big stories in washington over 30 years. >> and where her at the national press club. i think a lot of our viewers want to know what is the national press club? >> national press club is the finest asp club in the entire world. as you can see from this event with 90 authors or something like that and i don't know how many thousands of people coming through, it's the most act as biggest club probably in the world of any kind plus it's all journalism and it's all about the press and the things we do that's really good stuff that a lot of people on the left in the right don't think we do well but we do extremely well. ..

>> thanks, everybody. thank you so much. thank you for being here this afternoon. it's wonderful to have this event at my home church with so many members of my church family. this event was sponsored by the seniors at our church and i am

grateful for that. ladies and gentlemen, thank you. here's the format: i'm going to talk for a bit about the book, read a couple excerpts from the book and then i hope to open for questions to have a discussion about issues in the book or whatever you might want to talk about because the book covers my life, my professional life, issues in the news today like the war in afghanistan where i was a few months ago so whatever you want to talk about we can talk about during the q&a session. we ask that when you come up and ask a question if you would come to the microphone so our friends at c-span can record and so the nation can hear your questions and here in our discussion. okay? all right. the book is called "step out on nothing." it's a journey. i've been a professional journalist about 27 years. about 15 years on local television and 12 years at cbs news, and in journalism basically every story falls into

one of three categories. either it is a story journey from here to there, search fer treasure or love story. in journalism "the new york times" and montclair times every story whether it is front page, sports page from a life style falls into one of three categories to maturity from here to there, search for treasure or love story. this book, "step out on nothing," is a journey story. it's a journey of the way from east baltimore, me. [laughter] my mother had her first child of 16. she had me before she finished high school. i didn't learn to read until i was 12 and i stuttered until i was 20. the book is about the journey from held as a boy from east baltimore in that circumstance in up on 60 minutes. when i was diagnosed as functionally illiterate like could not read. one of the therapists my family

took me to told my mother who says i'm sorry but it is my diagnosis your son, byron, is mentally retarded and you should have him institutionalized. well my mother at that time had about a tenth grade education. she went back to morgan state university and got her degree in sociology and became a social worker to help others mostly single women raising families. but that day with her tenth grade education when the therapist said i'm sorry your son is mentally retarded he should be institutionalized, he should be cast aside. how often have we seen stories and no in our community and elsewhere young people cast aside? fortunately for me my mother is an old school southern woman, baptist, tough woman. she said test him again and he said we test -- test him again. if that is his fate we will deal with it but test and ag and so the tested me a second time and the next therapist, expert with a degree behind his name said

well in fact at one point they took out a tape measure and put it around my head like a was a mellon. i felt like i was in a fruit stand, my mother was bogging cantaloupe, put the tape measure on my head, tap my head because if you can imagine this head on a small boy it was a frightening sight of the second therapist said i'm sorry if you're some isn't mentally retarded i don't know what the issue is so bring him back when he's 15 and my mother said we can do that because if you wait until he's 15 he will be dead or in prison. my son needs help right now. and there wasn't much help available. so at that point my mother did what she has always done. for all of my life and most of her life, my mother has worn around her neck a small mustard seed and a clear plastic wall on the chain. it has been my mother's daily visual reminder the scripture of matthew that says if you have faith the size of a mustard seed

you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it shall move. it is with my mother's mountain moving faith with her optimism she got me the help i needed to overcome that obstacle. raise your hand if you know something of a struggle. anybody here know anything about struggle? we've all had struggles in our lives and struggle has many different names. for me some of my particular struggles as i said were illiteracy, and able to read, stuttering. i didn't learn to manage my stutter until my junior year in college. i'm still a stopper in the right circumstance i would still stutter but i've been trained how to speak pili, how to avoid words that caused the difficulty and i've learned in my life through my mother's witness the strength only comes from struggle i always tell young people who are athletes who lift weights who are dancers who worked to strengthen their

bodies when you've lived weeds or do exercise restraint in your body partly what you're doing is tearing the mosul, you're destroying the mosul in order to make it stronger so i was raised as opposed to feeling sorry for myself for making excuses the strength comes from struggle, that there is joy on the other side of struggle. in the book i talk a lot about the specific issues about my gal will delete battle with the literacy and it's a national problem. it's estimated 30 million adults in the united states of america cannot read. 30 million, that is one in seven in the most powerful country on earth who cannot read. if it were a state would be the second largest state in the country behind california. it's like combining every citizen of new york state and ohio singing folks there can't read. all of us know someone who struggles with literacy so that is the story i know well. there are 3 million people in

our country to stutter, people like me whose daughter to the cause trouble with language. we all know someone who struggles. high was one of those kids and my mother, siblings, france would finish my sentences when others would laugh. in the book i also talked about my career at cbs news and all the things that helped me get from the particulars of learning to manage my reading issues, the help i got learning to manage my stuttering ecology by going to read first if i can a story from the beginning of the book. and it speaks to how all of us who have struggled oftentimes struggled never shows up by itself. it brings sisters and brothers and cousins and a host of things we have to manage at any given time. so along with my struggles with literacy, words like slow and stupid follow me around in school. eventually i was taken out of the mainstream classrooms and placed in the basement.

