lap, pet a dog named ruffles, or buy a hot dog from a guy named minoush. [applause] i can see why you love it here. some of you look tired this morning. maybe you have not yet recovered from last night. i promise to be brief. i do not want to be the biggest hurdle between you and your degree. before i offer you some thoughts that you and dad and me remembered decades from now, let me take another important group. i'm talking about the group out there this morning beaming proudly, not even thinking about what a cost to give you this date. y. or what happens if you have to

move back home. did your parents and relatives a big hand. [applause] with their support, all of your joining a distinguished list of alums including jacqueline kennedy and colin powell. take a look at the people on either side. the guy sitting to your left could be a future secretary of state. the girl on your right could be a future president of the united states. [applause] take a moment to look around the national mall. we gather not only at the foot of the washington monument but longin abraham lincoln's shadow. last month, our nation marked the anniversary of the start of

the civil war. it was fought to preserve the union, to preserve america's bold experiment self-government. lincoln's war grew into something larger. a struggle for freedom. while more than a century for equal opportunity would follow his death, his leadership redeemed america's original sin and allowed us to fulfil our destiny as a land of freedom and opportunity. years ago, while many of you were in grade school, the freedom that lincoln secured for all americans and the generations have fought to protect came under attack by terrorists, the most deadly in our history. i'm sure some of you remember where you were. i am sure all of you will remember for the rest of your

lives what you have been doing when you heard the news osama bin laden had been killed. there are certain moments that stay with us forever. for my generation, it was the assassination of president kennedy and doctor martin luther king jr.. for my parents, it was pearl harbor. for my grandparents, armistice day. there have been other moments, the landing of the moon, the explosion of the challenger, the inauguration of the first black president. there will be many more. before this most recent memory becomes a memory, and because all of you had such a big part, let's take a moment to reflect on the legacy of 9/11 beyond the ongoing war and what it means for the future of our democracy.

i was elected two months after the attack of 9/11 wall smoke was still rising from the rubble. the conventional wisdom was that it would take new york decades to recover. businesses would flee and there would be a mass exodus to suburbs and the crime would return. none of that happen. i will tell you why. our city, our country, did not give in to fear. we came together as never before and did everything we could to help the victims and their families. we offered our prayers', we donated our blood, we opened our wallets. firefighters from around the country came to pitch in. people from around the world give support. by making smart investments, we brought the city back faster and stronger.

today, bin laden is dead. new york city has never been more alive. [applause] the unity that defined our nation in the wake of the attacks was critical to revitalizing our city. it has also led to other positive developments for our country. it reminded us that we agree on more than we disagree on. that can be easy to forget. i know many of you in turn on the killer in the white house where in your id badges, and knowing your house makes in the process. you have seen how counterproductive partisanship how -- can be. in new york, we did not bring our city back as republicans or democrats. we brought it back as new

yorkers and americans. as we head into the next election cycle, our leaders would do well to remember that although our freedoms give us the right to disagree, they also give us the right to agree. the conventional wisdom that republicans and democrats hold opposing views and that one is right and what is wrong is not true. you can be a democrat or republican. i have been both. [laughter] or you can be anything else. never make the mistake of thinking that any particular party has a monopoly on good ideas or god is on its side. even though the unity that existed in the wake of 9/11 has had no lasting impact on washington, it did have a lasting impact on americans, especially young people. your generation more than any other before it recognizes the

truth of what john f. kennedy said, "sometimes party loyalty asks too much." as usual, the people are a step ahead of the politicians, especially young people. i believe that it takes a generation to change. i have no doubt that many of you will occupy some of the most powerful seats. you will move the country away from this period of hyper partisanship which is preventing us from accomplishing many needs and toward a new era where more independent thinking allows for consensus-driven solutions. the second was just as encouraging, a growth in volunteering. americans of all backgrounds

wanted to do more to help our country so they signed up to volunteer at a school or hospital or in homeless center. volunteering has become a bigger part of our culture. i know they're a lot of service opportunities here. i'm told you're school far exceeded the challenge that michelle obama set for you last year to perform 100,000 hours of service. that deserves a round of applause. [applause] i would also like to add my applause to those graduates, serving our nation in uniform. [applause] yes. [applause] we can never take their service and sacrifice for granted. we should never make the mistake of thinking that freedom is a

concern for the military. the freedom our founding father secured, that lincoln extended, that our armed forces protect, that billions of people yearn to experience, it is a freedom that all of us must defend, even when it is not popular, especially when it is not popular. we have a responsibility to stand up for the rights of people to express themselves as they wish, to worship how and where they wish, and to love. [applause] that is why i spoke out in support of an artist who was scheduled to open an exhibit in new york city but to was been detained by the chinese authorities. it is why i defended the rights of the muslim community to build a mosque in lower manhattan. [applause]

it is why on tuesday i'm going to our state koppel -- state capitol to grant marriage equality to all men and all women. [applause] the freer we are to express ourselves as individuals, the stronger we become as a nation. earlier i met someone next belt by the rotc program because of his sexual orientation. because he stood up for a change, congress recently passed an president obama sign, a repeal of don't ask, don't tell. [applause] let me give a perspective from somebody older than you. it takes courage to stand up to power. to take an unpopular stand, to risk life and limb for your ideals.

that is the courage that led to lexington. to force sumpter, to seneca falls, to alabama, to the stonewall inn. and to this national mall where martin luther king shared his dream with america and change the course of our history. today, thanks to all of those who had the courage to fight and speak out for freedom, there is no road cannot travel. no future you cannot create. no dream you cannot realize. there are only the limits of your imagination. the question for you is, how will you use the freedom? don't worry if you do not have the answers right now. your life and career path will not be a straight line. when i graduated, and no one would have believed that i would start a company and become the

mayor of new york city. even my mother can hardly believe it. [laughter] as you think about your career, don't worry about mapping it all out. don't play it safe. do not be the person who quit startup before giving it a chance to make it. do not be afraid to start over or change direction. the more risks you take, the happier you will be, even if they do not work out. i can assure you sometimes they will not. i can also assure you this -- no matter what job you have, no matter who your employer is, the harder you work, the luckier you will get. whether you feel ready to begin a career or not, the education receives has prepared you for success. i do not mean just in the classroom. you have heard some -- from some

of the most important people of our time. you have been given access to the power of government. i bet you learned a few other things to like what meals to avoid. whenever you will do next, there will be new rules to master and new frontiers to conquer. my advice is simple -- continue learning, ask difficult questions, think independently, volunteer your time to help others. continue to defend and enjoy the freedoms that make america great. tonight, before you begin this new phase of your life, in join on one last happy hour, one last hot dog, one of last help to the blue. tomorrow the real work begins. congratulates shoot -- congratulation to the wall.

best of luck and god bless. [applause] >> the first american civilian woman to work in post world war ii i japann . she wrote the clause on women's right. beate sirota gordon was invited back to her all modern, mills college, to deliver the commencement address. she is introduced by the president, who tells more of for story. this is about 25 minutes.

>> your commencement speaker was awarded an honorary degree in 1991. now, if you do the math, you will realize that was the year i became president. but i did not preside over commencement in 1991. i began this summer after commencement. over the early years of my presidency, i kept hearing about this amazing mills woman, beate sirota gordon. who at a very young age had graduated from mills college and gone directly to japan to be a s of the he wrtiers oiter the japanese constitution after world war ii and was the author of this section of the

constitution that guarantees women equal rights in japan. [applause] and for me, the notion that i would leave my presidency never having heard her speak to mills women about her experience, i must admit this is selfish on my part, because i wanted her to speak on this 20th anniversary for me. but i also know that you, the many members of this class, wanted to hear from this extraordinary woman as well. she is a member of the class of 1943, and at the age of 22, she was recruited by general douglas macarthur, you know macarthur boulevard, to create the

japanese constitution. she worked in secret after the conclusion of world war ii, and she was there for nine days from february 4-february 12 in 1946. as a young person, she grew up in japan from the age of five, a child of jewish emigres from russia. she was interested in japanese culture, fluent in japanese, and in 1939, she left japan, left tokyo to come to mills college at the age of 15. how fighting that must a bed. i've heard so many stories today among so many of you about leaving home. think about leaving home and wondering if you ever go home again because our country was going to war. she did not speak about her contributions until she was asked by the japanese government to discuss the amendment, in

both numbers 14 an article xxiv that proclaimed the essential equality of the sexes. and her work has inspired so many amazing tributes, including a documentary film "the gift from beata." and her own memoir, "the only woman in the room." she has continued throughout her wonderful life to bring connections between asia and the united states and europe and the rest of the world. she currently lives in new york city and she lectures frequently at schools, universities, and other institutions. we are going to hear from dr. beate sirota gordon, mills degree recipient

ipient.rary degree rec like may, i think it is time for beate to have a peraarl "m." beate, will you cmome forward and bring us your words of wisdom? [applause] i'm going to put this on your robe. >> thank you. >> congratulations. [applause] >> board of trustees, faculty,

graduating students, and ladies and gentleman, it iis a really honor to have been invited to give the last commencement speech under the eye of our highly respected and beloved president janet hulgren. i think, however, that the committee which selected me for this honor was influenced by a mistake the state department made in 1945 when it issued need a passport so i could go to japan and work at general macarthur's headquarters. in the state department application, there was a form that had a blank entitled "occupation."

i wrote down "research expert." [laughter] the state department left out the word research. [laughter] and i ended up with my occupation listed as expert. [cheers] i do know japan, and the japanese language, and a new research, but that was it. i stand before you know as a mills college graduate class of 1943. [cheers] as a mother, and a grandmother, as the first civilian woman it

to work in the occupation of writer of thethe women's civil rights clause in the new japanese constitution. [applause] born in vienna, i accompanied my father, the pianist, and my mother his assistant to japan for a concert tour when i was 5.5 years old. when the imperial academy asked him to teach their, my father, at my mother's insistence, never signed a contract for longer than a year. because she wanted the option of returning to vienna. my father did as she had passed

and signed a year's contract -- asked and signed a year's contract 17 times. so i grew up in japan and when ready for college, applied to mills. first, because it was a women's college. [cheers] secondly, because by location, it was the the nearest college to japan. [laughter] and thirdly, because it was one of the few u.s. colleges known in japan. i was not yet 16 when i arrived at mills hall in 1939, and the culture shock was strong.

