explain it and i think e reaction within africa was my god this is another militar organization formed. it evoked images of colonial days and nowe are trying to write that, and i think more he gets out there and talks about it the better we are because he's the absolute best spokesman for this sort of thing. ..

where are the leaders like truman today? >> we have fallen victim to the idea of saying politically coect with the word that came into our lexicon was been and we have spinoctors tt

tried to snd a message are rounded off or make sure that something was said that might be more controversial par per erybody is parsing thr words. when i first came to washington and had to make a speech. >> i nev subon the pentagon. >> my proudestchievement. >> i was a three-star general and we had a marine colonel that was a fellow. i gave my views and at the end i lived in the audience and sa that had these eyes wide-open i did not understand the reaction. iaid i do not understand it looks like they are in shock. and he said nobody talks in declarativ sentenc.

[laughter] you are answering questions very directly. >>s i began to notice, that is true. do not say what we feel or think and we pay a price for the. >> we just dcussed my views on iraq and other things i was raised th wrom my father and son of the generals that you talk about they always taught me say it like it is a. >> iave lesthan o minutes to go but one quick question on a personal notewh happened? on five you for sure would be the ambasdor to iraq? to mexico did i. i don't know wt happened. i was ased if i would do it and i said yes was told to be the administration five was

told that from but advisers to secrary of state and others i was preparing and l and behold that was not the way it came out. nobody ever explained it zero or called me or have come back to me as to what happened. but i have moved on. >> general, i could go on for another hr. thank you for your candid discussion on issues of preferred to return to thank you again on behalf of the american people and g bless. >> thank you for your example for all of us the. >> i have enjoyed it. >> thank you

>> welcome everybody. we were talking before we can appear i used to be a great blic speaker then i became a writer and now i'm trying to think about what is so great about public speaking produced two wing and but because i thought you deserve better i tried to write down some thoughts. i hope you come away a with a better understanding of the block someone to think the people who made this possible. first and foremost of the men to myeft i can guarantee each every one have other better o there'sour ways

to spend their evening but they chose to be here and i sincerely appreciate it. thank you to tim seibles, paul galanti and tim reid also people who were behind the enes and the staff here and my own wonder woman and a publicist most writers can only dream of. write that down in case you're never publishing a book. thank you for coming here toght. in the summer we look forward to a quiet evening and enjoying the great outdoors the people like me can come up with ways for you to spend your evening and/or so thank you for taking time. i have been asked a lot of questions what was it like to read them and?

how did you pick which meant? how long did it take you to put it together? and you commented this? but there's one question nine amassemore than any other and that is why? why did you decide to wte this boo the reasons i wrote iare the same as those that brought you here tight. for those of you w don't know, i am a proud mother and stepmother of five sons and one daughter so i have had the benefit of a front row sea to watching young men grow up they range from age seven through 24 per quarter have seen is a message of what fines true greatness is harder and harder four were boys two kumbaya. there was a time gone by when men of one generation past wisdom 10 onnformally whether working on the car

wi dad or spendilg time fishing or the family dinner which we all desperately want but i can never seem to make happen. ose ideas have working on the car or fishing seem quaint like a relic fro the past. my dad looke up to men whether men in his life on the screen by my place in your boys are probabl looking of two oth boys. you look at the mos popular movies or mic, i beg to the average ofhe store is abou19. thbottom line is whether it is the increasing noise of popular culture or something else i cannot put my finger on it. there is a lot suzanne wisdom that i thought was lost in the ether but wisdom hour boys desperately needed because in it place is the overwhelming

amount of garbage that our boys are asked to buy into if you are a parent or grandparent or breathing out of to tell you our kids are growing up in a media saturated culture where the emphas is on physical appeal or materia wealth or a celebrity status. does this sound familiar? real men don't cry comment real men clect one and, they show their power over others, they are vulgar and course for real men look out for number one. we are here because of these messagesnd we know we will not get anywhere if we talk bra how bad it is as tempting as it is. i can do it all night long. because t real reason i am here is because of ur profound faith in the goodness and potential ofoung men.

its our conviction they are capable of and deserving of some much better than what they are being led to believe. after all the of the same little boy is who came to us dressed likeuperman and batman and super heroes. theyere here to save the world. even if that dream it has been pushed to t side, we know the super hero is there. our at cape wearing little super hero is alive and well and there somewhere. so we're here and these men are here and thisook is here to remind of and who they really are and what they can achieve and to give them an edge of the right direction. it does not a promise of seven easy steps to manhood b it does offer the possibility that something in its pages will inspire my sons and

grandsons to imagine a larger possibilities as they search to define manhood for themselves. i can make that claim because i was lucky enough to bring together some of the finest men this country has to offer and asked them what really means to be a man from courage to anger to compassion to faith and leadership they have given theirnswers. they have come together and the block and here tonight to stand for somhing, stand up for the young men '04 whom haveh profund faith. so i think it is time i had the floor over to them and i will begin by giving you a peek inside the book and to tell you a little more about the man to my left come admiralmith. the book isaid out each man has his own chapter eight i

have a picture and a biographer but i also wrote the editor's note i wanted everybody to get to know them. many folks here the word four-star admiral and picture a stern no-nonsense fellow long on rules and short and humor if you happento be one of those people york and for a surprise. have girl smith is a gifted military commander known for his extraordinary ability to dealith rapidly changing complex political averments under the most diffilt conditions but also gregarious, quick with joke and unbelievably humble and when you are with h it is easy to forget you're in the presence of the same man who was knighted in a private audience with queen elizabeth and spearheaded the nat relief efforts and served as the commander in chief of naval forces euope and allie forces southern europe simultaneoly.

he seems like a white station ke more whathey want at their table for dinner witches trooper prfo someone who went on to become a highly decmrated he came awfully close to not wearing the uniform t also is myreat easure to present two admira smith. [applause] >> thank you. you're very kind and i love the introduction. what kelly failed to tell you might alternate employment is a pig farmer when you havthe choice of studying harder raising 60 pigs, what do take? i would get to that in a minute but why did i get involved? a lot of reasons but first her father is classmate oine

at the naval academy a classmates are special. he wrote me an eail and said comment by the way my nickname is snuy. get over it. [laughter] my dad had a still and was caught. he asked me if i wou request from his daughter i could only give him the answer yes then i got a message from kelly and i was intrigued. i am so new-line good friend john ripley who is not here. he died in november. we talked about this wonderful idea. having the idea is not easy. there are thousands of ideas every day about 999 billion no worth a darn but two or

three are really good and you want to be part of that actio. her idea wasood with merit. we thought it could be a rthwhile endeavor or investment in our time to become invved with a project that have such a noble goal. villa for a long it took to t this done i used to go to the academyecause i w on the board of trustees and john ripley lived in annapolis and we would talk about this but he is not here to tell you about his ory by can tell you he got involved for the same reason but you have to read his ess on courage and not a man on this plan i betterualified to talk to the subject of courage and john ripley. navy cross and in vietnam it

was easter sunday 1970 something 12 hand over hand trips like this, under a bridge, incidentally it was built by another classmate of hours severa years earli to plant charges then he took the blasting caps in his teeth,and over hand and implanted them, by the way all the whilunder fire. and he destroyed this bridge that prevented a large number of north vieamese soldiers from coming into the south and literally destroying everything in their path. i think he should have won the medal of hon for that but he did not. but he has written wonderful words about courage. physical courage which she has demonstrated in every walk of life thehe talked about moral courage. that is a lite more

