"emergence," thinking in pictures, "developing talents," "animals in translation," "the unwritten rules of social relationships," the way i see it the personal relationships and autism and asperger's.

>> i have to tell you it is such an honor to be sitting here signing my book at the table with carlotta walls lanier and terrence roberts. when i started my journey as a professional writer in 1984 i could never imagine that i would be signing books with to recipients of the congressional gold medal, the highest civilian honor in the hanna and i am humble to be here. fudge i am also proud to be here, to be with them. this book is an interesting book because national geographic has a series called remember and the whole idea is to tell stories as much as possible through eyewitness accounts and contemporary photographs. the first two books i wrote in a series were called remember little big horn and remember the

alamo. how i became the national geographic eyewitness account of battles for everybody tye-died i don't know, but as the curator at the alamo said everybody has to have a niche. this was also i have written a lot of history and this is the first book i have ever written where lots of people were still alive. that was and wonderful experience because i got to interview, i got to be good friends with terrence roberts who wrote the introduction to the book and served as my mentor to make sure that i had it right, and the manuscript was read by four others of the "little rock nine," carlotta rabbids, chorus green read it, minnijean reddick and i interviewed her for many hours and that was really fun and gloria ray road e-mails back-and-forth to sweden and back and she was very helpful with many things including she gave me, she sent me the pdf of

a note that was left on her desk and it is in the book, first time it has ever been published in remember the famous one of one down, a to go? this one was gloria ray out of the way and i have never seen that and i'm honored to be the first person to be able to publish that. being close with some of the "little rock nine" was wonderful. i also got to be close to the number of the white students including particularly when a handful of white students that lay their own lives on the line to support the "little rock nine" head and i would like to honor one of them who happens to be here today. what is your name? no. [laughter] robin who would who is on the back cover with a wonderful quote and she befriended terrence in that class and shared her book with him and suffered a lot for it, and she and her husband have become great friends.

i have to tell you a little story. terrence told me about robin and said the watts interview robin so i called robin, i live in california and i said i'm coming to little rock to do more research and i would like to interview you. she said one of aegis stay with us? i said my god, i had never met this woman and she invited me to stay in her home and she said a friend of terry is a friend of mine. i have been close friends with robin and harry and i am here at the chateau again.. this is really fun. the experience of being able to work with people who were part of the story was a remarkable experience because of course i can't interview davy crockett. they were interviewed and that is what i use. there is another side of this, okay? i worked with some people and none of the ones i have mentioned yacked, who, they had issues with the way i used their quotes in the way i introduced

their "there was a moment when i thought i am just going to keep working with dead people because they be crocket can send me an e-mail and say i don't like the way you introduced my quote. i tried to be as honest as i can be but it is kind of a balancing act when you are working with people who have lived it because you have to get the truth right but you don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. you just have to walk a fine line and you have to try to see the-- tell the bigger picture the best decamp. it was an amazing experience in having come back to little rock in seeing how many friends i have i think i'm going to keep writing about life. thank you. [applause] >> okay. alright. i thank you lara and all the staff here at little rock's

central high school historic site for putting this event together tonight. we have talked about this over a period of time and just kind of wonderful that it has finally happened. you know this story is about my high school days, and it is not about the first integration that took place in the south. it is however a about a school integration of which found its way repeatedly into the national spotlight. it was a showdown between states' rights and federal law between the arkansas governor and president dwight d. eisenhower of the united states. between nine kids who wanted to go to school and they had to be accompanied by 1200 soldiers to escort them inside the school.