we had to wear formal evening clothes for the first night dinner of the fall semester. the silk evening dress i thought a portrait was wrinkled, -- appropriate was wrinkled, and i did not know how to iron. when i went into the laundry room, and put my address on the ironing board, i saw that the skirt was all in pleats. and i had no idea how to iron pleats. i started to cry. when an upperclassman walked by and ask why i was crying. when i explained my dilemma, she offered to iron the dress for me if i promised to lend her my

iron and during the coming semester because she did not have one. i was delighted by this excellent exchange, and promised myself never to buy a pleated dress again. i also did not know how to make a bed or do laundry. in japan, we had servants who did all this, but my classmates were helpful and i soon learned the strange american ways. aurelia henry reinhart was the president of the college at that time and she encouraged us to study hard for a career. so we would be able to compete

on an equal basis with men. [cheers] women suffered from discrimination, particularly in the business world, and mills was determined to prepare its students for the struggle ahead. i had seen discrimination against women in japan. women had no rights at all. the arranged marriages were often on happy, -- unhappy. the women sometimes did not even meet their futures buses until just before the wedding. -- their future spouses until just before the wedding. women cannot obtain work that interested them. they had no inheritance rights, no rights to choose their own

domicile, etc. so obviously, the education i received at mills from my professors, the speeches i heard on campus about social and economic issues, the exposure i had two men and women dedicated to the advancement of women profoundly influenced by less work. work.life's my field was languages and literature. i was lucky to have small classes. the biggest one was 14 students in my spanish class. i was the only student in my russian language and my japanese history class. when the war began and

recruiters from government agencies came to mills to look for students to new japanese, i found myself much saw after -- sought after because at the beginning of the war, there were only 65 caucasian s in the whole of the u.s. who knew japanese. i accepted the job offer from fcc's foreign broadcast intelligence service. i was to monitor broadcast from japan and translate them up from seven languages, 7 hours a day. after a year and a half, i switched to the office of war information where i had my o wwn propaganda show with music been to japan in which i urged the japanese to stop the war.

while working, i was enabled to finish college by president reinhart, who felt my war effort deserved help from the college. she let me finish my senior courses with term papers and examinations. without attending glasses. -- classes. in 1945, towards the end of the war, are moved to new york city and worked as a researcher on japan at "time"magazine, and in december, 1945, i got a job as a member of general macarthur's staff in tokyo. i was 22 years old. and on a snowy, february day in

1946, when i came to my office and the government section of the general headquarters, general courtney whitney, general macarthur's favorite adviser, announced the following at a top the secret meeting in his office. by order of general macarthur you are now a constituent assembly, and you will write the new democratic constitution of japan and you shall write it in seven days. the 20 mind and women -- men and women in attendance were stunned, especially since we knew that macarthur head asked the japanese government officials to write a new

democratic constitution which they were apparently incapable of doing. for a moment, there was silence. that we rushed to our desks and waited for colonel's deputy chief of staff to give us our assignments. i was a member of the political affairs division made up of colonel roost, a former anthropology professor, dr. emerson wilds, and me beate sirota. we were assigned to write a chapter on the rights of the people. colonel roost said, we cannot write this chapter as a committee. we have only seven days. we must divide the work. the two men looked at me and

colonel roost say, you are a woman. so why don't you write the clause on women's rights? i was thrilled. and having been well trained in research at mills, i immediately left the office, got into a jeep to go find some libraries in bombed out tokyo so i could borrow the constitutions of other countries to serve as samples from which i could take inspiration. when i brought 10 constitutions back to the office, i became very popular. every one wanted to borrow them.

after all, just like me, they had never written a constitution before. we worked day and night. we were euphoric to be involved in planting the seeds of democracy in japan. when i presented my women's rights draft to the steering committee, the chairmen read it and said, beate, you have given more rights to the japanese women thann are in the u.s. constitution. [cheering] i stood up and said, colonel, that is not difficult to do. [cheers]

not difficult to do? since the u.s. constitution does not have the word woman in the constitution at all. colonel said, welfare causes, the social welfare causes of yet written a did not belong in a constitution but in the civil code. i replied that the bureaucratic japanese men who would write the civil code would never put in social welfare causes unless they had already been included in the constitution itself. i cried, this time about a more important item than ironing. that's the first time i cried.

realizing i would have to reconcile myself to the fact that the committee would only consider the fundamental rights i have written s suitable for the japanese constitution. and so, regretfully, i saw my draft reduced, but nevertheless, it revolutionized the status of women in japan, because it guaranteed women's civil rights, based on the equality of men and women. [applause] i thought my work was done. but one month later, the colonel s me to participate in a meeting concerning the constitution with the japanese government

officials. this time, i was to act as an interpreter-translator. we were going to check on how the japanese had translated our drafts and what changes they might have made. the long arguments about the emperor's powers, the correct words to be used, and many other matters we thought would constitute a meeting lasting a few hours became a 32 hour bout. when at 2 a.m., the women's rights clause came up for discussion, the japanese officials were particularly in censed, saying the article should be completely changed, that it did not fit japanese history, culture, and customs. the colonel had noticed that the

japanese officials, not knowing that i had been the director of the article, were favorably inclined towards me because i was a quick interpreter and have helped their japanese team. he took advantage of the situation and said some complimentary things about me, ending with, ms. sirota has her heart set on the women's rights, so why don't we just pass them? [laughter] i think it was such a shock that the japanese said, all right, all right. let's do it. so now you know how history is made. sometimes.

i told you at the beginning that i am not an expert, but i do note that we failed to leave you -- i do know we failed to leave you a peaceful world. although, at the end of world war ii, we were convinced that there would never be a war again, the last 65 years proved us wrong. i hope that the class of 2011, so well prepared by president homegren -- would not only her dynamic ideas but with her emphasis on multiculturalism,

her efforts to its fans women's leadership and all of the many other advantages she has given you at mills. i hope this will inspire you to create a peaceful world where all can live in harmony. the japanese constitution's peace clause can guide you. it abolishes belligerency towards other countries. only defense of its own country is permitted. you are well-educated and devoted mills graduates. my hope is that you will heed what w.e.b. dubois said.

"to have satisfying work and work that the world needs is as near to heaven as one can get." and this is what i wish for you, the class of 2011, from the bottom of my heart. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much. thank you, beate sirota gordon, mills woman who has changed the world and continues to change the world for a more peaceful and just society. thank you. >> on september 25, 1957, nine

african-american students face down a mob and helped integrate little rock's central high school. minnijean brown trickey was one of them. she spoke at the university of arkansas, talking about the civil rights struggles during her lifetime and what they mean to today's graduates. this is 15 minutes. >> faculty, staff, a i have asked if i would make people cry. i said this was not about me, this is about them. when i first guarded thinking k, i couldn't think of anything that had to do with a lot.

i did not think i knew anything. my doctor reminded me using words that question my mental health that i might know something about the law. she reminded me i went to jail for sitting in. i may convicted tree hugger. [laughter] i have been known to sit in the front seat of a city bus. and the absolute worst, i took sips from the white water fountain when i was a little girl. [applause] i really am a criminal. but i am in the right place. i believe most of us grew up oblivious, without any real thought about the law. just imagine the pleasure -- the

dream i dreamed as a teenager. you are it. if i wanted to do something that was disallowed by jim crow laws, i was told casually that it would be against the law. no explanation, no discussion. it was just against a lot. -- the law. so i went to church and other places that were open to me. i was expected to become a teacher or i could have become a domestic. when somebody's cousin visited from chicago, and told us, you cannot do anything down here, i thought it was because i was in arkansas.

those situations could have narrowed my thinking, predicted my chances. in truth, all laws in the world cannot shut down our mind. i went every saturday to the colored branch of the library. the librarian was waiting there with her stack of books. she thought i might be interested in them. there was no stopping me. i lived in a world of reading. no matter the the discovered much later that that library had a few volumes while the white library had many. my point is that no matter what restrictions that are put on us in different ways and by different situations, we are responsible for our own education.

law school or any other institution only gives us a grounding. the rest is up to us. i would love to give you would vice for your lives. but i am a person who still does not know what i'm going to do when i grow up. [laughter] i say that because there is so much to learn, people to meet. so why become a larger and different person every day. they call it lifelong learning. let that be your goal. what i know about lawyers as half a century old. as a teenager, i was in the company of some of the brightest legal minds what argued the brown decision. i was sitting in the middle of a gaggle of lawyers who were trying to explain to me that i was part of a situation that

was a constitutional conflict. oh my goodness. i came to know that social change happens as a result of litigation and agitation. i have a poster that i keep in view. at the bottom is a helen keller ", "life is either a daring adventure or nothing." that phrase never fails to make me think. i often laugh, too, about myself. i am a stranger to daring adventures. -- no stranger to daring adventures. what a daring venture in must've

been for helen keller to be able to communicate with others, to express her thoughts, to write and to interact with friends, family, and the world. thinking about that phrase, a question emerges. do we choose daring adventures are do they choose us? the jury is out on that. means thatat phrase i have the memories of what once seemed impossible. then and now it is possible in all its complexity and unpredictability. my dear graduates, you are the proof of that.

i bring a completely different set of social knowledge. today we consider egypt, tunisia, libya, as the definitive struggles for freedom. we often do not consider those turbulent times when many of us of my generation felt the same level of frustration and fear as they feel now. i rarely hear mention of the 5000 children who were arrested in birmingham. we do not talk about the deaths of at least three civil rights workers in mississippi or the 50th anniversary of the freedom rights writers. we may not think that for many of the vote was only granted in 1965. maybe the women struggle has

meaning in the modern age when women outnumber men in college. are you aware that in 1972, women earned exactly 7% of lot degrees -- law degrees? thank goodness you know about such things. i know we do not have to look outside for social struggle. we can look right here. it is important for us to look here so that we know how privileged we are to live in this time of opportunity for all students. you are at the forefront of the possible, my dear graduates. what are our social obligations?

we must override our social conditioning, that we are the best, or maybe the worst, that ours is the only way. that they must be the same as us. the them in us makes us forget we are interrelated, interconnected, and interdependent. i have learned a few things overtime. one was based in working in counseling for immigrant and refugee women. i learned the most about my own culture by hanging out with them. i learned to leave my baggage when encountering these women. it was amazing the rich rewards i received when i discovered that our deeply held the desires

for ourselves and all of humanity were exactly the same. i learned to shut up and listen. i ignored my limited knowledge of the people i was meeting. leaving my limited knowledge is the key. that small knowledge exists in stereotypical images that stop real communication. i find it easy to ignore the sound bites that flat and others and make them one-dimensional. a nigerian author warns us against the single story. she states, "show a people as one thing over and over again

and that is what they become." we have to take into account power. the ability not only just to tell the story of another but to make that the definitive story of that person. the power do determine how stories are told, who tells them, and when they are told and how often. an example is when people say, you do not look like an environmentalist. does the way i look tell you i only have one story, the desegregation crisis? you have got to be kidding. tolawyers, you'll be exposed many social narrative's. poverty, single mothers, daisy,

welfare bums. muslims, conservatives, democrats. these social narratives are so powerful, we have a hard time not believing them. your daring adventure will be to discover how true or untrue such a narratives are. today we are inundated with "lazy talk." no analysis the notion to show how ignorant we are. the careful not to relegate others to a single story. when we do that, we lose the possibility to discover ourselves and others. your commitment to social justice. i checked before i thought about

this. i was thrilled to hear how much work you are doing. i think social service, volunteerism, even a lawyer compose the highest calling. there is a thought that you may do good while you are doing well. purge yourself to see a life as either a daring adventure or nothing. i am proud of you. i am sure that my footsteps into central high school on the road to social justice was not in vain. my dignity is up held by your presence and guaranteed by law.

