>> the biggest fear of the '05, commanders and lieutenant colonels was that they would be peace declared and everybody would go back to their cylinders of excellence and to communicate with us all. that was the number one fear. i think with the intent of institutionalizing in getting the global soft network out there i think we do a lot to prevent the. we've got to work every single

day in relationship and this will be no different. >> just to add to that, not quite as optimistically, but within the u.s. government, my concern is those silos of excellence are pretty darn consistent. and this is the pressure is off there's going to be a lot of folks in other parts of the government who want to go back is business as usual, at least what they perceive as business as usual. and if we don't actively pursue that kind of coronation which i think is what socom is doing, there's a real danger of us going back and forgetting all this stuff. because we've realize, i've got to tell you that the hardest i was not trying to convince dod they need help from other parts of the government. it was trying to convince the other parts of the government they had a role to play on the battlefield, particularly in this kind of conflict because they weren't used to. they didn't have the personnel, they didn't have deployable people. it wasn't their game. they learned it was their game.

i hope we don't lose that. it is a very, very perishable set of skills and perceptions though that if we don't work at it could go away, and we will have to learn all over again the next time. >> [inaudible] >> the few things have been mentioned are some of the ways we keep those relationships from atrophying. when a sense of urgency of combat is no longer there, we are not as president, one of them is the regional soft coordination center, a native soft headquarters tailored to that respective geographic area that keeps an organization together, joint interagency soft focus or position together with strong relationships. that's one way. another what is the exchange of special operations liaisons. u.s. guys living overseas embedded in a host nation headquarters living in the country with her family,

speaking the language, going to work every day not at the embassy but in the host nation special operations headquarters keeping abolition should going. been reciprocating here in the united states with foreign soft, top performing individuals from the country living in the united states with their families come with access to the right briefings and the right rooms keep in those relationships. so instead of an ad hoc random act of touching or a tingling over to train for a few weeks and come back and never talking can with more of a concentrated synchronized effort more of a method to the madness. >> i think right now we have 11 or 12 folks outliving. we're going to 40 was living with our partners. in my team lead with 11 international partners. i think we're going to add another 13 over the next few. i don't know the exact number. we're not going to be living a coalition and village invited. we are putting them right in the

center of the socom headquarters command. and so that is groundbreaking, makes a lot of people nervous. we're doing it within the rules and regulations, but it is a tremendous task to accomplish. >> see, one more question if we have one. right back there. >> my name is richard. i'm a student. now, as you've been talking about this program with admiral mcraven's initiative, with the same kind of program such as the atkins local police initiative, will we see more of the security, service training across the globe? >> yes. [laughter] >> actually, yes. what you're seeing is a security force assistance building partner forces out there. depending on what country team, there is concern about doing the

military side before you do the diplomacy side. and there's always a catch there. i'm a believer that you won't have good democracy without good security. and there is a balance there. because sometimes it can get a little bit interesting out there, that the world is not all black and white. but yes, the intent is to build our partner forces that are our counterparts, and that we can work through our counterparts. >> do you guys 70 last thoughts on the issue before we conclude? >> i would just like to say, this is a rare opportunity. we have a confluence, you know, the active fighting part of two major conflicts that we've been pursuing for the last 10 plus years are starting to wind down. people are looking for efficient ways to maintain security without having to deploy thousands and thousands of young men and women around the world. you have a commander in what in

my mind is the key headquarters for this sort of thing who has a visionary approach, who has an understanding, that it isn't just let's do it the way i like to do it. it's let's do it in a way that's going to be most effective for the nation and for our military, and in many cases for our partners. and we have a large cadre of younger people, both in the military and in civilian clothes in our government who have seen this work, and while they're not the decision-makers yet, hopefully all the old nearsighted guys like me will die off and those young people who had these positive experiences will rise up and recognize, hey, this situation, we really need to get a couple of soft texan and work with us. hcan get a lot more done if we don't keep them out. and we will get that kind of attitude. so i'm hoping that the nation doesn't miss this opportunity to really set the conditions for

some positive movement forward so that we don't have to fight big wars anytime in the immediate future. that we can hopefully short-circuit as many of those as possible and do this at the lower level where it's a lot lower cost, both in lives and money. >> captain come any final thoughts? >> i think the new different strategic guidance is rocksolid. i'm, i think it's something that we can definitely achieve. will return you to socom is trying to operationalize that to actually get into education the to do that properly. as our civilian leadership wants to do. again, we appreciate the opportunity to bring this out to put in public discourse. for those of you, there's a handout that would be much more articulate than myself. but yeah, just take that handout and if you have any questions,

ask them later. thanks. >> most other things, a lot of the things people see when they see things about special operations a when you think about special operations are the sexy high visible coming in, killing osama bin laden type missions. that such a very small percentage of what we do. 90% of our efforts are on avoiding kinetic action. everyday our guys and men and women are in many different countries trying to avoid conflict, trying to empower the host nation so that we don't have to go into any countries and conduct combat operations. so i would leave you with one thing, that's this, would you think of, when of the special operations of the movies. we are trying to avoid conflict. that's where our primary investment is at it's a lot harder to do that then the kinetic counterterrorism mission.

the ct mission is something u.s. forces are really, really good at. best in the world. but it's relatively easy compared to the other missions that we spent most of her time on. >> the panel has done a great job today. i guess my only disappointment is we didn't have any powerpoint. how can we have a dod event without powerpoint? but is a terrific briefing, really. you've given us a lot to think about on this very important issue. thank you all for giving your time and traveling here to discuss this with us. and thank you for your service. i have to say in this country we're blessed to have so many great americans willing to go into harm's way to support our national security and just a few of them with us here today but there are so many more of them out there so we are very blessed in that way. maybe give them a round of applause and thank them for their time. [applause] >> i give the army guys are done by the sudden was a captain in the army, so just -- so just one

day thank you all for being here the program is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] >> the are several light of institute about happening today. the senate armed services committee will hold a confirmation hearing for a couple of military nominations. the heads of the u.s. strategic command and forces in south korea will join that hearing on c-span in progress at 10 a.m. eastern. also attending him on c-span3, the senate banking committee will hear from mary jo white, that of the seekers exchange

commission and gary gensler who edits the commodity futures trading commission. they will testify about systemic risk and financial markets. later on c-span3 the senate energy committee will hear from energy secretary on what to do with nuclear waste. that's at 2:30 p.m. eastern. the congressional black caucus on friday posted what they called an emergency summit to address violence and crime in urban communities. the forum at chicago state university is a less than two hours. >> good evening. good evening. >> good evening. >> well, thank you all for coming this evening on a friday night in chicago. how are you? we welcome you to the town hall of the national summit on urban

violence, here at chicago state university. i first would like to introduce the president of the university, dr. wayne watson, take it is in greetings and welcome you to the university. dr. wayne watson. [applause] >> good evening. we can never acknowledge and thank those who have the courage to have vision and the courage to bring it forth. we can never acknowledge and thank them too much. our congressional black caucus, let us applaud and acknowledge them. [applause] >> my mother used to always say, let me smell my roses while i'm here. you know, two things. one is, a question was asked

earlier, what are we going to do, are we going to come up with new money, are we going to come up with new money to solve the problems? chicago state university, we are stepping up and we've stepped up for the last year now, and we have established what is called an interdisciplinary institute for urban solutions. and i now challenge universities throughout america to reprioritize your human resources, to take your tens of thousands of students and faculty that are in the different disciplines, from social work the health management, and have those students and those faculties go into the contiguous communities,

work with the community organizations and activists, identify the problems, users human resources, our curricula, our research capacity, come up with actionable strategies and start solving the problems in our communities the way universities did at the turn of the 20th century. [applause] >> at chicago state, as some of my professors say, we acknowledge physical violence as a challenge. but as professor harris and her african-american studies program, he talks about abstract violence, and he talks about that the detriment and the pain that we feel as a result of abstract violence far exceeds

anything that one would feel from physical violence. a city, urban city might have to hundred, 300, 400 people died in one year. through abstract violence means from red lines, from more access to health care, from food deserts, from illiteracy, infant childbirth, i mean, infant mortality, we had an impact and we feel hundreds of thousands of people who are killed through abstract violence. so we must address that as well as the physical violence. so with that, i say congressional black caucus, thank you very much for bringing this to chicago state and bringing this to the university.

