i don't think that responding to the historical injustice through the use of force and occupation is in the long term productive for the state of israel itself yet at the same time as adamantly oppose and there are those within the arab world that call for the destruction of the state of israel most states including our own have spent a lifetime in pine ridge on the historical injustices but i think we have to work out only as we are being wanted to as a combination people can live in dignity. ..

the weather is just horrible. a full moon here in the fairhope. assaulted driving in. the sunset is gorgeous. a wonderful town, and i'm glad to be here. commercial. [laughter] but i'll tell you, you are danny takes because this is the first speech i have given on ronald reagan. i got four books out right now all at the same time. about to drive me crazy. i can figure out from one day to the next woman supposed to be doing.

anyway, i made some notes on reagan in case i open my mouth and nothing comes out. at least have something here. you know, the reason i wrote this book, and i was a process so write it, the reason i expected that -- accepted this inquiry is because i realized about two or three years ago my daughter, ten or 11 or something at the time. there weren't teaching modern prisons, contemporary politics at all. in any school. and yet i realize that politics is all around us. every day these kids are getting a big dose of politics, and they don't really have the tools. no one had ever written and young adult book about ronald reagan. i think maybe there are a few about some of the other presidents, but i thought, well,

maybe i'll start a trend here. i selected reagan because i think he was the most interesting of those contemporary presidents going back to john kennedy. because of both his childhood and -- a movie star for heaven's sake. i like to read about movie stars. but i have met every president since kennedy, i think. i didn't beat kennedy. but since then i was a reporter in washington for seniors. i met johnson, nixon, ford. i knew ford when he was in the house. actually, i met carter in an interesting way. i came into york from my place out in the hamptons. i came in sunday night as i usually and stopped out that when just rant and had dinner. i stopped off there. proceeded to what we call the

family table which is divorcees embezzlers and wayward husbands and so on. [laughter] and alain came over. in the back of the room, and he once talked to you. i set out get there shortly. she said to know, he really wants to come back there. went back in the back of the room. and a guy stood up. he had on it jimmy carter mask. i looked closer and it was jimmy carter. it turns out the white man, big publisher of doubleday during his biography seems to have done a number. but anyway, the first george bush, used to play tennis with him years ago. a new young george, when he worked back in the 60's, early

70's. in any case i thought reagan, the sky came out of nowhere. he came from all low poor midwestern town. it was so poor he didn't even know he was poor and so they get to college. his father was a drunkard, and his mother took in laundry. they got by. the first instance of his determination i detected and all of the days that i read about them was when he decided he was going to play high-school football. he weighed 90 pounds. he was christ.

big boy and being president. but it tells you something about the guys personality and his drive. and he got to college. tell little tiny college called eureka. illinois. handing played football and waiting on tables and washing dishes. he get through this school with pretty good grades. major in economics. he spent the time that he wasn't playing football, but in student politics he was the chairman or president of the student government association. the active in all the place. he enjoyed acting. he graduated in 1932 just in time for the worst part of the great depression.

no jobs. ami, you think this last in 2008 was bad, this was really serious. he bother to supply enough, they have a possibility of a job at montgomery ward. the grace to cut -- chicago store. he couldn't get the job. tell a different career path. but he got out of eureka and is trying to figure out what he wants to do. he was to be an actor, but there's no way he's going to be an actor. so he finds a job at a tiny little radio station, a sportscaster of things. the way he got the job was this house and said, okay, look at here. when you to give me five minutes

, where every one of sports and make interesting, like you're talking on the radio. so he thinks and okay. so he gave him that it. but the microphone in his mouth and there he goes. he's wonderful. the get the job. it started off. and then he wound up being the voice of the chicago cubs of all things. he did very, very well in the midwest as a sportscaster. one of the great stories was the one point he was broadcasting. extremely cheap during the depression. sending broadcasters out to travel with the team to all these different games. so what they do was, the pool guy, going to the games, and he would telegraph all of the

various radio stations will was going on with the game said that they had reagan, the sportscasters during a nice little play-by-play. well until one day after then they're playing cincinnati reds. the telegraph went dead. it is the ninth inning. the score is tied to something. a big better coming up. dizzy as the pitcher. and he calls a foul ball. the ball goes into the stands. they start fighting over it. he just scratches the play. another foul ball. he waits for the danielle side of the booths. he keystone with the pop -- foul

ball for seven minutes. he's calling these files. the telegraph comes through. the guy popped up. kind of with that the man had. he seemed blessed with some sort of star that shines bright upon him. the guide that own the cardinals, they own an island. this things up in los angeles. and they took the team there for spring training. west hollywood. reagan is there for spring training. this groan from eureka. she has a job as, i don't know, a dancer is something in the movies. he asks about it. she directs into an agent.

