>>. >> tonight we are so excited to welcome new york times best-selling author and a dear friend teetwelve for his new book singled out. this is a reminder you can still get signed and personalized copies from princess books there is a link in the facebook comments below. will be taking questions during the event tonight but those in the face but comments as well joined by fellow new york times best-selling author i am so excited to turn it over to andrew and jeff.

>> andrew, i guess i am the moderator and you are the special guest. as they said briefly come i spent yesterday and today reading singled out for people who may not know, a biography of glenn burke first openly gay major league baseball player. i guess i'm interested right off the bat. sitting here 2021, as far as i can tell there are no openly gay major league baseball player since glenn burke's existence. why did you write the book? >> first of all jeff, thank you to you for doing this wearing the most appropriate hat the dodgers and the a's

and i like that. glenn played for the dodgers and the a's and i know you are working on your book right now. it takes time to do this. but why i wrote the book my mission right now is to write books that are nonfiction sports related with the social justice message. my first was the biography of perry wallace he was the first african-american basketball player in the sec. then deception from the 1936 olympics in nazi germany so those books were dealing with racism and anti-semitism and with this book i got a chance to write about my favorite sport, baseball and homophobia in the gay rights movement in the seventies and the backlash to that movement. with all of these books i want to tell the story of the

athletes who were the central character, but even more important is the context of what is happening in the country or in the world at the time. the time and place these characters exist. with the glenn burke story it was natural to make the connection between his life and career as a baseball player in what was happening with anita bryant in florida and her anti- gay-rights campaign the rise of harvey milk living in san francisco. bills in the legislature stripping gay people of the right to be employed. i worried if people find out he's gay will lose his career as the mlb players were brings all the teams together. >> do you feel if glenn burke were not openly gay or just a straight ballplayer, we are

talking about those who steal 400 bases in a leadoff for a limited ballplayer? >> no. i think he did have potential to have a successful major-league career. people debate that. especially they don't want to see him celebrated he wasn't run out of major-league baseball because he was gay but he played himself out of the game he was not a good enough player. he hit over 305 times in the league. set stolen base records in two different leagues. as a rookie the longtime dodger player and coach said he has the potential to become the next willie mays. plenty of players have potential he can to fall in that category but i don't think so. dusty baker said he got a better jump on the ball than

anybody he had ever seen. he had a great arm. good enough player as a rookie to start two games in the national league championship series in the phillies in 77. start game number one yankee stadium in the world series. the dodgers had a lot of hope in him. in a 77 off-season dodger management confronts glenn and says we know you're gay. we would like you to get married we will pay you $75000 to cover this up. he said married to a woman? know. i will not do that. that's when they put out to the press he's not a good enough player why they want to trade him. he gets to the oakland a's they say they will not let him contaminate the team. he was never given a fair shot with these - - either franchise. so it's not fair to say he was

not good enough to make it. there was room for an outfielder who is primarily a good defensive player and could steal basis. that wasn't a rare type of outfielder back then. i think he could have been that type of player. >> at enough this is an answer but do you feel he was more burdened where his career was more hurt by all the pressures of having to keep the secret? or was he more hurt like tommy lasorda or martin who just really didn't want to have a gave all player on their team? >> that's a good question you could make an argument either way but the literal decisions that drove him for the game were more by the authority figures. but the day-to-day burden of trying to keep the secret from the world are only being willing to share it was certain people the overall sense he cannot be himself or be free and a small being such

a mental game to have that way on you every single day over a long season probably had a greater impact on him not being able to fulfill the great potential. >> i cover baseball for sports illustrated. and i have talked to ballplayers who if they are worried about picking up their kid on time the next day cannot focus the next day or the movie they went to see. i cannot imagine the damage i am petrified someone will find out about my sexuality. >> he said basically he played with his head over his shoulder all the time. even at one point in his career after traded from the dodgers to the a's they are oakland a's fans starting to have him from the crowd yelling the afford and i think

the empty oakland coliseum because nobody was going to the games everybody could hear it not only thinking what the teammates would say but now the thousands of people in the stands as well. and how he lives this very split life. pre- social media where in the off-season he's not hiding who he is at all. he's living in san francisco and is very popular in that neighborhood. his gay friends coming to watch him play. he's not concerned someone will take a picture in the off-season and his secret is exposed in that cocoon he is supported loved and can be himself but every baseball season step into the most homophobic environment in the country which is a professional sports locker room and that dichotomy weighed on him. >> that title is singled out the subtitle first openly gay

