>> host: colman mccarthy come it's such an honor to be able to interview you about the book and your life, and i know you say don't give homework to your students, but sometimes you do and you tell them to say that they love somebody. so want to start out saying i love you. >> guest: you are sweet. you and our good pals and i have always admired your work and i remember that wonderful interview did with brian lamb on q&a. i thought that was a credit to both of you and you did that with great sincerity and

honesty. >> host: as long as we are single the love i love c-span. brian lamb is such an amazing person and love the interviews he does. and c-span is such a gift. you as an educator must really appreciate c-span. >> guest: i do. in fact it's one of the things i'm very proud of. one of my former students is steve scully who is here and c-span, figure a long time, a great interview. i knew stay when i was at american university in the 1980s. and another student that year was jim mcgovern who became a member of congress and is a good antiwar liberal anti-help and the war in el salvador. -- and he helped end the war in el salvador. i had gym class and i was kind of worried about him because he made so many a's. >> host: but you don't

upgrade. >> guest: i said you've got to get out. you're spending too much time. you're missing out on things. so we said, what do you suggest? i said there's a wonderful women's a shelter in d.c. go down and volunteer and see which you can learn. he was working for congressman than, so he went down and he met women from el salvador who fled in the 1980s. i said can see what's going on down there. he started taking numbers of congress to el salvador. i don't think joe knew a lot i don't think he knew where el salvador was from hong kong but yet a good irish hard. and then finally at the end of finally joe moakley persuaded congress to cut off the fondling -- funding for el salvador.

>> host: it's amazing to think that was your recommendation on what he should do. >> guest: jim follow through and now he's in congress. you get into the pentagon -- he got into congress because of fidel castro. he went back home and ran and was defeated the first time he tried to he had 8% of the. he came back for us old job with joe moakley. goes and runs again. "the boston globe" endorsed republican incumbent. democrats gave him little to no money. he was down in the polls. four days before the election, hollow wing, the incumbent, and meanwhile, jim had been taken to the members of congress to cuba and the embargo. so the incumbent want of a little fun at jim's expense. he hires a guy to dress up as fidel castro big boots, cigar the whole works, puts the guy at the main interest of worchester

messages all day long on halloween holding an enormous sign with forward on a. vote for jim mcgovern. the trick was so foul and so dirty go four days later jim won the election. i called him up and said jim how did you do it quick you were way behind. oh, i get the other side -- and decided catholic vote. a little while before i went to cuba to talk to fidel, so did the poll. so if the pulpit talk to fidel, like to talk to fidel. >> host: that's a great example of blowback. i was thinking reading about how it would just be so marvelous to see a diagram that shows colman mccarthy in the center and all the links that go to people are doing amazing things around the world, and you certainly just from reading this book get this wonderful bird's eye view of how

many lives you have influenced through your teaching. >> guest: well it's just the readings we did and they come into the classes. they've never taken a peace studies class before and they go all through elementary school, middle school, high school with no peace class. they take math every year. they take science every year. will we ever put anybody through our schools with only one math course in 12 years or no math course or no science? they did it every year, whether they need it would or like it or not. and so i've been trying for years to get the schools let's get peace studies in the curriculum and get them talking about things. >> host: so you are known for many, many years as a columnist for the "washington post," which one would think as a writer is kind of a peak. you have this paper a tremendous influence.

you are here in the nation's capital. you are reaching come is that millions of people, and why did you drop out for teaching ranking member? >> guest: identity to me people in the peace movement. i edited desmond tutu from south africa, buenos aires mother teresa from calcutta, mohammed from bangladesh all nobel peace prize winners plus people like schreiber and eunice -- sergeant evan eunice shriver. jim mcgovern, people like that. i would always ask them, how is the best way to go about increasing peace and decreasing violence? which ought to be the purpose of our lives. if you seek a life of purpose. deangelis came back pretty much the same. you need to go where people are. people keep having complex and

