strive to cultivate participation, believing in importance of public access to government records and such access strengthens democracy by allowing americans to claim their rights of citizenship hold government accountable and understand their history so they can participate more effectively in their government. the records we preserve belong to all americans and have the right to examine them and use them. constitution of the united states which is publicly displayed in the rotunda proclaims the privacy of the people and the opening words, we, the people. another open document has many examples of we the people. how we have asserted our rights, campaigned for justice and petitioned our government. all of us at the national archives take our roles as caretakers of america's records seriously and we're proud the work we do every day preserves our documentary heritage for generations to come. i'll turn you over now to martin frost of the united states

association of former members of congress, who will introduce tonight's panelists. martin frost served 26 years as a congressman from the 24th district of texas from 1979 to 2005. during that time he served eight years in the house democratic leadership, four years as chairman of the democratic congressional campaign committee and four years as chair of the house democratic caucus. he was a member of the house rules committee and the house budget committee. since leaving congress, he served four years as chair for national endowment for democracy and incoming president of the u.s. association of former members of congress. he's an adjunct professor in the george washington university graduate school of political management and holds journalism and history degrees from the university of missouri and a law degree from georgetown. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome martin frost. [ applause ] >> well, thank you, david.

it's good to be back. the former members of congress in partnership with the archives has a series of events like this. and y'all have been great to help us put these on. i think people here tonight will find it interesting. people watching it, streaming it online and people in the audience. before we hear from the truly outstanding panelists who volunteered their time to share their personal stories of civic engagement with you tonight, i'd like to share a quick work about our association, the former members of congress. as fmc, we bring together a bipartisan group of over 600 former representatives and senators who worked together in a bipartisan manner on a wide variety of projects. deepening the understanding of our democratic system and encouraging public service. as an association we've become

extremely concerned about the lack of civic education in this country. whether you agree or disagree with our panelists on the issues they advocate, their engagement as citizens is based on civic education they've learned and especially the engagement we see from our guests today. the -- i'm going to walk through -- i'm going to walk through who's on the panel and then they'll all come in at once. and our panel will look to examine how from civil rights to parkland individuals from different generations, backgrounds and platforms have taken a stand on issues near and dear to their hearts. all while becoming active and vocal citizens. we ask that our audience respect that discussion. we'll focus on the issues of civic learning and engagement, not about particular issues like gun control or race relations. it is the -- in the interest of time and given how large our panel is this evening, we've

asked you to write down any questions you may have for our panelists on note cards provided for you. staff members will circle the auditorium and collect those questions later in the program. finally, if what our panelists share tonight resonates with you in any way, i encourage you to visit former members of congress website and find out more about our programming. now, having said that, it is my great pleasure to introduce, to reside the moderator for tonight's discussion, former congressman from california, jane harman, one of the truly outstanding members of congress that i served with. jane became the first woman director, president and ceo of the woodrow wilson center after serving nine terms in the house of representatives. her dedication to public service is exemplary. she served in president carter's administration, was a member of the armed services, homeland and is recognized worldwide as an expert on security and public policy issues.

jane will be tonight's guide during our conversation on how citizens of our country have helped shape our democracy. joining are panelists ellen holmes norton will be one of those panelists. congresswoman norton, in addition to serving 14 terms in the house of representatives came into public life as a civil rights and feminist leader and a tenured professor of law. a third generation washingtonian she spent her legal career protecting women's rights and free speech. also on the panel will be former congressman tim petri until his retirement from the u.s. house of representatives at the end of 113th congress. he was a senior member of both

the transportation and infrastructure committees and the committee on education and workforce. known for his innovative, creative solutions to government problems, representative petri included student loan reform, the federal highway program, cost sharing for federal water projects, taxes and health care. he will bring the perspective of a long-term republican congress member who had to face the same type of lobbying that democratic members face in dealing with issues facing our country. then is sarah lerner, a teacher at majory stoneman douglas high school. this is sarah's 16th year of teaching, having taught at lion's middle school, south plantation high school previously. she has been a majory stoneman douglas high school since 2014. sarah has received honors from

the florida scholastic press association, national scholastic press association as well as the columbia scholastic press association, the four yearbooks sarah has produced at mortgagy stoneman douglas high school have all been nationally recognized and entered into the wallsworth gallery of excellence. she historically watched over 15 students in a locked classroom when a gunman attacked her school last february. and then last, but not least, is rain valladares who just finished her junior year at majory douglas stoneman high school. she's been on the yearbook staff for three years and photo editor. as a senior she'll continue as photo editor and become the editor-in-chief. along with her work as yearbook editor, rain has taken five advanced placement classes, has been involved in national honor society, teen trendsetters and the spanish club.

she plans to study photo journalism in college. the photographs rain made of her classmates in the hours before the attack on her school are simply stunning and have received national attention. it is my privilege to have you all on the stage with us this evening. please, join us and welcoming this outstanding panel as they enter the hall. [ applause ] >> i hope the mike is on. can everybody hear me? good evening, i'm jane harman. this is an exciting panel. i gather we will be joined a little later by congressman ted deutch from the parkland district.