you are the manifestation of everything i could only dream of as a child. i leave you with a poem that i loved. i can throw out platitudes, gaudy, be the change you want to see. there is something about memory of my own graduation. i return to the university as a very mature student. when i was configuring myself, i realized how important my family was to me. we talked about this family support. i know they you know. one of the things i forgot about in that special moment of endings and beginnings, was the

withdrawals i was going to fill later because of the loss of faculty and fellow students. i wish you well. let me speak of -- in the words of antonio -- "way fare, there is no road. your footsteps on -- are the road. " >> bucknell university invited mountain climber erik wiehenmayer to address the 2011 graduating class.

he is the only blind person to have climbed the tallest peak on every continent. minute t with a 3- introduction by the university president. this is 30 minutes. >> it is my distinct honor to introduce the commencement speaker for the class of 2011, erik wiehenmayer, a world- renowned lot near. he is celebrated for his remarkable physical accomplishments. he is a passionate humanitarian whose firsthand knowledge of overcoming personal obstacles has inspired his dedication to helping others. despite losing his vision to eye disease at the age of 13, erik has become a celebrated athlete. he is a world-class mountaineer, marathon runner, skiier, ice climber and acrobatic skydiver.

in 2001, he became the first blind climber to reach the summit of mt. everest. in 2002, he became one of fewer than 100 people and the only blind person ever to climb all of the seven summits, the highest peaks on each of the seven continent. iss feat of incbravery amazing enough of its own. but there is more. he dedicates himself to bringing new possibilities to others. he is a co-founder of a nonprofit organization that helps to bring disabilities through their own personal barriers to live full and active lives. in 2004, erik led a group of blind tibetan teenagers 21,000 feet up the north face of mount everest.

erik's exports have brought him fame around the world. his 2001 autobiography, "touch the top of the world," was published in 10 countries. he authored a second book. now, on friday, a bunch of us were going about our chores and our work, and perhaps you were packing up and celebrating. on friday, to mark the 10th anniversary of his mount everest descent, they were climbing colorado's moutnt ebert, the highest point in the rocky mountains. next month, he will. appear in "expedition impossible." his speech is being broadcast for later review on c-span.

please give a wonderful, warm welcome to mr. erik wiehenmayer. [applause] >> thank you, everyone. . . . thank you, president. i know that was a really nice introduction, and lots of prestigious things and accomplishments, but most people are just excited about the dodd today. -- dog today. [laughter] someone told me that it was the nicest creature had ever seen. i was walking up the island at the key here and say, and

someone said, by the way, that is our speaker. he climbed mount everest blind. i am i used to taking a backseat to the dog. [laughter] it has been a pleasure to climb mountains around the world, to do -- to do the seven summits adventure as a blind person or if there is a physical dimension to what i do. if of more interesting has been the mental journey. it has been a journey to understand how teams and cultures here in the u.s. and around the world, to see how we confront uncertainty, to see how we confront change, whether we can grow or evolve with a certain degree of success and then make a decision to camp out on the side of the mountain and ultimately stagnate or figure out a way to challenge ourselves until the day that we die. to see how people deal with adversity, whether it crushes us as it does so many people or we

figure right away to flourish in the face of it. and how we deal with uncertainty. you were leaving bucknell, and you have a road map i had. there is uncertainty as you go forward. a blind person, a blind climber in particular, there is a lot of uncertainty. there is no road map, no defined, clearer roadmap for a blind climber. they do not even go together. it's like being a jamaican bobsledders. [laughter] and there was uncertainty about climbing the seven summits, the tallest mountain in every continent. my first was macaulay, denali, the great one. we crossed a nares -- narrow summit ridge toward the summit. it was for 30 in the afternoon when i stood on top.

it turned out to be helen keller's birthday. we're all worried about getting down. 90% of accidents happen on the way down, when you lost your focus. but we were exhilarating because we had time did so well, we had radioed down to a small airstrip. now that we were near the top, my dad and my two brothers and my wife were circling above as, watching us take our last tap. we had red suits on. we looked at tenneco. we were waving and cheering. i said to my buddy jack. you'd think that they will know that i made it? and they said, they will know. you're the only one raising -- waving your ski pole in the opposite directions. [laughter] it is good to have friends. i did make a down safely. as cold as it was, as tired as i was, i laid on my belly in the

snow, and i had never done some its doublet-something so mentally demanding, something that has so much for myself, i was not resilience and now, this was the last thing a blind person is supposed to be doing with his life. but the other half of me did i care for the other half wanted to figure out how to climb forever. i climbed into the igloo, and our team leader cut up some freeze dried spaghetti which i immediately gave back to the mountain gods. [laughter] everyone had to climb through it to get out. chris is from alaska. he has these great callosities, great witticisms about light. you are sitting in a terrible storm, it is hammering in your face, you're miserable. chris will look up and say something like, "shuras cold outside, but at least it's

windy." or he will say, "we have been climbing a long way, but at least we are lost." on the top of one mountain, i got to the summit behind chris, he gave me a big hug and said, "you may be blind but you sure are slow." [laughter] and i was not expecting that. i said, chris, you're not so nice, but at least you're stupid. [laughter] of love positive pessimism. you can use it anytime, anyplace, the sec, we are facing a tough road ahead, but we will get through this together. you can say, there are not a lot of jobs out there, but at least i have a 2.1 gpa. or you buy your first house, honey, we may have to move into a smaller house and we wanted to, but at least my mother-in-

law is coming to live with us. [laughter] back in the igloo, i said, chris, i am so sorry, i did not mean to it for that out of the igloo. he did something some eyes, he slapped me on the back as hard as it possibly could, and he said, anyone who stands on the top of north america, i will cross through his you get a date. annie did, he crossed right through it, i was touched. i had such a good time in the mountains, climbing through the mountains, and coming down with friends around me. it is very much a linear goal, tangible, reachable. i love goals. all of you have multitudes of goals that will keep you very busy, that are very important. but in my life but i imagine yours too, what has been more important than any one goal is what i would call vision. i see this different than

others, and internal vision, a vision of how we see ourselves living our lives in serving other people, and impact in the world. if what kind of legacy do we want to leave behind us? sometimes we can focus on this long list of goals and they can become isolated and fragmented and go unfulfilled, or maybe even lead as the directions that we did not want to go to in the first place. but we need to continually reconnect with that unifying vision that takes those goals and binds them together and gives them purpose and power. first has to come division. it is one thing is you know to create a vision. it is another thing entirely to believe in it so strongly that you can summon up the focus and the courage and the discipline to live within its framework. here, your vision is powerful. perhaps it is to serve people. your community, and your family, your university, your world around you. how your goals day after day

after day of line to bring you closer to that vision? perhaps your vision is to flourish through a sense of innovation? how is your goal to achieve it? if your vision is not to slip into the status quo but to find ways of blasting for people's expectations and shatter them into a million pieces, how do your goals do it? if your vision is not to respond and react to lyse changes and challenges but to lead, how do you take those goals and wrapped them around that vision and make it real? as you leave your university, it is a very important time to formulate the vision that will sustain you. like an internal compass, it guides you through good weather and more importantly for bad weather. and it tells you where you're going and why it is so important that you get there.

one i was not thinking about a vision before, i was thinking about just surviving. life had descended on me with such force i thought would be crushed by a. i remember sitting in the cafeteria listening to all the laughter, all the jokes, all the food fights passing me by that i wanted to be part of. and i was not afraid to go blind. what i was afraid of was i would be swept to the sidelines, that might life would be meaningless for nothing. and i could still see a tiny bit out of my right eye. i could watch television and i had my face pressed against the screen watching "that's incredible." there were featuring and cagney and terry fox. he has lost a leg to cancer. he was still in the hospital when he decided that he would

run across canada. thousands of miles. and i will tell you, this is not the typical decision that a person and his situation was supposed to make. most people would have dug in their heels and focused on surviving. instead, perry did the exact opposite. he decided to attack. and the miles took a terrible toll on his body. the look on his face was an absolute contradiction, full of exhaustion, yet at the same time, fall of exaltation. and i thought to myself, there's something inside of us that i could only describe at the time as a light, a light that seemed to have the ability to feed on setbacks and frustrations and failures, to use those things as fuel, the greater the challenge, the brighter that light bird, and that light seemed to make us more focused, more and driven. i wondered if he could even

transcend our own limitations. and give our lives power. and it was by staring into terry's face with my one-night prestigous the screen that i first wondered, how you turn into the storm of life and emerge on the other side not just unscathed, not just damaged as little as possible, but actually stronger and better? and a few months after that, i got a newsletter in braille, rock climbing. and i ran my hand up the wall of my room and i thought, it would be crazy enough to take a blind kid rock climbing? so i signed up. i was tired of building walls around myself. i could do a pull up and scan my hand across the face just before i was ready to lose my strength in my for arms and fingers and felt like i had a fall, i could dig into a crack or pocket to

keep me stuck to the pocket so i could do another pull up and scan my other hand across the face. i left a lot of blood and skin on the face but i got to the top. it was so exhilarating and fibrin, it was almost painful, like a rebirth. the pattern of hot and cold as the sun touched the rocks, and the sound is based, i could hear sound vibrations moving infinitely through space, it was beautiful. but as beautiful as it was, it was also scary. and there is one thing that has not changed since the first time i went rock climbing 25 years ago, and that is the reach. i did not care if you are blind or side, we're all reaching into darkness. we're hoping, we are predicting, we are praying, we are calculating, all those metrics and measurements and algorithms, the data, it leads us to believe

that we will find what we are looking for. but we understand there is no guarantee. is that moment when we have committed ourselves to the reach, our minds, our body, we know it is impossible to turn back. those fears are overwhelming, flopping on our face, making a bad decision, if it leads us astray. that year that we are not good as something as we want to be or the fear for some of us older folks that we have climbed as high as we can go in there is nowhere else to go but down. all those fears conspire against us and paralyze us. but there is a big difference between most people and pioneers. pioneer's understand that life is an ongoing, never-ending process of reaching out into the darkness when we do not know exactly what we will find. we are constantly reaching towards the immense possibilities. they are always done seen, yet the process.

