and the police could say take off the patience. it was very interesting. they would take much more time the approach of this is down for example,, it is considered to be working over. they said okay. you can have working-class in america can wear blue jeans. . .

when i wanted to show that everything sort of loosened up, but some countries don't like that anymo idea of 1968 but ther is much more vivid. it is a stirring picture of 1968 and and and sort of lord of all -- were a little. again in high school the tension with the beach boys are.

so i was like traveling with the beach boys from -- i was traveling around the czech republic with the beach boys and tt didn' consequence. there was some other contract people would beat up people but i needed that sort of catharsis in the story and this is the most telling place in prague and in the book because this shows how silly the whole system became because when john lennon was shot in 1980 young people painted the walls which is in the beautiful part of prague and then somehow the government decided this is out of control the people cannot just paid whatever they want and this was artistic. it wasn't like i would say graffiti or it was somehow bad days and the police troops and painted the whole thing and then it started this game and people would come at night and paint and the police came and painted over it and then the government

establish an official group of people could paint on the wall but things which are approved and then there were people who were legal and had -- it became the whole issue and now it is amazing what it is still painted and it is amazing if you go to prague i will probably every three months or something like that everybody paints a little on the existing wall and a sort of grows. it's like living in a nation. it's from the french embassy just off of the main charles bridge. and this is my way to america and i didn't cover of scholarship and future plans but this was long enough. this was me trying to the car flying to freedom and wishing you good night.

[applause] [applause] >> thank you. nobody would listen to me this long at home like this. [laughter] they would say go, please just don't try to be funny. and i also want to say i brought with me letters. i got so many letters from people from east germany, with awaiting a which are very touching but we have to leave it for some other time. thank you very much. [applause] >> we apologize for the heat in here today. we are going to let him rest for a minute by sure he will take a few questions and answer so if anybody has a question we would ask that you would go to the microphone so it can be heard or if you have a loud enough waste

that is okay and we will let it go with that and go about ten or 15 minutes and then he will be glad to sign books in the hallway where it's a bit cooler if you want to purchase his books they will be held there. any questions? >> on the last page of "the wall" you write we were like sheet until music from the free world mccracken the wall. for you and your friends it was music that put a crack in this wall. in other periods of history other forms of art seem to have a same affect when one thinks of literature with russia in the 1960's [inaudible] one could give many examples

where it seems like the art, whether that be music or visual arts or literature it seems to be more effective than grenades and bombs. why should that be? >> i don't know. i don't know because i can't speak for everybody else but that is a very good point you just brought up because a was a fantastic program of united states government for a don't know what it's called, international -- what is it called? it just was so amazing in the time -- it's hard to describe that how it looks to the outsider when i talk about 1968 everything changed. but this was somehow gradual shift from let's say early 60's,

and i remember it was so amazing to see to louis armstrong, elephants durham, a this was all these concerts -- even the beach blaze it was the cultural organization of united states command which was sending out. there was cunningham who came with robert rauschenberg. there was exhibition of american graphic arts which a great deal of influence i'm still trying to get a great deal of. in fact, it was so exquisite what was coming that i have for years thought about america as this amazing country where people musicians walk in the streets and people and beautiful paintings. today i have problems still sometimes i was a pious a life of louis armstrong lived in the house in queens. i thought he has a castle like a big hero. for me it is still somehow very difficult to find out not everybody likes abstract paintings. not everybody likes allen

ginsburg. for many years i was because this effort under the impression that this is very artistically very progressive, wonderful country, and this was the amazing impression which we all got, and i think it much more for the free western way of life. this was wonderful promotion of the values and i think it influenced so many people. and maybe the way i put it in the book because i am of the generation that i look at the music or the symbol of films and arts and that whole change on the social and cultural scene. it wasn't just that. as you say correctly it was also books, poems and we were so curious because we were denied -- we were not -- it's also interesting one thing under the communist every thursday some sort of book would come out been

published and there were lines of people the book would sell incredible numbers. there were people standing in line to buy new books. of course now when all books can be published people don't have time to stand in line to get the book so they do hear about it but it's not the same like if you can't have something you wanted very much in the was the same thing if there would be one song it could be jazz, beatles and then people would go and distribute and take the story of catching their eye and take it because everybody wanted to know. it's amazing about human nature people want to know what they are, supposed to know. so that is a very good point. >> i was wondering what happened to the family he left behind

