books every weekend on c-span2. here are some of the programs to look out for this weekend. .. >> now from the 2013 tucson festival of books, a panel on the alamo.

this is a little under an hour. >> the topic today is remembering the alamo. i don't know about you, but as i get older it's tougher and tougher to remember anything. but the alamo certainly is one of those things that keeps coming to mind, and perhaps today we can find out just why. what is this obsession all about, and why have these men devoted so much of their lives coming years they will never get back -- [laughter] to the story of the alamo? some of them because of their way work habits have less time to waste than others. james donovan, speaking of that -- i do know these people pretty well. [laughter] the president of jam donovan literary, headquartered in dallas. he wanted me to tell all of you potential authors to brush up

after the show to make your pitches to him. he loves that. >> the more the merrier. >> he represents a truly outstanding authors. and then others as well. he represents these authors steadfastly. he's also and author himself. of several books. two of the most famous being a terrible laurie the story of cluster and little bighorn and "the blood of heroes" the book we will be discussing today. next to jim is michael wallis. michael is the author of 17 books. he is an award winning author. many of his books on the history of the american west because he's most famous for writing about route 66 which is becoming

increasingly popular. it's now the 20th century oregon trail. it really is an amazing story. he also wrote the real wild west and a biography on pretty boy floyd and of course his latest book is "david crockett the line of the west" published by norton. i'm going to hold the books down so the author can hold that up when they speak. [laughter] my children so are most impressed by michael's voice book in the picks or studio production of cars and cars ii. he will be doing some voice impersonations leader. also is a show business type, stephen harrigan, novelist and screenwriter. he was a editor at texas magazine along with screenplays are cleopatra, one of my favorites and i know one of his.

and i think it's particularly pertinent for an audience like this for me to quote one of my favorite lines from all of hollywood history and it is stephen harrigan on this line, it is cesar has burned alexandria including the great library with all of the treasures of antiquity and he meets cleopatra and he says to her sorry about that library. [laughter] >> you're kidding, right? >> i actually wrote that one. >> but he also wrote -- think with good less the story on hbo and king of texas, the take on texas history. his novels include challenge apart, remembering bill clayton. and of course with his award winning dhaka and the when he will be discussing today with

us, "the gates of the alamo." published by knopf. all of his books are published by knopf. so the question of the day is with so much to remember now we have 9/11 on top of pearl harbor, on top of the maine. why the alamo? why do we remember the alamo? and we will start with mr. donovan. >> because people love last stand. think of custer's last stand, the alamo and others. there is something that we love about the last dance and the yellow is one of the latest. he has appeared that with some of the great names in our

history and he's well known nationally but is an interesting character with others. and that is so many reasons. >> the editorial we threw out in history and not just of the young nation have had these significant remember dates and remember these dates are used quite effectively to insight passions and help in sight the war and conflict. they are tied into the national emotions and passions and it is an effective way to do them certainly in the case of this battered little mission and the

battle cry or remember the alamo i think that the alamo is probably -- and i say this in my book i think it's probably one of the best known battles if you well on american history. most talk about the possible exception of gettysburg and i think i go on to say it is one of the most glorious with the exception of several decades later when mr. custer came up in a grassy hill out in montana. as of the alamo is so many things. it is a place of myth and

reality just like all of the people who participated in that battle. in my way of looking at them, i just use a common phrase that i use for most of the trans this is the west, no white hats or blackouts, but a good many gray hats. >> or in this case, fer caps. >> i think there's a couple reasons the alamo resonated so deeply the most immediate i think was celebrity as michael knows better than all right, david crockett was one of the most famous people in the united states at the time and he was a very unusual politician and congressmen he came up from a different path. so it is as if sarah palin had been killed in the battle in afghanistan or something. there's just this amazing

