comes along. under his leadership, his urging, congress passed, in 1929, what is known as the judges bill, because all of the judges of the country got behind this effort. they gave the court, for the first time, discretion over its docket. that is the place we are today. we have a supreme court that is capable of and that is set its own agenda. and in doing that, it really sets the legal agenda for the country. >> you can watch this and others online at booktv.org. pulitzer prize winning author, david manus, traveled the globe to research his book, barack obama, the story. visiting places like kenya and kansas to get an idea of the president's family tree. we have coverage of our trip

with the author in january 2010, join us today at 6:00 p.m. eastern, and 7:30 p.m. that same night. your phone calls from e-mails and tweaks for david manus. on c-span 2 booktv. now, trent lott, former policy adviser and speechwriter for president bill clinton, examines the current debate over what constitutes the united states citizenship and ways to reimagine the process. this is about one hour 10 minutes. ..

gregory in his remarkable team in creating the set of for have held the state force but it's up on all you here who decide to show up on a very nice evening that helps give me hope for citizenship. i want to thank our host here. this isn't unusual and lovely setting to be doing a gathering like this here, the petersen automotive museum, and i didn't grow up a total car not, but i have always felt like there was something physically embodied in some of the cars you see around us today of the american spirit. and i think it's rather apt we

should have a conversation tonight about american character, about the meeting and content of our citizenship, knowing we're coming i got to thinking about the ad you might is in that aired first during super bowl during halftime actually, clint eastwood's much noted at for chrysler, halftime in america. the ad which was talking about detroit, about how chrysler in particular picked itself up off the mat, came back and look out world for the second half of course was a parable for the character of the spirit in united states. i think it's quite fitting we be here tonight. i topic this evening is citizenship in america. and the meaning and content of our citizenship. and i want to start actually not high concept but with a simple story. i host a gathering every year in seattle where i live called the guiding lights we can. at the conference in the art of great and creative citizenship. this year one of the things that we did, a real highlight, we

held for the first time at our conference a tramp a nationalization ceremony. so we invited -- we invited 30 immigrants from 70 nations around the world who that afternoon became naturalized citizens of the united states. i don't know how many of you either ever or recently have been to a naturalization ceremony, that if you haven't, go to one. if it's been a while, go to one because there is nothing like it on earth. it's full of bureaucracy. he got the department of homeland security. you've got these cheesy videos they play and everything. as all these things going against it and yet when you get into the most most basic roll calls of nations, represented by this immigrants, you go one by one as they walked down the line and received her certificate and stand before the family and friends and get their photograph taken, one moment not a citizen,

the next moment a citizen, even telling you about not just me shoe bombs. it's a very powerful thing. we had that day after the ceremony itself a speaker who some of you may of heard of, a remarkable woman in her late '80s now named gerda wiseman klein. she was a holocaust survivor. is a young woman during the holocaust. polling ended up in the camps, and her story is one of the most american stories there is. she was liberated from the camps by a man, a g.i. was a man should later in the mirroring and should immigrate to the united states because of this. she ended up living a life that she says she didn't cure cancer, she did when any major prizes. she didn't make a giant fortune. what she did simply was living life in freedom. and to live a life where she understood that freedom not only to be a rate of commission to do

whatever she wanted, but actually a bill of responsibility that she was taking on. and, indeed, quite well into her life she wrote a very famous memoir of her life called all but my life. but later in a much great and called citizenship accounts. it's a simple organization that hosted naturalization sermons all around the country and its conversations going of people who maybe haven't stopped -- maybe haven't thought about as a long time. about what it means to be american, what it means to call ourselves america. i tell you the story about gerta weismann klein not own because she's a remarkable example of what a want to speak about tonight, but because she's actually in some ways the exception that proves the rule. the rule and american life today as we sit here and gather tonight is that most of us most of the time don't think or talk

about citizenship. our conversations in this country about citizenship are rare, thin, polarized politically, and they are devoid of the spiritual political content that when you think about what it is that our framers fought for, successive generations actually fought for, does not of them any justice. one of the things that i think is notable about citizens -- citizenship itself, why i want to talk about tonight is this is not a problem confined just to one side of the political spectrum. nor is it confined to just one sector of american life. the decline of citizenship in the united states is the result of a lot of different forces converging. it's on the one side the market becoming ever more dominant in a way that we think that our lives and they about our identities. so the market tells us that we are but consumers and the things around us are but costs to be reduced.

but on the other side as well is the state, a state that over the course of our lifetimes has encroached tiny little ways where it becomes not a notable thing as happen in seattle a year or two ago, there was an awful violent beating of one teenager by another in a bus tunnel, and film captured to private security guards standing there watching the one teenager beat the other. just standing there. and later when they were asked what he didn't intervene, they said well, that wasn't our job to we are not government employees. we expected the police or someone from government to come in and break this up. that little anecdote bespeaks another trainer which is the way in which so many of us in ways that are often imperceptible have subcontracted our civil responsibilities to the state. so you have this converted force. as a matter of both left and right. the left doesn't particularly

talk these days about american citizenship but i think a lot of friends of mine on the progressive left, if the federal citizenship at all they like to think about it in terms of global citizenship, transcend the nationstate the water you so parochial talk about america? can we get beyond this sort of stuff? and on the right, there is a lot of conversation about citizenship right now but it's often in an exclusionary mean-spirited restrictionist kind of tone. about who gets to claim, about who gets to be barred from it rather than what it actually is. and so the sum of all this is this to read this and deeply satisfying conversation about citizenship. one of the things that's been in the public debate the last couple of years is a plea from someone the right that because of the extent of illegal immigration, because of the existence of come a i put them heavily and end quote, anchor babies, out there, that will be off to do to correct this is to repeal birthright citizenship.

what we got to do is repeal the 14th amendment of the united states constitution which gives to anybody born on american soil citizenship as a matter of right. so this idea that is out there which is to my mind faulted on a constitutional basis and noxious on an ethical one is out there. you look at it and what i decided to do in looking at it was not just get angry that your people out there trying to repeal the constitution or to punish the children of undocumented immigrants. but what i decide to do to a thought experience. let's think about that. let's imagine what if citizenship was not, in fact, a birthright but what if, in fact, just being you didn't guarantee you anything? and what if, in fact, that rule applied not only to immigrants whether document or not, but to every single one of us? what if every single one of us today had to earn our citizenship in some form or fashion?