when you decided not to return to czechoslovakia. did happen to your family? >> i figured out when i wasn't going back i didn't know i wasn't going back. i thought i'm going to like negotiate. it's good for the animation if i stay longer but it was obvious i am not going back. but i played this game and was if i would have just done it it would have saved so much time. my father was getting older and i figured like everybody sort of was okay when my sister went to school and my brother who is much younger but only now when they did some article, and it just shows how stupid the system was that -- everybody who didn't come back was eventually considered to be incremental because he left the country of his birth and everything so i hear from 1982 and 1986, so it's not that far from the fall of the wall they decided that i'm not coming back and they sentenced me to years in prison for leading the country.

what i didn't know and they send me all the papers now on this cd both my parents had to go to secret police to sort of answer questions. it means nothing but it's sort of like -- and an ever told me. that is why i was upset they never told me this happened and they came to my house because they always did that. they came to a takeover would ever you left behind by that time i had a younger brother so he took my socks, they were supposed to take a drink it was like nobody could tell who's under where it is. laughter koza why don't think -- and it's true in prague it's a big issue we talk about it in high school today. there is a place outside of prague you can go and find the files of people who did media report on what happened. and i could go and spend three or four days trying to figure out who told what to whom but i

think still life is too short. but some kids ask today that is a big problem because you have the list published by people who supposedly were secret police who signed the would be informing secret police but you never know which of them are causing damage and a sign it because some circumstance, so this is still a difficult period and hasn't been addressed and i think in my book because my book is far from precise or complete but it would start some sort of discussion but i think it's not very much discussion going on. >> i had a family from czech, some of them still live there now who i guess were your age and they are struggling a lot because they were raised in congress and then suddenly they are free and trying to support

their families and you're sort of caught between two worlds. >> it's very difficult. >> [inaudible] >> em mine stelle -- i would struggle with this concept -- it is impossible to say i'm free and i think it is like the candidate more and more because i'm working on the new book and for the first time in my life i have with every artist is trend about i have a book out for adults. it's not only for adults it's for a publisher who is completely who publishes these so i'm working on this book can we talk about it, can you tell me what direction i should take, what is the size of the picture and she's that know you are free to do whatever you want and i said it's very difficult to be free like that. i would like you to tell me when do you need it, how big is it and all of a sudden i am thinking because i can do whatever i want and i am not

used to my whole life and told what to do so i am pretending like yes -- i would like to have some sort of guidance what i'm doing and she said no you are an artistic genius, you do whatever you want a by thinking this is already what they told me you do whatever you want. it's difficult to do whatever you want like you have two kids -- >> some ways freedom candian in prison and as well. >> it can be very difficult. i don't think it is in prison and but it's difficult. like with my kids if you grew up in it you can handle that much better than if you introduced it later on because then you say negative free but it must be inside of you. this is like to say what they say about china if china will open up it will take another 100 years for people to think differently that you can offer to be all of a sudden say i'm free and do just the right things because -- this is why some people say before we have health insurance and there was pleased depends how we look at

it when you were a young person and the police were telling you to get a hair cut you didn't like the old people's it's quite not like the peace singing. it's hard people sometimes think that might -- they are free to do that. >> think about now the west discovered prague miers' there any chance -- my sister-in-law was joking last summer when we were there pretty soon they were going to start charging a fee -- [inaudible] getting to westernize and now losing some of what makes czech such a wonderful country? >> i think like florence it will be a tourist destination and it is in fact because we have a house just under that kassala and sometimes i want to go down the hill and so might take me up the hill. and it's just it will be like that and it's not owned by the

czech only the places are. it's going to be a tourist area -- >> [inaudible] >> i think it is so different from the rest of the country now. and what i worry about the politics there which are so promising in '89 and this is very interesting because it is a new article in the new york review of books. i remember when the government came in 1980 all these people had leather jackets and state departments said this is a czech government now you cannot be dressed like this. you must have a tie and a jacket and then they were always for example it's like the best friend of -- adviser of the government and the state department said for example you have to get here for the concert in st. john the divine but don't tell friends about this. he shouldn't be there. and i read some stories with the hungarian incidents the head. and long hair and said we can't deal with these people. the previous government looked much more respectful than these people.

