security,. >> thanks everybody. thank you so much. thank you all for being here this afternoon. it's so wonderful to have this event at my home church, with home members of my church. this was sponsored by the seniors of our church. i'm so grateful for that. ladies and gentlemen, thank you. here's the format. i'm going to talk tore a little bit. like you all, i was raised back, i hope to open it up for questions to have a discussion about issues in the book or whatever you might want to talk about, because the book covers certainly my life, things i've covered in my professional life, issues in the news, hike the war in afghanistan, baton rouge i was just a few months ago, so whatever you want to talk about,

we can talk about during the q & a session and we ask that when you ask a question, come up to the microphone, so our friends at c-span can record and the nation can hear the question. the book is called "step out on nothing," it's a journey story. i've been a professional journalist for about 27 years. about 15 years on local television and 12 years at cbs news and in journalism, basically, every story falls into one three categories. either it's a journey story from here to there, a search for treasure, or a of love story. in journalism, the "new york times" today, the montclair times, every story, whether it's a front page, sports page, falls into one of three categories, a journey story from here to there, a search story or a love story. this book "step out on nothing" is a journey story. it's a journey of boy from east baltimore, me.

my mother had her first child at 16, she had me before she finished high school. i didn't learn to read until i was 12. and i studied until i was 20, so the book is the journal friday from how does a boy from east baltimore in that circumstance end up on 60 minutes. when i was diagnosed as functioning illiterate, i could not read, one of the early therapists that my family took me to, told my mother, i'm sorry, ms. pitts, but it's my diagnosis that your wallison byron is mentally retarded and you should have him institutionalized. well my mother at that time had about a tent grade education. she eventually went to morgan state versus and got a degree in sociology to help other mostly single women raising families, but that day with her 10t 10th grade education when they said i'm sorry, ms. pitts, your

wallison should be institutionalized, how often have we seen stories in hour community, and elsewhere, young people who are cast aside. fortunately por me, my mother is an old school southern woman, baptist woman, tough woman, she said test him again. and the man said, well, we tested him. test him again. if that's his fate, then we'll deal with it, but test him again. so they tested me again and the next expert, the therapist with the degrees behind his names, in fact, at one point, they took out a tape measure and put it around my head like it is a melon, i felt like i was in the fruit stand, my mother was buying fruit. put the tape measure around my head, if you can imagine this head on a small boy, it is a frightening side and they said i'm sorry, ms. pitts, if you wallison isn't mentally retarded, i don't know what the issue is, bring him back when

he's 15 and she said we can't do that, if we wait until he's 15, he'll be dead or in prison, my wallison needs help right now and there wasn't. help available, so my mother did what she could do. my mother has won around her neck, a plastic mustard seed another her neck. if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to the mountain, mountain, move from here to there, and it shall move. it was with my mother's mountain moving faith, her optimism, that she got me the help i needed to overcome that obstacle. raise your hand if you know something about struggle. anybody here know anything about struggle. we all have had struggles in hur his and struggle has many different names. for me, my particular struggle is illiteracy, unable to read,

stuttering,. i didn't learn to manage my stutter until my junior year in college. i'm still a stutterer. in the right circumstance, i would stutter, but i've been trained how to speak clearly, how to avoid words that cause me difficulty. and i learned in my life through my mother's witness, that strength only comes from struggle. that there is, you know, i always tell young people, who are athletes, who lift weights, who are dancers, who work to strengthen their bodies, that when you lift weights, or do exercise to strengthen your body, partly what you're doing is you're tearing the muscle, you're destroying the muscle in order to make it stronger, so i was raised as opposed to feeling sorry for myself or making excuses, that strength comes from struggle. that there is joy on the other side of struggle. in the book, i talk a lot about my specific issues, my battles with illiteracy.

