgage but there were put into the subprime for one reason because they were paid more money. so those are some of the problems we have heard about the rating

agencies, deregulators and economic cycles in general. economies are like environment. they cycle. we have had of cycles and down cycles in this and other countries who these are the places that the media is directing us to in terms of this crisis because of the sound bites they are so shocking and a sexy and because in truth they are partially to blame and you can explain them in the three minutes. but there are three clauses better way more important to them back. three causes that cause to those clauses and the media is not talking at all about. they are not sexy and you cannot explain them in the three seconds and those are that relate to us because we have complete control, they are number one, a credit. our comfort level and for all

of us in this room or in the country, our comfort level with having debts and our lives. did you know, it 2007 americans spent $800 billion more than they made? and 50% of that came out of the home-equity. the second reason is that change that has happened over the last 100 years, not overnight but the change of our attitude of home ownership. it is amazing in 1900 only about 30 percent of americans own their home. during the height it was the opposite almost 70 percent of americans own their home and we all know that homeowners are worth more they were worth almost $200,000 and the average renter was worth almost 4,000 they have stooges that typically do better in school.

neighbors are better and there is a sense of belonging. homeowners are a great thing but the way things have evolved our government does not reward people for owning their home. does anybody have a grandfather who own their home? do you remember your grandparents? do they happen to mention into one of the goals was two own their home of free and clear? how often do we think about that? for most americans that is completely off of the radar screen that is a second cultural attitude that has a big change. the third issue is madison avenue. i mean advertising and our love, everyone's love in this room for things. because madison avenue knows how important to that is to us and they have gotten really good at targeting us. they know that you like the word credit better than you

like the word that. they know that you think charging is cool. they know that if your neighbor drive something you're more likely to think of applying it for yourself and overstressed and we think we are entitled and we want to things immediately. they know if i pull out an american express blackguard a lot of you would be impressed and they know how to work that f we are not aware of our own spending habits we are in trouble so those three things enabled wall street to do what they did and enabled the banking industry to do what they did or the ratings agencies for what they got away with. it comes back to us. and all those things evolves over the past 100 years, those types of things did not happen overnight. so what is the impact? >> the impact of the five clauses the media talks about

is obvious. statistics are great we can talk about those in the three minutes and they are shocking that is what we see all the time. and we know 19 percent of gdp is related to real-estate 9 million jobs are tied to real estate so we know unemployment rates and all of that but what we don't see is the impact of the three important things because those are not in the news. those are signs we need to look for a little harder because no one will hand them to us. in fact, one example is something i just saw literally a sign on the way over here on federal highway you probably have all driven past it in a car sales place and it says, a bad credit no problem. anybody see those signs? anybody think about the signs?

i don't know which is worse the fact that we see them or that we don't think about it because they did not have those signs for our grandparents because those would not have worked they work for us that is why they're there they must bring customers but they would not have brought in customers during our grandparents' time and i want to know when did bad credit become not a problem? there were a lot of cultural changes like that at the end of the day are impacting where we are prepared by to take a minute to read two pages about this topic that i seeing puts it into perspective it is difficult to observe a cultural changes when you are in the middle it is easier to observe them after with 20/20 hindsight. the phrase american dream was coined about turn-of-the-century european immigrants. is an industrious group for arrived on our nation's shores

of the still more than the clothing on their back. the core financial value including financial values are precisely what we would expect from a generation struggling with two world wars, the great depression, and a polio epidemic. the reward was not merely a new car, house, a jewelry, or the latest clothing. after living under monarchs and the dictator's success was more internal probe there they firmly established work ethic, self-sufficiency, perse verance, practicality, and devotion to saving for a rainy day defined turn-of-the-century americans. the children of these immigrants are baby boomers optimistic kids to grew up with the postwar wave those who modeled the work ethic while relaxing the emphasis on

savings they chose to exchange some analysts' sacrifice for some little luxurious a weekend cabinet, european vacation, convertible, unwitti ngly initiating an important shift in ameritech corporation financial values. boomers worked in part to get a piece of the pie and their fair share for crop true to the version of the american dream our government implemented a succession of programs that ensure all future generations easier access all loans were born and real were no longer having to work quite as hard or persevere quite as long now fast forward 50 years to the boomers' children and grandchildren that was raised on home loans, car loans, and guaranteed government jobs start programs. student loans, unemployment

benefits, food stamps, and most significantly, a credit cards. that would help madison avenue to position and materialism as the entitle my and say we deserve the best we have grown to believe it. drive-through banks, a dry cleaners text messaging, internet, all reinforce our expectation that we can have everything we want now. so we all want a lot of stuff but we do not want to work for it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the math does not work. credit card companies have over time consciously and deliberately aided in altering our society core financial value. even before the crisis, it was obvious the traditional american dream has been displaced. displaced with a better focus that promotes not quality of

life but rather the unbridled production and consumption of stuff. there was never any chance that could last indefinitely and in light of this progression over time and our comfort level with debt hour sense of entitlement to the american dream and it is easy to see how we have had hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgage loans for the home mortgage has involved a chaebol from indispensable tool to achieve the american dream into a mechanism for easier access for cheaper credit. the magnitude of this unconscious evolution is tremendous. as with caris seeing, it alone can mean the difference between a healthy economy and a "foreclosure nation". there is a lot of examples that we can see in our cultural attitudes now. let me ask you when hillary

clinton was running for president does anybody remember her idea to freeze the interest rates it was a major part of our platform and a big issue for a lot of people that was controversial but now that is a no-brainer of course, we will freeze the interest rate. but it the good news is for those of you who want to buy or in a situation is thinking about restructuring , now is the best time ever to do that. any first-time home buyers in the room? for those of you who know a first-time home buyer the prices are great on interest rates are great, the government is giving you an extra $8,000 the same thing with restructuring we'd have made mistakes by this period is the great american dual burper everyone has the opportunity and a second chance to get it right. we spend a lot of time on the website and "foreclosure nation" the book.com 45 step

program for anybody who wants to restructure their financial life we get a second chance you need to get right. for all of us now is the time to look at our cultural attitude and decide which way do we want this to go? the desire is to a knowledge the first up and we have the tools to accomplish that we just have to look back at some of the things our grandparents used to think about i was brainstorming and they came up with things are remember hearing my grandparents say if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. rights. how many people could have been saved a lot of agony by just remembering that? how about be careful who you trust? remember, you are the one responsible for your own decisions. the golden rules to the buy. one other tip because when you try to read this with finance

is it is almost like a dae it is hard to remember if you have tools to help you it makes it easier. i actually save $100 last week using the as. my grand mother passed away this past december. i will buy something and i know i do not need it like a pair of golf shoes i was looking at it on saturday. would grandma by these? that was easy. and most of the time the answer is new broad there are some exceptions like prada shoes on sale i do not care if gramm a would buy them are not. [laughter] but to come up with a simple solution unless but it is an easy way to turn a crisis into an opportunity because the great thing about culture attitude and it changes it can go two ways, can go good or bad. my favorite thing it is up to

us to decide which way it goes. any questions? >> [applause] >> somebody has to have a question. >> what is your advice for somebody's real investor -- real-estate investor today? >> i think the opportunity is zinn to places not necessarily this market but the first time holmes a lot of people are losing homes and in some markets this is something that is happening a lot of their companies going into by 54100 homes and giving those people the opportunity to stay there and rent part of that is one opportunity. distressed properties are another we know that is where the market is recovering. 50% of the home buyers are

first-time buyers 40% of our buying distressed properties. to buy a foreclosure is not for the faint of heart often there is mold but to buy from the investors that bought the foreclosure is a good opportunity. >> i heard that the real-estate developers and the first-time homeowners are bidding against each other driving up with the values of the house is. is that day long term effect? will that increase the cost of housing around town? to make that is just happening in the first time market but that is a good question. back goes to certain statistical indicators there are some questions we will get and on the website "foreclosure nation" in the book.com if you want to see the statistics yourself from the home builders, realtors, we have the links for you there.