that really became the second largest headline in 1957, the first being scott nick-- sputnik and president eisenhower's biggest domestic crisis that took place during his presidency. what i would like to do it is a little bit different and maybe not, but i want to just read to you a couple of pages in my book i took something from the prologue and also i took a piece from classifying the groups of kids that i encountered at little rock's central high school once i got inside and finally a few pages that will introduce the most horrific night of my life, the night my

home was bombed in my senior year. according to the local daily arkansas gazette i was the first integrating student in the country to have her home. few people my age will have more than one good friend from high school. i am grateful to have at least eight. bernie, mill book, minnijean, elizabeth, gloria, terry, jefferson and feldman. and the public mind we are one, the "little rock nine" that we are in essence nine distinct personalities with nine different stories. it is much a story about the dedication of family perseverance and sacrifice as it is about the journey in the history. it is-- it is a salute to my parents in the background and

swallowed a great risk and suffering. they were the ones who had ingrained in me the quiet confidence that jim crow dams. i was not a second class citizen. it was that confidence that told me i'd deserve the quality education and the supreme court said i was too. the confidence that steadied my feet to defy the racist school every single day. my parents bequeath to me the confidence of their fathers, both hard-working entrepreneurs in control of their own economic lives. my family may have seen unlikely candidates for involvement in a movement that was for a nationwide change but then again that is the point of this book. to show the determination, fortitude and the ability to move the world are not reserved for the special people.

sometimes i have thought about how much easier survival would have been if more people had taken a chance, a stand. as i saw at the students at central fell into different categories, the smallest group is the easiest to identify, the students or determined to make our lives miserable, the tormentors, that black leather boys, their female corp. croats-- cohorts in the cowardly students pushed us out. they were the ones to call the stories that names, spat on this, kicked, hit questions clandestine to lockers and down the stairs. maybe it was their parents to help to make up the segregationist crowds that clung to the wrongheaded belief that central somehow belong to them and that the nine of us were causing trouble by having the

audacity to keep showing up. the second group included those students who were clearly sympathetic. even if they did not out ratio it or jump to our defense and times of trouble, you could tell by the kind eyes that on our worst days seemed to say i am really sorry this is happening to you. sometimes they often smiled in the hallways or in class horse elliptic quiet note of support to one of us under cover. the majority of the students at central fell into the third group, those who kept silent. they wanted all the trouble to end. they did not torment us but they didn't extend themselves to us in any way either, not even quietly. they did not want to be associated with one side or the other. they chose to remain neutral as if remaining neutral in the face the evil for an acceptable an just choice. they turned away.

they wounded us invisible. their most likely the ones today to have been asked about the class of 1957 tried to reinvent history. things that central ward is that at the nine of the said said they never called in recent years. the moms were not as bad they say, the bad guys and gals were not as bad and the atmosphere was not as tense. well of course that is how they remember the central journey these 50 plus years later. when i was suffering in those calls they turned away. they did nothing. they said nothing. they chose not to see. there was another group, a small group for sure but in my mind of the bravest of all, those teachers and students you times were openly kind husein to look beyond skin color and c 9 students eager to learn, eager to be part of a great academic institution.

i had it all here. when i made it to my bedroom the night of february 9, 1960 was reigning mud. vallese that is how it appeared to me when i heard heavy wind and rain slapping against the house. i looked up at the window and saw that droplets of rain mixed with red third sliding down the windowpanes. it was about 9:30. i favor those moments of solitude just before bedtime when i got to unwind, listen to the radio and think. the house was quiet. daddy had not come in from it's night time job at baghdadi's please. they were asleep in their room a few steps up the hall and mother was in her and daddy's room near the front door.

i clicked on the clock radio resting on the nightstand. the jm dial was already tin into one of my favorite stations, which broadcast nightly from national-- nashville. it was one of the few stations that brought the sounds of black rock and roll with the man blues and jazz artists, the planters, little richard, fast domino to places they had never been before the homes and lives of my peers throughout the nation. it tickled me when i imagine maybe some of my white classmates were listening secretly too. [laughter] i particularly enjoyed a program called randy's record highlights which aired shortly after 10:00. as i changed into my pajamas my mind felt edie's. i made it to the homestretch at central i thought. four weeks things had been calm, no protesters are incidence and graduation was less than four

months away. i have finally stopped sulking after the rejection from antioch and decided on a college. my decision-making process had been simple, i accepted the first cool the wrote to me with good news after the big letdown in that school was michigan state. michigan state wanted me right then and i was eager to be wanted. after disappointment i had been in no mood to wait to hear from my second and third choices. by the time the acceptance letters came from brandeis and the university of california i have already settled on going to michigan state. i was starting to get excited. i liked the idea of getting lost among the thousands of students on campus. i would get to comingling as they please and no one would even notice. finally i would have a normal life. dances, concerts', football games and maybe even a boyfriend. i could hardly wait to end this