if he comes, and if he wants to, we'll add him to our happy group because he has stories, obviously, to tell, too. let me just make a few opening comments and then you'll hear, i think, an amazingly interesting set of stories from activists who were and are extremely effective. we will -- the last speaker will be tim petri. his -- just to warn you, as a former member of congress, too, he will talk about the ways in which congress receives information or doesn't receive information and some of the lessons learned. it's a pleasure to participate in an event with the national archives. i'm sure you've all been here. i was realizing how long it's been since i've been here. the documents in this place how

us all why this democratic, with a small "d" experiment in america has been so successful and is so important. similarly congress is part of that experiment. as the article i branch of government -- there are three branches. article i means that congress really has to be first. has to lead. and sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. but these stories will help illuminate some of the better times in united states congress. i would say, and i don't know that -- i hope i don't offend my dear friend eleanor. this is not one of congress's better times. this has nothing to do with her abilities, which is enormous, but it has to do with the ability of the institution as an institution to get things done. toxic partisanship is a big

problem. and i think we all pay a price for that. including the people who work there. but we'll tell some of the good stories tonight. the way we will do this, and martin said this, is within an historical context. we will start with eleanor's stories. not because she may be one of the more -- a person with more life experience on this stage along with tim and me, but because she was -- i didn't mess that up too bad, but because in terms of timing the activism she first engaged in before she ran for congress, and still engages in, came first. so, we'll go into that we will then -- i may ask a few questions along the way and then we're taking written questions from you, which will be given to me and i will be happy to ask them. just a few more points. one, the importance of bipartisanship. though i'm a democrat, i have

always called myself a charter member of the bipartisan party. since what mattered to me, and i think what mattered to all of us in congress, was putting the congress first. sadly, the business model of congress doesn't do that. it's not the people. very good people serve in congress, in my view, in both parties. and very good staff serves in congress in both parties but the problem is that the -- the goal of the business model rather than solving problems is to blame the other side for not solving problems. and as a bipartisan here, i will say both parties play this game and the country loses. if you are bipartisan these days, that means you get a primary challenge. and it's very unfortunate for all of us that that seems to be the model. all of us can change it if we are active. this is the point, and pitch the right messages to the right

people in both parties. and i think we're going to learn that. congress also is not, i would say, a learning institution. why is that? because people are too busy. i was visiting a senior member of senate today. he said, thank you for coming up here. i don't have time to learn about the issue. the issue i was talking when, you might be interested s about a summit that was convened by the trump administration last june, a year ago. vice president pence went and john kelly, who was then the secretary of homeland security, went, as did the head -- the enter of the inter-american development bank and some others. the summit was held in florida. the point of this summit was to figure out how the united states could help the governments of the central american countries, which are the drivers of this migration through mexico into the united states.

that is -- as we all know, that's been the top of the news for the last weeks. and the trump administration had a good idea. invest in developing political capacity in these countries, help reduce corruption and crime from the drug cartels and stimulate business in this country. who would be against that? nobody. actually, congress funds some of that. however, this summit occurred a year ago and there was a report with recommendations. and no one is focusing on it. so, i went to see a senior member of the senate to suggest that, perhaps, this person who has jurisdiction over some aspects of latin america on his role of the senate foreign relations committee might hold a hearing or come down to the wilson center, this nonpartisan think tank that i had, and address this issue.

it just hasn't been addressed. it should be focused on. it certainly, if done right, and the administration's initiative, it certainly would add some value and help the country solve a very serious problem. so, this evening, as you heard from martin frost, we are not debating the merits of the various issues you'll hear about. we are probing the advocacy that was behind presenting these issues to congress and how those who advocated effectively did it and how, perhaps, what they did would have to be done a little differently in this century than it was done in the last century. we'll start with congresswoman ellen holmes norton, who i met in her advocacy days way back when. i'll make a point. i think martin was saying there

are 600 former members of congress. did you know that since the beginning of time there have been about 10,500 members of congress. guess how many of them were female? under 500. that is still the current statistic. so it is with great pride that i would like to welcome one of my former sisters, eleanor holmes norton. >> thank you, jane. >> the question, eleanor, is, you were a civil rights advocate in various guises. what turned you onto the issues, plural, what did you do and how

do you -- looking back on your own activism, how do you measure your effectiveness? >> well, it's important to recognize that congress is not a self-executing body. that puts a great burden on the citizens. if you want anything done through law and your country. now, i'm a native washingtonian, third generation washingtonian. grew up in the city. was one of the last graduates of a segregated school system. because brown versus board of education came just as i was graduating from dunbar high school. so, my own experience with segregation, not only discrimination, everything was segregated in your nation's capital, except the buses downtown and the department stores. african-americans couldn't try on clothes. this was a southern city. so, having grown up with

segregation, i was really ready for the civil rights movement. so a lot has to do with your moment in time. and i was going to college just as the civil rights movement was bursting forward, particularly as a student movement. i was a member of what was known as snic, the student nonviolating coordinating committee. the civil rights movement had about six major organizations of which sncc is one. my colleague, john lewis, and i were both in sncc at the same time. so, it gives me great joy to see students even younger than we were, taking the initiative on a major issue in our country. and i must say, given their age, high school students, the first

time i have ever seen high school students essentially start a national movement. we in sncc were part of an overall movement. there was the naacp, any number of organizations. we had the march on washington that was led by adults. what happened in parkland, florida, is very different. these students came to washington and had a big demonstration. they were in charge. they have stimulated one of the toughest issues to get the congress to focus on. in fact, if i may say so, i can think of no tougher issue. and yet if you had a pin and you pricked it, you really ought to be able to do something about it. for example, and there are very few statistics like this, about 97% of the american people are

for background checks for guns. that's -- that's not hard. it says something about the way our country was set up. it's hard to get even easy things done. the way our country was set up by founders who didn't much believe that the central government could do very much, was to make it difficult for the central government to do very much. and that was back then in the 18th century. and 19th century. but when you have to pass bills, unlike the way bills are passed in europe, in a parliamentary system, where whoever runs the government makes the laws, has the majority, if you have a wholly different system that says even if you want to get a bill where 97% of the american people are for you, you've got to go through the house, you've got to go through the senate.