that's what universities should do. we should act and provide a vehicle for you to take your visions and make them a reality. thank you very much in the congressional black caucus. and thank you coming to the chicago state university. [applause] >> thank you, dr. watson. my nana's michael skolnik. i will be your moderator for the seeing of this town hall. i am the political director to russell simmons and also editor in chief of global grind.com and humbly sit on board of directors of the trayvon martin foundation, which was founded by his parents. thank you. [applause] >> this evening and this day is about you, and the incredible folks were on this stage call to action for us to come together, and the city of chicago have this conversation, this emergency summit if you will. so the next two hours of this evening we want to engage in a

conversation, have a dialogue amongst those were sitting in the audience and those of us sitting on stage. so i was because little as possible and just allow for a conversation to occur. there are some members of the congressional staff who have index cards and will pass run to right questions on those index cards that will be taking throughout the evening. if i can for a moment, as i sat in my home in new york last night, reflecting on coming to the city of chicago, i remembered a piece i had written four years ago, and if i could just read you a small portion of that piece, i would appreciate it. the line absolutely come to a halt -- the line had slowly come to a halt. stretching around the inside of a church where hundreds of people who had come to this holy place of worship to pay their

respect to the light of the 16 year-old young man. on this cold, crisp autumn day in the city of chicago inside this old run down, yet beautiful, cathedral, i sat 10 rows back for hours watching old people and young people, wheelchair-bound seniors, families, crying babies come and go. stop for a moment, some cross themselves, others could not even look. but all at some point moved on. but then alliance stopped someone wasn't able to move on. someone wasn't aware that there were hundreds of people waiting in line behind her. someone needed time. no one said a word or we all just watched it we watched this

precious, beautiful eight year old angel stand over her cousins open casket, and hugged him like she may never see him again. we watched her father dressed in a black t-shirt with his gold jesus peace battalion stand by her side. we all just sat and watched and pretended that we weren't in the room so this child who walks with god could have her one last moment with her hero. she slowly walked down the aisle with tears streaming down her swollen face. i turn to witness her powerful exit, and just as she was about to exit, the young man's entire family was 10 at the front doors of this congressional call of god awaiting their entrance, we rose to our feet with deep respect for their pain and their suffering and we stood motionless as they walked down the center aisle.

led by some of the most powerful men and women of faith in this nation. and now as the mother of a 16 year-old young man, told me on the phone just a few days prior, she could lay her baby to rest. that was the funeral of derry on albertson 2009. i come here in memory and memory of a thousand again people have been shot in the city and across this nation. i see others are with us. i come here in memory with your daughter. and i come to this city with love and with gratitude welcoming here with open arms. but also as a personal deep pain of the suffering has been advance of mothers and fathers and many members in the city across this country. we welcome for incredible people who are heroes of mind.

i'm sure many of you in this audience, congressman bobby rush. [applause] congressman danny davis. [applause] congresswoman robin kelly. [applause] and although we had a tough day two weeks ago, still from the great state of florida, congresswoman corrine brown. [applause] i want to ask each of you, and congressman rush, if you would begin, for a personal moment in your life. i'm sure there are many, but one that stuck with you over the years of violence that brings you to this stage and brings you to the work that you do. >> well, i have two that kind of

serve as bookends. the first one was on december 4, 1969, when 4:30 in the morning at an apartment at west monroe, the state attorney, states attorneys police raided an apartment and murdered two members of the black panther party, fred hampton, shot and wounded seven other people in the apartment. then the very next morning came to my apartment and shot my door

down, looking for me over so-called search warrant for weapons. they came to fred's apartment, murdered him. after they had -- [inaudible] they said they the mobilize an elephant. december 4, 1969. and that night, that day, that event, that act of violence had shown me, had tremendous effect, and it still does, still does, the life i live, the things i do

and the reason why i do them. for me, that represents an external condition, visitation of violence. and internal visitation of condition of violence that occurred to me was when my 29 year old son was shot down by some young lacking in -- black man on the south side of chicago in 1999. and although i was in congress, that stirred up something in me

that motivated me then, still motivates me to continue to try to work, to not only, to do all that in every way i can in congress, in the kenyan become in the church. to try to deal with some of the prevailing issues of young people with violence in our community. and it really, that episode of violence is what drove me into the ministry, made me a little more closely and my faith and rely more on my faith. so it was those two incidents, december 4, 1969, and

october 30, 1999, the violence that i experienced then is probably, they've been most pivotal in terms of my own. let me just say this to you. i know we want to move on. i remember my wife called me and said he we had been shot. i was at the second warrant office. i drove out to the hospital we were in the operating room or in the waiting room. they were operating on my son.

the doctor said, well, the operation was successful. it looks like we might have pulled through. at the time, i was on a conference committee in congress. we were, a very important bill that we are working on. so when the doctor told me that he was doing all right, seemed like he was going to pull through, i said, well, i'm going to go back to congress as been the next couple of days there and i will come back to chicago. well, when i went back that morning, by that evening i was at my apartment in washington and i got a call, huey took a turn for the worse. i need to get back to him. i caught the first flight out the very next morning to chicago. and went into the room were all

these tubes, and get swallowed up so big it was, he was hardly recognizable. and after about an hour or so he had passed on. during the last day, his sister, his mother, when the doctor said that, pronounced him dead, i never will forget that primal scream i hear today. that's primal scream that only can come from a mother, only can come from another, you know. that's when that i couldn't even repeat, it comes from the human heart of a human being, of a mother.

i will never forget that primal scream. i just don't know whether or not the art enough of, especially our young people, who don't know what it means when you take a life. really, you know, i think the media and the movies and the mass communication, telecommunications, they've kind of created this homogenized idea of what that really means. that primal scream that comes from a mother, forcecream that s from a mother, force of nature, that you can't ever forget, and you should not ever forget.

and i think that really is part of what i want to be a part in what i'm doing and what i like to do. i don't want to hear that screen coming from no other mother. in our community. that's primal scream. >> thank you for sharing that, congressman. [applause] >> congressman davis. >> i think for me, central city area of chicago, 1961, when i came here as a 19 year old after having graduated from college. and i've spent the rest of my adult life living in what would be called the westside of the city in the lundell, east and west garfield.

and the austin communities. i taught school in the chicago public school system for six years before deciding to do some other things. during that time eight of my students were killed. during that same period of time, six of my students killed other people. it was nothing unusual for a fellow named frank lipscomb and died to go to court with the young person who did the shooting in the morning, and the family of the person who was killed. we would go to their funerals in the evening. and so i've seen a tremendous

amount of violence. one of the most graphic was the young fellow who was dropped out of a public housing high rise, and it just happened that a woman who worked with me today, she and her husband own the funeral home at the time, and de funeral home at the time, and i went to the funeral home to view this little boy, crumpled, and this was before time for the funeral. just a little mass of humanity, crumpled on the table. and that timmy became one of the and that timmy became one of the most graphic and pathetic scenes

that i have experienced. but what really brings me here this evening is a realization that there are those of us who have had individual tragedies, then there are those whose tragedies have not been as individualized. in that respect i have been fortunate, but i can tell you when my brother feels pain, i heard. i can tell you3 heard. i can tell you that when i hear of an individual, we've heard a great deal about -- [inaudible]. they have played for us in the ways and means committee room

while they were in washington. and so i have had the experience of watching the students from this school spend a couple of hours with us while they were waiting to do something else. and i thought of how gracious they were, how talented they were, how talented their teachers and the adults who are chaperoning them. and you think that some of them would not have the opportunity to keep this plan who they were. because their lives have been taken away by senseless violence. i can never forget those two incidents, and i never will. and those are the things that

are in my mind as i come here this evening for the continuation of the last days that we have experienced, happenings in our community. >> thank you, congressman. [applause] >> congressman kildee. >> my work as a counselor in fall be with child abuse and domestic violence, and that was really my entrée into the world of violence. then personally in 2004, i lost first a cousin and 31 years old. she was murdered by her husband wawho is a neurosurgeon, and he stabbed her over 50 times while she was sleeping. and then within the next three months, one of my volunteers was shot in the head by her husband, and then he killed himself, all in front of an eight year old.