chapter of my life and start a new. but for the moment it was bedtime. i clicked off the light in my room, crawled into bed with my thoughts and let fs and fat serenade me to sleep. no sooner had i close my eyes then i was shaken by a thunderous boom, the house shook and i could hear glass crashing to the floor in the front of the house. is that up quickly with my hands gripping the sides of my bed as it to steady the room. for a moment that felt frozen in place. my eyes wide with fear darted around the room, what was that? was daydreaming? the explosion had come from the front. then my little sister's, mother, i had to find them. i leaped out of bed and as soon as my bare feet landed on the cold floor took of running to my bedroom. my first stop was the then the outside my bedroom door. it was dark and still.

i turn toward the hall and ran to the front of the house. i was halfway up the call what i saw them standing in their nightgowns with mother in their bedroom door at the other end of the hall. when i reach the mother and the girls were dazed and bewildered but none hurt. we stared at one another to shaken to even speak. little tina's eyes move from mother to me searching our faces for clues. a hayes of smoke floated through the darkness from the living room to the hallway where we stood. gizmo kurd my eyes and an unfamiliar sound filled the air. it smelled as if something had gone off in a chemistry lab. inside i was helpless and horrified and the needed that. he would tell me everything would be okay and make me feel safe. but he must have been working late. it was 11:00 and he had not yet made it home. i suddenly felt a sense of responsibility as though i need to step up and somehow make the

situation right. but i didn't know how. i could feel panic rising in my throat. i had the odd thought that the one who always felt her hard work who had believed that anything was possible if she stood firm in stayed strong was now at a total loss. the sound of my mother's voice, she was, and restrained but i heard the helplessness too. collier daddy she said. i do hope that you guys that are here today purchase the book, be able to discuss it with others, share it, learn something from it and thank you for being here. [applause]

>> thank you very much indeed. this process of writing a book is all consuming. i have worked on it for many years actually. someone asked me recently why are you releasing it knell as if i had anything to do with when the publishers would accept it, when they would release it. i talked to my sister at one point to the process and she said listen, back off. is not about you setting a timetable. it will present itself to the public. i believed her and just beautifully got into the process of doing it. it was a got wrenching process at times, as i explained to some people earlier. one of the reasons for the delay was the bumping into the emotional debris, the kind of stuff you pick up when you go through an experience. there is a tendency to collect a lot of stuff then you take it with you down to the years. it is necessary to with that stuff away. writing the book was in part a

bit of whisking it away but now that you use in print i can get on with life than do other things. [laughter] i am glad that we are here tonight because we have a chance to talk together about some of the questions you might have for us about some of the things you may have wondered about that went on at central high school and we can have a chance to interact. one of the things i like about this kind of gathering is that we do have a chance to relate to each other. i am firmly convinced that relationship is the key to resolving all of our problems. i spoke to a reporter today and he was asking, what are we going to do about the state we are in? i said we are going to have to learn how to say hello to each other and mean it. build stronger relationships and does become the building blocks for a community, for a nation, for society and eventually a university believe in that. i dream about that at times. it is the kind of dream that is

soothing and helps me sleep. i can't have that dream after i watch cnn. the dreams are a little different. i keep seeing this guy, what is his face from alabama, sessions. [laughter] you know how you can determine what is going on inside of this goal of a person just by the verbiage that spills of his or her mouth? i get that. sometimes i worry about my ability to discern that stuff because it causes me to have murderous thoughts. i am basically a peaceful person. i never want to hurt anybody. never have. in any case i am indie glad that we have this opportunity and i look forward to interacting with several look u.s. to come to have your book signed. thank you. [applause] >> does anybody have questions?

