give a floor speech and she looked like that, they would rip her apart in the press based upon what she looked like, so we still have many, many double standards and harder standards and hurdles we have to overcome in order to be taken seriously. i see it as part of my charge as a member of congress to challenge people when they have assumptions about who or what i am and what i can accomplish. you don't always have to do it in a a mean way. you can do it very sweetly and make your point just as strong than if you yell at somebody about why would you think x, y or z. but it's very tough and there are good male colleagues that understand, but the biggest strength that i get being a member is sharing experiences and getting help from my sisters that are up here on the stage with me. >> so, i mean, you're already trail blazers, but you're actually in a position to do something about, to basically legally do something about this

glass ceiling and equal pay and equal work status. >> well, you would think so. as -- >> representative is here. >> hi. >> hi. >> why don't we -- >> again, the glass ceiling still very much exists even though we are female representatives who can and do make a difference, but it's still my colleagues on the other side who don't want to pass the pay equity, who don't want to do things that help the family, especially the women who's normally the head of the house in latino families in terms of raising children, educating them and going out to work. maybe working two jobs to be able to help the family. it's unfortunate, but the, it's all political. it is not what needs to be done

to help the country. to help minorities, to help latino, african-americans. it is what is good for business. well, it's good for business, it isn't always good for the economy nor for our families and the glass ceiling has always been something we must address and we need your help to be able to say to the colleagues on the other side, get with it, either that or get out of congress. let's face it. here we go again. we talk a lot. what about the votes? where are your families in getting out to vote? to ensure somebody's going to be out there voting to ensure you get xaul pay? look at sanchez, he just raised the wage of hotel workers in major hotels. why? he had the guts to do it. now, our colleagues on the other side, they should fear the voter coming at them and saying if you

koent don't do this, we're going to take care of o you during the election. this is what we need to learn as women. getting our families involved, our neighbors and co-workers and saying to them, you make the difference. that glass ceiling has to be coming down because we need our women to be a parity with men in pay. i started 25 cents an hour. that was my working pay. 25 cents an hour. and i have been discriminated more than you can think of and like linda, i walked in, i was keynoter for a trade conference, i walked in, somebody said, whose secretary are you? i'm your guest speaker. so, you know, it is just labeling people before they understand that there are women that are very, very, very intelligence that are very, i'm not one of them, but i know many of them that are, understand that they're there, but we need to be able to promote and to be able to help them become part of the structure of shattering that glass ceiling so that our

children, my great grandchildren, i only have four great grandsons coming up, unfortunately, i don't have many girls in my family. that needs to happen and we need your help to do it. >> thank you so much. from new mexico's first district. we were talking about the glass ceiling, but why don't we give you the opportunity for some opening iraq iraremarks and if want to make them about this glass ceiling. >> thank you so much. i'm delighted to be here. i'm sorry i was late. i was at the government oversight and reform hearing talking at the security breach at the white house, so important issues and actually, in that situation, that committee's more bipartisan than it typically is. and i think it works very well to the last set of remarks that my colleague congresswoman

napolitano made about the glass ceiling. i can relate to many of the statements that she made. i have been treated in the workforce as a woman and homemaker, so, here are the list of rules as a brand new lawyer in a large law firm. we don't want to hear about your kids, your family. you will not have anymore kids. if you're going to be pregnant again, this is not the place for you to work. of course, i was already pregnant. so -- joke's on you. too late for that. but those were acceptable con ver sagss between an employer and a woman. it's not that long ago. in thinking about pay equity and breaking the glass ceiling, i think it gets to some of my opening remarks i was going to make that may not be relevant

now that we've started the panel. i apologize again for being late, but i ran ageing and long time services in new mexico before it was cabinet level, the it was agency level in our stalt government structure. i ran that for 14 years. i think i had the longest tenure ever in new mexico's history. i worked for democratic and different governors during that tenure and i was talking about long-term care giving and one of the lidedge islators i was aski for funding from, said, you know, what happened? families used to take care of each other. we're getting more and many requests to address this issue, particularly from you. i need you to help me understand why we went from families to not

helping each other. we're missing a major component. we don't have homemakers anymore because we created an environment and most of that maybe 99.99%, their woman are no longer that that rule and just raising families in a way that was very and we're now completinging joining the workforce for one, we want to. two, workforce needs us and three, this economy now requires that both spouses are fully represented in the workforce. and so, that change, that shift, business hasn't kept up. policymakers haven't kept up and when you know the facts, 79 women in the house. i think i'm part of the largest freshman class of women and the

most diverse class ever in congress. only 20 women in the senate and that's great that we did that in my freshman class, but if you want policies to reflect the realities of the situations we have, that they should be fair. and not biased and not discriminatory, then the people making those policies as grace said, have to reflect those values until more women and more women of color are in these policymaking positions, i fear that we will struggle to find the kind of equality that would really reflect moving forward our families and our communities in the meaningful way, so i appreciate very much being on this very distinguished panel and i have no doubt that this conversation will lend itself into more running, participating and more fabulous stories about how we can work together collectively to make a difference in the country. >> thank you so much. i want to touch -- representative sanchez -- and

we'll have the opportunity to do that, but let's make this last question about you know, gender equality and let's concentrate on issues you are working on every day and midterm elections. you mentioned them and voter participation. i think it's crucial that we're on these matters, but first, if you want to jump in. >> well, i sit at the number two democratic on the house armed services committee and the number two democrat on the homeland security committee and the number two democrat on the joint economic committee. so, i just need to figure out how to move one guy out of the way. on either one of those committees and take back the congress so interim's going to be important, so that i can be chairman. chairwoman.

but think about this. i do war, terror and deficits all day long when i'm in washington, d.c. and a lot of the, most of the time, in fact, my military analyst who is a woman and is korean american, she said to me the other day, have you ever noticed when we walk into these meetings on gaza, palestinian issue, on putin, what he's doing in ukraine, on missile defense, on nuclear proliferation and nonprolif rag, on the weaponization of space, all the things that i do, this is what i do all day long in the congress, when we go into these meetings, she said to me, did you ever notice that we are the only two women and we are the only two minorities? and it's true. right? so, i want to finish with this. couple of years ago, we had an opening for the number one place for the democrats on the most

macho committee in the congress, the armed services committee. and i ran for it against two guys. and nobody ever talked about me, you know, and the papers are going, oh, these two guys are going at it, right, meanwhile, we're doing our campaign, doing our thing, right, so, we go in front of the steering committee, which is you know, 40 democrats who give decision on who could really do this job and i go in there and i give my spiel and the vote comes back and i've got the top votes and people are going, what? how can that be? how can loretta be the one that impressed the most people this that room? that's okay, because i have to go to a vote to everybody. so, we go to a vote to everybody and on the first vote, three people, first vote, i get the top votes, two guys get lower, drop off the third vote. on the second vote, the guy beats me. i know who didn't vote for me on

the second vote. remember that double whammy i told you about? come talk to me. so, any way, so, i didn't get it. but what was the interesting thing is back to something that my sister said. that we and the women who work in the congress, the women who are staffers, had been so used to seeing nancy pelosi as the speaker that somehow, they didn't realize that this discrimination, the sexism exists in the congress and they just anticipated. the women who are watching this race, the young staffers on the military committee and on the committees of the people who were on that committee who see us do our workd day in and day out. they had assumed that i would get this position, you know, and when i didn't, i had so many of them walk up to me in tears and say, because we saw nancy pelosi, we thought this was a given.

that women would be chosen as the leaders here. and it wasn't until we saw the way they defeated you by six votes that we realized that the barricades still exist for women to have top positions. so, i think there's a lot more work that we have to do. >> i'd like to add to what loretta said because that's one of the issues i think that we as women particularly and our male allies have to understand that the perception in many ways is that while women you know are achieving and we have made progress, but as loretta's example showed, we still are in many, many instances not considered to be up to the job.