but basically we look at foreclosure rates, and inventory, supply and demand, a number of sales, sales prices. and in terms of what you're talking about it is still in the entry-level price range that is definitely the case and this recovery will happen from the ground up it is so uniquely american and in powering opportunity the fact that all of the pent-up demand for first-time home buyers that were afraid to get into the market will be buying now because the prices are right and the government gives them the incentive and because the properties are available there is a wide range of properties but the fact those people will be buying homes for a bus to be is so beautiful and so american the way a system should work, recovery from the ground up but the other issues will linger because when

mr. and mrs. johns could not pay their mortgage on main street that is what brought wall street down. there is something very poetic about that. it expose is a lot of fault lines in the credit default swaps and the mortgage-backed securities that rippled into other industries. one thing we see now in the commercial market, that will be a significant problem because the commercial properties right now are in a situation in the that is even worse than residential where some homeowners cannot refinance or modify and their hands are tied to solve that is a factor that is happening in the certain segments. >> talking about the great american and do over these people that have been foreclosed how will they repair their credit to cover buy a house again?

are they ought of the market corrects first-time home buyers take up those calls but what about those people? >> that is a really good question and parts of the answer goes to the fact that are in so many different situations. the prediction was 2 million people will lose their home but this year alone there will be two millions of the number with the overall estimate is fibers 6 million i think will be more because the first people to be impacted where the subprime mortgages. and the indicator the reason they could predict accurately because it was the interest-rate reset sell as the teaser rate went up people were losing their home but one of the things that happened and that the default lines were exposed and the ripple effects happened and we were all impact did dow one of the biggest drivers are people upside down in their home. i got a call from a radio

interview one doctor who makes half a million per year with a $2 million hall and he was coaching how to walk away from his house there is no way we can predict who will be in that situation the other driver is unemployment. to answer your question to repair credit it varies so much case-by-case but the other challenge is getting the information out to people because it comes from all different place is there is no source for people to go too now we talk about the three men is sound bite it is just not enough one of the things that does not come across is a lot of the modification plans to make homes affordable if you modify a mortgage under that plan the interest-rate resets and goes up in five years and most people are not aware of that because it does not fit into the last three minutes down by.

it is a case-by-case basis but one of the things that is getting out to people now with an important piece of information if you do a voluntary repossession, making homes affordable to include a deed in lieu and a short sale, a short sale is getting bell lenders permission to sell it but it is not enough to pay off the loan but they will take less a deeded lieu of foreclosure you volunteer the work out a deal that you give them the deed and they let you off the hog. >> although it is under coach 22 on the fico score it allow you under fannie mae and freddie back to qualify for a new mortgage sooner than if you have to go to the whole foreclosure process and it is not a voluntary repossessions and there is some information that is out there if you're facing a foreclosure and you

can negotiate a short sale or deed in lieu you can do with because then you can buy a home cracker-- quicker. >> we know the price of the homes are going down and the the property tax is are not changing. is that something that will change in the future where people have to worry i can afford the home but at the end of the year if i after pay the taxes of a previous owner i am back where i started. >> a great question are receiving an increase in home ownership? that is a big question and we have to break it down and see an increase in home in a step in the phoenix, arizona area in the 200,000 price range? look at location and price

range because condominiums is a property that will take a much longer time to recover because there was a heavy influx of speculative buyers in the condo market more so than other markets. the man chance will take a long time to recover because there were more bill to ban people who can afford them. those will have to be sold at discounted prices and the other question is great and i love that to dwell on bowl shoo analogy you can still be fat and try and shoes and do not have to take off your clothes. the thing is that buying a house is not like buying a pair of shoes. i can go out and i can spend how many dollars on a pair of shoes but the deal will cost me to repair that it will cost me the same as my payless shoe. once i take the big bite i am

done. a house is not like that. if you belong in a 2500 square foot house if you stretch to get into a 5,000 square foot the real-estate taxes, insurance, the lawn service will be higher, air-conditioning, roof repair, everything is higher which is why 60 percent of the mortgage modifications don't work because it is not just a mortgage payment but everything else that goes with the. one of the things that you can do as property values go down and the appraisers all over the country are grappling with this you can ask to have your taxes reassessed with a petition and here we do that in august and it is a process to ask to have that done per also you're able to do a modification with the bank and you are the few fortunate they can get a principal reduction then you're homeowners should

go down drastically so there is a little you can do with some of those processes. that is part of the overall ripple effect one of the many reasons that the crisis spread to other areas and one of the many reasons we still have surprises we did not expect because 70% of local government taxes come from real-estate so as people petition and to have them lowered i don't know if you heard of the sheriff's department had to slash there budget three or read about smaller municipalities where everyone is bringing their lawn mower to the local parts because they cannot have park service. there is nothing wrong with that. is sounds horrible i remember hearing in the "wall street journal" somebody would have to move in with their parents again. not necessarily that i would

want to do that. [laughter] but i don't think that is such a horrible thing if we return to living with the nuclear family. in a lot of cases that is that i sing. onofre answer your question but i hope that i did. any other questions? >> the average person there is a lot of information out there and in new information about how to buy, and what you just said about coated 22 and the impact and what it has on the credit score but you could seek a new, it seems blurred and people are terrified to go to a mortgage broker because they may have been a scam the first times the word is the average person go to get it fights to navigate? it is a nightmare to negotiate this stuff they do not want to talk to you and tell you are defaulting and they're trying

to have a conversation to say i am trying not to default what can you do? comeback in the days when you have defaulted. >> that is a challenge and who do i trust? i have heard of modification companies that are knocking on people's doors. i heard the other day from a friend of mine i did not want to burst is bubble i said maybe you should think about plan b. modification companies are charging 40% of what they save you which you cannot pay right now and they are securing that with a second mortgage on your home. talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire and there was just a warning out to lawyers to be aware of modification people who want to team up with them to legitimize that but it is a great question because it goes to educate yourself because

they golden rule number 11 of the things we try to do is provide tips and it is updated today's updated literally daily wheat have information how to choose a modification company and i think people should go with an attorney but just because they have a law degree does not mean you are a good guy it gives you tips how to interview, how to choose, how to keep your fees down, how to communicate to make sure nothing falls in the cracks and the internet is a great recourse. one of the things i can say if they knocked on your door, don't answer it because they are not legitimate. but i was that the default servicing conference and 2006 and the banks have still not gotten their act together. we have to give them credit.