and now of course politics became it's very interesting because free elections everybody's frustrated with politics and it's very corrupt and so i think it has to go through all these different stages a plea for better but it is frustrating sometimes. also what happened after the fall of the wall was the people who were caught in a stand in power the new how to make phone calls. the have fax machines, contacts, and all of a sudden the advantages of having money. there were lots of people who just became rich and the previous communist small capitalists, so it is very hard for people who were aware and was a donato are supposed to negotiate their life in a completely new circle. all people are victims. yield people with least go and traveled to south america and africa and hopefully, but it's difficult. it is difficult.

>> [inaudible] >> i've been to slovakia. i had a wonderful time and i love slovakia. i think it is much more cheerful even when i was younger i thought slovakia government was much more sort of like a drink wine, the czech drink beer and they are more gloomy. somebody calling me. [laughter] probably checking if i am really in here talking to you -- >> [inaudible] >> im or ayaan but i'm not saying it anymore because people think i am from the moravian church and it's very confusing. and then i explained -- you ask moravia today. >> [inaudible] >> i am moravian and remember when i came to new york there was an old lady who said so you are czech and i said i am

actually moravian and she said don't worry moravian are almost as good as czech. laughter chris whittle to want to get into the technicalities between the different groups of people. >> [inaudible] [laughter] we have little accent and a different cuisine and places but this book is simplified. this book goes through many versions. i spent four years on this book. it became very painful in the way it was good -- i could take the time in a ways i wish the book was as it was in the beginning because it was a very enthusiastic. i was covering so many things about moravia, slovakia, different ways how the government and organizations work but then my editor said this is impossible for the kid or young american person to comprehend. you have to get the essence. i was trying to get the essence

how everything seemed to be hopeless, and i thought maybe it's the beginning of something else, and i realized there are so many things missing and so many things are simplified. it's the same white i sort of were still have a political life i have friends whose parents died in the present of the communist. i have friends it would be a completely different story but i didn't want to get into black and white. i was trying to keep a balance and i still can't keep the data balance. it's so difficult. it's like after the book came out in germany, the germans thought it is about berlin wall and were upset it was in the berlin wall. the french people like czech people, certain generation think didn't you have fun also? word young and didn't you have fun? was everything that? it was like the whole argument about when you are 20-years-old and you can have a girlfriend and maybe it was also enjoyable

and the trees are full of bloom but it's not with that book was supposed to be about, and i used the czech expression which is it is fun like in the graveyard that it was it's like if you ask somebody if they did have some good moments in concentration camp. so, it was a difficult book, and i still feel this is not a book complete this and say i could still change lots of things. it was the beginning of some sort of dialogue i thought. and it came in a slightly different version in the czech republic. this week they are negotiating that this czech version will be published in moscow and its strange because it's a little publishing house they say everybody will heed this book in russia but we still feel it's got itself power we have to publish if we will provide those of copies and there are some people and we are asking mikhail gorbachev to write a forward and first i felt this is interesting and then i thought is he really

even the right person to write the foreword for this because in the way it all happened under him and he was like -- he may be didn't want what i read about him like he thought it's going to stop the soviet border so maybe it got out of hand because somebody said if you would know what will happen in the in which you have done probably not. and so not because of the history he thinks he was responsible for it so maybe he would act like a nice light and look what happened 20 years ago but maybe he is not the right person to do that. in korea and mexico don't the people -- it is amazing the consequences i just finished a book about the childhood of [inaudible] and i always knew the poems and he's a great poet but i completely -- because it is about his childhood is a very

poetic book and then somebody said the duke realize he was a communist? how could you have done a book which is not in favor of communism and now we did a book about [inaudible] who was -- the publisher said the cost and leasable but he was fighting dictatorship in chile said he was sort of fight in his fight like you were sort of against where you are but then i read the story went i think rosenberg was executed. they said fantastic this is what we should -- the word for something which was quite in the 50's and then i thought maybe you should have researched and i should not have the book but then you get yourself into that spot where it is very difficult really. i think i'm talking too much. you must be exhausted from this. [laughter] i am. [laughter] >> [inaudible] >> my children or teenagers. [laughter]