agent takes a look at him and says, welcome a tryout. we will send you over to the mgm there he went. they put him in a movie player radio announcer, a sportscaster of all things. they just happen to have that. there he was. he wanted to change his name. that's an awful mint. he said, look, i know which you know about me, but i'm pretty well known. why lose that. everybody knows my name. he got to keep his name. people made fun of him. ill-advised, but i watched it. it's not a bad show. a good little comedy. mix the garlic like a fool, but when you looked at things like kings road, these are a movie. these are very, very good movie. this guy was a very good actor. he was pals with a lot of good actors. william holden me and john

wayne, all these guys. big stars. so he was doing well in the movie business until world war to break south. but what he had done was, because the lead. he never had a change. money ride horses, you know, when he was in college. so they had a program. and it was an rotc. trading school. the united states cavalry. the best horses in the world. one weekend a month. they come to war. now what. the cavalry, they became the armor. look like he was going overseas. so bad that the mix that and said to that to leave the united states. the figure that he was and put in in the division.

he went from san francisco and collected all of these technical guys. they would build replicas of tokyo or cities in japan that they were going to bomb and bring the pilots and and let them -- these were actual -- bigger than this room. exact replicas of these cities so that they could see in three dimensions of their looking at. he did well at this. he went back into the movie business in 1945 when the war was over. he changed a lot. the studio system, this year ran everything. they told the director was so he was going to do. it began to change. and it did not work as well for ronald reagan because of these

other guys had stayed. they had not gone to war. they became the new movie stars. reagan did become the head of the screen actors guild. a union out there. every craft known to man has a union in the movie business. i mean, the people that put in fans. but that was about the time when the communists were trying to infiltrate hollywood because they thought it would be a great propaganda. acting kraft is always a little bit to the left. i mean it became big-time to the left in the 1920's and 30's because -- and the hope on not getting too far down a side

track, but the group there in new york sent a lot of these actors over the moscow to be trained because it was free. you know, the state did all the training. while there were trading to be actors, turning to be communists. they came back and there were communists. they migrated from the group there in manhattan at to the movie business in hollywood in the 1920's and 1930's. by the time reagan became president of the screen actors guild it was just about taken over by hard-line communists. some of the well-known actress. mostly -- i mean, what they did was the big time actors insist they did use. and so then neglected this business, the screen actors guild. and so anyway, this was about

the time not mccarthy, but the congressional -- there you go. i needed that. the america -- unamerican activities committee was holding its hearing. so it was a great big. what reagan did to get rid of the communist influence, he said, he testified, we don't need to outlaw it. or not outline communism. we can get rid of it democratically. he got all of the old time actors, the big time actress and her normally just didn't go to come in and vote. they voted the communists out. that was, i think, the beginning of his conversion from being a democrat to becoming a republican. reagan had been placed -- raises a democrat all his life. his father was an irishman.

as close as he came really, to respectability working for the government and during the roosevelt administration. so reagan had been raised as a democrat. he became employed by general electric. you remember the old sea. sunday night. they get reagan to go around and make speeches to all of the factories because it was huge corporation back in as it yesterday. bigger even then. so he spoke against communism. he suddenly realized that there was a great force out there that was against him. not necessarily for communism, but he was a conservative and they were liberals. so the tension grew. one day he was in a lecture hall delivering a speech. a woman said to him from the

back of the room, when are you going to become a republican. he said, well, i think that probably ought to. i've just never got around to it. >> i'm a registrar, and all register your right now. there he was. his famous statement about that was that i didn't leave at the democratic party. the democratic party left me. then and so his acting courbet and is speaking career kind of naturally morphed into a political career. he was approached by these important people who approached him. unimportant people don't approach. you're crazy. i'm an actor. and so reagan said, all right,

i'll run for governor. he rant -- he ran against brown. they accused him of wearing a lot of makeup. the only reason he's any good on the tv and in these debates is because -- well, reagan, he didn't wear makeup. first day he got to hollywood the public upon and it made him what funny. he had good skin to start with. so he was. all these comments and in newspapers about him wearing makeup. he turned on all these lights, and everybody including the interviewers and everybody else including governor brown, all this pancake makeup. i don't have any make upon. this was a huge political coup. they play it over and over. he did well i think is a governor. he spent too much money.