all of this is a double-edged sword so they are stuck in a metal they do not know what role they will change. there will be many periods of time and most of these take three or four months before they start to get out there but there have been many times you call the bank and they say we're not doing that plan yet we'll modify for three months and if we're doing that plan maybe will qualify so we're in the middle of this. and there is a huge psychological barrier to people calling the lender because they do not want to call them the you have to because if you do you have to get information and no the process because it varies by state and from one vendor to another one day they may be getting the rule from higher up we do not want to foreclose on anyone but the next day it

could change because they have regulators coming and all the time. we're in this together and it is important to be patient and remember the servicer on the other end has way more work to do than they need to and we may be good guys but i have heard so many stories the borrowers who have not paid 1 penny in a year and and half and delay and delay and living for free. there is another side of that going. the other thing about calling your lender if a body is planning on doing that. you don't call them just once but every two or three weeks. they may say no last week but this week they may say yes and you need to take some power. think of the relationship that you are good at and negotiate a deal. ask them what is the best deal you have given anyone today? they will not volunteer the

information. you have to ask them. >> is sounds like now it is more for the person that is under water having trouble but i am getting advice out there that if you are that homeowner where you're making your payment and you do have a good job you are in a situation where you're probably could negotiate for a better mortgage, issue due do that or hold tight and wait? is it is confusing july jump into this arena with people that are really trying to modify or do i just pay my mortgage and look at home-equity dwindle? it is confusing because when you call your bank they think i am crazy per car will it meant i have called them and i said i can never default i just want to know restructuring or is there a situation that i can talk to somebody to see if i can

refinance? they think i am an alien and why do i raise my time? tuleh just sit back and watch it play out? >> . >> just because you have not jumped on board i think a lot of people who do not need the help are looking to take advantage and what is the best way i can get out of this? at some point* it will be an ethical judgment call for you. and in a sense that goes to some of the cultural changes because if i had said to use three years ago or five years ago, i know you are a little worried about this but do not worry about it because of a sense of being a bad investment you will bail per everybody will bail. we laugh but if that is the direction our country is going we need to think about that. you are definitely in a way

two and see mode get as much education as you can. the girl new does my hair and a pair they should as a good job because everybody tells me that. [laughter] she finds out all of these things about this program or that program she called counselors she does not need help but in your situation she wanted them to do a budget and she said it was the most amazing thing she had never done one herself she is not bad, she does a pretty good job her and her husband work buy she took a vantage and got a free budget done and said it was awesome. that is a positive thing that was a make a phone call and keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities because there may come a time when most lenders say your upside-down, we recognize this, but we want to provide this program for people just like you and reward people

like us who are doing the best we can and want to pay off our home. won a opportunity people have been calling me asking me about principal reductions and for a lot of reasons banks are bound by other regulations and investors and tax issues even if they wanted to do that for business reasons they cannot. but in some cases getting the interest rate deduction is just as good the great american into over is like all of us winning the lottery if you can get the interest rate deduction and save 30,000 per year for the next five years, that isn't winning a $150,000 lottery ticket investigator options and as some point* you may need to make the ethical decision in july need to do this on the back of my government or what is the decision?

>> i am worried that most people will not make the change in. you say there is the opportunity for a do over or there'll be an opportunity to reset the people go back to their ways once they get their job back the marketing voice is are so much stronger than the voices of people like you. we do not hear them. so how will that voice be heard and how can we get people or the majority, of 100 years as a long time from the great depression is kind of repeating but it was a big impact and i can see why my grandparents made the decisions that they made and i hope this is a big enough impact to change the current generation. >> statistics are up i and i hate to tell you that every single person in this room made a change today and talk

to five people they knew it would literally show up on the statistics for broward county. is starts someplace. let me ask you before september 11 did you ever think this country would be so security conscious? it took a crisis now it is part of their culture before a house nor was it in inconvenient truth did you think brad pitt would build greenhouses in new orleans? [laughter] >> it is hard. that fundamental shift is really challenging. >> it takes an acute episode that takes trying people's attention to it which we have everybody's attention and it also takes giving people the tools to do that. it works in the opposite way

we cannot feel totally disempowered. remember the started win at mr. and mrs. john stopped paying their mortgage and we brought down these titans. this is america. i am not advocating a coup d'etat for a. [laughter] eighty educating your own kids in your own house. any other questions? thank you so much for coming [applause] >> you can learn more about our booktv programs and offers online. there you can five schedules of programs, video clips and upcoming book fairs and festivals. the kansas

city public library in kansas city missouri is one hour. >> let me take my jacket off i cannot stand that he. [laughter] wyss what alike can xm. [laughter] what a great venue that you have this auditorium and it is a real pleasure to be here. my third time in 10 kansas city and each time i seem to enjoy it more and more. my brother howard was helping me out on this trip we went to the baseball game last night. it went 11 innings we did not

stay the whole game but if you have not been to kauffman stadium lately to see the changes it is pretty cool. the stadium is great. bess truman was a big baseball fan and she was a sports fan in the house. a and as a kid she played a lot of sports but harry was not much of an athlete he wore glasses and confessed to not being very coordinated but best play a pretty good shortstop according to harry. and in her later years she follow the royals pretty closely. she was on larry co-chair of the thomas eagleton in 1970 for running for reelection of the senate was honorary co-chair of his campaign and when he went to the house on delaware st. all she wanted to talk about was the royals'.

[laughter] but about this story takes place in this summer 1953 about six months after harry and bess left the white house. that summer they did something that millions of ordinary americans do all the time and something that has never been done before. they took a vacation, summer vacation, road trip. harry was behind the wheel and bess rode shotgun they drove from independence to the east coast and back it lasted 19 days for it was unique because the truman's travel alone at that time effects presidents did not get secret service protection and so it was just them in the chrysler new yorker with no security contingent, no press, just a middle-aged couple driving across america in a heat wave than just as they receive no secret service protection

ex-president's also received no pension. harry and bess chairman ron a fixed income so as a result they were frugal one night they stayed in a cheap motel another 90 in indianapolis they slept with friends a check most meals at roadside diners as my exhaustive research has revealed they were parcel to a fruit plate and i see never before since has a president and first lady mingled so low casually with a fellow citizens. it was a road trip unlike any other in american history. i have written a book about i happen to think it is a pretty good book you can decide for yourself. but first let me tell you about myself and how i came to know the story. in college i majored in folklore.

you may be surprised to find out that is not in the lucrative profession. [laughter] so shortly after graduation i began to work can public radio which is kind of a welfare program for people with a useless liberal arts degree, like me. [laughter] this worked out pretty well i worked in seattle, louis, and minnesota common name, in 2003 went to los angeles for a news program called marketplace and this time by a talented wife took the floor and service exam and passed a hand in 2005 she was hired by the u.s. state department and we were sent and her first assignment to someplace we did not know we were sent to a small landlocked nation and in west africa and i found i had a lot of time on my hands and gave me ample time to write my

first book which is called last team standing about the 1943 merger of the pittsburgh steelers and philadelphia eagles during world war ii that nfl was so short they had to merge the two day became, the receiver was blinded in one eye, the running back cattle sears. [laughter] they did much better than you might expect. however how well? , the book is available in paperback. after that came out i was still in west africa and had plenty of free time in my hand so i began to fish around for another book idea and i suspect like most others i keep a folder marked ideas. 99.9% are bad and that is a good word and every wants in awhile you find a gem but then

where the papers truman road trip it was back in 1988 and at this time i was working at the station in st. louis and i was doing research for the 50th anniversary of the 1940 whistle stop campaign and i went to the chairman library and they still had his cars in the basement of the little display and his driver's license and registration and a clip from a magazine of him a filling up his car and that mentioned it was taken in the summer of 53 within harry and bess truman were the shirley motoren eastward and it struck me as unusual that the soon after being president that they had taken in this stripper i began to research the story again been 2006 and it was more fascinating that i

