liberal. leadership may put a bill on the bill that the vote for but they are attacked for back home by republicans running against them. if the senate does not pass that bill or more moderate bill, they are left asking, why were we forced to take a vote that will hurt us in our reelection campaigns when any in the was never going to be what we passed? >> david clarke covers health- care issues for "congressional quarterly." anna edney is a reporter for "congressdaily." thank you for joining us. >> tonight spend time with walt mossberg. >> this week on prime minister's question, and gordon brown discusses afghanistan, focusing on the number of helicopters and current operations, the financial crisis, local scandals. prime minister's questions

tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> tomorrow on "washington journal," judy feder examines the debate on health care reform. from the national governors association meetings in mississippi to, we will talk with jack markell and others. washington journal live on c- span at 7:00 a.m. eastern. president obama spoke thursday and and and and market in the 100th anniversary of the naacp. it was found on february 12, 1909, and claims more than 500,000 members and supporters today. this event took place in new york city. it is about 40 minutes.

>> hello, and double say cp -- naacp. thank you, everybody. please, everybody, have a seat. thank you. what an extraordinary night, capping off an extraordinary week, capping off an extraordinary 100 years and the naacp. [applause] to german bond -- to chairman bond, i am so grateful to all of you for being here. it is just good to be among friends.

it is an extraordinary honor to be here in this city where the naacp was formed to market it is centennial. this is not just a journey that the n.c.a.a. cp has traveled but we as americans have traveled over the past 100 years. it is a journey that takes us back to a time before most of us were born, long before the voting rights act, the civil rights act, brown v. board of education, back to an america a generation past slavery.

it was a time when jim crow was a way of life. when lynchings were all too common, when rice rat -- when race riots work shaking cities all across the segregated land. it was in this america when and up went the scholar named w. e. b. the debois sparked what becae known as the movement where they were united not by color but because, where association -- where an association was born that would promote equality and eradicate prejudice among citizens of the united states. from the beginning these founders understood how change would come.

just as king and all the civil- rights understood. they understood that unjust laws needed to be overturned, that legislation needed to be passed , and that presidents needed to be pressured into action. they knew that the state of slavery, the senate segregation had to be lifted in the courtroom and in the legislation and in the hearts and minds of americans. they also knew that here in america, change would have to come from the people. it would come from people protesting lectors, rallying against violence, all those women who decided to walk instead of taking the bus, even though they were tired after a long day of doing someone else's

laundry, looking out for someone else's children. [applause] it would come from men and women of every age and fayed and every race and region, taking greyhound's on freedom rides sitting down at greensboro lunch counters, registering voters in rural mississippi, knowing they would be harassed, beaten, knowing that some of them might never return, because what they did we are a more perfect union. because of jim crow laws were overturned, blacks today run fortune 500 companies. [applause] because civil rights laws were passed, black mayors and black

governors, members of congress, certain places where they might once have been able not have been able to vote or even take a sip of water. because ordinary people did set extraordinary things, because they made the civil-rights movement their own -- even though there may not be a plaque or their names may not be in the history book, because of their efforts i made a trip to springfield, illinois couple of years ago where lincoln once lived and race riots once rage, and began the journey that led me to be here tonight as the 44th the president of united states of america. [applause] because of them, i stand here tonight. i am here to say, thank you to

those pioneers and thank you to the naacp. [applause] even as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of the past 100 years, even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied, even as we maroc -- marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folk, we know that too many barriers still remain. we know that even as our economic crisis batters americans of all races, african- americans are out of work more than just about anybody else. that's why we're here in new

york city, a detailed report by dilettantes and laying it out. we know that even as spiraling health-care costs crushed families of all races, african- americans are more likely to suffer from a whole host of diseases but less likely to hold on -- to fund health insurance than just about everybody else. even as we imprison more people of all races than any nation in the world, an african-american child basis -- is five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a prison. we know that even as the surge of h.i.v.-aids devastates nations abroad, particularly apricot, it is devastating the african-american community here at home. we know these things.

these are some of the barriers. they are different from the barriers faced by earlier generations. very different from the ones faced when fire hoses and dogs were being turned on young marchers, when charles hamilton and power lawyers were dismantling segregation case by case across the land, but what inspires today -- what is required today to overcome today's barriers is the same as what was needed then. the same commitment, the same sense of urgency, the same sense of sacrifice, the same sense of community, the same willingness to do our part for ourselves and one another that has always define america at its best in the african-american experience at its best. [applause]

and so the question is where do we direct our efforts? what steps will it take to overcome these barriers? how do we move forward in the next 100 years? the first thing we need to do is to make real the words of the insult -- the naacp charter, eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and prejudice among the citizens of the united states. [applause] i understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. i believe that over all there probably is -- there probably has been as little -- and probably has not been that much

as discrimination. but the pain is still felt in america. [applause] by african-american women who are paid less to do the same work here were a different color and different genders. latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. by muslim-americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to practice their dog. by are gay brothers and sisters still intact, still denied their rights. -- still attack, still denied their rights. on the 45th anniversary of the civil rights act, discrimination cannot stand. not on account of color or gender, how you worship, or who you love. prejudice has no place in the united states of america.