confusion about here is this guy, this colorful political character who is almost off the map and killed in this battle in the foreign land, which we have to remember this was mexico, it wasn't the united states or texas at the time. the other reason might think it is more emotional and 60 per and that is because the alamo has been portrayed for so long as a model of deliberate self sacrifice on the part of the alamo garrison and jam can speak to this more than i can. i never quite believed the story that travis drew align in the sand and asked the man willing to stay and die to cross the line. but that story has such power because it makes us believe that yes, there is this thing worth dying for and they chose to die for it and so it became this

emblem of mobility and courage and sacrifice that in other regions like this it just sort of forensic made history as a sort of example for how we ought to be av. >> the yellow is very much a creation myth for texans, and texas unlike any ever stayed in the union has a particular self identity that transcends even being citizens of the united states of america. didn't you succeed recently again? [laughter] [inaudible] but anyway, both donovan and harrigan are contingent revived there. wallis and i are wise enough to live on the border land in texas and mexico. >> is going to be secretary of

state. he's got it all worked out. >> but despite the fact that the alamo is essential to the texas identity, it also resonates nationally. it's become a national event and a national moment i feel even more so when a 20th century than it was in the 19th century. so perhaps you can speak to that significance of the alamo. shall we start with you, stephen command moved back the other way? >> here you have three old white guys in blue blazers talking about the alamo. it's no accident. jimmy is a little younger i guess that we were born and the time we were caught up in the most fervent period of the alamo obsession which was the david crockett movie, the most part that played david crockett and walt disney king of the west and

in 1960 john wayne's the alamo was made. the combination of these two movies inspired a generation or if not multiple generations of american kids. it was a huge cultural phenomenon. like harry potter would be today. and so, it was natural to get caught up in it. david crockett was the entry point for most of us. he was a very fascinating, avuncular, cool looking guy in this outfit and his coonskin cap. then the everything that i think was so provocative to us was the fact that here was a movie, we were kids -- i am speaking for me and assuming this is true for most of us -- we were kids watching a movie for the first time in our moviegoing lives the hero died, and i think there was very disturbing and haunting to many of us and we are still

trying to work that out frankly. >> was actually most disturbing to walt disney because truth be known, the first of those three episodes -- that's all there was really in that initial run -- appeared in december of 1954. and by the time the third episode ran leader in the new year, he realized i told this guy away off too soon. because it was a phenomenal success. i wrote a personal introduction to this book and that's how indeed i did meet crockett. i am a kid sitting indian style and my parents' house before a big black-and-white tv with rabbit ears on a sunday night thinking about the snow storm that's coming tomorrow, and of a sudden this farmer marine jumps

out of the tv set right in my lap. and i was a goner. so were many of you. and it didn't take too long before we near put them on the endangered species list. [laughter] the price went way up. i had a real raccoon hat. the ones today are like rat hats. [laughter] that was the first time we had that whole commercial aspect. there were thousands of crockett products. like our friends at picks sar and disney, they were masters of marketing. i'm sure they won't admit and i know paul does, there was even davy crockett underpants. >> he has them on now. [laughter]

>> so i think paul is absolutely right. like all of these figures from history, especially the american west and this mythologized west, these men and women go through all sorts of incarnation. sometimes they are in vogue and some of the of them are out of vogue. it's true with billy the kid and it is true with so many people. and it definitely is true with crockett there is a myriad of views of how his career came to an end and you can pick or choose any one you wish. the only one you should know is he did die.