have helped mostly because the main character is so fascinating. harry truman is one of the most unlikely president's in american history for car would say the most unlikely cents grover cleveland was elected mayor of buffalo in 1881, the governor of new york in 1982 and accredited and 84 in three years to arrive from mayor to president the first time he was in washington was for his inauguration and harry remembers grovers second election. so the second time he was elected it is not consecutive but another great democratic president that harry was quite fond of but he himself was born 125 years ago his early life was a remarkable he worked in a bank, he was a

former and served as an officer in world war i, opened a haberdashery in kansas city and then there is a financial crisis, a panic and he and jacobson and loss that haberdashery and it to carry many years to pay off the debt. this is harry truman in the summer 1922, 38, unemployed and living at his mother-in-law's. at the time bess said to her mother don't worry harry is going places and the mother said he better hurry up. [laughter] circumstances did not portend great as. but it fades common destiny, a chance, a god, something intervened as it would time and again in his life but in the summer of 221 old army buddy named prendergast used

he served in france with had aa uncle tom prendergast two is a big political boss in kansas city at the time. there were looking for a candidate to run for judge which you probably know is like a county commissioner. and heave fits perfectly a farmer, a baptist, mason in 1922 he was elected judge, 12 years later prendergast was looking for a good candidate to run for senate and again harry fits the bill and gets elected and 10 years later in chicago and the 44d and c party bosses are looking for someone to replace henry wallace on the ticket that was roosevelt vice president at the time. talk about a book, henry wallace was a genius probably one of the smartest men to ever hold national elected

office a plant geneticist by training and astrology and metaphysics extremely liberal, also told reared and the party bosses aubrey need to replace him so they did but all other candidates were too liberal or too conservative but truman was picked and they joked it was another missouri compromise. on april 12, 1945, franklin roosevelt died and harry s. truman became president he was vice president 82 days and head match with fdr just twice outside of cabinet meetings and all the time per car his presidency encompassed major defense with the end of world war ii, united nations, and / forward 80 years almost 1953, january 20 and dwight d. eisenhower is inaugurated as

president and just as he was back in the summer of 1922 harry truman is unemployed after the swearing in the secret service drove them to union station and said goodbye and they rode a train back to independence. i guess they rode their train to kansas city -- kansas city. harry did not know to do with himself there is a river he would run from the missouri senate or a governor or even he would run for president in 1956 he was the last president eligible to serve more than two terms for colleges occurs to me that republicans pass back why did they grandfather him and? but none of these ideas are far-fetched because the fact

is harry truman had to do something. he needed and come but he did not have been the specialized training. he had nothing more than a high-school diploma the last president without a post secondary degree his only income was army pension of $111 after taxes. that was for his service in world war i as an officer in the army he did not receive credit for his almost eight years as commander in chief which to meet seems a little unfair. but that is how the are recalculated his pension so he has $112 per month and he needed money because being an ex-president he quickly found was very expensive. he received 1,000 letters per day when he first left office and his policy was to answer everyone he felt his somebody wrote him a letter it demanded

a reply and if you go to the truman library there are acres of file cabinets filled with responsive you sent a newspaper clipping he sent you a letter back and said they q for sending this and sometimes he would say i do not agree or i do agree me he answered every single letter. a stamp cost $0.03 a first year alone the postage was at $10,000. so he had considerable expenses when he left office but not and come p rented an office just to handle the of mail and he had to assistance that had worked with him in the white house to help them answer the mail and with this other various a doo-doos he was invited to things just to handle correspondence he could have solved his money problems overnight there is a chain of clothing stores and offered to pay $100,000 per year for a

job as a sales manager which would not require him to do work, one company wanted to put out so, keep you claim or come up with your own slogan. [laughter] all kinds of offers and some of them were very questionable. he refused them all he did not want to do anything that would commercialize the presidency. . . he would donate the remainder to the library, the truman library fund but he would not accept a big speaking fees or seats on corporate boards. this of course is a precedent that has not withstood the test of time. harry was not the first president to face money problems when he left office. this actually goes back to really the earliest days of the

country. james monroe had to move in with his daughter and her husband he was so destitute. ulysses s. grant famously lost all of his money in a swindle at one time. only had $80 the bank. grant was saved from financial ruin by selling his ms. myers to in the memoirs of work commercial and critical success of their published after his death in a finished writing them shortly before he died. congress was lowered to grant pensions to presidents and were a little more generous with presidential with who got $5,000 a. never many bills introduced after grants money problems to provide for presidential pensions but inevitably these bills died in. i guess there was a feeling looking back at some of the newspaper clippings from the various bills that presidents committed was undemocratic for presidents to receive pensions

but there's another side isn't totally of a service of their country and when they were done finish with their presidential service their return to be just ordinary citizens. is really quite a grand ideal but as terry discovered not very realistic one and incidentally congress has been a little more generous with their own pensions they began collecting pensions in 1946. unfortunately for harry that is the year after he left congress. his hair is timing was not very could put it came to getting a pension. about a month after you left office in february 1953 it seemed like his money problems are solved with -- the publisher giving him advance of $600,000 to write his memoirs and in mine never simmered remained with us and dollars a. as he might grant his problems have been solved by a book deal.

in but as anybody who's ever done a book of fans can tell you that are not always as they seem and in harry's kiss the 600,000 but the advance was taxed as income as 67% at the time. and it is worth noting here that as of heart for your serial have received $600,000 advance and the irs at the time remembered it truman was president determined that that should be taxed as a capital gain and 25% and not as income reasoning that eisenhower was a general and not a writer by profession so the capital gain not income when harry went to the irs and sen and mine be taxed as capital gains cannot income and they said no and this did not foster positive relations between eisenhower in truman so six of a

thousandth of that 200 had to hire an army of ghost writers and researchers as well as maintain his office expenses and years later his way out of that bucket santi netted $37,000. still and let him splurge a little and so he bought a car, a big black 1953 chrysler new yorker. how much to pay for the car, chrysler definitely gave harry and deal and have found a letter that suggested he may have been of little as $1 still he bought the car in some deals are even too good for harry truman to pass up. when he was president he would drive his own limousine the case nellie and talk about something you probably own cnn at one time for the july speaking engagement in charlottesville he drove his limousine back to washington and

it was reported that he is traveling 65 miles per hour in a 55 mel barzun and he was furious about an editor of letter when he was one of was never sent and the truth was he did try to fast and of all the presidential i would say this is pretty much the indisputable fact. he was very meticulous about his cars and you measure the tire pressure and the tread in and regulate in the tire however he washed the them and change the oil and his very meticulous about keeping track of his gas mileage. he kept a little currents and every gasoline purchase he made was duly markdown and the mileage calculated. and a lot of us still do that so it's not that unusual. i'm doing it on this trip myself and, of course, you love to

drive and often as senator would drive from indifference to washington and back then he unprecedented trip often it will use in the senate his own he received an invitation in the spring of 1953 to give a speech in philadelphia he decided to accept it. and the one of the things he decided to accept it was because it would give him an excuse to have a road trip. it said he wants to give the new chrysler a real tryout and this of the propriety to become a judge in the discuss and back again. the two go to washington and seeing friends and york and see their daughter there at the time. i also thank you want to make the transition from being mr. president to as you call that mr. citizen. one of his heroes was the roman general cincinnatus the source of power after battle and return to the farmer. i think this was an ideal that harry believed in deeply and he

believed he could make the move from being a leader of the free world to plan private citizen and this was one way he could do it was by taking this trip. in bess perhaps the voice of reason that was a pretty crazy idea your harry seemed to think they could travel and todd nato and for some reason he thought nobody would recognize him. and that bess was a little more realistic about things and they weren't young, 68 and 69 years old. the physical toll it would take an harry did all the driving and he did all the driving. the and it she thought he drove to a passel of essentially he wore her down and she agreed to the choke on the condition that he drive more than 55.

