ahead of any opportunity police officers have to try to exonerate themselves by looking at body camera footage. but they shouldn't be afforded -- well, police officers shouldn't be afforded the chance to view it before making statements. i am more than happy to take questions afterwards. but i'm going to hand over to my colleague, michael tanner at the moment. thank you for your time. >> well, thank you all. and i'll try to be brief so we can get right to the question and answer session. i also want to thank this up to a different level. if freddie gray's death in baltimore was the spark that set off the rise in balt more and the troubles there, there was an awful lot of gun powder lying around. not just in terms of the police misconduct, but in terms of the general conditions under which people in that area of town haed to live. if you look at the area where

the incident happened in baltimore, more than half the people there are unemployed. this is an area of town that doesn't have a single grocery store. there's not a single restaurant in the area. not even a fast food joint. so you have high unemployment. you have very few opportunities for people and it's not surprising that there's a certain hopelessness and despair and frustration that sets in so that when there's an incident like freddie gray, it lights a spark and everything goes off. the question then becomes how do you tamp this down? how do you solve the problems that beset an area like that? how do you give people less or more hope, more opportunity, the chance to get out from under the conditions they're living insome well, after the riots people thought about it politicians in particular thought about it for about ten seconds, and then immediately came up with their

answer, which is that we need to spend more money. that we heard over and over again. we need to invest in our inner cities. president obama said that. congressman cummings who represents the baltimore area said that. steny hoyer said that who represents maryland in that area. constantly we heard the refrain what we really need to do is spend more money. baltimore has been neglected if r years. poverty has been neglected for years. the reality is, there's very little evidence of neglect. we have been pouring money into poverty and into baltimore in particular for decades. you know, if you want to go back to 1965 when lyndon johnson declared war on poverty, we spent $22 trillion in this country on anti-poverty problems. last year alone the federal government spent $688 billion

financing over 120 separate anti poverty programs state and local governments tossed in another $300 billion, so we're spending just about a trillion dollars last year on poverty. that doesn't strike me as neglect. and baltimore well between 2003 and 2013 which is the last year we have complete data for, baltimore received $6 billion in federal and state grants to fight poverty. and it received anned a the igs ed aned a ed aned a -- an additional $1.6 billion from the stimulus program we had. spent $1.4 billion of that $1.6 billion so far. yet we still see 25% of baltimore living in poverty. we still see the problems that beset sand town. we're not getting a great deal of bang for our buck.

and it might be because we're spending -- throwing money at the problem of poverty, rather than dealing with the things we know can lift people out of poverty. number one of those is a job. less than 3% of people who work full time live below the poverty level. yet as we have seen, there's very few jobs available in inner city baltimore. well, one reason for that may be the fact that maryland and baltimore in particular have some of the worst tax and regulatory climates for business in the nation. maryland has the tenth worst business tax climate in the nation. and the fifth worst personal income tax climate. small business, they're the seventh highest marginal tax rate in the nation. if a business is going to try to locate in an area like inner city baltimore that's a high

risk venture for that business. they're only going to do that if they see a substantial opportunity for return. the more barriers, tax and regulatory barriers you put before them, before they can invest in the areas the less likely they're going to be to make the investments. you're not going to lure businesses to high poverty, high crime areas while you're still piling on additional regulations and additional taxes, the policy maryland has undertaken. second is education. we know if you drop out of school, chances are you're going to be poor. you go on and graduate college you're not. 25% of baltimore students fail to graduate. the s.a.t. scores in baltimore are 100 points below the national average. and less than half of baltimore students pass the standard assessment tests for high school.