i became what they called one of the basement ways where they put the discipline problems, the slow kids and their the issue was more on disciplined and education. i remember one day hearing one of the adults whose job it was to work with young people like me who joke when we said to one of his colleagues today the basement, tamar oprah's and. that was the trajectory some people saw my life headed. we will talk more later about statistics and crime and how it relates to literacy and poverty. in the midst, people ask my mother often times over the years why were you able to help byron recognize this issue souter and my mother, and i am a mama's boy for the record and i defend her and answer the question. i think the answer might be this is a woman trying to go back to school to get her education oftentimes working two jobs and also managing a marriage in

trouble so one of the issues sh was having besides with her son was a husband who was on faithful so the first story i'm going to read starts there. one day i went to a catholic elementary school in baltimore, st. catherine's and my mother picked me up one day from school as she really did and she said get in the car we are going to that house pour's house. kid raised in church, going to catholic school, the only name i had ever heard like that was in the bible, in scriptures i thought this is a bible retreat we are going on? [laughter] is there a bible lesson? i would soon find out so we get to this neighborhood. my mother gets out of the car and takes me with her. i was about probably nine, eight, nine, 10-years-old. she rang the doorbell several times. a pretty woman with long and curly brown hair finally answered the door. i was struck by how much she resembled my mother.

tell my husband to come out here my mother yelled. the woman answered i don't know what you're talking about and slammed the door. i could see the rage building in my mother's fist and across her face. she backed off the steps and screen towards the window in the second floor. william pitts, you s.o.b., bring your but outside right now. i've edited the language just a little bit. [laughter] there was silence so she said it again louder. if no one inside the house could hear her the neighbors did. people love the streets stopped moving and others start coming out of their homes. my mom had an audience. i stood near the car paralyzed by shame figuring it was her message and not her volume my mother came up with a. william speed -- pitts come use s.o.b., come out or i will set your car on fire. my father just in his pants and undershirt, dashed out of the house ask her my mother made her way to the car. she ordered me to move away from

her car and get into my father's car. i did. my father was barefoot slipped as he approached my mother. she picked up a brick and took dead aim at my father's head. she missed. shelia to the other side of the car and retrieved the brick and tried again. she missed. he ran. my parents repeated their version of the domestic george ball at least half a dozen times. it must have seemed like a game to the people who laughed and laughed. i never said a word. in the front passenger seat of my father's car i kept my eyes straight ahead. i didn't want to watch the guy couldn't help but hear my parents were fighting again and this time in public. it's all of the situations where child he hear all the time that no good man is here all the time people are screaming and laughing and eating food while they watched. eventually my father saw an opening and jumped into the driver's seat of the car. fumbling for his keys cursing and scratching at his eyes and face she seemed determined to

kill him. i could see her fingers inside his mouth. somehow my father's head ended up in my lap. the scratches on his face began to bleed until my white shirt. the first time since my mother picked me up from school i spoke terrified actually screamed. why? what i do? what? i'm sure i had more to say but i got stuck on the word but it almost from the time i could speak i stuttered. it seemed to get worse when i was frightened were nervous. sitting in my dad's car with my parents wait and problems pressed against me i stuttered and cried. is the ball at the moment, but it's quickly silently as my parents began fighting the stopped. i guess it was my mother who first noticed the blood splattered across my face and soaked through my shirt. she thought i was bleeding. in that instant the temperature cooled in the car. it had been so hot. my parents body heat caused the three of us to sweat. fearing the injured knee my parents tried to console me.

but once they stopped fighting, i did what i always seemed to do. i put on my mask, closed my mouth and pretended everything was okay. that was one of the issues with my difficulty in learning to read. i put on and ask. i would hide in school, hide behind my politeness because i was raised to be polite. a lot of children today hide behind bravado. they become bullets, tormentors. many of those children likely have the same issue i have, and ability to read so they find a place to fit in. i will finish that story. we never said a word in the car on the way home. my mother kind of my father, held my hand and scooted me into the car first. we went home in silence. i ate dinner in the same bloody clothes. i washed my hands but not my face. no one seemed to notice. the tension that evening exhausted everyone. we all headed to bed early.