he agreed to this but it was quite a concession on his part and at the time there were no speed limit. opposed to limits in missouri and think the wording, was safe and prudent is how you were instructed to drive one so i guess that is an objective measure of speed and. but he agreed to and the restriction so he began planning for this trip and it's fun to read about his brand of the maps out on the dining room table, he tried every mile and turn in every stop to make along the way and as i said he had done that the chip in the senate in a time so he knew his favorite places in the also shine to mix up the route of the low but some of people did find out people can catch up with them and on the

morning of june 19th 1953 he passed the chrysler with 11 suitcases. they didn't travel light. of [laughter] he likes to dress up. both did. margaret said in u.s. and excellent packer and he prided himself on that but now that i think about a thing to do get fewer than 11 suitcases of europe and on excellent packer. and they got and the chrysler and started driving east and a few hours later and i believe he took 24 to monroe city and then 36 to hannibal so that to handle an injunction and 31 and 61 and there was a diana there. they parked in front of an ice cream stand. there was a 12 year-old girl working from her father owned a sustanon and this 12 year-old girl named tony, now tony

walker, i was able to find her, she saw them parked in front of the ice cream stand and walk next door to the diner. she knew her dad didn't like him when they parked their rigs issues came to her dad and harry truman it just part up front, do you want me to make him move the car? [laughter] he came out of a chorus was very surprised to see that, in fact, harry truman was parked in his parking lot and he went out and chatted with harry for a while and did not make can remove the car. they went into the diner and it was lunchtime and then a fairly busy time of the year. nobody noticed them and they sat down and ordered fruit and ice t and they did enjoy their mail and complete anonymity. until they got to pay. and just as they got to play an old county judge walked into the

diner and recognize harry not as a former president but as a former jackson county judge. and said there is judge truman. and then everybody in the restaurant wanted his autograph and had to shake his hand and. that is pretty much how it went the rest of the trip. just when the death of their getting by as an unknown couple some living would recognize them and then is to lead to say the economy no was off. he handle all this onslaughts so well and people ask good to apply this take place today and a dissident in a practical sense but his personality was so well suited to it to apply this and he never refused a request when it people press around him for autographs and handshakes and summit asked him one time had to deal with these onslaughts

full-time and he said i'd try to imagine what they would feel like if some proposed a big shot ignored made. he did have a sense of them if they like that i think that really made it possible for him to do a trip like this and away that maybe would not be possible for other politicians and indicator they stopped at the park view and they stop at this, $5 a night is with the motel cost and for the book every two is the trip and and try to eat with a commitment the people they met with and so in decatur and down this motel that is mel their purvis imprisoned. [laughter] in is actually in prison for work-release inmates when the thing about that is a great idea for a motel and turned into a prison for work-release inmates if you will use it for a home tell whether this is a sign of the time syndicator i can tell

you. i talk to one of the occurrence of the prison and dimension to her how funny about it was that an inmate no sleeves and the salmon that harry truman was leptin and he said, no, three inmates in the room harry truman and slept in. [laughter] in indianapolis in the press with friends as people often do on road trips the state of the house of the former democratic national committee chairman and spoke with their daughter multnomah that she came home that night from an aunt of dancing only to find a harry truman a plant their families living room piano in the early morning hours and apparently he had a couple of bourbons that night. in maryland and they stop with the princess was john, in diner in rosburg carolyn, and they splurge on a chicken dinner and the recognized him.

the cook was an old mess army surgeon the there was no getting away from a tear and soon, of course, business was booming at the princess and phones are ringing all over town and the princes as far as i know is the only family owned enterprise or business that the truman's patronized on a trip that is still in the same family and in the same business. if you happen to be taking u.s. 40 through western maryland and prosper and the princess is still there, still owned by the same family and spent the truman bruce has been preserved now have a plaque above the booth and says harry and bess ain't no lunch year 1953. then then went to washington and some friends and went to york and spent a interesting days with market as their guide sightseeing in newark and a state of the waldorf towers.

in this was interesting because i was curious how he was able to afford this and that the truman library in saved everything. in he never wrote a letter that he didn't save it and they have all the correspondence with the general manager of the volvo towers and soon after they heard he was one to be making his trip the wrote him a letter and 72 like to stay with us for free. and he wrote back in san i think that would be all, right. [laughter] so that this house be one, former leader of the free world no cash strapped was able to afford the events of the waldorf and an interesting, harry was in -- i'm going to forget the floor. this week was directly above herbert hoover's. hoover lived at the waldorf at the time. and truman and hoover had sort of an complex relationship. truman rehabilitated to

reputation after roosevelt signed and changed the name of a boulder dam back too. them and so they have become quite close within in the election of 1952 truman and again and of the name of hoover of movers and comparing eisenhower to hoover. the democrats ran against hoover for 30 years and it with some success so harry was about to stop so i the thing had to with the time because there's no record that the two sign other fall here was upstairs and herbert was downstairs and i always wonder how they manage to staff and the must have been on pins and needles try to keep this as a part not to mention that douglas macarthur was six floors up. [laughter] the spend eight days sightseeing and it took improv ratios and the went to the 21 club broke

all of the rich and famous went into of it and they went there another diner came in a. was the governor of new york, is doing which presented a problem for the maitre d with the 21 club of the time had two floors of the lucky they are able to seat do we and truman far apart. everywhere they went in new york they took cabs. harry parked the car at the waldorf and it took cabs there were they went on like most tourists they didn't have trouble getting a cab because soon as they would recognize harry truman was tried to wave him down and there would pull over in droves and had no trouble getting a cab incidentally by white and i stayed at waldorf. we were upgraded. in the gaming that at least. on the drive home a state trooper main sampler is a cop in pennsylvania you pulled hurry

over on the pennsylvania turnpike for careless driving. he liked to hang out in the left lane and you have to say there unless to pass. there were cars lined up behind him some in the he motion before harry to pull over and so he did and he got out and adjusted the smokey bear hat and went down to the carton of inside and he said the one of my going to do now? [laughter] i just during -- and i just the rest of harry truman. truman later insisted he pulled them over to shake his hand. [laughter] he is still alive and well. he lives outside phoenix and he says i did not pull him over to shake his hand. i pulled him over because he is violating the law as also said he did not ask for an autograph a wish he had because it might be worth something today and he did let him off with a warning

and casually went back to the barracks and mentioned it to the desk sergeant say you'll never guess to a pull lower today in the next day was all the papers that harry truman had pulled over for a traffic violation and the republican papers especially had a good time with that. the return to independence on the eighth of july. the trip taught him something and that is of that you can't really go back to being in plan private citizen after you have been president of the devastates and he wrote in a letter to her friend, i can't seem to get from under that awful clear that cents on the white house and it's sad because i think he felt like he had almost become a burden to his friends, that he had lost something, that he, you can't be casual when you are a