difficult. that takes a lot of guts because a lot of times people want y to go down a path because that is what everybody is doing and john says that sometimes it is time to say no. i am not that kind of person and i do not want to do with those kind of peoplor associate with those people so you turner re and wk away from those people who try to leave you the wrong way. th is john ripley. i do not want to take his place orresume to be anywhere near as good as an individual but i wanted to give him a little time tonight because i know he would be here if he were alive. for me,y story is rather le. everybody that i met prioro going to the naval academy assured me that i would never succeed. teachers in high school that i went to to get letters of

recommendation by the way appointments were political congressmen iny day i got 63 letters of recommendation because my family was b. we had no money but a good name but jt about every single teacher said you are not a student. you will not make it i will write the letter but i am sorry. i went o to the university of alabama for one year and i got the pho call that i got the appointment while standing in a large hall at the fraernity house for i was as excited as i could be. when i told my fternity brothers o this great news they've looked at me like i had to has. what have you done? you will never make up there. my father, god love him said to me time and time again. i know you give your best

effort, buif you fail we will welcome you home with open arms. translated that means you have a tough and you will not make it but i want you to t anyway. my dad was a wderful man but the message heas sending did not become clear until much later. paul and i and john ripley high node john was not a good start -- stood at. three months into the academic year iot a report to report to the comment on navy captain the number two guyt the academy. his job basically was to tell people you are out o here. and i figured that is exactly what he would tell me. i was petrified. i waited outside until i was told to go and and i stood at rigid attentioande told me to relax. yar writes. said you have a problem you

are inset into subjects in do have the letter d and the other two really took five subjects my thought was to say maybe i was spending too much time on the other two. said what is your problem? in those ds i said i will find o he said no. that is not the question. are the upperclassmen treating you partially? i thought for a second, no sir. are your instructoinstructo rs giving you all the help you need? i thought about that. yes. all i have asked for. he asked me a couple of other questions then he said the words i shall never forget he said you can do this. i said yes, sir. he said you have 10 days. 10 days to become sapped and

all subjects are you wl be back in this oice. the a good news was walking out with the bad news is i would have to go back in there bqt i got out and i thought to myse, i am in charge my life. i t everybody else tell me i would fail so i believed it and i believed it was okay to fail. eye hand given up on myself because i was not a good student, never had been and probably never would be but i thought it was okay to go home. to fail. i decided in that office, i am in charg and i am the guy that will decide what happens to myife preferred not teachers, not fraternity brothers, i will be in charge of my life and it took charge of my life and i went and got help from cssmates come instructors, and a few other people. and i made it.

the was talking to my wife last night she has heard this story a number of times. but she did not know the words you can do this. , the times in my life have i been in a situation for i had to call on those words to convince myself i can do this paul galanti knows what iis like to sit on a business end of a catapult when your life flashes beore your eyes you think this is the craziest thing a man can do our will blast myself off then i have to land it. and my last words to myself as i promised on the light i say youan do this. after the shot i said to myself, you well better be right. [laughter] ladies and gentlemen,, i was involved with this bk

because i want my grandson's it anybody else's grandson to have the opportunity to read about a guy who had given up onimself a finally realized wh was in charge, took charge and did something with it and i hope a lot of people read a prayer i he enjoyed being with you tonht. thank you very much [appuse] admiral smith came for north carolina and our next speaker, tim seibles come as coming to us from old dominion university were he is an assistant professor. and a one to read my editor's note about my dear friend tim. he looks like a football play. he will stand up.

tall, strong and broad shouldered as a child he dreamed of playingn the nfl and pursue that dream all the way to southern metdist university where his talent earned a spot on the team as a walk on a ultimately his dreams took him in another direction but still the size and athleticism of the bl player remain. you can only imagi the startled look he receives when he tells people he is a poet. of course, back goes to show how little most of us know about poetry. his poems crackle and vibrate his is not the poetry of "a high a balloon ignore the somber cello but a melody you have heard somewhere that followed to home" end quote. pro moving on asea syncopate rhhm he reach across generations with the unvarnished truth would means

to be an american and as a black man and human being. how did he gethere? how did this kid who grew up on the turf four of the philadelphia downtown make his way to become not simply a surviv but acclaimed poet and university professor and having come so far? what does he know for sure? i am honored to introduce the coolest to 79 know, professor tim seibles of [applause] >> thank you very much it is an honor to be here with great company and i appreciate the introduction. one of the questions kelly ast the us to answer is why perhaps you said yes to the project and to initiate

the question of the esy that was written. the most important thing to was a chance to reach people who i would never meet pro certainly the ids,oys from the inner city, we're all wrestling with the same kinds of the bonds tata dazed demons but a chance to establish a lifeline with young brothers are latinos or working-class white police kids and circumstances that in many respects are discouraging. it is easy to see the world and miserable terms depending your neighborhood and it is easy to give up on your life and easy to it is easy to say i will drift along to get along and maybeomeday something positive will happen

but we all know positive things are good things they do not have been accidentally. what i was interested in doing why this to say to give a young man looked at the possibility is that made july fell based that has been somewhat successful. given way hollywood operates, a lot of young men especially look at the television screen and say that is not iy world. that is not my life for what will happen to me. i think with these esss, i imagine it is true for the gentlemeto my left but it gives you a chance to say this is what reallhappened. this is the cirmstances

somebody live through and hopefully some hard work and of course, some good luck. we were able to make something good and large have been. why would lik to do is read just a little taste of my essay then i will talk more then it turned the floor over. or turn the stage over, io not want to turn the floor over. [laughter] i will read this. i don't think it will take too long but if i feel it is going long i will jump a lot -- jump around. i paid group unfairly that turf of downtown. th gang with a reputation for ruthlessness. i saw the war lord one sparc rican remember his name but he had that i know i am bad luck

in his eyes and big biceps that made it pretty clear he could probably back it up. luckily i live there so of one of the soldiers ever stop me to ask where you from? meaning what part of town or which gang? i could say right around t corner and be pretty sure there would not be any beef. most of my friends and i thought it was stupid to beat people were killed them because they live in a different neighborhood but corner gangs are a serious business-- business and if you do not want your but kicked you have to pay attention to where you were. i did have a friend who was a member of the hus street gang. we're not close button two each other from tenth grade english and clowned around. that marquis a blended letter h and letter s which made a dollar sign and he drew on his

books and school desk and anything. you also see the dollar sign spray-painted on the sides of buses that drove throug their turf for corn afternoon i was standing at the bus stop and one of the old heads from hanus street walked up to me he was usuly out of school a full-time gang member. we did not cal them ggsters and the movies they were pinstripe suits and carried machine guns and battled the fbi. he came up wearing a small golden dolla sign earring and asks, where you from? he has a big scar running from his left cheek down to his chin like he was slashed in the face not too long ago. i was closer to hanesbrands dog towno i answered no where which was a way to back down without looking like a

chomp. usually this was enough you that the tough guy show his power th he wld let you slide but this guy responded thomas seems like no where is getting to be a pretpy big corner. as if no where was another ganghat meant i would not get the normal break. of course, thahave been in fights before butefinitely not wit a king member old head. things looking pretty bad i thought at bt i would get ocked down but the worst i could be staffed. the old heads did ts kind of thing to make sure if noby thought they went soft. he must of saud the year in my eyes but i could not run batches meant i would get my but kicked another day showing some parts may have gotten me some respect or thoroughly stomped right than and there. i was thinking fast for only a few seconds had passed went