and yet baltimore spends a great deal of money on education. over $68,500 per student in it will baltimore school system. depending on how you want to measure it. baltimore is between second and fourth highest spending big city in america when it comes to education. so we're spending money and not getting good results. why? because baltimore school system acts more like the job is to protect teachers than to serve parents and students. maryland has one of the worst, one of the strictest regulations of charter schools in the the nation. as a result there's only some 70 or so charter schools in the whole state of baltimore. more students are educated in charter schools in washington, d.c. than in the state of maryland. parents don't even have public school choice in maryland. if you're assigned to a

district, you're essentially stuck in that district. no matter how bad the the school is. if you're living in sand town and sent to a crime ridden school, the teachers don't teach, you're stuck there. you don't have the opportunity to send your kid somewhere else. let alone, things like vouchers or something to really give parents control over the students. so we fail on jobs. we fail on education. and finally we fail on family formation. we know one of the keys to being not poor or one of the keys to getting out of poverty is waiting until you're married to have a kid. now, this is not a moral judgment, it's an economic one. you're five times more likely to live in poverty to give birth without a husband than if you wait to give married before you

have children. and yet we have two separate policies in place that increase out of wedlock birth in maryland. number one, it's extremely high level of welfare benefits. often conditioned on not having a father's income in the family. and second, as we've already heard a war on drugs, that criminalizes young men, gives them a criminal record that makes it very difficult for them to get employment in the future and also in the words of william julius wilson from harvard, makes them not marriageable. if you're a single woman in the inner city and looking for a husband, chances are it's much more difficult to find one. they can't get a job. they're not set for marriage. they're not set for families because they have this criminal record that they're tied to, and then on the other side, we say okay if you have a child we'll still give you welfare benefits on that side of it. so it's not surprising. that two-thirds of the birth in

baltimore are to unmarried women and more than half of the households in baltimore are headed by single women, which is a recipe for poverty. what we have done is try to soothe our own consciousness by pouring money. how many people have we gotten out of poverty? we're giving people money to make poverty a little less uncomfortable. what we're not taking steps that would actually get people out of poverty. that would include reducing tax and regulatory businesses for businesses that want to invest in these high risk areas. improving our school systems and holding teachers accountable, and increasing incentives for family formation by reducing welfare and ending the war on drugs and the overcriminalization of young black men. thank you all very much. appreciate it.

look forward to your questions. >> and so we have a littled amount of time. so i'm going to ask that everybody keep their question in the form of a question so we don't take up too much. we'll start with you there. >> sharon bogat, voice of a moderate. in 1992 i got to the go to the l.a. riots. people connected talking to the president. because i was living in the bay area, it took an hour. if i had a body cam on me i would have noticed it was more on an economic issue than a racial issue. the mainstream media portrayed it as racial. it was everybody fighting everybody. it was just madness. but it had nothing as much to do with race as it was portrayed. also with ferguson, i think the body cam would have helped. but also it's poverty and what you said is very valid. so my question is -- if you

don't like a body cam but the body cam cannot just protect the police officers, but it can protect the general public so we know what's really going on. because i was told the ferguson indictment was delayed so it would happen during prime time. and then it happened at night, which was a lot more dangerous for society, had they just released it five hours earlier. so any comments that you have about both of those? >> yeah, so i think that body cameras benefit actually both police officers and citizens. police officers are sometimes subject to bogus complaints, for example and you hear police officers saying they like body cameras because it cuts down on a certain degree of time they spent dealing with that. however i think there's a huge benefit to citizens. the interesting thing that happened after ferguson is because of a lack of footage two narratives were allowed to

emerge. is one was this was a young angry man who needlessly attacked a police officer and justifiably slain. and the other narrative was the opposite of that. let's put it that way. one of these or neither of these is true. a body camera would have helped. i think in the future an increasing number of americans are going to demand that their officers have body cameras. it's going to become the norm. but like i said we need good policies in place to make sure that's not a disaster when it does happen. >> one quick comment on na. closely related to body cameras is proliferation of cell phones and capturing more police conduct with cell phones. a generation ago when somebody complains, the average person didn't know what to make of it,