go take off those clothes and leave them outside the door my mother told me. call me when you have your pajamas on. i did. i could hear her walking up the stairs slow and deliberate as if she were carrying a heavy load. earlier back in my father's car when i glanced into my mother's eyes they were narrow and mean. now at home in my room her eyes were soft around the edges and sad. my mother was not the crossing type, she wasn't crying than that she was sad. i could see it in a small buffer shoulders it was written across her face. are you okay she asked me, her tone was 180 degrees lighter than a few hours ago when she picked me up from school. what happened between me and you're father had nothing to do with you, she said. i wish we could wash away memories as easy as we could wash clothes, she added. then she took my hands, closed her eyes and touched her head to mine and started to pray. it's the way i'd prefer cents. deer why isn't almighty god we come to you as humbly as we know

how to say thank you, lord. for blessing the seen and unseen. thank you for the family, friends and even our enemies. thank you for the bad days, the helpless to better appreciate the good ones. please, vlore, then busbee or broken, because strong where we are weak, give us the faith to believe tomorrow will be brighter than yesterday. hold office, keep us in the palm of your hands, give fate to keep holding on. these and all the blessings we ask in jesus' name and amen. we are not the teeth smiling family, more grain. but herger and promised better days are ahead. she hugged me, tucked in and said good night. i remember expecting an apology before she left the room. after the day i had? please. but sorry isn't a word my mother used very often. the suggestion was sorry indicated regret. with faith why have regrets? everything happens for a reason.

for the good. perhaps understanding would come by and by. as i listen to my mother's footsteps beyond my door i suddenly felt peace. the fan in the window even had a pleasant mahmudiyah. in the surface, not a darn good thing had happened, not a darn good thing had happened to me that day. but at the moment after my mother's prayers all i could think about was rejoicing the notion i was now on the other side of a difficult moment. strength only comes from struggle. the book is about the journey. the germany all of us are on our lives and how we get dave past difficult moments. in the but i want to encourage people but also talk about my journey but also the people in my life. i will talk more about my mother. she is an amazing woman. like many of the women in this church. also talk about people like a man named coach matt.

he was a swim coach in morgan state university in baltimore where i'm from. he also ran a wrestling club and he was a deacon, happened to be a deacon in my church and she's one of those guys whenever he would meet a young person he would say how are you doing, what is your name and he would say there's too kind of boys in this durham, champs and chumps. i was at one of the superstar where is it my church. i wasn't any one people spent time with because of my stoddard i didn't talk much and because my ability to read and participate so why wasn't one of those kids that had great promise and people want to increase right away. but the coach did. well, in my community back when communities for a place people and neighbors talked and look after children, but coach mac heard i was about to get in trouble as i mentioned because my size, by learning issues on was bullied a lot by kids and i talk about bleeding in the books. we all know and i've seen the stories of what happens across

this country when a child is bullied and adults do not intervene and that child, using the child's mind tries to address the issue in their own way. that happened for me. bullied in school i was tired of being slapped around, tired of having people take my lunch money and having people disrespect me, talk disrespectfully to my family. i was angry. though i was raised by a woman who demanded discipline, demanded her children address adults yes or no, ma'am, yes, sir, no, sir i was still tormented by this. wearing mine ask the best i could i was fed up finally i decided i was going to be with these books so i went to a neighborhood school to become store not different from parts of newark, new jersey, south side of chicago, parts of the philadelphia i went to the neighborhood store and bought a knife, i was going to school the next day to deal with those police. they were all going to harm me again but somehow the store owner told someone else who told someone else and they finally got to the coach and here's what

he did. coach mack left his house 20 minutes early for work that day. that's all he did comment on the corner because he found the way i walk to school. good morning, how are you doing? pay coach hauer dewey? how are you giving? off to school. what's in the book back? my books. what else? mileage bag. what else? i've got some pencils, kool-aid. [laughter] for the record blue kool-aid was minor and of choice, the grape kool-aid. so he said what else is in the bad and we kept coming around so finally i told him what i had. he said let me see. now the coach didn't shame me or talk down to me. he didn't quote scripture to be right away, he didn't raise his voice. he said let me see it. he said have you tried out yet? i said no, sir. what do you mean? he said you can't go to school without testing a knife out, doesn't make any sense.