out of nowhere chaff walked up and said let him go stone. he is cool and he left me loan. his full name was headstone because according to jeff he had killed somebody. it was simple locker was in class with jf and real lucky had been nearby when stone was ready to pounce. he told me later headstone ended up in a wheelchair because of a gunshot wound. who knows what scars it would have had today if not for jeff? who knows if i would be here at all? and mentioned th story not just to show what my teenage years were likely to give jeff accredit but over the years i have thought about stone and on the other young brothers by kim who it added that crippled or imprisoned or dead because they believe being a hard guy

was a cool way to roll. no doubt their friendcad a lot to do with why they took that road broke i kno the schools are not overly -- alwaysdeal place for learning i have classmates has struggledith grades than just give up. some time schools make it hard to dream. wilson know if you are black or brown the challenges you will face are in most cases different from those faced by the white counterparts particularly considering how prejudice can eat away at any one with bigotry biosite held before someone turns into a stone, hhas us to lose sight of himself. he asked to give up onhe idea his life might become something positive and important. i do not mean to suggested happens easily were suddenly but the collapse of hope for the erosion of believe tak

placover a number of years with visible and invisible ways but i also feel certain having faith in yourself and a sense of your own worst don't come easily or suddenly. there are things you have to fight for every day in spite of the fact that the world is big and often unfair and makes it difficult to see things inside a fear that could make your life remarkable. >> i look at that now and you imagine must of been pretty tkugh but i am not sur that was true. to buy gas i was large enough toot of people did not want to pick on me but i admit, there were cries who could look gaston and say what? i w like god, pase, someby save me.

[laughte i was terfied. the important thing aut the circumstans of my life is that i had no ideahat would happen to me. ian imagine that most of the guys from my neighborhood were as ignorant of the possibilities of the future as i was. because i wanted to @lay football, that is really what kept me out o the gangs and kept me from doing crazy stuf i what did not do drugs because i was going to be a perfect athlete. of course, at the time i was solutely sure i would be a great receivep but ultimately that didot work out. but what did happen because i went to college, i had a chance to take a creative writing class provide like to write. i think i aays like to write i just never imagined i would end up being a right turn

necessarily or certainly not poet but just because i tried to play football i and up in circumstance i could study right thing with people who knew right thing a it turn -- change wiping gave me a view of the innerorld which is very mh about the superficial an t merial and is not something had to think oreel or see? that tnsform my life and allowed me to do something different. then of my friends took the path that i did it does seem odd but it has been a lucky i opening thing for me. what i hope in part when

someone reads this book, they will say, it is possible to have a strange mind, maybe a valuable md that is buried under a lot of thingsecause rtainly i had no idea i was going to be someone who had a real igination. i like to imagines things i would have never known the full range had i not found myself in the circumstances to let me explore it and play out. i am hoping for e many younf men of all cols who have the late tenth artist buried inside, at i hope my essay among others will t them out and let them take a path that is more rewarng. and hopefully gives them a felongoal to pursue. figure very much [appuse]

>> i do not want to go another second longer before welcoming the honorable doug wilder [applause] the game is all here. said next speaker is to read and i have to make full disclosure that one of my a dearriends and mentors in life and his wifaphne maxwell reid was might 10. there we eo. i met th him read at his petersburg which is located on the land that houses new millennium studios and television and film production company he founded with his wife daphne maxwell reid in 1997 we talk f several hours from world rigion to racism.

he was funny and intee, passione and reserved. when we finally said to buy i feltxhausted and secretly thrill to of spent so much time with someone i h watched on televn. fa more than rident funny man, aear made embodies the complexitif his work. he is as much venus's-flytrap the quick witted philosopher he portrayed on w care p and cincinnati as he is frank perishhe struggling restaurateur he portrayed in this series frank's place a fixture in hollywood for more than 30 years he has written the roller-coaster of fame through the highs and lows and has come away from that experience with a profound understanding his work in the

came has provided ways we can pay-- can be an qte influence public opinion. while he still enjoys acting he devotes most of his time to produce television programs that provide authentic and uplifting portrayals of the broader african-american experience. this work that reaches across cultures provide a poten and much needed antidote to the tired and often negative portrayals of african-americans in mainstream media i am honored to introduce a man tha i believe to be one of the most gifted and innovative greater talents in america cinematic history, mr. to read [applause] >> thank you. how did i get here?

she knows my wife daphne associate called daphne and daph tell me what i would be doing. [laughr] one of the first two words or two of the hardest words that took me to understand d grasp a marri man, i guess e year but once i could understan those my life has been a l easier and we haveeen together going on 30 years. thank you two yes deer park as i listened and reflect on the book about the theme and rethink what is going on in the world today, tonight very important not only for kelly of the community and large because the more we talk about what it takes for hour young men to grow today and carry on a decent life, it is

good but w just came back from eight tour of the far east and japan, guam, and though island off of the marshall islands and we met some of the most incredible young men i have ever had the pleasure of meeting were serving in the military. things are better than we think. if these kinds of young men thousand upon thousands all over thislobe afghan, iraq, rman, you n it, these young men and w are out there sving the cotry but what struck the most was w went into some of the litary bases in guam a this other place you not believe that it exists but

there is a calm about them that i did not think i would find. these young people are determined, th are not swayed by the fooshness we're having a bad year with a day to day abundance. they are determined and loyal and passionate about their country and their job. i have to say i was a little surprised. but we're in good standing with my young people. it isot as bad a it s. the problem is what seems to be is the perception that w have faced every day given to us by the media, the press me much wetteb, facebook, you name it. we areiving back opinions how bad things are and based on where your and the reality of your life could be bad. but i have to tell youhat

the glass is half full. because there are many other young people like us. what will it take for these young people to grow up into the kind of character we want them to be? it will ke us, this book is certainly a step in the right direction, but this boo will probably not be seen by no more than 8% of the young people who read books today. it is p to you tim reid the book and get this information to those people matter how you do it. conversation, a church, stop a person on the street, give the book away for christmas relate the story is tt you hear, let these young people know that there is another world, notust a perception that ces across the ipod, the smart pho and from twitter. there are people out here

really, really working to improve the character of the young people that we face. this is not just an american problem, it is a global problem. spent time in africa and i am working with the media program that is ting to use the media to help change inmage of what an laffer can is had we had a conference awhile back and 12 ountries send representives, professors, a ists, politicians, busins people came together we sat around for about three days talking about what is an african? and what we came away with and i think what we suffer is we're now living in the age of forgetful less. we have forgotten about the kind of character it took to keep this country going we have forgotten about what we now call the greatest

generation, the world war ii veterans we have forgotten about what life is really about. does not just about what happened to paris hiltotoday or gates was arrested and the policemen did whatever. it is about the character of a the individual peoe, youead in realize it is about individual character. i put myself in that character -- category that character determines fate. i truly beeve that. the character of a pson deteines their fate. if bernieadoff had better character, he would not have done what he did. character detminesate. as she mentioned, i have been very fortunate to spend most of my adult life almost 40

years in some ea of show business and i have asked cotte why did u put me here? why not something else? why am i and thisrazy business the especially eight why here and petersburg? [laughter] got has a sense of humor. [lauter] and i find that not have a particular answer but i have found a particular vocation o.r. moet -- mission which is two alert a many people the fact tt we are now expting has defined as life and not the reality. we do have young men and women all over this globe who are doing incredible things with the com courage it would take buthe perceptionf what we