and simply showing a burst certificate which itself may be question, is not going to be sufficient to greater citizenship. what if? and as a thought experiment it's kind of an interesting thing to contemplate. well, if not birth, then what? if not birth, then perhaps it out to be service. to community into country. perhaps it ought to be some measure of knowledge of what this country is and what it is about. perhaps about a be some measure of contribution to your actual community and society. perhaps it ought not to be a kind of thing that once bestowed is granted for ever but perhaps must left periodically and must be renewed periodically. now our earlier today, it was kind of funny, some of you may for a with a public radio and did a little segment talking about this, and i think lost on many of the callers was that i was doing a thought experiment and --

[laughter] am proposing this in kind of a modest proposal bigger people who are very alarmed that oh, my gosh, this guys out there, he's proposing we all have to earn if citizenship and we have to take a test. by god,, you know, and a rant again. that sounded not the to some colors and that sounded european to other callers. i suppose by that he meant socialist but i'm not sure. [laughter] but there was this reaction of my god, how dare you question my right to citizenship. and to me, the emotional content of that response is super telling and to import -- super important. you can put aside the constitutional component and so and so forth, but just the fact that when asked, when asked hypothetically hey, what would you have to do to earn it, people became defensive, people became self-justifying. it says to me that, again, we

know deep in our hearts that as a country we are a little bit sick in our citizenship. that we are not as healthy as we can be. because the country and the society that was secured in the knowledge that we're doing all we can to foster a deep strong sense of civic identity, we would listen and chuckle and say dude, we are already doing the. we are earning every day. you don't need a test. you don't need to have this experiment. because we know deep in our hearts that something is missed in this country. that was the response to the other thing about the response to the hypothetical was it revealed to is something that again gerda weismann klein real to us, which is how much most of us, most of the time take for granted every single aspect of the privilege, not just the privileges of immunity, but the privilege of living in the united states. what this brings me to in the heart of my remarks is i believe

strongly, i believe passionately, i believe this as a second generation, a son of immigrants who came to this country from china via taiwan, i believe deeply that right now more than ever we need to have a new movement in this country to americanize americans. i say that word right now and then the sum be sitting in the audience, some of you watching on television, hackles have gone up already because that word, americanize, now has connotations sounds like the americanization movement of 100, 120 years ago where was this one size fits all, our what i call lost size fits all to the approach to becoming america is to be like these white guys over here. and since you are not white, i guess you don't get to be fully american in any cultural since. that spirit of the americanization which was a narrow and restrictive and not nearly as encompassing the

diversity that, in fact, is united states, that was americanization 100, 120 years ago. but just because a thing was implemented poorly one time does not absolve us of the responsibly to implement it well in our own time. i believe deeply in our own time we need to have a true 21st century approach to we americanize america. anthony, what this means is not raw raw america's country, right or wrong to what it means is reinstalling and all of us an appreciation of the values that constitute american identity. the values. one of the things we'll know but again we rarely say it aloud to one another and refresh and renew our awareness of is that this is a country not based on blood, not based on tribe, not based on religion, not based on soil, this is a country based completely on an idea. and what is exceptional about

this country, what has been exceptional from the very start, is that we are a nation dedicated to the proposition. and to me, to americanization means recommitting ourselves to that proposition. and what i want to talk about tonight is what i mean by this, what a new 21st century americanization movement would look like and would feel like, and what the content of that would be. there are three dimensions to it that i want to highlight. one is creed. when his character. and one is culture. i would like to say just a few words about each of these and the way to frame of our conversation about hope we'll have afterwards. let me start with creed. for a country that is exceptional because it is dedicated to the proposition, we should do a poor job of renewing with each generation of young people what the actual creed is,

what the language of our civic scripture is. make no mistake, we do have a civic religion. i care about what me sometimes as i have it here, here it is, a little pocket at the ration, gettysburg address and constitution. and it's kind of dogeared and sometimes i'm flipping through to look up article 1, section 8, the commerce clause. people are arguing about the commerce clause but other times i just looked through it to reread sentences, to reread simple sentences are clauses even like this, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that his government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth. these aren't just words. this is an inheritance. this is a creed that we have inherited. and our responsibility to make that creates something other than words carved in marble, make it something we live and act small and large everyday. one of the things that i think

is troubling for a lot of people when they hear language of citizenship, patriotism, americanization, they say look, that creed is nice and all but if you look at american history, america over and over and over again, to this very day, has failed to live up to that creed. and you know what? i was deeply that 100%. it's not even worth trying to deny that. this country has failed over and over again to live up to its creed. but what makes this country again remarkable an exception is that at every turn, we measure our worth and how much we're moving ourselves towards closer alignment to that creed. and that the heart of american history probably understood is, in fact, the closing of the cat between creed and deed. so when to take another piece of civic scripture, when martin luther king, jr. gave the "i have a dream" speech, yes, he

quoted from scripture and he talked about the valleys and mountains. he used biblical language but he also quoted from scripture of the united states. he talked about the promise or check embedded in the declaration and the gettysburg address. and he spoke and he sang. he literally saying aloud words from our ancestors. he did that not only because he was on some rhetorical flight of fancy but because he understood that the way to make america live up to its promise in something like the civil rights movement was to hold like a mirror before us our stated creed, and remind ourselves this is what we said we are. this is what we said we would be. and we are not being it and we are not it. and we have a choice. that choice is either to say well, i guess we are but hypocrites, ortiz a we've got to close that gap. dr. king close that gap. every successive generation and its own way has close that gap. the nature of that gap closing