anyone? yes, maam. [inaudible] >> i am a social worker and i see in your background the you too are trained as a social worker and of course i love social work and i think there's a reason that we come to social work. i would just be curious that he could say something about whether your background led you in that direction and then i wonder, why did you leave and go into psychology? [laughter] >> that is a good question. >> i think i have this notion that, as a person, interested in resolving social problems i could do it best from some professional standpoint.

i was disappointed with my fellow social workers because that particular crowd, this is not to say all social workers are like this but they seem to be more interested in doing psychotherapy and they want to go out and earn great sums of money. that was not michael but i figured this psychotherapy stuff looks interesting. i thought if i'm going to do psychotherapy the mind as well understand it from that point. but then i discovered psychologists are indeed crazy people. [laughter] i mean it was just overwhelming. fortunately i have the social work background so i survived. [laughter] thank you. >> anyone else? yes maam. >> i am a student at central

knell and i am and a class where we have been talking about pretty much the everyday stories that we hear all the time and we were sitting in class. and is not that we thought we were getting tired of it. it was like we wanted to know more and my question was, even though all of this stuff was going on duty still feel like a regular student that had all of this homework to do and were worried about all these tests you had to take or anything? >> yeah but we never worry about that stuff, i think. is that true carlotta? you were a smart kid. [laughter] >> not so much that, but as far is being tested i was tested so much prior to going to central, so testing was really a part of all of it. but we didn't have a normal high school year or years.

>> it was very abnormal, absolutely. thank you. >> any other questions? yes maam. >> last night, when i heard-- when i heard dr. roberts b guy asked this question comes up in the nine a few and i am asking you the question, after you graduated and started to go into life and have a normal life was there every time when not that you wished you weren't one of the nine, but it is almost like a shroud or always being one of the nine as you go out and date for is to have children and you just want to have been normal life. was there ever a time when it felt like a heavy burden to be one of the nine even though it was historical? >> you must believe, that is what i am saying. i did not have been normal high-school life and i pick a college from the wrong reason and that was just a loss.

and that was that way for me for almost 30 years. i did not discuss this of all. it was not until we came back for the 30th anniversary that i was somewhat forced to start talking about it, and that is pretty much tell the whole thing got started. so, no i did not learn. i never introduce myself as one of the "little rock nine." in fact, after the 30th anniversary i will never forget a friend of mine in denver coming up to me just upset that we have been friends for 20 some odd years and never knew that part of my life. cnn had documented it on our 30th anniversary. [laughter] >> i am honored and privileged that you did tell your story. it is just remarkable to all of us sitting here this evening and i thank you for finding the courage to be able to write a

book that you did so i thank you. [applause] >> do we have any other questions? yes, sir. >> my family and i, this is my daughter here, moved to arkansas in 1958 and pretty much that i have this crisis. live in fayetteville and still live there. i was politicized by this issue and educated by the great editor of the old arkansas gazette but my question is, i think we whites are much more sensitive now than we were 50 years ago, and assuming that is true, maybe it is not but assuming it is true, if it is right what has

caused it? i supposed to a certain extent the laws in the country. i don't think the churches held much but maybe they have. would you will have-- >> the extent to which the weed extends. with it goes too far beyond your personal circle of intimates i doubt that it would apply. but to the extent that it does, i think what made it happen with your own personal choice in conviction to step beyond the ordinary not to follow the crowd, not to give into the peer pressure to be just like those folks that we all look at and think, where did they come from? yeah. so, very good. >> i would like to turn that around to you. you lived there in 1958. your daughter could not even go to school so why would you do that? [laughter] i mean, were you in high school or were you--