right? somebody said the police beat me up. the police respond and say, well, we used the force necessary to bring somebody, you know, under control so we can can arrest them. and yourl average person, they didn't know what to make of it. i wasn't there. i don't want to believe the police department is telling a lie. nowadays, more and more arrests and incidents are caught on cell phone coverage and now the average person can reach their own conclusions about whether the police were using necessary force or whether they had stepped over the line and engaged in police brutality and police beating. so this is bringing really a revolution now to policing. people can now reach their own conclusions about it and then, you know protest about it until there really is accountability. >> can i add to that? >> sure. i really the part -- in doing research, i watched quite a lot

of depressing youtube videos. whether it's body cam footage but also people filming the police. what is really bought to home to me is not enough people understand their rights when it comes to filming the police. and it is a first amendment protected, and if you're legally where you're supposed to be you can film the police. there are apps like -- i can show you afterward. but ustream is going to direct video upload so it goes straight to a website. they have come up with software apps for filming the police. film the police. it's worth doing. >> my name is janice ruth. i was imprisoned for 14 days so marc warren could be reelected in the state of virginia. we have an unusual checks and balances that has become the perfect storm. we're saying right now this is

an african-american problem. this is an american problem. and what i would like to ask you is who can we go to and who do with you think we should be able to go to for justice and fairness in the courts? we send our young men and women off to war to fight for rights we no longer have in this country. >> well it's a complicated question. obviously if you feel like your rights have been trampled the first step for anybody is to try to find a good lawyer. because they're going to help you recommend the things you do and the things you shouldn't do and get in touch with electeded officials, and they'll know to bring the proper complaints against the police departments and to bring viable lawsuits. but i agree with you. i know what you're saying. there are a lot of obstacles in place to get the grievances and

to get compensation. so there's a lot of reforms that need to be done in order to get the system to where it ought to be. >> they do terrific work in this area, if you're not familiar with their efforts. >> silt zen journalist. i understand the secondary benefits of drug legalization. in terms of sale and distribution, do you really think the poor black communities will benefit, or do you think a harder drug or illicitly cultivated marijuana will take the place and it will move on? >> well, the primary benefit is it brings peace and harmony back to the neighborhoods. right now there's a thriving criminal mark and controlled by gangster organizations that fight one another to get control of the trade. so there's violence among the gangs and innocent people are caught in the crossfire.

the gangs have no reservations about selling drugs to minors. so by ending the drug war and putting drugs into places like liquor stores, i mean, it's not great. there are some problems that are going to be there. but it's a whole lot better than what we have right now where you have a thriving underground market and the gang violence as i said it's a tempting invitation for young people who are dropping out of schools to go and make some cash. what happens is they make cash for a few months, and then they get busted, get a criminal record. it makes it hard for them to enter the mainstream economy and get work experience, or they go to prison, or they get killed by a rival gang. so these are the problems that we can get away from if we were to end the war on drugs. time for probably one more. yes, to you in the back.

>> you spoke about tax incentives in maryland but also creating jobs. do you have a time line implemented today. the policy changes for tax and education and businesses coming into maryland? a time line where you think you will see a change in those communities? >> well, certainly wouldn't be overnight. i mean the fact is that these are not -- these are high-risk areas for a business to invest in. i mean the people who are working these areas or living in these areas tend to be low skilled. low attachment to the workforce. criminal records and all the other problems we've been talking about. plus you have the high crime areas and areas simply not wanting to rush into business. that said, you can see communities turn around fairly quickly. you only need one or two anchor businesses to bring into an area that sometimes you can then see the whole area begin to turn around. you can look not too far down

here in china town area of washington, d.c. a couple of businesses went into the area and began to turn around. or maryland where the the discovery store turned in and businesses went in. once you can get one or two to sort of anchor the investment others will follow. so i think it will be a multiyear violence. you have to deal with other things too. not just the business. you have to education the workforce. which means changing the schools. you have to deal with all these other problems as well. it's not a magic bullet. but it's certainly part of the process. you can't say there's no jobs. there's one store moving in. let's tax the heck out of them. >> there is time for one more, i guess. >> can you identify by name, presidential candidates, or leading congressional figures that have got this message of