so many others allow that darkness to paralyze them. i reached out that day and i know you reach out every day and you're about to make a big reaches in your life. those reaches lead us to some great adventures around the world. i will say this, i do not see myself as some crazy blind guy, like a blind he will enable being shot across the grand canyon and a rocket ship. i'm very methodical. i see myself as you do, as an innovator, as a problem solver. i love looking at things as -- that others look get as impossible and improbable. i am motivated like pioneer's past. a sense of what is possible. and i think is important to see ourselves as modern-day pioneers. he does not mean that you are necessarily climbing a scary mountain. it means that we are motivated from within by that internal

vision rather than from an external factors. it means we are motivated by a sense of discovery. when you define the word discovery, it means to unveil. a lot of potential is failed by darkness. here is the trouble, i think as a pioneer, when you embrace that mind set, you reach out, father and father-in-law of a mountain, maybe farther than anyone has gone before, and you try to be great, but farther year reached, the more diversity bring into your life. in fact, it is like you are asking for it. who wants that? the party reached, the more adversity you bring in. and there is a correlation between adversity and greatness. they go hand-in-hand. there's no way to separate them. what kept our species survive in for some many thousands of years was the ability to move away from discomfort and

uncertainty, to find familiar niches and settle in. but that does not work in the modern world. in order to achieve greatness, we have got to square off with adversity. the small adversity is that where is down, that make us ask ourselves, i'm still treading water but i'm still drowning. the most complex issues on the horizon ready to share all of us. we have to square off with them and walk into the storm. the best example i ever saw on a personal level, a person able to do this is my friend mark. marks wellman, when he was 21 years old, fell down a peak in this area aren't -- sierra nevadas and became paralyzed from the waist down. he decided he would learn to climb again. he developed a new pioneering system known as -- no one had seen anything like it. mark had a poll of mardell logs on to their rope.

he slides up the road, he pulls himself on a pulley system, he pushes the bar up, he pushes himself up, he only gets 6 inches up with each pull up. he climbed el capitan and. they estimated he did over 7000 plots in seven days. ullups in seven days. they will find a way to transform lead into gold. with that of domestic -- an alchemist, they don't do the traditional things. they do not even overcome adversity. these alchemists have figured out how to do something radically different. they have figured out how to seize hold of that storm of the diversity that seems to swirl around us, to harness its energy, and use that energy to

propel themselves for two places that they never would have gone to in any other way. with an alchemist, you can throw them in the midst of an uncertain environment, strip away their resources, throw road blocks in front of them, and they will still find a way to win. and i would argue that cannot find a way to win despite adversity, they find a way to win because of it. if you want to learn and grow and strengthen great teams around us, if we want to innovate, if we want to create a new paradigm that the world follows, the way we harness those challenges in our lives is our greatest advantage. imagine that while the world is bigger than a fields and focus on surviving coming you are out there using the energy behind this momentous occasion to drive a ford, to make ground, to make an impact. what if adversity was not the energy?

what it felt was instead the pathway to greatness? i think that there are a lot of adversities that are all around us. you're entering a pretty tough economy and people's confidence has been beaten down over the years. there are a lot of hype that america is not what it used to be. and beyond that, there are global challenges like an overcrowded planet and poverty and natural disasters and climate change and over reliance on fossil fuels and a class of religions and cultures that compete around the world. lots of adversity. look at the pool of talent in this stadium, in this area. look at this pool of talent for your that alchemists. you are the world's best hope for alchemy. i do not think it is enough to just harness adversity and push through and say, look at me, look at me on top.

leadership is about pushing the envelope, but i also think it is equally about helping others to reach their own summit. for me that opportunity came when they teamed up again with mark to start this organization no barriers. by theo impressed innovative ways that each of us climb the mountains, we decided it was time to show others how to change their approach and their mindset through diversity. we bring together this amazing community of pioneers, most with disabilities, he's pushing the envelope in science and technology and music and art, we bring them together with the aim to help others with challenges, finding new ideas and new approaches and technologies to shatter a personal barriers in our lives and be more adventurous. we should new prosthetic legs better enabling fet to some time

what for the first time, new mountain bike for paraplegics to get off the pavement for the very first time. you climbing systems and kayaking systems for triple and quadruple amputee is to get out and adventure in the wilderness. most importantly, we teach that mindset that we have the tools to attack our challenges head on and live the life that we envision. in that no barriers spirit, in the 10th anniversary of my mt. everest climbs approaches on tuesday, we decided that we wanted to give back to america's heroes. we organize last summer a team of injured soldiers, soldiers who had been hurt in afghanistan and iraq. we had a team of 10 soldiers and took them back to colorado and trained them. we taught them everything they needed to know about climbing. we had some extraordinary people

on this team, nicolette, who had been injured in iraq, and was in a wheelchair for 3.5 years as she learned to walk again. dan, a marine, big and tough and could buy two and half, but because of posttraumatic stress center, he has trouble walking through grocery store. and matt, part of an elite force when a helicopter crashed and he was sucked into the rudder of the helicopter and he lost one leg. his other foot is still painful. and steve, who was in an armored vehicle, blinded instantly. it was a hard day. we were pushing up steep rock and steep ice and steep snow. at 1 point, steve started wearing down and struggling and said i feel like i am not in my element. i feel like i need to go down. and my friend jeff seemed to

know exactly how to push people. he said, steve, this is not about you. this is about all of those injured soldiers, but the soldiers yet to be injured, all of your fallen comrades, this is about them. knuckle down and get this job done. and that is what steve needed to hear. three hours later, stephen the rest of the soldiers, we stood at 20,100 feet together. i have been on higher mountains and harder mountains, but standing on top with these heroes was the proudest moment of my life. i think leadership, you will find you pass it from body to body, from life to life, and we give the people around this great courage to do great things. you are entering a very challenging world. it is harder and harder to

predict the future. in fact, i promise you, there will be days or you feel like you're climbing blind. but i do not think that this is the time to lose our will to be clouded by fear and doubt, it to be swept to the sidelines and forgotten. i think this is the best time in history, perhaps most precious time in history, to be a pioneer, to reach out, to take lead in turn it into gold. we do this for ourselves, for your families, for your university, but i think most importantly, we do it for the sake of this wondrous world that we live in. helen keller, she said, i am only one, but still i am one. i cannot do everything, but still i will do something. i will not refuse to do the something that i can do. bucknell graduates, 2011, keep

climbing, and keep reaching high. thank you very much. [applause] >> now to bennington for the commencement at vermont college. they chose an award winning neurosurgeon and presented him with an honorary degree. we begin our coverage with the president telling the story of a migrant farm worker now searching for a cure for brain cancer produces about 20 minutes.

>> it is my honor and privilege to introduce our second honorary degree recipients and our commencement speaker. it is remarkable that nearly 20 years ago this accomplished surgeon, educators, and author, and i just ordered his forthcoming book which will be out in october, was laboring as a migrant farm worker in the fields of the san joaquin valley in california, taking night classes at a community college, and in those early years, he worked other odd jobs always dreaming of what one day could be. from the start, he went on to harvard medical school ready graduated with honors and gave the commencement address. is not we're clear, this

his first commitment address, then, but i am proud to say that we are the first institution to confer upon him an honorary degree. [applause] upon completing his residency in neurosurgery at the university of california at san francisco, dr. quinones-hinjosa pursued a post-doctoral fellowship and developmental and stem cell biology which brought him to johns hopkins. he is now recognized worldwide as an expert in his field, as a professor of neurosurgery, neuroscience, oncology, and cellular and molecular medicine is, and as the director of the brain tumor stem cell laboratory at johns hopkins university school of medicine.

he is someone who is deeply committed to finding a cure for brain cancer in the not too distant future. he is known to spend considerable time with his patients and their families explaining their disease and their upcoming surgery. in short, he cares. and we should all have such a caring health care professionals watching over us. an award winning neurosurgeon, he was named one of the u.s. brilliant 10 scientists by popular science magazine. he has been awarded numerous prestigious grants and awards, including a recent national institutes of health grant for stem cell research, and he was named one of the u.s. says science and engineering speakers.

for all of his accomplishments, awards, and prestige, dr. q, as he is known by his patients and staff, remains humble, never forgetting his roots for his journey, and always remembering the importance of family and his wife and his three children here with him today to share this event. nice to have you here. one of our trusties, i wrote wagner, listen to this doctors speech at the central scholarship bureau in maryland. she was so inspired by his message of turning obstacles and opportunities that he called me up and said, he has a remarkable story to tell that will inspire our students to persevere. see if you can get him here as a commencement speaker.

after my start to do this, i raised every convincing argument t dr.ld think of to ge quinones-hinjosa to come here. i shared our store with them an ally of his inspiring message and dedication to helping others would make him a role model for our graduates as they embarked on their journeys, and he said, yes. there is a son -- one other part of this. that conversation gave me an opportunity to speak in spanish which is one of my favorite languages and confirmed for me that dr. q and died of literally and figuratively speak the same language. -- and i said literally in figure it'll be speak the same language. [speaking spanish]

would you please join me at the podium? ladies and gentlemen, i am honored, deeply honored to introduce you our second honorary degree recipients who will after the awarding of the degree address the class of 2011 as the commencement speaker. please join me in welcoming to the podium dr. alfredo quinones- hinojosa. [applause] and now the magic words. by virtue of the authority vested in me by the board of trustees of southern vermont college, i hereby confer upon

you the degree of doctor of humane letters with all the rights, privileges, and obligations there and to appertaining. ladies and gentlemen, our commencement speaker, dr. alfredo quinones-hinojosa. [applause] >> well, i am quite honored and humbled. i have got to tell you a quick story. when i told my family, my wife, and my children, and my daughter that i was getting an honorary degree, she asked me if we still had to pay for this to because we're still paying for medical school. [laughter]

i said, delaware. i like to thank all of you, the board of trustees, especially parents, family members, students, and my family for allowing me to share these 10 minutes. i want to take these tennis between you and your degree right here. [laughter] determination, resilience, excitement, admiration, mentor ship, and strength are the words that come to my mind to describe your journey. my grandfather was born in 1907 and died in 1984, and he told me once when the days are barred, if you just have to wait until the night comes. the light from the stars will then guide you. my family and these words that

mean for many nights of hard work, many nights of study, to prepare for what i do today, which is brain science and brain surgery. i will share with you a poem from a young writer, the title, and it goes as follows. a storm brews lightning strikes, the treed falls onto spikes and night turns today than the sun shines from the trees the days go by the trade case, and all life withers away. but when all hope is lost tiny leaves sprout out ling sproutrout

my daughter rode that. as a migrant farm worker and my car rolled not only as a brain surgeon and science as a more important as someone who tries to keep hope within my reach every day for my profession held by determination and resilience? let me start with a story. i was a second year resident of the university of california-san francisco leading prominent brain surgeons when i was in the emergency room. i heard the word, we have got officers down. and i thought they were filming a reality tv shows. but this was real life. a high-speed chase resulted in a fatal death of one police officer and a second police officer rushing into the hospital. clinging for his life.