mlb player and the inventor of the hi5. >> was he openly gay by choice or because enough people speculated he was gay? >> i think it's probably the latter you cannot put the new one situation into the subtitle of the book. some people say he didn't actually have a press conference or national interview until after his playing days were over two years later. but the reason he was driven from baseball because people knew he was gay. tommy lasorda billy martin. the teenage - - the teammates with the dodgers knew it when he was traded from the a's in the clubhouse the people said they were sitting at their lockers crying because the life of the clubhouse have been traded. they confront al and the team trader and said why did this happen to see if they will

admit because he was gay. in the off-season he's not hiding who he is at all. thousands of people knew who he was. i think it's fair to say he was open in most ways but not just to the entire public. >> i'm researching a book right now when i interview the white people he grew up with you get a good amount of we agree with that we did not see color at all. and i wonder when you are interviewing guys names that i recognize or remember. i didn't care. it didn't matter to me. do you have that level in the late seventies that level of skepticism when they tell you that or do you believe them?

>> i think there was a little bit about self-selection who agreed to talk to me. i don't know if you have run into that. it seems like you interview 10000 people for every book and nobody turned you down but several ask dodgers that would not return my request for an interview and i wondered if it was because they didn't get along with him at the time or didn't want to admit it or talk about it. if you guys were interviewed were nervous just discussing the topic which was a little surprising to me. one white basketball team eight admitted he did not visit glenn at the end of his life when he was dying from aids because he was squeamish about being around someone with aids. so he was willing to go that far. mike noris said there were a number of aids players at the time that did not treat glenn well at all in the dodgers

already knew him and had developed the relationships before they figured it out. and shooting babbitt is just fun to say that at about talk he said when they were the aaa teammates in ogden utah, there was a game where the catcher kept bouncing the throw to second base he was getting past the catcher could not get it they are in the air. and they got into a fight in the dugout. glenn burke broke it up. three black guys in the dugout and says we're black men we don't need to be fighting each other right now. should he admitted that moment when he broke up the fight he said i didn't know if i should

just let him kick my butt instead because i didn't want have to oh glenn something sexually was such a stupid thought that i had but that was my mindset as a ballplayer back then. >> i thought many ways that's what stood out to me the most because it was preposterously honest. i didn't know if you would want sexual favors from me. him actually stating that, i always loved babbitt he was a great scout and a go to guy. that was really honest and a lot of people were not that honest. >> and the guy who said he would visit him on his deathbed regrets that to this day you appreciate when people are willing to share that sentiment. >> i am a nerd about writing. so you decide you want to do this book. it's not a marquee name that even people know who glenn

burke is. how hard is it to get a book deal and what was the process? >> of had books in the past where i have had to shop around four or five ideas and hope one of them will stick. my publisher went for it right away. one thing we can talk about it is marketed as a young adult for teenagers. like your son and it. >> good name job - - drop. >> [laughter] but it shows it is for adults also not just speaking down to kids. but teenagers are ready for a book about a gay male athlete. they are ready to talk about that.

in rural schools tennessee and north carolina last year when i mentioned this none of the boys snickered were would say like why would i want to read that? there was tremendous support for this topic which was encouraging to me. the process writing at the first person i got in touch with was eric sherman a sportswriter in new york and baseball author who sat down with glenn on glenn's deathbed and interviewed him over the course of a week and write the ghost autobiography for glenn. i was concerned here i am writing about a subject very close to this man's heart the first of i wanted him to know i was working on this trading into territory he had been on 25 years ago. is spent the day with him in new york and he was terrific.

he shared interviews he had done, tapes of his interviews, letters he had gone after the book came out with stories about glenn he could not using his book but i could follow up with on my own. then i tried to interview as many minor and majorly teammates as i could. great books written about baseball in the seventies. it was fun to read all of those in newspaper writing was terrific back then. especially california where he played. i was try to immerse myself in the time. i am writing about. i was listening to disco the whole time i was writing the book and working that into the story. tremendous dancer in the best disco dancer on the team. writing nonfiction the research is by far the most important part of the book, more important than the writing skill but the ability to talk to as many people as possible. and the advice that i learned from you and you don't even

know it was the people on the periphery of the team or maybe they were there for ten days probably have the best story. they will remember the ten days they spent with the dodgers. every single detail but the bigger names had so many interesting things they will not have the best stories to tell. finding the clubhouse manager or someone that played with him where the best interviews. >> who is your best periphery interview? >> steve who was the clubhouse man for the oakland a's off hand at the beginning said you know about him being the first guy to where nike? i said what? not only the first openly gay major league baseball player the inventor of the high-fiber first mlb player to where nike's in a baseball game.