saying let us decriminalize or back off of this stuff? and can you make any statement about either party or caucuses like congressional black caucus or whatever? any group which has stature within congress, that can say maybe pass a law that any state that wants to take the authority, we'll let the states experience. . the federal government will stand back and let them give a try or something like that. >> well, it's important to recognize that the big progress we have seen in recent years with respect to reversing drug policy has come at the state level, and it's also come by referendum. not by elected officials passing or repealing drug laws through a state legislature. that's how it happened in colorado, washington state and we've seen it happen in a few other states as well.

california will be the big one in 2016. so it's happening by referendum. that said, there are some members of congress who have put forth some bills. dana roderbacker is one, who is trying to say, restrain the federal law enforcement apparatus by saying let's respect the states choosing to liberalize on drugs. let's restrain the dea and other law enforcement agencies from going into those states and trying to bust people opening up otherwise legitimate stores and things like that. and so we are seeing the beginnings of some progress there. but what i expect will happen over the next ten years is we'll have more and more states especially on marijuana, begin to turn away from the war policy. and i think marijuana will be largely legal in the united states but it's taking too long. it will happen but i think it will happen probably in eight, nine, ten years.

>> as far as the economic incidents and the larger welfare policy goes, i think the mayjor candidates at least, marco rubio would turn welfare policy back to the states to allow more experimentation with what the states want to do with that. rand paul has a proposal to essentially slash taxes in inner city high poverty areas that would do that. he also has a proposal with cory booker to roll back criminal records for people. people arrested for minor offenses, those would go off the record. they wouldn't have to put that down when they apply for work and so on. a clean record. that would go a long way as well. >> and the last on the enterprise for bill. so we're seeing these things come up.

this is going to be a collective group to really do anything. at the federal level. officially you guys are all dismissed. i will entertain questions since we started late. so if you want to stay, you're more than welcome to. >> senator paul has also done a lot of work on police millitary militarization militarization, asset forfeitures, and he found time in the course of his very short remarks on patriot act extension the other day. i think it only went like ten hours. to talk about a lot of these issues. >> that's exactly right. senator mccaskill has a bill that aims to curb 1033, the problems there. and congressman clay has a companion bill to that effort. i believe they mirror roughly what president obama announced earlier. >> i wanted to say out loud. i'm glad that you had a speaker on here, michael, to talk about

the economic issues and some of the other issues. i think there's a -- i notice there's tends to be a dichotomy in the debate where some of us who are concerneded with police brutality, police militarization militarization, particularly in the inner cities. there's always a push back from the more conservatives. the real problem is well actually you can say that we need to address both problems and maybe need to address them all in tandem as opposed to trying to set up this either/or dichotomy dichotomy. >> it's somewhat related, but i've always found any debate i find that all the republicans or self described fiscal conservatives could support the war on drugs considering how expensive it is and how expensive it is to incarcerate people. and often times keeping people incarcerated is more expensive than putting people through four-year college. how this is fiscal sanity amuses

me. so there are a number of ways to attack this, at least on drugs. the issue can be with fiscal and moral arguments. >> i don't think you can address these separately because they're very much tied together. enyou hear conservatives talk about we need to do more for family formation. but it's not like, and george bush had the proposal with billboards that said marriage is good. well, the fact is most women, including most poor women want to get married. the problem is they couldn't find men to marry because the men are unemployed or in jail. so you're going to have to deal with all these economic issues and the criminalization issues at the same time of trying to deal with family formation. it's not enough to simply lecture people on how you go off and get married if you have