immediately, with a team of surgeons, we took this young policemen to the operating room that night over the next 12 hours. we operated three times. two years later, the unperson went back to the police force and he was saving lives. from this experience, i received two things. it was a beautiful black that actually hangs in my office at home -- plaque that hangs in my office at home. knesset " from vince lombardi. the quality of a person's life is direct proportion to the commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. the second thing i got was a beautiful plaque and appreciation of the center cisco

police department, but most important, small business card, and on the back of the card it said the following -- any courtesies you can extend to dr. q would be highly appreciated. [laughter] 8 get out of jail card. [laughter] i am sure will be handy one day. " what happened if we would not have taken that young man, if we would have waited another minute or two? i asked myself that question often. it was thanks to the determination and resilience of not only the patient, the team i was leading at this time, that we were able to save his life. and we came out triumphant from that battle. to the graduating students, you will have many, many more battles, and i am just recapitulating what was said already. the only advice that i can give

you, the advice i have gone from my own patients, if you have to find this steel in your soul. that determination and resilience with the new, and no matter what happens, if you have to keep moving forward. my grandfather used to tell me, and tonight go were the past may lead. go instead with there is no path and be a trail blazer. and i believe that a very young age. once a very wise man, of migrants farmworker said, if you are not try 10 that you might fail, you will never do that job. if you were priced and, you will work like crazy. -- frightened, you will work like crazy. i deal with brain cancer every

day. it attacks the most beautiful oregon, the brain. my patients have taught me very important lessons. they have taught me it is not about dying, but it is about living,. to remain excited about life in the middle of a battle for your life is the most inspiring event i have personally witnessed every day in my line of work. talk about admiration. they shared some meaningful words with me and tell me the following about you guys. one needs to judge our students not on the basis of their qualifications hot on where they are where they leave us, remarkable men and women ready to enter the work force for further education, individuals who will contribute meaningfully

to our world in ways people might not have expected. two words come to mind when i think of these types of accomplishments -- hard work. a nobel prize winner in 1986 said the falling, he said, chance and goodluck does not come to those who wanted to. it comes to those who look for it. albert einstein said once, the world is a dangerous place, not because of people who do evil, but because of those who look and do absolutely nothing. we talk about the termination, resilience, excitement and admiration, and the last one and, mentorship. i have been mentored my whole life. there was a beautiful fall day in her rent 2006, and i wake up

in a beautiful sunday morning, and i walk with my son david. i turned to my son as we were walking, the leaves are falling, 7:00 in the morning, it is a little chilly, and i say, david, you are the man. he looks up to me from his little tricycle and says, that, i am not the man. i was quiet for few seconds and said, i am a brain surgeon, i am going to teach my son made his lesson. david, i want you to believe in yourself. the little tricycle again, he looks up and says to me, dad, i do believe in myself. i just know i am not the man. [laughter] at age 5. a lesson. [applause] at age 5, a lesson about

humility and self awareness. regarding my wife and three children, my parents and siblings, my mentors, how can i thank him? i am sure you feel the same way about your family. i am reminded of what albert and stein once said. many things in life you count that really do not count. many of the things that you cannot count are the things that truly to count. i leave you with a few tips for your life. these are lessons that i've learned from my own mistakes. there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. i crossed that line the moment that i accepted the invitation to get an honorary degree and to talk in front of you. to think that i could tell you something that is meaningful. we need to teach our future generations some of the key elements that will make you

successful. for me it is very simple. availability, affability, ability, and accountability. success, winston churchill said, is going from failure to cut your with a lot of enthusiasm, that passion for life has to stay with you forever. treat others you would like your loved ones to be treated. cesar chavez once said there is no substitute for hard work. there's no substitutes for patience and acceptance. my grandfather used to tell me at pool with a good tool is still a fool. it is not the tool that matters and not the education and what you do with your education. we are today what we did yesterday. we will be tomorrow what we do today.

sometimes you just have to wait until the night comes, and then you can let the light from the stars guide you. you yourselves are stars already. congratulations to all the wonderful work that you have done, for all of your accomplishments. i am fairly humble to be here in your presence and to receive this undeserved honorary degree. thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> president obama discusses the state of the u.s. auto industry and its relation to the rest of the economy.

republican senator lamar alexander of tennessee delivers the republican response. he talks about the role of unions in u.s. manufacturing, including auto industry, and praising -- and praises the policies of so-called right to work states. this is 10 minutes. >> impein y tayro a ryerla i ted ohio, where i just met with workers including jill, who was born and raised here in toledo. her mom and stepfather retired from this plant. she met her husband here and now they have two children of their own. this plant has not only been central to the economy of this town, it has been part of the lifeblood of this committee. the reason i came to toledo was to congratulate jill and her co- workers on the turnaround they helped bring about at chrysler and throughout the auto industry. today each of the big three auto makers is turning a profit for the first time since 2004.

chrysler has repaid every dime and more of what it owes american taxpayers for their support during my presidency, and it repaid that money six years ahead of schedule. and this week, we reached a deal to sell our remaining stake. that means and chrysler will be 100% in private hands. boston portly, all three american automakers are now adding shifts and creating jobs at the strongest rate since the 1990's. chrysler has added a second shift at the jefferson north plant in detroit that i visited last year. gm is adding a third shift at its hamtramck plant for the first time ever. and gm plans to hire back all the workers they have laid off during the recession. that is remarkable when you think about where we were just a couple of years ago. when i took office, we were facing the worst -- worst recession since the great depression, hitting our auto industry particularly hard appeared in the year before i

was president, this industry lost more than four under thousand jobs, and two great iconic american companies, chrysler and gm, stood on the brink of collapse. we had a few options. we could have done what a lot of folks in washington thought we should do, nothing. but that what had made a bad recession worse and put 1 million people out of work. i refuse to let that happen. so i said if gm and chrysler will it -- willing to take the difficult steps of restructuring and making themselves more competitive, the american people would stand by them, and we did. but we decided to do more than rescue this industry from crisis. we decided to help it retool for a new age, and that is what we're doing all across the country. we're making sure that american can out-build, out-innovate, and out-compete the rest of the world. that is how we will build an economy where you can see your incomes and savings rise again, send your kids to college, and

retire with dignity, security, and the specter that is how we keep that fundamental american promise, if that if you work hard and act responsibly, if you can pass on a better life to your kids and grandkids. we've got a ways to go. even though our economy has created more than 2 million private sector jobs over the past 15 months and continues to grow, we are facing some tough headwinds. lately it is high gas prices, the earthquake in japan, and unease about the european fiscal such a question. that will happen from time to time. they will be bumps on the road to recovery. we know that. but we also know what has happened here at this chrysler plant. we know that hardworking americans like jill helped turn this company and this industry around. that is the american story. we are people who do not give up. we do big things, we shape our own destiny. and i am absolutely confident that if we hold on to that spirit, our best days are still ahead of us. thank you for tuning in and have

a great weekend. >> i am lamar alexander, united states senator from tennessee. i want to talk about making it easier and cheaper to create private sector jobs here in america. we can start by helping companies make in the united states what they sell in the united states. unfortunately recent actions by the administration are making that hard to accomplish. last month the national labor relations board moved to stop america's largest exporters, the boeing company, from building airplanes at a non-union plant in south carolina, suggesting that unionized american company cannot expand its operations into one of the 22 states with right to work laws which protect all workers right to join or not to join a union. but instead of making a speech, let me tell you a story for the story is about a white house state dinner in february 1979 when i was governor of

tennessee. president carter said u.s. governors, go to japan, persuade them to make care what they sell here. so off they flew to tokyo to meet with nissan executives, deciding where to put their first u.s. manufacturing plant. i carried with me a photograph taken from the airplane showing the country with all of its lights on. where is tennessee, they ask? right in the middle of the lights,. that population center has migrated from the midwest where most u.s. auto plants were then south to places like kentucky and tennessee. then the japanese examined a second consideration. tennessee has a right to work a lot and kentucky does not. this meant that in kentucky,

workers would have to join united autoworkers union spurred workers in tennessee had a choice. well, in 1980, nissan chose tennessee, the state with almost no auto jobs. today, auto assembly plants and suppliers provide one-third of tennessee's manufacturing jobs. tennessee is the home for production of leaf, nissan's all-electric vehicle and the batteries that power. nissan recently announced that 85% of the cars and trucks is cells in the united states will be made in the united states. it makes it one of the largest american auto companies. now the nlrb and unions want to make it illegal for the company has experienced repeated strikes to move production to a state with a right to work off. what would this mean for the future of american author jobs? jobs with lee overseas.

manufacturers would look for a competitive environment in which to make and sell their products around the world. it has happened before. a 1986 book " what the reckoning" talks about the decline of the auto industry, and it quotes "there is nothing more by honorable then intrench success." detroit ignored upstarts like the sun. in 1960, they began selling a funny little car to american consumers. we all know what happened to employment in the big three companies. even when detroit sought greener pastures in the right to work state, its partnership with united auto workers could not compete. in 1985, general motors located its $5 billion saturn plant in

spring hill, tenn., just 40 miles from the sun, hoping that side-by-side competition would help the americans beat the japanese. after 23 years, non-union nissan opera the most efficient auto plant in north america. the saturn -- uaw partnership never met a profit. saturn was closed last year. nissan's success was one reason why volkswagen opened a manufacturing plant in chattanooga and why honda and toyota and mercedes-benz and thousands of suppliers have chosen southeastern right to work states for their plants. according to the chief of the boeing company, an unintended consequence of the boeing complaint is that 4-thinking ceo's would be reluctant to place new plants in unionized

states. lest they be forever restricted from placing future plants across the country. largests america's exporter, but we want them to export their plans, not jobs. our goal should be to make it easier and cheaper to create private sector jobs in this country. giving workers the right to join or not to join a union helps to create a competitive environment in which more manufacturers like nissan and boeing can make care what

and we appreciate by that standard this conference is so very successful but we your deeply honored to have with us today at least an avatar former lt. general david rot rodriguez as the speaker of our annual conference. general rodriguez assumes command of the international security assistance for the

joint command ijc in october 2009 and is joining today from fort lewis, washington, where he's a lieutenant general core get ready to assume operational responsibilities for the mission in afghanistan leader this year. ..