former president. my brother and i went over to the truman home into the tour. of course, you are reminded in on the back porch when they came home they returned to this same house they had been living in basically all their lives. bess mother died in 1952 and that bess and harry brought out her two brothers and was the first time he ever owned a house. didn't own a house until 1952 and they came to this house and i think it first expected to settle into ordinary quiet retired life and they would go on on the back porch and of the weather was nice read the papers and people would be lined up along the fence i guess they call at the road watching them. the he ate breakfast and read the paper so it was not what he

had quite expected so that is when they let although bush's crop on the side of the porch because you can see from the the site of the road anymore. in january 58 killing and had a few years here's hold of the family brandel. they were going to build the harry truman library on the family farm in brand new but harry's all that off in part because of financial since iterations and he had to sell enough to help make ends meet. it was turned into a shopping center truman chorus. later that year 1958 congress passed a bill of renting epps president's pensions. these students are not unrelated with harry having to sell the family farm and i think finally spurred congress to give them a pensions. there were $25,000 a year plus 50,000 for office expenses and

unlimited franking privileges postage which was important to harry. he said all along just give me a postage so they did it and gave him a little more. incidentally by that time a two-minute hoover had kissed and made up in their friends again. mainly through the shared misery of having to raise money to build a presidential library and the commiserated on this man who rented mean a pension. he made his foreman and mining before going into politics and, in fact, been rumored to not accept the the salary as president so he did in the pensions but he didn't want to make kerry look bad so he did take the pension and i believe donated to his library. and 25,000 a year is what they got in 1958 and today the president pension is paid to the cellar of the cabinet level

officer in the cabinet so it is nearly $200,000. the office expenses are marvelous of limited. bill clinton, the rent on his office in harlem last year was more than $500,000. gives you some idea of the expense of maintaining our ex-president's not to mention the fact they now speaking at an event for one and a thousand dollars a pop. and also goes without saying that ex-president's rallies wrath themselves anywhere anymore. in 1953 "the new york times" said that of their trip, it is as it should be that the american ex-president accompanied only by his wife with no revenue in ceremony can ride around the country and no one think an unusual. it to someone up somehow. and i think of to six years later is still does. of like to leave of guilt and assert from the book for you.

that is particularly relevant to this part of the country. this is describing a low but what his life was like right after he retired it became to independence. back in independence very soon settled into a routine and a look every morning at 530 toughest ever in the morning papers, picked the came from his collection of 100 and took his walk. his wife was sometimes walk to the towns where passing the jackson county courthouse built in 1934 when u.s. the time is presiding judge and other times to meander through the residential never moves around his home. an old newsreel shows him into a love his talks with small boys suddenly jumps out of the bushes and choose the former president with a toy gun. truman lesson pads to the irrepressible tyson, head and today is a chris service agent watching it would likely suffer a heart attack and the unlucky

youngster who attempted such an airbus would help in a pail of gunfire. [laughter] by the house he had practiced who did not share his penchant for early rising. around nine he went into his office, a three-room suite on the 11th for in kansas city. sometimes mike west could of independence with his part-time bodyguard and sometimes he would drive him off and he drove himself and harry truman was planted in black letters on the opaque glass is like a detective agency and two months of the only reason he put his name on the doors to keep people from saving for a bathroom. he had to assistance, his press secretary who has served him in the same capacity and francis meyer said receptionists who also worked in the german white house. he paid their salaries of his own pocket much of his day was spent answering mail. use a more than 7,000 in the first two weeks after leaving

the white house and as many as a thousand thereafter. knows from where oil shares and invitations to national conventions and on about for us, budding politicians as for his device or endorsements and the founder of a new cold try to improve him when he cashing mountain and into his looking for a silver dollar swinton in 1924 the silver dollar supported by the dozens. the truman estimated that less than one-half of 1 percent of the letters came from crackpots and a statistic that surprised him. i expected more he cent and its chances to make people mad. trim and maintain an open door policy to a son and even his top by was likely to get an audience with the former president and many people he said feel a president is parley theirs and they are to some extent correct and that they ever right to call upon him. his office telephone number was listed in the kansas city directory. his home number was unlisted,

probably in deference to bess. when he was an answering mail or unintended visitors are taking an system telephone calls who is busy raising money, not for himself with the branch library he planned to build a on the family farm in grandview. it would serve as a repository for his papers which were stored in 404 filing cabinets on the fourth floor of the jackson county courthouse. truman and fish in the library as a research center for the benefit of small colleges in the midwest. he wasn't interested in the moral to myself. obey custom discuss for the next generation and away and the size he didn't think much of most of living. you can never tell what foolishness may get into before they get into a pine box and the moral is cut down. at [laughter] around 4:00 o'clock he would go home and after dinner he listen to newscast 42 on the radio then retired to the reading room door handles his passion for history

and by 10:00 o'clock he was in bed and he was in many respects a perfectly ordinary life. and that's all i have to say right now. if you have any questions of like to take them and then even more like to tell you some books. if [applause] i think we're going to do the line that method here. i think if we could go to committee to have a question. >> i thank you indicated the germans attended several places in your call they were there. in the jury search reveal what plays they saw? >> yes is saw a play called

wonderful town modulus one of several tony awards that. also i play my three angels. wonderful town was an interesting play because it was very complicated and there were a lot of key changes. i don't know much about broadway musicals but agassi was so complicated is the vehicle for image forever to production companies to take on without the kind rejuvenating energy of being down by summer stock and amateur productions has been lost and the story of two girls who go to the big city and find love and fortune was pretty basic and my three angels was the other play and actually went to the theater the winter garden theater were wonderful town was performed in and i went to see the plan that they are now

wintus -- mama mia -- it does not perform at the theater of the winter garden theater were wonderful town was performed and on not about to pass judgment on the quality of broadway musicals or the people who attended but there has been some noticeable decline between wonderful town and mama mia the that is just name. but it was a deductible expense at least. [laughter] which is force the because broadway plays are not cheap but those of the place this fall when they were in new york. >> my other question is rarely did we see pictures of the bess treatment without her hat on the pyramid to shiver her hat while she was riding shotgun to york and back? >> actually -- the -- you have on the cover? yes she does.

and alice little caris and this of 11 pieces of luggage that harry patten to the chrysler whether they counted the hatboxes a separate piece of luggage because that would tend to mitigate the whole over packing think if the canada hotboxes a separate piece of luggage but bess did like her had. it is funny just doing the research on this about bess truman and i was really struck by the difference between the public perception of the bess and how it seemed two really was. to is a very gregarious turning and going kind of person here for some reason and maybe this is because of her appearance which is completely unfair but the public perception was a dower and audi kind of matronly woman and her personality couldn't have been more different than that public perception and is a shame the

she was very private. she mustn't even carry the about the idea of him being nominated her as president and jerry felt there were two far away from independence and her mother did not like to spend time away from independence at all. so she was very private and very rich it reserved and very interesting on this trip she gave an interview when she was in indianapolis on this trip which was extremely rare. i remember when she was in the white house and eleanor roosevelt had press conferences and so when harry became president they said is she going to have press conferences and i think the answer was i need to get back to which a smart. he was inclined to answer for bess. and she didn't want to have press conferences and finally submitted to written questions. all the answers are, yes, or no. [laughter] she just to not take too being