>> i lived in fayetteville and i was starting junior high school. >> you move to ffl because the school was closed? one of the reasons. >> iz what you were thinking. we were not living here but a lot of people don't know i think that this school closed that year. >> anybody who would have moved here i have to question that, so that was the only reason i brought that up. i did not know the move to fayetteville. >> we have a question in the back. >> as we have noted today, you guys were not the first to integrate its school district, but the mere presence of national focus on you helped catalyze of the movement's. as we move forward 50 years later whether some other

marginalized or oppressed populations that are going to the same struggles and you think we have to have a national presence or a spotlight on a few to move those populations forward? >> i don't think so necessarily. i think what we need is a recognition that we do not have a society that is equal, that there is no such thing as a level playing field, that we are indeed not colorblind and we should not be. why would you voluntarily disable yourself in the first place and miss out on the richness of who we are, that's sort of thing. once beacom to that understanding we can look around and see what problems need to be resolved and if in fact we want to resolve those problems we will. we don't have to have a group spot light and use that as a catalyst for other actions it that makes sense. >> a more specific question

whether this undocumented students, muslims being oppressed and formerly an institutionally? beady issue is not to his being oppressed but the fact that some people are being oppressed and we have to ask why there is oppression. i resist the notion of singling out groups just for that reason. people are running around with banners supporting us as opposed to them perhaps? i don't know but i think it is about understanding an unjust society-- for any reason that makes sense. >> can i comment on that just briefly? as you know i live in san diego county 40 miles from the mexican border and i live in a town that is the first stop for illegal immigrants because they come up there, and i am just stunned by the things that my neighbors say

and think about them. and they just don't understand them. i am fortunate that i speak spanish and i have talked to them. i find these people, some of them have doctors and lawyers and what they are about the people who are looking for opportunity, as we all do. i don't really have the answer to your question but i would say that is one of the repressed minorities. there is a legal issue but it is said and did this lack of communication. >> we have another question in the back. >> in the aftermath of the past 50 years what is your personal level of well-being about the crisis of 1957? on a personal level? >> a personal level? [laughter]

>> i was in san then, is that what you are saying? [laughter] iowa's sane then and i think i am saying now. you know a lot of people, a number of questions when i speak to high schools and colleges about you know, when it is over with a say to me you don't seem like you are angry or hateful or all of that sort of stuff. but i was not taught hague at home, so i had to let get these people as just plain ignorant people including governor faubus said that is where i was, where i was coming from, so i think i was saying then even at 14 because i knew i had the right to be there. and i have kept my sanity the best way i have been able to and

that is really by staying above it all. now, that might not work for the other eight but it works for me, and that is the way i dealt with that. >> dr. roberts you are a psychologist. are you saying? [laughter] >> i truly doubt it. [laughter] >> would you know if you were in saying? >> no. [laughter] >> can we pass the mic over to you? >> good evening. i am a teacher at central high school and i must stand and say thank you to mrs. lanier for coming to my classroom and excepting the invitations my students sent. it was a wonderful intimate conversation with her and just the classroom of students and it was a beautiful awesome moment. my question is, would students

from all areas of the spectrum falling through the cracks, without having the obstacles that you had in 1957, what are your thoughts and what are some things that you can share that we as a community can reach out to those students are say to them today, you know, the obstacles you are facing right now, you cannot compare them to what you went through but he persevered and he pushed through. i think because of your background, because of what we have gone through, you have some awesome things that you can share with us as teachers and also with the students and i think that make a difference.

>> well, as i talk to your class, i had to give a background of myself and that is what i have tried to do with this book. i do feel that you know, history will continue to repeat itself if we don't break the chain of some of the things that have gone on, and one thing i think that the nine of us had that might be missing with a lot of, a lot of kids today is that family unit, and be all had a strong family unit. it is not to say that we all have a two-parent family. i think here in this-- i keep hearing this excuse of why people can't do certain things. i came from a single-parent household. to me that has nothing to do

with that. it is what you want to make of yourself in life and that one person and that extended family that you have, whether it is the neighborhood or the true community or what have you, you gain a lot of direction from those people. we don't put education high enough on the to do list in my mind, and that is what, that was just a part of the breakfast every morning, you know, to be prepared, to do well in school. as i have said before, i remember hearing nothing when i was three and four years of age in pulling out this little wagon, and before he went to work i had to go through all of that.