it's estimated that there are 30 million adults in the united states of america who cannot read. 30 million adults. that's one in seven adults, in the most powerful country on earth, who cannot read. if it were a state, it would be the second largest state in the country behind california. it's like combining every citizen in new york state and ohio sand saying folks there can't read. all of us know someone who struggles with literacy. so that's the story i know well. there are three million people in our country who stutter. people like me who struggle with language. we all know someone who stot terms. i was one of those kids that my mother or my siblings or my friends would finish my sentence when others would laugh. in the book, i also talk 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 stutter in college. i'm going to read first, if i

can, a story from the very beginning of the book. and it speaks to how all of us who have struggled, right, oftentimes unfortunately, struggle never shows up by itself. it brings its sisters and its brothers and its cousins and there are a host things you have to manage at any given time. so along with my struggles with literacy in words look like slow and stupid tom me along, eventually i was taken out of the mainstream classrooms and placed in the basement. i became one of the basement boils, where they put the discipline problems, the slow kids and there the issue was more on discipline than on education. and i railroad one day hearing one of the adults whose job it was to work with young people like me, who jokingly said to one of his colleagues, today the basement, tomorrow, prison. that was the trajectory that some people saw my life headed on. and we'll talk more later about statistics and crime, how it relates to literacy and to poverty.

in the midst of -- people have asked my mother oftentimes over the years, why weren't you able to help byron sooner, to recognizing this issue sooner? and my mother, and i'm a mama's boy, for the record and i defend her and i answer the question for her. i think the answer might be, this is a woman who was trying to go back to school to get her education, oftentimes working two jobs. and also managing a marriage that was in trouble. so one of the issues she was going, besides issues with her wallison, was a husband who was unfaithful. one day i went to catholic elementary school in baltimore, st. katherine's, and my mother picked me up one day from school as she rarely did and said get in the car, we're going to that whore's house. now, kid raised in church, going to catholic school, the only

name like i had ever heard before if the bible was in scripture, so i thought this is a bible republic treat she's taking me to, is this a bible lesson. well, i would soon find out. we guilty to this neighborhood, any shall -- get to this neighborhood, my mother takes me out of the car, i was about 8, 9, 10 years old. she rang the doorbell several times. a pretty woman with long, curly brown hair finally answered the door. i was struck by how much she resembled my mother. my mother said tell my husband to come out here, the woman said i don't know what you're talking about. i could see the rage building in my mother's face and fist. she backed out off the steps and screamed up to the second floor, william smith, you s.o.b., bring your butt out here right now. i edityed the language a little bit. there was dead silence. she said it again louder. if no one inside the house could

hear her, the neighbors did. others started coming out of their homes. i stood near the car paralyzed by shame. picking it was her message, not her volume, my mother came up with a new line, william pitts, you s.o.b., you come outside right now, or i'll set your car on fire. he apparently heard her that time. much to my surprise, my father dressed only in his pants and undershirts, dashed out of that house as my mother made her way to his car. she ordered me to move away from her car and get into my father's car. i did. my father was bare foot and slipped as she approached my mother. she picked up a brick and took dead aim at my father's head. she missed. she retrieved the brick and tried again. she missed. he ran. my parents repeated their version of domestic dodgeball at least a half dozen times. it must have seemed like a game to the gallery of people who watched 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, though i couldn't help but hear. my parents were fighting again and this time in public. it's one of those situations where child, he hear all the time. that no good man is here all the time. peep are screaming and laughing and eating food while they watched. eventually, my father saw an opening and jumped into the driver's seat of his car, fumbling for his keys, he failed to close the door. my mother jumped on top of him, cursing and scratching at his highs and face. she seemed determined to kill him. i could see her fingers inside his miscellaneous. somehow my father's head ended up in my lap. the scratches on his face began to bleed on to my white shirt. for the first time since my mother speak me up from school, i spoke. terrified, why, what did i do. what? i'm sure i had more to say, but i got stuck on the word what. almost from the time i could speak, you stuttered. it seemed to get worse when i was frightened or nervous.

sitting in my dad's car with my parents' weight and problems pressed against me, i started to cry. as quickly and violent aas my parents began fighting, they stopped. i guess it was my mother who first noticed the blood splattered across my face and soaked through mashier. she thought i was bleeding. in that instant, the temperature cooled in the car. it had been so hot. my parents' body heat had causeddette three of us to sweat. fearing my parents injured me, they 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 ok. that was one of my issues with my difficulty in learning to read. i put on a mask. i would hide in school, hide behind my politeness, because i was raised to be polite. a lot of the children today hide behind bravado. they become bullies, they become tormenters. many of those children likely

have the same issue i have, an unable to read, so you find a place to fit in. i'll finish that story. we infer said a word in the car on the way home. my mother had climbed off my father, held my hand and scooted me into her 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 had exhausted everyone. we all headed for bed early. go take off those clothes and leave them outside your door, my mother told me. call me when you've got your pajamas on. i did. i could hear her walking up the stairs, slow an deliberate as if she was carrying a heavy load. earlier back in my father's car when i glanced into my mother's gray eyes, they were narrow an mean. now at home in my room, they were soft around the edges and sad. my mother was not the crying type. she wasn't crying then, but she is sad. i could see it in the slump of her shoulders. it was written across your face.