>> [inaudible] >> i think if they would want today but have time. but they don't know yet if they want to. >> [inaudible] >> this was actually to a long because i was supposed to have something completely different and it was my whole life, so i was myself surprised by these slides. [laughter] i don't know -- and some of them are missing so this is a mystery because i don't do this very often and i say shella incidents be submitted to my command do this and i am eager to talk and it gets late and i keep on talking. >> a lot of people to get their book signed so we are going to do it in the hallway. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> i would speak forever.

[inaudible conversations] >> a macarthur fellow peter sis has written and illustrated more than 20 books for children including starry messenger, galileo and tibet thr the red box. for more information, visit petersis.com. we are at frost burke state univ. speaking with thomas lewis, author of "brace for impact" surviving a crash of the industrial age by sustainable living. to start off with what do you see as the major threats to the current we of living? >> that's the content of most of the pockets along list. what i did was organize it into the threats that i.c.e. gathered against our systems that sustain us. like both the food to regrow and animals we raise and what kind of water, supplied water and treatment of waste water and

energy, legal and electricity. and each of those categories is a system that has been increasingly industrialized and is increasingly in peril of failing. morrill strassel all of those systems and usually people don't look at them all at one time we give people specializing in electricity one of the things of vital to cities it takes three times as much water to get to the electricity to your home that you use and it does the water that you use so the electricity has an impact on water. so i tried to gather in what police these threats and dimension and here is the central premise. when we industrialize food and water and electricity we have this relentless search for a economy of scale we get bigger so the units get cheaper. well, there is a dark twin to the economy of scale and it's the concentration of risk. everything we do to get bigger

and produce more cheap stuff concentrates and worsens risk. now the risk and all of these enterprises is on a global and morrill. and what i've done here that few other books dealing with the subject do is lie face up to the i think inevitable conclusion we can't save three industrial society. it's great to go down. but the perverse thing is we don't need to go down with it. it's very simple for anyone who wants to survive what's coming but it's not possible to save everybody from what is coming. >> what is the time line for this? >> that's like predicting the great earthquake in los angeles and it is a pretty good comparison. we all know all scientists know that there is going to be a catastrophic earthquake along the san andreas in los angeles and along the hayward and san francisco. there's no doubt about that. even fox tv doesn't go and get somebody and thinks it is a hoax

when they discuss it. we know it is coming. when is an entirely different matter. it is momentarily in geological times we tend to think in 24 our statements. we don't have long term vision in the discussion of these things. i have a whole chapter on apocalypse win a title it and i compare it to try to forecast earthquakes you can't. there's no date but when you look at each of the threats and see the degree to which they intensified and the utter lack of response to them by any agency, by any leader, then you know that it is inevitable. >> so the inevitable decline as you describe it, is that something that was -- >> notte equine, crash. >> is it something that could possibly be scaled back by government -- >> it could have been.

we who were activists in the 80's felt we had a chance and i think we do have a chance now if the urgency had been recognized and it was known and this audience was there. we knew where things were headed, and if somebody, anybody, any institution with a political or financial had accepted the threat and started to confront it we would have had a chance. i don't think it can be done now. the only shred of hope for the overall avoidance of this crash is that if people get scared enough, and i am not just trying to scare people, i am trying to follow logic to its conclusions but if enough of us made the choice to save ourselves through sustainable living and i mean not sustainable development. i don't mean greenwashing i don't mean any of the industrial solutions being embraced and

called sustainable. i mean truly sustainable living. if enough of us decided you know what i want to save myself and my family and start to do that, we could conceivably shift the paradigm. i don't think it is brenda have been. what i call it in the book i am an age optimist. my hope is i die before it happens. and i have got a good chance. [laughter] >> what are the steps people can take to survive the crash? >> you have to get serious about sustainable living. i call the last chapter of the book is called sanctuary. you cannot be sustainable in any city right now. it's too late for that and it won't happen so you have got to find a piece of ground where you can grow your own food and you can produce your own energy where you use it. we have all this talk about this margaret, the only smart green is no great at all. technology as somebody said it's been around 100 years and still