>> that was way before my time on the tv stuff. it really was actually. so i missed that in the first go round. but i think another reason it might be even subconscious or semiconscious but it still resonate even more in this century across america is that the men in the alamo and involved in the revolution, the word -- they considered themselves, their fathers and grandfathers fought in the american revolution and they saw themselves and called themselves in letters the sons of 76 and they were fighting for the same principles against this tyrant santana as their fathers and grandfathers fought against king george. it's very much the under current that we identified because it was some of the same principles we still believed in. >> i'm teaching graduate class right now of 20 graduate

students who will want to be professional historians. we've been talking about a western hero. we talked about the fee crockett and about the alamo. my students have a very different attitude towards davie crockett and the plo than the members of this panel and myself. they are not even sold on the idea. a couple of them were puzzled why we were even discussing the topic of crockett as something important. but the ghost of the greater question. the alamo is at the center of the modern cultural war over american history, the american past. one of the things we do since we come from so many different places around the world and so many different races we try to use our history to get us a commonality as a people. lately we have been fighting over that history and my students see their racial component of the story of the alamo to be one that threatens

its position in the pantheon of great historical stories. i sort of wanted to get your thoughts on this. will the alamo survive into the next 50 years? >> i know you said the panel would not agree with your students, but i might. i really think that you have to look at that short component in the whole so-called texas war for independence. that whole episode of history. and i must say as a caveat before hand, that my roots which are irish by the way came out of texas, and they were reconstructed confederates who for the luck of the irish didn't end up on the lincoln county but actually raised beef and didn't

keep the law. i am not here to disparage texas at all. but along those lines, i think as i like to say, texans do think that god created texas when we all know that crockett invented texas. and i think he did a very good job of inventing. and the alamo has been the biggest tourist attraction in the state of texas and served the state well economically and so forth. and yes, a lot of the principals in the alamo had kinfolk that fought in the revolution war but it's worth examining why the alamo happened in the first place. and one of the big reasons it happened is because of the institution of slavery. i think we lose sight of that. i don't know if the adjusted teaching texas history to the school kids down there.

all the states have a history class is. oklahoma, texas, and i'm not sure what kind they are feeding them that bulkeley it is getting adjusted because the real story is always so much richer and better and spicier. basically to get down to the text, texas was mexico. it was the republic of mexico on the floor of the northern outpost coming and it belonged to the republic of mexico. santa anna was a commander in chief of the army and the president, and he is a whole can of worms on himself. we could do a panel on santa ana, the most complex and interesting character shall i say. but the white migrant immigrants who came in and colonized my

home state of missouri from tennessee to the surrounding southern states and to mexico that was coming along fairly smooth at first, with the call money and so forth the mexicans went and spoiled it all by writing a new constitution which abolished slavery. and these white guys still kept coming. and they brought slaves and they were starting a plantation system and the state of texas. some of the principles went along with it. jim did join the mother church and married a hispanic woman and so forth. i should also point out they were two of the biggest sleeve dealers in the country bringing them in with the help of the craft dealer andrew jackson back

in 1814. and they were bringing them in through the port of galveston. they were also big land speculators. travis, houston, that is like rocket went down. he didn't go down to texas and the patriotism as we like to say he had no dog in that fight. he had been beaten in congress principally because he stood up to andrew jackson of for the issue of indian removal and it cost him his job. that is when he famously said y'all can go to hell and i will go to texas. because his friend told him you can come down here and clean up pretty well and resurrect your career. when he got down to the red

river he should have gone back up to the senate trail and kept going west. but he didn't come and that was his mistake. >> i.t. we also should remember the texas revolution is put in context it was also part of a larger movement in mexico. mexico gained its independence in 1821, passed in 1824 a constitution that was somewhat based on hours. lots of very liberal in the right way, full of democracy, and space values and then when santa ana was elected in 1832 or 33 as president, he started rolling that back. he abrogated congress. he sent them home and started picking his own man he took on the dictatorial powers in the there were 19 mexican states of the time and at least half of

them there were some kind of uprising rebellions. some of them larger than others. he led an army that and that the militia in may of 18 tehrik-e five and killed hundreds of them and the last holdout was texas to the north so he raised a large army and did that. it wasn't happening alone. i think slavery was a factor. i don't think of was the major factor because slavery was going on any way. they just kind of ignored it. they were hundreds of miles from mexico city. mexico is still struggling young republic in the newspapers they had in texas and sold them openly it was gearing up has michael mentioned. there were maybe two or 3,000