see coming across in every community in america there is some kid who is ready to commit aajor crime. yes we have criminals and we have presence but what we have to keep remembering is what we're watching constantly on television there is such thing as reality, they are all staged activities it is all perception. we started a war on the perception that there wer weapons of mass destruction. we did not find any weapons of mass destruction premier to tell you there aren't wmd called the television and is one of the most powerful things ever created by man and if you don't understand the power of it, it can have a tremendous effect on your life, a community and culture. it is not going away. i'm not here to say w need to

stop you canno tell young person to turn the tv off. we need to give these young people summit reality and understandg about what it kes to be a man or a womaj for what it takes to survive when it has been through. as you look back i listen to tim talk by his live there were so many parallls. i also gw up it in virginia and segregaon and lived most of my lifnt i graduated what we called colore town. one of the students ofass resistance motive when i was 12 years old the most likely to e up in prison and not a bad kid in terms of the

reality but the perception was i wanted to be known as a tough kid but i was not tough. ared to death and i had gotten into some trouble and had broken into school an interesting thing when i do not want to be there. [laughter] i could not go there on-time the first chance i get i break into one. i could not imagine a ias looking for. i wasaught. we were not criminals and word got back to my father why did not know w my faer until i was nine years old. he came to me and he said young man, i understand you want to be a day hoodlum. you have two options you can come live with me and go to school or i will kill you. i said i wl take school.

and it turned my life around like most of the people in the book, somewhere along the lines some adult may be a man in most cases someone came the right time did a little correction, all little information will little bump or resistance with some cold hard tru and put me onhe proper path. at is all it takes. sometimes we get bogged down in the minutia of life and rethink it take so much t change thee of a young person sometimes all it takes is one day sometimes it only takes one hour. one day i was on my way to join the air forcend was going down church street and this i one of my angels. they guy pulled or and said i am trying to get to virginia beach can you tell me?

i said go down five blocks an turned and left the down 20 minutes 18 miles south i said the recruitment center is down the street i will ride with you to the corner high jump in the ca he had on a jacket th said florida and them. he said i'm a teacher there and the summer i come up and work as a waiter either atlantic city or virginia beach and make some extra mone sometimes i do it and make as much money in the summer as they do as the entire yea club is not hiring

but they tell me another hotel says n here but theris@ a place a little privalace there probably hiring so we go there. he say family hiring one i said i did not want a job i'm going to the air f he said i like taking what i said i'm going to the air force. he saidou needed jobs i'm going to atlantic city and he leaves me and i take the job.

i support myself for three years anput myself thrgh college because i make so much money the summer i say i have to do something with it. one not go to college? one-pers, one day in my life changed my life record is not always the big story. it could b a small thing. small people are very impressionable and i hope that this book reaches my of th but it will take you, not only giving the boowere rding the book and approaching these young people and letting them know sometimes it can be just as simple as improving one's character. thank you [applause] >> .

>> 82nd to last speaker is paul galanti misspent several years in the famous hanoi hilton in vietnam. i begin wh an early introduction but i found a story that i thought it such a splendid job of telling who paul galanti is an the kind of man that he is by and with that. >> too truly appreciate commander paul galanti and what a house to say you have to somehow come to appreciate the magnitude of what he endure dine many years he lived as prisoner of war in vietnam for i had done enough research to know that he and his fello pows we routely subjected to torture sessions that were designed to inflict excruciating physic and mental damage i also knew the sesons lasted four hou or days at a time. asked him aboutnce because

it simply cant imagine how he h managed to not let e relentless suffering destroy hi and i was prepared for any answer but the one i got. it was a pain in the neck d it past me off. [laughter] but we on this the worst that could happen is they would kill you than y were lucky and you got to go home. the only thing that paul admitted at a challengeas isolation which he dcribed as pretty rough so you can only imagine how horrific them mustave been and he was not being lived with his answers. in fact, the courage and fortitude risen what he spoke staggered me provide felt as if iot a glimpse of the paul galanti former pow captain describein his essay, heas shot down january 1967 almost seven months after commander

paul galanti was taken prisoner parker he was being and tortured and putn isolation inhe same area as paul galanti everyday prisoners were assigned the duty to collect said dishes and buckets to serve their tv miele. this was the only contact capt. stratton had in his isolation cell. he described what happens next. these guys would do the dishes is the buckets then there are bits making a how out of a racket and yacking away but wait a minute, they were not talking to each other favor talkg to the rest of us as if they were talking to each other. if y read me cough wants a airforce? cough coug navy?

cough. >> 05? cough cross '04, of >> and oer lt. cmdr. do you know, whoon the army navy game? cough cough and down at that. the senior ranking officers the rules are communicate at all cost when they get around to torturing you hold out as long as you can bounce back to make them do it again. do not despair when the break you. they have broken all of us. pray. cough. my name is 81 bang. of universal danger sigl paul galanti was hauled out of the cell and tortured and i did not see him again for three years. i am honored to bond introduced to one of the bravest men i know, my friend, commander paulalan [applause] >> one thing i really like

being on the same stage as snuffy smith he makes a higher en to stand higher than anybody in the class. calle, a lot has happened nce we talked but today is a special significance money morning 6:27 a.m. our first grds was born and when he learns how tim reid your bk of the the first thing that he reads pplause] >> he lives up here three-quarters of a mile we live one miles a we are not very fa apart. we're looking forward to said duty and one woman died introduce asy bter 75% is

the real reason i am here. because she became quite a hero when when i was overseas. better 75% to comment phyllis [applae] i have nothing to talk aut my reem friends describe my experien as a pow said you are the luckiestob in dhe history of the navy you were in t navy 20 years and only had to make one cruz. [lghter] and most of that was overseas shore dut . .

shooting sr a shell and i knew what i wanted to do and i got there and it was a long haul. i went to school in philadelphia also, all moderate and our current chief of naval operations and a whole slew of other people and when tngs really got rough in hanoi m mind would flash back to the days i was learning by military

trends from a blitz, we had itish drill sergeants that taught us everything fothe val academy where even if you could do something you did it any way. if you are told to do something you do it, period. i'm sitting here next to the two tim's. we were at school together and w. prb was my favorite television show ever, and the reason it wasn't you, sir. [laughter] loni anderson. [laughter] when i came home from vietnam, vietnam was awful, people were over there, i have learned ts. i've got good news and --

[laughter] the good news about bein in hanoi i missed the whole antiwar stuff, the country blowing up and going arazy and ty tell us about it, we jt don't believe them and phey said they are loving every bit of itnd they would read all ofhese bad thingsappening but we are part of the last idealists in the entire world. we dn'tnow until three years after it happened and we found out about that just somebody hanoi hand on the propagaa was talking about neil @rmstrong visiting the jihadi, has no need to tell them with the surcef the moon is like. they can see it for themselves on the b-52 tracks. one of our guys must he gone to the moon. that is how we und this out, total isolation for six years and two months, 432 days and yet it was a great experience because i got to meet some of the neate man i'vknown in my life and i came ck and found it isn't cool to be a guy any more.

everybody else is gettin special preferentiatreatment and when we started talking about this book it sort of let up. were we uals abort? everody has special tatment. [laughter] that is what comes from being italian. i can't help it. [laughter] any way, and so -- [laughter] let me put my hands in my pockets. i think this book is the most timely thing i have ever se and i hope it goes well. i hope some alarm, st. christopher's gets a copy for every young man in this school and i hope some of the school boards to get it and let them read it and in every one of these stories we are all a little bit different. some thinking out that made it cool to be a guy and it wasn't because they made us put a ttle crash helt on soe

wouldn't hurt our heads like the dumoulin and these car seats. give me a break. there's such a thing as a zero defect. you can only get down so far. it was kind of fun to jump in those cars and go -- go like the dickens. [laughter] but, you know, the style is you have to be very careful and we don't want to get hurt and stuff and thanks to all those trial lawyers -- [laughter] -- to use that sort of thing there is no risk anyre. risk-taking has gone away it has to be fail safe y the thing that got me going is dreaming about flying jet airplanes. when i talked to debbie and jim and watch thefly or the blue angels and the thunderbirds at every airshow i cod go to and yet now the talk about how safe it is. th come back bragging we didn't he the accident the entire cruise and i said really? the of computers flying airpnes and stuff now.