that is what the naacp stands for. that is what the in double see it -- the naacp will long stand for. as long as it takes. but we also know that prejudice and discrimination -- at least the most blatant types -- are not the steepest barriers to opportunity today. the most difficult barriers include structural inequalities in our nation's legacy of discrimination has lagged behind. this is playing too many communities and too often are the object of national neglect. these are barriers we are beginning to tear down, one by one, by rewarding work, by

giving tax offenders a second chance. -- ex-offenders a second chance. we're -- we have programs like promise neighborhoods, and a harlem children's zone, which fosters a comprehensive approach to ending poverty by putting all children on the pathway to college and giving them that after-school support that they need to get there. [applause] i think all of us understand that the task of reducing the structural inequalities' has been made more difficult by the state and structure of our broader economy, an economy that in the last decade has been fuelled by a cycle of boom and bust, an economy where the rich

got really rich but ordinary folks did not see their incomes are their wages go up -- or their wages go up, an economy built off credit cards, shady mortgage loans, an economy built not on iraq but on sand. -- on a rock but on sand. that is why we are not only spending on employee insurance for people lost their health care in this crisis, not just to stem the immediate economic wreckage but to lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity that will create -- put prosperity within the reach of not just african-americans but all americans, all americans. all americans of every race, of every creed, from every region

of the country. we want everyone to participate in the american dream, and that is what the naacp is all about. [applause] one pillar of this new foundation is health insurance for everybody. health insurance reform the costs -- that cuts costs and makes it affordable all and closes health care disparities in the process. another pillar is energy reform that makes clean energy possible and freeze america from the curb but foreign oil, putting young people to work, creating jobs that cannot be outsourced. [applause] another pillar is financial reform. consumer protections that crack

down on mortgage fraud, and start credit carry lenders from targeting black and latino communities all across the country. -- and stop predatory lenders from targeting black and latino communities all across the country. it would drive innovation and provide jobs and give families more security. and yet even if we do all of that, the african-american community will still fall behind the united states. and the united states will fall behind in the world unless we do a far better job of improving our education of our sons and daughters. [applause] i hope you do not mind -- i want to go into detail about education. [applause]

in the 21st century, when so many jobs require a bachelor's degree or more, when countries that out educated today it will out at this tomorrow, a world- class education is a prerequisite for success. there is no two ways about it. there is no way to avoid it. you know what i am talking about. there is a reason the story of the civil-rights movement was written in our schools. there is a recent thurgood marshall took up the cause. there is a reason why the little rock nine defied a mob. there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path opportunity than an education that can on what i chiles god-given potential. -- second on lock tha can -- that can unlock a child's god-

given ability. [applause] more than half a century after brown v. board, the dream of a world-class education is still being deferred all across the country. african-american students are lagging behind white classmates. an achievement gap is growing in states that once led the way in the civil-rights movement. over half of all of for american students are dropping out of school. there are over class -- over half of all african american students are dropping out of school. not just black children, brown, and white children, as well. the state at our schools is not an african-american problem but an american problem.

it black and brown children cannot compete, that america cannot compete. -- if black and brown children cannot compete, then african -- america cannot compete. at alice often ended gingrich can agree that we need to solve the education problem -- yet al sharpton and new to gingrich can agree that we -- if al sharpton and newt gingrich can agree that we need to solve the education problem, we can agree. those two came into my office. i had to do a double take. [laughter] [applause] but that is a sign of progress and it is a sign of the urgency of the education problem. all of us can agree that we need

to offer every child in this country, every child -- let me turn back around here, every child. [applause] every child in this country -- the best education in the world has to offer, from the cradle through career. that is our responsibility as leaders. that is the responsibility of the united states of america. and all of us in government have to work to do our part of not only offering more resources but demanding more reform. when it comes to education, we have got to get past this old paradigm, this outdated notion that somehow it is just money. were somehow, it just reform,

but no money. embrace what dr. king called the both/and philosophy. we need more money and we need more reform. when it comes to higher education, we are making college in advance training more affordable and strengthening community colleges that are the gateway to so many with an initiative, preparing them not only to earn a degree but find a job when they graduate. it will help us meet the goal of increasing college degrees by 2020. wheat used to rank no. 1 in college graduates. now where the middle of the pack. since we see more african- american and latino youth in our population, if we leave them behind me cannot achieve our goal. america also further behind and that is not a feature i can accept.

that is not a feature that the naacp is willing to accept. -- america also falls further behind and that is not eight future i can accept. that is not a future that the naacp is willing to except. we are creating incentives for states to promote excellent teachers and replace bad ones. [applause] the job of a teacher is too important for us to accept anything less than the best. [applause] we also have to explore innovative approaches, such as those being pursued here in new york city, innovations like early college, and the repertory schools, that are challenging students to earn up three associates degree in college credit in just four years. and we should raise the bar when it comes to the early warning

programs. it is not just enough to have a babysitter. we need our young people stimulated engaged in involved. we need our folks involved in child development to understand the latest science. some early learning programs are excellent and some are wasting was steady show are by far a child's best learning years. if you match the success of states like pennsylvania or early learning, if you focus reform on standards and results in the early learning programs, if you demonstrate how you will prepare the lowest income children to meet high standards of success, the new thing compete for an early learning challenge grant that will help prepare all of our children to enter kindergarten already born.