solving it through violent force or nonviolence force. so the idea was sound i thought. to go to a local public high school a few blocks from the "washington post" and said can i communicate the class on peace studies? metaclass like a but if you want to try come on in. so that's when i started in 1982 and i've been at it ever since. i think i've got 12,000 suits over the years. it's not that difficult or strategic you read the literature of peace gandhi king, musty, jesus tolstoy einstein on the first day. then we really get into it. students often say why haven't we heard about these people? >> host: is not only the people you introduce into it's your ideas. enforcement we should say that this book is a collection of marvelous letters to you that

you didn't respond to you. and i must say that i learned so much and was inspired just by reading their letters and your responses, and that's the beauty of this book. is a combination of you pulling quotes from text the people that you just mentioned, but then there's your own wisdom and your own humor that comes out of i was in every letter there's a combination of that. you are just such a unique person. here use it in for me looking like he could be a republican, a very -- ass ouch, ouch. >> host: over the others i can't get away with writing such things in the post? and then i reread you have it was at a protest that we were doing, and you rolled up in your bicycle and you said, i'm colman mccarthy. and i said that's not colman

mccarthy. colman mccarthy is the writer for the "washington post." you said yes i am colman mccarthy. we made to get up and say something. but i think that you embody so many amazing values and concepts and challenges to students that come out so beautifully in this book. and i think you come you said in the book that he they don't teach in peace, everyone else is going to teach them violence. and your concept of peace may be for the listeners we should start out with you getting a basic sense of what is peace? >> guest: well, peace is a result of law. if love was easy we would all be good at it. -- a result of love. you have to talk about that and so in my high school classes and all of my classes our discussion based and i

deemphasize syllabus and sell by by. whenever advertisers would've a lot of ground to cover today, i tell the students, tell the professor to go be the track coach where they cover a lot of ground. there is no hurry to rush through gandhi or dorothy day. there's so much of their. >> host: but peace to you is not just the absence of order to bring issues like animal rights. you're a vegetarian. you ride your bicycle. could you maybe give your personal philosophy? >> guest: well i think we are all called upon to decrease the world's violence. and in many ways to go about that. and i decide one way was through my diet. i always ask my students would talk about animal rights, i asked for questions. hoop in the class would like to use cruelty in the world? all hands go up. who would like to reduce world

hunger? all hands go up. who would like to reduce global warming? all hands go up. who would like to have a healthy body? all hands go up. i've never been presented yes i want to increase crude in the world. i've never had that. okay, four out of four. so then how do we go about that? stop eating meat and you make some progress. if everybody did that we would have a very serene world. that's one example. people always say okay i can't do much about stopping the death penalty right now. i can write about it. i can do much about bringing the troops home from afghanistan or the other 700 military bases we have around the world. okay but i can do something about my next meal. >> host: one of the marvelous exchanges in this book was when you talk about bringing turkey into the class.

maybe you could tell us about that. >> host: i always do and will rights in the fall but two weeks before thanksgiving a little bit perverts i am. i said no dead rotting cookies -- turkeys for me. the rest of you barbarians keep eating them. so if something they can do uzbek but you brought a live turkey into the classroom for the students to get a sense -- empathy with the turkey tragedy that turkey walked around at the turkey's name was abigail. the only turkey i've ever made page one in "the wall street journal." there was a crash after bring the turkeys down the highway and suddenly the highways filled with turkeys. some friends of mine in maryland were riding along and they grab one of the turkeys to bring it down to the rescue center. so i knew the folks.

bring abigail tuerk last edited. it was a great learning moment. here's what you'll be eating in four or five days. a lot of conversion happened the day post that because the students like the turkey. >> guest: it brought the reality home. the way we tell them is out of sight the there's two types of violence, there is hot and cold violence. hot is what isis is doing cutting off heads. 9/11 was hot of violence. the gun shootings you know in aurora and in connecticut. we feel that. the media talks about it often, but cold violence, how the animals are killed, executioners on death row people killed by drones which you've written your book about. it's out of sight. we don't feel it. it's not emotional.