>> good morning, everybody. and john, thank you for the kind introduction and the invitation to speak before this distinguished audience. i apologize for not being there in person as you said it currently and that washington state enjoyed these clueless bookwork kentucky trading to prepare ichor and the afghan -- i'm sorry, the european rapid reaction corps for their upcoming deployment to afghanistan. and my friend, lieutenant general scott bradley will take my place. we have done this at brigade commands, division command, and i feel sorry, but he keeps getting stuck with the mess that i leave but i know he'll do a great job.

i'd also like to recognize members of the cf team. john kerry thank you for inviting me. you've been a practical server and commentator on this mission can see now cnas. afghanistan for pakistan in iraq for the marines and thanks to you also for your leadership. you clearly understand challenges we face in afghanistan. lieutenant general retired classmate and close friend, the first officer of the coalition command in afghanistan back in 2003. thank you for charging of course in afghanistan that has opened the door and courting myself.

the former army ranger search of both iraq and afghanistan. you know the ground situation, what goes on there. it is great year here and in short the cnas team is definitely afghanistan strong. okay, this path goes this morning. i will give you a short overview of the operational plan from now until 2014 and discuss in more detail where we are currently in that plan. i'll tell you what i think is going well and what worries me. i went with a brief comment on what they think the future is regard to transition, driving down 2014 and beyond. so first, what does the campaign the click? well, our object has remained the same. to deny al qaeda sanctuaries and prevent the taliban from retaking afghanistan. and by the way, the death of osama bin laden has not changed

that ashamed and we have not seen any effect to his death on the ground to date in afghanistan. next slide, please. the unique foundation of this plan is threefold. on key areas, prioritization of multiple lines of operation, an approach that very much assembles with the activity. with regard to the focus on critical terrain, the population centers, commerce was a matter of necessity an operation that had never been lavishly resourced. i remind everyone to peek at troop deployment in the p. cost of operations in afghanistan was two thirds of the troops deployed in iraq and 100 -- two

thirds the cost of iraq operations for a country 1.5 times the size of iraq. now the effect this focus has had on key terrain was that we are largely able to focus the majority of coalition and international efforts really need them and when we need them. and when we get this, our resources are sufficient and i can't over emphasize what a idea that the vent to our effort. since the peace operations decade of the 1990s, we have long talked about the importance of the idea for, where there is no form a unity command and the progress in this regard has exceeded expectations. we have managed to take the afghan security forces to focus in the right place and we have gained support of many of the civilian neck turns to direct their terrific people and programs where they need to hold key terrain that has been

cleared. by making a big deal about key terrain can we have given specifics to anchor on. in this focus, we have made explicit the building block of the district. this is where the people see their government, and action or not in action. they are important as they party said. this does not apply to the province or kabul are not important, but this is a row insert the good of the challenges lined the village and the first line of assistance for the villagers is the different government. now, there are those who think we do too much when we focus on defense. but there is no real alternative for the reason i just said. this key terrain construct is perfect? well, of course not, but nothing ever is. with regard to sequencing and

prioritizing length of operation, the plaintiff made very explicit plans and attempted to correct some challenges from the past. some practices actually made the situation worse. as you know, we have incredible developments all over the place and want more children out of school at more reasonable, the security situation declaimed. then we have more troops and resources and cleared areas much more days, only to have to clear over and over again. now we are much better off. we spend the bulk of our military effort on to creating or insurgent infrastructures to include the leadership, but we also ensure the planning for the security and good governance begins early enough to be inserted and follow on this unit conditions allow. we have made real progress with

their civilian counterparts, both in the afghan government and international community to sequence and synchronize these efforts. thanks a lot. finally, underpinning the execution of this plan is the recognition that absence of sweeping political settlement, the best chance of stabilizing afghanistan is to mobilize people to demand the fulfillment of their modest requirements. now this is dependent on the connection of the good government to the reliable security forces and to the people. and when all three legs of that school for the trinity work together, from the bottom, with a little help from the top, we will squeeze out enough of the enemy of the afghan people to build sufficient stability for afghanistan in the future. now you can see from the weight of the air is on the chart what people need from kabul is indeed

minimal. their destiny to be a small reliable steady flow of funding for national to local levels to fund operating costs and minimal basic services. what this also means and execution of the plan is there a young commanders on the ground have to make decisions every day about how to allocate their precious resources of time and effort. they must ensure the proper weighting between taking the fight to the enemy and strengthening communities by building capacity in connection of the good government reliable security forces and to the people. this trinity result in a spiral of popular mobilization and it works. so how has the campaign unfolded and how will it unfold? in a moment, i will highlight the gains we expect to achieve and i will tell you that unequivocally where we have focused our efforts in accordance with our plan, we

have achieved progress every time. so if you ask me if i am hopeful that we can achieve sufficient security across the country, i am indeed. of course operational and tactical successes will take us only so far given the time constraints we believe we will be under. i will talk about more of this later. i do believe that given enough time, the tactical and ground up approach will prevail, just as it did in iran country a couple hundred years ago. now these next three slides show you the expected results of executing the plan. in other words, expanding the areas should be stable by winters and 2014. and by 2014, we will have fully executed operational plan and all the places that matter most.

next slide. now you can see where we want to be by spring of 2012. it is important to understand what the spring brings to us because it is after a violent season in the stomach of these through the fall and in the wintertime there is a huge opportunity to continue to go the afghan capacity while the violence tapers off a little bit. and you can see they are what we want to do a six in that area down into the central helmand river valley in kandahar in the south and southwest and it continues to build a security zone outside kabul to the east and to the south. next slide. you can see on the next slide how that would expand over time. it is expanding everywhere throughout the country, expanding more and more to mark the afghan population and needy

production centers and commerce routes. next slide. you can see in 2014 how it really starts to expand to other places the half and and us believe will create enough stability to stabilize the entire country of afghanistan and it does not have to be everywhere as you can be. you can see we will fight on in the east and frankly the east will be the toughest part of the tough neighborhood that will be afghanistan for a long time. i won't go in detail in the plan of 2014 right now if this is the purview of furniture commanders and could change. as we are all fond of saying come in the has about and nowhere is that more true than in afghanistan, given the volatile region in which it resides. i will talk about where we are in operation only.

and by the way, let me know hope is not a vested, popped in to senator has been a setback. the name of the plan was hope and i assure you that the afghans have seen the plan not because it is dependent on the lettuce prayer and hope, although my experiences that never. but because the plan will result in greater hope in the heads and hearts of the afghan people, hope for a better future that is more akin to what they observe happening in the rest of the world. and believe me, they do know what is going on outside the boundaries of afghanistan. now we started in the central helmand river valley, number 100 as it was the nexus of the narcotics industry that feels insurgency and the insurgency is strongest hold. our pakistani part is called the taliban central.

that was last year. this year after a very successful when you campaign, we see the central river valley near stable but the insurgents ability and capability drastically reduced and pushed a small pocket on the edges of the central helmand river valley and in the northern helmand river valley. this year our main effort is in kandahar and connect in kandahar and it's a magnet to the central helmand river valley, which is linked between one and two. and i will talk about carbonara as an example of what is happening in around kandahar as well as the central helmand valley. it is outside of kandahar that has been a attack places the first in the coalition went in and state. in july 2009, are good and was a

taliban stronghold and people could not move around without fear. in early january 2011, the district governor was killed. the district police chief was wounded by an ied so he couldn't continue to serve in his payment. there were no government officials present except the district governor and a tea maker and the police were not present among the people. the district center was described by many as jesse combat out post because all it did was defend itself. i was just a recently and the change has been incredible. there were more than 16 government employees working within the district governor. there was a new police chief whose police force was visible, present among the people and responsive to those people.

and there is a local sheriff that represents the people and holds their governments accountable to those people. and the locals on a friday afternoon afghan family time i routes enabled to pick nick temirkanov river valley. a significant change from 18 months ago. now the activities occurring are examples of what are happening across the country where we are focusing our efforts. kabul city, number three on the mount, home to one fifth of the afghan population is one of the safest places in afghanistan the afghcurity forces are in the league for security throughout the city, proving their afghan security part cursor up to the challenge of increasing not only quantity, but quality. now we are continuing to expand

the kabul security zone for the east in the south and in the east we have seen gains in discrete areas in jalalabad, kandahar which is four on the map as well as send word back, just south of kabul city. these contain the most difficult human terrain and many of you know, gc cannot just transferred authority for the region that the first division. where jc was able to do what dan is the ipod is truly incredible. the afghans the same you can carry 200 notes in one hand. i believe we are attempting to do just that and it's pretty remarkable. still we have a way to go in the east and nowhere will the afghan security forces be challenged more. next slide. up in the north, just last week

we lost an influential afghan leader, regional police chief general david as well as the provincial chief of police in several coalition force members. these are friends in the picture on the screen. our regional commander, marcus tonight was wounded and is recovering at home in germany and will return soon. we expect this kind of attacks to continue. the taliban cannot expect to regain territory. so right now they are attempting to degrade to trust the coalition and afghan sending each other through insider attacks as well as to intimidate the people in hopes of making them believe that their government cannot detect them. but so far, the partnerships remain strong and in many places, the people are eyeing the fact that the government

cannot protect them. and regional command north, determined team was back very publicly coming meeting with general present another afghan security force leadership two days after the her thick attack. in kandahar several weeks ago, after the same type of horrific attack, the very next day after the simultaneous won't roll in effect to the tax. , the residents resumed their normal activity. next slide. now, our security activities in the north have focused on the kunduz carter, number five on your map. this area is an intensely populated section that includes two main commerce routes.

we have focused our efforts on expanding a secure area around the intersection and increasing the freedom of movement in that area. number six on the map is also very important because that is the last place to be completed on the ring road. as a result of regional command west, spring operations are making progress there. we have paid significant security gains enough area that will allow this to be completed in the future. arrived, number seven on the map as a city largely free and ready to initiate the transition process their afghan leadership this summer. yes, there was an attack this past week, but the afghan security forces did not allow the enemy to reach their intended target and this is a trend that we are seeing more in her across tree.

the increasing desire and ability of the police and army to take their own security challenges, rendering the insurgent attacks increasingly enough that this. now last year was the implementation of a plan for synchronization and the neocons of understanding of the required approach. we have proven that where we, the coalition in the afghan, the coalition in the afghan, the coalition in the afghan, the coalition in the afghan. next slide. so where are we? progress in achieving our objectives, making afghanistan a place inhospitable to terrorists is indisputable there remains fragile. there is no doubt the afghan security forces have grown in quantity and quality. growth remains and a schedule with more than 284,000 afghan security forces across the

country. since 2009, there has been a 50% increase in the number of afghans security forces and today in key areas across the country, the vast majority of the afghan security forces are partnered closely with isaf and there is no doubt they can and will fight in their operational effectiveness and destroying the enemy and protect people. our partnership has given afghan leaders like general carini, chief of the general staff pictured on the mac side and his leaders at every level and his units at every level the courage to confidently use ghost beard he had been developed new ones. next slide. that's general carini addressing

some of his afghan soldiers. if you can see the look of confidence in his afghan soldiers icily tax across the country, you couldn't help but be impressed. and i always fan. next slide. there's also no doubt that the government presents physics and being. there is no doubt that afghanistan contains the required elements and irreversible progress. but if human capacity to meet the afghan needs, an immense source of income for natural resources in regional transit. afghan national security forces are on track to assume the lead and largely the right government initiatives in place. i want to return for a moment to me first point on the subject. the single most encouraging factor throughout my time in afghanistan has been the human

capacity of the afghan people. their resiliency after more than 30 years of conflict is remarkable. over the years, i have met many inspiring leaders in people. they are tough and determined and have a sense of humor and graciousness to those who respect them. i am not ashamed to say that i generally write and respect many afghan people. while we are not there to make friends, it's hard to believe the most important resources and a country, organization or nation had a sound in a country to which we have devoted many of our most precious resources. next slide. as is often the case, the greatest strengths can quickly turn to weaknesses in the resilience of the people more to his survival attitude that is not healthy.