these are some of laws that we are passing. these are some of the policies we are enacting. we are busy in washington. folks in congress are getting old sucker out. [laughter] -- a little tuckered out. the american people are counting on us. these are some of the ways that we are doing our part in government to overcome the inequities, the injustices, the barriers that still exist in our time. but all of these innovative programs and expanded opportunities will not in and of themselves make a difference. if each of us as parents and as community leaders failed to do our part by encouraging excellence in our children. [applause]

government programs alone will not get our children to the promised land. we need a new mindset, a new set of attitudes, because one of the most durable and destructive legacy of discrimination is the way we have internalized a sense of limitation, how so many in our community have come to expect so little from the world and from themselves. we have got to say to our children, if you are african- american the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are high. yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not have to face. but that is not a reason to get bad grades. [applause] that is not a reason to cut class. that is not a reason to give up on your education and drive by

the school. no one has written your destiny for you for your destiny is in your hands. you cannot forget that. that is why we have to teach all of our children, no excuses. no excuses. you get that education, all those hardships will make you stronger, better able to meet challenges. yes, we can. [applause] to parents, we cannot tell our kids to do well in school and then failed to support them when they get home. you can just contract out -- you

cannot just contract out parenting. we have to accept our responsibility to help them work. putting away the x-box, putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. it means attending those parent- teacher conferences in reading to our children and helping them with their homework. and by the way, it means we have to be there for our neighbors sons and daughters. we need to go back to the time, back in the day, when parents saw somebody -- some kids fooling around, and it was not your child, but they would would you anyway. -- whoop you anyway. [applause] or at least it would tell your parents. parents, you know.

[laughter] that is the meaning of community. that is how we can reclaim the strength and determination and hopefulness that helped us come so far. help us make a way out of no way. it also means pushing your children to set their sights a little bit higher. you might think they've got a good jump shot, or pretty good flow. but our kids get all aspired to be lebron or lil wayne. i want them aspiring to be doctors and teachers, supreme court justices, i want them aspiring to be the president of the united states of america. [applause]

i want their horizons to be limitless. -- i want their horizons to be limitless. don't just tell them that somehow because of their race, they cannot achieve. .

>> it's a simple dream, and yet one that all too often has been denied and is still being denied for so many americans. that's a painful thing seeing that dream denied. i remember visiting a chicago school in a rough neighborhood when i a community organizer. and some of the children gathered around me, and i remember thinking how remarkable it was that all of these children seemed so full of hope.

despite being born into poverty, despite being born, in some cases, into addiction, despite all the obstacles they were facing, they were the equal of children everywhere. and i remember the principal of the school telling me that soon that sparkle will begin to diminish. that soon something inside would shut off inside. and it sunk in that kids are smarter than we give them credit for. it sunk in that their hopes would not come to pass. not because they weren't smart enough, not because they weren't talented enough, not because of anything about them inherently, but because, by accident of birth, they had not received a fair chance in life. i know what can happen to a child who doesn't have that

chance. but i also know what can happen to a child that does. i was raised by a single mom. i didn't come from a lot of wealth. i got into my share of trouble as a child. my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse. when i drive through harlem or the south side of chicago and i see young men on the corner, i say, there but for the grace of god go i. they are no less gifted than me. they are no less talented than me. but i had some breaks. that mother of mine, she gave me love. she pushed me. she cared about my education. she took no lip. she taught me right from wrong. because of her, i had a chance to make the most of my abilities. i had the chance to make the most of my opportunities. i had the chance to make the most of life. the same story holds true for

michelle. the same story holds true for so many of you. and i want all the other barack obamas out there, the other michelle obamas out there to give them the same chance that my mother gave me that the united states of america has given me. that's how our union will be erected and how our economy will be built, and that is how our nation will move forward. and we will move forward. this i know. for i know how far we have come. some you -- some of you saw last week michelle and i took our children to cape cove ghana. this is where people were sold.

where so much of the african-american experience began. we went down into the done uns -- dungeons where the captives were held. there was a church above one of the dungeons, which tells you something. about saying one thing and doing another. [applause] we walked through the door of no return. i was reminded of all the pain and all the hardships, all the injustices and all the indignities on the voyage from slavery to freedom. but i was reminded of something else. i was reminded that no matter how bitter the ride, how stony the road, we have always

persevered. we have not faltered nor have we grown weary. as americans we have demanded and strived for and shaped a better destiny, and that is what we are called on to do once more. naacp, it will not be easy. it will take time. doubts may rise and hopes may recede, but if john lewis could brave billy clubs across the bridge, i know our young people can do their part. if uncle mose could summon the courage, i know we can be better fathers and brothers in our own families. if three civil rights workers in cincinnati, black, white, christian, and jew could lay down their lives in freedom's cause, i know we can come

together to lay down the challenges of our own times. we can fix our schools! we can heal our sick! we can rescue our youth from violence and despair. and 100 years from now on the 200th anniversary of the naacp, let it be said that this generation did its part, that we, too, ran the race. that our dark past is full of the hope that the present has brought us. we faced in our lives and all across this nation the rising sun of a new day begun. thank you, and god bless the united states of america. [applause]