slaves in 1835 or 36 and meet 30 to 35,000 people. you read dozens of letters from the men in the alamo and going to texas to help in the revolution to heed the call of their brothers and cousins and fellow americans and men in the revolution and i think one mentioned slavery in all the rest talk about fighting for democracy, fighting for freedom and against a tyrant it's kind of refreshing because it's taken for granted we don't think about how wonderful it is honestly. but 1846 this was 60 years after we declared they were all americans declared independence, 60 years before their forefathers, and democracy was a unique thing and still wonderful to them and fresh, and they were

almost happy to fight for this. and when they heard the call from their friends and loved him as in texas they need thousands of thousands to help. it's something that we don't think about we have the alamo holding out against santa ana that it was a part of a larger group of movements. >> and the gates of the alamo, you'd feel pretty directly with the question of race and i think in a sophisticated way you also deal with ideas of memory especially in your latest novel. one of the things that strikes me about the texas revolution is 300 men are murdered at santa ana in cold blood and they are not immortal lines to. there are no movies made about

them. can you comment on that? i've always been fascinated how some of the san. >> it goes back to the myth that was created after the alamo both because of who died there and because of a feeling of guilt among the rest of the texas insurgence that the at what these guys down. and also because again, that moment of choice may be was bogus and maybe was not. but one of the things i would like to tie into the previous discussion as well because you ask will the alamo be viable as a teaching moment and i think only of the story is recalibrating so that it includes the mexican side of the story. i try to do that as much as i

could in my novel it's compelling when you live in texas you grow up among people for whom the ll is either a sacred object or a bludgeon to it i was talking to the intelligent well spoken a year of his san antonio and his mother was a well-known activist in the 60's and 70's and she was quoted recently in "the new york times" saying i hate to the alamo and everything it stands for. i understand that and i think a lot of people growing up from the hispanic or latino heritage can relate to the triumphant pressure and it's interesting

because if it is portrayed as a mexican story when for mexican civil war many of the people of mexican citizens by race and they were either in the alamo it one time. this was a story that took place away from american soil in mexico to it it's a story that mexicans can be proud of and portrayed in a way that makes it seem like of these guys in coonskin caps to go for mexico from the mexicans and it's not that way at all. >> davy crockett and the gym at the alamo were already famous. it's like the all-star team of western history get together only while bill had gone to little bighorn has writer's.

the other central hero of the story was not famous come and other is a particular epic moment in the story of the alamo that makes him famous and it's sort of your dream if you are a hopeless romantic like travis who wanted fame and glory and to be remembered. he gets his moment on history's stage and as you write in your book, "the blood of heroes" he makes the most of it. >> are you referring to his death on the north wall? >> i am referring to his letters >> stephen mengin there are different spots in the line on the sand. i found enough new material i wrote a 25 page afterword about the line and presented the

evidence. i think there is enough evidence admittedly most of it is here say or second-hand evidence. but i think there is enough to say that he drew the line. he was a very eloquent man as we know from his letters. victory or death, just a wonderful writer and i think it fits perfectly in character with him. islamic the linus sort of you talked about democracy and of course the struggle as part of the eternal struggle for democracy which is how i do it rather than an internal civil war in mexico but that could be why i am out of step. nevertheless in the sand as the ultimate space moment in which people -- we can't get people to vote in the polls no one shows up. well, these gentlemen are voting with their very lives to

willingly sacrifice their lives for liberty and that's kind of the essence of the alamo story and the most famous is davy crockett a national figure before he arrived and even more famous than santa ana in san antonio at that time and of course a titanic figure in our national memory since that time. his death has become his last few moments on earth shadowed most of his life and i thought perhaps mr. wallis could eliminate that for us. i'm not even going to call on the other gentleman on this because they are wrong in their opinions. [laughter] donovan as a novelist -- i'm sorry, harrigan as a novelist gets to make things up. that's confusing. >> crockett should be remembered not so much for the way he died

but he left. when i started on this book i went back to my meeting with davy crockett in 1954, which forced me that night to not watch after disney but the drawback and poor through the encyclopedia britannica about crockett and it grew from there. i outgrew the nine-year-old story. the other thing, the main problem i have with that story is he wore the same outfit a few years later as daniel boone and he confuse everyone. the people on the street said your writing a book about boon, aren't you?