his statement to me was that he was to put a roof over my head and put food on the table and my job was to go to school and do well and bring ace and e's home and you did not come home with nac's, et d's in f's. the neighborhood supported that and my teachers that students supported that. might teachers at the high school supported that so i think we need to get back to the basics. >> i echo that and i certainly support all of what you said and also in this country that we live then, education is not seen as a high priority. and that is a problem because if you have parents who really want to push their kids to excellence in education and yet we have a society that team's other things to be much more important, ied

acquisition of large sums of money or flashy accouterments, stuff that reflects sunlight for whatever reason-- [laughter] that is a problem. >> i have a question that's somewhat follows up on that. i am from brandeisian diversity. and i steady education, and i also recently spoke to ted scott in facing history and ourselves and i know you have met with many students. as you have been meeting with students the day, and as you have been talking about your book in meeting with students today, what kind of response have you received? can you recall any specific response is that students come the things they have said to you today about this experience that you had? >> one thing that is very clear

to me from some white students, not all know, but some white students is-- they have endured because they didn't learn about this. why didn't i know about this? why am i just getting this in high school or college? i had a lot of college students step up and i mean, just pure anger. one young man said that there was no way he could have participated in a manner that we did. in other words, if not retaliate eyes said, you have that privilege to do that. [laughter] we didn't, you know, so but that has stood out in my mind more than anything else, and it actually makes me feel good in a sense that they recognize that what they have been taught you

know, i thought i was getting the best education possible. that is what they were thinking when they found out they missed out on a lot and they have missed out on a lot, so bad is just one of the first things that comes to my mind when i talk with them. >> and it makes sense that that would happen and another thing i have seen is this continuum of students from all ages. at one anti-let's students you virtually have zero interest in learning anything and then you have that the other end fortunately those who want everything they can learn knell and everything else in between so what i'm trying to do is encourage everyone to lean in that direction of learning everything possible. they are involved in this process. first we have to get rid of this label teacher because it implies that something is known. you have something you know you can teach and i don't think that is true. [laughter] so what i think is that teachers

have to be learners. they have to model learning. they have to master the process of learning in the presence of the student said the student can see learning as it takes place. they are not motivated by someone who stands up there and pretends to know stuff. that doesn't work. >> i would like to edit thought to what carlotta was talking about which is when my editor from national geographic, the number one thing he said is kids today will be unfathomable, unfathomable that you had to go to class is protected by the 101st airborne. it is beyond their comprehension and that is why we broke this book because we wanted to tell the story for kids today and you are right. >> i did point out that that was a white student and now i have to balance this. [laughter]

i need to also say that i am displeased really that's african-american students do not know their history, as terry and i and the other seven learned wind coming along, and nowadays yes we do have black history month but we had black history every day. [laughter] so, we have some very good teachers who were very creative because that was the reason we went to central. we didn't have those things over it then bar that was there at central. we had access to some learning materials that i have always championed those black teachers said dunbar because they had to go out of their way to teach us. they could not take a class of

kids from dunbar and go to little rock public library and learn the system. they had to do that thing right there at dunbarton and even though my aunt was the librarian there, she did all she could but i do know that when you compare what dunbar had and what central had, hey it is a no-brainer. you want what everybody else head. >> we have time for one more question. i think we have it in the back over here. >> i have also go to central and i was just wondering what your thoughts were on how the fact that it has been 50 years since it was initially integrated and it is still segregated in the sense, socially.

blacks sit here and why sit here, not that there's anything written down that they have to sit there but black is friends with black-- not to say that they never mix but it seems as if it is still a bit segregated and that is dysart ng completely but i was just wondering, were your thoughts are on where we go now? >> maybe dysart think but it reflects the larger society. most of us lived what i call monocultural lights. we do not have in domain a cadre of france from many different areas of diverse cultures and so forth. that is the american way today. it does not have to be. interestingly enough in the midst of that i don't subscribe to that way of life. you choose how you are going to live, how you are going to navigate the terrain. most people don't think about that. they simply see what is going on