i found the multivendor who also works for this company called nike in the seventies he handed glenn a pair of soccer shoes he died blue and worn the playoffs 1977 that was one of the first to run the baseball division now every major league baseball player has an achy uniform going back to glenn burke wearing them in the playoffs and 77. also a friend of his name jenkins to had a bed-and-breakfast on the russian river spent a lot of time around glenn in the 1982. where he comes out publicly on the today show. corey went with him for that trip and had great memories of that, great story about glenn bringing his gay softball team to san francisco up to the little town on the russian river to play a street team

from a bar in california. they gay team from san francisco won the game and the players for both teams met at the gay bar and the straight bar in this little town and supposedly change the attitudes of some of the guys in the town now accepted the game and in their town. finding this guy retired in hawaii and getting that story was a lot of fun. >> when you are writing a book like this, you have to be careful not to fall into a trap, and then they met glut glenn and then they understood everybody is okay he was gay. something to think about when you write a book like this. >> for sure. it was nice to have a chapter like that that there was a happy ending because ultimately his life is tragic. he ends up living homeless on the streets of them francisco. he does die a very painful death. writing about the toll aids took in san francisco during

that era. the assassination of harvey milk, violence inspired by people like anita bryant the inaction of the reagan administration when aids came along. there is a lot of dark periods in his life that i told honestly. this one bright moment where he has his positive impact on the town was fun to write about. >> it seems like a real challenge, i'm not good at you pulled it off very well is the reading of a person's story with the movement and the times that that that was really well done. especially harvey milk and the assassination. i don't know. when you start a book like this and go into the book, do you view it as this is a glenn burke biography or that this is that times of glenn burke biography? >> more of the times of glenn burke with the central

character, he needs to not disappear from the story for too long and you don't want to have the contextual sections feel forced. in this book about he is in spring training in florida at the same time anita bryant is campaigning in florida against gay rights ordinance and then just living a few blocks from the camera store and i saw his house and walked down the street to the store two blocks away. so it didn't feel forced to me and i thought that was important to write this history to put history in the context of the times. just like the pioneering basketball player growing up in nashville and traveling to the south. you have to talk about the civil rights movement and how. experience that. what has the potential to elevate the sports book that could be looked down upon i

have a huge chip on my shoulder about the sports book but when you can build and that societal context it is a stronger book. >> i thought anita was still a number one of the book i didn't know that much about her i googled her she's 80 years old and still allies in florida. do you call the villain when you do a book like this? >> in this case i didn't call her i did try and get in touch with tommy lasorda. he was sick i don't thank you would have talked anyway he never acknowledged his own son was gay or died of aids. i got in touch with his daughter and asked i leave the family out of the story. i wouldn't do that it was written about extensively is a key part of the story. those two villains i did not get a chance to talk to. >> so you call tommy lasorda's daughter and she said can you leave the family out of it? >> yes.

>> what do you say to that? >> i didn't know what to say. i did not reply. it was a facebook direct message and it just seemed absurd to me her dad was the manager of the dodgers it has been written about. and plenty of other books and magazines i will not leave that out of the story. i couldn't honor that request it didn't seem worth replying to. >> because when lasorda died not very long ago, i thought about his gay son and the story in gq and you working on this book. i think it happens when someone dies, obituaries are glowing and people remember tommy. should his legacy be hurt by the way he treated glenn burke and his son?