>> they are two different generations but anyway, i digress. i am always delighted when i get to know these people whether it is an oil baron come indian chief for out law or a frontier figure like crockett. i'm always delighted when some of the legend and some of the myth is in fact true, and in no way do i ever want to stomp and darkened the edge image. i think there is a place for the myth of the alamo and of crockett. but i am also a great believer in the truth. and that's the story that i find more interesting. back to donovan.

he didn't own as many slaves as two people he encountered in his life and tennessee and washington, and though it would be andrew jackson who was a very wealthy man and a big landowner, despite the image that he liked to create or james polk. here is what i remember him for, not so much of the alamo, but i follow him as a courageous man because of that indian removal act. i live in oklahoma now where so many tribal people were dumped including the five tribes of the southeast which we have the pejorative fleet given them the name the five symbolize tribes

which is a ridiculous name to give them. but they were brought on trails of tears to indian territory, and one of the men most responsible was andrew jackson who you know as old hickory. was a cruel act. many of them if we worship the white guys got into town the western language and customs and even have a plantation system and if they had african slaves then he won't mess with us and we did any way. we fixed bayonets and moved them into alabama and so forth on the rivers and land and brought them

in. crockett stood up to jackson and said you've messed with these people enough. and it didn't play well with his constituents, let me tell you that comb we need a man like crockett in congress today. people who were not afraid to go against anything. their party, their leaders who think for themselves and don't worry about how it looks with lobbyists and special-interest, but they think of the good of the whole country. >> michael wallis for president! [applause] and i don't want to overdo it, crockett. he pulled his fancy trousers on in washington one leg at the time. he wasn't a great intellect but

he was really arguably one of the first celebrity heroes. a common man who went to congress at a time most of the of the members were landed gentry in fancy statesman and he didn't wear his buckskins into the halls of congress. he wore a coat and tried to make his way. wasn't a very effective congressman but he went there and he stood his ground which he definitely under always be sure you are right and then go ahead and he did that right down to his very last breath. >> even more indication of the measure is that he voted against the indian removal act despite the fact that his maternal or paternal grandparents were mastered by cherokee indians but

he thought they were getting a raw deal. >> if you have any questions and want to line up this would be a good time to do so while mr. harrigan ways and on mr. crockett and his demise. >> i am working on a lawful right now about abraham lincoln's early life and i've taken the liberty of starting the book the news comes to springfield. my idea certainly lincoln knew who crockett was and probably thought i can be like him. there were similarities that came from these guys that came from nowhere and they hit this ferocious ambition. i fink crockett as a character runs deep in american history.

he is a real e, he has a deepening sense of principle and fairness and i think as michael said, a lot of these guys don't hold up too well in the cold light of religion as some. i think that he is worthy of becoming an american hero. >> that is a key point. there is no question in my mind that he had a direct influence and this shows up in papers and this isn't just my while thinking. he had an influence on mark twain. he had an influence on abraham lincoln. he had an influence on will rogers. if you look at the measure of those men, very similar schumer, the kind of aw shucks style but

not afraid to turn the joke around on himself. >> first question. >> in the disney series there was a character named george russell. i grew up in franklin county alabama, and i've heard that he was a friend of crockett's. he didn't go to the alamo but he left to be an old man and died in 31 in franklin county alabama. do you know anything about him? >> yes. this character is not very accurate. he was kind of liked. russell of course is a very big name in tennessee history and through other sections of the south. so yeah, he did exist. >> and series a russell in crockett's autobiography and i'm sure the disney screenwriter