these other problems. >> one more if we have them. >> are there any suggestions on how we can create policies or legislation to address that? >> there are good policies contained in the task force report that was issued a couple of days ago. there are good recommendations in there. but the problem is that it's really the political incentives of elected officials. i thought it was a mistake for the department of justice to launch an investigation with the baltimore police department. i didn't think the time could be any better to clean up that department than right now. the mayor said she was interested in reform. her police chief said he was interested in turning the

department around. they do get pushback from police unions and that sort of thing. so i think with the outcry and protests going on in baltimore there's never been a better time to clean up the department and get the right reforms in place right now. the immediate effect of the department of justice investigation is to kick the can down the road for whoever. six months, seven months, a year from now. and they will issue the report with good criticisms and probably good recommendations. but then the political climate will have changed. everyone will have moved on. they'll make some probably small changes without having a big political fight. and that is the pattern that we see over and over again. so sometimes these federal intervention can have an enabling effect for the local officials who do not really want to make hard decisions at the

local level. sometimes they want to invite the feds in so that the feds can make tough decisions. but you know, this is why we elect a mayor and police chief. it's their primary responsibility. now was the time for them to do it. they avoided and evaded responsibility by asking the feds to come in and give them recommendations about what to do. >> i would -- i would just add that i think with -- as i said in my presentation i think if there's bad policies in place it might become harder to fire bad apples. if the officers are involved in a lethal use of force incident and they get back to the station and they're allowed to view the footage with a union representative or another colleague or they're alloweded to come up with their own report about what happened. that's going to allow for them to -- themselves. i think the initial reports have to be about what did you think

you saw? how did you feel, up to and including the incident? is now, and on the other side, though, what i will say is the footage that is coming out whether filmed by citizens or body camera is making this debate a lot more fierce. the shooting in new orleans charleston. everyone saw that footage and said how could this possibly be justified? and it's going to become increasingly difficult for bad apples to be caught on camera. not if police are the only ones viewing the footage. >> and with that i want to thank you so much for staying and being part of this audience. so thank you, everybody. i do have one bit of housekeeping. next wednesday called proven strajs to restrain spending. we'll have represents from switzerland and hong kong, who of dan's favorites if you know him at all. so thank you all for coming.

here's a look at our prime time programming across the c-span networks. here on c-span 3, more from american history it have. our focus is the south surrender at appomattox. on c-span 2 at 8:00, we'll have book tv in prime time. tonight's theme is economic books and authors. we'll hear from former treasury secretary hank paulson among others. and on c-span, a special look at

freedom speech issues. hosted by the national constitution center. a senior official from koch industries talks about corporations and unlimited spending in the wake of the citizens united decision. here's a preview. my point of view is people should be able to give money anonymously or on the record. it should be up for them to decide and not for the government to decide. the government, the bill of rights, i'm going to paraphrase the the late great justice brennan here which i'm sure he'll be flattered by. they made sure that government couldn't infringe upon those rights because they were presumed to be preexisting. and my point of view is to the expent people want to disclose.

and we were talking before we got on here. if charles koch and david koch credited or blame whatever your point of view is for every single penny spent on a conservative cause or candidate, the reality is there's a cost to disclosure. and from a cost benefit analysis in my opinion, i don't see who really pays attention to this other than activists on each side that want to date create lists. act visit them. i know they do it on our side against us e kuz me with 2 koches. there have been a number of death threats. it comes at a cost. and who really benefits for the disclosure? >> just a short portion of tonight's program on free speech issues from the national constitution center at philadelphia. you can watch the entire event

at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. now vice president biden delivers this year's commencement address at the u.s. naval academy in annapolis, maryland. he pays tribute to the ship men who died in the recent amtrak train derailment. this is 25 minutes. >> i don't want to give the wrong speech here. you already heard one. you don't need two. folks, it's an honor to be here. governor mcauliffe special congratulationses to you old buddy. top 10%. captain of the rugby team.