and to be i think of american life is that, not to get too mathematical, but its a sense out of. that gap can close and close that it can never go to do. it keeps cutting in half but it never disappears altogether. and the faith that you have had in the creed, the state that only by showing up we narrow the distance between what we promised we would be and how we would treat each other on matters of race, how we would treat each other on matters of gender, how we would treat each other in matters of sexual orientation, how we would treat each other who we let call themselves americans. and so that creed has to be something that not only we as adults have to renew and find ways to refresh our knowledge of, but certainly in the way that we educate children. justice sandra day o'connor who is a hero of mine, in her retirement launched an initiative called ice.org. some of you may have heard of but it's an online platform using your games technology to

teach middle school students civics. one of the things that she does and the reason why she is chosen to be that so much of her passion and energy postretirement from the supreme court to i civics is that true minds is that met, the whole point of having free compulsory publication in the united states was to make citizens, was not as avalanche of today to make great workers picket was not to make or prepare great consumers. it was to prepare citizens for participation in an ownership of this democracy. and to me, the creed is one that education must begin. the second piece of this, where the education must continue his character. character again is one of those words that it's gotten so politicized in recent decades. you hear character, and ironically it's would like the word liberty. if i were to say coming in a, make up a name of an

institution, the liberty institute, eight, nine out of 10 of you would just guess that that's a conservative organization, right? why? because conservatives are the ones used the word liberty today. that sort of a statement of cultural fact today, but the fact that we accept it is to me repulsive. and not just because i'm a democrat and progressive editor want the other side to own that word, but because as an american issued repulse us to any side of the debate should claim full ownership of liberty. the same is true in the way of character. you hit award character and a longtime character education, sounds like some more list from the right when you're telling me what to do. right? kind of bill binnie of bill binnie kind of language. i don't want to go there. and the people are feeling that i had to say get over it. because character does count. when i talk about americanization and said the identity, i don't mean just

character on an individual level like honesty and perseverance and electric all these things do matter. but said the character is the character, how we behave in public. how we behave in groups. how we are together in community. and whether we cultivate the ethics and the mindset and the habits of heart and mind to live coal operatively, not to live in conflict or not to live in a regions of atomization but to live together. and that is a matter of character but it is a matter of inculcating an ethic of responsibility, in mutuality and reciprocity, sharing of sacrifice. we aren't born just having those ethics. they must be instilled by culture, they must be instilled by schools. they must be instilled by us as parents and grandparents and mentors. they must be instilled by everybody was in a position to instill. one of the ways that often

shorthanded this spirit of character, and gregory mitch on the co-author of a recent book called "the gardens of democracy." one chunk of this whole book is about citizenship. my co-author, nick hanauer, and i boiled down the citizenship section three simple precept which is this. society becomes how you behave. how you behave. this is contrary to a lot of received wisdom in american life. it's kind of agonistic individualistic story that we like to tell us of american life as a matter of character is hey, as long as i'm not actively harming somebody else, actively screwing over somebody else, i should be able to do whatever the heck i want. backoff, don't tread on me. society becomes how you behave in a different way of looking at the were but it's looking at the world not as atomized, disconnected. but looking at the work as

ecosystem, deeply entwined, inseparably interconnected. and so when i am courteous, society becomes courteous but when i'm so, society becomes civil. why i am compassionate, society becomes compassionate. i'll use an example i think all of you who managed to get it tonight in l.a. traffic can relate to. i saw a billboard not long ago, i don't think he was in l.a. but a billboard by this completely congested highway. the billboard said this. it said you are not stuck in traffic, you are traffic. [laughter] you laugh ruefully here in los angeles, but it's too big you are traffic, right? you are not stuck in broken politics be you are broken politics. you are not stuck in a winner takes all become. you on that market economy. we participate in everything. we shape everything. and seven of having an opinion on it or trying to opt out is a form of participation that is nearly as powerful as actively working for the forces.

this is what i mean by teaching character. and i grant that this is not the dominant key. this is a minor key in america. it is rugged individualism. but on the other hand, when you look for real at anything create that america has ever done, you realize that rugged individualism never got a barn raised. rugged individualism never let people to a town meeting. rugged individualism never enable people to pull together through something like the great depression to rugged individualism will not get us out of this great recession. but after does matter how we character -- it is crucial. this brings me to the third and found a mention of citizenship that i want to speak to tonight. and that is culture. wanted things about american life, you know, and it's always fun to talk to recent immigrants

about it, about what they think is american. and you'll find that you'll give you an answer that is very mediated, is very pop cultural, right? it's about nascar or about "american idol" are about mcdonald's are about these things, and i often say that today in the 21st century we don't so much have a story itself in america as we have a twitter feed. in which we have multiple little fragments of story at all of them are very partial and they all disappeared. what we don't have anymore, the confidence in american identity, the confidence in the exceptionalism of our creed and our responsibility to build a culture of song and story and poetry and dance and and some around that creed. and i say we must find that confidence again. we must unleash that creativity again. we must direct the creative capacity, that imagination

toward this greater sort of what this country is and what it means. i was looking back another los angeles reference, another one of my heroes, norman lear. among the many things he did during his heyday in the world of television, 30 years ago this year, those of you who are alive in minot even have remembered this for 30 years ago he created this pageant for abc, televised pageant called i love liberty. and it was this great kind of corny, cheesy, wacky things that involve, you know, television stars from the '70s, the muppets commune, all these things that kind of mashed together pop-culture references to the founding fathers and references to the bicentennial and to the revolution. and he just took everything he could grab onto and american life at that time, both the cheesy and the kind of sublime, and he pulled into this pageant

that was itself so beautifully american. it was the first. it was multicultural. did not shy away from our failings and our faults. he put this pageant on. i can't believe abc televised this thing, not a think about our culture today, right? millions of people watch this. i thought not only is remarkable that abc televised a, but to be what is more remarkable is thinking about the pitch meeting. right? [laughter] thinking about how norman lear had to go in and talk to the suit at abc as i've got this idea. we will do this big pageant is muppets and founding father wakes, erik estrada do this, all the stuff. and the fact that the suits of that era were like dang, that's a good idea, let's put that on air, right? says something about the culture. today we would not have that same sense of yes, every now and again this country did something like this that pulls together high and low, broad and narrow,