snuffy and i both luke the a-4 where i like to describe the pilot was smarter than te airplane. [laughter] john i am going to talk aboup my classmate, john repletin the book also. one of the biggest of verse of my life last year at his funeral there were seven marines and me and the are sort of supposed to be on the same team but they are not really. replete is one of the biggest heroes i've ever known. i think of what he did. the reasone had to seek to many trips to blow the bridge up as our classmate sohey can't blow iup this me. this bridge was builtike the george washington bridge, and he wasnderneath getting shot out by 200 tanks and 20,000 troops, wounded three times, finly got 400 pounds of c4n this high beam and twisted this bridge ife hadn't done that i would still be in hanoi because the northieamese would have gone

down and cssedouth vietnam with no peace agreement, and i would still be over there. that is why replete is onef my favorite guys. he is a stalwar snuffy smith, courage when h was south witosnia. scott o'grady had been shot down an f-16 air force pilot and got hit any way he came down and cnn and itsreat wisdom started telling the world where he was and showing ms of the singing he's right here and scott is on the groun ting to ife and the bad guys watch cnn just like everybody else and they are trying to pick this guy op. snuffy is the admiral the marines are there with the rescue. we want to go at night, we want to go in and get him. no word from washington. on his own.

snuffy launched the force. two of the cpperwere hit on the way back. [laughter] to of the chopper's got hit on the way bk if one hadone down or sethingnuffy would have gotten hung by the neck until de and he had the courage to do that because washington they are all sitting their watching each other and form a big staff study and cost and benefit analysis and he said should we really go? we might make somebody mad. and so anyway there is snuffy in his wisdom punched the button and the marin got scott o'grady otherwise they would have captured and am sure they would have killed him my heroes. three things i leaedrom himalaya and i think they are in e book. i think we p those in there. the whole experienc 242,000

days i talked french and learned spanish and german and a little bit of russian. i learned a lot of stuff and taught a lot of stuff and came out in much better person than lieutenant germani who went into that place. he came out and was a totally dierent guy and i had been very positive it perns. but ththree things i learned from the solid to confinement and beatings and just getting -- [laughter] i learned i wasn't as tgh as i felt i was so we were tough, we were not very smart but we were ught at the naval academy, and i used tohink there is no way i went through this survival school and it was a piece of cake and i didn't like that either but got throu it we did

was no big deal. this could be a piece of cake. i found out iasn't tough as i thought i was and i neea l of help and people i could turn to reduce fo exales. the other thing was no matter how bad i felt i had is some of those times were awful. thers always somebody else that had it worse and i think what they were going through and all of sudden my personal plight didn't seem so bad. finally the last thing and it's all my signature is on the e-mail and a lot of doors of my friends on a remind myself ery morning there's no such thing as a bad day when youave a door ob on the inside of a door. [applause] >> well our last speaker

certnly needs no introduction but i am going to give him one anyway. from all outward appearances, doug wilder's start in life was impossibly difficult. the grandson of slaves he grew up poor and in th sgated south yet his name will be recorded in every history textbook from thiseneration forward. why? because doug wilder is the first african-american in the history of the country to be ected governor of a state and not just any state but his home state of virginia, the former capital of the confederacy that he could experience any measure of success in the face of so much injustice and hardship i all inspiring, that he would rise above to become governor of virginia is nothing short of miraculous. hover, as he will tell you in his essay he was raised with certain intangible advantas that madet possible, mor than

possible even for him to succeed at wtevehe chose to do. doug wilder is a force of nature as charming il person as he is demanding. hisnparalleled success throughout his political and professial career is duen no small part to his take no prisoners style. he is alternately portrayed as the quintesseial souern gentleman or fierce politician. however, in the time i have spent with him i have found him to be neither of thesextremes. i met governor wilder the first time the day i went to his office to ask him if he would consider writing an essay for this book. i began my pitch by talking about him, his life, his career and all he had experienced a ultimately accomplished. herushed that aside with a smile. he wasn't interested in talking about himlf. instead, as he mulled over m

request he began telling me stories about his mother and his father and the ways in which they had softened the jacket corners of poverty for him and his siblings so tt it never threatened to consume the lives. he reminisced about the older black men in his neighborhood where he grew up who, having had no real opportunity to go to school themselves instilled in him profound understandi of the importance of educati. the offer themselves up as living examples of opportunity lost and forged in him deep appreciation for the power of a stng mind. at one point towarthe end of the meeting he stooup from his desk and walked over to a small stack of papers neatly are arranged on a stand and brought them over for me to see. they were letters he had received from children across virginia and he seemed to remamber the names and faces of each one he had met and was

obviously moved and invigorated by t memory. i am part of the older generation now,e says in his essay. and w are charged with the task of successfully instilling in your generation and understanding and appreciation of the truth lies that have been overcome and what it takes to ovcome than. i like to think that this line can from those final moments of the meeting when he looked at the letters from the cldren, reflected for a moment at the innumerable awards and honors the blanket his wall and then turned and told me to add his name to my list. i am honored to introduce virginias history making governor, the honorable douglas wilder. [applause] >> thank you very much.

>> thank you. paul, i start off like you did. [laughte i came late because i wanted everyone to sayverything they had to say before i got here. [laughter] i was prowling around lost on the st. catherine campus about 15 minutes. when you he to drive yourself these days. [laughter] it's hard to get around. [laughter] but i wouldn't miss this for anything. my good friend, chief justice sitting here as you know, and in tsa he speaks of a word that really impressed me. he spoke of civility, and he describes how it was such a great part of george washington's life how it was

something he carried with him through every aspeceven when he was in civilian life. and i think it is something that should be a part of the thread foour society today. ast has been in so many other instances of development as a nation, as tim eloquently describes he says people that have come together that -- a nation that is so much. and you are right, kelly. i do fl was lucky to have been born when i was born and people say what do you think you could do now with the advantages out there for kids? i said look at thomas jefferson could have done if he had a computer. [laughter] you don't talk about wt could have been hit you talk about

what is. and when i say that i'm lucky i'm lucky because of what you deribed of the society, th community. everybody was concerned wh th community. everyone was concerned witthe ight of the children, the plight of the neighborhood, the plight of the schools. everything. it wasn't a questionf this group felt this and others thght that. anto the extent i was luc enough to have parents that valued education, really valued at, they made it very ear that was the only way unless youot smart used a dumb and dumber people learn absolutely nothing. and i never really wanted to do too much other than to be as good as i coul be with whatever it was that i did

and when i would be founate engh to have my for rahman to the code for on and i wou use it or the sh shine parlor across the street, or even the pool hall down where i ultimately had my first call office overtop it on 31st and peach hill. those people and those places encouraged all of us to stay in school. to be certain to participate in government. i was charged with responsibility to come back in the early part of the 50's and 60's when voter registration was to be the key there was a yellow book they would put out, and that a book out in the barber shops. and you know the barbershop is the house for everybody. everybody has to have their say. you see that show on television,

barbershop. the philosophers of t world. they areetter than the wino's on the corner because they step up and theknow everything. and so the guys in the barber shop woul@ say to mef his name is not in that book, let us know because we will shut him up. and i would be theirst to run to that book, his name is in here, then shut up. don't you speak about anything that you know. if you know souch about something you should be registered. you should vote. i don't care if its a tax, plate -- pay it. when you consider that on too many occasions todayour society across the board, not necessarily class, has said to our youngsters they don't have to be the best. they settle fothe mediocrity. just to get by.