terry, you sure he's your son? i don't know, man. this is a talented young man. i can understand him being darby's son, but i don't know. congratulations to you, to the mcauliffes. secretary, the admiral is always nice to me in spite of the fact that i live in his house. the vice president's home is referred to as nave ops. 78 beautiful acres in the highest point of washington. it used to be the cno's home the navy still runs it. i live there and he still speaks to me, and i appreciate it. i live on navy property. i am navy property. general, congratulations and vice admiral carter, captain vine faculty, staff family, friends and midshipmen, most of all the class of 2015.

before i begin, i would like to again mention and honor mid shipman justin -- class of 2017. justin was a top student, a gifted athlete. remembered a young man of quiet strength and a man of his word. he would have made a great navy s.e.a.l., and he will be missed. my heart goes out to his family. no child should predecease a parent. class of 2015 you're among the most promising, you were the among the most promising high school students on the planet. no one would have blamed you for choosing an easier path. but you chose service. you chose honor. you choose to join the real 1%

that protects the 99% of the rest of us here in america. and we owe you. we're proud of you. today you graduate from one of the most venerated military and academic institutions in the entire earth. the time century arrived four years ago, you've earned your place. enough will do that to you. on one hand you've been subjected to unflattering haircuts. on the other hand though, you get to wear dress whites, and you all look terrific. you spent your summer abroad on real ships rather than internships. and the specter of living in your parent's basement after this graduation day is not likely to be your greatest concern.

and that's true across the board, even for you history and english majors like me. i see all the english majors nodding. as a personal privilege i would like to recognize one graduate today, sarah beam. the reason i do, i appointed her father to the academy. he was the the class of '78. dad, you done real well with this girl. congratulations to you. and i know -- and i know all of you participants are just bursting with pride. class of 2015, you've been an outstanding class. surpassing even the academy's high standards. you excelled on the field.

13 straight wins against army football. not bad. not bad except you're the father of an army major, iraqi war veteran with a bronze star who doesn't like it at all. it's hard. and we always go to the army navy game and i tell you what it's a devastating thing to sit next to my son. but congratulations. it makes it very uncomfortable at home, though. you've excelled at a community, and in the community. you mobilized mid shipments to perform over 26,000 hours in community service. you've registered over 2,000 new bone marrow. collected and donated over 60,000 pounds of food for those in need. and you excelled in the classroom. you didn't just win the annual cyber defense exercise. you became the first graduating class in any school in the

united states of america to ever have had every student complete the the comprehensive cyber security curriculum. you know back in 1845 the secretary of navy's name was bancroft, and he chose this site for its seclusion. the seclusion from temptation and distractions in the big cities. i wonder what the heck he would have done? i doubt whether he would have picked this place. a few of you, some as a consequence of those temptations have engaged in minor infractions sochlt in the spirit of a long standing tradition i

hereby ab solve all midshipmen presently on restriction for minor conduct offenses. and i say to all the parents you notice a few of them didn't cheer initially. they were afraid they would be identified as those on restriction. all those unrestrictions a little bit ago, don't worry. john mccain and i can tell you it's never got in the way of real talent. [ laughter ] you think i'm kidding don't you? i went to the university of delaware. it wasn't called restriction. it was called social probation. oh god forgive me.

anyway. in 15 minutes you're about to graduate from this incredible institution. a legacy that goes back 170 years, and as someone who did not graduate from here but has in the midst of all you for the entire professional career, i can tell you, you can join now as fraternity, the sorority that binds you together like nothing i have ever seen in my life. and i mean this. as my military aid and thousands of other men and women who graduateded from the academy will tell you, this legacy will stay with you whether you're in or out of uniform. you'll find annapolis graduates everywhere in the world, and know, you will just know that

they will always have your back, whether or not they have ever met you before. it is an incredible thing to see. and i would now like to ask all of those veterans with us today, including the 37 in the class of 2015, please stand up and be recognized. please stand. [ applause ] we owe you every breath of our libty, the sacrifices you have made. this place has given you the graduates 2015, bonds that will