all different ways of singing and making known the many voices that are hurt when someone tries to sing america. and to do it in ways that are beautiful, creative, and innovative. that is a charge that all of us have to take it that everybody here is an artist, but everybody here is capable of harming a convict everybody here knows the tune this land is your land to everybody here knows the tune america the beautiful. half of you here know how to great kind of mix tapes and all kinds of things with technology. nothing stops us from taking what was old and may be crusty and may be too wide and maybe restrictionist and maybe even racist, about some of our heritage in saying i reclaimed us. i reclaim this today. i remixed this, i read make this, i reclaim it. that's what we have to do in our culture. because guess what? that's the point of being

american. i reclaim. i remixed. there are two deep, deep story patterns in american culture. one is this deep story of failing over and over again to live up to a state of profit. but in by bits and pieces, we start redeeming ourselves. for every separate but equal, there is a martin luther king. for every chinese exclusion act, there is a gary locke is now the united states ambassador to china. that we redeem. that's one of the deep story patterns that but one of the deep, deep story patterns that is again part of our exceptional rate and responsibility is our unmatched capacity to create new hybrids, to take jeans, means, ideas, songs, myths, stories

from every corner of the planet, and swirled and together, not into some bland melting pot that makes everybody the same kind of off-white beige color, but says go for it and multiply. create new combinations. that is a story literally of our bloodlines, former president on down. but it's also the story of everyday american life. and these two deep stories of redemption and hybridization are the stories that we had to tell over and over again. we are but a young country. we don't have millennia of myths to go back to but we don't have prime evil stories and plays to hearken to. always have is all we have been a lot of us in this book right here. but we have still the capacity and imagination and creativity to convert this even modest inheritance into works of great

new invention and creation. so this is what i mean when i say we need a new movement to we americanize anarchist. and when i say this, i don't mean just to be clear, just immigrants. just are newcomers to let along just the undocumented. i mean everyone of us. everyone of us, no matter where your, where come from, how long you've been or your family has been in this country. and i know that what a lot of talk later gives people for different reasons and measure of discomfort, and hoping when we get a chance you for q&a and conversation, you get to give voice to some of the discomfort. but i want to speak to this discomfort at least in one small way. the discovery comes as i said at the absent from both the left and right, right? there's a presumption among so many people on the right who are conservatives today who say, you know what, i think all liberals hate america.

and so do you this guy, tremont, a democrat, who is worth a bill clinton talk about america, i don't buy. i don't want to hear it, right? and meanwhile, from the left, you have people saying all this talk about loving america and appreciate what america is great, that sounds like conservatives to me. i don't want to go there. that sounds like either in earnest the kind of graphics passage that fox news loses or and marketer the graphics package that stephen colbert uses, right? be the way, that feels like some kind of thing that i don't want any part of. and again, my message to both right and left is we have to get over this. we have a common destiny in this country. we have to be sure deep, deep differences of ideology, deep, deep differences of strategy, deep, deep differences of worldview. but we are equally characters to this creed. we are equally our trustees to

this country. and i think one of the things that are struggling to sell me people i speak of american exceptionalism, that rubs some people the wrong way on the left, and meanwhile, on the right people think that exceptionalism symphony check, we get to do whatever we want. brought to mind a quote from a fellow named carl, the united states senator about the century before barack obama was a united states senator from illinois. karl said during this period of high tension and nativism and jingoism, he said the right way to think it's not my country right or wrong. it's my country when right to be kept right, when wrong to be set right. that is what is exceptionally. and the right today for gifts that we are exceptional because we are progressive. we are exceptional because we are progressive. because generation after generation, we aren't content to let things be. we try to push ourselves to live up to our creed.

but the left too often forgets that we are progressive because we are exceptional. and the authors nation and the only reason we been able to claim the ground and close the gap the way we have is because we are dedicated uniquely to this proposition. and so, as i see you without thought, i simply want to harken back to come as i started tell you about gerda weismann klein, and a naturalization ceremony we held at this conference. one of things we did on the second day of the conference, inspired by the, was to create a brand-new sort of similar. not a naturalization ceremony or a brand-new, for immigrants are becoming brand-new citizens, but something we made up called smart begin americans. that allows people of long-standing citizenship to swear again to commit again, to say again, to sing again what it

is that this country stands for, and to put ian we are right to keep the right and we are wrong to say that right. i ask everyone if you here tonight whether you love what i had to say or hate it, to remember that our ability to have this conversation is indeed itself part of what is exceptional and part of our obligation. so each one of us, wherever you're from, however long you've been here, whatever your background is, whatever your politics is, i ask you simply to do this. goforth and live like a citizen. thank you very much. [applause] >> hi, everyone. at this time we'll open it up to you all for questions. do you have a question for -- isa, just a quick reminder before you start. tonight's lecture is recorded on

both video and audio podcast but it had a question for mr. liu, please raise your hand and wait for one of us to get to you and please show your name before asking a question. first question on the left. >> so as an outsider looking in, i wonder, do you think as a substitution of symbolism instead of citizenship? so, people take comfort and singing the national anthem at a sporting event rather than actually embodying what is citizenship sank well, i think the national anthem, i'd like my flat, i do this i do this, that, and the other, rather than taking the action that is regarded as citizenship? >> both a great question and embedded in a great point. what i was saying earlier, this thought experiment, what if there wasn't birthright citizenship, ever have to earn it, wrote a little piece in the atlantic proposing this little idea of saying, what if you had to do a certain amount of service.