you and i kno we ve high school students graduating today from college. now what i say, high school students graduated from college which means the college degrees they get today in some places are not worth theigh school degrees and the diplomas we got. they didn't know what the calcul was. you speak to kids about algebra today are the proper pronunciation today and they think that you are as some would say talking white. then talk white. that nonsee that swept through some portions of the nation so few years ago when theyer eaking about ivan -- ebonics. remember that got him? they would debate about ebal mix. the language you have to speak.

i said when they start speing inall street, let me know. that's the time to do it. our kids nee to be challenged. you are right, tim, they are coming from all over the world but when they are coming they areoming with two and three disciplines. theyre coming with degrees and they are coming with two or 3 degrees and they are coming ready to work. and to the extent uill have a drop of society we can afford that. and so yes i was very fortunate. we've lo that stability. i think in the other instance we have too many young people waiting for someone to tellhem when it is time for them to move. waiting. and they will say what are you going to do? i don't know what are you doing

now? well, you know. they had youngsters to come to me to ask for recmendations for scholarships at various places and one school when i was in the stat senate the senators could send a kid to military school in the institute eac senator could send their kid there for free. so i had these come here and they had excellent paper work in front of them and i said so i didn't have it at that time it was in an envelope. i said what aryou here for, yoknow, i heard, you know, you could make a recomendationor me. i said i can't hear you. [laughter] welcome younow, i want to go to school up their. i said is your name such and such? yes. you are this person? yes. you have a's all the way

through. how did that happen? is this you? [laughter] yes, thats me. and it was like a mamorphosis. he started being the real pers that he was i said why did you talk that way to me when you first came in? he said well, you know, people accused you of being cute or trying to put on an ad or be smarter than they are. i sa thenhat is what you want to be. you want to be smarter tha the next person. you want to be the best tha you can be. you want to live up to the highest possibility of your attainment. now your parents might not have the education and many instances that they could have ha and that hs where we need to start. not just with the kids. we have got to start with the parents to gewe can't allow the parents to believe that someone is going to raise tir

children. we can't allow the fathers to believe that they can be the father at theime when those kids a able to play a sport. that is my son, but was he your son en he needed some help and support and needed someone to guide him or her? we need to have the spearman table to say to these kids know, you are going to do one or two things, either get a job and work or you're going to go to school and help yoursel there, too and there has to be a cut off period of time. we had that built in in your home i know mosofou. it was built and at my home because my father said i don't have money to waste. and i tell youhat all negative, tenedos together, eight siblings, not going to be able to send all of you to college. not being able to send all of youo llege but i will guarantee all of you high

school. i only had one home my entire life, 28 and p street. my father built that house, paid for that house. his father who was a slave built his house across the street. if those two man could have these big families and build their own homes and have it so that we knew we had theomfort of family we didt have to worry about where the event was going to comfrom or who our neighbors were going to be and we understood that we had to go to school because my father said if you don't do at you can't stay here. i told my mother i was going to run ay from home. shsaid you can't do that. i id i am. let everybody know. so she did tell my father. so h told me i understand yoq

want to run away from home and i said yeah, i did my mother tell you? yep. he said tell me where you want to go and i will carry you. [lghter] we don't do that today. we are so afraid our children will be mad at us. we wan them to be our bodies. we want them to be our pal. my granddaughter -- my grandsons were asking, my daughter asked them she want me to call them. what do you want them to call you? a lot of people like to be called -- i said i am their grandfather, call me granddad. that is the shortest i will make it. they need to know there is a figure in their lives they reect because family is all you have. and finally i would say there

isn't anything you can't do to these youngsters. you make up your mind what you want t do you can do it. you can do it in this country and i am not talking about as a result what happened in the last four, five, six, ten or 20 years. that was always what i was taught. always taught notwithstanding w things may be today you work for the better day because you can cut it and that is why i always would say that a little poem i usually say to kids i will persist until i succeed because i was not delivered into this world in defeat nor does defeat run through my blood or the blood of myncestors. all i am not some sheep waiting to b prodded by the distant shepard. i don't want to know the sheep. the slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny. and i will persist until i succeed. whatever they do and however they do it, persist until they

succeed. thank you. [applause] >>t we are going to op up for qutions and answers. i have some questions people have sent, but if you have a question for one of the man or for me that he would like to ask you can step up to the microphone and asked them your questions and if we had trouble with microphones before, get ady. we a all going to have to speak up because this is the only projecting microphone. those microphones are actually for-span. so theatrical voice is, gentlemen. and if you would please state your name, say your name and to the question is for. >> my name is steve and my question is for mr. reid.

most ierested in your view of the dia an power of media and culture i think is undeniable. but we almost always seem to talk about and lookt media as a negative influence, and is there some suggeion you might have on how to filter the media so tt it's positive or are there people out there doing posive things in the media that maybe we are missing? >> yes there are pple doing positive things, however i think the issues about the media rest on ourselves. i think most of us not only don't understand the media, but we are afraid of the media. the media is just that. it's not a living, brehing thin they haven't been able to put a transistor in it yet. so, it is just a thing. it is what i consider an negative word in our history booksut a word i think is neither negative or positive and that is propaganda.

when someone reolts and takes over what is the first thing they take over? radio station. why? control propagan@a. we have to understand as communities if we don't ctr or have some say so within our communities a@out the information coming into our communities to our you peoe we will lose control of the communities because the media is that powerful. to tell a young person to turn off the television or don't go on the computer you can t guard them 24/7. they are eoing to go on so what we have to teach i think is the responsibility of the media. the responsibility of words. i'm in show business against citizenship and censoring feet inward, the r word, the the word, i don't care what it is. i'm against it because i think what to do is teach people the power of words. if a yng person knows a word is powerful than they will have

better respect. to tell a young person not to say that word, they will find another rd. they will come up with another meaning that if you teach them the powe of the word, teach people the power of media they will have more respect and hopefully begin to put responsibility and to th media. what is lacking in the media today is responsibility. we are n holding the media responsible as a community. you have to hold it responsible and how do you do that? you stop liking the product. we own the airwaves. yku call your local staon and say you know, i don't want this garbage coming in my neighborhood or if you're going to have it you have toive us something to balance that off and so you have to be more responsible and right now we are not being responsible as consumers of media. more responsible what happens to just about anything in our lives but the most perful thing that comes in our house and that is the media.