i said okay now the coach is appealing to me man to man because he understands my struggle some pieces take it out. okay and he opens his windbreaker because he was a coach going to school. okay now stabbed me with it. i said coach i can't do that, you're like a father to me. this is the man who taught me how to fight to get in the three-point stance in football and learn how to tie my tie. i said i love you i can't do that. he said that is exactly right. you've got to love yourself enough not to throw your life away. he took the life, went to work and never told my mother. we never discussed it again. but simply by leaving his house 20 minutes early this man, this good man, this regular man stepped out of nothing to help a child he didn't have to help. i also talked in the book about a woman, ola. struggle often comes up with

siblings when it shows up and it's aunts and uncles and as we know struggle doesn't go away. my grandmother said life basically has three stages. in the midst of the storm about to enter a storm, about to exit a storm so struggle will always be with us. even once i finally learned how to read to manage my reading my freshman year in high school i was in remedial math class is so there wasn't no quick fix. i didn't get a better right away. in the remedial class is my freshman and sophomore year i went in all ways school my mother saved every dollar she had to pay the $900 a year to send me to school. borrowing from friends at church and work to come up with money at the end of the year. my freshman year about 380 freshmen i was ranked 360 if near the bottom. i wasn't a kid projected to go to college at that stage of my life. when i graduated four years later i was 30 if from the top still the best student in class,

still not treat a student but i worked hard and i knew the value of hard work so i get to college, ohio univ. it was the best school i could get into and i knew i wanted to be a journalism major. i get there and i'm struggling academically. my first time from home i remember one of my classmates in college at a bmw. i'd never seen a bmw before. my pastor had a mysterious -- mercedes but besides being away from home for the first time the racial dynamic being a person of color in a predominantly white school, the class is used of now no longer being surrounded by working-class people, the community i come from, a handful of physicians and doctors and professionals in my church but i came from blue-collar communities where people work with their hands and hard for their money. so adjusting to these things i also had to adjust to the academic demands, but which i was not prepared for because by the time i went to college i had only read one book for enjoyment

from cover to cover. everything i had ever read to that point in school was purely work. in my household my family didn't read books. my mom we had the jet and the ebony, we've read that. my dad when he was around read the paper. there were no books. there was nothing in my household to associate between july and reading. the only book i've read by the tide on to college was the old man in the sea. and i remember when i first read as i was beginning to overcome issues with literacy my mother discouraged me from reading the book because she thought it might be to apply only read one book by the time went to college, freshman year in which i decided i wanted to be a journalist because i love words because my issue with literacy. god wants me to be a writer, a journalist. but apparently the professor i had haven't had that conversation and wasn't as convinced, so this professor i failed his class the first trimester of school life field his english class. now in high school i was a c

student, d, c student freshman sophomore year i got my first day ever in school my junior in high school and by the time i graduated i was a solid b student. so i got a d first trimester of class, an example of how slow i am because i still slow, i took the same professor again the second term thinking i would do better the next time if i worked harder because my mother believed in the value of hard work. my mother used as a smart people can think their problems away. we have to wrestle a was to the ground and that was my answer is i work harder and study blogger i will do better. take his class second trimester. and he says to me, he passes of the midterm exam and i've already on academic probation about ready to fall college. he walks over to me and announces to the class about the size of this gathering he says mr. pitts, congratulations your best work is far d+.

come see me after class. he said this to my class, went to his office and he said don't sit down this won't take long. it is my opinion you are not ohio wesley university material. you are wasting my time and the government money. i think you should leave. pure dismissed. 17, raised to respect authority i thought of this man's i wasn't worth the i shouldn't be here so i left his office, went next to the eckert ekstrand began filling out papers to withdraw from college. the burden of that moment i knew how much my mother sacrifice, my grandmother sacrificed, be with my community sacrifice for me to go to college and this notion of only was i about to abandon my dreams about to abandon the dreams of my family. i started to cry. not that television, sniffle, i am talking of the hid bombing, no was running shoulders shaking kind of coffee. anybody cry like that?

[laughter] as i am there i must have been a sad sight. sitting on the bench, cold outside and i'm crying and starting to fill these papers out, and about that time a stranger walked by, she didn't know me and i didn't know her but she saw this young person in distress and she stopped and she said the man what's wrong? that's all she said. young man what is wrong? and through my sniffling i said i am leaving school, i've got to go home, i'm stupid. she sat down and talk to me about 20 minutes and said okay, before you drop out why don't you sleep on it tonight and come see me tomorrow. i didn't know who this woman was and she was dressed like she might have been part of the maintenance team at ohio wesley. she wasn't well dressed, her hair wasn't done well. i'm like fine. she said come to my office on the second floor. the next day i go to her office