but its violence whether it is hot or cold it still happens. >> host: are their personal things that should make lifelong commitments to, one is you don't drink, edgy challenges students about drinking. drinking and should write in the exchanges with the students is such a devastating impact on our society. could you talk a little bit about your interaction with the students on the drinking issued? >> guest: that was a very touching letter that i had from a student who went to my high school, wilson high school. and shouted very open mind just going off to college and she writes to me and says, she's a senior at wilson high school, and from a very fine family. i've been pondering something quite a bit lately and i was wondering if i could share if you could share with me some of

her thoughts on the subject. here goes. i've always chosen to abstain from drinking and doing drugs because i have known i've always known that they don't need them toxicants of that sort to enjoy myself. and so she goes on. if you have any counsel about -- i gave her, i said dear hannah, this is august 2009. you may have come across it that ambiguity free live from t.s. eliot in a world the fugitives, the person taking the opposite direction will appear to run away. that's you. and so i encourage her to take a stand, don't go near that drug. it is the worst of all the drugs. there are more families ruined by that drug than any other. >> host: and you started out because a friend of yours, was attacking your high school?

was killed in a car accident from drinking. and that led you to make a lifelong commitment not to drink. >> guest: i always ask my students if you want to write a paper, and prominent law schools, they write papers. i said do a research paper and research your own life where do you spend your money and where do you spend your time. that tells a lot about you. enjoyed erasure to something would be close, stopped drinking this semester. >> host: well, i wonder if students see you as too good, too pure an example, and that makes it hard for them to aspire to you. you ride your bike everywhere. you don't drink. you're a vegetarian. you are so committed on the personal as well as the larger level. do you think that makes you less of a model? >> guest: they always say

they always joke around well we are glad you are here, professor. we need a few eccentrics like you around. and then they kind of say you know, you're a little loopy, but you'll wake up one of these decades. >> host: because of the drinking come you didn't even agree with drinking in moderation. you say don't touch the stuff. >> guest: i still love those alcohol companies. they lie to the kids. it's awful. i've never seen the commercial on television a beer commercial, with anybody and holding a book. it's always you know this frivolity. but the book represents thinking thinking. and the student wrote an essay how she stopped drinking. it was a powerful piece of writing, and she found out i

really have no friends. i just had drinking buddies. >> host: that was a great piece in there when she was in a subordinate realized that her whole life revolved around pregame drinking and then they came and then the postgame drinking and when she stopped drinking she realized who were her friends, she sought out people that before she would have anything to do with this. >> guest: and then her name was george harper and she's in grad school now. i admire her greatly. >> host: i wonder if we could talk a little bit about some of the other controversial things that you bring up. one thing i'm sure is very controversial especially in this town is that you don't vote, and maybe you can explain why they don't vote. and isn't something you just put out there to your students think this is something i do, or do you actually tell them don't vote transferred, conscientious nonvoters because number one

the constitution sanctions violence under article 1, section 8. we will have a commander in chief, that congress shall raise money for the militia. so anybody you vote for no matter how good they are, they are sworn to uphold the constitution which is a document that sanctions solving conflict with violence. we've been doing that all these years, all these interventions, the wars we've had. we have a military budget that has wrecked our economy. in fact, i always show my classes this visual, which is on the american friends service committee. and on the left is a military spending, 59% of our discretionary funding that goes to killing people or 352 people. we don't say we are defending democracy. and over on the right on social

programs, 4% of the state department, five for education. if you had the peace corps budget it would be way over here. so that's the reality your. >> host: and of course, no department of peace that people like dennis kucinich tried so hard to get for many years. >> guest: right. we have to use institute for peace which i admire and have written about but congress demanded by not funding adequately. >> host: what about rotc on campus is and your involvement in opposing that? >> guest: well i think a school at georgetown where i teach, i teach at the law school, a teach undergraduate there. they have rotc programs. these are catholics, notre dame is the biggest one in the country percentagewise. boston college, all these jesuit schools, and here price was a pacifist. he preached nonviolence. how can that be?