[crowd chanting "yes we can!" ] "yes we can!" "yes we can sclan" >> a conversation now with bubuz buzz aldrin. >> if you are old enough to remember, you probably remember what you with were doing as neil armstrong and buzz aldrin touched down on the moon.

we want to share with you some of the moments from 40 years ago. when we come back, buzz aldrin will talk about his experiences, his new book, and the future of the nasa space system. >> we see some angular blocks up several hundred feet in front of us that are probably two feet in sise and have angular edges. >> now in the lesser gravity of the moon armstrong and aldrin disembark and prepare to explore this dark, lonely world. >> we're going to try it. >> roger. >> the hatch is coming open.

>> guided by buzz aldrin, neil armstrong in his bulky suit worked his way through the eagle's forward hatch. >> how am i doing? >> you're doing fine. >> ok, houston, i'm on the porch. s >> roger, neil. >> and we are getting a >> and we're getting a picture on the tv! the foot beds are depressed in the surface about one or two

inches. and am stepping off the land now. that's one small step for man, one giant that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. want to welcome buzz aldrin, to the "washington journal," that's beening -- thank you for being with us. >> thank you. host: does it seem like 40 years? guest: yes and my life has changed significantly in 40 years, it was half of my life ago. my birthday was on inauguration day, i am 79 and when i landed

on the moon, i was 39.5. host: you describe your life as magnificent desolation, how so? guest: because it's the words that came to me, and than the words beautiful, it was really not beautiful up there. i didn't think so. and i like to contrast words and you throw in humor and absurdity and treat it as nothing changed. to say magnificent desolation was referring to the magnificent human achievement, that we have rockets and can

send people in that object in the sky that people have been looking at centuries and centuries, and people can be on the surface. what a magnificent testimony to the achievements of humanity. but when looking at what was there when we got there, such a lifeless place. without putting it into words, there was the sense that this hasn't changed in 100,000 years, or something like that. a lot of dust has been accumulated by the small. there are many small objects, few big objects. it follows an arithh'm rule and

the factors and no water or surface for sand and elsewhere. mars has tremendous dust storms. and everything there can be very round, rough and rounded. host: as we look at these very grainy pictures and one satellite that could transfer those pictures back to earth. as we watch and walter cronkite passed away over the weekend. first why was neil armstrong the first to walk on the moon, and you were the second? guest: i think ultimately seniority was clearly the decision. there were probably early plans of fulfilling kennedy's commitment of landing on the moon.

and our early space walks were done with one person going out. there could have been an early plan that didn't have anybody walking out. just for the conservative mature. e -- nature. or just one out, and it might not be the commander, and on the cover of the book, that picture is me outside and jim lovele took the picture. but buddy system just like scuba diving, you want to have mutual protection. there was another factor in there that has to do with the training workload. the commander was in charge of all the critical moments, and most critical was the power of

descent, and it was neil's job for the descent and relocation and the landing. and he executed the maneuvers and they don't use the commander co-pilot but mine was the eagle. host: and those words by neil armstrong, the words for the country, one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind. did he come up with that? guest: he said that he did, and it's so neil to think of things and respond in a professional way.

and in a sense, his step for man, is my observation of loneliness and his reference to mankind is magnificent. and his words contrasting, a human being and then mankind. host: you wrote and getting attention, let me share. host: can you explain? guest: yes, we were challenged by sputnik, and further challenged by the awareness, not only a dog going into

orbit, but our monkeys were, and the naming of the craters by russian citizens. clearly this was a challenge to each nation. and it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment, early, 1961 decision. it was a decision that had been looked at quite a while. neil mentioned in the recent lecture, on the 50th anniversaror 40th of apollo viii. and the decision to send people to the moon and what do when you get there was under analysis for some time. and it was a pioneering

reaction to advance as soon as possible, the gathering together the rockets, all the things needed to revolve a response to mutual assured destruction, which was the international strategy of pointing nuclear rockets at each other. it was a challenge to the american people to evolve, to develop the technology. and that was carried out several years later by the commitments or the suggestions of president reagan to build a defense against nuclear missiles. trivialized by people calling it "star wars." it was not trivial at all. it was use -- to use the might

of aerospace to further evolve into a technical ability to provide a defense against a seemingly indefensible threat that led us to two guns pointed at each other, nobody daring to pull the trigger. the industrial might that we distributed in apal owe -- apollo transferred over into an evolving defense russia could not match. they knew that. they knew that because they couldn't get to the moon ahead of us, and they couldn't develop a defense. so they capitulated. nobody in their 60's, 70's, and 80's really thought that the cold war would be terminated before the 21st century or on into the 21st century. but it was. it was. now, that pioneering development

of space capability, so ablely carried out by all of these people, acedemia, industrial might, and the political will and the american people despite the conflicts going on in southeast asia demonstrated and advanced technology to a remarkable and incredible place. and obviously you can't keep that going. it wasn't planned to keep going. we were hopeful that with 20 missions of saturn fives that we could be successful at least once. and we landed successfully six out of seven times, and then decided let's put our resources somewhere else. something that we haven't developed. let's look into the launch systems and make them reuseable so we don't throw them away. we're still looking at trying to do that.