in reflect that as if responding to peer pressure or some kind of mythological concept like that. it is important as individuals to know we don't have to be bound by custom or the way things are usually done. we can do it differently. if the students at central ever decide they want to do it differently, they will. they probably won't but they could. [inaudible] [laughter] >> tomorrow and friday we will be commemorating the 52nd anniversary of the desegregation of central high school and we commemorate september 20 fit that the day when the nine were escorted in school by their first full day by u.s. army troops and were commemorating with the symposium. it is called speaking the truth on social issues and politics in the 21st century. we are bringing in you know speakers and experts from around

the country and also the local area to talk about issues facing our nation today in education, race relations, politics and a number of other factors. carlotta walls nurse-meckle lanier and the other little rock nine will be there along with several others and their guests are rolling in as we speak. we have a couple of them here tonight with the ysidro then. we have jane ysidro ben from cincinnati today. he is the author of a book called pletka genomics, the intersection of race and economics and we also have as anybody furtive, plessy in the plessy be ferguson case that established separate but equal? we have this great-- how many greats? >> the great-grandson-- ulmer plessy first cousin. >> a great nephew. a great, great nephew. the ascendent. easter keat plessy will be joining us along with beebe ferguson who is a descendant of

john ferguson so they are going to talk on friday evening so it is going to be an exciting couple of days and we are so glad you can kick it off for us tonight. they will still be signing for a few more minutes and i am sure they will be happy to answer questions for a few more minutes. thank you for joining us. [applause] carlotta walls lanier was the youngest member of the "little rock nine" and she is the recipient of the congressional gold medal. she is the founder and owner of the real estate brokerage firm lanier and company. the central high school national historic site in arkansas hosted this event. to find out more visit nps.gov/chsc. >> i say my job at fox news is to keep-- because it really is and i say that young people every once in a while i talk to

college campus somewhere. an exciting. i would rather go to kandahar quite frankly. and i will say to young people i keep company with and i know i have conjured up in the mind of the young person the image of somebody wearing a spandex suits in a cape, but that is not the definition of a hero. the definition of the hero is a person who has put himself at risk for the benefit of others and that is basically all i do. i know that some of my colleagues that fox news don't and the rest of the so-called mainstream media don't get that. i told everyone snow wild that the military in the media have a lot in common, they both take casualties. they do. e in the military we all know what that is in the media is where they fall off their egos. [laughter] but the military and the media

rely on feedback and in the military the feedback is the enemy advancing or the end of the wire. that is feedback. the effectiveness of what you do. the effectiveness of what we do in broadcasting in the media and more broadly is measured by whether people by your books are whether people watch your shows are whether they listen to you on the radio. it is called ratings. we also get their feedback knell, most of the time, on literally by e-mail. we actually look at the stuff that comes in. i brought with me one of the e-mails i received while i was covering the troops overseas. i was on a rooftop in ramadi and on with "hannity and colmes." i am standing next to one of those who had been in a gunfight and i've said on the air, ground combat is the worst experience a human being can have.

alan colmes debated me about it. as if he knew something about it. in the aftermath of this and there i am standing right next to one of these hard-charging americans who had been in that gunfight and right afterwards he would go cold on the show but keep the satellite up and i start seeing the e-mails coming in from people watching that segment. this is an actual honest, this is feedback from the media. colonel north on tonight's "hannity & colmes" you said ground combat is the worst experience human can help. this is not true. the worst experience any human can have a spending time with my mother-in-law. [laughter] my best friends-- this is brilliant. my best friend spent two years in iraq, did a tour of duty in afghanistan and right-- lost his right hand in fallujah. he has met my mother-in-law. he agrees with me, says it is

not even a close call. that is feedback in the media. there is a picture for you. let me just if i may relate what i do to where i am going tomorrow. i am leaving tomorrow to go to afghanistan. i will be embedded with u.s. forces on the ground in and in some cases coal located with afghan national army and afghan national police and i wanted to, so you understand my perspective, i am a son of the greatest generation. many years ago when i worked for another network tom brokaw's office was next to mine on the eighth floor of the same building we are in today in tom brokaw had his written the book the greatest generation and my mom and dad for part of it. in fact the cover of the book could have easily been my mom and dad. there was a soldier's trousers and a beautiful woman is less than that was my mom. i have looked at carefully at not only what was in the book bad that that generation and that influenced me as a young