and when i came in in 1993, b it was considered the year of the woman. and the story linda just told in 2003 when she came in is very similar to what we experienced in 1993. when we were literally stopped from entering the house floor and questioned and told, you need to wait outside because only members are oi loued on the floor and we had to explain, that excuse me, we are members as well. when we were completely ignored by leadership, when task force were being formed including task force dealing with what many consider traditional women issues, welfare reform and

others, no women was being put on these task forces, so the women would literally march to leadership's office to demand we gain the same respect as our male counterparts. had to remind leadership that our vote counted the same as our male counterpart, so it was and it continues to be a struggle, so we can't fall into the trap as loretta said, gee, we had a woman speaker and we have women in key positions and so we can sit back and relax because we can't. and i want to end with this. not only do we have to continue the fight, whether it's here in congress or whether it's in our businesses to push and to support women to obtain higher positions, but it has to start with us as women.

we have to believe in ourselves. in our own abilities. and stop apologizing because we're asking for a raise or because we have you know, certain obligations and we woul like some time off. we have to consider ourselves as equals. and i just want you to know that when i came in, there was three latinas. i was the first mexican american woman elected to congress. nita velazquez was the first puerto rican women elected to congress and ilana ross linton was the first cuban american elected to congress. there was only three of us and after 22 years, there's only nine of us, but let me just tell you that the women who are in

this room are dynamic leaders. and they're truly helping to move us forward. but i think and i just wanted to say as the senior member here that we need the support not only of women, but also of our male allies because it's going to take a partnership between both men and women to move the agenda forward and so that some day, we as women will not be an afterthought and remember that when we're talking about advancing women, it's not just that we want women in there, but we have qualified, talented women that have the ability to

lead and in many cases, let me tell you, this is no reflection on my male counterparts can excel and do better than many of our male counterparts who are now this those positions. >> to be fair, we had to cover the most important issue and i think we have and if i had the chance to talk to five representatives, male, i wouldn't be asking them of course about this issue, but i would be asking them about midterm elections, about you know, all the things that are important, so why don't we move to those subjects and because we've covered the most important thing. that's not what -- but now, let's talk about other things, too, i want to talk about near term elections, the participation of latinos. there's no notion that mobilizing the latino vote for the mid the term elections is

not worth it because by doing so, you might -- a bigger vote and latinos don't really have a history of par tis palting tici midterm locations or making a difference. from your perspective, an opinion about that and also, ho out and vote because we have to participate in the continuation of congress. or even a governor. to my left. >> one of the things that we have a lot of immigrants who come from countries who are afraid to speak up. they're afraid to be seen or vote and they've got to understand their vote counts. those that are documented or not documented, but that are citizens, but many of the things that we hear that over half a

million latinos who are eligible to vote, who do not vote. that could turn the tide in many states. but understand that we need to ensure that everybody looks at what the voters, the candidates, who they are. if they can promise anything, forget those ugly ads. anybody who votes into negative ads, i just write them off because unfortunately, we've focused too much on things that somebody else says about you. well, what have they done? what are they doing in your community? how are they going to help your business? be able to help the immigrant population or your health care delivery? these are the things we should be looking at and voting for those who are going to be at the position of being able to make a difference for us. to helping us in congress be able to get a majority and be able to go back and institute the services that we need for the people. forget wars. i'm sorry, i vote antiwar because we need the charity to

start at home. this is where we need to money to help our communities and unfortunately, it's the youngsters may not understand it and yes, you have some that are have enthused, but there's for view. we need others who are turning 18 who are u.s. citizens to understand this will affect their ability to get loans, buy a car, purchase a home, stat a business. these are things that are going to affect them in years to come and if they're not involved and doenlt care to vote and talk to their colleagues and get them to a ballot box and vote, getting the families out to go out and knock on doors, their neighbors to get them out to vote on election day and understanding you are powerful. one of you can reach 1,000 people just by multiplication of how you reach out. somehow, we are missing the vote and they're calling us the sl p sleeping giant. we have somehow awoken. but not to the point where we've

made a mark and said to america, we exist, are valuable to you and are part of your economy, so we must get people that look like us to represent us at every level. where there's local, the senate, the, all the different elected officials that you can think of, we need more women there because women think, they speak and act with a heart. so, please carry the message out to get people involved. and midterm election, well, in kra, we're due in november. it's already general. we need to be able to position ourselves to be able to get more people, more women to run who actually will help us run an agenda forward that helps our country. latinas and everybody else along with it. >> new mexico is is one of those states where the latino vote can really make a difference and it has made a difference in the past. >> it has. majority, minority states. largest percentage in the country. but we to your point, we suffer

from a midterm election apathy, not just by hispanic voters, but societiers in general, but given that dynamic in our state, if we can do something about that engagement and apathy, then f in fact, you're right. we set then that policy agenda. i think there are several factors in a midterm election cycle. i think that the media plays a actually a huge role in minimizing and what i would call vote suppression. highlighting the negative, which is take congress. this isn't getting done. this isn't getting done and by focusing on policy extremes on either end, i think it discouraging folks from feeling like there's anything they can do to change it. two, i think we've got to start being clear about voters, how we can get them to engage in state policy that allows their voter options to be enhanced.

particularly since we have to in congress do something about protecting voter rights and i'm very disappointed that prior to the midterm election, that we didn't get that done. that's got to be something that we've got to get to voters. states can help drive that, if you vote by mail program, to be a huge incentive. this is how we know we reach everyone and we provide easy opportunity and then to that, i think it's equally posht when you look at the state like new mexico, double dip perception, a recession, we had a spike in our poverty rates. it's a disaster. those issues are also related to voter suppression because people don't have transportation, don't have a way to access information, aren't getting any kind of educational outreach support and then it minimizes your engagement in policy. i think we ought to start thinking about packs and

superpacks that would engage in voter education and awareness and address voter apathy so that we can do something across the country and we shouldn't rest until we vote that every single state in this country, then we aren't going to be having this conversation about the shift between midterm and general or presidential years. we will see i think a much higher engagement by all communities in terms of voting and i certainly support that and think new mexico will be that this election cycle that will have significant gaps in interpreters of the number of voters just two years ago and i guarantee you it will reflect unfortunately in my opinion, negatively on the kind of policymakers that would make a difference in those poverty issues and economic opportunity issues and equality and civil rights issues. inside new mexico and in the country. >> and i think we've seen it,

california's such a good example of what's happened there in the last two decades. i think only governor schwarzenegger has been the only one voted to date. >> right. >> i just want to say that the biggest mistake that latino community can make is to stay home in protest of whatever it is they're protesting. whether it's the administration or whether it's something that is happening or not happening in congress. because through our vote, we send the message to leadership here in washington as to whether or not we are going to be a community and a force to be reckoned with. if we stay home, we become invisible and are not factored in.

so, through our vote, we are sending the, we will send the clear message to washington, to our state ledge islators, that we are going to hold elected officials accountable and if they don't support our issues, then come the next election, we will fire them again through our vote just like we hire them through our vote and one of the ways i believe that we can do this is by helping our community to understand the connection between elections and what happens in their every day life. because sometimes, washington, d.c. for example in los angeles is almost 3,000 miles away, they sometimes see a disconnect. and often when i'm talking to community members and the vote, they say -- they have two, three

jobs. they don't have time to vote. but once the community starts to understand the connection between what they're trying to do for their family, whether it's a decent paying job, quality and affordable education for their children, child care, how all these things are directly impact and decided by who is in the elected office so that if they want to achieve and have a better equal thety of life, they cannot afford not to elect individuals who are going to support those policies. we recognize and understand the connection between elections and impact of elections and what they are trying to do and that's the message we have to get across. to our community. for them to understand the

significance and importance of their vote and the power of their vote because believe me, as elected officials, what are one of the first things we're going to look at when we make some kind of a policy decision or vote? have we gotten calls from the district. what are our constituents saying? because we know we are going to be held accountable and we're going to have to explain whatever vote or policy decision we make. that's the message. we have to give meaning to the vote and our community and once we do, believe me, our latino community will no longer be heard or an afterthought. >> i want to open questions to the audience, of course, we want to hear from both of you. >> if i could just say quickly, about five or six years ago, i had a member come to me on the floor and say, linda, we have

this seat, it's a very close seat in the election. and it's got like a 3% hispanic community in it. how do we get the hispanic vote out for our democratic candidate in that seat? this was about three weeks before election day. i turned to the member, with all due respect, that's not a question you ask two weeks before the election. that's a question you ask two careers before the election because we get taken for granted. our population gets taken for granted. we're the afterthought, sort of last okay, how do we get the last few votes together. when i ran for congress the first time, we did polling in the district and i was young at the time. the group that i was with was 18 to 25 latinos, so, when my team came together with a plan for how many male pieces are we going to do and you know, told them how, there was no male going to the 18 to 25 hispanic group and i said, but that's the