what if you had to show a certain amount of knowledge? heck, nothing more than even passing the same written exam that naturalizing citizens have to pass. i bet a good number of nativeborn americans could not pass that exam, right? some measure of net contributi contribution, volunteers in service, whatever it may be, right? and again, when you put forth that idea, people take you seriously, dude, no, no, no. that's top down and what i said is okay, i won't make you do that, right? i won't strip you of your birthright citizenship. but in addition to flying the flag and singing the anthem, i simply want to ask you what you done today to earn it? i think that's a course that would ask ourselves everyday as well. this is not about standing on high and judging others. this is first judging ourselves and asking ourselves how and why, what am i doing? am i doing enough? i think that spirit is something that i agree completely has to be embodied indeed, not only in

words spent a question on your right. >> i heard you this afternoon on air talk and i thought you handled some of those colors very well. and i agree with what i think is the vision you're putting out there. but knowing as you just said that the article you had written was more about kind of a thought experiment and not really a roadmap, in order to kind of attained a vision you have to have goals and objectives to make your way there. so what do you think is kind of the starting point? what are some objectives that we could start at to obtain accreditation that you have? >> boy, another great, great question. and i think there are several core pieces the office can get involved in right now. so foundational the again for me is education, and what our public schools do or do not do, and any of you who have as i

have a child in the public school knows that civics isn't really talk anymore. you will get some history. you will get some of communism something about the declaration and so forth, but civics and a sense of teaching systematically about the values, institutions and the skills that are necessary to be an effective participant in order to, democracy. over the last few decades that's been diluted or made to disappear. not always for nefarious reasons but sometimes just because the curriculum and the focus on reading and math that we didn't do that. sometimes because people felt like all, if i go too much towards civics and government and politics, i'm going to take somebody off. so as a teacher i don't really want to go there. sometimes because social studies displaced civics and we kind of think more insistent you about

things, but rather than again, focusing on the original purpose of public school. the one thing i think we can all do, number one, check out mrs. o'connor's icivics.org and find ways to support the there's a national campaign for the civic mission of schools, and they are this national coalition that pulls together educators, neighbors, civic leaders like yourselves, people from all over the country to try to renew a spirit of pay, this is what schooling is supposed to be about so let's put some pressure on our local school board to make sure there's more civics in the creek and. let's make sure we have support for our educators to make sure that if there into wanted to teach civics they know what the resources are that of able. here in southern california there's civic education does a lot work in that. so education is one thing but the second thing i would say is again in this. the society becomes how you

behave, is just look with new eyes at the way that you would, and so yes, it's true that a modest proposal that i put forward for government mandated citizenship test is not going to come to task, but it is definitely the case that each one of us is thinking about what the meaning is of our civic identity can be just a notch more mindful, a notch more mindful. it defines thing is whether it's in our house of worship, in our workplaces, in our kids and sports leagues, in her book groups. strike up conversations that will flow out of the conversation we are having here tonight. one of the meaning of decided is behavior is contagious. in essence you can do things like this, i'm already sort of preaching to the converted, right? what the benefit of preaching to the converted issue create a

whole new host of quartermasters. you all can go out there and create your own nuke wires. create new conversations. i have a friend who is a professor of law at yale, and perhaps similarly because he comes to this, a recent descendent of immigrants, has this passion for america. and he and a colleague of his our enemies to putting together what they're calling basically a civic seder, a little booklet of kind of seminal civic scriptural readings, conversation starters to get dinner table discussion going with your kids or with her grandparents or with relatives or friends. exercise is the resources, and something that is very, i think it's coming out later this september, i think andy to market to a 25th anniversary of the constitution. they plan to release this. but everyone of us went and

bought the book and it came out and had our own little session, society would become how we were behaving. >> question on your left. >> my name is todd kerner, and piggybacking on that last question, it seems that as a drive to push school control to local levels, that we start talking that civics, you're really talking about a lot of political landmines out there. does the need to emphasize cities again mean pulling back from the control of schools, or somehow at least getting them to get on the same page? >> i love the. i really another insightful question but my short answer is yes. my longer answer is, i agree very much with your diagnosis of the situation, local control of

education is a deep, long and probably in the end and this logical place in american society. but at the same time, there are certain things that are of national importance. to our certain things that our national responsibility, and i would say near the top of that list is teaching each successive generation of students what it means to be this nation. and so one of the things that i called for is an initiative at the national level to ensure that we're going to have some funding for education that comes from the federal government, that what funds is civic education that is nationally uniform. beneath that later, or atop the letter, depend on how you want to think about, you can have lots of stuff that is about the local civic history of washington state, local civic history of missouri. and you can learn, if you're

from nebraska or kansas, about the incredible bloody bloody history of the kansas-nebraska act and the fugitive slave law and all the time, that very that is particular to your place. we don't talk about that stuff too much in washington state. but across every state, across every locality has to be some common song sheet or some common set of questions. and here, too, i do mean song sheets in a sense of let's all say wrong wrong america. i mean one of the things i think when we're kind of the storylines of retention and hybridization in american culture, i think the thing that we have to teach and learn to teach to and get progressives and conservatives, republicans and democrats to learn together, to teach do, is attention to american life is a detention. is a tension between one promise of freedom and one promise of equality. we like to think these are all kind of fully consistent with that freedom is continues the intention with quality. letting people do whatever they

want is not usually yield equal opportunity. there are tensions all over the place in american life. there's a tension between celebrating the creed on the one hand, and becoming blindly jingle listed on the and. there's a tension between patriotism and raw nationalism. and learning to teach these tensions and something that we've got to be. and i have faith that we can do. and the reason why i say that is because i seem educators do this in ways that bridge left and right. i've seen books and anthologies that bridge this divide. so i would commend to you two different great anthologies that themselves are sort of civic education. one from the right and one from the left. the one from the right, a recent anthology called what so proudly we hail. and it's a collection of creative works, mainly fiction, that was edited by leon kass.