can't do better than strings on sticks? it's not the electricity as the problems, it is the transmitting over huge distances. so, sustainable means you could have electricity but you have to produce it where you use it and then you don't lose any of it. you can get terrific efficiency. it's living in a totally different way. and people will say not everybody can do that. i know of. >> is it moving towards a society without a government or is it something -- >> i don't go there. i'm not trying to solve the problem for everybody. i'm not trying to solve the problem for the country. i concluded to the contrary it can't be solved. all i'm saying is you can do something about it. you can save your family if you want to. what else is implied by the decision i can't tell. i just can't tell you we have the technology, the knowledge, we know how we can do it and so it becomes a personal choice

either you will or you won't but i can't and won't extrapolate that to say but the country should look like in five years because it can't. >> do you personally make steps in your life to try to live a sustainable -- >> i do. i have a sanctuary of sorts. it is not self-sufficient but it has the elements and i can put them in place very quickly. i grow some of my own food. i have some animals. i have 20 acres. i heat with wood and have enough solar to get me through emergencies. i'm certainly not living in a fully sustainable fashion, but i have a system in place where i could in very short order. >> thank you. we haven speaking with thomas lewis, author of "brace for impact survived the crash of the industrial age by sustainable living. it gives me great pleasure and i know you all share my pride to welcome here tonight

the administrator of the environmental protection agency and champion of our land, lisa jackson. [applause] >> thanks, bob. what an intro. you can introduce me anytime. [laughter] any time. well, i'm not going to take a long time this evening i just want to do a couple things. the first is to think you, bob and frances for the honor of addressing the crowd. some difference, so many people who have been working on these issues for such a long time on clean energy, on climate. but not just on clean energy and climate. the reins of issues which we agree it thankfully sometimes don't agree because we need you to continue to push us and make sure we are thinking of all vehicles and considering all of the health and environmental

impact are so broad at this time and so it is lovely to have a few minutes to address you here. i would be remiss if i didn't remind everyone of a couple of things. there's a bunch of people watching, lisa. one of them is clearly frances, and i'm afraid, too. she is not to be trifled with. [laughter] but also know i have some epa employees here. i saw the extraordinary head of the office of air and radiation who -- [applause] -- for whom i'm grateful every day. and by insurer after a drink she is grateful, too. [laughter] -- to have joined us. any other epa folks? i know we have lots of -- >> hi. >> line with the research office. >> thanks for coming. nice to see you. the second thing i want to talk to you tonight for just a second is clean energy. and to say listen, thanks for allowing me the opportunity to talk about why clean energy is simple, common sense.

we need to get the word out. so this is very timely messaging indeed but clean energy, common sense for the economy, common sense for the national security, common sense for the environment for the future of our planet, for our children and for our grandchildren. when you see north carolina growing clean energy jobs at twice the rate of overall jobs or tennessee or iowa growing clean jobs at seven times the rate of the average or south dakota who managed to beat them all with 19 times the job growth and clean energy sector than an overall job growth we know it's common sense and good for our economy when we see billions of dollars going to other countries, many of whom might not have our security interests at heart, and every year we see ourselves despite rhetoric after rhetoric watching of increasing reliance on fossil fuels and on oil that comes from off shore

leave us vulnerable. we know that energy independence is a common sense solution for the country and for our national security. but for me most importantly when we see polluted air, when i see water that is literally in parts of the nation today making people sick, when we experience historic routes or in my beloved hometown horrendous historic flooding we know that clean energy is just pure common sense for the environment for reducing climate pollution and confronted once and for all the threat of climate change to the plan that. now some people might think it makes sense to stick with the status quo and i did that frances is we do have something to say about that. there's a lot of talk of simply ramping up our existing supplies but we have been down that path before and i ask us all to remember it. in 2001 we saw an energy plan focused on fossil fuels. supporters of that set it with