group that i polleded the best with. he said, but those people never vote. i said maybe because nobody ever talks to them and gives them a reason to vote in the next election. they drop off, therefore don't waste your time, energy and money trying to communicate with them because they're going to stay home. if we were going to engage them more, why their vote matters and what the policy differences are, initiativ initiatives, if we could get that enthusiasm up in the midterm elections, then it would be a voting block nobody could ignore because it would be a reliable voting block who people have to earn their trust, which you don't do in the last two weeks in an election. you earn their trust by being

there in the community day in and day out and their votes would matter in elections. they would be decisive. right now, we're still considered a swing vote even though we're the fastest growing population in this country and we have to move out of that sleeping giant or swing vote category into a regular voter category who you are going to have to answer for with the votes for policy decisions that you make and that's on all of us to do, us up here and you out in the audience as well. i spend about 80% of my time back in the district talking to constituents about what is going on in washington, d.c. because it's 3,000 miles away and people don't think it impacts their lives. and when i sit down with folks and talk about what we're doing this washington and why it matters, why it's going to impact them and why they should care, then they're engaged and want to know more. but it takes a lot of effort. >> i would just like to go back to what we started with with

lucille where she said regardless of the issues that got done or didn't the way we wanted them to, this community mocked, stand up and exercise its vote. and this is the reason. i mean, i think and i believe that these two young ladies weren't in the hispanic caucus at the time we took one of the most important votes we've ever taken and we now see the aftermath of what that policy decision has done to our country and our people. we had the will we allow the president to cross the line and go into iraq in a preemptive move. i believe that one of the most important days and one of my ploudest days in the congress was when the entire hispanic congress voted no to go into iraq.

we lost that vote, went in and we have, you know, all the problems and our returning men and women. i see it every day. i guess what i'm saying is that you know, it takes hispanics and in particular, when i look at the women in the congress who stand up and who fight every day and take the hard votes, the people who are on the forefront of pushing the hard votes, you know, health care, obamacare, when we had the health care vote, it was democratic women who all stood up and we all voted for it and about a shird of those women did not return to the congress because of that vote. yet they stood up and they said, for our community, you think about it, for our community, this health care issue is got to be the best thing that's ever happened to us and when we get it right, when we tweak it and

it all works out, we will be a healthier community because of those courageous women who stood up and vote, so time after time after time, i have seen this happen. before we broke, we had the syria vote and i'm number two on the armed services committee and i stood up in the congress and i listed all the reasons why we don't have good plan in going and arming in syria. against the president, against my own party. and i said, we just got to get this right. we cannot continue as grace said, to spend money in places where we're doing the same thing, we're chasing our tail and we're not getting it right. and i've got to tell you, when i went back to my hispanic community in my district, they had played this over and over on television, they said to me,

thank you for not being afraid to stand up and voting and telling people why you are voting that way and when i looked at my colleagues up here, i see some really strong women who are willing to stand up and this is the reason why. whether we like what's going on in some issues or not, our community has to continue to vote, especially in this election. >> thank you so much. why don't we open the floor for questions. if you have a question, just raise your hand. we have mikes on both sides. question over there. if you can say your name and who you work for and who the question is for. >> hi, my name is brigette phillips. i work in miami-dade schools. i'm with the american federation of teachers. i met a lobbiest once who said don't give me complaints, give

me a solution, so i wrote it down because i can talk a lot. agents people doing research and planning how to reach the group during the season of football and soccer, how come it is the when it comes to politics, we do not have people doing research and how to educate, reach the committees and how to best reach those demographic areas. i know it costs money to do all that, but there's universities and students out there look iin for a dissertation paper and that will go for free. on another note in regards to women, i love men, but behind every success fful and strong m, there's even a stronger woman. >> i'm getting married in two months, so i agree with that. completely. i think actually in front than behind. >> happy wife, happy life. just want to tell you that. >> i don't sit on education. but i can tell you that it is

foremost that the new approach to universities and find out how you can get some of the funds they're get frg the state or feds to do dissertations, research. that would be something my colleague who sits on education would be able to answer because he has been instrumental in raising the funds for the hispanic institutions and higher education. we need to convince the education gurus they need to be able to allow more research and fact finding of the true what i say the deserving position, latinos have had in the united states throughout this country that is not recognized in books. some of that research, whether it's in health services or education or business, all of that, i don't know how else we can help, but please pick us up

at the end and we'll talk to you. >> i just want to, and i may, i'm feeling a little bit the optimism in this group is fantastic. and i hope that nothing i say doesn't diminish that because i wouldn't be here without that optimism and enthusiasm and in fact, i was walkinging in and heard my colleague, linda, say it takes a woman to ask another woman and i would not be as a freshman in the leadership position in the hispanic caucus if a woman hadn't asked me if i was willing to do that. and so, we can show you how that works internally and externally. you are exactly right. there's bodies of evidence and outreach all evidence based. what would get to these voters. how do we encourage them to go. we know, but don't minimize that what it costs to actually do that and i don't think, i think we are minimizing, so i'm interested in looking at that

strategical strategically, if all you see on national news is the polarization of issues, nationally and locally, it really hits apathy at it core. and it grows an think and it grows disappointment and those are the two reasons that people don't show up because they don't see any tangible evidence of equal thety of life opportunity. so, we've got to figure out a way to counteract those efforts and i think it's something we ought to talk about how we shape, how we find and engage and maybe there's an opportunity for the growth of a private public partnership here to start to actually do that and to your points about do it now so that we don't wait for a four years from now and say, well, we're right back, we're at this very conference and we're seeing if we did anything dichbt. we have to invest in a new strategy now and then we ought

to see tangible results in 2018 and moving forward. we had that evidence. we just don't use it. >> i would say that i see you know, every night, a risk of a -- and i'm eager to talk about good news from congress. >> you can come and talk to us. >> i'm going to challenge you that the media also really has been focusing on the just the polarization. we can give you lots of examples where things have moved. is it a congress i'm proud of? i don't think i need to say that as a freshman. there's not a single member of this panel who i think will say this is the proudest congress to them, but we never talk about when we're getting along, what women did to move and shape the 113th congress.

that major pieces of legislation finally did get through, that stopping and ideal logical government shutdown was monumental by women of both parties. that doesn't get delivered in a message that promotes participation. we deliver those messages as hostile, angry messages, so i think we shouldn't minimize the press has really done. >> let me add to yours. because i have yet to call press call me on issues that are important like mental health. i have yet to have them call me on transportation. we're there. we're available, but we'll talk to you later and later never comes. available is just your outreach to us to tell us what to do in our communities. we can fill your dates if you want. there's a lot out there. there really is.

there's the -- in california, this is something i'm really proud of. in one of my cities, they opened the first female shelter for homeless vets who have children. i understand there's one in florida. we're working with them. how many know that? how does the press highlight the positive things instead of the negative things? >> no, that's -- >> and none of us -- for the congress to vote on. that's why we're not seeing any movement because they will not schedule a vote op the floor. but every one up here as accomplished something for our local communities that we were able to do not in a national piece of legislation because little has come to the floor for

a vote, but through sheer effort and determination to make our communities better, we have all had little successes in helping different -- whether it's through helping them get grant funding or putting together the pieces of a public, private partnership to make it happen. we have success stories, but nobody asks us about it. >> i have to tell you, i get calls all the time, because i do war and terror. >> right. >> that's the reality. that's what people, that's what you guys are playing. war and terror all day long. that's where i am. linda's right. when we opened up the senior center, when we you know, there's a drought in california, not in my district. because we put, we have a natural aquifer. we put in over the last 18 years a factory that cleans our water three different ways.

we inject it back in and we're drinking the same water we flushed three years ago. it's a total recycle program, but does something come out and say why did you fund this, how did you do this? no, they want to know you know, are we going to go after putin, are we -- they want to know about war and terror. that's the reality of the tv. >> it is. of the national agenda, too. we have another question over here. not here. yes. >> my name is raul, i'm a kindergarten teacher with the california teacher's association -- yay! >> i loved kindergarten. >> thank you. my question is regards to education and really in regards to our field is dominated by women and one of the things that's happen ng the next five to ten years, we have a huge shortage of teachers. have very low enrollment in

teacher preparation programs. at the national level, what can we do, it's going to be a crisis not just in california, but all over the nation. so, what can we do to really get ahead of this, which i already think we're behind it and secondly, in regards to the latinas and representation, one thing i found out is that latinos will follow latinas where they go. how do we get our latinos to follow these beautiful latinas into the workforce, the education field, the universities. it's kind of a two-part, but i'll leave it at that. >> lucille can answer those. >> she's smart. >> notice i didn't pile on him like the rest of my colleagues. i start to feel a little sorry for him. i feel sorry you even mentioned that, but you should have known better with the women up here.