person growing up. that is the message of this great firearms museum, the message is the legacy that has been left for the next generation. that is why this museum is such an important part of who we are as the people in america. and that is why that legacy was handed off to my brothers and me influence everyone of us who served in the military. not because we are more patriotic than the next door neighbor but it was part of who we are and it was part of who my parents were. everyone of my uncle served in world war ii. the media today is full of stories about how desperate the situation is in afghanistan. i brought with me for five different newspapers all of which have a story either on page 1 are on about how bad things are in afghanistan. you can take the word afghanistan out of the article in two years ago the war within

iraq. well, guess what? they won the war in iraq, the soldiers, airmen, guards in marines one that war and yet you would not know that from the media because as soon as the war turned around stop covering at. today all the bad news is coming out of afghanistan. i would like to remind young people who didn't have that blessing that i had of growing up with parents from the greatest generation, that in world war ii, and i went back in shepp because i knew i was going to be here tonight. i went back and checked on this date in 1942. the operation, the first american offensive of world war ii, remember, pearl harbor had been bombed seven months before. america lost every single battle it was then up until june, the battle of midway. every single battle was a disaster. by june when the midway is one as a naval battle in the naval

air battle, by june tens of thousands of americans were dead. not just at pearl harbor but all across the pacific ocean. you have americans who were dying on the beaches of tni hugh lended with the canadians in the brits in the famous rate. you had a disaster going on and it was a total reversal of everything everybody thought was going to happen. it was terrible news. the battle for guadalcanal was 20 days old today in 1942. 20 days along. when they landed at guadalcanal they expected it to be at max eighth 30 day battle and it was still going on six months later. there was absolutely no one who forecast that america could be put in that kind of this situation and yet at the end of the day 16.5 million men and women served in the armed

forces, the nation mobilizes and we win the war. no doubt about it, it would not have happened had the united states not got into the war. europe would have been ruled by hitler and stalin and they would have parceled, and japan would have run asia. now, when you look at the way the news is being covered today and a despaired of things that are said routinely by my colleagues in the mainstream media about those who serve in our armed forces or buzz to support our armed forces and i met several of you contractors today, that is the new dirty word in america, contractor. the media has figured out that the american people aren't going to do to these soldiers, airmen, guardsmen marines that did to my generation that came back from vietnam. the american people are not going to stanford in in large part that is because of the extraordinary experience of these young americans. that is not stop politicians from denigrating.

we all know of certain politicians in washington, i'm trying not to be partisan here mr. president. i don't want to be partisan with boots we know oyster the lmi senator whose nickname is-- excuse me, i am just quoting him like in the arzt reserve and our armed forces to those who served pol pot. was immediately jumped on and these townhalls so we stopped doing it. the "new york times" and the washington, posed-- [laughter] describing, and this again is how they started out, nothing but for kids from mississippi texas and alabama. god that's why they picked the states to goody ginna decent shover of insurance of a joined the military because that is all we offer them. i am not bragging or complaining. this is my 16th trip to cover this war.

i spent months in the field with these youngsters. that is not the description of youngsters somehow magically these ne'er-do-wells in misfits don't show up in the units like cover. i have only covered 45 units in this war. that book out there not one of those photographs to stage, not one of those images of hundreds of miles of footage i have shot were set up. it is all the real thing. >> this was a portion of a booktv program. you can view the entire program and many other booktv programs on line. go to booktv.org. type the name of the author or put into the search area and the upper left-hand corner of the page. select the "watch link." now you can view the entire program. you might also explore the "recently on booktv" box or the featured video box defined recent and featured programs.

>> did you know you can view booktv programs on line? go to booktv.org. type the name of the author, book or subject into the search area in the upper left-hand corner of the page. select the "watch link." now you can give the entire program. you might also explore the "recently on booktv" box or the featured programs box defined in view recent and featured programs. >> pollster and television pundit frank luntz appeared at the texas book festival in austin to discuss his book, what americans really want, really. he provides an analysis based on interviews slipped 25,000 people of how americans live