lower cost for consumers, it would lower costs for businesses and new blood, too, reduce our growing dependence on foreign oil but here today but planas didn't work. it didn't work for the security, didn't work for the businesses, didn't work for a work environment and it certainly hasn't worked from the standpoint of jobs. by 2006 crude oil prices were up 143%. gas prices had gone up 75%. natural gas was 46% more expensive and dependence on foreign oil had increased 65% and that isn't counting the four allred gallon gasoline that we saw just over a year ago. and simply increasing domestic fuels bills nothing to reduce air pollution. it won't help the millions of american children like my own who suffer from asthma. it won't allow our smoke blotted cities to finally previous year

or will it do anything to reduce prevalence of cancer and other diseases that are increasingly linked to burning fossil fuel so i ask you all to please compare the two options that we have. on the one hand the dirty burning fuel supply we use today has gotten more expensive. it's damaged the health of our kids and communities and resulted in billions of american dollars going overseas each year rather and keeping that money here in our own economy. on the other hand, clean energy has created jobs as market share has grown and technology has progressed the cost of clean energy has and will continue to decrease and it's put us on a strong course towards improving national security, sustainability of mentally and economic competitiveness. in broad terms clean energy jobs are up and clean energy costs are down while fossil fuel costs are up and the money we pay for

the fuel is increasingly sent to other countries. the question is which forced we want to follow. ai thank each of you for the work you've done in eliminating the paths and also helping us make that choice we have much work yet to do and i know you will be pushing us. thanks so much. [applause] >> the didn't tell me i would have the honor of introducing a woman i can now call a friend. there are many things you do when you find you might actually be named as the next administrator of the epa and one of them you do is call the head of the nrdc. he would be crazy not to but what i found when i spoke to her and i wasn't my first time was not of the personal warmth and a professional level of support has a sister and a friend but a

place i could turn to for common sense ideas and a constant supply of support and energy. ladies and gentlemen i give you author frances beinecke. [applause] >> thank you so much, lisa. i just want to say that we are so privileged at nrdc and in the nation to have an epa administrator who is so committed to protecting the environment to insure citizens all across the country are fairly treated to help the air, water, food and who those who suffered particularly from disproportionate impact over the years from lack of environmental quality are so high on her agenda. so i am a huge empire of lisa jackson. also a friend but so grateful

the president has appointed somebody for whom environmental protection is the mission of her life who will do everything in her power to insure the future of this country and well-being of our citizens are protected going forward. so she is a total champion and we are lucky to have her as part of the entire middle future of this country and also here with us tonight. i also want to thank all of my colleagues and friends from nrdc and the environmental community from the hill and agencies who are here because this look cleaner version common sense is an endeavor for all of us. this is a product of my career and the career of everybody in this room because we are linked in our efforts to get fans and their metal protection advance solutions to climate change and in sure that we do have a clean energy future that does make

common sense for the country, one that does create jobs in this country that addresses security issues and ensures a were carbon emissions decline. that's the purpose of the book. the reason and i have to thank balk teams because he told you the schedule and there would be no book without the partnership. he's an amazing collie to work with on this. but what we wanted to do was to go out and have a book that could talk to the american public and here in this room volume with people who work on this issue every day who are passionate about it and have studied it in great detail and depth and know more about anyone i can assure you with that of the fact is that isn't true across the country by talk to people every day to continue to be on sure. they are skeptics. like last week i was in chicago speaking at the economics club with john from exxon and 250 people there. the first question was i don't really believe you. i don't believe this audience is

there. it was the only question either. i was a a dinner party in the bronx and the same question. is this true. so it is true. we know that. the science and people need to know what the science case is from authoritative sources. the purpose of the book was to present kite's short, you can read on the plan, picked it up to their part, put it in your pocket and get the full story the science cases or in the appears serious impact already occurring, they're our ecological impacts, serious humanitarian impact as a humanitarian crisis as well as an environmental crisis the security authority from the cia to the pentagon have this high on the agenda that these are issues we must address and address now and the other part of the book which is important if they get through that port is there are solutions and that is what we are all about and what we are working on here in

washington every single day. we know the solutions are. they are available now. we need to put them in place and we need the help actually across america to do it. in the and it is a call to action. we want people across the country to participate with us and we want them to feel they understand the issue so by picking up the book and read through it we are hoping that they will take action and called on their senators on their elected officials to finally get us on a trajectory that reduces carbon emissions that creates a clean energy economy for this country that on leashes tremendous opportunity for american workers across the country. lisa and i were in gary indiana with steelworkers at a rally i went to cleveland. when you go to that part of the country you feel the loss of jobs and want to be sure you want to do everything in your power to make sure these jobs aren't real and available and we unleash them as quickly as possible and so that gets us to