>> i am philipohnson and have a question for tim. did any of your friends give you a hard time when you quit playinfootball to write poetry? >> it's funny you would ask that question. not i think for the most part, i went to school in texas, grew up in philadelphia. my friends from philadelphia by the time i started coming back i was only home christmas and for a little while in the summertime once i got to colle so i think some of them might have been disappointed that i didn't become as we all fantasize about because i was one of theew that went to college and played a little college ball so i think maybe some of the hopes of the neighborhood wee resting on me so when i didn't become pro i don't think anybody made -- i didn't get a hard time but maybe you get someone looking out o the corner of their i like what ppened, but not really hassling.

the dudes i played with in college, now that was different becausehose guys, we were whto get their and it's just kind of well, what happened, man? did you go soft? what is with this poetry thing, you know? [laughter] but as i sai the name of my essay in the book wa hard-headed and that is o of the things that has saved me because i don't care what anybody said. one time i made up my mind to d it a i was going to be a poet. i was still a pretty big guy. one was going to pu be about any way. but yeah, those guys might have been allowed all rauf. the dudes that plea that the college level especially a lot of the guys, some of them did become pros, these were athletes. some of them lied about sports illustrated so some of these guys were like that was their life, sports. i was lucky i had this other

thing. my mothe-- i didn't get to mentiothis and we can probably write several essay about our lives, my mother had been a hi school english teacher so one of the things i was coing to know if i was goi to be bhing in that hou was how to read and write so i hadhat as a skill so there was a path i could take afrom sports that probably most of the guys who were my friends on the team that wasn't an option they had. they would not suddenly becom wrers. they didn't have perhaps the leve of ability but language i did. at that ti i didn't think of myself as a profoundly talented guy. but in retrospect i realized i did know things about words a lot of guys who were jocks, quoten quote, didn't and it's true you got a little of a hard time from your teammates, but what are they going to do? they had to get back on he field. >> if i could add as folks used to tell me when i was a kid if you're not getting resistance

you' not pushing forrd. >> my question is for commander galanti i would like to point ouof an irishrial lawyer and that would frustrate me, to act. i was an army g and still am in the resves when hanly opened for seven years obviously one of the most terrib exriences in the military history yet listening to you tonight, i don't hear any bitterness about your experience, i hear a very positive descrtion of what must have been a tremeously tragic time, a as a military officer, i would wt to know how is it you managed toome away frosuch a difficult experience without being better? >> everythin is relative, and i kept thinking of all of my friends, the 58,000 names on the

wall. snuffy and i both have a lot of friends from ou class, the naval acemy killed dtring the waand the training accints, and it just goes with the turf. most of us expected it something that happened we were trained for it and we went to survival school and are to become approximatelwhat it was but we were not prepared for the length of it. one thing they could simulate in survival school is we never knew when it was going to be over. it was christmas 72 when i was sittin in the cell that consolatory again as i started, christmas '65, '66, '67, '68, '69, '70, 71, 72. i had been away from home for a long time. right after that i had an interrogation since 1968 and the commander called me and said

according to you to do y know what your wife's activities are ani said how do i know that, i dot getailed& he said maybe that is why you get no mail so i wast su what she was doing but whatever it was he didn't like it so therefore i did. [laughter] and it wasust besides the army jags are dfere from regular lawyers but governor wilder is a bronze star recipienand there are not many of those by the only one that used where all the time that ever commented on it in the korean war. if you're in the army it's okay. [laughter] >> other thandmiral smith who yohave described as a hero, are there any people today that you could point to that you feel our hees and if you could te us why. >> i am sitting next to one of th right here for blazing trails. venus flytrap. [laughter]

by the way gordon is a friend of ours. he was the second attack me darman. also station manager, right? >> that's right. >> i have got a loof heroes. in ft i don't get hung up on turkey and maybe that is one reason. there's a lot of noal people herehat are doing their best, better than anybody thought they we going to do and they are heroes to m that's fine. a lot of you people i know were given everything and they frankly bluet. it is a classic second generation or third generation built up from scratch and second genetion sort of let it go to pot. just a lot of them,chwarzkopf ald what dide sy, he took the

first president bush you want to send me their here is what we have to do if you don't mind doing it i don't want to go and backed president bush said a lot of times he wanted to pick up the radio and they can get right inside the years of the squad leader right in the middle of combat he wanted to pick up the phone but h didn't do it and hwarzkopf got the first gulf war over in three wes once the pushed the button. i went to the same high scol they did. so. i have bought a ton of them i can go on and on bute have a whole bunch, snuffy for whahe did with brady and a bunch of other stuff. besides anybody come any admiral named stuffy has to be a unique guy in a week. [laughter] >> my name is sean kelly. first i would like to thank all of you for saying yes to do this

book. i think it is a really great book and i really appreciat everything i have read. it is incredible. it will be mandatoryeading f my son's and i appreciate your example and your service with military and the teaching professi. and entertaijment, community tivism. thank you. my question is for admiral smith. i am wondering if you could give any advice to how wean call young men to service and i don't just mean military but service tk the ountry, service to the communities, service in general to boost their betterment, the country's betterment if he could speak to that, please. >> wn we were talking about the media earlier and telling the media i don't wa you here, what i really was thinking about at that point was the responsibilities that families

and parents have to cause young people to think for themselves about important things. we sometimes tend to and i think you mentioned we tend to not give the kind of guidance and direction that is reired, we tend to accept mediocrity. we don't cause our young people to understand what's important and i truly believe the young men and womenith whom i served and i think you're exactly right there are wonderful pple out the today and i have got a couple son-ilaw's and a daughter in the service right now. i look at them and i know something caused them to come. there iso common thread other than the fact th sort of understand what the united states is all about and most of them come with a sense of respbility that this into

free and it's a good place to learn so i believe is part of a growing up process but it all starts at home with the families understanding what'important, teaching people, young men and women to think for themselves. >> my name is married and i grabbed of st. christopher's school and i thank you for coming and getting involved. this is a topice talk a lot about being an all male school, and having a fathe figure and a family has got to be a major influence in building a better man, and i would ask any of you are we at the beginning of a new era with our new prident, barack obama are we at the time now a lot of people that didn't think they could get anywhere in this world for whatever reason

now may think that they can in at there is time for excuses may be over with now that anybody can do anything and will that allow or turn so many peoplehat have been irresponsible and had cldren and just left them for other people to raise, will they now say maybe i can be something and i need to be volved in my children's life to raise them? could this be the beginning of a new era of? >> [inaudible] -- of course that cuts both ways. because of course there is the dark perceptions that make people sad and not try but then there's the other perceptions and i think obama, the image of l, particularly a black man even thnugh of course he is a european and african heritage

but his skin is brown tt certainly will change some of the dynamics that come from the culture but of course you still have a lot of other difficulties people will face. those things didn't vanish because it became the president. you still have racism as aact of force in this culture although i think it may be slipping io its death masks finally but i do think that it's still there so you will have issues of poverty a still have issues of sf-esteem that make it hardor people to believe that they can inhabit the white house. but yes, i certainly think obama's prence, the perception that here is a man who 50 years ago couldn't have sat going to a lot of hotels sitting in a movie theater is now president of the country certainly that has to change some of thways in which black men and men of color in general and perhaps the white kids as well if you want to stretch it it y make them think of themselves differently

what is possible given the rcumstances. >> i think one of the most important things saiduring the past election was said by obama but tually he didn't write it was written by alice walker and she sa we are the ones we have been waiting for, and i don't know why of althe dialogue i heard during the election that particular phrase stuck with me and as i travel around the country and i listen to whais going on through the media i don't think that we realize that putting obama their yes, it's a very positive image but that is one man and i tnk set ourselves up for failure if we rely completely on thaimage as the sole tipping point to the future. i don't think that he is the tipping point the future. i think he is a glorious part of our present and could be part of thfuture in terms of his view and his ability to govern.