i am certainly. and let's look at laboratories that can make use of zero gravity or negative micro-gravity, we'll call it. so there were two things we wanted to do after apollo. reuseable rockets. that's two things. we couldn't do two things, so the president said, which one do you want? well, being an engineer, no point in having a laboratory if you can't get to it, so we opted for the delivery system, and the delivery system -- this is the second regret that i have of being a part of the nasa apollo program. while waiting for my assignment, which wasn't what i really wanted, being the first astronaut to return back to the military service. i felt the transition would best

be done by -- from 11 years away from my service and having 19 years in the service, could best be done by the air force academy. i had been there in 1955 when it first opened up. i was aid to the dean of faculty. i stood number three in my class at west point. i understood academia more than being a test pilot. it was one of the exceptions in the third group. i was not test trained as a test pilot, and they couldn't select me in the second group. so i was selected in the third group of astronauts, and my preference would have been to become a congressman dant at the air force academy instead --

comendant at the air force academy instead of at the test school. so i filled in analysis of the new reuseable rockets. they were two-stage reuseable rockets. the first stage when it's empty would separate when it is empty and come back and land, the upper stage with the crew in it would go on into orbit, and obviously that was going to be developed in houston. the booster, like the saturn five, was going to be developed by the marshall space center. when i got down and saw these proposals, there were six different rockets for the booster, and each and every one had a cockpit with astronauts in it. i said, why? why are you putting a crew? all you have to do is go up and come back and make it land. well we almost launched our orbiter into orbit unmanned. the russians lawned their --

launched their version unmanned. why would you want to put a crew of two? but we did that for several years and spent a lot of money on it. the readers can come to their conclusions, maybe, as to why one nasa center wanted astronauts in their vehicle, and they asked the contractors to do a study, man vs. unmanned booster. well, knowing what the client wants, the contractor is responding to that study knowing how much more money they would get by building a booster by having a cockpit in it with a crew. you know what the answer was. that was my second. >> and from that outline we can point out in the book "magnificent desolation," my defendant buzz aldrin. we'll show you the cover. buzz aldrin and his experiences both here on earth and on the

moon 40 years ago. >> buzz, it is interesting you talk about recovery of the first stage of the s-1-c. i worked with boeing in huntsville, alabama, and it was my assignment to model the recovery of the s-1-c and analogue computers. we had applied dynamics, operational am fires. -- amply fires. but i think the main thing of how things have changed, our computing power at that time was limited to slide rules. i wonder if you could talk about that? >> well, symbolically i took a slide rule on my gemini flight november 12, 1966, and the rules for unsan diegoing personal preference kits were a little different. that was just before the apollo fire. jim took a picture of me with a

pipe in my mouth and a slide rule floating in front of me. after the apollo fire we could not touch anything that was sealed in our personal preference kits that we carried on board. now, i've heard the story about there is more computing power, and my cell phone, which i can get a new one very upto date every three to six months, we can update them. unfortunately you can't build a rocket or spacecraft in that short a period of time. it takes a long time to do that. the amount of programming capability that was in that small computer, the apollo guidance computer, the module, was fantastic what it could do. sending down thousands and thousands of pieces of information back to houston so they could monitor all the systems far better than we could, and it could navigate itself with the stars so in case we lost communication with the

deep space tracking network we could use that to navigate ourselves around the moon and return. and of course all the maneuvered in the rendevous all was in that apollo guidance computer. so i really don't like to see people suggesting a degradation but instead suggesting a prince in the people that put together at m.i.t., minneapolis, hunnewell, and a.c. sparkplug this system. phenomenal. >> host: caller on the line from north carolina. caller: how did it feel being on the moon? guest: i tell you, they did not enter into the picture all that much. it was clear there was a race going on, and our one-man mercury program followed filling

the gap with the two-man gemini program resulting in sort of a surging ahead in many achievements by the u.s. in that the four things we needed to know to proceed with apollo. we needed computer guidance, we needed long duration flight. we needed space walking. and we needed rendevous. and we did all of those four things between mercury and apollo. it filled a gap. we were flex yifpblet -- flexible. now, after apollo, what happened? we sat on the ground for almost six years after using skylab to put a wonderful space station up there. we didn't put the second space station up there that we could have, and we flew to it several times. we did a joint mission with the russians where we did all the complicated things, and then we still had a gap of almost six years. what were the russians doing? catching up, getting ahead of us

with one sayud after another. we should not have a gap in our capability to launch people into space, and unfortunately we do right now. >> more from those initial moments, july 20, 1969, as buzz aldrin stepped on the moon. >> when the first man on the moon read a plaque attached to the leg of the eagle, a plaque with a -- a thought that by earlier people thought an impossible dream. >> underneath it says, air men from the planet earth first set on the moon july 20, 1969, a.d. we came in peace for all mankind. it has the crew members peace and it has the signature of the president of the united states.