in public the way harry dead so she loved her hats. >> when president truman left office he was not the most popular of presidents. my question is on this trip did you run into any animosity brandy people shaking fists or anything of that nature? >> honestly i did not find it and i can't believe it didn't happen but i didn't find a record an incident of that and you're right. in his approval rating was about 22% when he left office in early 1953 which is just about where george w. bush was when he left office in january of 2009 and it's interesting that george w. bush compared him and i think for obvious reasons he hope indicated in the way it has spent but he was very unpopular

and he is piece about how surprised he was of an outpouring of affection for him even as early as the ride home on the train crowds came up to say goodbye to them and then on the trip itself everywhere they went people were there and affectionate toward him and he was quite surprised by that. some may send something interesting and i forget where i read this but the gallup polls or presidential popularity in the 1950's, there was still such a reverence and respect for the presidency that there's probably a certain percentage who under no circumstances said that they disapproved so pointed to the public a pretty generous figure in terms of what his popularity was in late 52 an early 53 and, of course, it was the korean war which was the major issue in his presidency which continued into his own popularity and i tried to get across in the book that the road trip anyway how to

rehabilitate his personal or his reputation and released his standings and i think in 1969 he was like the numbers of men that most prospective a man in america according to a gallup poll and nixon was number one. in. >> thank you. >> i know president truman read a lot and his preparation for the trip did he read certain books or did he sign see, or their places you wanted to go? >> i do know he did this? he researched every time on the itinerary to find out the local issues were appearing he was still a politician at heart and

soul is amazing he shows up in a really west virginia and a reporter tried some down in the lobby of the mccourt hotel. it actually stay there and was also where mccarthy gave his famous i have in my hands and list of of the known communist agents and the state department but airport attracts him down in the lobby of the hotel in west virginia and said how is your trip going and he said is going very well but those very sorry to hear that congress did pass funding for the flood wall and reeling. and [laughter] so if he knew exactly what the issues were along the way and clearly done a lot of preparation before he left to note the individual issues as well and in towns along the way so he could and be prepared to answer and the trip was a political calling out party.

the speech in philadelphia was political and part of the purpose was for him a to begin engaging in politics again and he really was the first i guess they call kennedy the first television president but he was kind of the first television ex-president. he was the first ex-president of the area of mass media to really be involved politically and the rebel this time was an old man and not active politically so yes, that is what he did in preparation for this chip. >> was the interested in american history and battlefields. >> the play most of the sizing was in new york but their big cabs in the story to and it's interesting we talk about how they got recognized, there are too long, i'm not been able to find any mention of what they did. they drove clear across ohio.

the second of the trip and there's no mention of where they stop for dinner on what they did it. so there are gaps in there and i wonder if they didn't do some sightseeing are the raised filing got to enjoy dinner in peace and quiet. >> after mr. truman sold the family firm to do research indicates how he acquired at the present side of the library financially and how he picked that site? >> i believe the city of independence actually donated the land to the truman library inc. did after the firm was sold and that is how he came to be in independence. >> there is a building just near 39th and wyoming that has a sign on and that harry s. truman

own good or office they're coming to know anything about that? >> i don't. does anybody here now? 3910 wyoming i don't know that he owned property apart from the house. >> he owned an apartment building. >> this gentleman says he owned an apartment building in fourplex, i didn't know that and i guess in his later years he may have invested in some property. i know in the early time of 53 to 58 he did not. >> is simple question about the car trip. what was the price of gasoline than the price ended harry keep track of his gas mileage? >> s was $0.27.1 a gallon. the day he left standard oil had hiked the price of penne a gallon and there was talk of collusion between the zero

companies then there were simultaneously raising the price and, of course, they complained that the price skyrocketed to $3 a barrel so what can they do it except pass the cost on to consumers. a house subcommittee actually investigated. his mileage was 16 to 17 mpg and he was very proud of that which was pretty good mileage for a cry that been at that time. >> on a trip to this and any post cards of their journey? >> i haven't been able to find any an analyst pretty surly and i found it hard to believe that at least when they were in new york that they didn't send a some kind of communication back to family but i guess they pick figured the trip was pretty well covered by the media at this point so there was no need to say we were okay but i it would have loved to have found a postcard from harry truman to

his brothers are something like that but i did not find any. >> analysts in your bibliography you talk to daniel. >> yes. >> that was soon a grandson of. >> the grandson of. >> they sent a post from a bid to the grandchildren of the trip. >> but in 53 this was two years before margaret married clifton. thank you. [applause] thank you very much. >> thank you for coming. he will be out this way signing books and we will see you next time. [applause]

>> want coming up next booktv presents after words, an hourlong interview program for we invited guests toast to interview the author of a new book. this week journalist gwen ifill examines a new generation of african-american politicians in the "the breakthrough: politics and race in the age of obama". she profiles massachusetts governor duval patrick, new york mayor cory booker, congressman archer davis and president barack obama. and presents his thoughts on the thoughts the civil rights movement played in the road to office. she discusses her book with david brooks, op-ed columnist with the new york times. >> host: welcome to after

words. my name is david burns and columnist for the new york times in joined today by an author, gwen ifill, and we are here not only to talk about her book by talk about her book "the breakthrough: politics and race in the age of obama". though i think of this is the show as retribution because for many years and i think the audience will be familiar with how she hosted minute question and answer shows, washington waste but also the "the news hour with jim lehrer" in which she is the one asking the questions. >> guest: i'm kind of terror five. >> host: she has to give the answer is. then we give a quick irt of who she is a like a professional journalist i got this of wikipedia. >> guest: i would jump in whenever. >> host: you are the moderator of washington we, senior correspondent on the "the news hour with jim lehrer" were i'm awake the analyst and the fifth child of an african methodist episcopal minister of. >> guest: sixth.

>> host: in your childhood you grew up on the east coast pennsylvania massachusetts, buffalo new york city. you went to simmons college in your journalistic lightning prius you worked at the boston herald, the baltimore sun, washington post, new york times. to escape from our publication to nbc and now i pbs this smacked lightning rise is all, true. >> host: and i you have written your first book "the breakthrough" and we are taping this show the day after the inauguration of the barack obama and spent the afternoon in this a nice warm studio and other doing reporting. i want to first ask you about that event and how that fits in with your book but i should preface by saying he did fantastic report interviewing people on the mall. i know thinks it is fantastic because we rafal you. and the worst thing happen to us with his we were watching your report in your interviewing to

women and i think a hundred and five and another woman on the mall he was talking about what this diamond for her son and while she is talking tears are coming to jim lehrer and mark shields of our eyes and because we're manly men recanted but that so we sort of get automatic allergies in the studio and start blowing harnesses and i discover lynch in my eye. but you're out there on the mall and so describe parsifal your reflections on the day and then how it fits in the larger picture. >> guest: it was like shooting fish in a barrel, everyone we talked to starts passing off his long and eloquent prickly from sentences about what this meant to their lives and all you had to do was walk up and say hello and the woods are talking and so and this woman in particular it was toward the rear in brine at the oath taking. we had talked to a lot of people and my camera man turned around from one direction and we both saw this woman fall to her knees on the mall and start crying in

the this to say the cameraman started shooting her fur and afterward every conference and to retire to about this and now this is one of the beautiful things about people who follow politics. these are pbs viewers so they immediately see you at the start to tell you these things and that she was kind of funny because when i first asked her why are you crying she said first i've been crying because it was so cold and then she said if you're going to get me in trouble and she started crying again. it was impossible not to talk to someone like that to send i have a son and and i'm going to get thinking about that -- i have a son and now he doesn't have to be an athlete or a rapper, the roof is off, this guy is open any can do whatever he wants. it's a theme i've been hearing all inauguration in the run-up especially from african-americans saying we don't have excuses anymore. sure we were denied things and we have to fight for things but

here is a man and it's exactly the message he's sending and saying the of government ought to help and i think that ought to help you but you ought to. >> two. this is something that not only african-americans embrace but it turns out all americans embrace and there is tension between the races over the years and had to do the five that someone thought it unfair to man made of them how terry make me feel guilty for the sins of my ancestors why should i give you an affirmative action and manage and my child doesn't get it. there has always been this tension what obama represents from one i represent is the idea we're going to try to get past that and talk about the things we need to benefit not just one group or another an oddly enough people completely embraced that. so that came out a million different ways and not just from the black mother but also from the hundred five year-old woman who heard w.e.b. du bois talking