last your entire lifetime. and you've earned it. there are no other bonds, except one deeper, and those are the bonds with those who came here today to see you. your moms, your dads, your grps grandparents, your brothers and sisters. they're the ones responsible for your character. you owe them and america owes them. so graduating class of 2015 stand up and show your appreciation for your parents. usually when i address graduating class, i say to the parents, congratulations you're

about to get a pay raise. no more tuition, but you settled that four years ago. you know, graduating class this path you've chosen is not for everyone. it's not an easy ride. it will require much but it will reward much. as you know the true measure of an officer is not only how you sail in calm waters, but how you navigate in storm. we, your fellow americans, expect a great deal from you. not just your physical courage but your moral courage as well, which at times can be even harder to muster.

you will be measured by this account as well. and as officers as the united states military you must demand that every one of your fellow sailors and marines is afforded the dignity, the respect that they deserve. no matter race, facebook, or orientation. as leaders in the united states navy, we count on you to refuse to follow rate essential harassment or sexual assault in any form under any circumstances, it's a matter of honor that you prevent that. and as we look to the future we look to you to be the forward deployed face of america,

projecting power to every corner of the world. because as president theodore roosevelt declared in an address to congress, a good navy is not a provocation to war. it's the surest guarantee of peace. a good navy is the surest guarantee of peace. the united states is in the atlantic, the pacific, the arctic. we are an arctic pacific and atlantic power. as well as the nation. the seas cover seven-tenths of the globe. six- six- six- six- six-tenths of our borders are seacoast. nine out of ten people on the planet live on the coast. this maritime domain the oceans you will roam will be as

important as ever to our national security in the 21st century, and let me tell you why. first the oceans continue to be an arena of potential conflict. there's nothing new about events on the seas driving conflict. but what is new is the great powers that step back from the brink of much a mutual assured destruction. there are new fault lines. the new fault lines will continue to divide the great powers. and they reside in the strengths in the sea lanes that you will come to know so well. tensions run high. as i speak, they run high. but you will be there to keep the peace.

u.s. foreign policy is rebalancing toward the vast potential of the asia pacific region. but we can't succeed if you don't show up. that's why 60% of the united states naval forces will be stationed in the asian pacific by 2020. combat ships, forward deployed forces marines in darwin. all and many more are headeded to the pacific. so are many of you. and in matters because the pacific peace of prosty to a greater extent has depended on and will continue to depend on u.s. naval power just as it has for the past 60 years. president xi of china when i was

meeting with him asked me, why do i continue to say america is a pacific power? and i said because we are. and, mr. president you owe your stability over the last 30 years to the united states navy and military. and he acknowledged it. you are force for peace and security. we've used your power to reinforce and update the international rules and cooperation that benefit all nations. to manage the emerging challenges of the century ahead before they devolve into conflict. in the disputed waters of the south china sea, the united states does not privilege the the claims of one nation over

another, but we do unapologetically stand up for the the equitable and peaceful resolution of disputes and for the freedom of navigation. and today of navigation. and today these principles are being tested by chinese activities in the south china sea. they are building airstrips, the placing of oil riggs imposition of unilateral bans on fishing in disputed territories, the declaration of air defense zones, the reclamation of land which other countries are doing but not nearly on the massive scale the chinese are doing. we are going to look to you to uphold these principles wherever they are challenged to strengthen our growing security partnerships, and to make good

on our unshakeable commitment to the mutual defense of our allies. you will serve in ships and on squadrons deployed everywhere. from these very pacific sea lanes to the straits of ar muse, where iranian's fast boats threaten a vital marine choke point, maritime choke point. in the black sea and the baltic sea you will play a major role in protecting europe whole, free and at peace at a time when russian aggression threatens europe's frontier. around the world, your presence will be felt convincing potential adversaries the cost of aggression against us or our allies would be devastating.