>> your thoughts but neil's words? host: your thoughts? guest: about neil's words? host: your thoughts about your thaults and your words and his words. guest: it is a tribute to our reaction to the apollo 1 fire so soon on my flight that took the lives of doug grissom, ed white, and roger chappy. roger was in our first group, ed white was in our second group, and doug grissom was in our third group. but ed white and i were in a fighter mission in germany, we went to school together and ran track together of the when he

told me he was going to apply for astronaut training, i said, ed i can fly as well as you can, you know that. i'm going to apply myself for the second group. i wasn't selected, but he was. and he was, in a way, my role model, and without that tragedy, he would have been probably one of the first people on the surface of the moon. host: and a near tragedy averted by apollo 13 in that book is a photograph of you, lessons from apollo 13 where it said "failure is not an option." guest: yeah, i know that's a beautiful phrase. and once you have a mission in work, failure on that mission is not an option. that's a wonderful phrase. but if failure is not an option in anything you do, you sit on the ground, you don't do anything, you don't take risks. we have become a very risk averse society because of the

high visibility of anything that might go wrong, whether it is an airplane tragedy, accident, it gets headlines, and it probably should do that, but the space program pays attention to the launch until the rockets separate and then they go to station break and promote the station with their product, and these people are not orbital, if things fail at that point they are plucked down to the ocean and they have to abort. so it is very crucial until you get into orbit. and once you leave orbit around the moon, it is very critical. and that was the thing that had not been done, but the lander after the apollo fire, and after circling around the moon on the second spacecraft launch, and the first time we put a crew on that giant, we went to the moon. why did we do that?

it was in response to the possibility that the russians could have sent a cosmonaut just around the moon and back. the option was to send one around the moon in earth orbit ask then take the lander on apollo 10 to the moon and exercise it all the way up to the point of making power desent, put it into a position where it then did all the rendevous maneuvers to go back up again. excellent, outstanding progression of mission. we need to do that again, but perhaps not with the destination being americans on the surface of the moon. host: here a photograph from "the washington post" this morning of a younger buzz aldrin. next is a caller from stewart, florida.

caller: i was a kid who lived in houston, and i remember watching walter cronkite and that landing on the moon, and what it did, it inspired me as a 12-year-old to become an aerospace engineer. 12 years later i became an engineer for the rock we will international company, and i became a person who worked with those men and women who design those rockets, and i had a great crew in the aerospace industry, and i worked on programs like space station, the x-33-rlv, and also gps-2 satellite. it was a tremendous experience hearing the stories of those people that when the nations committed, people come together, they can achieve the impossible. my question to you is, can we use this 40th anniversary to motivate and inspire our k through 12 kids today that there are hopes and dreams they can

achieve? it may seem impossible, but if we come together, we can put them there? guest: that's why i have written two children's books, that's why i've written rap music with snoop dog. that's why i'm trying to reach a wider generation. that's why i'm twittering to let the younger generation know what the world is all about, but sort of save the nation from tyrants. another group came ca long and propelled this nation to heights it had never seen, the world had never seen before. and yes we can do that again. and we can do that by changing the path way that we apparently are implementing now. it is a good path way, but it's methods of implementing fall a

little short of doing what you would like to see to inspire the new generation snoo -- snoo greater heights into greater heights than what's in it for me right now. what's in it for our country later? that service that i've dedicated my life to, and we can do that again by altering slightly the pathway we're on, taking advantage of what we've developed in the last three, four years, but helping internationals, other countries that haven't landed on the moon, help them explore. we will keep our eyes open for development of the moon that could justify human habtation on the moon. we'll be sending robots there, we'll share all the experience, information, but we'll take our resorlses and instead of being the major resource supplier for the space station and then the moon will be the major resource supplier for stepping stones, a

path way to american greatness, just what you are looking for. host: in last week's "the washington post" you write "a race to the noon moon is a dead end. while the lunar surface can be used to develop advanced technologies, it is a poor location for homesteading. now, i am not suggesting that america abandon the moon entirely, only that it forego a moon-focusled race." "robotic exploration of mars has yielded tantalizing clues about what was once a water youy surface." guest: that's right. the moon is dusty, it has no atmosphere. it is lonely, yet it is exposed to solar flares closer than mars is. it is exposed to background radiation. the moon of mars is so strategic, focused, human intelligence there can control

robots on the surface in real time. that means directly back and forth, changing. they can do much more ambitious things than control from the earth what they send one day's instructions, very conservative, and if anything goes wrong, stop, stop, don't do anything. so what the spirit and opportunity have been able to do in five years, we could have done in four or five months or less by having humans safer than on the surface on the moon of mars focus where we can bring them back, supply them, and their stepping stones to the surface. host: one of a number of pieces this morning looking at the events of 40 years ago and asking the question, "where do we go from here?" we have a caller from georgia. caller: it is an honor to be talking with you. what i really wanted to say, i actually was working for nasa on