you ok, she asked me. her tone was now 180 degrees lighter than a few hours ago when she picked me up from school. what happened between you and your father had nothing to do with you she said. i wish we could wash away memories as easily as we could wash clothes. then she took her hand, closed her highs, touched her hand to mine and prayed. it's the way i've prayed ever since. dear wise and almight god, we come to you as humbly as we know how, just to say thank you lord, thank you lord for blessing seen and unseen. thank you lord for our family, friends and enemies. thank you lord form the bad days, to help us better appreciate the good ones. please, lord, making strong where we are broken, give us lord the faith to believe our tomorrow will be brighter than our yesterday. hold us, lord, keep us in the palm of your hands. give us faith to keep holding on. these and all other blessings we ask in jesus' name, amen.

i opened my eyes to her familiar smile. we're not a teeth smiling family, more grinners, but her grin promised better days were ahead. she hugged me, tucked me in, said good night. i remember expecting an apology before she left the room. of after the day i had, please, but sorry is not 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 listened to my mother's footsteps beyond my door, i suddenly felt peace, the changing of her old electric fan in the window even had a pleasant melody to it. on the surface, not a darn thing good had happened, not a darn good thing had happened to me that day. but at that moment, of after my mother's prayers, all i could think about was rejoicing in the notion that i was now on the other side of a difficult moment. strength only comes from

struggle. so the book is about the journey, the journey that awful us are on in our lives and how we get past difficult moments, so in the book i want to encourage people, but also talk about my journey, but also the people in my life. i mentioned my mother and i'll talk more about her. she is an amazing, amazing woman, like many of the great women in this church. also, i talk about people like a man named james mack, coach mack i call him. james mack was a swim coach at morgan state university in baltimore where i'm from. he also ran a wrestling club and was a decon in my church and coach mack whenever he would meet a young boy, he would say hi, champ, how are you doing. he would say wallison, there are two kinds of boys in this world, champs and chumps. i wasn't anyone that people spent time with, again, because of my stutter, i didn't talk

much, because of my inability to read, i didn't participate in many church activities at the time, so i wasn't one of the kids a had great promise, that people wanted to embrace right away, but coach mack did. well, if my community, back when communities were a place with when neighbors talked, you looked after your children, coach mack had heard that i was about to get into trouble. as i mentioned, because of my size, pause of my learning issues -- because of my learning issues, i was bullied a lot by kids and i talked a lot about bullying. we've seen the stories of what happens across this country when a child is bullied and adults don't intervene and that child, using a 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 vatican people take my lunch money, tired of having people disrespect me, talk disrespectful of my family. i was angry. although i was raised by a woman whom demanded discipline, demanded that her children address adults yes, ma'am, yes,

sir, no ma'am, no sir. i finally decided i'm going to deal with these bullies, so i went to neighborhood store in east baltimore, not too different from south sides of chicago, parts of philadelphia, went to the neighborhood store, bought a knife. i was going to school the next day to deal with those bullies. they were not going to harm me again. somehow, the store owner told someone else who told someone else who told someone else and it finally got to coach mack and here's what he did. coach mack simply left his house 20 minutes early for work that day, that's hall he did. left his house early, met me on the corner because he found out the way i walk to school. hey, champ, good morning, how you doing. hey, coach, how are you doing. off to school. oh, what's in the book bagging. >> oh, my books. what else. oh, my run p bag. what else? i've got some pencils, cool aid, for the record, blue kool-aid

was my kool-aid of choice. he said what else is in the bag. we kept going around until finally, i told him what i had, and he said oh, let me see it. and the coach mack, he didn't chain me, talk down to me, he didn't quote scripture to me right away, didn't get in my face, he said take it out, i want to see it. he said have you tried it out yet. i said no sir. he said you can't go to school stab anybody without testing it out, that doesn't make any sense. now coach is appealing to me, man to man, because he understands my struggle. so he says, take it out. so i open the blade up and he opened up his wind breaker, he was the coach, going to school he said ok, stab me with it. i said, coach, i can't do that. you're like a father to me. this is a man who taught me how to fight, taught me how to get in a three point stance in football, helped me learn how to tie a tie, i said coach, i love you, i can't do that he said wallison, that's exactly right. you've got to love yourself