so that's my personal experien experience, but why i am here today is because of the blair halls and the trendy teens and the bins because we losing a generation of young people and we cannot afford to do it. and i know they are and hopefully, if i discussed in our we'll hear about them tonight, there are solutions to this. we can't afford to lose anybody else. and as congressman rush said, we don't want any more parents crying, and it's something i've never experienced but i know from my aunt, my cousin who's been dead nine years, and the pain is still not gone away. >> thank you for sharing. [applause] >> congressman brown. >> thank you. and i want to thank congressman bobby would understand -- i want to tell you all look really good. i am so happy that i caught a

plane 5:00 is going to be here from florida. [applause] >> i've been elected 30 years, but in my real life, i used to be a counselor. and i will never forget when the police came to see me about one of my students. and he wanted the students to testify against her husband. and so i couldn't understand what was the problem. well, she had twins, a girl and boy, and they were five years old, and the father had raped both of them. and i'm talking to the mother, and she said, well, well i -- what will i be able to do without them? and i said, what have black women have always had to do. they are the backbone of the family. they have to stand up. and i've got to tell the one of the hardest jobs i've had in

congress is to talk to trayvon martin's mother, to talk to davis it is a young black guy that got shot up in the car for playing his music to let the by the store, the alexander story that i told you about earlier with his black woman shot, one shot, got 20 years from an abusive husband. but that's not the whole story. i went and i couldn't believe it. i'm sitting at their and it was not a dry eye there. i could not stop crying because for black women came and testified why she should not go to jail. and each one of them had a child from this abusive man, and he

beat every last one of them and they were beautiful, attractive women. and i'm saying, we need something else. we need sister to sister. we need to work together to make sure this does not have this kind of abuse going on in our community. and i want to give the women in this audience a hand. [applause] strong black women, we've got to do our part. >> thank you, congresswoman brown. that is a perfect segue. the alexander story she speaking of, sentenced to 20 years on stand your ground. she said she was standing her ground and the jury found her guilty because there were two kids in the house, they gave her 20 years. >> they found her guilty in 12 minutes. 12 minutes, they came back with a verdict. today, if there's a stand your ground case in the country, this was a.

there was a restraining order against the husband that day. he had beaten her when she was six months back and put her in the hospital. so if this is stand your ground, this is stand your ground. >> absolutely, and thank you for sharing that story. it's an important one. i want to welcome the curate -- the great congresswoman from texas, sheila jackson lee, has just joined us. i would assume from an airplane in an airport. thank you, for being here. i'm going to ask you to absorb all of this first. and then i will happily ask you a few questions. so as congresswoman brown talked about domestic violence, and we had, for those who weren't here today, we had for the amazing breakout sessions, really inspiring, inspiring breakout sessions. for those who did participate, we thank you for participating.

we're going to have some reports back from the breakout sessions about some of the solutions that some of you all came up with during the breakout session. i see our friend, our nine year old friend who was the youngest member of our group, i'm glad you're still with us and steal away. thank you for coming. the first breakout session on going to call up is the leader from domestic violence. >> good evening everybody. hello, family. i and marian perkins and chairperson of the criminal justice political science and philosophy department of chicago state university. i am also the founder of the cook county bar association expungement project. so i look at a lot of people and they see me at the expungement summit, and also a former prosecutor. shout out to the victims and the

avengers. we are all family. and i'd like to honor all of the lovely respected congresspeople, congressman bobby rush, danny davis, the honorable robin kelley, the honorable corrine brown, and the honorable sheila jackson lee. it is an honor and privilege for me to stand before you all, and i think dr. watson. i would like to say we had a very, very good session on domestic violence but and i'll tell you just briefly what became -- we came up with. the first thing we looked at were issues and then solutions. the issue is that domestic violence is the precursor to youth violence and gang violence. so when we are trying to define the situation there was a discussion that domestic violence is a learned behavior and we talk about it as early as from birth to age seven.

so when we are looking at solutions, we can't emphasize enough education for the parents and education for the children. also when you hear the congresswoman brown talk about domestic violence of a pregnant woman no less, we want to know domestic violence at all, but that is sometimes one of the most difficult, most dangerous times, unfortunately, for women, when they are pregnant. so we must educate, educate our communities and make sure that as we hear about what we think our -- youth gangs, violence, that we remember that all of them do our little, beautiful, each one of the children beautiful, we don't have to be a latin scholar, blank slate.

so take that, this is university so take your blank slate. so we have a blank slate, people don't just become at age 15 the violent people that they have become. it is a learned behavior. and the other thing we want to say, we want to support the parents. now, so in terms of the action plan, i see congresswoman kelly taking notes. i know everyone is taking notes, but certainly in terms of early childhood education and money for parenting classes is extreme important to one less thing. i would like for the men, the male members of our group, i don't know what happened, i don't know, by the time it was over we all held hands, we are in a circle but some of the men came forward. and do you know what they said? i was a batter.

i did it, and they said, they said i'm sorry to us. they didn't even know it and they said that they were sorry to the person who did hit. that one particular individual but they said they were sorry to all of us. and do you know what else he said? he said we accept your apology because you come out to do that. so the point that i'm making is many of the men talk about that they need help, they need help with how to guide their behavior. and we said, listen, you're willing to come more than halfway, we are willing to meet you. certainly i'm a former prosecutor and we know there are times, absolutely, there has to be prosecution to the fullest extent of the law. i know how to fully, vigorously prosecute a case, off the record they did not vigorously prosecute that trayvon martin is, okay? i want to say that.

you do not bring in the defendant state and into the trunk o or quantity is humanized that they can come one, and then you just lay out your case. but you don't bring in the defendant's statement into the trial thinking you can make the defendant testified. you can't make the defendant testified are usin used techniqe like that. that's not a good technique. but i digress but anyway, to come back time to come back to the domestic violence, on a very serious note, information and that we realize when we talk about gang violence, we talk about gun violence, we talk about all of the violence, it is starting at home. please don't forget domestic violence. it is an extremely important issue that must be considered. thank you, ladies and gentlemen,. [applause] >> we will next year from the group leader of gang violence.