>> it should be part of his legacy and people can decide if that hurts it or not. he was a larger-than-life character in a lot of ways. as a manager and he was everywhere. celebrities in and out of his office all the time, there was certainly an element to his persona all along the players recognized. i talked to the minor-league guys who never got called up to major leagues they didn't have very good things to say about tommy. the dodgers appreciated they were a good team when he was managing and they want penance but they saw through his motivation. when you talk about tommy and his son, i do think that they maintained a relationship

which i tried to be fair in the book. tommy junior is gay. tommy lasorda never acknowledges that publicly. when lasorda junior dies of aids he says it is pneumonia. a lot of families were kicking gay sons and daughters out of the house back then. that is the reason castro was growing moving to atlanta or new york where they felt uncomfortable one - - comfortable. he would go out to dinner on sunday nights he would take them on road trips. so they did maintain a relationship even lasorda junior said was a loving relationship and how loving could it be if you are not even acknowledging who your son was? when it comes to glenn, the fact they would not allow him to be on the team after they found out who he was that is a strike against tommy

absolutely. and there are others. i don't think he treated all of his players that great. some guys told me stories about some of the women chasing aspect of baseball that lasorda may have been involved. that was part of his legacy unfortunately very similar to a lot of baseball guys we see right now in major league baseball. and you have to take into consideration. >> something of never heard before a chapter 11 living in the closet you wrote about the advocate gay magazine founded in 1967 mail letters requesting interviews with players living a gay lifestyle. and the twins pr guy said that copout and moral lifestyle of the tragic misfits espoused by your publication has no place and organize athletics at any level your gall to extend your perversion of an area of total manhood is just simply unthinkable. do you think that was generally speaking for the majority of the four major

professional sports at that time in america? >> absolutely. i think he was. first of all that he could not even conceive there would be a gay player in the sports according to the sentiment at the time which of course was not true. a football player came out around that same time. of course i have been gay players throughout the history of the game. but there are doctors quoted an article saying there were not gay men in baseball because they are afraid of getting hit in the private parts. which is so preposterous that one level and then i learned glenn never even wore a cup. [laughter] so even their excuses why they couldn't be a player were beyond the pale. >> i have no idea there were

8 million fascinating things in this book. i'm not just saying that. fascinating. i marked it up. when he was in waterbury he lived at the why by choice? >> he did. before the song ymca but he told his teammates it was because he liked to play basketball there. but really so he could be alone. all of his other teammates had roommates and houses around the town or complexes. he had a tiny little room basically like a jail sale it sounds like and that is where he invited his former teacher from california who was part of his first gay experience. glenn was figuring out how am i going to deal with this? he invited his best friend on the team who grew up with him in the bay area over to meet him and his friend from california. marvin at that point knew what was going on with glenn and he

told glenn that he knew and they would always be friends. even glenn extending that and wanting to share his relationship with his best friend was a courageous thing for him to do at that time. he didn't know however it would react to that. even if marvin webb himself was accepting of who glenn was if he just whispered in the clubhouse, easily there could've been other teammates or a manager or general manager that would not approve in his career would be over before it started potentially. >> it is amazing considering the insensitivity toward gays and lesbians in the era that some newspaper columnist didn't blow it up. it is kind of shocking actually. >> right. some of them are starting to figure it out especially after glenn arrived at the oakland a's. you probably know tom wearing. he knew. he talked to the a's outfielder about it.

and said let glenn know if he ever wants to go public i would treated sensitively. there was a columnist in san francisco that also found out about it. and was supposed to meet with glenn. glenn didn't want to do the interview but somebody else brokered it glenn didn't show up that he wrote a way there's a member who could be found in the castro after games and during the off-season. people were able to put the pieces together and figure out it was glenn. he was really upset about that column. >> i don't blame him. >> the end of his life is beyond sad. broke. aids. dying. that's when eric sherman comes in and does the book. when you are working on a book come almost 40 years ago 30 years ago, do you feel the

emotions of that? is it painful to write about? does it take something out of you what about in such a tragic and isolated way? >> it was. i talked to a social worker lucky to find them who remember discovering glenn living in the cheapest hotel room he had ever seen. in the district where there's just a mattress thrown in the corner of a room and glenn sitting there in his boxers and shivering and crying. or read about a party that glands friends through for him as he was dying of aids as a last farewell an old nba player glenn had gone to high school with him, he cannot be there at the party but they

had a video from him playing on the screen in the room glenn is in a wheelchair on heavy pain medication and sees bill talking to him and in this hallucination state glenn is and he thinks he is really there. he says hey man. thank you and is waving to him and people describe that as such a tearful scene. i can just imagine that happening. talking to the high school teammate he didn't see him and hurt him all these years later he didn't do that it was emotional dusty baker said there was a game when dusty was managing the giants he hears what it sounds like an 80 -year-old man calling him dusty and he said i can't turn around every time offense is my name but then he said johnny be which is what baseball players call him and it was glenn burke and said he looked like he was 80 years