the suppression, you play along to go longer some business like that. you have to do that in politics if you want to do things. what you want to do, he won a tough ease the state's debt he did succeed. he did a lot of other good things. one of the stories that is to laburnum, he got in the office in 1967 which is the year i got back from vietnam. there were all these demonstrations going on at berkeley. of course he was the governor. the big university system out there in california. he went to berkeley to me with some of these people. he got some of the matter room, the leaders. finally after they settle down enough to wear one gusts of the speed.

said governor reagan, we don't think it's going to understand a settlement. let me say something, my generation is the one that invented those things staff. the big question was bob, would you be interested in running for president. he thought there were insane. he said the i'm ready to retire. because they had -- nixon had made a disgrace himself. gerald ford, an extremely nice man commission the right to

distinguish itself in the office . reagan probably ill-advised lee ran against -- in the primary ran against a sitting president and lost. jimmy carter did elected. al on. inflation was so bad. i was living in new york then. the big supermarket. they get to buy groceries. there were any prices and a thing. he had to go to the checkout,. prices are going up so fast. of what. to get a loan it was like 19 to 20%. you get 19% interest in a money-market fund which is a better feel a lot of money. most people don't have that kind of money.

it was killing the country. of the economy. at the same time the russians were scary a lot of trouble, the soviets with all these threats, trying to expand and it's a caribbean and south america, africa, some very serious nuclear problems that have not been resolved. anyway, ron reagan ran against jimmy carter and he run -- c-span2. that famous there you go again line on the debates. and inherited the situation. he was the chairman to try what was then called supply-side economics, which are not going to get into. it was trickle-down.

an ugly word to say, but get the regulations. he knew was going to take a while, and it did. of course when the gunmen the yell of flak. -- he got a lot of flak from the democrats and liberals. one knew pretty well, he was a fixture with the democratic establishment from way back in world war two peace treaty called reagan in amiable dunce. i worked with jimmy bradley. scene now. he was money mitchell is stupider something like that. kind of a field day. and everything did, they would criticize. he likes to eat chili beans, and he always kept a jar jellybeans. some psychologists.

what coachella deasy was easy to see with vacancy was. but the thing about reagan was he didn't care. it bounced right off of them. sam donaldson -- sam donaldson, always shouting at him. make like he couldn't hear. right in this year. donaldson, it would drive him crazy. reagan, he was a man of good cheer. he was determined when he got in that office to do some things that he saw or both important and necessary. the economy, that to care itself when he left office and to stretch her back to normal, the economy was roaring. the unemployment had gone back to normal, whenever it is.

but i think his biggest success was in his foreign policy. i'm not going to get into the caribbean stuff, but his dealings with the soviets, he faced them down. these were some serious situations. they had 3600 great big warhead missiles pointing at this country. we would have been destroyed. and from the cold war days on, right after world war two there was a policy, probably a decade of what they called containment. i was part of that. we were trying to contain the soviets expansion, the communist expansion, vietnam was part of that. and various other places. and then that's sort of morphed over with henry kissinger tow

policy of peaceful coexistence when nixon got and. going to try to be friends with the communists. and reagan thought that, i want to kill. those people, they treat the people like barnyard animals. people who live under communism live like slaves. he doesn't like it. he made a moral value judgment that he was supposed to make, but he made it. and so he said -- here was his initial problem. all these old guys, whenever it was, everyone, he kept these guys radius of. and finally he got gorbachev. gorbachev was a lawyer, well educated. these other guys educating, and

reasonable. reagan got a lot of flak because he came back from iceland to where you is supposed to have a big arms talk to get rid of some of these missiles. gorbachev let al wouldn't do it. well, reagan had from the very beginning when out and made a visit the first year to some place, some mountain out in nevada, idaho or someplace, a big central control, all the buttons the press to blow the world. here is this guy, colonel a general. what are our defenses? we don't have any. what? no. i mean, we can't do it. what you mean?