enough not to throw your life away. he took the knife, went to work, 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 on nothing to help a child he didn't have to help. i also talk in the book about a woman named ula, ula is from histonia, struggle often comes up with siblings, when it shows up it's aunts and uncles that come in a group and as we all know struggle doesn't go away. my grandmother says there's three stages of life, in the midst of a 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, my freshman year in high school, i was in remedial math and reading classes. there was no quick fix. in remedial reading class, i

went to a catholic high school, my mother saved every dollar she had to pay the $900 to send me to school, borrowing from friends at church and work to come up with the money. my freshman year at curly, i was ranked 360th, near the bottom. i was not a kid projected to go to college at that stage of life. when i graduated four years later, i was 30th from the top. still not the best student, still not the straight a student, but i worked hard, knew the value of hard work. so when i get to college, ohio wesleyan college, it was the best college i could get into, i'm a journalism major and 'i get there, struggling academically. ills the first time away from home. one of my classmates in college had a bmw. i never saw a bmw before. my master had a mercedes, so i've seen a mercedes, but i've never seen the bmw. besides from being away from home, the racial dynamic being a

person of color in a predominant my white school, the class issues of now no longer being surrounded by working class people in the community i had come from, there were a handful of physicians and doctors and professional people in my church, but i came foreign minister a blue collar community where people worked with their hands and worked hard for their money, so adjusting to all of these things. i also had to adjust to the academic demands of college, by the time i went to college, i had only read one book for enjoyment from cover to cover. everything i'd ever read to that point in school was purely work. in my household, my family didn't read books, my mama, we had the jet and the ebony, we read that. my daddy when he was around, read the paper every now and then. but there was no book, there was nothing in my book to associate between joy and reading. the only book i read by the time i got to college was "old man and the sea" and the time i read

it, my mother discouraged me from reading the book because she thought it would be too much for me. freshman year, english class, i decided i wanted to be a journalist, because now i loved words, because of my issue with literacy, god wants me to be a writer, a journalist, i'm certain of it. well apparently the professor i had hadn't had that conversation with god and wasn't as convinced, so this professor, i failed his class the first trimester of school, i failed his english class. now in high school, i was a c student, d-c student, freshman sophomore year. i got my first a ever in school my junior year in high school and by the time i graduated, i was a solid b student. i got a d the first trimester of class. example of how slow i am, because i'm still slow, i took the same professor again the second term thinking i'd do better the next time if i just worked harder, because my mother believed in the value of hard work. my mother used to say smart people did can think their

problems away, we have to wrestle ours to the ground, so i figured if i worked harder, studied longer, take his class the second trimester and he says to me, he says, he passes out the midterm exams and i'm already on academic probation, about ready to flunk out of college and he announces to the class, about the size of our gathering, mr. pitts, congratulations, your best work thus far, d plus, come see me after class. this man said this in front of my classmates, i was 17 years old, so i went to his office, raised to respect authority, he said don't sit down, it won't take long, it is my opinion that you are not ohio wesleyan university material. you are wasting my time and the government's money, i think you should leave. you're dismissed. 17, raised to respect authority, i thought, this man said i'm not worthy, i shouldn't be here. went next door and filled out the papers to withdraw from college.

the burden of that moment, i knew how much my mother had sacrificed, my grandmother had sacrificed, people in my community had sacrificed for me to go to college and this notion that not only was i about to abandon my dreams, i was about to abandon the dreams of my family. i started to cry. now, not that, you know, television, sniffle, kind of, i'm talking that head bobbing, nose running, shoulder shaking kind of crying. anybody ever cry like that. as i'm there, i must have been a sad site, bow sitting on a bench, it's cold outside, i'm crying, i'm starting to fill these papers out and about that time, a stranger walked by. woman didn't know me, i didn't know her. but she saw this young person in distress and she stopped and she said young man, what's wrong? that's all she said, young man, what's wrong? and i, you know, through my

sniffles, i'm leaving school, i've got to go home, i'm stupid. she sat down, and she talked to me for about 20 minutes. and she said, ok, well, before you drop out, why don't you sleep on it for that night and come see me tomorrow. now i didn't know who this woman was and she is dressed like she might have been one of the part of the maintenance team at ohio wesleyan, she wasn't well dressed, hair wasn't could i --d particularly well. i went to her office, i'm looking to a white woman, about this tall, plump. sew in my family, there are a number of plump women, we call them plump, and i said i'm looking for -- and the guy said, you're looking for dr. luse, no, no, she's not a doctor. and i walked around the corner, and sure enough, this stranger