>> good evening. my name is doctor sharon latiker and i'm ceo of labor of love performing arts academy, and also a member of the community that we all live in. my subject was, our subject, i facilitate in games, and we kind of had a good time. congressman danny davis was there and we went a little bit off. we got into gangs, ex-offenders, a lot of stuff. so we think we covered it all. that would talk about gangs we say why our young black kids involved in gang activities? that's the why question. why are they involved? out of everything that was said in this session, one young man got up in the back, one of the youth, and he said it's not that we want to do it, we don't have anything to do. you talk about us hanging on the corner as you close the committee centers.

so where do you want us to go? we don't have anyplace to go. [applause] so we congregate on the corners, and they are closing the schools as well. and as a young man was talking i was sitting there as an educator, looking back, we talked about the prison pipeline and we talk about gangs, where do they start. they are looking our children in the third grade. so much of the fourth grade but it's really the third grade. if our children can't read or write, our children cannot read or write based on how much they're going to spend on the prison system. and what do we do as a community to stop this? my velocity is a child cannot see what a child cannot see. you will get that tomorrow. but if a child can't see it, he can't be it. the parent is a first teacher. that doesn't mean that there is a the best teacher because at the parent doesn't know any better how can parents teach their child to do any better? so that's where the community

comes in at. we always say it takes others to raise a child but it takes a community to save one. and as a community we have to step up and as we grew up in our community, we had big mamas on the block and you couldn't curse, he couldn't stay outcome you can do a lot of things because big mom would tell on you. big momma would with you and then you get a whipping want you got home. now, we are afraid even discipline our children. a dentist in our children. we can do any of that. so we talk about gangs. why our children get involved in gangs? because of love, someone said. so we as a community if they're not receiving that at home we havhad to give that to them. that's why we need a fun day. we talked about programs. we need to stop throwing all of our money kind of their program. we have good programs that are working. if it's working let's put our money behind those programs that are working. why do our children get involved in gangs? number one, they have nothing to do. but i come at it to a challenge on today.

as a committee leader, community activist, what are we going to do? i'm tired of sitting around the table and that's all we do is sit around the table. what do we do after we write down our ideas and get all of our information? where to go from here? we get charged up, we leave here, what do we do? absolutely nothing. someone has to make a conscious decision within themselves to say, i'm going to do something differently and i'm going to take a child on my block in my community and the going to mentor this child. does mentoring work? yes, iyes, it does pick up agair the child and let him into the parent. they told me i would never get my parents to come depending on a saturday but i said yes, i will. downtown chicago i had everything that was represented in my school. but they knew when they came to the school they were not having it because you came to doctor ladoga's house and get free cities, choices, chances and consequences. you made the choice is do what you do. the chance would you get called. the consequences get the come to my school. my school had ruled and you are

not going to run me. that's just where ira i ran mosw that i did not and we ran a very successful alternative school under the late doctor baden. we have to put some rules in place and systems in place and if we adults stand up, the children will follow. all our children are looking for is some guidance and some leaders to just end up and tell me no. stop saying yes all the time to our children. know is not a bad word. so i think if we begin to look back on what we were raised on and have the values and the morals that we had, we need to start and limiting those right into our children, and guess what? we will have a better committee, a better country, a better nation and we will not have the violence that we have in our city. chicago will not be all the news all over these united states of america because of the crime that we have. let's turn these things about dick let's put our faith together. you on the religious lives of all committees. come on the put it altogether

come on and get it together and come together as a committee as a whole. [applause] >> sunday is coming up soon. next we'll hear from gun violence. >> good evening, everyone. my nana's audra wilson undigested chief staffer for congresswoman robin kelly and i had the pleasure of co-moderating along with michael skolnik for gun violence. so essentially this summary was before either speaking from a personal expense of having lots of multiple members of the families to gun violence or they themselves have gone and revitalize the and telling about the personal story. the over arching theme from our group was that violence acts as a symptom of a much larger problem, or series of problems.

some the problems identified were hopelessness, like a connected history. so people not understand where they come from and the legacy of greatness of our community. the lack of economic opportuni opportunity, glorification of violence and guns have also had a discussion about abstract violence and not literally shooting people but what's happening with red line, the foreclosure crisis, vacant lots, school closures, economic disinvestment. all things that create an assignment that are right for violence. we also talked about the lack of communities or loss of community and kenyan depending. we even talked about barriers. so for solutions to recurring theme was education. multiple levels of education. short term with mentoring and reconnecting to committees and with several people give examples of some of the ways they were mentoring youth, mentoring other folks in the media. we also talked about long-term solutions including legislative action and education and the

broader sense, and fetched in in our schools and we investing in our communities. another thing that came up was panting and the importance for us to be better parents to our children and again part of the community parenting thing. but once again this group recognized that it's going to take a multifaceted solution for a multifaceted problem. once again violence is simply a symptom of larger problems that are affecting our community. [applause] >> and the last breakout session from today was youth violence. >> good evening. good evening. >> good evening. >> youth violence in youth violence is i like to say so-so though when the contemptuous when you do certain things, and although we tried to lay these things one can we address at the

very beginning of our session was violence to some degree is interconnected life disciplines are interdisciplinary. so you almost can't talk about one without talking about the other. so we thought that youth violence, not the closure of 50 schools violence but it's not the poverty a lot of our children in violate. we're talking about violence, the first thing when to do in our group was the kind contextualize what it meant to enduring youth violence. you can legislate policy which can't legislate attitude. he went on to remake separate in a setup like the canada paralysis of analysis. so what we did in our group, what we try to set aside reality of bringing some resolve and we talked about the problematic component we also talked about the solution advisor, my name is chandra gill. i'm also the ceo of -- badly to educate our kids went to motivate them. they are in that regard about this. you got to love them and you got

to motivate them and inspire them to understand where they are. when we came back to our group what i loved about our concept is also the people who are daring and caring to listen to us t today, what we decided was series of the few things we don't need immediate attention we talk about all you've. we first that our youth to be involved and engaged. they themselves gave some things that we thought were very instrumental integral to this thing we're talking about. president obama sign an executive order for the white house initiative on educational excellence for african-americans. we're not just talking to congressional figures. we have a very empirical question that is worthy of analysis and can give resolve in return. what happened? the executive order was signed. we would just like to know what happen. because resources that people argued for jobs, better education, opportunity, equity versus equality, we can talk all about the end of the day when we present something for african-americans when you do see it through albany to refocus

to come back to the community so people are impacted by these officials every day. so very simply we try to follow this thing. white house initiative on educational excellence for african-americans. the president signed executive order almost one year old today. where is the, what are we doing? if everything was the urban policpolicy perspective. it is something the president argued for about four years ago. we talked about these things. we've built these things. we did not put the things in the building that would help the building function like this building does every day. we are simply asking our congressional body where are we with these things? and we talked about for solution as her exit. the real pieces are how can we institute the reality of children knowing who they are? this is not a hard question. when we look at our textbooks it's something that very cities that can be argued from a federal perspective, we have to come up with the reality of understanding that people are saying we want to talk about slavery or whatever else the

impact african-americans from the curriculum standpoint, we have to have a rebuttal. history is history whether you like it or not. our children need to know who they are, how they are, what they became and how they became. i guarantee you as our group so fundamentally said, if you teach people who they really are, like i said, i'd like to teach brothers had to put their pants. if i teach and who they are interdicting, they will pull them up themselves. that's our group, i love you all. [applause] >> wow. well, i'm going to go home now. i am going i'm going to change the rules little bit, and i might get in trouble by think it's the right thing to do. i had some questions that is going to ask i'm going to throw those out. i've got a stack of note cards from you all, and keep writing if you have more. folks, i will dedicate an

instant absolutely. by what i'm going to do is i am going to read the question, ask around the question to raise your hand an outcome to you with a microphone so there can be a conversation. often asked, all that we ask is even in disagreement, let's have a civil conversation. so even if we disagree with each other, this isn't easy for us to uphold the microphone. please don't take it out of my hands. and i will certainly want the folks who wrote the question to have a chance to respond to the edges. so to the question of the doctor just asked president obama's executive order, did someone take that question and you know where we are with that executive order? >> well, let me say, i don't know specifically. you know, there are three branches of government, executive branch, they do what they do.

the president issuing the executive order, and the last -- [inaudible] this particular commission, they are meeting, they're having workshops, network shops but they're having interdepartmental meetings. they're looking at nations that have had people from all across the country to come in to discuss this particular issue of young black males. they haven't come up with any legislative initiatives, and once they come up with legislative initiatives, then that's when the congress, we get involved. ..