>> lucille's the reserved and generous and kind one. >> going back to the question as i understood it, i think that's an example when you're talking about education is an example of why it is so critical to vote. for our community to vote and for teachers to vote. let me give you an example of what i'm talking about. whether we like it or not, everything happens in the political arena. and for example, it is no accident that one of the last things any member of congress wants to do is to cut social security or medicare. why? seniors vote. why is it so easy to cut money for education? why is it that we fight every

single year, to stop the elimination of the pell grant program, for example, is because students don't vote and to a large degree, the same thing happens with teachers. i can't tell you how many teachers have said to me, well, you know, we're not politicians. i'm here to say you can't afford not to get involved in politics and you have to look -- one example. you have to look who is in office and look at that voting record. forgot the tags. democrat, republican or tea party, whatever. look at that voting record. i had a teacher come and bother me because i'm on a labor hha probeuations committee, but i had a teacher come to me to

lobby on behalf of increased funding for education. it was a battle that we had in our committee. to try and at least keep what we had. and as she leaves, she says to me, you know, i guess i should have full disclosure here. i want you to know that i only vote republican. she was talking to me about increasing money for education. yet it was her vote that put into power the part that was cutting education. you can't have it both ways, so we have to have an educated, voter-based and we have to

participate. we have to participate. and that's how if the -- education, teachers, parents, things any elected official wants to do is cut education money. >> i'm sorry. i want to ask one thing. i am talking into my microphone. >> it's just that it's hard to hear. you're turning that way. i want them to hear you. >> you will never see an elected official stand up and say they -- well, this is not true, that they hate education, because there are those who want to eliminate the department of education, but it's very rarely you'll hear an official say they want to cut education or education needs to be cut. they're always going to talk about how they're for education and for opportunities, but i always tell people, the measure of whether this is your bs

meter, look and see how they vote. if they put their money where their mouth is, if they're for education and they vote for the funding, they're legit. and if they stand up and say say believe in education and they're for education and education is great, and then the other time when you're not watching them, they're voting against it, they are not your friend. we have a saying in washington, d.c., i love to repeat it. if you don't have a seat at the table, chances are you're on the menu. they will carve you up and serve you out to everybody. so you have to have a seat at the table, and the way you do that is through your voice. your voice is your vote. >> i just wanted to be shameless. we've got a whole bunch of new mexico educators here in the audience, and i see some hands right there. and some way back there. so from, you know, early education to secondary, elementary education, all the way to higher education, they're represented here. they're showing up in droves in

an off-year election, and i'm hoping it's enough, but it's not going to be for lack of effort on that part, but to your question, both local elected, so governors, legislators, and the congress, we talk about how education is our number one priority. well, if you look at our funding, that's clearly not the case in the federal budget. we need to do the same kind of stuff we did in the affordable care act. if we don't do a work force development that brings respect back to educators by paying them a reasonable, meaningful wage, salary, we aren't investing. case in point, we have the evidence that shows those investments will return to us such great, drastic, dramatic, positive returns, and yet we don't get it done. so i really appreciate that you brought that question because that is a -- that has got to be a shift in all of the

policymakers, and you knogo, ne mexicans, on that number one issue, including early childhood education. >> we're going to leave this program 93 to go to a live event. you can watch the complete program on our website, c-span.org. now to an awards ceremony hos d ed by the congressional hispanic caucus institute where president obama is the scheduled keynote speaker. he's spoken at this event every year since 2002008. live coverage on c-span3. >> that has eluded us for decades, and now, millions of latinos have the health insurance they need to protect our families. i was very proud to join him when he signed into law the biggest investment ever in education since the gi bill. he gives our minority serving

institutions an unprecedented $2.55 billion to recruit and train the next generation of latino and latina leaders. ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to welcome the 44th president of the united states. ♪ >> good evening, everybody.

thank you to senator menendez. congressman hinojosa, and the entire chp for inviting me. you can have a seat. take a load off. i want to congratulate tonight's outstanding honorees. jose diaz vilar.ñ+xag enisail medina. julia garcia. i want to thank all of the other members of congress who are here tonight, including the outstanding nancy pelosi. i'm proud to say nancy pelosi was mostly talking about the san francisco giants. in a national sound, so that

just shows her courage. i want to give a special thanks to two young men who rode over with me from the white house tonight. luis and victor are chci interns and fellows. they are also dreamers. living and working in the country they call home and making it a better place for all of us. their stories are inspiring and along with the other chci fellows, they give me great hope for the future. they make me optimistic about what america is all about. six years ago, i came here as a candidate for this office. i said, if we work together, we could do more than just win an election. we could rebuild america. so that everybody, no matter

what you look like, no matter what your last name is, no matter what god you worship, no matter who you love, everybody is free to pursue their dreams. and that's exactly what we've set out to do. and today, there is progress that we should be proud of. i gave a long speech this afternoon about it because sometimes we don't focus on what has happened over these last six years. over the past four and a half years, our businesses have created 10 million new jobs. the longest uninterrupted stretch of job creation in our history. in the spring, our economy grew faster than any time since 2006, and there are more job openings today than at any time since 2001. and we are going to keep working as hard as we can to help create good middle-class jobs even

faster. six years ago, i told you we would confront the crisis of overcrowded classrooms and underfunded schools and help more families afford higher education. and since 2000, we have cut the latino dropout rate by more than half. because dropouts are down, today our high school graduation rate is the highest on record. and since 2008, the rate of college enrollment among young latinos has risen by 45%. six years ago, i said we would take on a broken health care system that left 1 out of 3 hispanics uninsured. today, millions more americans have quality affordable health insurance they can count on. over the last year alone, about 10 million americans gained

health insurance, and that includes millions of latinos. six years ago, i told you we would restore the idea at the heart of america that we're in this together, that i am my brother's keeper and my sister's keeper. last year, poverty among latinos fell and incomes rose, and this week, i launched the my brother's keeper community challenge, asking every community in our country to publicly commit to strategies that would help put our young people on the path to success from cradle to career. so the point i want to make is the progress we've made has been hard. sometimes it's been slower than we want, but that progress has been steady and it has been real. we have done big things together. and we're going to do more. and tonight, i want to make something clear. fixing our broken immigration system is one more big thing that we have to do, and that we will do.

now, i know there's big frustrations in many communities around the country right now, and i understand that frustration because i share it. i know the pain of families torn apart because we live with a system that's broken, but if anybody wants to know where my heart is or whether i want to have this fight, let me put those questions to rest right now. i am not going to give up this fight until it gets done. as bob mentioned, i have taken so far actions -- i'm about to get to that. about to get to it. the actions we have taken so

far -- you're going to want to hear it. you want to hear what i say rather than just -- the actions we have taken so far are why more than 600,000 young people can live and work without fear of deportation. that's because of the actions i took and the administration took. because of the coalition that we built together, business and labor, faith and law enforcement, democrats and republicans, created a bipartisan bill and got us through the senate last year. when states like alabama and arizona passed some of the harshest immigration laws in history, my attorney general took them on in court and we won. so you know what we've done

together. you know that we've done it despite what is possibly the most uncooperative house of representatives in history. if house republicans brought the senate bill up for a vote today, i would pass it, it would pass today. i would sign it today, and they know it. but instead, they have been sitting on it for more than a year. they voted to strip dreamers of new protections. and make them eligible for deportation not once but twice, they voted that way. and this summer, when a wave of unaccompanied minors crossed part of our southwest border, my administration matched compassion for kids with a firm message to families. today, fewer parents are sending their children on that perilous journey than they were at this time last year and we're working to give more kids the chance to apply for asylum in their home countries and avoid that journey all together.