and by looking for this woman, white woman about this call. see in my family there is a member of plump women so we call them plump which is a good thing. about this tall, plump and he said you're talking about dr. louis. i'm like no, i'm talking about a woman, no doctor. she might -- no, you're describing dr. louis. walk around the corner and sure enough the stranger who stopped by to say hello to this boy that was crying her name is dr. ola, first time professor, who like educators was i'm sure focused on her class work, focused on getting tenure, building her career but she saw a young person in need and stopped. i found out later that ola is from the country of estonia and survived world war ii so in her own life as a child she had experienced discrimination, heart ache, difficulty, struggle. she recognized in someone else

and helped me out. another person, the people in my life, this guy's name is peter. he is a dear friend of mine. he is from manitoba minnesota. we met my freshman year in college. now, he'd never met anybody in baltimore and i never met anybody from minnesota. early on we became fast friends and we were talking one day and he says you are a freshman in college but you talk like you are in great school, you say dumb things and use the wrong words, what is that about? i was embarrassed for a minute and then the east wall or in me flared up and said who are you talking to? [laughter] and his i'm talking to you. why are you talking down to me? he's like i am sitting down, you're standing up on your friend curious why you talk this way when you're in college. so once we got past my embarrassment i explained my situation, didn't learn to read of july was 12, still struggling

with a stutter and uncomfortable with language i try not to speak unless i have to. i avoid certain words because they are too difficult for me. he's like okay to get so he says years what we are going to do. i was 17, pete was 18. he was a brilliant mind. tears what we are going to do. every day the next four years we are in college today because we will be here for years and you're going to graduate. i will give you a new you word in the dictionary, a lawyer to define it and worked in a sentence, stellas, it, use it in a sentence. we did that every single day for four years. pete was someone else who stepped out of nothing. no reason at all to help me but he did it any way out of the goodness of his heart. the people in my life. finally i want to talk to you about the power of encouragement because the book and in the news business, so why do bad things well. i cover bad news. that is what i do for a living. and certainly there are

difficult moments you will read about in my book from the struggles of literacy, the belts of domestic violence basically between my parents, other issues i experience, the awful fact of war and things that happened when human beings clash around the world and do violent things. those are in there. ..

because sometimes for people aged that in difficult moments when our resume and a rolodex, who we know our four o. one 401(k) isn't enough. it is in those moments in life we have to step out on nothing, step out on our faith. and i thought my mother, 10th grade education to dr. lecter in the eye and the expert said, your son is mentally. put him in the institution. she had colleagues at work and extended members that said you're a single woman get that boy somehow. as she stepped out on her face. she stepped out of nothing. people know who i am now. people know this and, byron pitts, cbs news, transfixed. or 25 million people will watch me on television. the book is about though more than that. it's about the journey from there to here and the importance of the journey. and the realization that i would

not eat on transfixed at 7:00 on sunday night if not for those struggles. i tell my wife sometimes and i mention this in the book that when you see me on sunday nights at 7:00 sitting in the chair in my best sunday suit, that in my late father in moscow for links that i always wear. i know when i'm sitting in that chair my mom is there, my brothers there,, my grandma mr. pete is there, all these people who stepped on nothing to help me. and so in the book i say i want to encourage people, parents, teachers, seniors, people who spent much of their day encouraging other people, 18 seeds of kindness and other people to let you know that what you do matters. your kindness matters. you don't know what it will mean to a child in our church, a child of montclair and newark who had a person look at them

and say good morning, how are you doing? that my life is testament to the power of encouraging people and being kind to people. so i want to encourage people to keep doing it. and i also want to encourage people in the midst of struggle to let them know that there is joy on the other side of the struggle. but you can get past those difficult moments. i am a whit. nothing about my life says that i should be where i am now professionally. nothing about where i come from. if you draw a piece of paper and says what would it take to get to transfixed on turn 60 minutes. i'm not that smart. i'm not that talented. ain't never been lucky. but i have been blessed. and so i want to encourage people in the midst of struggle just to hang in there and get up one more day just to keep going forward just to keep stepping forward. and for those of us who are in

the position that matter who we are and where we are in life to help someone else. so when someone asked me why do i read the book? i wrote the book for the underdogs, for the people were then told no you can't, you're not good enough, you're not ready, you're not worthy because i've heard that most of my life. and my story says yes you are. because if i can make it, lord knows anyone can make it. i was thinking about asking a question, why did you read a book and i was making some notes just today. when i try to abbreviate the title "step out on nothing" i realized for the first time that step out on nothing is as cocoa and, soon. i didn't realize that until just today sitting in church making some notes. "step out on nothing," soon. and it reminded me of a girl i met.