they each have cumbersome rules. and then you've got to get the president to sign it. there is something new on the scene. that is this student movement. essentially the challenge to the house of representatives, where i serve, is can they get the congress to do what nobody before then has been able to do? they have shown longevity. they haven't just had a demonstration here and got everybody excite the. so, i would answer that question, even given how difficult it is to get things done in congress, that the students led by the parkland, florida, students will show the country that young people can make the old-fashioned congress do something important in our country.

age that and that is pass common sense gun safety laws. i thank them for their leadership. >> i appreciate that. you were effective, too. we're going to hear from the parkland teacher and student in a moment. he will anor, back in the day, you know, john lewis and you and others were extraordinary leaders at a young age. for congress to do something about racial discrimination, and congress actually did a lot about racial discrimination back in the day. a president, lyndon johnson particularly cared about this. i remember this, and in the early '70s i was a staffer in the senate. i was a chief counsel of the senate subcommittee on constitutional rights, and we were able to extend and expand the voting rights act, and it was tricky, procedurally tricky

because the chairman of the senate judiciary committee at the time jim eastland of mississippi was an avoid segregationist, but we didn't do this by ourselves. there was enormous pressure from outside so in your snic days and later you were the head of the equal opportunity commission, what did you do then to get congress to move? >> well, as a young person with segregation still in place, you mentioned the voting rights act. there's also -- that's the 1965 voting rights act. there's the 1964 civil rights act, and i got through college in time to head the equal employment opportunity commission that i was in the streets trying to get, and there was the 1968 fair housing act.

>> yes, so were you in the streets. >> in the streets. >> it was a different time. >> in the streets. >> you took enormous personal risks. walking across the pettus bridge, most people know that story. were you there when john -- >> i didn't watch across the pettus bridge. >> he got his head beat in. >> we were among the students who sat in. i don't want you to think that the risks were so great. if they were so great we were young and foolish enough not to regard sitting in a place that you weren't supposed to be as a risk, and that does say something about our country, that even with segregation in place we believed that we would somehow survive what we called nonviolent resistance. so i have enormous -- and the parkland students are far more sophisticated. they have something we didn't have, social media. i mean, i'm on every social media platform, and there wasn't any such thing. so imagine what they are going

to be able to do with this issue that we had to do by putting our bodies on the line and saying, okay, you've got to arrest me because that's the only way i can make a point. >> you know, how did you -- not everybody did what you did? even people growing up in the segregated -- in this segregated town or segregated south who were the victims of discrimination. wouldn't necessarily put their bodies at risk. i mean, what motivated you personally to do this? how did you have the courage to do it? >> well, i really think growing up in the nation's capital, a segregated city, and, understand, it was a city where people -- black people worked in the bowels of the government but that meant that they had to have some college education. >> yeah. >> so there was some great consciousness if you grew up in this city. i am the great-great-granddaughter of a runaway slave from virginia, and that consciousness which is replicated among african-americans in the district, people who had a high consciousness did not live in

the old south which would have been even more risky but lived in the nation's capital, so in a real sense i just could not wait for the civil rights movement. i was ready for it before it happened, and that has a lot to do with growing up in the city where we are now in the nation owes capital. >> it had a lot to do with activism. you could not wait, a you had great opportunities. you went to yale law school. do i remember this right? so you had this fancy law degree. you probably -- back in the day, i remember this. women lawyers weren't getting a lot of job offers, but you probably had a cushy option, and instead you chose academics. >> by that time the civil rights -- that's why i say young and foolish. i had already been in. >> what she did was very courageous, and i'm sure everyone agrees with me, and we

will talk about this issue, too, but when you did it, very -- >> what had not been done -- there had not been an activist movement since the labor movement, and that was before i was born, so the country was not used to seeing people get up on their hind legs and demand something and expect to get some response. who does that? who does that? people who are desperate enough so they really don't have many other options, and when does it first? and i think that's an important point to bear in mind. it is not unusual for activism to be begin among the very young, not people who have children or people who have responsibilities but people who, if you will forgive me, have nothing to lose and who make it possible for the rest of us to have everything to gain. i was born at the right time to be in -- in such a generation,

and it has helped me prepare for everything else i have done in my life. >> there we go. >> including run for congress. >> and if you haven't done all this crazy stuff, maybe you wouldn't have had the gumption to run for congress which is a pretty big move in case you missed it. you put yourself out there and even if you have a yale degree and someone comes up and feels very comfortable saying i don't like you, i don't want you. it's not exactly a warm and fuzzy experience to be merchandise and have people have opinions that may not be based on your merit. then some other people love you have, and you may not deserve that either, but my point is it's a brave thing to do, to be an activist. it is a brave thing to do, and you were very effective at it, and then you parlay that into an extremely lock so far political career where you are also out there doing brave things. so i just think we're going to

move on here, but i -- i just personally want to salute you. >> thank you very much. [ applause ] >> so, now, we're going to talk >> congressman tom deutch, so i know well. in my defense, this guy petri. used to be tom petri. how you doing ted? ted is the congresswoman for sarah and rain. we are going to hear their storiesle now that you're hear, i'm glad you're here. what we are trying to talk about is activism.