1926 and also from the white middle-class families from champaign, illinois and boulder, colorado came all this way because it wanted to stand in the cold on the mall for hours at a time on crazy metro trains it just so they can say they have been there. it was amazing de. >> host: and i think the book is really about the success story or a chapter in the excess story of the civil rights revolution and then in the book and to my mind the core story of the book is that barack obama is not alone, that a lot of people had not the same experience for a similar experiences and he is part of a code word and you are telling the story of that. interesting thing about this book of people blaming but i didn't want to set out to write an obama book. but i set out to write a book that i've been talking around in bits and pieces for years which as a reporter and the places you name i encountered time and

again serendipitously people what our banking through whether they were breaking through to be a dog catcher for the first time or a mayor for the first time for governor for the first time and as i started searching my mind it through all these people i thought there is a common thread in so it had become commented on that there is these ivy league young man moseley who have broken through but no one had said where is that coming from and are they in it, is be one of the one, is their only ever going to be one black governor of virginia. is there something else coming behind and it turned out the more i talk to the more there was a had to learn about this person and that person with sma to 70 else and it turned out to assist great untold story of folks who are. it's not a very long book. the story doesn't go dave. it is one generation break through and into all patrick talked about the have nothing.

his break was going to a private school in massachusetts and not realizing when he arrived the they said bring in bluejacket and a windbreaker. this guy didn't know anything from that life but his daughter and traveled the world and takes it all for granted so one generation things have changed so dramatically but we are in another generation soaked barack obama gives us an excuse to let the these peoples but a dozen other. >> host: we have this will rise generation with jackson generation, you got that generation and then the obama generation with a duval patrick encorps and booker, how do understand between the two? >> guest: part of the most interesting was talking to the civil rights because of them embraced this. joseph lowery of the benediction of the inauguration and he

embraces them. he got at some point you hand over the baton, that to tell hold on to the gavel to the grave and that at some point you have to pass it on. and, on the other hand, there are others where typically thought at this all rights leaders who have sent this nothing in here. nothing to look and move on. now sharpton with support and obama was politically immature and not to do it quietly knowing it could hurt him but he also sent there never was a generation of black mayors came to power and they didn't so he doesn't necessarily describe to it and more famously with jesse jackson who ran for president twice who was at the boys moment doing something skeptical which, of course, they all jump on but the truth was people don't give jesse jackson credit for being complicated. he was perfectly capable of

appreciating barack obama, and his daughter is one of michelle obama is this friends and, on the other hand, capable of feeling i was the one who knocked down that wall, guileless the one who challenged and own listen to me and more and for only is this spring to canada it going to speak for the committee and for the underserved and a spoken for and that's what i got into this so he feels this. >> this is a theme, this decision to do this for every individual and the book not always a hard decision bernanke decision and it reveals a lot about where they were coming from. >> guest: he said he never had any problem supporting hillary clinton in part because that was not what people were judging have on the and he had bigger fish to fry so people would look at him and said your support and hillary clinton but whenever. what do and then old-fashioned politics. he was not supported by the

grand old guard of philadelphia so as a result they didn't necessarily have to be on the same side politically and he sided with ed rendell and said it and hillary clinton's david barack obama got the nomination and he switched on a dime and nobody cared because of that was not his main concern. >> host: was the primary decision, was that the chairman of largely by are you with a machine or the use yourself as an outsider in some of the people say outcome to these big events and was outside and had to take on the black establishment. >> there is a lot of that but with the clinton is more complicated because when bill clinton ran for of a see a lot of people jobs and never had a chance of a worry hole lead generation of government officials and people especially in washington politics who are black who got the first real breakthrough from bill clinton so there was a lot of loyalty involved. i remember early on when barack obama was running i would

encounter deferment clinton official when the high and because they can't talk about that. there was a lot of nervousness because they thought they were being told disloyal. if they supported barack obama. as he began to succeeded people began, he didn't want to be on the wrong side of history and u.s. old friends with the clintons. he picked it up and it was bill clinton so he got on a plane and went to south carolina because he was loyal to them but at the time he moved on and he went completely for a barack obama. he just cannot do it anymore and no sure that clinton had a real problem with that but he switched and a lot of people wrestled with that. >> host: does it say anything about pollster is this concept we all got a bunch of issues on our table but the salient issue

is the one that is, and our minds and for some people was raised more salient in their decision? >> guest: at the it was less salient and the reason why people were able to cross: especially white voters is because they decided to raise wasn't going to be a barrier and a lot of black voters on it was a bonus so if you were supporting hillary clinton automatically like a lot of folks or even black folks in iowa on which there are some it was in this to themselves but they know all the words and their friends of the black community. but given the opportunity to vote for an african-american who could win as he demonstrated for the first time in iowa all of a sudden they're reexamining and was an anti-clinton vote as much a pro barack obama vote and something that people fell to grasp. this talk about the generation. one and two riss tell us some of the main characters.

>> guest: the main character barack obama which have been as you went along. and then, of course, he is president so he becomes the main character with the other interesting character is duval patrick. he never ragin to this day when office and adopted in this state of massachusetts. no one thought he had a chance. he was discouraged eminent in the primary who had a lot of support but of the same political charisma and turned out he had any go back and look over his campaign a look like barack obama not by accident because his chief political strategist and so as a result he's surprisingly god in and things got complicated because it turns out in hopes and no politics. the same thing happen to cory booker. all these guys and he did make a lot of doing things whether

general counsel for a major company were going to wall street. cory booker went to stanford and he has incredible support in a big fan club along of the late when he decided to move to newark shocking his own mother to see how he could fix this horribly entrenched city. it was a poor city that have black leadership for some decades first kenneth gibson who later went to jail and along comes this young man is not tied two any of these machines and people say why not. but a lot of those people have been entrenched supporters still there so he had to go up against that. and then there is artur davis was congressman from alabama what i found interesting going to be a minor character until i talk to him and was struck by how much he thought this

through. the idea that he and the age of 40 was going to run in 2010 for the seat held by george wallace in my lifetime and george wallace used to the governorship to block integration. segregation now and forever and here is bidault saying i think i can do this now. it's unclear whether he can do in the election results to show that barack obama is so terribly well in alabama with the idea that he could and the way he ran for congress was to run against the black establishment and, in fact, he says pretty directly if i run with the black establishment i could have never won and he knew he had to go from the outside in whether the mayor of columbus or the mayor of cleveland with the district attorney of san francisco. they're saying how can i win my talking about issues which appear lacrosse michelin's without giving their racial identity. >> host: why are they all