and i'm going to finish up and answer some questions about the war of the book if you'd like. i met a girl the other day in baltimore a few days ago at a charter's game. a tall girl girl in sixth grade about this doll. she looks like she's more like that than, thin, hair wasn't well groomed. clothes were a little soiled. hope potter glasses, big smile. she goes to one of the top charter schools in baltimore. she is one of the lucky kids. after school in baltimore one of america's great cities, my hometown, 67% of the students at that school come from no parent households. i've never even heard the phrase before. no parent households. that meant they don't live their biological mother or father. they live in foster care with their grandparents, in and to not go, with a friend or

whatever. 67% of these kids and no parent households. i thought i had it not been raised by single parents. can you imagine a generation of our children were being raised without either parent? of the girl goes to the school. she went to my old elementary school, think kaplan's elementary school in baltimore. i matter and she is in fourth grade, sweet little girl. i didn't remember her but she remembered me because her counselor at saint catherine's was a black none named sister clarice. she was the finest non-i had ever seen in my life. [laughter] so this young girl asked me. she said how was it mr. pitts uid crush on sister clarice? the cat she is mean and old. i said she wasn't mean or old 30

years ago. [laughter] so this little girl and i talked now about 120 students whose stories are similar to mine, perhaps similar to many people in this room. software then they are in sitting there and talking to people and the little girl walked over to me and dance very polite and we planned on talking to the adults. and here's what this 12-year-old girl asked me. where do you go? where do you escape when the world hurts too much? where do you go, where do you hide, where do you escape when the world hurts too much? allah bless have struggles. all of us have issues we deal with. but one of the things i hope to spread and spread wide in the book "step out on nothing" is one that all of us have struggles and i think all of us

on some levels have some measure of responsibility to step out on nothing for someone else. then all of a sudden a story of someone who stepped out on nothing for us. and so when i think about that girl, 12 years old in my hometown of baltimore and one can only imagine what she was talking about when she said that. she was asking yourself. it was a philosophical question. was in a question. this is a 12-year-old child talking to a man who talked about the struggles in baltimore and talked about violence in talked about being sad and angry and feeling isolated. she said, where do you go, basically what she was saying is where do i go? where do i escape when the world hurts too much? i want people to buy the book, certainly to enjoy it, to spread the word across the country. because i think it's a good book and it's well written.

but i want to us, you know, the community of faith in people in general to be able to answer that girl's question. because she's not alone. there is thousands of young people across our country, seniors across our country, village people across our country who are asking the question, where do you go, where do you escape when the world hurts too much? finally, i'll leave you with some statistics that would've applied to me it hadn't my mother and so many good people in my life not stepped out on nothing. in baltimore, my hometown. it's estimated that one third of children in baltimore have witnessed a murder. one third. that 70% of the children in baltimore, baltimore city, have experienced an assault. not just saw it, but experienced an assault. 50% of black boys in baltimore

don't graduate from high school. it's estimated that 70% of the people incarcerated in our country are functionally illiterate. that would be my story is not for regular folk who stepped out on nothing to help me. so i hope you enjoy the book. i hope you are inspired to step out on nothing for someone else. god bless you. thank you. [applause] thank you very much. thank you, thank you. thank you, it thank you so much. thank you so much. so as a journalist, it's my job to ask people questions. and i don't like asking people

questions, but this is a wonderful opportunity for me to answer questions. so if anyone has a question go to the microphone and i will answer. yes, ma'am? thank you so much. >> my name is charlie gillett and i'm a member here at the pulse. first i would like to make the statement, you are book fed me spiritually. it has been food for my soul. my question, i was reading part of your journey as a war correspondent. and all that you were going through and all that you were seeing and being in harms way, why did you go back? >> thank you. well as i mentioned earlier, i'm slow. [laughter] i don't grasp things as quickly as they should hear it i was certainly raised to believe to those much is given much is

required, but i am so blessed to be given the opportunity i've been given with overcoming issues of literacy and speech. the fact that i get paid now basically to read and speak out loud is amazing. but also i think i feel so fortunate to be a citizen and this great nation, despite our many wars and we have many, america is still the greatest country on earth. [applause] only in america, where you're born doesn't determine where you'll die. as a journalist, it's my job to cover struggled basically. y'all know i know struggle. where there is a struggle for power, the war in iraq and making a stand. one of the things i was clear about as a child growing up the nation because of literacy and speech and moms struggling financially to raise their kids is how people can dismiss how

you can be seen as cast aside, your opinion doesn't matter. so i knew as a child would've felt like like to be voiceless, not to matter. and now is a journalist i have the opportunity to give voice to the voiceless. that's the big reason why i go because it's important. journalists, you know, i work for cbs news, the network of walter cronkite, dan rather, katie couric, at bradley, morley favor, lesley stahl, the list goes on. steve kroft. wasn't early journalist and every journalist worth his salt on my network when the nation calls, you answer. we have a think about 60,000 of our sons and daughters in afghanistan. and the american people deserve to know what our sons and daughters are doing in our name. and so that's my job. that's what i find that to do. that's what i'm here to do. in writing this book, i have two basic guests. i have a lot of things in all of