who stopped to talk to this boyne was dr. ula luse, a young woman at ohio wesleyan who was focused on getting tenure, focused on building her career, but saw a young person in need and stopped. i found out later that ula is from the country of histonia and had survived world war ii. so in herr own life as a child, she had experienced discrimination, heartache, difficulty, struggle, she recognized in someone else and helped me out. another person. the people in my life. this guy's name is peter, peter hothey was then and is now a dear friend of mine. peter is from minnesota. pete and i met the first year in college. pete never met anybody from baltimore and i never met anybody from minnesota. he said to me, you're a freshman in college, but you talk like you're in grade school, you say

dumb things, you use the wrong words, what's that about. well, i was embarrassed for a minute and then the east baltimore in me flared up a little bit and i said who you talking to man. he said i'm talking to you, i said why are you talking down to me, he said i'm not talking down to you, you're sitting down, i'm standing up. i'm just curious, why you talk this way when you're in college, so once we got past my embarrassment, i explained to pete my situation. didn't learn to read until i was 12, still struggling with the stotser, uncomfortable with language, i try not to speak unless i have to, i avoid certain words because they're too difficult for me. he said ok. so pete says here's what we're going to do. i was 17 years old, pete was 18. he was a botany major, brilliant major. he said every day for the next four years in college together, we're going to be here four years and you're going to graduate, i'm going to give you a new word in the dictionary, i want you to say it in a sentence, define it. spell it, define it, use it in a

sentence. we did that every single day for four years. pete was someone else who stepped out on nothing. he had no reason at all to help me but did it anyway out of the goodness of his heart. the people in my high. finally, i want to talk to you about the power of encouragement, because the book, you know, i'm in the news business, so i do bad things well. i mean, i cover bad news, that's what i do for a living. and certainly, there are difficult moments, you'll read about in the book, from my struggles with literacy, the bouts of domestic violence basically between my parents, other issues that i experienced, the awful effects of war, the awful things that happened with human beings clash around the world and do violent things. those things are in there, but the mayly, the book talks about -- the mayly the book talks about my journey, the people in my life and the power of encouragement. the people who planted seeds of goodness in my life, who intervened, the title, "step out

on nothing" comes from st. paul. there was a woman's day service here several years ago and the pastor was talking about women's sore feet and pedicures and manicures and i'm thinking, my lord, what time is it, what time do we get to go home today. there is nothing in it sermon for me and then she said something that summed up my life. step out on nothing. because sometimes for people of faith, that in difficult moments, when our resume and our rolodex, who we know, our 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, yeah. my mother. 10th grade education, a doctor looked her in the eye in the white jacket, the expert and said your wallison is mentally retarded, put him in an institution. she had friends of her, colleagues at work, i'm sure extended women, yeah, you're a

young woman, single woman, get that boy some help, but she stepped out on her faith. people know who i am now, right? people know this end of the product. byron pitts, cbs news, 60 minutes. sunday nights, 12 to 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 that journey, and the realization that i would not be on 60 minutes at 7:00 p.m. on sunday nights if not for those struggles. i tell my wife sometimes, when i talk about, and i mention this in the book, when you speed me on sunday nights at 7:00 p.m. sitting in the chair in my best sunday suit, that -- and my late father-in-law's cuff links that i always wear, my mama is there,

pete is there, ula is, all these people who stepped out on nothing to help me. so in the book i say i want to encourage people, parents, teachers, seniors, people who spend much of their time encouraging other people, planting seeds of kindness in 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 in montclair, in newark, who just has a person look at them and say good morning, champ, how are you doing. that my life is testament to the power of encouraging people, of being kind to people. so i want to encourage people to keep doing that. 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 struggle. that you can get past those difficult moments. i am a witness. nothing about my life suggests that i should be where i am now professionally. you know. nothing about where i come from.