the competitiveness issue because it's not only in the united states where there's a lot of eagerness to on least clean energy, and for those who have been to china recently you can see that it's happening there and i wanted it to happen here is that we are the leaders around the world and we set the pace for how we move to a low carbon economy that takes us down a different road and protect the planet and all the planet systems and all the planet people in the process so i went to thank you all for being here and i happy to sign books if anybody wants me to but more than anything i want to thank all of you for the work the you are doing on behalf of the planet because the point about this issue is it is so broad it crosses all sectors and it will take all of us and we are going down the right path. thank you all enjoy the evening and thank you for being here. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> thank you. you're my hero. look at this we are already we of all the charts. isn't that fantastic? how did you know? >> no work was done at the office today. everybody was going -- >> i took even know quite how to find a but that's fun. did we will do more projects together. i don't know how you did this so quickly. >> this is or publisher, markets. >> thank you so much. this is a great partnership. that's fantastic. let's do some more. we want to get out there and talk more broadly and to actually have a duty to get out in the marketplace and not just be our product, you know, it puts enormous credibility and the fact it becomes marketable

and it's actually moving up the charts that gives an endorsement with the topic is so you guys had guessed right. thank you. >> thank you. seabeck i don't know if we could do something quite so quickly again. [inaudible conversations] >> these are our publishers. [inaudible conversations] >> without them there would be no book. >> the head of manufacturing stevan driver. >> thank you very much. i appreciate that. you went on overdrive. i'm sure you did. how often do you do things that quickly? not often. >> occasionally. >> it's fun when we do. it's fun to see it come

together. >> thank you. did you guys to the design? >> yes. >> it's nice. >> bald talked about concept. >> it is a great concept. >> the designers did the cover. her name is on the bakshi did the c design. >> negative. >> there's a lot of people. >> thank you. >> this was a portion of the book tv program. you can view the entire program and many other book tv programs on line. go to artless and type the name of the author were booked into the search area in 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 book tv box to find a recent and featured programs. we are at frost byrd state

univ. speaking with robert moore 3-cd about his book is i would marry a white girl coming to grips with race in america. robert come to start off with, why did de -- who actually said that he would always marry a white girl and why did they say that? >> i think that was more of an internal feeling on my part. i grew up in a very fascinating time period in the suburbs of philadelphia during the 60's. we were one of the few african-american families perhaps the only african-american family to ride the wave of millions who left urban america in that time period to go to the suburbs. at the same time many african-americans were coming off the land in rural america and going to the city's. so i fought i felt caught in between the two groups. it's like two sides and it was a time that was pre-multiculturalism.

i felt internally perhaps i was destined to marry someone who was white rather than african-american. >> one of the first parts of your book is a of a couple different sections in the first one called straddling the fence. how did you come to grips with your identity as an african-american male growing up in a predominantly white area of suburban philadelphia? >> it was tough. i don't think i did. i wrestle with the impact of that time period. i grew up with people who were good friends of mine, great friends from that time period but who held numerous stereotypes about african-americans and i internalized those stereotypes. i was fortunate, but my parents worked which was unusual for that time, i come from a dual income family and so tenth grade road around and i often out of

the public school system, go to private school and i had my first contact with african-americans actually. my first girlfriend was in tenth grade and was african-american. so i have to leave the situation and go someplace else to work on my identity. >> what do you think it means to be -- what is an african-american identity? >> today or -- >> i guess either today or what he felt a growing up what did it mean to be? >> that's an interesting question, that's a big question. i think we have stereotypes of each other and i subscribe to something called a group position sphery. i kind of look at groups of people in society and the overall place in society, and i think we hold stereotypes about groups and internalized those stereotypes.