us have a why are you here. i believe because i love to tell stories and encourage people. in the book i do to encourage people and as a journalist i get to tell the stories of young people. that's why i go. and although i will read you one thing from the book about what sustains me when i go. next question? executive producer says i should go to the next question. thank you, ma'am for the question. >> i don't have a question that i would like to make a comment. i'm alice dunston and i've been a member of st. paul for three years. i just want to say that i want to thank dog for his blessings in giving you and your mother the big worry because i assume you feel that you have the three. and i want to thank them for giving you the desire to share your story with us. because looking at you and seeing where you were at such a success story, no one would have ever thought it. so i want to thank you for the

courage. and i also want to say this is exactly what our pastor who doesn't like to be praised is trying to do for us, to help us to see that his mission is for us to really give to someone else, to share what we have with others and do our best to be those good people who otherwise wouldn't be good to you. [applause] >> thank you so much. other questions? yes, ma'am? >> my name is filling. i am just full of admiration for you. my question is, after the completion of the book, what is your hope that you would bring about or cause an improvement in the quality of life of our young

men who feel helpless, hopeless, and lost? >> thank you. you know, that's pretty lofty stuff. i'm not that bright. one of the great days about being raised in a church is my mom would take us to her bible here it one reason is i think she wouldn't have to cook dinner. but also, my mother knew there was great power in hearing someone's testimony. but to hear for one day, somebody got it worse than i do when they give their testimony. but also geared to strengthen their difficulty. it is also like a church or bible testimony and hoping that it touches somebody. and one of the things about a journalist is when you write day-to-day for "60 minutes" and cbs once you write it and let it

go they will interpret it any way they want. people talked me about the last chapter in the book is forgiveness. it's about my relationship with my father. we've been estranged most of my life and i've been angry with my father most of my life. for instance, i wear a pocket player that you see now. my wife will tell you i am not -- and forwarded all. our children will tell you i'm not cool at all. it just so happened i'm wearing something semi- and style. the reason i whereto spun i got to the network and i didn't talk to my father. my father was a meat cutter and i always wore a sports coat. one of the images of my father was wearing a sports coat with a pocket square in his jacket. and so, when i got to the network i thought i would wear a pocket square because maybe my father will see me on tv at some point and he knows that i look like it knows my name and see the connection.

the people who know me, my mother thinks i look like my father. but i also wear because i tap it if oracle on television. everyone has something you do. if you're baking, there's a certain order in which you bake things. wealthy in order in which i do television one of the last things i do is touch this, not just to make sure it straight, but i touch it because it reminds me of where i come from. it reminds me of my father. it reminds me of this man who i still wish left me the way i want to be loved as a child. and to remind you the man i don't want to be. now, a therapist i'm sure would have a whole day long session with what all that means, right? but in the last chapter of the book i talk about forgiveness, the power of forgiveness. but for me in many ways learning to read, learning to manage my stutter was so much easier than learning to forgive my father. i learned to read at 12.

i managed my stutter at 20. i didn't forget my father until i was 46 years old yet and the last chapter the book i told about forgiving my father and how that came about. anyway, i was at ohio state university several weeks ago talking to a group of student, lack men. and the book covers a bunch of things. all those eight team, night two, 20, 21-year-old young brilliant men wanted to talk about was their fathers. and the bitter relationships they had with their fathers. some lived with their dads. some didn't live with their fathers. the school i was at a baltimore the other day. it was an eighth-grader, handsome, articulate, going to a great high school next year. his father left his mother on the day he was born and this boy shares the same birthdate with his father. so for this child, the most painful day of his life is his birthday every day because it were my mother's father.