leon was an adviser to president george w. bush. very active in the american enterprise, university of chicago, a very philosophically conservative guy. and he reached do what so proudly we go and the selections they choose from excerpts from poetry and song that eliminate these dimensions of american creed, character and culture. and i can do that and i'm full of respect for the ways in which they are not just doing wrong wrong. not saying let's -- and that you same people who were talking of multiculturalism are just whiners and complaints. no, no, no. they are pointing at the intentions in an adult grown up with economy of the site, to come is the anthology called patriots handbook that was edited by caroline kennedy. in the same spirit, and direct lineage the spirit of her father. asking us what we can do for our country pointing we can do for our country is know what our

country is for. right? and that's the thing that she does in the anthology is pulling together a different set of text and speeches and writing that if you did nothing but read you have an order of magnitude, deeper appreciation for this think i've been saying over and over again, our heritage. so i think it is totally necessary to have that as a national initiative, and couple that with the civic learning that is tailored to the local. thank you. >> question on the right. >> the lady was listening to npr this afternoon is my wife. and i happened to be a city clerk initiative going to come and what are my responsibilities is conducting municipal election to the act of voting a sometimes i think become synonymous with the term citizenship and civic duty. i want to know which her thoughts were on that, given this vision the yugos i think is very fresh and along with the

dialogue, considering that the two were not synonymous always in this country and it wasn't until the 1920s will have the first election in this country where citizenship was requirement for everyone to vote. so in moving forward and making your vision a reality for all americans, how do we march or separate these ideas, given the political culture of today's? >> again, and i think, perhaps my with answering better, the question was asked, which is another thing that all of us can we do here practically used to be revisiting the franchise. that means voting, you, those of you who are eligible to vote, it makes registering after eligible but haven't registered. it means encouraging others to vote. it means fighting for democracy, right? and to be not so kind of a. i am in fighting to change the rules of the game so that more people can participate in the vote. you are sitting here at a time

where various states around the country are changing their rules for the franchise that are meant to restrict access to the ballot. and it's happening sort of below the radar and without a lot of people paying attention. this is a dangerous thing. it is a partisan thing to do. it's more republicans doing that than not. put aside the partisanship of the. just as an american, a bad thing when you start having these efforts to limit the franchise. but to the other part of the question, i think voting is a crucial central part of citizenship in the sense that i described it. but it is by no means the only part your what voting is is one of the most tangible dimensions of the duty side, the responsibility side of citizenship. in america, we are rights tracy, right? when i do about citizenship as a big, big cornucopia basket of rights. i get to do this, i get to do

that. you don't get to tell me to do this. and, of course, that is in our guinea pig that comes from how this country came to be. don't tread on me. but i think in any functioning, healthy society, whatever its prominence, there has to be coupled with that sense of right and equal measure of responsibility. this is not just some dude from compassionate seattle come here in 2012 speaking disclaimers of responsibility being wedded to rights, this was the understanding indeed of our founders. this was the understanding of thomas jefferson. there's a great book, a historian compress best known for his book on gettysburg called lincoln at gettysburg in which he attacks the text, the meaning of the gettysburg address, has a notebook does not as well-known but is just as important are absent of a country called inventing america. it's an intellectual history of the declaration of independence. and particularly of the scottish

enlightenment, hume and hudson and those few who shaped and formed the thinking of both young and then an adult thomas jefferson. when the central precepts of the scottish enlightenment, one of the central ideas of the culture in which thomas jefferson was steeped and soaked was that the idea that freedom is not only inseparable from responsibility, but that freedom is responsibility. that every right comes with a countervailing duty. that you cannot separate. and in the early years of the republic they didn't even need to say because it was just understood that to be a civic republican, small or republican, meant that you show up. you show up at town meetings if you show up when it's time to take one account offices pick you show up in small ways and large ways. right? it's been in successive generation where flaws that since the responsibly sight of citizenship has sort of been reduced to this one island

called voting. and even there, a lot of people don't go visit. but i think there's a greater territory here for us to reclaim, for us to resurface it and it is about how we contribute to community. it is about how we serve one another in everyday life. and this is about how we in this day and age even have conversations about what it means to be american. my friend josé vargas and some of you may have heard of, remarkable person who is a pulitzer prize-winning journalist, and to contribute to american life, met almost two years ago, he came out, and the way he came out, it wasn't about sexuality. he came out as undocumented. he wrote a story in the new york times magazine that said i'm not going to tell the world would own a small number of people in my life of no, which is i am an illegal immigrant. and he did so obviously at great personal peril, but he did so because he felt like there are

so many people in a situation like this, undocumented americans, who by definition have no voice, who are afraid to make a voice heard. and that he is somebody who has that was, who as a journalist, as a pulitzer winner, had access to platforms of voice, had an obligation to get not just the right to say we thought. he has an obligation to pass on that right to other people. and so he spoke a bit but they didn't more than spoke of the he greater project called defined america. go to define america.org and you see this kind of cornucopia of videos and testimonies of people just saying whatever the outcome of long-term citizens come recent immigrants, documented or undocumented, just saying what they think american means. that's our responsibly as well. so to me, voting, yesterday called to serve on a jury, yes. you are eligible for a draft if we should ever have a draft, yes. but there are so many other everyday ways in which we the show up when we don't.

and the last book i recommend to come is like turning into a book club discussion here, but you've heard me say the phrase show up 10 times here today. and that's because of the third of my kind of hero's, i want to acknowledge and thank today, seattle's own bill gates senior. father of microsoft bill. obvious and not as known worldwide as the younger bill, but bill gates senior is a remarkable man, lawyer, leader, father. he wrote a memoir a couple years ago called showing of life. it's a collection of anecdotes, partly by his public life or his life as a lawyer and a civic leader, but mainly about the family that bill senior and he credits mary gates, his then wife, his first wife, now deceased, the way that she treated a culture within the gates family, right? and so yes, there is voting, they are serving in a jury, there's doing these things like picking up litter and being

courteous and traffic and all that, but then there's also attending to the culture that we create around us. in our households, and our friend groups, in our neighborhoods, and our blocks. we are always continuously contribute to a culture. the only question is whether we're contributing positively or negatively. things are never in stasis and social ethics at either in a positive feedback loop, virtuous cycle, circle, or a negative feedback loop come in -- something broader than simply our franchise responsibility. >> i want to point out first of all that i myself am the son of an immigrant, and i'm sure, i'm confident that it's done nothing but embolden my sense of patriotism. i civic duty to country. with that said, you did mention that there's, that political gap

that exists between right and left, the right, we seem to believe that the right claims ownership to that sense of liberty, that sense of america americana. while i guess the left believe that we have sort of more of a localist mindset. coming from the left myself, i do share the idea that sense of mindset, but i have a very acute sense of patriotism. and so i guess my question is, what can we do, or what needs to happen to bridge that gap, to come together and bridge that gap? because there seems to be a choice, a trust gap, that the left believes they don't, they don't trust the direction that the right wants to take the country. the right doesn't trust the direction the left wants to take the country.