but while we worked to deal with an urgent humanitarian problem, while we actually did something about the problem, republicans exploited the situation for political gains. and in june, as all this was going on, speaker boehner told me he would continue to block a vote on immigration reform for at least the remainder of this year. now, don't boo. vote. [ applause ] i have said before that if congress failed to live up to its responsibilities to solve this problem, i would act to fix as much of our immigration system as i can on my own and i meant what i said. so this is not a question of if but when. because the moment i act, and it won't be taking place between

the november elections and the end of the year, opponents of reform will roll out the same old scare tactics. they'll use whatever excuse they have to try to block any attempt at immigration reform at all. and we have to be realistic. for any action to last, for it to be effective and extend beyond my administration, because i'm only here two more years, we're going to have to build more support of the american people so that it is sustainable and lasting. and so i'm going to be spending the next month, month and a half, six weeks, eight weeks, i'm going to be spending that time not just talking about what we have done for the economy, but explaining why immigration reform is good for our economy. and why it's good for everybody. and when opponents are out there

saying who knows what, i'm going to need you to have my back. i'm going to need you to have my back. i need you to keep putting pressure on congress. because the fact of the matter is no matter how bold i am, nothing i can do will be as comprehensive or lasting as a senate bill. anything i can do can be reversed by the next president. to move beyond what i can do in a limited way, we are going to need legislation, and if we want that legislation to happen sooner rather than later, there's one more thing i need you to do, and i've got to have you talk to your constituents and your communities and you've got to get them out to vote. you already know how powerful the latino vote can be. in 2012, latinos voted in record numbers. the next day, even sean hannity

changed his mind and decided immigration reform was a good idea. but despite that record breaking turnout, only 48% of hispanic voters turned out. fewer than half. fewer than half. the clearest path to change is to change that number. si se puede. yes, we can, if we vote. you know, earlier this year, i had a chance to host a screening of the film "chavez" at the white house, and i was reminded he organized for nearly 20 years before his first major victory. he never saw that time as a failure. looking back, he said, i remember the families who joined our movement and paid dues long

before there was any hope of winning contracts. i remember thinking then that with spirit like that, no force on earth could stop us. that's the promise of america then and that's the promise of america now. people who love this country can change it. america isn't congress. america isn't washington. america is the striving immigrant who starts a business or the mom who works two low-wage jobs to give her kids a better life. america is a union leader and a ceo who put aside their differences to make the economy stronger. america is the student who defies the odds to become the first in the family to go to college. the citizen who defies the cynics and goes out there and votes. the young person who comes out of the shadows to demand the right to dream. that's what america is about. and six years ago, i asked you to believe, and tonight, i ask you to keep believing, not just in my ability to bring about change, but in your ability to bring about change.

because in the end, dreamer is more than just a title. it's a pretty good description of what it means to be an american. [ applause ] each of us is called on to stand proudly for the values we believe in, and the future we seek. all of us have a chance to reach out and pull this country that we call home a little closer to its founding ideas. that's the spirit that's alive in this room. that's the spirit i saw in luis and victor and all the young people here tonight. that spirit is alive in america today, and with that spirit, no force on earth can stop us. thank you, everybody. god bless you. god bless america. ♪

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♪ on friday, the center for strategic and international studies holds a conference on asia. political analysts, business leaders and policymakers will preview the upcoming east asia summit and the asia pacific economic cooperation forum. live coverage begins at 9:00 a.m. eastern time here on c-span3. this weekend on the c-span networks, friday night at 10:00 eastern on c-span, a conversation with retired u.s.

supreme court justice john paul stevens. on saturday night, the founder and former chair of microsoft, bill gates, on the ebola virus outbreak, and sunday, the director of the smithsonian's museum of african art, and friday night at 8:00, war and the constitution. saturday night at 10:00, on book tv's afterwards, an author on the history of the republican party, and live sunday at noon on book tv's in depth, legal affairs editor in charge at reuters and supreme court biographer. friday at 8:00 on american history tv on c-span3, historians and authors talk about world war i, 100 years later. and saturday at 5:00 p.m. eastern, former fbi agent on catching the unabomber suspect, ted kaczynski, and the 100th anniversary of the panama cunall.

find our television schedule at c-span.org. and let us know what you think about the schedules you're watching. call us, e-mail us at comments@c-span.org, or send us a tweet. join the c-span conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. university of central florida professor jonathan matuszch has written a book that attempts to explain the various causes of terrorism. he spoke in florida. the professor previously talked at a nato affiliated military base in belgium. this is an hour and 15 minutes. >> good evening. on the campus of embry aeronautical university, welcome to the president speakers series. on behalf of our host, i'm the

moderator for tonight's event. terrorism has become a way of life for so many people in the world. and there are reasons why it happens. tonight, that's the theme of our talk. the 15 reasons why terrorism exists, in a town hall fashion discussion, we'll talk with an expert on this topic and the author of a new book. then we'll take questions from the audience about the 15 points he brings up. ladies and gentlemen, it's my great pleasure to introduce our guest for tonight on terrorism and communication, the author of the new book on the same topic, dr. jonathan matuszch. >> thank you. thank you. >> thank you for coming. >> doctor, thanks for being with us. a little bit of background for the people who have perhaps not heard you or seen you before. what led you to write about this and teach this subject? >> well, most books on terrorism were in political science and criminal justice. very few books are in

communications. in fact, there was no book, no big book mixing both fields, terrorism and communications. so i took the opportunity to write a book and they said yes, we will publish this. >> we're going to go through the 15 points and i'm asking the doctor to outline examples of how and why this happens. there are various forms of terrorism, obviously. terrorism that happens on the domestic front and international terrorism, and to begin, we have just come off of the olympics. and what was the number one worry for the participants and those of hosting countries? would there be terrorism there? >> yes. sochi is located where the sarcasians used to live. they were an ethnic minority group, and in 1864, february of 1864, so if you do the mathd, it's exactly 150 years before the olympics and they were

discriminated, and many of them were killed by the russians. and the fact that russia was holding the olympics there was a good way for the sarcasians to wreak revenge against the russians. the main concern was with terrorism, a form of retaliation. >> we're thankful there were no major incidents. there was a war that was happening just outside of the perimeter. were you surprised there were not acts of terrorism? >> the russian secret police was very good at foiling these terrorist attacks. >> although the background, you're originally from belgium. >> that's correct, i was born and raised in belgium, like dr. evil. >> how many languages do you speak? >> three, french, dutch, and english. i haven't spoken dutch in 15 years. now it's down to two, french and english. >> what brought you to this country? >> the land of opportunity. >> all family back in europe? >> i wanted to discover america. i'm a movie buff, and watching all these movies and finally, i

got here in 2000. i have been living here for 14 years. >> all the time at ucf? >> no, from belgium, i went to alaska to get my masters. i went to oklahoma to get my doctorate. as i was looking for jobs, ucf hired me in the summer 2006, so i have lived here for 7 1/2 years. >> the doctor reminded me it was about two years ago when we had a person here, and the doctor was in the audience and he came up and gave me his card and introduced him, and i started watching the classes you were teaching and the events you were doing at ucf, and we were putting the series together in talking about homeland security and with other folks, i said, we should do this, and this is how we came to do this tonight. >> it's good to see a lot of adults a lot of young people. i give a lot of talks like this. it's mostly adults. here, there's a lot of young

people, so thank you for being here. >> let's talk about the 15 points and go through them one at a time and give an example of where these reasons are being employed. i'm going to do religion at the end, i'll just tell you, it's huge and it opens up to several other things. oppression is one of the reasons. give us some examples, please. >> the best example today, since the 1990s until today, oppression leads to revenge. and a lot of the chechen terrorists say that the russian army opresses them. and a lot of chechen men get killed by the russians. so a lot of the wives, the widows, become suicide bombers. and we call them the chechen black widows like the spider. if you follow the metaphor, a widow can kill you. and the black widows feel opressed and want to seek revenge against the russians. most of the suicide bombers in chechnya are actually female.