how do you do it effectively? we are discussing the gun safety issue, but we are not debating the gun safety issue. we are discussing activism. as eleanor was saying before you got here, it was astonishingly impressive performance. performance is not fair. astonishingly impressive act from the heart of students and teachers who went through absolute horrific experience. not the first, and not the last in our country, but the most recent horrific experience. so i don't know which one of you wants to start, but please talk about not just the incident and what you did, but how you personally -- let's start with you, sarah. you're if one who barricaded yourself in a room and saved a bunch of kids. how did you do that? >> welsh it was a normal

wednesday at school. i was giving a quiz to my seniors in my english class and the fire alarm went off. we all looked at each other in confusion because we just had a fire drill in the morning. they were taking a quiz on "1984". very happy to leave the room. i'm like, all right, let's go. i grabbed by keys. we went outside. i had about 25 students with me. we heard what sound like firecrackers and then i saw people running and knew it couldn't have been firecrackers. so i got back upstairs to my classroom. i ended up with five from my class. everybody else just kind of scattered like cockroaches. and i had ten come to me from the classroom next door because their teacher, when is a friend of mine went went to another classroom for safety.

i let them in, locked the door, and we sat there and waited and waited and waited. we were in the room for about two and a half hours until the s.w.a.t. team came in. very nice, but very large armed enmany. let themselves into my classroom. i'm 38 now. i was 37 when it happened. i know i look like i'm 12. i to identify myself. we grabbed whatever belongings they allowedtous grab and serpentined through campus to avoid the building and go a different route. we made it off campus. we were kind of shuttle bused to a local hotel where we met with police and fbi. i gave my statement. and then i met up with my

husband and my son. my parents had my daughter. >> was your son in the same school? >> my son just finished 7th grade. he's in the school next door. once i realized what was going on, i sent a text to my husband and mom. there's an active shooter on campus. i'm okay. maybe five minutes later my son texted me. mom, i'm scared. what's going on? we are on lockdown. to tell your 1-year-old son, i'm okay. i'm not shot is horrible. he had never been on a lockdown before. i needed to assure him i was okay and i was safe and he was where he needed to be in the safest place. listen to your teacher. do what you need to do. i'm okay. you know, and then anyone who has ever had my phone number was texting me. most of the information i was

receiving was coming from the outside. that's how i found out he had been apprehended. i didn't know. all i had was my cell phone. my computer was on my desk on the other side of the room. trying to get information and piece things together -- i didn't understand the whole scope of what was happening for hours and days to come. >> you certainly understood 15 people in your charge were depending on you to do the right things and you did the right things. but, okay, that was that horrible day. with your own kids -- i absolutely can imagine because i have four children. one of them was in school here on 9/11 and i was a fairly senior member of congress then trying to reach her on my cell phone and could not because the cell towers crashed. it was terrifying. absolutely terrifying. that was day one.

i don't know how many days it's been. i bet you all do. >> i don't know the exact count. it's been four months. >> four months. now you're an activist on this issue. how did you decide on day two, day three that you were not just going to have done the right thing on day one, but you were going to be active? >> i have always been politically aware and act tiff in my own right. you know, very much a feminist. always looking out for human rights and when everything happened, i knew as a journalism teacher and journalist i had a responsibility to do right by my students my community. i've lived in coral springs, the neighboring town since 1995. i'm aproduct of the school system. so i know these kids. aam one of these kids. so i needed to do right by them.

i have been very act tiive on twitter for years, really just posting about food and my kids and funny things. like stupid memes. i used to be hilarious on twitter. now i'm just really serious political stuff. but i knew for the handful of people following me, they were seeing what i was saying and i didn't take that responsibility lightly. beyond that, as the yearbook adviser and a journalism major, whenever we would go back to school, i had to finish out the year and teach my journalism kid. we were 2349 middle of our social media unit when everything happened and i had a yearbook to finish when everything happened. so i knew that i need to work on things at the school with the students as far as social media and the journalism things.

but i have strong feelings too, and i had things that i wanted to say. the day after the incident, i cannot tell you -- i felt like i was on a media tour. i can't tell you how many reporters and shows and radio, podcasts i did. the day before i was a regular teacher in florida. now nbc is calling. cnn is calling. npr. i felt like i was all over the place because of what happened, but i was using that to start to make change. i didn't think of myself as an activist at that moment but i knew something needed to change. >> be uh-uh became that. you stepped into the moment, just the way eleanor did. difference set of circumstances, but not really. bad stuff happened. she's there. she has a reason to be hurt by

that bad stuff, and she had the personal courage and passion to get in the moment. so let's turn to rain, because for you this has to be even harder. you're still in high school. and you're classmates were killed and wounded. our condolences obviously to them. and i'm sure you knew em this. what was it like for you and what helped you? because you think -- i mean, i can't imagine at your age whether i would have -- i wouldn't have had the composure that you have. >> first of all, thank you. um, well, i like to start off talking about the beginning of that day. it was valentine's day, as you all know. and i don't like to forget that it was valentine's day because it started out to be a great day. it was valentine's day. being a photo editor, being in

yearbook, i took the duty of taking valentine's pictures. i was at lunch taking pictures of emma gonzalez -- i don't know if you guys know that name. she had a table set up with the gay-straight alliance club. she started giving out love proclamations. while i was taking pictures of her, she signed her name, lila and my name. rain. love. silly things. people were giving out fliers. before we left lunch i saw a close friend of mine. and the best buddy's club at our school, they sell $.01 valentine gi