i was socialized as a middle class person growing up in the city in the suburbs of philadelphia. i'm not sure there was anyone come identity african americans have for whites have. but i think we do feel a sense of cultural difference whether it is a real cultural difference or not it is up for debate but i think we feel a sense of increase versus out group, and one day i hope we get over that in this country and gain a sense of oneness. >> why did you decide to write the book in the first place? >> i thought i had a lot to get off my chest. and i think what my experiences were were quite unique. i have three kids at the moment and i started having kids late in life. i did marry a white female and we now have for first time in history a mixed race movement, by racial movement and a lot of

my thoughts today are centered around racial identity. i'm fascinated by people who call themselves mixed race today whereas until the past 30 years, the past 25 years if you had any african-american ancestry with in your background you were considered african-american we have this mixed-race movement and so racial identity questions are still with us and i think are absolutely fascinating and so i really wanted to just die if into, wanted to write a book about how race changed the past 35, 40 years. >> how has it changed? what is the biggest thing you have seen today versus growing up in the 60's? >> it's questionable because many people think race relations have moved forward in a very positive way and i question the tremendously. we still have a massive society 86% of whites who live in the suburbs or in a birds with less than 1% african-american

residents in the neighborhood. and so i think we think that things are changing massively. but of mixed race movement for example like my kids, how will my kids identify themselves growing up in an all white area right now in rural america, and so i'm not sure for its symbol of mixed race identity. i think it feeds off the current polarization of african-americans and whites in society. they still have a great polarization between african-americans and whites in society although there is great potential for those two groups, whites and african-americans to come together in the future. >> thank you. we have been talking with robert m. moore freakin' author of the always said i would marry a white girl coming to grips with race in america. >> thank you. nice having you. >> we are as west virginia university and morgenthau west virginia with john temple, author of "the last lawyer the fight to save death row

inmates." mr. temple, why don't you start by telling a little bit about the main character, ted rose. >> there are two men about the same age. they both live in north carolina. jones was a farm hand from north carolina who was convicted of murder in 1993 from a murder that occurred in 1987 and he was sentenced to death and spent i believe 13 years on death row. kenneth rose is the lawyer who in 1997 took on his case shortly before he was scheduled to be executed in he has represented boe ever since and i spent four and a half years following that case. >> what got you interested in this particular case? you always been interested in the law? >> my wife is a lawyer but it's

not a field i've studied. i was just drawn to the idea of writing about lawyers exquisitely who represent death row inmates because i thought i just wanted to know why someone would do that. it's not a field that has a lot of rewards financially or in the community really or in the legal profession. so it's -- i wanted to know -- and it's really hard work. your clients are often die when you do it for a long period of time. so it can be really difficult to do. so that is the story that i was drawn to that i felt like no one had written about. there's been a lot written about the death penalty over the years and there's been some cases we followed and have written about in books but no one to my knowledge has written about the

lawyers from a sort of journalistic point of view. >> and how closely were you able to work with these characters to get your story? >> very closely with him. with bo he was a -- he wouldn't work for his lawyers for a long time. he had problems with the way they were handling his case and he said it could be a difficult person, and that was something there was really interesting to see the lawyers working on behalf of someone who was not even cooperating on top but everything else it's difficult in both the field and even their own client wasn't working very well with them. >> use it to to a few years to put together the book. how much time was research for says writing? did you travel a lot? >> i did. i traveled a lot.

i considered it a work of emerging journalism which was difficult to pull off when you live in west virginia and the case you're writing about is north carolina, so i had to go down there a lot. i think i took something like 17 trips donner over that for and have your period and including the one month that i just moved my whole family down. >> and who do you want to read this book and what do you want them to take from it? >> i really think it is a book that could appeal to a wide variety of people because its written in an accessible style and it's not written primarily for lawyers. it's not really a book about death penalty -- it's not a book that is aimed toward an audience that was already knowing a lot about the death penalty. it is a book is a kind of courtroom drama is the way i try to think about it and go about it. so i think a wide variety.

but i think certainly anyone interested infil law and civil rights and the death penalty would be interested. >> and what are kenneth rose and bo jones doing today? to the still have a relationship? >> they do. it's not particularly close. kent is continuing to work for other inmates on death row and he is a very important figure in that arena. he's probably one of the most -- it's hard to gauge exactly, but he is certainly -- he has been doing death row work since 1981, since the day he got out of college pretty much for law school so that makes him by default one of the most experienced people in the field is not a