>> so, one measure of how being second generation has emboldened him to express and embody his passion and affinity for an identity is the fact that we stand here in los angeles and he unabashedly wears a new york yankees jersey. [laughter] >> i love that, man. i love that. i'm a yankees fan myself. let's go yankees. [laughter] ..

the book that i wrote that preceded this book on the democracy was as little pamphlet called the true patriot. my argument, speaking exacted your question, was that over the last several decades the very idea of patriotism has been coopted by the right in this country, but also surrendered by the left end to the detriment of everybody. when that happens, when one side granted and the other side walks away from it the it cheapens the very idea of what patriotism is. our argument in this book was to be claimed patriotism is not simply a matter -- in fact, not at all a matter of just saying the, too. let's reclaim patriotism to speak of a true patriotism, to unpack the moral content of what we mean.

if you seriously, true love your country and want to put country before self, that must mean you believe in mutuality. that must mean that you believe we're all in it together. that must mean you believe in sharing a sacrifice and service to others. that cannot possibly mean that you believe the market should green and let things sort out the way they sort out. it cannot possibly mean you think every man for himself. and so unpacking the value, content of patriotism turned up to be a very powerful way to start conversations that cross testified of left and right because once you start talking about what it is that you mean you begin to realize that there are democrats and republicans both the belief that you need to look out for in the upper. and that even though there are sound bites, there are plenty of republicans out there who know,

you know, your most died in the whole western harpist and conservative rancher in wailing those he or she did not built that range by him or herself, but did not maintain that range by him or herself, but that is corporation and team that make things work. but having this conversation in a way that is about universal values by the republicans or democrats, a way to open up a conversation that lets people in. i want to give you another concrete reasonings it will. the guiding lights weekend. this year one of the other highlights was a king of conversation that we had between someone from the left of someone from the right. the guy from the left was the fellow named larry lessing, a law professor at harvard and a really passionate crusader right

now on campaign finance reform and reform ovals of our democracy. but he comes at this from a very progressive standpoint. during the occupy movement, the first wave during last fall, out there doing teach-ins' in speaking in doing all this work. he struggled with with a fellow named mark mccourt. mark mcclure is the co-founder of the tea party patriots. the tea party patriots and the guy who spends time in occupy camps, usually don't see a lot of dissension between those two demands. one of the things that larry and mark as humans, individuals begin to realize, their is a big amount of overlap in the bin bag crammed between what gets occupy matt and what is the tea party meant. where that overlap liz is in the breeding of the game, the corruption by big

money by policy and politics, the way in which severe inequality has given so much outside voice to a few people. now, for the left, they hate that that power is concentrated on wall street and the banks. on the right to hate that power is concentrated on lobbyists who get elected and perpetuate big government. but the thing that underlies both of their fears and concerns is the sense that the game has gotten rid. so they have started these conversations about, well, how can we find common cause to build coalitions, create a new kind of conversation in this country about what we are supposed to do to reclaim citizenship and democracy. guess what? we get a lot of push back from their countries of the side. terry wrote about this and get slammed on the internet from the left. what are you doing with those races, those people?

how can you be aiding and abetting anything tea party related? same thing. we cannot occupiers. we're not the sturdy -- and what of the things they came to realize was, they must be on to something. book tv in the same way that i realized i was on to something when i realized i was giving callers calling me on a call-in show today for proposing the spirit of citizenship. and what they are on to is not only that there is common ground , but there are new ways of talking about it. that is doing to be something there arrives by airmail from some great leader, it is pulling to emerge bottom-up from lots and lots of lots of courageous little conversations. and so to me when they sat on the stage and had this conversation at caddy lights weekend, it was not so much even the content of what they were saying that was so powerful, though that was powerful, but it

was just what they were modeling. there were modeling floor room of 500 people from all over the country who were more progressive than not that you could have this discussion without demonizing. they also disagree, often fiercely and modeled how to do that. at the all of us have to find ways to do that. all of us have to find ways to strike up conversations with people with whom we either know we disagree or don't know whether or not we agree. that is getting harder every day. technological isolation, the economy, everything is pushing us toward talking with birds of other. requires more affirmative effort for us to strike of those conversations, but i think it is possible. there is a key word that my fellow yankee fan used which is so important. that word is trust. if there is one bit of secret sauce we have in america, even

apart from our creed and our kind of error grand heritage and spirit of innovation, it is that we have an amazing, often taken for granted and squandered, but we have amazing stocks of trust industry. if you look across nations, high functioning societies are always high trust societies. societies with great, robust economies are always high trust. societies with great social health to the demographic outcomes are always high trust societies. trust is the magic secret sauce. and that is true in, you know, in denmark. denmark or finland have it easy. small, ethnically homogenous, a single cultural heritage to draw from. we have none of those advantages all we have is the disadvantage of our responded to a beautiful,

spilling out of control diversity. and to meet our job every day is to convert the potential disadvantage into an absolute competitive advantage. we have to find ways to build those stocks of trust. a lot of people talk in america. many of my friends on the left like to use the phrase celebrate diversity, a bumper sticker. you see it all the time. celebrate diversity. i don't believe in that at all. i don't believe we should celebrate diversity. i believe we should celebrate only what we do with diversity. the near birdseye demographic fact that in this room tonight is x percent of people of asian-pacific islander descent, x percent people of african descent, experts said people of hispanic descent, all this stuff , it is of no consequence. that is just the reporting of demographic facts. that is just a color-coded snapshot. the only thing that matters is

what we do with the, how we learn to do things together, how we learn to strike up conversations. this is why i am hughes believer in national service. if i could be king or senator, wanting out what to do is have a national service program and yet it's states for young people. we don't have a draft, in the experience that pulls people together from different places, voices, sectors, to find that common spirit. we have occasional moments to come together at soaker low public square, wonderful programs the to that, but the people who show up our already self selected in. they did not need persuading. i believe we have to have more and more intentional opportunities to convert our diversity into that compared to the advantage and to build trust. there's only one way to build trust which is to practice doing stuff together with people you did not think you could do stuff together.