the people have formed habits to keep them alive in the face of terror and this often means they won't stand against members of the taliban for whom they have very little affinity. now there were other things that worry me. i am concerned about a chart on that is not totally aligned with trying afghan capabilities. was so rapid can you please make mistakes or temporary relief caps. while not critical in and of themselves make the people's shaky confidence waver and their survival instincts rose to the forefront. now if this happens, the taliban can regain a foothold among a fearful population. i am also concerned about support for the insurgency that continues to flow mostly from the every species of pakistan. the worse the problem becomes fair, the stronger we have to build the afghan national security forces and the communities people living. this may take more time than we

have. finally, i am worried about the parochial interests of minority formally informed the leaders across afghanistan, whether they are representing their own families accumulation of wealth, there groups were in the morpheus ever shifting combination of interests have forsaken alienate the afghan citizen, this is unacceptable. the afghans together with the coalition have to start addressing these challenges were effectively. a corollary to that is we have not yet managed to strike the right balance between respecting afghan sovereignty and demanding adherence to the non-negotiable response abilities that company that poverty. essential among those responsibilities include factions to stop the leaders who steal money, opportunity and respect from the afghan citizens. in my mind, absolutely paramount is the demand the afghan government stop formal and

informal powerbrokers who were directly harming troopers. in further support of the enemy, they don't stop and we should do that through whatever means necessary. now i will talk recently about the major movements the future brings. no answers but a description of things were grappling with. transition. transition will be conditioned based progress with one caveat will recognize the court's afghan politics will sometimes put on the ground from time to time. the afghan leadership will have a need to balance across a victim powerbroker lines. the first tranche has been select it and these are the easy ones, promises and municipalities that have been in good shape for years. transition tougher areas will involve thinning out of coalition forces from secure areas to be deployed.

they started this top with operations to emphasize we will not choose transition. there is no faster way to dilute our efforts that we worked so hard to focus for the last several years and then do and continue to execute a plan that the afghans have developed with this is a natural outcome of the transition. the second tranche should be selected by afghan leadership in august and it is on track and it blew the plane to get the afghans in need for security by 2014 is achievable. i'm drawdown, jennifer truss calls himself a four-star action for this issue. therefore am not at liberty to discuss details and also they are not yet determined. at my level, i am emphasizing to the field commanders we've got to push afghan partners to start reading more and more.

we have to start taking more risks in this regard and have more than none. we know as the platoon and company level, the afghans are largely capable of conducting operations with the assistance could we will win out from the bottom-up, focusing on building headquarters and eventually leaving in place critical enablers such as medical evacuation, access to joint the facts and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance assets. finally, 314 and beyond. i spoke briefly about how i see the campaign unfolded from now until 2014. before 2014, we should have a strategic agreement in place that will offer a sharing to vote the afghan people in the enemy. no other details need to be worked out, but it is critical we transition our relationship from one of wartime, expedia

footing to one of normalization. next slide. now this about wraps it up. i have not discussed reintegration at the afghan local police programs posed accelerants and a part of growing confidence on the part of the afghan will. and now i am happy take questions on these topics with others who are interested in. thank you for coming today in thank you for your interest in afghanistan. >> thank you richard burr rodriquez. i will take the liberty of asking the first question i'm going to pick up just for you left out. you describe the class take counterinsurgency necessary but insufficient. can you talk to the reconciliation reintegration efforts many people think are going to ultimately be decisive.

>> yeah, i really focus my answer on reintegration. and where we have had success and where the afghan security forces and the afghan government has continued to grow in their capacity to lead their nation, where the afghan people have become mobilized because of improving security and improving government capacity, the afghan people are ready to reintegrate and the afghan foot soldiers have been a big part are ready to reintegrate and become part of the communities. that has occurred across the areas we've been successful in just under 2004 what programs and the same number are on the verge of entering the program. so the success continues to grow in security and governance and develop it would have been more and more. as we continue to reintegrate more and more these foot

soldiers into society, it's going to put a lot more pressure on the reconciliation efforts and also give us a better position from which to negotiate room. now, it is interesting when this was mentioned to president karzai, he is convinced if we can reintegrate all the local people, we won't have to be worried about reconciliation. again, that is opinion and we'll have to see how it goes in the future. it is a huge accelerants. and i started and continues to grow every month and we believe it will be huge accelerants are building momentum here and we have to be able to do that based on the growing security and governance that keeps improving throughout the country. thank you. >> thank you, sir. other questions? writer in the blue shirt. he sat up and identify yourself.

>> i'm jake filiberto, marina 2001 and iraq 2003. thank you for your service. i am a freelance pundit in a spirit a coalition called veterans for rethinking afghanistan. so i may be a little bit different. the question is i was in afghanistan a little bit ago when i talk to minister asked graham who is in charge of the taliban and reintegration program from the afghan side and the yediot not spoken with military commanders are state department officials, which is critical. have we made appropriate steps in your opinion to connect with them, work with them and partner from the afghan side, not just the military insurgent type. >> in response to your question committee answer in the reintegration of the net is absolutely yes. we work every single day with the afghan reintegration leadership in kabul. we also work every day with our

military part errors and afghan security partners at the provincial level, where they have a provincial reintegration council and we absolutely do that although we have been down. on the reintegration issue, i am not in charge of the reconciliation effort. you have to ask the state department and other leadership level, definitely. thank you. >> i'm going to pass on a question that has been treated. last year general mike flynn wrote a paper called intel, which is very critical of the intelligence system in afghanistan. in particular, the afghan forces and the afghan people need a number of sessions in the paper. have any of those been implemented and are you seeing results from a different focus on intelligence clicks

>> absolutely i see great results in that area. we built the whole igc around organization called the information dominant center that caught information across a broad spec to the things that are important to a counterinsurgency strategy and information needed to be able to adapt plans and operations to conditions on the ground. the depth and breadth of what is understood in the information dominant center that supports on the fire after it is truly incredible and i think if we brought mike flynn back there to look at that, he would be astounded at the incredible difference the situation provides us and provides the afghan leadership that enables a more effective use of resources we have. thank you. >> i can also let the enemy is

no general is on the ground with all these efforts here. >> thank you for your service in afghanistan. i'm time i turn national emergency. the question going to your assessment of the enemies both this season, and the brutality and campaign right now appears to be focusing on as many writers have offered to us from inside afghanistan and the folk scene on the confidence of the afghan people in their security forces and police forces. as you alluded to since january, there've been three prominent police chief killed by afghan infiltrators. of course infiltration attack that was her school students as well as a couple others on recruiting stations.

it's a timeline or tactic for insurgents, but there's a number of writers that say this is undermining the coalition strategy and is causing afghan people to question whether the security services can protect themselves, much less the afghans. what do you in your camassia's trajectory of this campaign of the taliban and how do you account -- the forces to be to protect themselves? >> again, first of all, that is going to be the exact tax the enemy takes because again they can't control and regain control to people they had before. they will continue to attack and control the people, which is why they're going after leaders and national security forces and after the elders who are leading

communities to a better future. we will have to lead our way through some tough challenges. the afghan national security forces have done very, very well and many of the situations and in other situations of course they need to do better. that is going to be what we all have to do together daring. government better control their people. now on the other thing that is important about this is to actually watch and see what goes on for those attacks have occurred in the real important part is how fast or how far does the afghan community returned to the census normalcy. despite that has continued to respond that way. we are going to have to really focus our efforts to prevent

these horrific attacks from ever changing the confidence and trust the afghan people have increasingly thrown in areas. >> my question has to do with the way things are evolving and how things are going to be different going forward. what kinds of different skill sets or roles of the afghan security forces be taking non-and if there are new responsibilities and skill sets needed, what kind of training do you envision taking place? >> yes, as we look forward, this goes double take the longest to

the afghan national security forces to develop a sophisticated command and control requirements, the ability to integrate intelligence very broad range of intelligence system, the ability to bring joint effects to support efforts. -- too bad i started and i will

take a little longer from observers that will be needed in the future. and again, that's why and how we will thin out our forces that will be taken away first to forces who were directly in the fight. temperature soldiers and police are directly in the fight will move this out first keep headquarters and skill sets i just discussed in the various little bit longer as we shall doubt or capacity of the national security forces to properly secure their country. >> i've got one last question,

which also was treated to us. general, can you talk to whether and how the taliban strategy is changed in the past year and whether you think those changes are permanent or temporary and reversible. >> the taliban strategy has changed for a couple reasons. one is they no longer control the support bases in the populations, the main one they had both an essential helmand river valley and kandahar city as well as many other examples. they are coming in without the huge support they had before. they have adjusted tactics like was mentioned earlier about focusing on things eliminating ability to control the afghan people. and those are the afghan national security forces, afghan government and afghan leadership that is not the focus of targets. so the way they are going to purchase the shares just like we

said thus far is going to go after sensational attacks and leadership in the half to go after the inside and the trust and confidence in the afghan national security forces and the isaf forces and they're going to try to shape the trust and confidence that i've been developing in the afghan people. >> sera, we're going to to lechee back for the responsibilities they are about to assume and were going to hand over your west point classmates comment dave barno who will talk more about the regional strategy. on behalf of everyone here for american security and frankly all of us in the united states, i'd like to thank you for the sacrifices they are making on our

. .