he said furthermore the soviets decide on a first-rate they would not got every one of our missiles before they left. the first truck was going to kill everybody. and reagan got out to berkeley where he had connections from being governor and talk to these. we have to get something going here. star wars they called it. it should have worked. they kept on doing it. terrify the russians, the soviets because they didn't have the money to do that. this was enormously expensive proposition to set up all these huge space stations and satellites. she down missiles when they interspace. and so this was the enormous bargaining tool that reagan had. gorbachev, every time they had a meeting he would say, well, we're willing do away with this

number of missiles, but you have to the do away with the star were staying. we can't have that. and give it to you. once we get it finished at would give it to you so now we can shoot missiles at anybody else. how about that? fair enough? no, they didn't want that. and as a result the soviets stewed. they grieved and the grumbled. and then reagan win over in 1985 to berlin where was the berlin wall. he made a great speech. he had made friends with gorbachev, he thought. he thought that they talked to each other. he still was determined, at this speech, his own state department was horrified that he would say

such a thing. he got up and pointed and said, mr. gorbachev, if you want peace in the world tear down this wall . and the german-speaking, oh, mr. gorbachev, on the other side of the wall, ray is going to be gone tomorrow. everybody was stunned. but suddenly this became -- the german people on both sides of the wall. and gorbachev new committee was having truck -- cavan problems. he started easing control. these controls. the people took power. suddenly saw the whole eastern bloc of the soviet union began to crumble. reagan was out of office by this point by about a year. he started this, i think. you could make the case for one single individual who brought soviet communism in the east down it would be ronald reagan.

he actually, after the thing, after the satellite countries, czechoslovakia, poland, every, east germany, he went to visit moscow. he went to see gorbachev. reagan made a speech to the great law school there. and he talked to these guys. they had never heard anybody talk about democracy and freedom it was against the law, but he did it. and he was cheered. and so that was his legacy, i think, that the was a lot smarter than anybody give him credit for. one of the things that i found, the president is using speechwriters. they do to some extent. he did. but reagan rode his own speeches

. and have the books with his own handwriting in them. he kept a diary. since james pope, but maybe somebody did. reagan kept a diary which was a stir inarticulate. and he wrote letters, and they're collected. i was just fascinated by the turn of this guy's mind. he was so clear and so smart. he was in a brilliant guy. he was basically a meat and potatoes guy, like to ride horses and had a big ranch and in california he love to get to weigh up in the mountains. santa monica, not santa monica, santa barbara. this guy was -- i mean, one of the things he did, tell the story. the press would always go with the big telescopic cameras, a

costa and thousand dollars for the lens. they trained on his little rant ser. all day long, just to see what would happen so they could report something. he goes out. he knows they're there. so suddenly, they go crazy. he gets that way. he smiles. [laughter] what i thought i would to year, i hate reading things. coming to a reading. read something. let you read it. i need your read it. but the last couple of pages of this book that i wrote sums up, i think, what reagan was and what he did.

i can see. make the type probate. about a page and a half in the book. but he passed away of alzheimer's disease. he made -- he wrote a note. he explained what was going to happen to them. he basically had a good time. he thank everybody for their kindness. even thanks sam donaldson. but he did. june 3rd 2005, ronald reagan passed away at his home in bel-air, california. he was 93 years old. on june 9th his body was flown to washington d.c. the rotunda of the u.s. capitol where 1,104,684 mourners feuded on june 11th. the funeral service was held at

the national cathedral, attended by many of the world's greatest leaders, including his old adversary from the killed gorbachev. he was buried in california at the ronald reagan presidential library. on his gravestone are inscribed words from a speech he delivered to the dedication of library. i know in my heart that man is good. what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life. during his political career reagan was disliked and even reviled by most of the intelligentsia, the mainstream media as it is come to be known. today there are still those who belittle his role and russia's

decision to stop putting in a clear the missiles at the that states and the failure of soviet communism, but there are many others to remember reagan finally and briefly, mainly from his record of 34 television network addresses to the american people. what these americans were called the matter what their politics or is was a man of great bearing, straight talk, full of good humor and good will. he was a cheerful president no matter what came his way. there were times he could be angry as he shared in the speeches of a corporate just behavior at the arms conference and the russian korean airline. reagan had a clear sense of right and wrong which infuriated many of the leading academics and intellectuals and establishment journalists.