to me, that is the essence. >> we're out of time. thank you so much. >> thank you so very much for your great questions. [applause] >> is there in nonfiction authors were booked you would like to see featured on book tv? send us an e-mail. tweet us. >> what are you reading this summer? book tv wants to know. >> you know, the first thing i'd do is look for anything michael conway has coming out. i'll buy it in hard copy because i can't wait to. terrific. and one of my favorites. she comes out every year with another. i think she's up to be now. but that is great fun.

you sit on the beach. kids want to talk to you. you just want to finish a book. i really love mystery and action i stay away from policies when i'm on vacation. a just go for something. on airplanes, something that takes me away from where i am and allows me to relax. >> for more information on this and other summer reading lists visit booktv.org. [applause] >> hi, everyone. can you hear me? good. while.

this is so exciting. this is my very first book and my very first and probably only book signing. i am so proud of this product. the book is everything i would have imagined. i wanted the book to be beautiful, and i think that the pictures are of absolutely beautiful. i could tell because when the amelya and sasha picked it up, you know, mom, all, your book. how nice. they actually got pulled in by the pictures. then they could not put it down. they started looking through, and then they started actually reading. that is what we hope the book will be. the book is not just the story of the white house garden and how it came to be and how we had our ups and downs and trials and

tribulations, but it is also a story of community gardens across the country. everything from a wonderful community garden in hawaii to some excellent school burdens that are happening right smack dab in the middle of new york with so great school kids. the stories of the work the people are doing across this country are really an important part of the book as well. we also talk about one of my key initiatives which is let's move all about giving our kids healthy. the book shares that journey and some of the interesting statistics and work that are going on all across the country to help our kids lead healthier lives. then it is practical, too. it gives a few tips. and not the best partner in the world, but i had a great team of national parks service people. bancroft kids. they are my partners in crime in

this respect. i mean, these two schools have been with us from the very beginning. that was one of the things we said we started exploring whether not we could plant a garden on the south lawn. it would have to be a teaching garden, a garden that kids could participate in and understand where their food comes from and engage in that process because that is really what i learned in my own life. and i and all my kids and we didn't start in chicago, but socially went to a farmer's market and got them involved and really change their diet, they accepted it more. we have seen that with these kids. these kids are working in the gardens and their own schools. i no there bringing back ideas and questions to their own families and helping to change the way they eat and do great things. these kids have been amazing. they have just been a pleasure. they come to the white house.

they don't catch starstruck. they don't look around. they get to work. they get to work, and they get our garden planted and harvested in a matter of ten, 15 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes. they just get it done. we could not do this without them, and i am so proud of you all. so proud, proud, proud of you all. the key for helping me. thank you for helping me. i just want to thank you all for standing in the rain, coming out . i am just thrilled, and i hope you all enjoy the book, and i hope it becomes the beginning of many conversations in your own home and community. i hope it leads to a healthier generation of kids. there are also some good recipes in there that are easy to follow and a pretty good. white house chef. i urge you to try them. thank you, and that the court to seeing you all appear. all right.

[applause] [background noises] [background noises] >> all right. this is my first book. who gets the first sign atop the? of right. you guys want to come around and

get your book? come on. get your book. there you go. there you are. thank you. [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] >> thanks. thank you for all your help. there you go. you can see pictures in there.

oh, cool. very cool. thank you. we could not do this without you. >> how are you? it's so good to see you. oh, mike did this. thank you. oh, my goodness. it's so could to have you. a good way to end the year. a book signing. oh, my goodness.

[background noises] [background noises] >> ready? [background noises] >> have a nice day. [background noises]

>> thanks for taking the time. all right. [background noises] >> thank you. how are you? [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] >> it's so nice to see you. >> so, yes.

[background noises] >> how are you? [background noises] >> that is what we think about. doing it for these kids. [background noises] [background noises]

[background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises]

[background noises] one. [background noises] lebron. [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] and. [background noises] [background noises] unborn. [background noises] [background noises]

eleven. [background noises] and countersign. [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises]

>> what are you reading this summer? book tv wants to know. >> i'm just finishing bring up the bodies. i reread the first of the trilogy that she's going to do on thomas cromwell. i know all lot about the tutors. she does a masterful job of telling a story that is often told and telling it in the brand's new way. and this summer i am probably going to read a new novel called the age of wonder. it has been getting a lot of attention. i have not read the most recent lbj put it to but i certainly have it on my bedside table and will be reading it sometime this summer. >> for more information on this and other summer reading lists visit booktv.org.

>> the republican primary has caused romney to move so far to the right he is off the board. you have ten candidates appearing. they have a question. will you agree to $1 in taxes were $10 in cuts? and anybody and the civilized world, maybe that excludes those kids, would say, of course, i give you $1 in taxes for $10 in cuts. not one hand went up. not huntsman, not anybody. it was a well-kept secret, but i ran for the republican nomination in the 1996 cycle. i was in new hampshire. there were nine people there. the question was to how many do you promise to abolish the department of education.

eight handspring out instantaneously. ridiculous question. you cannot abolish the department of education. you just can't do it. so there you have herman cain, michele bachmann, one after another pushing. so far to the right. senator santorum, a prodigious worker covering all the counties, played right into his strength with the evangelicals right. but as soon as the people of america found out about him, like the people of pennsylvania, there he went to. and romney has changed positions so many times. had it right the other night when he said, romney has changed positions more often than a pornographic movie queen.

[laughter] and i am asked, who am i going to support? i say, well, i am serious and arlen specter. i am not happy with president obama freckly. this policy in afghanistan is absurd. i spoke out on the senate floor against 30,000 additional troops we have no fight with the taliban. i was part of that delegation that visited president karzai, and he is not somebody you can do business with. you have the tax cut. obama extended it. i spoke out against it. should never have extended the tax hit for the rich in my opinion. did you have a commission cochaired by alan