-- $1 valentine gifts. i saw her with her -- well, i can't call 4er a boyfriend. she likes to call him her soul mate. her boyfriend was joaquin. sorry. so i took those pictures and i just held on to them. wept back upstairs and finished my lunch. that was it. on the way to 4th period i saw another one of my friends natasha. also in yearbook. she was going give me a hug and i was like, say cheese. she was holding a heart balloon. that was the day. i was stressed out because i had to do an essay after school. i was like, i don't know how

a second after he said that, a fire alarm went off. we went down the stairs. as she explained, pops went off. i was disappointed. i didn't react quick enough. i was in such denial. not just then, but hours after it happened. i turned around and looked at my teacher -- where do we go? the culinary teacher dragged all

of us in, even two other teachers. there were 30, 40 -- i don't remember. >> she had 60 in her classroom. >> we were all cram in the there. a girl in the back was having a panic attack. chef kerr came in and said, it's just a drill. isis like, guys it's fine. we were going to be fine. but slowly i started getting text messages. i got one from natasha who she took a picture of who was also in yearbook saying a friend of ours also got shot. at first i was like, this isn't -- like, what? then i started getting called from my family. i got a call from my brother. he went to school there. he was a senior. just the desperation in his voice. i kept telling him, it's a drill, it's a drill.

then may parents call me. i said, i'm fine, and i said, my friend isabelle got shot. mom moment askasked me, is she e okay? and i didn't know. that's when i started crying because it hit me. one student takes out a laptop and turns it on to the news, and we see footage of kids coming out. it says 59 least 20 injured. still in denial. we were like, they probably got trampled. then they started comparing this to come um behind. we were like, columbine? that can't be true? time goes by. s.w.a.t. team comes. i walk off school, to my mom and we go home.

going back to social media it was the first thing i did when i got home. i tweeted out, i'm so heartbroken. i don't know what's happening. i love you guys. then i started seeing more footage. my friends. video of my friends kneeling. it was just horrifying. then hearing the constant updates. so and so is missing. so and so is injured. i didn't contact one of my best friends just because everything was happening so fast and she's actually one of my close neighbors. i went to her doorstep. is maddie okay? knocked on her door. no answer. i looked around. i saw there was lights. i was like, she's probably fine. she's also probably confused and same as i am. i go back on twitter and refresh my feed is the first thing i see is a picture of maddie with her mom. and it's a post from a family

friend of maddie saying, please pray for maddie, she got shot three times and she needs to undergo surgeries. but then later that night, i also learn that had she was shot three times through her stomach and lung. she broke five ribs and shattered three of them and one bullet went through her arm, straight out. but then i also started texting her mom and said, is she okay? is she going to be okay? they said the doctors expect a full recovery. going back to when i took photos that day, a week later we had an orientation to retrieve belongings we left in the classroom. i left my camera in my bag. i wasn't going run with it. i didn't know what to do. the first thing i do is look at the pictures.

you say activism. i think there's so many different ways to be an activist. there's tweet, speak out. i use art, my craft, photography. i posted my photos that day and it got a lot of attention on twitter. people realize the innocence we had with us that day and how it got ripped away from us. i always say it's a huge before and after in my life and those photos were my last account of the before. i'm just -- again, i'm really proud of my peers. none of us expected this. i felt like the first day was just complete confusion. the next day was grief. filled with grief. but then with this whole never again thing trending -- i didn't

know what was going on. they would send out texts like everyone tweet at 3:00 never again. at 3:07 i was like, oh, no, i'm late. it was a huge snowball effect. it turned into a march. now i'm here. it's just -- the support not just from our school or community, just the entire country, it's -- i don't know how to -- >> two things. social media, which didn't exist when eleanor was an early activist has its own momentum. but second of all, i think everyone feels -- i'm going ask ted if he agrees with this -- d the poise and the amazing strength of the parkland kids is what led this. not just followed, led this.

the march as i remember reading about it was funded by big shots. smartly -- i don't know if the kids asked for this -- they weren't in the forefront. the kid were on the stage. the power of this -- first of all, you experienced the horror of it, but second of all, you were brave. you put yourselves out there. not just through using computers and all that, hashtag this and that and what, but in a different form from the way eleanor did it, but as effectively. the faces of this were your faces right? >> yeah, i think just as much as people want to tweet something or write something online, it means that much more showing up than -- just it just shows how far you're willing to go to continue your message. >> and you have answer that had question. you're willing to go as far as you need to go.

ted -- i do know what your name is, ted. you are the member of congress for parkland. where were you? what role have you played in either being part of the activism or receiving the activi activism? how is that institution? we are going next to tim and he's going talk about how congress receives cinformation. comma. i mean, dot, dot, dot. what role are you playing in this? not to debate did issue, but in the activism of the kids? >> i understand. w well, first of all, it's great to be here. there have been many, many opportunities that i have had to share a stage, platform, classroom with teachers and students and every time it's an honor.

look, i was -- and by the way. we should spend a moment talking about our guests. there were a lot of -- a lot of heroes on february 14th. and this was such a horrific tragedy and the activism that sprung out of it that b has bee so inspiring. i'll talk about that. we sometimes don't pause to talk about on that awful day, the heroism that was on display all over that school. and there isn't a better example of that than sarah, so thank you for that. so i was here, i was in a foreign affairs hearing and got a text from my deputy district

director, whose daughter is a student at stoneman douglas, just telling me that her daughter locked herself in a closet in the band room because there was an active shooter on campus. i jumped out of my chair. ran into the anteroom and called the sheriff who had just come out of the school. and i will never forget, he said -- there wasn't much that had been reported yet on the news and i asked him about what he had seen and he just said congressman, it's as bad as you could imagine. i did everything i could to get a flight home. got home that night and was at the school the next day. just when you speak of activism, i was at the school two weeks before the shooting speaking to

the politics club and journalists and i did an interview with high school television reporter david hogg, which i would still like to see, actually. and a bunch of the kids that have now become household names, came out that day just to talk about being involved in the community. so i got home and went to parkland to be with the community, and you could -- i could tell immediate tla this was different. first of all, we knew it was different i know the community that coral springs and park lla are. i knew they weren't going let this fall by the wayside as another school shooting. i knew they were going to do something about it.