most of them still remain convinced that applying such moral convictions to political problems is to be judgmental and simplistic, even dangerous. in contrast reagan truly believe that he understood will was right and go was wrong as seaside. above all else reagan was an american original. he had his are breaks in this tramps. he had come along way. the president of the screen actors guild, california governor president of the united states. it was all because he did get that job back in 1932. that was the way he saw it.

if you ever visit the reagan library in simi valley, california, you notice a large concrete slab monolith. the entrance. on this side that faces west and is painted in colorful. that is an actual 6,338 pounds jog of the berlin wall by the citizens of germany as a symbol of reagan's tear down the wall speech.

reagan said let our children and grandchildren come here to see this wall and reflect on what it meant to history. let them understand that only the angeles and strength will deter tyranny. and each year they come by the tens of thousands. schoolchildren. they read the words. they look out over the valley where his grave lies close by. a little to the right, and most fittingly also facing west. the end of this book and the story. have to buy. [laughter] you have been a great group, guinea pigs. i think you all for coming so much. we consign some bucks if you like. [applause] >> this event was hosted by page & pallete bookstore in fairhope,

alabama. to find out more and visit page & pallete dot com. >> book tv has over 150,000 twitter followers. follow book tv on twitter to get publishing news and scheduling of dates, of the information and talk directly with of this during our live programming. twitter.com/booktv. his most recent book is blue-collar intellectual. what does that tell me? >> blue-collar intellectual is that the group comes from a working-class or an immigrant background. when the become an authority rather than to simply address of eds they make an attempt to resell to the everyman class from which they came. and so i think nowadays when you look at intellectuals a lot of them speak in a jargon that very few people understand. the right books that nobody

reads. blue-collar intellectuals is about our intellectuals at a time in america were a special start to open about conversation when the everyman tried to reach some the higher rather than drag his arms lower. >> give us an example. >> sure. a good example of the blue-collar intellectual would be a guy like eric clapper. he was known as the longshoremen falloffs -- philosopher. by day he was out letting cargo off ships in san francisco. by night he was writing a book which became one of the best books of the 20th-century to understanding the 20th-century, and that was the true believer. men have never heard of eric had it not been for an american general stationed in france in 1951 he came back to the united states in 52, got elected president, and because everyone always wants to rebut the president is reading, everyone wanted to read eric clappers the to believe it. so it's one of these only in america stories where a guy who

is sprung from anonymity, working on the docks in san francisco as a blue-collar worker, said he becomes an intellectual that everyone wants to know what he's thinking. >> where did you get the idea for this book? >> when i travel and promote my books i notice that people's behavior has changed. this is particularly when i'm in airport lounges. tv's glaring everywhere. you can be along with your own thoughts. when you're on trains, people used to read on trains to magazines, books, newspapers. now they play with gadgets. they're testing each other, playing with video games. so i wanted to capture a time in america where there was a real yearning among normal people for something higher. our leisure time was in such a waste of time. i hope that in the book i inspire people to maybe get away from the screens and start opening up a book.

it's book tv. that's what they're supposed to be doing. open a book once a while. >> this is your fourth book. do you write for a living or is this a second job? >> unfortunately i do ride for a living. so i made a decision about seven or eight years ago that was going to do this full time and make a lot less money. but how it is a lot more rewarding. and, you know, hopefully i can keep it going. >> your other books include intellectual moron and a conservative history of the american left. what are your politics? >> i'm a conservative. this book is not a conservative but personate. it's about a half-dozen blue color intellectuals ranging from people like will and ariel durant to our lifetime socialist to a guy like milton friedman who is, you know, a hard-core libertarian who would feel comfortable in a place like the conservative political action conference. the common denominator is that they all come from a blue-collar