the day that the lunar landing occurred. i'm 70 years old now. at the time i was working at the nasa electronic he is research center just beside m.i.t., which was a brand new center at the time, and i was a few years away from getting my ph.d.. i had been working on laser applications for studying the atmosphere, and we were all gathered in the lunch room at the center watching the lunar landing. and i'm just so disappointed we don't see anything like that anymore. one of the things i also wanted to point out has to do with my concern about how politics gets into science and kind of has been what, in my mind, has destroyed some initiatives that i was seeing happen at the time. but this new center that i'm talking about in massachusetts

had been put there by the hard work of a guy named teddy kennedy. and he was getting a lot of credits for that. this was during the nixon era. two nights before that landing was the chap quidic incident, and then all of the subsequent issues that arose after that we actually had that center closed by christmas, and all the credibility for scientific initiatives that kennedy had been pushing were just blown out the window. and so what i was -- so i finally wanted to say the big issue for me is how proud i was at that time, i wish we could have been doing more things like that at that time, and i guess the final line is i wish politics would stay out of doing

basic science. host: thank you for the call. guest: no way to politics. that's where we get and reflect the will of the people through our electoral process to appoint our leaders and our oversight people in congress to allocate the funds to where we're going, and we must appeal to the leaders of our country to find what the direction is going to be. and well advised people. and i'd like to promote a few campaign issues. change. i'd like to see well intelligent reasoned change in our implementation. and i'd like to see enlightened cooperation be stressed. and can we clay? can we have a better implementation of u.s. global

space leadership? yes, we can. yes, we can. >> this coming from joe who says, why did someone make a backup copy of the slow scan tapes of those television signals of the moon? this getting a lot of attention the last 24 hours. guest: i'm not sure. we were very busy doing a lot of things at the time. i am sensitive to the equipment in australia. the movie -- the dish was just a wonderful informtive movie, and it is true that initially, according to the flight plan, they were not scheduled to take the moon walk but we advanced that because we certainly were not going to go to sleep after we landed on the moon, we were going to prepare methodically to go outside, and that sort of alarmed them.

i don't know if that has anything to do with the fact that there weren't backup tapes. but i'm so happy that just prior to our anniversary we have enhanced video, high definition, sort of, of the moon walk for the 40th anniversary. wonderful timing. like my timing, being in the right place at the right time. host: and on the web site "popular mechanics" is what is called "the buzz plan," which would get us to mars by the year 2035. how so? guest: well, buzz' ways. not necessarily a plan. why 2035? well, from tranquility base, from kitty hawk to tranquility base was 66 years putting foot on the moon. add 66 to that and you get 2035.

i think we should progress from footsteps on the moon in 1969 to footsteps on another planet by 2031. my buzz ways gets us there by 2031 -- i meant 2035 for the 66 years. my buzz ways gets us there in progressive achievements, just like mercury, gemin and apollo. we have progressive achievements of an exploration module, depositivity these modules for refueling, for communication relays, and then we can take one in maybe 2017 or so andfully by a congressman et that's approaching earth and people can put their binoculars on the congressman et and see the crew go by, and perhaps we can cause the congressman et to burp a little bit as we go by. then we can rendevous with

affidavit reside -- asteroids in 2020. there are minerals there and have two crews there looking at it so they can reinforce each other for the way back. we need that redid you understand dancey. -- we need that redundancy. you know what it is going to do? it is going to swing by the earth in 2039 inside our communication satellites, and if goes through in the wrong place, it will really threaten the earth in 2036. i know for a politician 2036 is a long way off. we certainly should be on the surface of mars by then. but then we can journey to the moon of mars to a fascinating location. host: quick follow-up. this generation may know buzz

lightyear from the disney movie. did that come from you? guest: i read it from u.s.a. today, and then i thought i would go and talk to the people to see if there was any likelihood of a business arrangement. there wasn't yet. host: i remember calling my three children, ages 7, 5, 3 years to the tv to watch the first moon landing and telling them, "come children. let's watch together. this is history ." and we watched the landing and the moon walk. i remember saying, thank god." guest: that's what i chose to do, i chose to thank god by serving myself commune yun. -- communion.

my concept of spirit twalt has been -- spirituality has changed somewhat. not from going to the moon. from inherited depression. i inherited those genes. also the escapism, the addiction genes of alcoholism. this is what is a good bit in this book, the long yurny home from the moon. a personal story of magnificent desolation and then recovery from desolation to a very active experience sharing with young people and with movers and shakers. what i think my experience tells us is good for america, and mars is good for america. host: and the book outlines your

own battles with alcoholism and your own divorce kwlezz. and the book is called "magnificent desolation." joe is on the phone. good morning with buzz aldrin. caller: good morning. do you feel the areas he will vehicle is the most cost-effective option force placing humans into earth orbit in terms of dollars per human? thank you. guest: you only have to look back 10 years and you find a bias person. warner von brawn was quoted as saying we should not put human beings on solid rocket boosters because they can blow up at any time. you knt shut them off. you can't readily abort and separate from them. my early efforts 10 years ago,