if you draw a piece of paper that says what will it take to get to 60 minutes, very little of my childhood suggests that that's the plan. 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, just to 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, and all of us in a position, no matter who we are, where we are in life, to help someone else, so when someone asks me, why did i write the book, i said i wrote the book for the underdogs in the world, for people who say no you can't, you're not worthy, it's not your time, because i heard that most of my life, and my story says, yeah, you are. because if i can make it, lord knows anyone can make it. i was thinking about -- i've been asked the question, why did

you write the book and i was making notes today and when i try to abbreviate the title "step out on nothing" i realized for the first time that step out on nothing is soon. 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, i'm going to finish up and answer questions and i'll read some more of the book if you'd like. i met a girl the other day in baltimore, i was in baltimore a few days ago, at a charter school, 12-year-old girl, i won't give you her name and you'll understand why shortly, 12-year-old girl, sixth grade, about this tall, she looks like she's more about 7, thin, clothes were a little soiled it appeared, coke bottle glasses, big smile. she goes to a charter school,

one of the top charter schools in baltimore. she's considered one of the lucky kids be. at her school in baltimore, one of america's great cities, my hometown, 67% of the students at that school come from no parent households. i had never even heard the phrase before. no parent households. that meant they don't live with their biological mother or father, they live in foster care, with grandparents, with an aunt or uncle, with a friend, or whatever. 67% of these kids, no parent households. i thought i had it tough being raised by a single parent. can you imagine, there are a generation of our children who are being raised without either parent. so this girl goes to this school, she is in foster care, and we'd actually met a few years prior, because she went to my old catholic school, st. cat rips, i -- st. katherine's, i met her, her counselor at

st. katherine's is a black nun named sister clarice, and i talked about sister clarice in my book, i had a crush on sister clarice, because she is the finest nun i had ever seen and she asked me, how did you have a crush on sister clarice, and i said because she is mean and old and i was like, baby, she wasn't mean or old 30 years ago when i knew her, so this little girl aniknow, in sixth grade, i talko kids in her classroom and of a wards i'm talking to people and stuff and the little girl walks over to me, stands very politely, waits until i'm done talking to the adults, waits until i'm done talking to some of the upper class people at her school and this is what this little girl asks 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 with the world hurts too much? all of us 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 that one, all of us have struggles and all us on some level have some measure of responsibility to step out on nothing for someone else. that all of us have a story of someone who stepped out on nothing for us. and so 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, because she was asking for herself, it wasn't a philosophical question, it wasn't, you know, a question for -- this is a 12-year-old child talking to a man who had talked about his struggles in

baltimore and talked about violence and talked about being sad and angry and feeling isolated. she said, where do you go, basically what she was saying was 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, it's well written, but i want us, as a community of faith, and people in general, to be able to answer that girl's question. because she's not alone. there are thousands of young people across our country, seniors across our country, middle aged people across our country, who are asking that 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 have applied to me, if had my mother

and so many good people in my life not stepped out on nothing. in the balto, my hometown. it's -- in baltimore, my hometown, it's estimated that one-third of children in baltimore have witnessed a murder. that 70% of the children in baltimore, baltimore city, have experienced an assault. not just saw it, but experienced an asatellite. 50% of black boys in baltimore don't graduate from high school. it's estimated that 70% of the people incarcerated in hour country are functionally illiterate. that would be my story. if not for recognize 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] [applause] >> ok. thank you. thank you so much. thank you. you know, -- thank you very much. thank you. as a journalist, it's -- as a journalist, it's my job to ask people questions. but this is a wonderful opportunity for me to answer your questions, so if anyone has a question, please go to the microphone and i'll be happy to answer your question. yes, ma'am, please come on up and please give your name. >> my name is charlotte gillette and i'm a member here at st. paul's. first, i would like to make a staple. your book has fed me spiritually. >> thank you. >> it has been food for my soul. my question, i was reading your -- part of your journey as

a war correspondence. -- correspondent and all that you were going through and all that you were seeing, and being in harm's way. why did you go back? >> thank you. well, as i mentioned earlier, i'm slow. i don't grasp things as quickly as i should. i was certainly raised to believe, to those who much is given, much is required, that i am so blessed to be given the opportunities i've been given, you know, with overcoming issues of lift racy and speech, the fact that i get paid now basically to read and speak out loud, right, it's amazing, but also, i think, i feel so fortunate to be a citizen in 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 struggle basically, and -- right. you all know, i know struggle. whether it's a struggle for power, the war in iraq and afghanistan, the struggle for survival, hurricane katrina, the tsunami in indonesia. one of the things i was clear about as a child because of issues with literacy and speech and mom struggling financially to raise her kids, is how people can dismiss you. how you can be seen as cast aside, your opinion doesn't matter. so i knew as a child what it felt like to be voiceless, not to matter, and now as a journalist, i have the opportunity to give voice to the voiceless. that's a big reason why i go, because it's important. journalists, you know, i work for cbs news, legendary journalists and every journalist