background and they all at least part of their intellectual work try to address the blue-collar background. think of a guy like milton friedman it when he was growing up lived above his family's as cream parlor, came down, scooped ice cream, salt fireworks by the side of the road, got a state scholarship directors. he was waiting tables, not for a wage but for a free meal during the height of the depression. and at rutgers true to his entrepreneurial philosophy he was going door-to-door selling easily green ties and white socks that the student at rutgers in those days had to wear. my point there is that it helps. your economy, your economics will work if you have worked in the past. i would compare a guy like free men to someone like john maynard keynes, the other huge economist in the 20th-century. he comes from -- his dad was a professor. his mom was a professional do better. he -- you know, cavorted with this free-wheeling free love

click in the 1920's. really never worked outside of academia our government. and so my sense is if you live up in the ether your feelings a going to be from the the. milton friedman was someone his economics work because he worked. he worked in the real world, and so he put forward real-world economics. the people that i've read about in the book, because they come from a background that people can relate to, my sense is that they can relate to people better. >> we have been talking here on book tv with dana flynn, his most recent book, blue-collar intellectuals from the enlightened and the everyman elevated america. >> here is a list of books being released by publishes this week. former pennsylvania senator arlen specter recounts the political debate that led to his switch in political party in life among the cannibals to my political career, tea party uprising, and the end of governing as we know it. interest the i'm wearing

american military power, rachael now, most of msn b.c. region and no-show by using is the current size american national security and believes the u.s. is in the state of perpetual war. senior editor of national review princess history of the nobel peace prize. a history of the nobel peace prize. the most famous and controversial prize in the world . in escape from camp 14, one man's remarkable odyssey from north korea to freedom in the west. reports on one man's life in seven north korean political prison camp and his eventual escape. director of the institute for middle east studies at george washington university argues that the biggest changes as a result of the hairspring had yet to be seen. the arab uprising, the unfinished revolutions of the middle east. in the hunt for ksm, and said the pursuit and takedown of the real september 11th mastermind .

recalling the search and capture of a global terrorist. but look for these titles in bookstores this coming weekend watch for the authors in the near future on book tv. >> said that i would just talk little bit briefly above why this story intrigued me so much, a little bit about the reporting process and bring it forward to today because i think that's what intrigues me and then just open the door to -- the florida questions. first of all, i am sadly not the holy cross grad, which is somebody that just naturally that i must be an alumnus of the school to know the story. the way i came across a story was stand grayson, we were just having a lunch, and it was the same day that ted wells was a front-page story in the new york times. he was representing scooter libya at the time, going way back. and he started to talk about his classmate, the other black classmates, he started to talk

about father brooks. i was intrigued. i was parliamentary to because clarence thomas n. was one of those classmates. i have not read much about the interaction between justice thomas and father brooks. that's just got be intrigued. i am a business journalist. not a classic business story, but i am always interested in and mentoring. it took quite a while to get justice thomas to speak with me because he did not necessarily trust the agenda that i had which was, i would like, in fact , to talk about 1968, '69, '70, those years. and what amazed me was when i did go in to see him for the debt the passion that he had from across, the feelings and emotions he had about father brooks. i'm not sure who was that his presentation last week when he got his honorary degree. that came up again.

when you can track how he feels about holy cross verses what he has said about his experience at yale, there is a profound difference, and that think one of the big differences with his classmates, and it was the way he felt treated at the college and certainly the way he felt treated by far the brooks. and so i basically just set out to do an article. i decided that it was, in fact, grounds for a buck. i have to say, this being my first book project i went on all sorts of directions that ultimately did not work. one of which was lots of history of the jesuits, publishers said no, and that is -- a lot of the history which took me awhile to pronounce, like everybody else who is now from the area, now were chester, worst air. and ultimately it came down to the story of these five men and father brooks. one thing it meant was unfortunately i also, a lot of the people i talk to my head to

the minister rose in the book. i had to take names out because, again to my editors said, you know what, i'm getting confused keeping track of all these people. focus on these men. focus on the paternity before and. use that as the microcosm for what they experienced at holy cross and will was being experienced, you know, across the country at that time. i think that there were a couple of things that i tried to be careful not to do. one was heightened the drama to mush and dialogue. that was important to me that whole across was both special and unique, but it was a microcosm of what was happening in the country at that time. i am not american. i actually grew up in scotland. i am half catholic. a very handy name when you are reporting. i was always intrigued. i was born in the late 60's.