15 years ago has been to replace the solid rockets on the shuttle in an evolutionary way with liquid fly-back boosters that build toward reuseability. the nation and the world that has two-stage fully reuseable heavy lift rockets will rule access to space years into the future. we need to develop the high flight rate that justices -- justifies the investment in reuseability which gives us relyability and economy. but reliability first. and then what gives us high flight rate? adventure travel. lots of people into travel. what else? solar powered satellites. what else? supplying people, internationals at the moon, and supplying americans joined by internationals at mars. that's what gives us high flight

rate. host: kathleen is on the phone from maryland. caller: what a joy to be able to talk to you. i'm a retired teacher, and space was always part of my curriculum. anyhow, back to my question, i always made my students aware of what the space program did. it brought computers down to useable sizes for people. teflon was invented not just for pans, but it is now used in heart surgery. when you go into the hospital, all the computerized stuff you're hooked up to is all because of the sface program. so my question is, how can we make people in america aware of this? i mean, i was just with my 25 or 75 students, and america needs to realize that for every dollar sent into space or spent on the space program, we reap probably

hundreds of dollars worth of benefits. guest: you're in the key position. you are a teacher of the next generation. the older generations don't twitter, they don't tweet. the new generations do. the education in the united states, primarily in s.t.e.m., science, technology, engineering and math, is not what it should be. we need -- my space foundation is going to move toward developping lotteries for more people to get into space, but also education policies where we'll have science education ambassadors representing the parents of the people in different districts. and they will help to assure that the education policies are carried out to the best of our ability. and that's where we plant the seeds. we get the rappers into rap

music like the rocket experience -- snoop dog. we get these people to pay attention to space so that the young people will. it is where you are that we are trying to motivate people. the teachers of america are the greatest resource for the people that our country has. thank you so much. host: "time" magazine recently the 40th anniversary of apollo 11 and what they called the 24 men who made the voyage, and of course, neil armstrong. what is he doing these days and why is he so quiet? guest: he has chosen a different philosophy of responding to public attention. i was not at all interested in giving talks, speeches anywhere. it frightened me tremendously to go around the world and have competitive comparisons among the three of us at each location

we went, i want to do that at all. i could understand wanting to withdraw somewhat. neil is available. he was present at the 50th anniversary ever nasa, the 40th anniversary of apollo 7, 8, and now certainly apollo 11. he's been in dayton, ohio, with the national aviation hall of fame. he's coming into washington tonight and he's going to be here for the next several days. he's doing a lot of essential things. i just have a message of my experience for the future that i would like to reach people, so i choose to face the public in a different fashion, and that's the big thing about the 24 people that went to the moon, they are not all the same version of the right stuff. we are humans. we do different things different ways. and we should be respected for

that. host: by the way, the book includes some photos of past presidents. we'll show you some of that. and a reminder that tomorrow the president will honor those from apollo 11 at the white house. we will cover that event, as well. charles is on the phone from tampa, florida. good morning. caller: hi, good morning. it is a pleasure to be able to talk to buzz aldrin. i had a couple questions. i'm from colombia. i grew up in new york city. but i remember when i was just -- i guess i was six years old when i saw the moon landing. i thought it was amazing. i thought it was awe inspirpge. but as an immigrant, as a child growing up, i always felt like this huge disconnect. only because i was an immigrant. not because i was dumb.

but i thought i was dumb because other people talked to me like that, like being dumb. that's one point. how would you, in your perspective, as i see you on tv, and smiling at me, i wonder how can you bridge that gap for the immigrants coming into america, people like me who love america, who have served in the united states? host: we'll get a response. thanks charles. guest: we have a statue of liberty out there. america is the most sought after place for immigrants to come from other countries. why? because we welcome people coming in who join our country, join our way of living. and do things the way we do in this country. speak our language. that's very important. other countries, very few, are really like that in the world.

that's why people want to come to america. and this is still the land of opportunity, the land of the -- the home of the free and the brave. that's what america is. and we've had many influxes of -- with famines in different parts of europe, people came here. the pilgrims on the mayflower came here. they did not hang around plymouth rock waiting for the return trip. they came here to settle through the hardships. that's what i want to do when we begin to settle people on another place. we need to have settlers, opportunists, people who join together with like people but they become assimlated by the nation. i think the greatest nation in the world. they have come here, they should be proud of what this nation has built up over 200 years and what

we are proud of. thank you. host: there's a tweet comment saying i don't think man kind would be without computers and cell phones but for the space program. someone who have thought of it! guest: someone always will think of it, usually the security people who are challenging themselves for high-tech technology to defend you and me and people who come here from invaders, from threateners in the outside. most of our high technology comes from research that supports the defense of our country, the defense of the freedoms that we have here. i'm a military guy. i believe in peace through strength, and that, i believe, is -- has helped us preserve peace pretty much throughout the world. that has been our obligation since the end of the cold war. >> tomorrow on "washington

journal," judy feder examines the debate on health reform. and we'll talk with governor jack rarkell, goff mike rounds, and governor jim douglas from vermont. "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> up next it is "q & a" with walter mossberg. then prime minister gordon brown with the british house of commons. and following that, president obama's speech at the naacp convention.