there was a vigil the next night, but earlier in that afternoon, 24 hours to the minute from the shooting, the stay tuneds gathered at the same park. it was a very moving experience. afterward, several students came up to me and described what they experienced and what they saw and just grabbed my arm and said, congressman, we can't just let this happen again. we have do something. and they have been doing something about it literally every day since. and i had the privilege of being there at the "never again" head quarters at someone's dining room table. because these are after all high school kids sflieright?

sitting around the table. they had just gotten off the phone. one of them had just talked to j justin bieber. the reason they're so inspiring and incredible -- you can tell by the way rain presented herself and her story tonight, that there is nothing more happening here than people who experienced somethings that just incomprehensible to the rest of us and decided to do something about it in the most genuine way. the reason they're is successful is because they're so real. there's no putting on a show. it is 100% based on who they are and what they have experienced. >> and they don't back down. they don't go away. they stay at it. that's another part that they didn't necessarily have do, but

they're doing it. >> and they started immediately. there were a number of student who came up here a week after the shooting, and we took them around capitol hill and they met literally hundreds of members of congress. it didn't matter what your policies are, you can't refuse a meeting with students. you can't say no. i'm not going to make this a debate, but i'm going describe something that happened. there's nothing quite like seeise seeing some of your young constituents with members of congress who were very kind with them. they layed out what they were trying to plich. a member took out a pocket size constitution and started reading the amendment. in response we saw one of the

students pull out his own copy of the pocket constitution and says why even the decision in the heller case -- it was incredible. then we did a rally at blare high school. on very short notice, helped pull this thing together. there was about 1,000 students. jamie was there, the principal, maybe a teacher or two. everyone else was a high school student. >> that's the magic. >> i've never seen anything like these students. you had a group from parkland, m.d., d.c., virginia. all sitting on stage together. they took turns saying we were going to be the generation that ends gun violence.

we are going to be the generation that -- every time they did it, there was a roor. it was incredible. it was the next day a week later that the big event, the big town hall meeting took place. look, the reason that i think this really took off is because there was this nationally televised town hall meeting that gave the world the opportunity to see what this community was like, what these students were like. the fact that they were willing to say things that lots of people may think, but nobody would ever think of saying on national tv, and it came from such a powerfully genuine place. that propelled the movement, the march, what they're doing now, going from city to city to register voters. >> correct. let me get tim get into this conversation. and then get to questions. you will have time. so, tim, you were an mcfor a

long time, as we all were/are. and you are a republican who -- i'll vouch for him -- is a wonderful republican. >> uh-oh, i'm in trouble now. >> this better be good, tim. you have seen a lot of this. you weren't in congress for this particular chapter. maybe you were an activist or are. what are your thoughts about? what kind of messages did you receive? what were the messages that moved you during your long political career? who were the messengers conveying the messages. let me just say one or two things really quickly. first of all, this is occurring in a context, which is worth mentioning. that's the constitution that you talked about. we are fortunate in this country that we have the right to

petition or government and the freedom of association. you're exercising both those rights. you might get people one day give uing you contributions andt someone to to petition the government. it's called a lobbyist. bad name now. what we serve is called the people's house. that's a purpose for that. it's on the national issues but also how it's going to effect the people in their district and what they're going think of it and how they're going react. one of the difficulties with an issue such as the one we have been discussing is it has very broad general support, but that does not historically translate

into votes. where as the narrow percentage of people does translate into votes. therefore, people are not only listening the majority -- they're listening to the depth of concern as well. so i could give kpachls of that. i don't know if i should. maybe i l. one of our colleagues, peter smith from vermont vermont. he's a moderate republican. voted for moderate gun control legislation. was defeated by bernie sanders. a socialist running. bernie opposed peter on the gun issue. turned out liberals for not willing to vote for a moderate republican who supported them on the gun issue, but the conservative gun issue were willing to vote for a socialist that supported them on that issue. >>s that a revelation for a lot of people in the crowd. >> but this is talked about in

politics. makes a big difference. so if you could collect the signatures of 5,000 or 10,000 people in a congressional district of people who said they had been voting democratic but would vote for a republican that supported you on that issue, you might pick up a few people across the aisle. but in fact it's turned out that people who, for a whole variety of reasons help support gun rights, for them, it's a very deep issue. >> a single issue. >> and it will influence their vote, where as people who support gun control have a lot of other issues and when push comes to shove, it's not historically translated. people discover that in the political process. jim moran from virginia and i were in england talking with

college student there is and every forum, this issue came up. they don't understand american gun laws. i work in a rural district. 80% of the people were in favor of gun control. but the 20%, for them it was a huge issue, and the 80% were for it, but they weren't going vote on the basis of that issue. so this is the kind of thing that makes issues like this difficult. and frustrating. and of course, as you know, there are a variety of -- it's not really only guns, for example. it's mental health. it's a whole variety of issues that are involved in something like this. but it certainly could be helpful if we could -- if you work hard and develop a consensus around doing something positive in this area. >> i think that's very helpful.