that would be an example of oppression right there. >> historical grievances. this is interesting because it can take on all kinds of life. >> it refers to a wrong that needs to be repaired, that needs to be restored. so it's a group of people that wants to get even with the enemy, even though the wrong was committed 1,000 years ago. for example, the bask terrorist group, they live in spain and france, and they want to regain their territory and have their own independent state, and they say france and spain stole their territory. we have the palestinians as an example of historical grievances. we have the ira, they want to get back six counties from northern ireland. their main slogan is brit out. >> i want to stay with that for a while because years ago, we would hear about terrorism in ireland. we don't hear as much about that now. have they settled some of their

grievances? >> the ira is barely active today. in fact, some of them have become members of the british parliament. they were big in the '60s and '70s. >> i was reading several weeks ago in anticipation of our get-together, another part of american history. i want to stay with this for a moment. during the early part of the last century, there were terrorist acts from mexico into the united states. there was resentment, i guess, grievances of the territorial takes by the united states and the purchases of land, and i think it was black jack persian who was committed terrorist acts over the texas border, right? >> absolutely. you mention mexico, the main concern today is the mexican drug war and a lot of the mexican drug lords are joining forces with groups like hezbollah, the shia terrorist group from iran and headquartered in lebanon. >> stay with that for a second, because what's in it for them? don't they know how dangerous these folks can be? >> they operate on the principle

that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the common enemy for hezbollah and mexican drug lords is america. so sometimes enemies will join forces because they have a common denominator. in this case, it's america. >> moving along. these are part of the 15 reasons. violation of international law. >> that is a perception that some of the western countries did not fulfill their promises. for example, great britain promised the palestinians that the palestinians would have a lot of rights, and the palestinian people feel that britain betrayed them. that's an example of the one that you mentioned. during the treaty of versailles in 1919, there were talks about renting autonomy for the palestinians, for arab countries, and they felt those promises were not fulfilled. there's a guzillion examples. >> does the bosnian conflict and the bombings that have happened,

does that fall under the international law of violations? >> that falls under the second one, historical grievances. the serbs and the cruats have always fought, and the bosnian muslims and serbs have never gotten along. the bosnian serbs killed a lot of them and raped a lot of the women from 1992 until 1995, in a war that killed 100,000 people. >> wow. relative deprecati tative depri. >> it's true in places like gaza and the west bank, some people make $4 to $5 a day, and their life on earth, as you can imagine, is miserable. and because they live in abject misery, they will join suicide commandos and martyrdom operations which is code for suicide operations. when you join a suicide commando, your family is being promised up to $2,000, and your

siblings get scholarships to go to college, so no tuition for them. that would be poverty. but look at it this way. the 19 hijackers came from rich families in saudi arabia. and the main leader was mohammed a attah. there is not always a correlation. there is some correlation. >> when you discuss the points in your classroom, what's the reaction from students? i saw a channel 9 report about your class, and they came out, they interviewed, they were all very supportive, but do they understand everything you're giving them? >> i understand this is a tough subject. i teach in a school of communication. they take culture, interpersonal communication, online friendships, so they move from these classes to terrorism. that's a heck of a switch, so of course, some of them get taken back, wow, so much information. we talk ability beheadings and war rates. so some of them would say are

not offended by what i say, but they're offended by the topic in and of itself. >> okay, i should have asked you this up front. how do you define terrorism? >> before i define terrorism, let me tell you where the word comes from. the word is 220 years old. at the end of the french revolution in 1793, 1794, the guillotine was used on anyone disagreeing with the government. what was the government called? the government of terror. terror. so the leaders of the government of terror were called the terrorists. so the word terrorism was used for the first time by the peopl. that's in french, and the first time the word appeared in english was in 1798, at the end of the 18th century. now, terrorism has 212 different definitions. for some people, if i brush you, i'm a terrorist. for some of the chinese, a monk from tibet is a terrorist.

we call them terrorists, they call them freedom fighters. we call them terrorists or suicide bombers. they call themselves martyrs, heroes. fortunately, in 19 nathd, two scholars from holland looked at all the definitions and this is what they said. we're going to look at the commonality among all of them. they did the content analysis and they found out that in 83.5% of all these definitions, the word violence appears. in 65% of all these 200 definitions, the words political goals appeared. and in 51% of all these definitions, the words causing fear and terror appeared. so finally, 25 years ago, we had a definition that was comprehensive and that most governments would agree on. and the definition was this, terrorism is the use of fear and terror in order to reach political goals. >> for americans in our history

ever accused of terrorism against each other? and i think of the klan, i think of sometimes acts against american, native americans. what are some examples of terrorism within our own country? >> definitely the kkk. definitely, with their lynching and they have a special knife, and the knife is like crocodile dundee, and they would slash people's throats. just by looking at the terrorist threats of the kkk, that makes them a terrorist group. you have thearian nation, and it's a neonazi group. very racist against blacks and jews. we have tim mcveigh, the oklahoma city bomber. he was only 26 years old when he committed that horrifying act. this is where i got my doctorate, close to the oklahoma city bombing. so in 2002, when i went to oklahoma, i went to the site. and it's really in the boondocks. timothy mcveigh chose a building, instead of choosing a

skyscraper or the empire state building, he chose a building in the boondocks because he knew he would receive the attention from anybody. when i lived in belgium, i didn't know about oklahoma. is that a new band? so finally, oklahoma was on the map. it took a sad terrorist act to put oklahoma on the map. >> is there something -- stay with that for a moment. is there something that's happening in this country that's making people act out more in terrorist fashion? >> i would say that law enforcement in the u.s. has gotten better spoiling terrorist attacks. if you look at the fbi statistics of terrorist attacks, they have decreased sharply. the number of attempts, at killing people, have increased. so there is an inverse relation between the number of terrorist attacks and successful terrorist attacks. >> do the people who are somehow the terrorists think i won't be the one who is caught or i won't have to sacrifice my life in the

name of terror? >> in some cases, the terrorist doesn't think about that. am i going to get caught? do i care? i want to fulfill my mission. they want to reach their goal. >> something you wrote called hatred toward globeal hedgeomy. >> it's a scientific term for power. it's like an anti-western sentiment. an anti-american imperialism sentiment. so hatred of the west, a word that was used by the grand ayatollah khomeini. so it's a terrorist sentiment against the world trade organization, against mcdonald's, a lot of the kfc restaurants have been blown up in pakistan. they don't like the idea of barbie dolls in some countries. they see it as cultural invasion. and they're against it. >> in going through the 15 reasons why terrorism exists,

you outline one of the reasons is financial reward. how often does that happen? >> that doesn't happen very often. most terrorists don't get paid for what they do. i give you the example of the palestinian suicide bombers. they don't get financial gain, but they know their family, most of whom live in poverty, get some financial reward. in south america, there is a group in colombia called farc, the colombian revolution, and they're notorious for abducting people for ransom. they will abduct political figures. >> all terrorism is not acts of violence. sometimes it's internet terrorism, banking terrorism. there are other things to put fear and oppression to people. is this going to become a new wave of terrorism that's much more common, those things that strike through the internet,

through the financial community? >> cyberterrorism happens on an hourly basis, but the damage of it is insignificant. the pentagon gets hacked 5 thoin times a year, for example, by a chinese group. but of course, our side of things is really good at thwarting any type of terrorist attacks, but if they succeed delving into computer networks, they can cause millions of dolls in damage. that doesn't happen very often. >> do you talk much about an emt as a method of terrorism, to wipe out the electrical grid of a country. >> it stands for the electromagnetic pulse. it's like a nuclear bomb, but it doesn't really explode on the ground. an emp explodes in the air, and it shuts down anything that is under its umbrella. so anything that works on electricity, on waves like a pace paker, like your car, your

cell phone, stops. so if an emp is launched from a barge in venezuela on top of kansas and the range is 2,000 miles, it can cause a lot of damage. it looks great on paper. they're not ready to have it. and if they launch an emp, we launch one above it and it shuts down their emp. >> oh, really? >> oh, yeah. >> we have a method to stop an emp? >> let's pray it doesn't happen. it's cheap to make it, it's not big, and it can be launched not from the u.s. but from cuba or venezuela. it looks good on paper, but i doubt it's going to happen tomorrow. we know they want to do it. >> we know from talking to a couple military leaders that we have the ability to do it ourselves. there's been a worry that some of these developing countries that don't have the armament we do might just launch one. >> if we launch an emp on a developing country, they will accuse us of using nuclear weapons on them, even though