pulled that nay out of there. when they were testing the show they considered him to play davy crockett which in some ways because of the humor would have been more accurate but i don't think we would have had the craze that followed. >> thank for coming first of all. very interesting. my question is to any or all of you with all that you've mentioned that has been written about the alamo and davy crockett and throw custer in there, too, what gives you the individual courage i can write something new and come up with people will find interesting maybe they didn't know before. >> right tackle pos of the subjects and, you know, if you look -- there are a lot of good books written that are just based on other books written about a subject. these people don't do archival research or keep research and if you look in their notes in the

fact, all the references come all the citations and sources are other books, secondary sources. and i found with both of these subjects that if you dig deep enough because they're a few people to commit to dig deep enough, you can find something and i was very gratified with of the book to find quite a lot new and of course that was 1876 but i didn't find as much years earlier 1836 was something that happens out and on the texas frontier hardly any newspaper men but i did find something and that's why i tackled it. and because i wanted to learn more about it puts why i tackled both of these. >> in my case i was 7-years-old when i first saw the alamo, and the actual alamo, not a movie coming and haunted me and disturbed me i felt like i needed to somehow find a way to tell his story for myself. when i decided to write this

novel, i realized i had to find a way to bring people in which is why my main character is not davy crockett but a fictional botanist who is working both for the mexican government and for the united states. by creating characters who were human and were not on one side or the other i can take the reader into that place and then show him or her and me what it might have been like to be there in 1936. >> there's always something new you can find if you did as jim said if you are willing to do the work to fight don't think anyone appear would disagree with me. one of my favorite parts of putting out o'clock is the

research, the digging. the second best part is when they are promoting the book and talking about it. there is another piece of the puzzle that comes in between the two. when you have to walk into a room, close the door it's a very dark place. >> we don't want to go there although i am kind of struck by harrigan's repeated comments on how disturbing he found the alamo when he visited it and saw the disney show. of course i read his novel and his main character is deeply disturbed. now i realize it is autobiographical. >> interests of disclosure i have a davy crockett vest. >> do you still have it?

>> the question is can you comment on the fact he didn't have a coonskin cap but somehow that became popular iced. he did have one and i think it has been overdone. in different piece of my book right here coming you can't see it here, but this is a portrait by the general in washington, d.c.. crockett's barn on the favorite image of himself. in that portrait, she's holding norti kunes can have but a proper hunter's hat. boon when no despised animal skin hats and always wore a brimmed hunter's hat. there were people that saw.

i think that he was taken with the idea of an animal had -- in the book the lion of the west cannot and i character a bald -- bob skin. crockett went to the opening in the washington theatre, the largest in washington city as they called it at the time. he came with his entourage in the first row and no one knew how he would react to the nimrod wild fire coming out. and that is a great moment - because crockett stepped up and then nimrod cannot on the stage with a kunes can hat and walked over to the stage and made a

sweeping bow to crockett. what did he do? she got up and he made a big sweeping bow right back. and that, i suggest is a myth and reality colliding to the skin that i would like to note he did wear a coonskin cap. they mention him wearing this including one from his daughter and a few others that saw him from texas succeeded where the cap. >> there is an 1833 biography of him, which talks about his first cap. did you want to weigh in here? has the time so fascinating that we spend more time on his cap than anything else. >> you dodged the death. >> i have read all the primary

of it and so i don't know. >> it was cold and was march, she probably had a hat. not to sound like a college professor, which i am, i will point out to the audience that of course addressing in animal skins is part of the mythology of heroes. you can think of hercules and even of william tell. in america it translated into dr. franklin and benjamin franklin who was a role model for crockett both in his autobiography and in the almanacs and when he went to paris he wore this cap and he knew exactly what he was doing. he was being a natural man they like to call [inaudible]