i was remembering as you spoke that my first term in congress was 1992, the so-called year of the woman. imagine that. that was the time when the number of women in the house -- here come the questions -- doubled. not from a very big number to a still small number. but when two senators were elected who happened to be women from california, i think that was the first time. and they were dianne feinstein and barbara boxer. d diane is still there. in 1993, she offered the ban. i don't remember in republicans voted for it. the result of that vote, plus one other vote for a budget that president clinton proposed was

if the democrats lost the house, lost the majority, and tom foley who was the speaker of the house that came from a rural district, who supported this assault weapons ban, lost his own district. it was a big deal. people on the other side of the issue mobilized and took him out. i don't know whether his district was overwhelming. but newt going risch became the speaker and ten years later when the bill expired it wasn't renewed. the assault weapons ban no longer exists. one more and then in a moment i'll go to these questions. i was remembering for some of us, the '60s, not just the activism around civil rights but president kennedy, who was the motivation for me to enter politics later. i went to the democratic

national convention in 1960. i was a kid. dw grew up in l.a. went on the floor, saw him nominated and was a you shaller of sorts. that's when i fell in love with politics. he was assassinated in 1963. brutal event for the country. then in 1968, martin luther king and kennedy were assassinated. country came out and stood on the train tracks his body was moved from new york where his funeral was to washington where he's buried. growing up through this, your experience was more personal, but this felt pretty personal, too. at least lot there's a lot of history out there. can rain tell us what her pin says on her shirt? >> oh, i've been trying to show

it. it says love. it is the cold play low go. i got this a couple of weeks after this happened. there was a mini march we had at pine trails park in parkland to another park by a nearby school. we had our signs and spent the day chanting. that's where i got it. >> another question for the elected officials. professional lobbyists obtain a lot of successes in congress. some examples are in here. as a congressperson, how do you experience these professional lobbyists? what is the key to their success. >> i really think you ought to take that. >> well, almost everyone belongs -- has a lobbyist, believe it or not. probably in this room and in the country. if you belong to a church, a lot of them have people that work for them. if you're a teacher, a worker,

an environmentalist. certainly most businesses, one way or the other, have lobbyists. it has a bad reputation, but they provide an important function in the working of our government, because you have a lot of competing interests. we were trying to do legislating. we have hearings to address the issue. we'll invite people to come with certain perspectives. a lot are lobbyists. a lot are presenting their zbroup how they're hurt by what another group is trying to do. through that process, you can often work out accommodations that enable with us to move forward. one of the reasons for gridlock is people are less willing to listen and crossover where you can get something done because

of pollrization of the country. >> some lobby groups have a lot of money. the way it works with recent supreme court decisions, you can, through political committees and super pacs, contribute a lot of money in a political race. these lobby groups -- they can be on any side of an issue. they're not all, let's say, lobbying on the gun issue. some are environmental, union. if they provide a lot of money to a member of congress it will skew the information they're trying to receive. on either side and feed the partisanship. >> they are trying to get changed in gun laws.

>> it sounds ugh wily, but you' educating. >> the truth is, if you're a representative you're going to be very sensitive to businesses in your district. the employeed people are important. it's not regardless of the money. it is true that politics cost money and there's a problem in both parties. but moving forward -- >> oh, my goodness. we are not going get to all of this. >> people put businesses before their communities. that's something that desperately need to be addressed. the whole system of being able to hire lawyers and other people to effectively address issues is really very important in the working of our -- a lot of our economy we have here in the united states.

>> yes, tim. >> i have two things. one, there's the issue of -- but the it's issue of money that's the overriding factor. there's too much of that as the lead sponsor of the democracy for all amendment to overturn -- i see how money effects the way washington works. all of that being said, this issue, eleanor is exactly right. there is no better advocate than someone who comes with a personal story. there is no more powerful personal story thatten the stories we are hearing out of parkland. i understand the way the conventional wisdom has always been. historically on the gun issue, there are single issue voters

and they only care about gun rights and people who care about gun safety and all the steps that we could take that are widely supported, except in congress, that -- supporters of those bills and on those positions they've got lots of other things they care about too. from what i've seen after stoneman douglas,s that changing. there is a generation of young people for whom gun safety is a dividing issue. they're making it matter to their families. i'm convinced in the upcoming election there are seats around the country where you're going to have to decide which side you're on in this debate and i wouldn't want to be on the side of the gun companies when i've got studented like rain coming in to represent the other side. by the way, just one last thing

about parkland it's a really powerful combination of the students and what some of the families who lost loved ones have done since the shooting has been remarkably powerful as well, whether it's direct advocacy for changing the law or foundations that have been started to focus on school safety, on mental health. whatever the issue is, at least incredible amount of the positive change that, even with the grief these families are experiencing. >> right. so several of these questions are about how -- and i asked this in a different way, about how you were empowered to act. and these focus on what role teachers played in empowering you. in one case,d, this is an ap government teacher who asked, what advice does each of you

have for teachers as to how best to empower students to be motivated and effective advocates. lts ask you, sarah. >> i think it's important for teachers to realize and be very aware that their students have a voice and opinions and they're not just did kids who sit in front of you. they have valuable things to say and valuable thoughts and plans and hopes and dreams all those things we try to foster in our students. but when an event like this happens, you really see what these kids are made of. to try to piggy back on what ted has said. is that okay that i called you ted? >> don't call him tim. >> i won't. you know, what has come out of parkland, i feel like it kind of came as a surprise to the rest

of the nation. parkland kids are so well spoken and articulate, and they've got it all together, but we knew that the whole time, because these are the same kids that will argue with you because they have an 89 and want that 90. they are very persistent in their arguments. they don't always get it, but they try. delaney tar was in my classroom every day before school. emma gonzalez was in my class as a junior. i know these kids. to see them have a voice, so see them have a platform knowing that we as their teachers support them and encourage them and work with them, it's important for all teachers to do that. whethert a huge issue like this or just something small happening at your school.