worth his salt at my network, when the nation calls, you answer. we have now, i think about 68,000 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 signed up to do, that's what i'm here to do, and i decided in writing this book that i am -- i have two basic gifts. i don't have a lot of things, and you know, all of us have something, like why are you here. i'm here because i believe, i love to tell stories and i love to encourage people, so with the book, i get to encourage people panned as a journalist, i get to tell the stories of young people, so that's why i go. and also, i'll read you one thing from the book about what sort of sustains perspectives with i go. next question. ok. executive producer says i should go ahead to the next question and read later. thank you for that question. >> byron, i don't have a question, but i would like to

make a comment. i'm alice and i have been a member of st. paul's for three years, i want to say thank god for his blessings in giving you and your mother the victory, because i certainly feel you have the victory and i want to thank him for giving you the desire to share your story with us, because looking at you, and seeing where you are as such a success story, no one as the children say would have ever thought it. so i want to thank you for the courage and i also want to say that 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 to do our best to be those good people and others that were good to you. thank you. >> thank you so much. other questions? yes, ma'am. >> my name is selene spivey, i

am just full of admiration for you. my question is, of a the completion of the book, was 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. like i said, i'm not that bright. one of the things -- one of the great things i loved about being raised in church, my mother would take us to revival all of the time, i think in part because it was one night she didn't have to cook dinner, because we were all at church at revival, but also, my mother knew that there was great power in hearing someone's testimony.

that to hear -- for one thing, oh, somebody has it worse than i do when people would give their testimony about something, but also to hear the strength people have on the other side of their difficulties, so i think in many ways, the book for me is like a church revival testimony, in hoping that it touches somebody, and one of the things i'm clear about as a journalist, when you write day-to-day for 60 minutes or cbs, once you write it and let it go, people will interpret it any way you want. like people have talked to me about the last chapter in the book is about 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 square that you see now that i wear all the time. now, my wife will tell you i'm not fashion forward at all. our children will tell you i'm not cool at all. it just so happens that i'm wearing something that happens to be semi in style.

the reason i wear a pocket square, when i got to the network and i don't talk to my father very often when i was growing up, my father was a meat cutter, always dressed nice to go to work an one of the images in physicians i head of my father wearing a sports coat with a pocket square in his jacket, and so when i got to the network, i decided i'm going to start wearing a pocket square, because maybe my father will see me on tv aft some point and -- he toes what i look like and knows my name, but see the connection. the people who know me, my mother thinks, i have relatives who think i look like my father, but i also wear it because i tap it, just before i go on television, everyone has like something you do if you're a golfer, something you do before you hit the ball or whatever. if you bake, you bake if a certain order. well the order if which i do television, one of the last things i do is i touch this, not just to make sure it's straight, but i touch it because it reminds me of where i come from, it reminds me of this father, it

reminds me of this man who i still wish loved me the way i wanted to be loved, and it also reminds me of the man i don't want to be like, now a therapist could have a day long session with that. but for me, learning to read, learning to manage my stutter was easier to read than forgiving my father. i learned to read while i was in college but i didn't forgive my father until i was 46 years old. so in the last chapter of the book, i talk about forgiving my father and how that came about. maybe i'm read it to you later. anyway, i was aft ohio state university several weeks ago, talking to a group of students, black men, students at ohio state university and the book covers a bunch of things, all those 18, 19, 20, 21-year-old young brilliant men wanted to talk about was their fathers.

and the bitter relationships they had with their father. some lived with their dads, some didn't live with mile an hour fathers. the school i was at in baltimore the other day, there was a boy, 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 birthday with his father, so for this child, the most painful day of his life is his birthday every day. because it reminds him of his father. where will that anger and hurt go? if we people don't intervene to help this child? so anyway, so when i wrote the book, it's for young men, certainly have those struggles. it's for single mothers who are raising their child as best they can. it's for the young -- you know, the young woman in high school, the young professional, who is thinking about changing careers, they're frustrated, they're not making a difference. say, yeah, you are. that each of us has something