>> that is a committee that has been appointed by the president to do so, have put on paper that they're now in the process of beginning to implement. and so it's moving. it hasn't been in existence long puff to have -- enough to have produced results. but it does, in fact, exist, it is moving, it has an executive director, it has an advisory group, and it's moving. >> congressman, do you want to add to that? >> if i might. >> please. >> if i might. if i might stand up for a

moment -- >> certainly. >> so that i can at least thank my colleagues for doing this. i am daring and i'm caring to answer the sister's point, because i came to chicago because of congressman bobby rush, congressman danny davis and congressman robin kelly. i may be a little late on this, but can you give them a hand? could you just do me that fave? [applause] and i just want to take a moment to say some things that build on what excellent sessions we've had. one of the things that we have to do is to wear a a banner, maybe we have to wear a billboard. we, too, are america. maybe we have to reintroduce ourselves to america. [applause] and tell people that we're gonna

stop accepting, acquiescing and letting you have a second chance, because the work is done, and we make up the congressional black caucus. your members represent you here in chicago, but they make up the body politic of congress. be but in particular, the congressional black caucus. and the question that i ask is that while we are putting together an enormously important agenda -- in fact, i want to create these three members -- create these three members because we need to get on the road. because if i were to show you these numbers and tell you the brilliance of what they have done, we need to get on the road. because in gun injuries as you've already heard, if i can just give you these numbers, these are '08 and '09, 3 be

47,000 -- 26,285 injured in gun assaults and 13,471 were grabbing. those numbers have probably gone up 51%. so in essence, who has been listening? your hebbs have. your members have. but policy goes local, state and federal. what we're facing in washington i didn't want to just come in and not let you know that when they're fighting, when we're putting policies together, we're dealing with something crazy called sequester. so an executive order was passed, and if you're cutting into the resources for no reason, we've got to say we, too, are america. our children deserve. when we try to pass legitimate -- [applause] basis of dealing with children from what i heard; intervention,

jobs, alternative schools, we have a money crisis. i'm going to engage with some of these questions, but i hope that i can sort of pinch you to say we gotta link arms to do this as a whole body. because i'm not saying it's only money. i've heard some wonderful things. one of the greatest tragedies i had is a friend of a friend had her cousin and her cousin's daughter shot by, in a domestic abuser who had been taken to court. and i don't with single out man versus woman, but to show you, taken to court, got mad that he was taken to court, just let out -- even though she had a restraining order -- went home and got a gun and shot the wife and her daughter.

two caskets in the church. so we know we have a problem with gun violence. but we've got to be able to address intervention whether it is an abuser, whether it's someone who has been abused, whether it's a child in gangs, whether it is someone who is involved in criminal activity, we've got to get in the middle of it. and there's no shame to say that resources are needed. so i'm hoping that when we get through here, we don't run away there where's the money and why can't we get money that is balanced and looks to the cure. i'm not saying waste money. oh, you know, they like to say you had that bottled cities program, you had that jobs program, you wasted money. i can show you people who benefited from those programs. i can show you people who made a difference in their lives because they had a summer job, or they were in the model cities job or maybe they got medicare.

i'm not off the point be, i just want to frame us. because i think one of the things that the members battle every day is the nonunderstanding that we are america. and when our folks are listening, when our children are not being shot, when they're in a classroom, then all won'ts are lifted. -- all boats are lifted. so i just lee you with this -- leave you with this point. and i don't know if my friends have said it, be i sure hope you all will come with whatever agenda you have on the 24th, the march on washington. we need to have a lot of issues being raised. as you do it, you have your signs. and i'm not saying marching is an answer, but remember how i started out. started out by saying, is anybody listening? because with you have ideas. you have members of congress who are more than excellent. crafting legislation, seeking

opportunity, trying to give back. right now i'll just sit on my seat and say where's the summer youth job program that we've all been fighting for? we had one in '09. then came the big money cutting. so i think that when we end on tonight, weaving in and out of these excellent suggestions -- and, hopefully, we'll have answers to some of your questions -- president faces the same uphill battle. the executive order was signed a year ago, and we don't have a budget today. we don't want to throw stones, we want to ask the broader politics, do you recognize that we, too, are america? [applause] so i am looking forward to getting in the mix and getting you further energized as you've with already been, but i want you to keep that in mind so you won't say, well, what are they

doing? why aren't they doing anything? my god, i can tell you we go to bed doing something. we're happening on in the dark -- hanging on in the dark of night trying to do something. but we've got to turn america around to recognizing that when you deal with these issues, you are loving america, you are building america, and we should not take second class status, second class citizenship to say that our issues should be pushed back and others should be pushed forward. i thank you all for being here tonight. [applause] >> thank you, congresswoman. i am going to come down into the audience. i'm looking for teresa v. smith. teresa v. smith, please raise your hand. please come down to the front, please. teresa's question of members of congress is, and i think i'm getting a lot of these questions. you heard some solutions here tonight. how do you intend to work with established groups that have vision for helping young people have an economic base for

money -- for many years? how do you intend to work with established groups that have a vision for helping young people have an economic base for many years. so you hear solutions this evening from many folks in the audience and on stage, how does the black caucus intend to work with those groups, and how are you already working with these groups. you can respond to her. i'm going to hold the mic. yeah, you get to stand right here. this is teresa smith. >> yes. i'm asking that question because we always hear the term unity, you know, there's strength. but if you don't have anyone listening to you, you can't have strength. so what i'm asking is that for you to look at the established groups that have been already working such as reverend al sample soften who is a visionary, a civil rights worker, and he has had black tradesmen's council, he has had

a farmer's market, he's been working so hard with the food desert as you mentioned, and we need to get rid of the division where everyone is doing their own thing, and we need to come together and find out where these things are happening. because being a former educator -- and i was a educator, i was a principal at woodline prep high school -- and in that classroom we had 16 up to seniors. and if you don't listen to the wisdom that's there among all people, okay? you're not going to accomplish anything. so in that classroom we listened to the wisdom of the young people, and we listened to the wisdom of the older people, and it's an each one teach one environment. >> i'm so happy that there are your age people here because we wanted to hear from the people

on the ground that experience all the things going on. importantly, i feel like i wanted to hear from the people that are doing things. we don't have to reinvent the wheel. we have a lot of good things going on now, and i want to know how we can further d. >> speak in -- there you go. >> i'm saying i'm so glad there are all age people here -- where's my mic? i don't know. >> i'm so glad there are all age people here and there were all ages earlier, because we want to hear from everybody. everybody has ideas and suggestions, and you're the ones living in the community, and you can come and tell us what you think will work. and the other thing is i was hoping that people that are involved in god things have -- in good things have shared those, because i don't think we

need to keep reinventing the wheel. we need to support the good things going on in chicago now, and there are a lot of good things, but we're not connecting with each other, so sometimes we don't even know the good things going on. so i think we need to give resources, and it may not be -- it may be people, money, i'm not sure what everybody needs to help further those programs and to expand those programs, duplicate those programs and what's already been mentioned. we want to take this show on the road, we want to go to baltimore and new orleans and other places. it's not just chicago these things are occurring. i mean, the plan when we leave here, we're going back to the rest of the caucus to let them know what went on here, and you will hear from us. also we want to keep hearing from you. we need each other. we can't do it alone, and we want to help you. >> thank you. >> i want to thank you for that and it's also an established group. it's the 1570 club which is 1570

am by harold davis, and we're working with that too. and so those are two established action their groups that's happening in chicago right now. >> thank you so much. [applause] i'm looking for mr. noel green. right here. mr. green's question: at the root of these violence issues within our communities is local economic crisis. how will each of you illinois congress people and the great congresswoman from texas, work to foster the transformation of our economic plight of our communities into a destiny of economic vitality? mr. noel green, executive director of e-squared business development fund. e-couped, excuse me. e-cubed, excuse me. >> well, i guess we do it in different ways. i'm one who believes in i have 20 advisory groups that i work with in my congressional

district ranging from everything early childhood development to business and economic development. we meet regularly, some of them meet every month, some meet every other month, some meet twice a month. we are engaged all the time. and some of us are even almost as old as sampson, but we've been working with reverend sampson for a long time. and so we are actually engaged with the kind of activity. anybody can join our groups. all you've got to do is give us a call at 773-53 be finish. say that one more time. >> 773-533-7520.