we will look to you to guarantee our strategic nuclear deterrence serving in navy ballistic missile sub marines the most secure and survival element of our nuclear triyad from the defensive power of the marine expeay additionary force to our defense capable shops whoa betide the foe who decides to challenge the united states of america. or our navy. and truth -- the truth that you know as well as i do, it iss not only are you on the seas. i've been in and out of afghanistan and iraq over 27 times. i've seen you. i've seen young navy captains and fobs high up in the konar

valley. i've watched marines throw themselves in harm's way in iraq and afghanistan. 35,000 of you marines 5,000 sailors at this moment, are deployed ashore in conflict areas. you are everywhere. there is a second reason why you remain so vital to us as if what i have just said were not enough. we also look to you to keep the global economy afloat because the oceans are the vital avenue of commerce, and we depend on the united states navy to protect the sea lanes. people sometimes think in this day and age of global commerce -- think in terms of

the internet and air travel. but you know the reality. at this moment, 80% of all the commerce in the world is in the back -- in the back of a container ship. that remains -- that remains the backbone of world commerce. 90% of it. and that's only going to increase. as you all know too well, the world's sea lanes do not police themselves. you, united states navy police them protecting against pry raes and coercion. and you do it not just for our own ships, but for all who seek to freely navigate the seas. and in the century ahead, we

will look to the oceans you roam not just as an arena of potential conflict, not just as avenues of commerce, but as arenas of cooperation to deal with the challenges no other country in the world can solve alone and few can solve without us. we'll rely on you united states navy, to lead in solving these emerging problems. when millions of lives were ravaged by nature, as we saw after the devastating typhoon in the philippines the united states navy filled the void saving countless lives. our presence, your presence matters. as president obama discussed at the coast guard academy graduation a couple days ago, the changing climate means

quote, more extreme storms will mean more humanitarian missions to deliver life-saving help. our forces will have to be ready. you remain indispensable. america's command of the oceans is the measure and the symbol of our diplomatic and military prime primeassy in the world. as george washington remarked during the revolutionary war quote, it follows then as certain as that night succeeds day, that without a decisive naval force, we can do nothing definitive. and with it everything honorable and glorious. that hasn't changed one single bit.

so i say to you all, we continue to count on you to protect the world's security on the high seas, to project the presence required to sustain the united states as a global super power, to be where it matters when it matters most. we cannot promise you fame or money. we cannot promise you a calm or quiet passage. but i can promise you, without and yawned the exception of your mother, father, husband and wife, there will be no titles you will more proudly bear than being an officer in the united states navy and the united states marine corps. [ applause ] in a different context in a

different century john kennedy said something that applies today as well. he said any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, i think he can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction, i served in the united states navy. [ applause ] in the weeks, months and years come, you will be asked to bear burdens and make sacrifices you will never have dreamed of, and you wonder whether you will be capable of. when those moments arise -- and they will -- remember all you've learned, all you've felt all you've breathed here at the naval academy, and you will rise

to the moment and know one thing for sure. you are not alone. you will never ever be alone. you will be surrounded by a family that raised you, and a family that made you an officer and in the finest military in the history of the world without exception. so congratulations class of 2015. may god bless and protect the brigades and the navy and the marine corps and may you have fair winds and following seas. and may god protect all our troops in harm's way. god bless america. [ applause ] this summer book tv will cover book festivals from around

the country and top nonfiction authors and books. this weekend we are live at book expo america in new york city. in the beginning of june wouldary live for the chicago tribune printer's lit fest with pulitzer prize winning author lawrence write and your phone calls. near the end of june watch for the annual roosevelt reading festival from the franklin d. radios velt presidential library n. the middle of jean-luc july we are live at the harlem book fair. the nation's african-american literary event with author interviews and panel discussions. and at the beginning of september we are life from the nation's capitol for the national book festival celebrating its 15th year. that's a few of the events this summer on cspan 2's book tv. coming up tonight on cspan 3, american history tv's coverage of the