that we have to give, that not only just to give it, but someone needs it and we have to give it. other questions. >> good of afternoon. my name is paula white bradley and i am the founder of newark legacy charter school, it's a school that will open in august of 2010. it's a very excited thing for me, but as i listen toker story and as i read this book, one of the things that's so important is that it spoke to me, certainly as a woman, as a person who's in the world and who has experienced struggle, but as an educator, it really spoke to me as well, because i've taught, you know, students who are growing beards and cannot read and it's certainly a humbling experience, and so i was wondering, if -- you mentioned all of the constituencies, that kind of can get something from this book. and when i at this about your teachers, -- think about your teachers, an certainly they're not to blame necessarily, because there were struggles and we've come a long way in

education and so on, but if you can 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 message be? >> you know, that's a great question. the short answer is, i don't know, but i mr. say this. there's an organization called the national center for family literacy and they are committed to helping schools, educators, provide resources to support and training to help teachers, who specialize in those areas. as you know, in the late 1960's and 1970's, with i had my issues, there weren't the resources available, but today there are resources available, at the grade school level, middle school level, even college to help people. so i would say reach out to those places that you can connect with that can help you. i also, in talking to people about using, making better

utilization of the faith based community, churches, synagogues, you have people horcommitted. for instance, in our church, there's no reason why a child should be hungry in essex county, because we have women in this church who love to cook, who are great cooks. hi, honey. that we can utilize. we have educators in hour church, retired, people in law enforcement, who can go in, maybe so educators can reach out to the faith based communities in their cities, because we saw the strength of the faith based community during hurricane katrina and how our church and a number of churches across the country responded to the needs of people there: one of the things i know in working with ncfl, they tell us things like for instance, it's estimated that a child of the wealthy,

they've heard 20 million more words than the child of middle class parents, working class parents, by the age of 7. that same wealthy child has heard 35 million more words than a child of a poor family by the time they're 7. so what if teachers will call up the faith based communities in thirsties, say you know what, 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 folk in church have to say, ok, i'm not going to get my manicure-pedicure today, i'll do it later in the week, i'm not going to hit a bucket of golf balls, i'll go and spend some time. so there's a better way to use the resources around us. teachers do a phenomenal job. it says something about our society as we all know, that we throw money at professional athletes and entertainers an the people who have our children and

our future don't provide them with the resources they need. but thank you for what you do, ma'am. >> hi, mr. pitts. how are you doing? i'm an instructional school coach and we're a nationwide organization that's creating schools to help our kids who are overaged, unacontracted, aspire 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 and now a man of triumph of, what advice would you give them to be resilient in these times? cliek cliek if you work

pray and treat people right good things will happen. being respectful of all things -- i think it was yogi berra who said dance with the ones that are good to you. nothing beats working hard. nothing beats working hard. the it's the only straight line of success that i know. pray hard is what i was raised to do and treat people right. 'cause what i found is -- if you're just holding on, doing what you're supposed to go going

forward, the people who come in to your life. for half of my professional life, you're always told in the professional world to find mentors. people who will nurture your career along. i couldn't find a mentor in the first 15 years of my life. i'd look, nothing. but what i eventually discovered and what i seen in my life 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 i've discovered in working in this book is the word "grace." grace. one of the definitions in the dictionary is unmerited gifts from god. oh, 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 who will help you. if you continue to do things that you're supposed to. a few more questions. one more question.

no? okay. i was told to wrap it up. [laughter] >> oh, we do have one more question. >> hello. first i would like to say congratulations. >> thank you. >> i'm george pentner and i'm from new orleans, louisiana. the things you spoke in your book is great. i got a lot of times on my hands. i wonder if i could write one. my question is, did you have help writing your book? >> oh, yeah. i had lots of help. i had the ultimate help. my lovely wife, lynn, was a tremendous help, in helping me work on the book. she was a great editor.

she would have me write for a bit. she would say say more of that, less of that. i don't care much about your high school girlfriend. [applause] >> thank you. >> turn off espn. get back to work. [laughter] >> she would do that. so again i want to thank you so very much for coming out today. i'm going to sign books. i'm happy to sign books. i'll be here as necessary to sign them. i also want to say one more final thing about this great church and how much you met to my life, life of my family. there's a story i tell in the book -- i won't read to you. but it's a book about st. paul. and i was asked earlier why do i go to the places i go. as a journalist that's my job. my blackberry says go to north korea i will. i don't take risks. i have colleagues at cbs news who have been killed in iraq.