this is what we are trained to do. >> good answer. changing the subject a bit, we talked about the fact that social media sea driver of change that wasn't available to some of us back in the day. but it's here. and you said, rain, you know, you were very active on social media both in that horrible classroom at that horrible moment that evening and since. so this question is about the reverse side. what about backlash on social media? how does somebody like you deal with that? i assume there are people out there who, you know, have countermessaging that's personal to you. i don't want put words in your mouth, but how do you deal with that? >> as we were talking about earlier, social media is a double-edged sword. i've received a lot more support

than backlash. if i do get backlash, then there's people commenting under, like, this is a troll. speaking for me, almost. for the people who do say that, i almost respond and i'm like, i don't have time. i don't have the energy for that. that's not what i'm here to do. i'm not hear to argue and speak over someone. i'm here to share my platform and views and hope everyone else can agree with me or see that my believes are worth noticing. and -- going back to how we were talking about ash tick hat speaking and things like that. i wasn't surprised at all. i was in a class are david. he was filming with a flashlight. it spurred to what it is all now. i'm going to go to the teacher

thing. just wibe with your students. uplift their voices as much as you can. my teacher went with me to tallahassee to speak to our representatives. just knowing she was there, having aening have toer bond. it changed by whole relationship with her. but, yeah, going back-to-back lash. i just shooz to ignore it. i don't have the energy for it. >> well, it's a very mature reaction, and -- okay. in one minute, we'll do that. fine. let me just get to -- and i do think that's a very mature reaction on your part. there's lots more to ask, but here's one. again, this is to you, rain. do you worry that your teen supporters will lose interest in the cause that we are talking about? perhaps due to the distraction of social media and to, you

know, other life experiences? >> at first i did, actually, a lot, because again, for us in parkland it was different because it was personal. but then slowly i started getting messages from other students explaining how much we inspired them and motivated them. then we went to a convention in california and we -- we were passing by and we were look at the journalism from other schools and saw that almost every single magazine or newspaper had a story talking about how they marched or what they did, what their response was. so i don't think -- if we continue to do what we are doing now, i don't think they'll lose interest as well. they're looking at us, and we are continuing, not going stop, so i don't think they will either. >> can i speak quickly to the assumption in that question that i think a lot of people had

before this -- the suggestion that, don't you think you're going get distracted and sucked back into snapchat? snapchat. just plays to that same -- the narrative that existed before this happened, which is, oh, these high school kids, they're busy staring at their screens all day long. they're on snapchat and instagram. they're playing fortnite. they're not paying attention to anything going on around them. then this happened. what we realized is the whole time they were on their phones we were building and participating in a community that gives them reach in their own local area and around the country and the world that we never could have imagined. which is why i'm confident they

won't get sucked back into the distractions. >> i want to call on martin frost in a minute. there's one other question that's in a different area. sorry if i'm not fair to all of you, but there are a lot to get to. it's for you eleanor. whether the spillover of this will goth black lives matter. which is in the same general re. is there a spillover, do you think? is it helpful that the kid are out here in force? >> it's a different grown up of people, but it's really -- look who black lives matter are. i mean, it's not my generation, and it's not quite parkland generation, but it's young people. who again are showing that there

is a general understanding in this society that nothing happens without activism. that is the most important element of a democracy, that you think that what you are doing can somehow affect a very large issue. now, for african-americans who were bona fide second-class citizens in this country to take that step took an enormous sense that this country could change. if that could happen and that generation can produce three great civil rights statutes it does seem to me it's an object lesson for every single generation of young people? what we see now is it's got down to the youngest among us, who

are -- who have taken the most serious issue into their own hands, issues that generations before them have systemically failed and gotten the attention of the country and a renewed interest and a renewed effort to move perhaps the most difficult issue in our country today. our hat has to be off to them. >> yes, yes it does. and i just want to make this point about activism. then martin, please come and talk about this issue that's in the same band width and maybe you can close this program. but while this is the whoes recent and possibly most effective story about activism, it's been going on in our country since its founding. activists found our country and wrote the founding documents,

many of which are in this building. we wouldn't have a country without activism and wouldn't have the change, the social change we have. women wouldn't have to right to vote and women wouldn't be in congress, that's for darn sure. without activism. what i like about this panel in iing this about it is there is a historical precedent that didn't just start on valentine's day. not to minimize what you did on valentine's day. i plowed everyone who is on this panel and who is active and even in this audience. raise your hand if you're an activist. raise your hand if you're not an activist. okay, so i've made my point. martin, why don't you, incoming president martin frost, close this down but make your point about this issue.

>> this was an extraordinary panel. i want to thank everyone for participating. i want to take with you a moment to share my personal experience where citizen activism made a significant. there was a 9-year-old girl who was kidnapped, molested and murdered in my district. i went out to express my condolences. i said, what can i do to help? they said, you can go back to washington and make sure this doesn't happen again. they asked me to pass a law that increases punishment for child molesters, which i did. then with local media created the amber alert. the girl was amber.

these were average citizens. people without any money at all. they came to their congressman and said, congressman, could you make a difference? working with others i was able do that. there are lots of examples. everybody who served has some type of example where the average citizen, not the money people made an impact on their career. i want to thank all of you for being here today. it was a great discussion. thank you. >> thank you all for coming. next, katherine

westmoreland. she talked about her life, including being a nurse's aide during the vietnam war. the interview from the west point interview center for oral history is a little bit over an hour. >> good evening, ma'am. today is the first of october, 2016, and we are in the west point center for oral history, and i'm here with katherine stevens van hazen westmoreland. you go by kitsy. can you spell your last name for the triber? >> w-e-s-t-m-o-r-e-l-a-n-d. >> tell us what it was like to grow up in the army? >> i grew