it's not a nuclear weapon. that would be against the geneva conventions. you should use tanks and rifles, nothing like emps or nuclear weapons. >> i'm going through this material kind of quickly because i want to give an opportunity for those of you who are ass assembled here to ask your questions of jonathan. another of the 15 reasons terrorism exists is racism. you gave an example and talked, i saw a youtube of the texas arian brotherhood. >> yes, it's a neonazi group that forms in an american prison. in a lot of american prisons, there are neonazi groups that form. when they get out of prison, they have those cells that coalesce and lead to that group. it has been on the fbi list of terrorists for the past 20 to 30 years. >> guilt by association. >> guilt by association is when you strike a target who has nothing to do with your enemy

directly. i'll give you an example. madrid, so spain, had its own 9/11. it was on march 11th, 2004, and al qaeda killed 200 people by bombing four trains at the madrid train station. why? why kill spanish people? spanish tourists? because spain had troops in iraq. and of course, people like osama bin laden were upset that the west was in iraq. so as a form of retaliation, they saw the spanish people as helping george bush and his troops in iraq. that would be guilt by association. that could also be an example whereby a leader in africa is considered pro-west. who put you there? the west, the fbi, the leaders of its people? so the local people think that the leader is on the same side as america, as great britain. that would be guilt by association. so you'll have rebellions against that leader. you see that in rwanda, in the

congo, in various african countries today. >> i wasn't expecting this one. support of sympathizers. >> support of sympathizers is when you kill people to expand your support base. until osama bin laden killed 3,000 people by the events of 9/11, very few people knew him, even in the muslim world, but of course, he became a household name after that event. and he is supporting creed. >> where were you in 9/11? >> i was in alaska sleeping in my dorm. >> really? >> yeah, someone knocked on my door, america is under attack. alaska, 10:00 here, it's more like 5:00 in the afternoon. i was shocked like everybody. >> did you stay in alaska or did you move? >> after alaska, i went to oklahoma to get my doctorate. >> wow, but during that time, the immediate period, did you feel a need to leave alaska? or to go back to europe?

>> i was scared but i was not enough scared to leave the country. i was sad, saddened, like most people. >> mortality. >> it's not a concept we encounter every day. it answers the question, how should i die? and i would imagine that most people in this country want to die as old as a turtle, when they're 150, but in some cultures, people want to die -- they want to be recognized for who they are. they want to die as a martyr. in the palestinian territories, in the gaza strip, when a suicide bomber accomplishes a mission successfully, his or her face is being shown on the main street. on billboards, just like leonardo dicaprio of the plays and his or her face is shown on the main street for weeks. and for them, it's like social status. >> they're not here anymore. they're dead. they do this so they can be famous?

>> do you think they care? they don't care. they want to be their god. they want to please their culture. >> so sacrifice themselves? >> absolutely. this is how they want to die. we call it a clash of civilizations. some of these people in gaza don't think the same way. to us, it's unconscionable, unimaginable, don't you like life? if you look at documentaries on palestinian suicide bombers, this is what they're going to say. we love death the way you love life. >> wow. narcissism. >> narcissism as a reason to commit terrorism is rare. there are people who have a big ego. they have a larger than life ego, and they need to make themselves known. so they will lead a terrorist group so that the whole world will pay attention to what they do. >> can you give me an example of that because i have never heard of this before? >> an example of this was mine hauf, the red army faction. a german terrorist group in the

early '70s, and these were successful grad students. they had a bright future. they had a promising future. i don't know if they were bored with life, but they wanted to -- they decided to join, to create the terrorism movement and anti-capitalist movement. anti-vietnam, and now everybody knew who they were. that's a good example of narcissism. >> sensation seeking. >> sensation seeking follows the same train of thought. you know, you have bungee jumping, you have skydiving. for some people, you join a terrorist group. like the movie good fellas. you teach someone how to become a mafia guy. i guess it's fun. >> this is, again, rare. >> these sound more like gangs that then really act out. and we have some of that here. and i'm trying to think. i want to say there's a number, 21 or something. there's a group of identified, a number, and it's pockets all

around the country. >> and they do it out of sensation? >> the failure to achieve diplomacy. >> that is the death of states' grasp. when diplomacy fails, when two enemy entities meet and try to reach an agreement, after a few years, possibly after a few decades, no agreement has been reached. so what do they do next? they use terrorism. >> and do people turn to terrori terrorism, this one before religion, when they can't communicate? when communication doesn't work, when you can't work out your differences? >> when diplomacy fails, sometimes people resort to terrorism. >> the attack on pearl harbor. it began world war ii for the united states. of these 14 so far, what would you define that as? that was terrorism. it was an attack on us.

which of these would have fit that? >> i wouldn't call that terrorism. it was more an act of war. it was definitely a surprise attack. it was heinous. but it was the japanese imperial army, basically dropping bombs in pearl harbor. i wouldn't call it terrorism. more of an act of war. a private act. >> so it's not defined -- >> not enough contact. >> okay, and this is the one, the big one. religion. >> well, religion, as most of us can imagine, is a massive motivator for a lot of groups today to do what they do. you have islam. you have also a group that a few people know, but aum was a japanese terrorist group in the 1990s, and it was a mixture of eastern religions, of buddhisbu

of new age, and they said the whole world was wrong and only they knew the whole truth. they wanted to obliterate the whole world by using a special type of toxic gas, and the plan did not go as planned, fortunately, it was called sarin, and sarin gas, once you're exposed to it, you don't live long. they went to the tokyo subway, i don't know if you know anything about tokyo yokohama, it's 36 million people, and the subway is attended by 4 million people every day. they go to the subway, they release the capsules, but only 12 people die. the plan did not go as planned. that would be an example of the religion that was made and caught by the japanese and he's going to die by hanging. a case of al qaeda, hezbollah, islamism, and they get motivated by the koran. >> when chemical weapons were used in world war i, we never

defined that as terrorism. >> it was mustard gas. i know the german army used mustard gas. it was in defiance of the geneva convention. and during the treaty of versailles in 1919, germany was punished for many reasons including that one. the german troops were accused of using weapons that were unconventional, that were forbidden, that were cowardly weapons. >> how aware is the general population of how and why terrorism exists? >> 9/11 woke up a lot of people. so a lot of people are aware. they definitely see the tip of the iceberg, but the iceberg is 90% submerged, so do they see the whole iceberg? not everybody sees the whole iceberg. it would take a lot of attention, a lot of fashion to delve into a subject that a lot of people are afraid of, but i'm sure that virtually everybody

has a general idea of what terrorism is. you know, do they all understand why we have terrorism? no. so that's why i'm here, just to explain. >> tell me this. in your opinion, is the united nations an effective mechanism to minimize terrorism? >> to minimize terrorists, no. the blue helmets, as we call the u.n. soldiers, a lot of them have no weapons. they're here just to maintain social order. they are here to make us aware of war rape in the congo, to make us aware of the lack of sanitation for 2.5 billion people. are united nations soldiers effective at pushing back terrorist groups? no, they're not. >> senator bob graham in an interview right here three years ago said that the hamas and the hezbollah are more dangerous

than any of the people we were going to get, osama bin laden, any of the other capital names out there. do you believe that hezbollah and hamas are still the greatest terrorist risk to the united states? >> let me start with hezbollah, the party was created in 1982. hezbollah had hundreds of thousands of people. it's a shia terrorist group. and they have a presence in over 100 countries, including mexico. as i mentioned earlier, they're joining forces with mexican drug lords and a lot of tunnels have been discovered in tijuana, and it's part of san diego. so not only do they smuggle weapons, they also smuggle people. >> there is a concern -- >> hamas, of course, is less dangerous in north america, but they're definitely dangerous in the middle east. >> we're going to take questions from the audience. be thinking of what you would like to ask, and we'll come from