i'm waiting for the pope to see whether he ever comes out and tells catholics you are forbidden to go into the military. he is nowhere near saying that. >> host: you live in d.c. i could see if you had these views and you lived in ann arbor, michigan, four you lichtenberger, a in the nation's capital and are surrounded by the military contractors. you are surrounded by basis and get you say things like you want to figure country, don't join the military, and you're constantly in this book advising her students not to join the military. >> guest: sure. the reason i do that, either that phrase, thank you for serving your country. well, i don't think that's true. no one in the military is serving their country. they are serving those who run the country. there'sthere is very little evidence that those who run the country care about you. otherwise the va wouldn't have a long waiting list. you wouldn't have the high suicide rate among veterans

both vietnam and iraq and afghanistan. they don't care about you. or otherwise that would have declared those wars in the first place. altering the vietnam war unsure remember, there was only one member of congress who had a son who saw combat. only one in that long war. >> host: window was a draft. >> guest: and that was the son of clarence long, a longtime labor democrat from baltimore whose son was killed. but the other boys, here is come here something compares richard cheney's draft deferments. i pass this up on to my classes. this is a letter by mark plotkin, one of the journalists here in town. and there he was, and there's a cartoon from "the new yorker." father talking to his son and said son, everyone went to college in the '60s. there was a war going on.

a great line. >> host: a great line. but today with the wars in afghanistan and iraq libya yemen, we could go on and on still, people are voted into congress because of their war record. it must be very controversial to many other students, i'm sure some of them have been in military or their parents have. how does that go over with them traffic i do not blame soldier to ipad mini veterans in my class. i have one now. they all saw combat in afghanistan and iraq. one boy came up to me leaving at the end of the first class. he said, please don't ask any questions on what i did in afghanistan. i promised i will not ask you. he was very tense. and the boy wrote a wonderful paper about what he did. he was a marine.

he was taught to break into houses and kill people. the essay was so strong, i have it published in the newspaper. he's doing fine now. so gandhi admired soldiers. he said they can to be disciplined people. if only the peace movement was as strong and as dedication. we would get some were. >> host: well, if course only if appeasement and have the resources the military had to pay people to go to college. because as you know a lot of students go into the military to get their college paid for. in fact, your students writing letters about that in this book. but you say you don't blame the soldiers, yet eco-people don't join the military, and doesn't that kind of overlap and make people uncomfortable? >> guest: you can't tell them what to do. you can just show them what their options are. the first letter in the book is from a student from the naval

academy. her name was carol lee. she wrote a piece to me. she was an english major at the academy. and i wrote a column about the panama invasion in 1988 89. and said women should be in combat. i don't think men should be in combat either but i stressed women that day. nobody should be. so she writes to me. she said, sir you have some crazy ideas about women in war. she goes on in a very graceful way and let me know i was kind of apple. so i go back to her and i said half a ton of thanks for your letter and a full-time for compassionate language. so i go on and i quoted

einstein. our school books glorify war and conceal its horrors. they indoctrinate children with hatred. i would rather teach peace rather than war. love rather than hate. people should continue to fight, but they should fight for things worthwhile not imaginary geographical lines or racial prejudices and private greed draped in the colors of patriotism. the arms should be weapons of this. no not shrapnel and takes einstein. he was writing against wars largely ignored, but there he was. so i invited her to come to my class at georgetown university. she had to consider navy pocket the apple to see if she'd be allowed to go with those

liberals at georgetown law. you've got to get security clearance. she came every week. got no credit for the class, and she invited me to her graduation. i kept up with her. she did five years in san diego and -- >> host: in the military? >> guest: in the military. went to night school san diego law and became a public interest lawyer, and has done work in bringing warlords in africa to justice. and so she now works for one of the world's largest law firms dla piper. and she was doing good deeds. and she came to the class and she never had this before. and a student named grace armstrong in the class wrote to her and said your visit to our

class was the most fortunate thing that happened to me all year. and she goes on and just thanks. listening to your store encouraged me to pursue my passion, law and human rights. i'm so glad to have met you and in one afternoon i see you becoming a role model in my life. that's from grace armstrong, a student from southern california. so you never know. i mean it's just a roll of the dice but it does expose people to new ways. i always tell the students come in this class you are not allowed to ask any questions. instead, come in here and question the answers. if anyone says the answers violence, i quite like wrote -- the great line from the great philosopher, she said, violence like all action changes the world, but the most probable changes to a more violent world.