most of the legislation that we have gotten pa passed originated with our groups meeting. be one is the $5 million that people have gotten who have hiv/aids organizations whose budgets are less than $100,000 a year, and the money comes from a lottery scratchout. that came from one of our town hall meetings. that's where the idea was generated. the second chance act was generated at one of our town hall meetings. [applause] that's where it came from. so we're engaged in the ways that you're talking about, and we do it with consistency and regularity. >> [inaudible]

>> i'm very committed to working with small business because it's really small business that's the backbone of this country, and what someone said earlier, do you have a small business in the neighborhood, you're probably going to hire the neighborhood person. i'm also committed to keeping government's feet to the fire when there's a local hometown project, you need to hire the local hometown residents, contractors, minority businesses and women businesses. that is not done enough. and identify -- i've met with various people to insure that that that is going to happen, asking for a report. also i'm on science, space and technology, and we just had a s.t.e.m. meeting with various universities in my district and entrepreneurs and, actually, one of the public schools. because the thing that's happening, there's job openings, but what we keep hearing from the ford plant, from other manufacturing plants, they can't find enough skilled workers. so i want to make sure we turn

the unskilled workers into skilled workers, and we can do that through the community college. you don't have to have a four years' degree, but you need certification because manufacturing is not what it used to be. the other thing i'm committed to is trying to find businesses to adopt our local high schools, even junior high schools so that we can build into the curricula the skills that are needed to get the jobs that are the jobs of the future. because it's not what it used to be, and things are different. >> congressman rush, do you want to comment on that? >> yeah, i want to, i want to say we have some roles that we play as legislators, and one of the roles, i'm on the energy and commerce committee. one of the oldest and powerful

committees in the congress. ask i'm a senior member of -- and i'm a senior member of that committee. and i am the leading democrat on the subcommittee on energy and power. and as part of my day-to-day work as a member of congress, i have energy companies coming before the committee and coming before and meeting with me in my office because they have particular concerns and issues. and so i have the responsibility, and i assume the responsibility courageously and enthusiastically of making sure that every energy company that i'm in contact with whatever their initiative is that they have positions for minority participation, ownership

contracts. we, i had the head of the american gas association -- no, pipeline association, the american pipeline association. this was about six months ago, came through before the committee. i asked him because i'm the only black on the subcommittee or i'm the ranking member on the subcommittee, i asked him how many minorities was in his association. all right? and the guy couldn't answer that. he'd never had a question like that asked him, of him by a member of congress. he turned beet red, all right? because he didn't have the answer. and he told me he would get back the me, which i knew the answer before i asked him.

so the point that i'm making is that there is leverage if you have the -- there's leverage to make sure that african-americans are included in the discussion, in the coppsness of -- consciousness of some of these major corporations and that they adepressoffly and affirmatively go out and help expand black businesses, and we have had a lot of success along those lines. but that's not the only thing we can do because you're in a position of influence. and so i had to take off my hat as being the leading democrat or the ranking member on commerce, all right? and as corrine came and told me that they are trying to take

your money out of illinois and put it someplace else. then let me m focus on the -- let me focus on the well measure of creating a program, and so we are getting that money refocused and rechanneled and protect that money. now, once we've protected that money, then i find out -- i was told this -- that our $93 million that one black firm, a security contract, was let for one black security firm, one black contract out of $93, $93,,000,412. so i had to take off my hat -- right, my congressional hat from my tailbone be, right?

[laughter] and we had to march on metro, all right? so, you know, you kind of live with, some dualities that you're dealing with. we can't, we can't -- we've got to be leaders before we're legislators and leaders that do what leaders do. so whenever there's an opportunity for, to create some businesses, whenever there's an opportunity for leveraging some activity, to raise the specter of helping individuals, then you have to rise up to that occasion. we don't have the luxury, you know, if they require us to march, then we march. if it requires us -- let me just give you another example here, and some people -- the media's trying to be critical of me on this, all right? they're trying to run some kind, create some kind of spectacle or

some kind of controversy about this, all right? comcast, i'm on the energy and commerce committee, we've got jurisdiction over telecommunications. comcast was trying to buy nbc, okay? so comcast needed my support, other members' support. well, i told the comcast folks if you are going to, you want to get by support on this, then you're going to have to create black-owned television stations. [applause] i had a hearing in chicago, all right? the subcommittee in chicago, and comcast, in order to get their support, they, in fact, created and they signed a memorandum of agreement, they created black

pluck television station. megan johnson, all right? that's what -- aspire and -- [inaudible] so it creates those kinds of businesses and created that kind of opportunity that have a real effect on blacks not just in chicago, but across the cities. so we are doing, i mean, we are -- i don't want to see this though -- [inaudible] i don't want this to turn into, well, you all are members of the cbc feet to the fire because that's a waste of your time. well, i've seen it all ways, all the time held to the fire. [laughter] you're wasting time asking us

about our commitment. you already know about us. what needs to happen is we need to stay on point and try to deal with the agenda of which we were called. we were called here to talk about solutions to the violence. >> so, congressman, let me ask you this then, let me move to the next question. i have a question from brynn martin from the national pta. and this summit is called the national emergency summit and, congressman clly, you spoke about this morning the july 4th weekend here in chicago, that that was enough. and this question from ms. martin is that immediate intervention, what immediate intervention do you suggest or would you supportto help to protect our children today and tomorrow while we provide the long-term interventions of jobs, education, parenting classes,

etc. we must protect our children to school, fro -- fromm work and at home. example, would you recommend military protection? so immediate intervention is an emergency summit. what immediate intervention would you suggest to support today from ms. martin. >> there it goes. well, i tell you what i suggest. every block should have a block club. [applause] every block should have a block club. you see, problems start at the local level, and it takes local interaction to deal with them. some of the most exciting times i've had in life was when i was the block club organizer.

because people themselves hold many of the solutions to whatever it is that they call problems. and then you move from one level to the next and from that level to the next. for every issue there's not messily a great legislative remedy. many legislative efforts take five to ten years even when you get them passed. i'm saying even when you work on an idea that you've put into a proposal to become a bill, it may take five, it may take ten years before you get that passed. but there are always things that individuals can do right where

they are, right in their communities, right in their neighborhoods, and you can't always be looking out there somewhere for the solutions that can be found right here. [applause] >> i wish that young man had not walked out, but i can understand why they did. because they have some issues right in front of them right here, right now. and that's fear of being killed. be all right? and what we are focused on right now for the most part is adult robs. we have walked right beyond the problems that our children are having, and we're not talking to them. we've got some here in the room. we're talking about adult issues. why aren't they getting

contracts, why aren't they giving money for my business, why can't -- and we're walking right past these children and, therefore, when we leave here, unless we switch the agenda back to the reason why the emergency part of this summit and start talking about our children -- [applause] all right? and what we going to do now and tomorrow about the killing that's taking place as we sit in this place, then we have missed the boat because adults have the capacity and the selfishness, the sell interest to look -- self interest to look beyond the problems of the children and focus in on their issues and expect them to solve their problems. [applause] children cannot solve the kin's prop problems, because the children's problems is the insensitivity and the challenges of their adults who say that

they love them. you've got children on your mind, but you don't have 'em in your heart. you've got to have children in your heart. and right now this is, i'm reaching a level of -- let's talk about the children. >> well, congressman rush, the next question i have a 9-year-old young man named jermaine young. >> let me just add something --? >> sure, please. and while you're answering, congresswoman, can jermaine young find me, please? >> let me say that one of the answers is that we must use the word with emergency. one of the emergencies is the flow of guns. one of the ideas could be a national emergency response to gun trafficking. gun shooting rains from chicago

