difference between conservatives and liberals? as was mentioned earlier liberals believe in the perfectibility of humans and human nature conservatives believe human nature is constant and immutable. if you think about the fact that human nature is constable and people have been living in the structure since time immortal and the resistance so enduring us for that reason. we have every reason to be optimistic that whatever the political conditions on the economic conditions are the social conditions we may endure our faith 50 years from now that people need and desire to be in families and community because that is ingrained in how we are. >> but the breakdown in the family in europe is a formal breakdown. in other words that i have a piece of paper but living together as if they are married for life or approximation thereof. i don't know if that suggests a way out if the breakdown is more than formal here. i don't know if that suggest a remedy but it suggests a disease that we have that they don't

have. >> i would just call it, it's a formal problem that we describe is going to get worse but the consequences of that problem may not be as catastrophic as we fear. >> on that note thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> host: joining us now on booktv is former health and human services secretary louis sullivan. dr. louis sullivan. dr. sullivan when did you decide you are going to become a medical doctor back? >> guest: i was age five and my father who was a funeral director in the small town in southwest georgia and among other things he provided ambulance services for people and needed to be transported to the doctor. my father was often asked me to go with them to help and of

course at age five i was curious curious. there was one black doctor in southwest georgia and bainbridge near lincoln where we lived. so i from age five wanted to be like dr. griffin. he's very successful highly respected in the community. people really thought that he was a great citizen but to me he was a magician. he could make people well. i decided that was what i wanted to do. so that is what i decided to do. i love science and will working with people so being a doctor combines both of us very well. >> host: southwest georgia and eric you were growing up what were some of the race considerations? >> guest: they were very difficult. my father was an activist and he started a chapter 4 the naacp in 1937.

my mother was a schoolteacher. as a result of my father's activism the 20 years they lived there my mother never got a job in blakely teaching school. she had to drive 20 or 30 miles away to other towns where she worked as a teacher. but in addition to founding the naacp chapter she works to really against the white primary that excluded blacks from participating and established an emancipation day celebration january 1 a barrier. i was in a band. my parents sent me and my brother back to atlanta to attend school because schools in segregated rural george in the 30s and 40s were not very good then. but all of that was a great imprint on me because my parents were committed to my brother and myself getting a good education. i finished high school in atlanta and one on two morehouse

college in atlanta and then the university middle school school. vera graduated in 1954 was the same year brown versus board of education came out from the supreme court. when i graduated from college i could not go to medical school in georgia so i went to the university and did very well. that was my first experience in 1954 when i went to boston. living in a non- segregated society. the bottom line was i was accepted without any problems whatsoever and a great experience. i became class president and finished third in my class and went on to cornell and harvard for postgraduate training and ended up on the faculty at bu. then in 1955 morehouse college my college alma mater helped found the morehouse school of medicine. that then led to my meeting vice

president bush whose dedication of the building we constructed back in july of 82. that is done very well and i was lobbying him in 1988. i thought he would be a great secretary betty reverse the tables on me and he had me service secretaries so that's how i became secretary of health and human services. >> host: what do you consider your biggest accomplishment during your tenure at hhs? >> guest: waging the war against tobacco use because tobacco use them in today still is the number one preventable cause of death. i have never smoked and i have nothing against executives in the tobacco industry except that their product kills people and that's a position as health secretary my responsibilities to do everything i can to protect and enhance the health of the american people.

so we were very successful. we waged an effort against r.j. reynolds when they were going in january 1990, they were going to introduce a new cigarette in philadelphia called uptown. it so happened that the time i was speaking at the university of arizona and my speech included an attack against rj reynolds producing unfiltered mentholated cigarettes. i was in a fight over many months. they surprise me because two weeks later they announced they were not proceeding with this new cigarette that they were going to test market. other things i'm proud of is introducing the new food label to let people know more about the foods they are eating and the impact they may have and then thirdly introducing more diversity into the department. the first woman to head the national institutes of health is still the only woman dr. bernadine healy that i recommended for her appointment.

and gwendolyn king was someone that i -- so i wanted to change the culture that apartment and i think we succeeded with that. >> host: in a quick few minutes with former hhs secretary dr. louis sullivan breaking ground as the name of his autobiography, my life in medicine. the forward is by and andrew young. you are watching booktv on c-span.