old. he was in his forties. it was easy for me to feel these emotions because everybody i talked to could still feel these emotions like it was yesterday. and then learning about glenn sister i interviewed many times for the books an amazing woman. she would tell me stories how she was at the foot of glenn's bed rubbing his feet and feeding him oatmeal and peanut better and they would sing songs together at night just trying to make his last days as peaceful and painless as possible. i certainly felt that and you feel a certain amount of it i hope that shines through the pages in the final scene. >> what shines through is everyone who ever covered baseball knows dusty baker is the greatest human being. [laughter] >> i was told that i had a chance to interview him. he is in california. i'm in nashville. trying to figure out a good time and place to meet he said

i'm a national north carolina scouting and baseball game i said i will be right there so i drove to asheville. i was supposed to have an hour with him before the game. he spent three hours with me. like we were old friends. it was so cool to interview him and have that time with him i texted him the book was ready and texted right back he was as good as ever. >> he is the best. >> the last question and we will take some questions. 2021. you mentioned how when you are talking to kids about the book idea they said that's great. i feel like my kids live in a world there are gay kids or trans- or hetero and it is so much less. you think it is gossipy but they barely talk about it or flinch about it doesn't seem to resonate nearly in the same

way in any degree of scandal or oh my god did you hear. it is so common these days. 202140 years ago. how has it not been an openly gay major baseball league player? >> he said after he was dying what he had been to would make it easier for someone in the future that so his life would pay off potentially. i thank you might be disappointed in some ways to know that door that opened a lot of people have not walked through it. i interviewed billy dean the second major league baseball player who came out after his days were done and now works for major league baseball and he told me he thought it had a lot to do with the amount of money players are making right now. and the relatively short length of the career if you are gay player in baseball right now then you make this calculation in my mind i might only play for five years.

that's a good career do i want to risk the ability to make this money to change my families life forever? i can come out when i'm done playing if i choose to do so is it really worth it to do it now? i also think even at the same time we say times have changed and people don't think it's a big deal anymore. some people think it's a big deal. have you seen the legislation proposed in certain states right now? team owners are not known to be the most progressive people in the world. look at colin kaepernick what he did even the nfl would like to say it's different changing the slogans but it cost the player his career. do you want to be the martyr for a cause? especially with the male sports and then you see a lot more players come out and women soccer and for the most part they have had largely positive experiences.

i think a major league baseball player probably have the best selling jersey in baseball. that would be my opinion. >> i would buy my kid one tomorrow. i really wanted. we have some questions. andrew you do a wonderful job uniting the world of sports with the social issues of today how do you select your next topic? >> i'm working on it right now. i haven't written about women's sports yes i'm writing a book on the first women's us olympic basketball to team play 1976 politics in montréal. that again takes place in the midst of a larger social movement the women's rights movement 1970s, title ix which changed women's sports in 1972 so when the book comes out late 22 that will be the history and anniversary so

sports books that have been history but also part of a bigger social movement. >> would you consider about the plight of balding jewish sportswriters? >> yes and one quarter jewish. that would be a big seller. [laughter] >> we can co-author. >> your book is fantastic and incredibly researched if educators are thinking of using this book in their class are there any thoughts you would pass on? >> first of all. rita is my mentor and the shunned adult books business. i hope educators will use the book in their class. there is a couple of things. first, sports books are legitimate. there is a big section who play sports or videogames who are not reading, especially boys. my book is good for anybody. you don't have to be a boy to

read the book but if i baseball or basketball player is on the cover then they pick up the book and then they get into something more significant. the message of all my books is intended to be to stand up and do something or say something in the face of injustice. what shines through for me any book with civil rights movement or holocaust or homophobia and gay rights movement is the tendency people who even think they are the good people in the situation that they stand by. maybe in their head they think i believe the right things i'm not being actively harmful to anyone. but you can't remain neutral in the face of injustice. that's inspiration and deals well in school. everyday kids have a choice to make about that kid sitting alone in the cafeteria maybe

they sat next to them and improve their day or the kid that is bullied is not the coolest thing to stand up for the kid that you have a chance to do that and not live with that regret like the guy who didn't show up to see glenn at the end of his life for him. wallace case that never stood by him all he was being harassed why the fans in the basketball arena. >> did you always know this would be a why a book? or was it geared toward adults? >> i always consider this why a. i thought, i enjoy writing for that audience. i love going to schools and get kids interested in reading and writing. there are not that many narrative nonfiction sports books for that age group. but then i write them in a way just as many adults will read it also. faster pace, shorter