to washington to the west coast, the east coast, the south and the north. we left washington, they were burying too teenagers, a -- two teenagers, a brother and a sister that had been shot dedead in the street. you go to my hometown, you can find the same thing. but what are they using? guns that are coming in. so one of the things that can be done on a national level is to stop the flow of guns and to stop getting in the hands of whether it's gangs, whether it's somebody that wants to perpetrate a crime against you walking down the street, whether it's somebody that wants to go into a grocery store. you've got to stop the flow of guns. and that's one of the things we can take back to washington, because there are jurisdictions like yours that have good gun laws. but guns are flowing in because there are no restraints to who can traffic guns because there is restraints put on the

investigation by those who don't want to fund a crisis which is the flow of guns. we can all speak in one voice, stop the illegal flow of guns getting into our children's hands and causing them to kill or them to be killed. stop the flow of guns. >> thank you, congressman. we are looking for the 9-year-old young man, but in the meantime, i will ask can the question to the four of you. he asks, jermaine young, his question was why do you all still assume that gang violence is from young youth gang banging? why do you all still assume that gang violence is from young youth gang banging? >> well, i heard something quite interesting today x that's why i really want to listen to the young people because i think that those of my generation and maybe those of of other

generations, i don't know, i think that we're really missing the boat here. i was in on danny's breakout session on gang violence, and the young men, one of the young guys said that, you know, your definition of gangs has changed. so you're using the 1990 definition of gangs. he'd say in the '90s these gangs were more drug controlled. they were more drug directed. he said but that's not it anymore. now it's more turf directed. it's more turf driven. now, if we don't get that, then we're going to be following the media, and it's talking about

gangs who are dealing drugs. and miss the boat about the gangs who are killing because of turf. now, when i heard that, the first thing that came to me mind because, you know, the spirit has been working with me on this. i'm thinking about cha here in this chicago. and the fourth migration -- the forced migration of 40,000 families -- [applause] [inaudible] deteriorating houses, absolutely. we meant that, worst kind of housing you would ever want to live in, warehouses. but the effect of tearing them

all down at the same time pushing them into -- [inaudible] and pushing them into westchesterfield and pushing them into -- [inaudible] now, what have you got now? you've got turf wars because you've got these youngsters who are not, who can't, who are not, they don't have the foundation in these communities, and so they're trying to reconnect to their world. and so this block is against this block, and that block is against that block, and that's why we have this finish. [inaudible] because we don't have gangs no more, we've got -- [inaudible] and they're all armed. armed to gills, and they're here

to kill the neighbor from the next block. and that's what's going on in this city, and the fact is, the fact is that we've got to deal with that policy. they took, it was the largest forced migrations in history of this country, and we've got to speak to that and understand that. now, the violence of that, the policy-directed violence of that is followed just this year with the closing at one time of 54 schools. [applause] all right? so it's a war against our young people and -- [inaudible] well, i ain't got a contract. let's focus on the real war, and

that war is totally destroying our sense of community here in chicago, and we've got to deal with it. >> so, congressman -- [applause] i've gotten a bunch of questions. so you go back to washington and you go back to work in august in washington, and this was -- what is the plan? >> this week. >> quite simple, what is the plan? so when you go back to washington, and we certainly understand and have come -- compassion for the friction that you all feel when you go back to washington. but what is the plan? when you go back, what -- you've heard from folks this evening, from today. you know the issue. you live the the issue for decades. what is the plan? >> i think the plan is that we're going to take three or four very concrete initiatives and ideas that we will promote

and try and convince as be many other people to promote the very same ones. it is true that, yeah, we know what causes are, we know what problems are, we even know what solutions are. but what we're not able to do is to implement those things that a can solve and will solve the problems. early childhood education, everybody agrees, is a good thing. let every child have optimal opportunity to get the very best education that they can get. i don't know anybody who disagrees with that. but making it happen, making it real, making it work becomes the

challenge. or there might be another issue. the things that schools can do if we're talking specifically about the question of violence. there is anti-bullying legislation that has been introduced. as a matter of fact, representative sheila jackson lee as well as myself have bills calling for curriculums to be developed that actually help teach young people that there's a way to resolve conflict without resorting to violence. that's part of the long road home. but you've got to take it, you've got to make use of it. and then we've got all of these other disparities that we know exist. matter of fact, we've been

fighting them since nat turner, since gabriel proper. i mean, we're all aware. and not only are we aware, but the rest of society is aware. how do you generate the leverage that you need to bring about the change that you are seeking? efforts are underway every day. struggle is ongoing everyone day. every day. and we meet with measures of success. don't ever believe that no success ever comes or that nothing ever change although much remains the same. and so the struggle goes on. we'll be struggling for years

and years to reach the level of equality, equal justice, equal protection under the law. and there is no quick and dirty solutions. there are no easy answers. there are no panaceas. and so there's no be point to delusion ourselves into believing that there is. struggle, strife and pain are the prerequisites for change. always has been, always will be. >> well, i have -- [applause] i have probably close to a hundred questions here, and i've read through most of them, and there are some amazing questions here. in the interest of time -- and i know it's friday evening -- i want to be respectful of your time, certainly.

so what i'd can the members of congress -- i'd ask the members of congress, you have a question. please -- >> can you hear me? >> yes. >> >> i just want to know from the audience, someone asked what can we do. this was an emergency summit. and i really want to know the answer to when someone says should we bring military to the block, what do people -- i want to know what you think, you know? should we bring state police or -- >> no! >> i'm not saying i'm for it one way or another, but i want to know -- >> a quick show of hands. >> people are afraid to sit on the porch or go to the store or send their kids to school, then what is going to make you unafraid? is it more visibility or what -- that's what i want to know. >> so can i ask the question, congresswoman, in the interest of time would you all commit to sticking around and talking to folks one-on-one after wards for a little bit? yes?

congresswoman? >> [inaudible] >> is your -- is my mic -- can you hear me? let me, let me build on what my members have said. again, let me indicate that your members are here, congressional black caucus members are here. you saw many of them today. some of us flew in late just so that we could be be part of caring about what is happening to our young people. we have something called the justice working group of the congressional black caucus. your members are a member of it. and my promise to you is that i said something about gun trafficking. we have talked around it in washington. but there is something to all these guns being around, and it's not the ones you have in your home that you're -- you know, no one is trying to break the second amendment. but the ease of getting guns is because you can't seem to get people to understand. so we have an agenda, universal background checks.

banning these assault weapons. passing anti-bullying and prevention meaning that there are resources to intervene just like second chance worked. then giving people a second chance with a job. the list of gun laws that many of us have introduced, simple ones, and, yes, dealing with some of the laws that did not work in sanford be, florida. dealing with stand your ground. dealing with the self-defense that lines up people who want to not do right can use to avoid prosecution. but one thing we have to concede is that we're not getting killed with a fist. we're getting killed with guns in the wrong hands and bullets, and you have to ask yourself where are all these coming from. so the justice working group and

the congressional black caucus, we're hearing all of that, is going to to the hard questions -- ask the hard questions, produce legislation and also soon the resources -- seek the resources. because there's nothing wrong with asking, as bobby has said, let children be our priority from the federal level that deals with education and summer jobs. and i will leave to the experts about how the gangs are moving around, whether it's turf, whether it's drugs or whether it's one gang against another. but we do know seem are dying. and i think we need to leave here with the burden of the members who put together an omnibus, an emergency plan and funding. and i can tell you that no one up here is a wallflower. and that this will be heard next week loudly and clearly.