a great thought. >> host: i think one of the amazing things about your teaching career is that you are on so many different levels of teaching in high schools and colleges and law schools, but also in prison. and one of the most compelling exchanges in your and the discussion is about the class on nonviolence started by a prisoner, was he on death row? ..

and they did close it. >> host: but while the course is going, you related the book how you took your students and however you managers to fit into the prison for their graduation ceremony. that must've been some thing. so they came down and filmed at and then bob abernathy came down and make him a diploma for the 14 week class and i supplied this class. the first time anything was recognized for education. post code they give indication to the students and hide it from from violence. >> guest: a lot of the kids

going down or pro-death penalty. nobody coming home is pro-death penalty. the human beings did egregious things but they are still human beings that we should not kill them. the death penalty is something that's left a scar in this country soul. there's 152 men released from death row. scalia, john roberts pro-death penalty people. obama to his pro-death penalty. he said in some cases it is so heinous we have to do it. >> host: of course he is pro-killing too. if you can kill people by drones. >> guest: that's the death penalty. i've been very lucky in my life. i have a family.

three sons i was doing good deeds in the world. one of my sons takes care of lost boys on the sudan and my other two boys are both up leads and baseball coaches and teachers. and my wife i not only love my wife, but i adore her. we met here in 10 and she was a nurse. we met in. about four weeks later. our family said you are brushing and today's. stay calm. >> host: it's been how many years? >> guest: it's been 96 years. 48 for my wife, 48 for me. you've got to do the full cal. >> host: does she worry about your riding around on your bicycle? >> guest: well, i've had two crashes. i broke my jaw one time and i was hospitalized in rope might

all. i had a helmet on both times but she lets me borrow her car occasionally. she's very generous with her car. >> host: and you still read everywhere on your bike? >> guest: well, i love it. >> host: your 76? >> guest: i just turned 77. i run marathons. i've run 18 marathons. i adjusted the cherry blossom race on sunday so i am hosting on. my wife puts up with a lot i think. she was in obstetrical nurse. they do a class now about obstetrical violence, how they treat women. i admire the midwives in the obstetricians, mostly men. hospitals are run by men and i

think home births are low cost in the midwives can do it. i bring them into my class to talk about it. >> host: welcome you didn't mention your wife very much in the book, but i do her one mention when you said you have a cost for writing letters of recommendation for your students, that they have to bake something for you and your wife. >> guest: yes indeed. >> host: can you tell us why? >> guest: you know you write a letter for me for grad school. can you do about friday? okay come you've got to bake something for me. college folks spend so much time at the library getting those a's, that they don't know much about the kitchens.

i said this is going to help you come in benefit you. make a pie a loaf of bread. >> host: and they do it? >> guest: oh yeah. it has a practical value for them. >> host: i don't know about saving money because a lot of the teaching you do and you don't get 84. >> guest: i don't get paid a lot of money but i do get paid and enormous satisfaction and it's a great joy to be with students debating the issues. i have a high school teacher who really saved my life. i was failing algebra. i was failing geometry failing physics. i wasn't going to get out of high school. you're in trouble.

there's a high school a north shore high school. he set up to you you write for me every night and not get some extra credit scoring. i love writing. it has a passion for something. thanks to bernie shaw then i was able to get out of high school and i wrote in college and then they landed up at the pose. i've been lucky all my life. >> host: one of the things in this book are beautiful letters by the students. i wonder with young people these days focusing so much on social media, twitter facebook, where you are not writing more than a cent concert to our students could have writing anymore?