i never really fully understood the emotions of the time. the book opens right after dr. martin luther king has been killed. also a father brooks intrigues me as somebody who was a pioneer who went out there and basically circumvented the admissions process. he was very controversial. a very strong-willed man. basically went out in a car, and drove to the school personally interviewed a lot of these men -- an eye-popping? there. and can everybody still hear me? probably better.

and then sat in the copy shop one night and decided who was going to get in, the two of them. then he presented a bill to the president of the time, $80,000 which for a college that had about a million dollars in endowments was quite a cost to bear. so what he was looking 45i asked him how you decide, anybody who is apparent from the room knows that intelligence is not necessarily something that is a hallmark of success. does not necessarily lead to success. when you talk to father brooks he was looking for qualities, looking for drive, looking for people who had a work ethic, people who were hoping to reach beyond their grasp, black and white. as you may or may not know he was also fighting at the time to get women into the college. sadly for the class of 72 they did not arrive until the fall of the year. that was after father brooks became president and said he

managed to shake up the trustee board a little bit and get some people on there that did finally pass a resolution to let women into the college. so i think that when i look at this story, and i'll take your questions. i think what really struck me is when i look at today as, first of all, the network. the network of these men. call fraternity because this is not about one man, a priest and a theology professor, later a dean, president to went out to save a group of men. these are men who were highly motivated, highly accomplished to would be given an average into the they would not have to a three years earlier. african-american students at holy cross. it tended to be one or two year. in some cases one. as r. martin would say, come in on the athletic scholarship and a catholic school and that was pretty much said.

this is the first major group became so it was the first time they had critical numbers on campus. so what happened was father brooks and the college never veered on academic standards, all of them had to work as hard, harder in many cases. you know, clarence thomas tended to close down a library at night according to everybody at talk to. but i think where he did make concessions was socially. he understood how difficult it was. he gave them the van. the college pay for a station might in for them to get off campus as often as they could. he paid for them to have a bsu. he allowed them to live together on a black quarter, which was very controversial. we had one of the editors of the crusade at the time, and i remember reading a lot of the

articles that were basically, you know, students there were very upset about this resegregation. but he understood that it was difficult. they made concessions, and when i talk to them, it was the idea that at the very highest levels of the college they understood people cared about their success. they understood that people had faith in them, and they understood that with all the birds there was always an open door. he had the philosophy for the two dozen students who were there. many people here feel very close to him. i'm sorry he's not with us today. he was with us last night, and he was certainly -- he was here last week for the clarence thomas event. but i think that when i talked to him today he just wants leaders. he felt the college was missing out on being the best institution in this country by not reaching out and getting leaders from all parts of society, women, black, white,

asian. holy cross has made great strides in diversity. certainly there has been a very strong generation of leaders of women. i met jane robertson was in the first class and many other women who were pioneers. when i look at today i think one thing that is interesting is there has been a great success, great faith, and in terms of what happens with african-americans, i know ted went on to harvard. some of his classmates there, american express, merck, a lot of highly accomplished man from that generation. but i think there is also a lot of disappointments. and a lot of disappointment at what has happened with the black middle class in this country. what has happened with education and the erosion of opportunity. frankly, i think what also happened in terms of some of the decisions, some of which had been made by justice thomas in terms of, you know, opportunities, affirmative action in such. and a sense that the next wave

for this generation is going to be financial. it's going to be encouraging entrepreneurship. inspired the same generation of leaders that came out. and i think imposing, one thing i want to say is another thanks to the holy cross to unity because one thing that this reporting process has reinforced to me is the strong paternity and that power that this school has had. one of the highest levels of giving, which is amazing, especially for people. we just don't give. the government will do it. holy cross, when i looked -- when i look at the networks that have been formed, the french ship, the power of the cross, as they call it, and the way that people support each other and loved each other across the generations.

i think it's very inspiring. also a testament of how it really happens in this country and everywhere else. i think the support and the love that people have shown forefather brooks two was processed, they have shown for these men and an appreciation for how difficult it was to be pioneers on that campus, i hope it's a story that we will continue to come back to again and again. as a reporter i have to say, given the support i got, i want every story from now want to be based on the holy cross campus. so thank you very much. thank you, again, for supporting the book. i don't think it does justice to that time that these men, but i hope that at least it is a start and that others will come forward and, you know, continue to tell the story. ..