and the good news is, let me say the good news. i like to say the good news. in our church, it's the good news coming. we have got some brilliant, brilliant strategists coming out of diverse communities, the african diaspora, latino community. we've got some brilliant folks, but they need to be heard. so when they come with their plans whether it's organizations that my members work with and help fund, whether it's naacp, whether it's the urban league, guys, you have to know that whatever the national -- these folk are working hard. i'm not going to bring up the voting rights act, but that's on our plate. [applause] ask and that's got to deal with how we have seem who are representing that's going to be interested in giving money to put our children first. so if you'll work with us to get a anti-violence agenda by your

voices and working with your members, you can be assured the congressional black caucus, all the members that came are going to take this back to washington. they're not going to talk to ourselves. we're going to talk to the idea of a herd -- heard, listened to and acted on agenda. we're going to come up with something great that's going to deal with our children based upon what i know my members heard and what i'll take away. but don't forget we came here about gun violence, and don't let anybody say that we didn't hear about what we need to do about preventing gun violence and serving the lives of, saving the lives of our children. so i heard you, and i've got folks to work with. and i thank them for having me today. >> thank you. congresswoman kelly and congressman rush, do you want to leave us some closing words? >> yeah, i would. thank you so much. first of all, i want to just say to those who are become here

whatever time that you've been here, sheila, i really thank you for coming. here to chicago for this. and maxine and corrine and cedric, they've come from their districts. and i know how tough it is to come into another city. finish so i really appreciate you for coming and mac seen and others for -- maxine and others for coming. danny and robin, i really appreciate the opportunity to work with them. and i appreciate and love everyone here, those who were here and had to leave, those who came in later, those who participated and brings out this has been an historic day, pretty remarkable day. not only for the conversation inside the breakout sessions,

but the conversations in the cafeteria, the conversations on the sidewalk, in the hallways. a lot of conversations going on around this particular issue. and when we as a community start having conversations about the problems, then we're well on our way to solving the problem. when we don't talk to each other, that's when the problems really become more magnified and more intense. and let me just leave you two thoughts. one thought that i have is that i don't know how many of you here volunteer to really spend any time working in your church, in your schools, on your block, in your organization -- [applause] these young people. i mean, young people need the

love and the support and the time of the adults. i often tell the story about young people who two years ago was in my a office. they come in every year, but this one particular group had been in washington six days x this was the end of their trip to washington. and they came in to see their congressman, and they -- i sat for 45 minutes, and they asking me questions about legislation and my position on legislation. and we went through a very nice, thoughtful conversation with questions. and then at the end of it i asked them, i said now i've got two questions that i want to ask can you. i said, what is your biggest problem? these children were from hirsh high school and similar onand king, you know, a cross-section. i said what is your bigst problem? -- biggest problem?

they said, our biggest problem is fear. fear is our beg withest problem. [applause] fear of being shot, fear of being stabbed, fear of being clubbed to death, fear. fear is our biggest problem. going to school, from school, walking to the store. our biggest problem is fear. stunned me. that we have in our communities our children, our neighbors, our neighbors' children, our young people with major problems. it's fear. i said, okay, that's excellent. well, what can we as adults do about it? a -- they said give request us some of your time. -- give us some of your time. [applause] they didn't ask for more money. they didn't ask for laws to be passed. they didn't ask for president

obama to create a commission. they said give us more of your time. if we would invest more of our time with these young people, we can stop this violence. [applause] the second thought that i had is how do we -- this is a national movement. it's not just, chicago is just the epicenter of it. it really is going across -- some of these, i don't know where these tv cameras are, but some people in philadelphia going to see and hear about this, read about this, and some people in oakland, california, going to read about this, and they're going to wonder, well, what are they doing in chicago? how is chicago working this situation out? one thing that we're taking a lot of time and effort, we've

got 30 days before the national march on washington, the date that it took place, august 28th. the 50th anniversary. we've got one month. today is the 27th? so we've got one month. today's the 26th? okay, two days. all right. [laughter] why if you and i can agree on this, why don't we work over the next 30 days e-mailing, texting and sending facebooks, communicating out and ask for aal day of non-- a national day of nonviolence in our communities on august the 28th? [applause] now, i'm, i'm not saying that that's going to solve the problem, but just going through

that will make a difference in some communities. if you organize your church around just that simple idea, one day, just that simple idea organize your block, organize your school, organize the community, one day, a national day of nonviolence, and let's declare it, and let's just headache that happen. no killing -- make that happen. no killing on that day. call a cease fire on that day. and if we do it then, i think that we'll be empowering ourselves to take more definitive action. >> thank you for that. [applause] congressman kelly, take us home. >> once again, i just want to appreciate all of you that have taken the time to come. we know we put this together in emergency fashion and not a lot of notice, and i'm sure a lot of this is preaching to the choir, but, you know, the choir needs reminding and practicing and rehearsing. but also we're asking the choir

to get more singers, because we need a community, we need a community to get involved. it's an old proverb, but it is going to take a village. it's going to take us, and it's going to take you who represent many different entities. but i just want to say thank you so much again, and i am passionate about this. your zip code should not determine your opportunity, and i just want to make sure as someone said we had this meeting ten years ago. well, ten years from now i don't want us to be having this meeting. thank you. [applause] >> if if i could -- >> [inaudible] >> the level of cooperation has been incredible. we've had the governor of our state, we've had the mayor of our city, we've had several local elected officials, we've had community groups and organizations, we've had faith

leaders. and i want to thank all of them -- [inaudible conversations] to make for a very productive weekend. i also want to thank all of our staffs and the staff of chicago state university for their engagement, the involvement -- [applause] their cooperation. i want to thank the congressional black caucus staff. be -- each one of our individual staffs here in chicago and in washington. and i believe that we have started a gain, something that we've heard commitment. last night there was a commitment that people would continue to convene themselves

here at chicago state university, that there will be continuous discussion, continuous meetings, continuous organization and, quite frankly, it takes all of that in order to make something happen. it's been very productive. i know that people are going to ask what happens as a result. well, what happens as a result remains to be seen. and, quite frankly, the answer to that really becomes a question that each one of us will answer. i never will forget growing up, a friend of mine and myself, we thought that we were fairly bright little boys. there was a hand many our town named -- man in our town named

uncle joe who was known as the wisest of men. the ideas was that if we could ask uncle joe a question that he could not answer, then everybody would know that we were smart. and so we thought that we'd catch ourselves the mockingbird, and we'd ask uncle joe if he knew what we had. we figured that he would know we had a mockingbird, but then we would ask him if the bird was alive or dead. if uncle joe said that the bird was alive, we would squeeze it and kill it, open our hands, and everybody could see that he was wrong. if he said the bird was dead, we would simply open our hands, and the bird would fly away. so we ran to him with our plan. we says, uncle joe, we want to ask you something.

do you know what we've got many our hands in -- in our hands. so he looked and said, little boy, in your hand is a mockingbird. we kind of punched each other and said, well, we got him now. uncle joe, can you tell us if the bird is alive or dead? uncle joe acted like he was about to answer, then he looked at the two of us, and he said, little boys, the answer to that is in your hands. the success of this -- [applause] weekend summit and its success is really in all of our hands as we leave based upon what we do. we thank you for coming. >> that is a -- [applause] a beautiful way to end this inspiring evening. i do want, i have one piece of

housekeeping here. these incredible people don't stop. tomorrow at 9 a.m. at kennedy king college there is a congressional black caucus presents the health brain trust of making good health my reality. congressman bobby rush, congressman danny davis, congresswoman robin kelly and donna christianson will all be be there at 9 a.m., a town haul on health at kennedy king college. i would say this, i want to thank congresswoman sheila jackson lee, congressman bobby rush, congressman danny davis, congresswoman robin kelly, congresswoman corrine brown who had to leave for being here, but most importantly as congressman davis said, i thank you all for being here. in the spirit of congressman rush and mr. davis' childhood story, on august 2