>> guest: writing goes down. i often do a little exercise. write down all the ways you can think of beginning with the letters a and b. you have 10 minutes to do it. so rarely do they get more than 20 were. beginning with the letter a b. go and learn them and then go to the aec for comment 18 wears pink in your vocabulary. you have to have great language that people value and pay you for. >> host: there was one letter in here that was very disturbing, but beautifully written. it seemed like it was from a young

and he left the room. never came back. word spread. handing a's like flowers in the spring time. the dean didn't like it. he didn't invite me back. i never saw him again. this point in the book was in the class. he stayed and learn something and he now runs a shelter for homeless people. his name is ryan heyman. he was in the class. but the grays worry the students. i tell them commit take a look at the obituary page in the times and the pose. you'll never see the obituary that says john read 2.9 average in college, died yesterday.

go find somebody who sat in their deathbed and said i wish i made more a's in college. >> host: is also the parent pressure. the mother cause it to say how is my daughter doing a class and he said ask your daughter. i said how would i know. i'm a teacher. [laughter] daughter. she will tell you. they want to get them into the ivs and the little ivs. it's a poison ivy. it doesn't make any difference. >> host: but it does make a difference in terms of students these days getting out of school with so much bad that they are on this track that they have to get high-paying jobs and a lot of times getting the high-paying jobs depend on what college you went to how you did there.

>> host: >> guest: plus, what you majored in. velocity come engineering. now they are pushing spam come the science technology engineering and math. >> host: what to advise people saying i'm coming out of school with $100,000 in debt. i want to do something good for the world. what can i do? >> guest: the first thing you can do is marry up if that is possible. it's a tough thing but they will excuse much of the debt if you do public interest law. a lot of law schools are doing that. some of the colleges also. but we are fighting all of these wars. we've been fighting iran and iraq, to wars that can't be one

can't be explained, can't be afforded in the children in school or big my spread out. >> host: speaking of that, when the war in iraq started it seemed like every friday at the chevy chase high school utah the children would go out and hold signs? >> guest: yes, we have been doing that since 1991. even before. i've been a volunteer at that high school. we go out every friday and hold signs. i bring him home. books, no bombs. >> host: was in the beginning you got in trouble? >> guest: some of the algebra teachers. it's a very big highway. we assign honk for peace. and then assign 25 or 30 down.

honk for peace. and a third one. honk again. >> host: the story you told the woman coming over than you think she's going to yell. you're not doing to well enough. here's 50 bucks. go get a blow horn. so the algebra teacher got mad at us and try to close it down. is that it's a first amendment issue. you go make your voice heard. >> host: the parent still complain? >> guest: not so far. >> host: this is a very military area. how could you not get complaints to you the teacher is encouraging students? >> guest: well i don't force them to come out.

but i say you ought to learn how to do this, how to make signs, where to stand. >> host: do some of the students in the classroom? >> guest: there are a couple. that's fine. i respect their rights. >> host: can you do this as a volunteer teacher? could you do this if you have had paid teacher? >> guest: i don't know. the student newspaper had to defend us, defend the protest because some of the teachers didn't like it because it made noise. i set the whole school should be out there doing this not just our little piece class. everybody should be out there. but high schools can be very high anxiety places. there is pressure on grades. so i say i did no homework, no test exams. those are all forms of academic

violence eight. they like to agree with real quick. there's never been debate about this. so come into the classroom relax. there's another teacher in the room always that does the attendants come in the greeting. and so i love being at the school. i touted a present for a couple of years and i taught at wilson high school a very difficult school. you have police in the halls carrying blocks. i said to the cop once, i said you must be pretty safe but the bulletproof vest on. said no, they are not nice proof. a d.c. public high school. site is not unusual. >> host: well, the issue of violence in community violence in the home, how do you deal with those issues?

you talk about the book having students whose parents were killed. >> guest: i had a student one time wrote a couple books on gandhi. she said it's been wonderful about gandhi's ideas on war and peace, but i live in a war zone. i said where is that? my parents have been verbally abusing each other how do i stop that were she said? i said maybe if we had your parents and school. they taught them the basis of conflict resolution. maybe we could lower. >> host: you bring up in your book to times that some of your great titles in terms of people the gandhi and martin luther king and einstein were not so great in their prison minds. >> guest: gandhi was a distant

coldhearted father. his older son was always so angry he couldn't get through to his father. he joined the military, didn't like that. didn't change gone me. now it suffered alcoholism and became a. king was not a particularly good husband. he was often an absentee father. the told story may dislike their 15 children. she was constantly depressed. einstein was cool, mostly to both of his wives. and so, you've got to take care of your family first. >> host: then you talk about people who do terrible things in the world that are very nice family people. >> guest: harry truman who i last his wife, got to know his daughter margaret truman.