chapters, the way times are going now anyway reading twitter. think anybody can enjoy it. >> when you speak at schools do you get taylor totten rectangle pizza? >> the pizza especially. a lot of kids might not buy the book but you would be amazed at the things they ask you to sign. like the inside of their doritos wrapper or their deltoids box or the back of their cell phone. somewhere there are some doritos wrappers with my name on them. >> i will find that on ebay right now. [laughter] >> were glenn burks siblings supportive of the project? >> two of them were. his sister luca and paul i did interviews. i think other siblings were not interested in doing interviews or skeptical of the

project. but i absolutely love talking to those sisters and copies of the book is another family members copies. they were supportive of glen and that shines through in the way luca nursed glenn at the end of his life. >> did he have family members who rejected him for being gay? >> i think he did. but i think they didn't want to talk in the book. i cannot speak authoritatively i know luca mentioned not everybody saw things the way she did. she was incredibly supportive so i can only assume some didn't. >> what is the future of sports writing in the next ten years? >> good question. in years past people were talking about what would happen with the demise of

newspapers. i think there is more sportswriting now than there was when there were newspapers. not necessarily better it is opinion based versus reporting. i think the positive thing you see happening in sportswriting is that it is getting more diverse more black voices in outlets like undefeated and a lot more women you see every single day. a lot of them have been writing about what they are facing an industry. but at least the numbers are increasing. attention is being paid to the issues that has a real impact on people like glenn burke or perry wallace as their stories have always been filtered before. guys like you and me were writing all the stories about

black athletes in the past and now women athletes or gay athletes. there are members of the media or the latino focused website. imagine them talking to the ballplayers doing an interview in spanish and it never been able to do that before. i think it will improve in the future because there are more diverse voices in it. >> after jeff pearlman who was the most famous person to interview you? [laughter] >> i don't know. [laughter] >> last question is the book available in audio format or will it be in the future? >> yes. o.j. fleming a formal football player. yes. it is available in audio format also e-book format.

you can get it as a hardcover audio or e-book. >> i been given the red light like at the oscars. this is great sincerely, sincerely. it is a wonderful book. it is a great book i'm deafly going to have my son read it. you didn't have to say that i love reading this book it showed your passion and your compassion i thought it was an excellent job. >> thank you. that means a lot jeff. i appreciate it and thank you to everybody that tuned in it means a lot. may be our people are having zoom fatigue thank you for joining us if you do buy the book to my hometown store i will go by and sign it and personalize it for everybody. thank you again

>> it is more of a book of stories than arguments. there is not that kind of hypothetical analysis. it's good for different people. there are people whose main problem they live in a place that is economically destitute and doesn't have a lot of capital or opportunities, so the solution for that is simple that if you want a job and there's no jobs were you

are then go get jobs. people on the right and those conservatives that complain about my argument and analysis but those places that are truly economically that get people to places where they can work and be independent or maintained indefinitely. you cannot imagine another way to do that and the idea you can go through public policy are putting the university there to magically transform every economically stagnant community in the country is not borne by the evidence. there's a lot of good things that come from the tight labor market which tend to make wages better and employment opportunities better on those fronts but the idea that we

will change the economic outlook of kentucky or ohio or michigan with aluminum tariffs or making angry noises at the chinese or something like that is silly wishful thinking. a lot of this is hereditary. people tend to inherit their parents problems and the way of looking at the world and their prejudices and biases and habits. it's difficult to interrupt that even when they should be. there's not a good policy for that although better schools i think would certainly do some good on that front think that is the case for me where dumb luck i happen to go to a place that had extraordinarily good public schools and i had some teachers who could point me in the right direction and tell me what to read and give me

some ideas whatever location look like for somebody like to write. but if you don't have that in your family or community then it would not be created by a government policy. the republican thing to want to say there's not enough economic opportunity so let's create a national economic opportunity agency to explore economic opportunities. that's not how stuff works. my political views are pretty simple what people need from their government is basically stability, rule of law, predictable arrangements and the usual government services delivered in a way that is reasonably effective and not unreasonably expensive. a lot of places we don't have that.