, and the cat is a symbol of sure, nobody with your people that you are one with nature and you are an american and crockett 's case. it is overrun with flies that allow you to swap them away. >> there is a subliterature on advisers and earflaps with the coonskin cap. [laughter] we also are pretty sure that unlike people that we're those hats today and turn them around, crockett never turned his around which would have impacted his marksmanship greatly. [laughter] >> i can see this deterioriating. let me try to bring it back. to where we began, which is the last stand here in our last couple of minutes. and jim of course your blood of

he rose most people recognize is the standard account of the battle of the alamo replacing walter lord's fabulous 1960 book and you've also written about custer. these are the two pivotal moments in terms of the legend of the west where the conquerors are conquered and the use that even to create a shining legend. perhaps you can provide insight into that. >> was there a question? [laughter] >> do you see the relationship between custer >> supposedly he took his jacket off before the final battle because was a very hot today, june 25th. that figures into the legend and the mythical area. but what i do in this book and i suspect this kind of the same

for michael, you are so assessed with finding what really happened and trying to sort out the mess from the fact because we are historians trying to stick to the fact that it takes a great shift for me to think about the legendary aspect. >> a lot of times you have to give the reader -- and i don't think it is a cop-out -- lay everything out there and build a case if you wish or not, but give them what could have been and what people think happened and let them make up their own mind. an example would be whether he were the coonskin cap or not. his death is very controversial. there isn't much controversy around the death of young

travis, what is he, 26 or booy or some of the other principals from the alamo. but crockett and find a great dichotomy. either there were some who said he dressed as a senhorita and snuck away from the alamo. he was a sniveling coward. that isn't a majority view. but a lot of people -- when we grew up how did we grow up thinking? swinging over his head with mexican infantrymen at his feet. we believe there is the truth and i am one of those who after going down austin and looking at the diary kept by a high-ranking mexican officer, looking at what sam houston wrote shortly after the alamo specifically about the

death of crockett. i believe, throw it up in the air, that crockett there were approximately seven that had taken prisoners, not swinging rifles over there but they were taking prisoners and they were brought also likely before santa ana who raised the black flag and sifted it won't be given for the petition of his life. and he called him a great naturalist. and no mercy was given and they were killed and that was the end of it. so that's why i do know that however he died at the alamo on that day in 1836, david crockett died. but davy crockett rides on.

>> from the ashes of the alamo of course rose a great american legend. and of course the defenders of the alamo were not buried, they were burned in a pile. i find that quite poignant. i want to thank all of you for coming and my panelists pity if we could give them a round of applause. [applause] the election is over and the president has been elected and the congress has been sworn in coming and we have basically what we have before other than the fact we spent $4 billion to have the president be reflected in the senate remain in one party's hands and the house to remain in on the republicans' hands. we have effectively gridlock.

we have variations on the new terms like sequester. they call it the snow questor. we have things like the fiscal cliff that you would think you jump off of and the dying and now it is related to the inability to find a common ground on the budget so we are going from crisis to crisis and nothing really changed that because the beloved nation is divided on the direction we should take, and it is undecided as well. meanwhile, the power of compounding is not our friend. the recovery is the weakest that it's been in modern times. our entitlement programs everybody recognizes are on sustainable and grow in magnitude without change. regulations are outdated. they are complex, costly, and certainly creating way to much uncertainty. average occasions system does not help enough young people to gain the power of knowledge to the will to pursue their dreams

as they see fit. our debt levels are too high and rising rather than declining. our tax policy has gotten way too complicated, and it punishes savings and success. and our social and economic mobility, something that used to define america, something that we have been proud of for legitimate reasons your perspective of where you start if you work hard and play by the rules you can achieve great things. that has diminished. we have among the developed country of the world, we are the least economically mobile now. the country has changed and our political system, which is important for us to begin to break through is not capable yet at least of being able to solve these problems.

here is a look at upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country.

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