the bureau chief at the times here in washington i got to know through clifton daniel. harry truman idolized his wife, loved his family. he found 10000 100,000 people and families come in hiroshima, nagasaki. >> host: i assume george bush was a nice sound father. >> guest: yes indeed. >> host: how do you deal the encumbrance between people and personal life and that they do in the world? >> guest: well i try to tell my students to be professionally angry, but personally gentle. you can't go around seating all of the time. one of my close ally of the supposed all of these years with support men.

a great reporter, but in the newsroom always seething. drug industry, general motors. you leave that newsroom, but yet at home the most gentle man and raised three loving children. a very happy marriage. >> host: but you are seething when you talk about the issues and do you do it in such a gentle way but their sense of humor. so it's really just a beautiful combination of things for yourself at the fire in the belly. >> guest: well, you can't go around. we all suffer outrage overload. i can't take another outrage.

the circuits are going to blow. you know how much i admire your dedication and getting the word out there. >> host: well that is another thing i want to bring up. the advice he gave to students who want to bring a life that permits a peaceful world. i was a little confused in your advice because sometimes it seems you are saying you're giving great congratulations to people who go into the peace corps or because the judge is for people out in the world in some kind of larger level trying to do peacekeeping. on another site, you say the most we can do without the local level, doing some pain is a very small community area. visit notes?

>> guest: depends what your gift are, which are talents. some end up in congress. even not to be the director of the peace corps. now he's the president of hobart college. some end up that way. some men up taking care of a handicapped child and that is their role in life. i remember interviewing mother teresa one time. she said that few of us will ever be pulled on to be doing great things, but all of us do small things and a great way. it's good to keep that in mind. we overemphasize be successful. wow, maybe. it is much more important to be faithful than successful.

>> host: success that many eyes, i know my mother who passed away, her greatest role model as donald trump. she thought success meant money. i also wonder in your talking to students, she bring out the issue of consumption. it doesn't, too much in the book. >> guest: she had the great vibe. live simply so others may simply live. you don't need alcohol. you don't need me. you don't need eggs. you don't need dairy. live simply. >> host: with it now and nuclear families. the catholic worker model where people have collectively. do you bring that up with your students? >> guest: i've had over 400 over the years. i've had homeless veterans come in. addict. members of congress come in all

varieties. they see that there's a lot you can do. when you are in highest on college, you say what are we going to do. many children grow up in very privileged families and really haven't had much to struggle with. if you have a grounded philosophy of nonviolence i think that helps a lot. >> host: even living in a country that so glorifies military? >> guest: i encourage students to get overseas. don't go to london or paris. is there the suburbs. go to senegal, go to sierra leone. and learned the results of american foreign policy. go among the victims of what this country is dead to so many

people. and then you come back really educated. >> host: or you don't have to go overseas. you could go in this country because they would you encourage people to go? >> guest: my son ron redstone for baseball camp and the other side rents a baseball camp in long island. they get a lot of scholarships for children from underprivileged families. my son john has a program here in the inner-city and he gives a lot of scholarships. it's a summer baseball camp and he has a program. he played minor-league baseball and he has the literacy program in the dominican republic and you find a catholic nun whose hide more big-league baseball players -underscore than anywhere else. so john funds that literacy program and he has the right and

d.c. >> host: wow i want to thank you for this beautiful book that people should read and will be inspired by. thank you for a life that turns on a wonderful inspiration to many of us. >> guest: thank you. you are one of my heroes. >> host: me, too.

>> here is a list of books being published this week.

>> and now where life with ron johnson, author of so you've been publicly shamed the psychopath has come and men who stare at goats and more. he will answer your questions for the next three hours. ..