where will that anger and hurt go if we people don't intervene to help this child? so anyway, when i wrote the book it's for young men. it's for single mothers who are praising their child as best they can. it's for the young woman in high school, the young professional who is thinking about changing careers or frustrated because they're not making a difference. say, yeah you are. each of us has something we have to give. not only just to give, but someone needs it. other questions? >> good afternoon. my name is paula wade bradley and i am the founder of newark legacy charter school. it is a school to open in august of 2010. it is a very exciting thing for me and if they listen to your story and we does bug one of the things that's so important for me is that it spoke to me certainly is a woman, the person

who's in the world and his experience to struggle, but as an educator it really spoke to me as well because i thought students who cannot read. and it's certainly a humbling experience. and so i was wondering if you mention all of the can stitch whimsies that someone can get from this book. and when i think about your teachers, you know, and certainly they're not to blame necessarily because there were struggles and to come along way in education and so on. but if you could say something to educators who perhaps are in different places, sometimes frustrated, sometimes frankly just throwing their hands up. what would that message be to someone who may have a child like you with incredible potential, but they just haven't gotten to the place where they've tapped into it yet. what would that be? >> the short answer is i don't know. but i will say this, there's organization called the national

center for families and they are committed to helping schools, educators, provide resources and support and training to help teachers who specialize in those areas. housing on the late 60's and 70's when i had my issues there were the resources available. but today there are resources available at the grade school level, middle school level, high school, and even college. i would say reach out to those places that you can connect with that can help. i also am talking to people about using, making better utilization of the faith in this community. churches, synagogues, mosques, in different communities because there you have people who are committed to a sense of service. for instance, in our church we have -- there's no reason while a child should be hungry in essex county because we have women in this church who love to cook. great cooks. [laughter] that we can utilize.

we have educators in our church who are tired. people in line for cement who can go in. some that can go to the faith-based communities in their communities. how they responded to the needs of people there. so i would think. one of the things in working with an cfl they tell us for instance it's estimated that a child of the wealthy, they've heard 20 million more words than a child of middle-class parents, working-class parents by the age of seven. that same wealthy child has heard 35 million more words than a child of a poor family by the time they are seven. so what if teachers would call up the faith-based communities in their cities and say i need volunteers every tuesday, wednesday, thursday to come by at the pre-k. and just read to our kids.

so our children can begin to hear words out loud. and that would mean that folks at church with their not going to get my nanny and petty today. i will do it later in the week. i'm going to go and spend some time. so i would think if there is a way to better utilize the resources that they're onto something. teachers do a phenomenal job. it says something about our society that as we all know we throw money at professional athletes and entertainers and the people who love our children, our future we don't provide them resources they need. but thank you for what you do, ma'am. yes, ma'am? >> hi mr. pitts, how are you doing? my name is tanya and an instructional school coach for diplomas and we are a nationwide organization that created school to help our kids were overage, under kennedy, aspiring to college careers and community service. if our kids could have the opportunity to hear you speak to them words of your wisdom,

considering that you've been this child of trial, what advice would you give them to be resilient in this time? >> what was that? >> child of resilience into a man of triumphant. the >> that's a wonderful question. i was just a couple things. one i would say hold on. just hold on. because one of the things i'm clear about. you know how sometimes you know what you know, but sometimes you don't know what you don't know. my mother's philosophy. someone asked my mother, how are you able as a single parent, divorcee to send three kids to college? and my mom said it was simple. i said you will go to college or i will beat you to death. [laughter] so my mommy kept things pretty simple. my mother's basic philosophy for raising her children was that if you work hard and pray hard and treat people right, good things will happen.

so i was still young people die. be respectful of all things. i think was yogi berra who said once, always dance with the one who brought you. so i'm dancing with the one who brought me but i'm respectful of people of different types. so i say work hard. there's nothing that beats working hard. it's the only straight line of success i know. pray hard is what i was raised to do and treat people right. it is what i sound as if you are just holding on, doing which are supposed to do, going forward, the people come into your life. for half of my professional lifecoming euro is still in the professional world to find mentors, people who will nurture your self. i couldn't find a mentor and tell my first 15 years. but when i eventually discovered and what i'd seen in my life is if you just keep stepping forward, keep holding on, the right people will come to you. so i would tell them to hold on. and i would also tell them one of my favorite words are

discovered in working on this book is the word grace. grace. one of the definitions of words of grace is unmerited gifts from god. i'm like yeah, that's me. i have a host of those. so i would tell them to hold on. grace, the sense that people are out there will help you if you continue to do the things you are supposed to. a few more questions. one more question. no? okay, i was told to wrap it up. last [laughter] okay we have one more question. >> hello, first i like to say congratulations. i'm from new orleans, louisiana.

from the words you just spoke about your book a few of the great. i've got a lot of times on my hand. i'm wondering if i could read one. my question is, did you have help writing your book? >> yeah, lots of help. the ultimate help. my lovely wife, lynne amo was a tremendous help. she was a great editor. those of you who know me she would have the right for a bit and say say more fat and less of that. i don't care that much about your high school girlfriend, but go on. [laughter] >> thank you. >> turn off espn, get back to work. she would do that. so again i want to thank you all so very much for coming out today. i'm going to sign books. i'm happy to sign books. i'll be here as long as necessary to s