but i think that we are the ones responsible for the future. when i say we, simple thing. when you get away from the shores and look back on the country you get a different view as said sitting in the military facility in okinawa talking to young americanas a different than sitting in the streets talking to some guys it is a little different, you get a different perspective and what i am finding i am ccerned about we americans, and that ise've become very nive and winding people. evywhere i go i hear people talk about you wan to talk about something negative i can see this one word and everybody wilh agree it is a negative, post oice. use a post nffice everybody in the roogoes that's right. do you knowe have the bt postal system in the world? that in this country you can walk outside your with a letter, postmarked, guam, stick it ia box on the corner and in a matter of a week to two weeks it

will be in guam. try to do that i ita, try to do that in any country in the world how many of you travel, you go to italy and want to send a postcard back you all beat them home. people are like when were you in italy. [laughter] but to hear a politician and they say the post office is worst, we ha the best postal system in the world that people wouldn't say that. why? the perception it's not good politics. these politicians going to much government. well, maybe don't run for office next time and would be oneess gvernment person. [laughter] the uy spends $10 million to become something and then says we have too much government. why didn't you think of that $10 million ago? we could have used that to build schools or ut some booksn the library. so i am seeing the perception, getting back tthe perception it is now we have all of these things wrong. there is a lot of things that

e better than we give them the reality for in this country that need to start looking at. if you want a young person to have a fling about his future you better stop telling him that he has no feture and that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. you better start telling these young people things are better than we thought because these yog people are going to turn on you. if you don't startetting them positive inforti and start calling them -- stop calling them negative ings they're going to turn on you. appearance, be carefulhat you mean your kids. yore not going t be anything. like dougl was saying en i was a kid they would always ask the question in my house what are you going to be when you grow up? i don't care what it was. you better come up with something. i want to be a cowboy. will then be a good one, yippi

hi-ho. [laughter] i think it is us. we have to be more responsible anwe better start speaking of positive reality to our children. i wouldn't care whether they were black, white, rich or poor. the poor can become the best and the best can becomthe poor but if you don't start speaking positive you will have trouble. >> i was at a church earlier this year and a lady came in with her to grandnephews. one way about this high and the other one a little higher and she said i wanted theo meet you because they have heard about you and they said well, you know, we have read about you and how re fourth grade books. in history and virginia. and then one of them said yeah and the other said have you been dead? [laughter]

and then she said to them tell him what you're going to do. one said i am going toe the presidt of the united states. the oth one said i am going to be the governor of virginia, and so it is the image that is out the. the opportunity for them to see. you're point is absolutely right isn't jt for the kids. 's for the world to see. i happen to have been in saudi arabia the day or o afterbody election, and evenhen spiritual so uplifted. shortly ter that i was in another country. spirits up with the dustin said people all overre watching but when those kids start saying to their pares what theare going to be that puts them on to say to them why can't they be and what is your job going to do

to help them? on an opportunity we need to take advantage of. >> and many communities of color particular i think it was racism appeared to be kind of monolith. perhaps there was a qut conspiracy on the white community against the communities of color. t everyone who knows obama couldn't have been elected without a kind of convergence of white communities and communities of color and that also changes the dyjamic the way some young people and adults imagine the american culture and that is i think help too. >> we have time for one last question. >> i address my question to each of you. my name is nancy sutton family and my question is more about theulture and women in our culture and how as wom have

changed and they've changed the society and a probably many of you know and college to@ay women are the scholars more than 50% of our doctors and lawyers are women and i think that has anged the dynams of tremendously. of coue you are all of a certain age where you had traditional roles where it was clear cut you were to be the provider and the wife was staying at home and we of the different roles and today it's rder for men to carve out with their role is supposed to be. where are they supposed to be in ciety and how, ionder if eachf you could speak to that in terms of where you see the xt generation fulfilling that role and how they find their way to becoming the man they want to be as our culture has changedo much. >> i know it is a big question. >> think of your daughters and granddaughters. >> this is the guy that should have been the first black

president. [laughter] there is no portrayal of white males in any favorable sense anymore. look at all the tv mmercials. if there is a white guy his the clown, the fat guys and the hero and i am not surewhere this is coming from. our boys know theyan do anything they can do and they have to work f it a do what ever. but will models i can go into th demraphics and i was at the naval academyhen they had the first women cgme to the first class ticket f class is. and they still are. it's awful. but the plug along. so that was the most popular guy and i gave the se woman twi two different ridings even though i had all mesons and no

daughters, but i gave her away when she was a navy captain, and it is a different career pattern and they don't do 24/7. when i went in the military if you didn't have a wife they would issue new one. [laughter] and now the young female single parent sailors and u they can't do 24/7 because theyave kids to take care of. several years ago the largest single item ithe military constructionas day care centers for a married sailors. give me a break. that isn't smart. it will cause a major problem in the defense preparednes but that is what the population wants unlike other countries. >> -- by somebody a little bit less accepted.

>> he was alking about women didn't have thetamina. and i looked m in the eye and i said when is the last time you did an iron man? when is the last time yoraa half marathon on saturday and a full maratho sunday? when is the last time you met spent six months at gitmo 500 yards from people wo want to kill you? then i told him that my 5-foot 5-inch daughter had all of those things and she is a lieutenant commander in the navy, get out of my face. [laughter] what we've really need to understand, and i made this coent in a panel, you may remember it was women in comb and the big argument is whether women should be in combat or not and these people would talk about how women should in combat and i would ray that is th wrong question. nobody in his right mind wts to be in combat for god sakes. what they want is t same opportunity to serve in prison

-- positions of leadership and they have to achieve that capability. and that is how it all started >> if a of you have had the pleasure of going to israel and seei the sabra the female soldiers i don't think that he would ever have to ask the estion can a female fight? [laughr] i don't know about issues of women in the military. i wld like to see more women get involved in government. i think that we have life out of b@lance and we need more feminine power in a government in particular. i think the world would be different and i would like to see more women and men step back and politics and in particular and in business and get more balance. i thnk that men have screwed things up a little bit and we are ashamed. [laughter] bu were sti in charge and are going to do what we h to do but i would like to see more women in july and and and get involved and what i say to my granddaughters and my daughter i

leave the gender site and see basicallye prepared to take charge. be prepared to lead. your life is an independent life. you don't have to follow the traditions of yourother or grandmother. you can follow your own but be prepared. keep your womanhood. don't try to become a man in terms of your thinking and philosophy keep your womanhood because that is the part needed in the position and that is what i say to them. >> with regard to whether the rule for boys are not clearly defined in i don't know. i have heard people say that. i like being a man and i love women and i want women to do well. i don't feel because wheand why is in the intellectual powe the professional status tha suddenly i don't know who i am. i know who i am.

at i would like to think is this book about a man could of course have a parallel book about a woman in each case what we are trying to do is encourage kids or whatever gender to do as much as they can and we will be fine companions for each other. if i am 63 and 240. i am not going to expect ify wife is 53, 120 for her tlift all logs or something. it not like i don't know what to do. i kw what i can do and i know what she can do, but those issues to me seem like just common sense. we permi each other to reale theotential we can be good companions. it is just that to me. >> thank you for those answers and fothat question. all i am going to take 30 seconds and since i have a few young man in the audience i am going to get a 32nd message of something i learned having interviewed these men that i want to pass on to you.

and that is this, if you decide you have a desire to be a better man and yohave to start with that decision, and it's not really even a difficult one, but if you dece that, that i have a litt bit of good news and a little bit of bad news, the bad news if you want to call it that a is that to be a good man is going to require more courage, more persistence, more sacrifice and more self control you can even imagine right now. it is not an easy road. if it were easy everne would do it. all i encourage you to make that choice and i encourage you to strive because i can promise you that if you do, if you persist, if you are courageous and no self control and sacrice you will find yourself waking up one day standing shoulder