left to right, and you can ask your questions of the doctor in the next few moments. i want to ask this because this is very sensitive but it's important. there was, i think, a misperception when we were putting the program on that this was going to be an anti-islam night. perfe topic of this discussion from the very beginning was to education and highlight the different forms of terrorism, how it happens and why. this is what the doctor is doing. there are peaceful muslims. i have friends who are of the islam faith and they're peace-loving people. you have had people protest almost every place you have gone to. why does that happen? >> well, some groups don't like it when people use terrorism and islam in the same sentence. we have a lot of cultural muslims, peaceful muslims, i know that, but they're not the ones we have to worry about. we have to worry about a small

percentage of muslims who join terrorist groups and who have an agenda. >> does it make it more difficult for peace-loving muslims to exist in a society if we stigmatize those who are muslims? >> if you look at the victims of islamist terrorism in countries like pakistan, india, afghanistan, central asia in the middle east, most victims are muslims themselves. in fact, during ramadan, that's when you hear, if you turn on the television, when you hear that a mosque was being blown up, it happens the most during ramadan because that's when muslims go to the mosque the most, even in this part of the world, during ramadan. >> has that happened recently? i was not aware of that. can you give us an example? >> over the course of the last five months, it's happened in iraq and pakistan. >> there was a discussion today, friendly fire incident in afghanistan in which four or five people were killed,

unfortunate, and the president is upset. the karzai president, karzai, the afghan president. it was a mistake on the part of the united states, that they killed five people in afghanist afghanistan, supposedly >> you say supposedly. >> well, i wasn't there, so. >> do you have doubt as to whether they were killed by mistake? >> well i don't think that america killed them intentionally. but i wasn't there. >> okay. do you suspect that when our commitment to afghanistan is over that al qaeda will overrun the country? >> the problem is that when we go to a middle eastern country and when we leave somebody else takes over. if we leave iraq iran is going to take over. that's my feeling. >> what's the constructive message that you wanted to give to students and the general public about terrorism so we can actually improve and understand the situation? >> one word, awareness.

i want them to become more aware and to make other people aware of terrorism across the world. >> is it because they've become victims that they're not aware? >> too many people in my opinion are too complaisant to what's going on. i want to go back home and kiss my wife and my children. i want to watch the "big bang theory." how about you watch the the news? how about you focus more on this? i wish it were happening more. so the answer is pawareness. >> a lot of people don't watch the news and don't know what's going on. we hope to keep questions brief and to the point. if you could speak up and your question directly to dr. matusitz. welcome. thank you for coming tonight. >> thank you. my question is -- over here. >> it's all right. you don't have to give names. >> if the goal for the trysts is

to get as much attention for their groups as you can, you go back to the 24-hour news cycle, all the channels out there. the internet, twitter. today any act of terrorism is reported millions of times in just maybe the first ten minutes versus back in the 60s where it might have been reported 100 times in days. so the advent of technology and the use of it that we have really makes it perfect for terrorism to be the number one way for you group to get attention. >> absolutely. there is a symbiotic relationship between the media and terrorism. terrorism attracts the media and the immediate what attracts terrorism. >> do we glorify it by mass media coverage? >> we don't glorify terrorism. but we make everyone aware of terrorism. now everybody knows who al qaeda is. until 9/11 we had no idea who al qaeda was. everybody knows who osama bin

laden. >> over here. your question. >> are there there any states, any countries out there that would use a terrorist group to compliment their conventional forces? >> are we using their terrorist groups to meet our goal? >> like an issue with the standing hearm with tanks and fighter planes and all that. would they also have a plan to use a tryst group to compliment their convention nag forces if they were going against another nation? >> as most of us know, iran has been accused of using hezbollah. in fact, according to the united states, the country of iran is a terrorist country. syria has been accused of the same. in the 1970s argentina with a dirty war with a capital "d", capital "w", the dirty war was using state repression. state repression is when you have an army and you're using

terrorism on the side. so they're using both an army and terrorist practices. >> in audience now, your question. >> welcome, first of all. and you spoke about the definition of terrorism. >> yes, i gave a definition. >> we ask just if you missed the explanation? >> no, i know. i'm just addressing it. >> you spoke about the definition of terrorism, and you spoke about the palestinians. i don't know if you've been to palestine first of all. but i wanted to ask is the oppressors themselves of palestine terrorists, would they be terrorists towards the palestinian people? >> so do some of the palestinian terrorists kill their own people? >> no, i'm talking about the oppre oppressors inside the occupation of palestine? would the oppressors be seen as terrorists? >> the forces? >> i'm talking about the israeli invasions. >> so you're question is, do i

think they're terrorists? no, i don't think people like the idf are terrorists. i would say in that part of the world palestinian suicide bombers are terrorists. >> we're going to go over here and then come back. way back here. your question. >> good afternoon, sir. my question is for you on the aware nls aspect. you said everyone wants to go home and see their families and have a good time but they should be more aware. i can agree with that to a certain extent. to what point would that be paranoia? that's the ultimate goal of terrorism is to strike terror in the people. if they're going home and always being constantly aware, at what point does that become paranoia? >> i was not inferring you always have toe focus on terrorism. paranoia is an extreme state, an extreme feeling. in my opinion you have a certain

number of people who don't care about this at all. and i think they should care. >> we want to go back and forth. i want to ask a different person and then come back and give people wo would like to ask a follow-up or different question. i want to get more voices on. who has a question on this side? right down here in the front. or right there. go ahead, sir. >> guantanamo or what you were explaining? how does that fit? >> how does guantanamo fit into what you discussed? are you talking about the camp? if you could speak up. we couldn't hear your question. >> yes, the actual prison situation in guantanamo is often used as a reason that sparks terrorism. i mean, what would your response be to that? >> are the people who are at guantanamo, in other words, fostering the fact that we're holding them there, does that foster terrorism? >> that's what osama bin laden was saying. that's what the new al qaeda leader is saying.

guantanamo is a detention camp. it's a u.s. naval base in cuba. is it a reason for which we have terrorism? terrorism existed way before guantanamo was created. >> right over here. >> hi, mark. i think the group you were trying to think about earlier was ms-13. >> ms-13, thank you. >> that's in central america, right? >> yes, sir. >> my compliments to you as an average citizen. you hit the right word, awareness. we in america take everything for granted. there's no question about that. we hear the left, the right, so many different things, which prompts this question to you, if r the past couple of years we saw the decline of the government in egypt. we saw the problems obviously occurring in syria. we saw what occurs with libya, with the overthrow of moe far gadhafi. in america there is concern that we are backing the wrong forces in those three parts of the world.

my question to you, sir -- is america's presence in those areas, are we getting involved with the proper groups that are trying to restore some type of stability in those regions, or as suspected are there terrorist organizations that are being involved in those areas? >> well, the obama as mrgs was accused of supporting the muslim brotherhood, again, hosni mubarak. it's a concern because the muslim brotherhood has spawned groups like hamas, al qaeda. osama bin laden was a member of the muslim brotherhood. and now a lot of egyptians are aphrase f of the muslim brotherhood. egypt recently designated the muslim brotherhood as a terrorist orgs. russia did the same thing. sometimes we're supporting the wrong side. that's for sure. >> and i want to thank you for that. the ms-13, that the gentleman was able to help me with is a transnational criminal gang that

originated in los angeles and has spread to other sparts of the united states shlgs canada, mexico and central america. the manufactured of the gang sl ethnically supposed of central americans and active in suburban and urban areas. in the united states ms-13 has an especially heavy presence in los angeles county, the san francisco bay area, washington, d.c., metropolitan areas of fairfax county, virginia and prince george's county in maryland. along with long island, new york, boston, charlotte, houston, and there's also a presence now of ms 13 in toronto, ontair owe, canada. we talked to the sheriff, and he said they're very hard to find, but they're everywhere. >> that's probably because they operate on the structure of sales. so they don't have a central command. they don't have any headquarters. they have sales of three, five, possibly ten people or maybe one

person everywhere. they're scattered. >> up front. >> i hear many americans say it's our fault the terrorists hate us because we shall wronging them. isn't it true a lot of the the hatred and the reasons we're attacking americans also is because we're just different? and that's the case, if we're just different, say we're christian versus muslim, say we're, our women go more skin clad than maybe their women do, if we're fighting all this terror because of those reasons, are we not justify -- enabled to take them out then? >> the first part of your question brings up blowback theory. and blow-back theory says america goes abroad, and because of that we're getting blow back