>> those errors up -- some of the things we found. >> i wanted to move to the issue of defending the homeland and what the government's role should be in defending a private network of computer system. we know dhs has the lead in protecting the private sector. dod is ready to assist. last fall we signed a memorandum

to collaborate. what areas would dod and cyber command be called on to help in the private sector? is it after a breach is detected or can the government help on the detection? what about neutralizing the malware? >> i will start and then you can chime in. since we signed the memorandum of agreement, we focused on looking at ways we can take the competency in the department'. that takes the range from operational kinds of planning that we do today into the area of development. a great example is working as we develop and continue to refine

the national response plan. dhs leads the crime center that has a tremendous capability providing support to dhs efforts to take into forensic analysis. cyber command is available and postured to provide help and support. as we have done this, we set up this agreement. it starts with the sharing of personnel. it also includes the idea of co- locating these folks through coordination. that allows us to begin to synchronize and see each other's competency in different ways. we are driving toward more of a vision of how we can help not

only on the planning side that sharing our talents with regard to capability development. how do we move forward on defense? had we move forward to help link a much more pro-active way of supporting the government? >> at this point you would need new authorities to move forward? >> we have everything covered but as we work with dhs, we are taking cues from the department of home and security. we support them within the constraints we have and look at what they can execute within their own authority. >> that is a good overview. what i would say is, there is no question that dhs is a more

recent arrival in the field of cyber security. there is a wealth of information in the personnel in the defense department. there are -- they are a extraordinary help to us. some of the problems are different. that does not mean expertise from dod is not helpful. it brings ideas but the pentagon has had. one thing we discovered, and this is interesting, while we obviously get a lot of help, it ended up being very much a two- way street that some of the things we had gotten into before the defense department had begun to work more closely with us actually gave a some awareness to some of the problems in the

private sector that the defense department had not encountered. this is a two-way street. one of the examples we have in the defense industrial base. that sector is responsible for the plan. going out into the private sector is a different model for the defense department. we had our been out in the private sector. to some degree, we have something to add. as a number of us have said, no we are not trying to recreate the defense department capability. but we are certainly willing to learn from and have profited from the technical assistance and the personnel that the defense department has. one of the things in the

legislation that is important to d.h.s. is to have hiring. theirs is a much freer and open ability to higher than we currently have. when we were created, nobody thought about that. that would be beneficial not that we are going to hire those people. more importantly, that we as a whole can do a better job populating the kind of expertise that is necessary to deal with this. we cannot do it without the defense department. it is a team effort. >> it really is about understanding and partnering. not so much in the competitive side. we need much greater expansion in that area.

my senses that dhs is going to help us down the road. we need to build a much larger base of capability. not only within the public sector, we have a great cross flow program. coming out of the industry and back into government services. i have been able to see some things that i had when i was just doing government work. i think it is important to continue. we talked about partnering, putting action behind it is critical. >> i wanted to get the private perspective'. you said it should be unified. what did you mean by that? do they want our help? >> on the second question, i think not. it depends in what form.

i will get to that. on the first question, as facebook grew, we grew quickly. we became a target for worldwide actors coming against us. as i started to see the types of attacks we were fighting, the motivations are hackers were having, i began to think about a world view in which cyber warfare is the same thing. there is a long history of cyber security that does not you what they're doing is fighting a war. cyber warfare does not have a doctrine that encompasses working with the private sector. in an example, if you have a technology company where you have a bunch of servers and you have a lot of band with, there

is no direct indication that is a cyber warfare aspect except for the fact that if a state actor who is aligned with someone gets access to those computers, they can use that to attack anywhere they want in the world. it will look like it came from you. there is thinking in cyber security about how you should keep people from doing that. there is not enough awareness. about a big motive for people is to gain access and sit there. eventually they will go after someone else. that is not something that most security private sector people would think about as much as they should. to the role of government in helping the private sector, when i came to facebook coming from the fbi, there were already

things going on than even though was much smaller than now. people were attacking. there was some awareness on my part that as we grew, we would become a larger target. i was asked to help with information, what is going on, what do you see. can you let me know so we can figure it out. for years, the answer was no. i cannot help. there is a lot more awareness of what it is and what facebook is. [laughter] if i was starting a small company, i would want that type of information. i refer back to the fbi program to share information with industry. when i was and the fbi, i would

recommend that people join in. then i joined and saw the type of information i was getting. i felt embarrassed. [laughter] the last notice i received was a notice saying the chinese hackers were becoming active and may start attacking american assets. this was in 2006. i thought i could get better information elsewhere. when i ended up speaking with people who own at and asked why aren't you putting real reformation there, then you can determine whether or not you can do -- give more accurate and targeted information.

it came back to everything is under investigation nor is classified. y i,tif we could de-classified t, they did not want to give people one kind of information. i think these stories indicate how government has decided to put roadblocks in the way of helping the private sector. information is the thing that the private sector needs more than anything to help mitigate many of those scenarios we are talking about. what the private sector does not need, there is awareness of this right now, a cookie cutter standardization to cyber security. the problem is so dynamic and fluid you cannot put an ice cube

tray of solutions on top of it and hope he will solve the problem. there are still people who want to do that. it is a comfortable dynamic. still thinking about computers and networks as if they are building's embalms when they're more like soldiers. -- buildings and bombs when they are more like soul -- soldiers. >> to better protect themselves, i keep hearing the same thing today. especially even within the project which has been going very slow. maybe that is one of the obstacles. >> i agree with max. a good role for government is in

the realm of building awareness across private and public sector. we learn a lot as we collaborate. it starts with information sharing. >> what are you doing? >> we started this in 2007. we have grown to about three dozen companies where we are sharing information which helps us with understanding a bigger picture. that program has been quite successful over the time it has been in existence. we are working to expand that working with the department of home and security. it can take different venues. there is a challenge of some getting the information. there is a recommendation with

regards to a government clearing house approach. we are looking at other approaches. there are many ways of working. the general principle of updating our policy and legal basis to allow greater information sharing is one that i think we do have agreement on. >> just to pick up on one point, we have come to the same realization that the information was not particularly helpful. i am sorry to say that max's example is all too frequent. what we have tried to do recently is to ensure that when we put out some indication where we put out something with that that acts as some effort of

mitigation strategy for dealing with that. the same is true for the industrial control systems that we are working with. it is not always the best that we can get to a but it is something we are working on. bob mentioned the pilot program we have now. the good news is we are embarking on this challenge in order to retain classified information. that is something we were trying to do. we will see what the results are. we are hoping as we work through the legislation that the ability to share information will be much better and it will be a two-way street, not just industry sharing with the government but the government's sharing with the industry. >> i would be happy to comment on this as well. we found that information

sharing is one of the big nats that have to be cracked. it is a big challenge for a couple of reasons. one is banned within government. even if the government has information, just getting it out and sharing it, it is an incredible problem. who do you share it with? what are the threshold's you have to cross? another is not export -- exposing messages. people like mike mcconnell would say we need to be much more aggressive in terms of clearing people to get information. for some very legitimate reasons. corporations do not the world to know their customers, their competitors, when they have a major security breach. it is something they do not want you writing about. they do not want to talk about

it. they do not want to sit in rooms with their competitors and share that information. some people said, we would be happy to share in formation with the government. but we a understand their networks aren't secure. there is a whole set of legal issues about liabilities, potential violations of antitrust, if they give information, will become available? there is a thicket that needs to be navigated to do this more effectively. >> we need to move on but i wanted to get in one line of questioning around the realm of cyber operations. here was a worm that could target a specific type of equipment into a nuclear

facility. if they were mike that would to infesting nuclear plant, disrupting and damaging, it would not cause that's, would that be a use of force? assuming it was a nation state, what response would you favor? [laughter] >> a simple question. we went along way in the international cyber strategy to talk about some of the things that we would do a related to deterrence and response. as you saw in the document, an approach that to you from the areas of openness and in of it -- innovation to resilience. as you read through the document, you hear about the response governed by international law that did not restricted to any specific

means but that is couched in the context of not only our national interest but one would weep -- we would develop and govern through existing laws we have, laws on conflict, the u.n. charter. a lot of this is contextual. max has brought it up. we would have to work with the rest of the national security community. >> what a horror created by a terrorist group or a corporation? how would you respond? one of the challenges we talked about briefly is the variety of actors. within the area of non-state actors, one of the areas we spent a lot of time discussing is how you create deterrence for

those factors you do not have organisation's buying into law. what we come to on one end of the equation, we are providing additional protection. another and is looking at how we can go ahead and have others adopt with us tougher rules on law enforcement for cyber criminal activity. working with other nations to help enforce mechanisms that we will pursue criminals as well as looking at folks involved in collusion of activities. we have partners trying to sort through ways that you can prevent and deter its activities happen from here. >> something that was a smart

tool, there was no doubt, no collateral damage, no civilian deaths. no regional -- it appeared to have a delayed iran's nuclear program. do you think the creation of a sophisticated cyber weapon is a valuable tool? or is a destabilizing? >> i guess i will take that. i think the spread of cyber tool development is so wide and has so many motivations that it is an automatic arms race in that all viruses have gotten progressively more and more advanced. the technological basis on how

they are created and used and what they're used for is more and more advanced. that type of development will continue as long as there are motivating factors. crime is a big motivating factor. for the specific payload you're talking about, i will not comment if i think it is a valid form of warfare. i do not have that under my belt. but i think that it is going to happen. the defensive posturing would have to be built and maintained. >> i think there has been a lot said. >> i would concur with max. we need to make sure we can defend. that is why we have the taken

apart and put it back together. we're developing ways to mitigate it. >> that is a great point. that is another part of the partnership. dhs has been leading the charge in terms of forensic analysis. that has been a great partnership. >> have you finished your analysis? >> i think we have. these things are such that you are never 100% sure. >> that is something your report raises. there is a river -- risk they can be reversed engineered and be used against us. we want to do something to prevent that.

>> are these tools valuable and are they stabilized, the answer is yes. they are extremely valuable. they're highly precise. even if it might be used by other actors in ways we cannot predict. they're incredibly valuable. someone pointed out to me in one of the conversations for the report that in the preparation for an actual conflict, it is not uncommon for us to take out a power grid. imagine if we could do that and, saying baghdad we flipped a switch and it was working again. that would have been handy. [laughter] these are very useful weapons

but they are also very powerful because i think one of the problems is that we need to think forward. there has been a lot of misunderstanding. in terms of separating what are good examples, it helped people grasp this in a tangible way for the first time. it is a real threat. the question was, are they valuable? yes. are they destabilizing? yes, extremely. i worry about it the law. -- a lot. defense is difficult. there is a statistic that 20 years ago, it took a few thousand lines of code to defend against a cyber attacks.

now it is tens of thousands. it used to take about hundred 20 lines for malware. the benefits to the defense, or the cost is going up. it is easier to attack and defend. the other point i wanted to do make is there is no transparency. even at the height of the cold war, we have ways of counting tanks, accounting missiles. we knew how much damage each missile could inflict. we could count tammany there were. we might not get the numbers quite right, but we could have a rational assessment of what the other guys capabilities were. even we got that wrong with the met missile gap challenge, you cannot know in cyber.

you have no idea what you're up against. the united states is in a cyber arms race. one of the reasons is you never know what your head. it is incredibly busy -- destabilizing in that sense. other things we can do, it is important we start to have those conversations. >> on that note, we will open at 4 questions. if you could stay your name and affiliation. the gentleman right here. second row. >> i am charlie from duke university. this is for mr. butler, are you comfortable that there is a good process by which you can go back and forth between a law

enforcement regime and a national security regime? as a follow-up, does anybody see utility for an international cyber arms community? >> in terms of going back and forth, i would say it is getting better. it is a work in progress. i would also say that if an event occurs, for all of the ones i can think of, it is law enforcement first. then we come with them to do forensics. the question you posed is not a question we have actually answered yet. >> i think that is right.

one of the ways we actually put light to the response is that we have a standing group. dhs is involved as well as the department of defense. where we began to work through the determination of what the activity is and what we need to do next. i think that when we look at the partnership and figure out when an event actually is moving in a different direction, -- >> that is part of what the response plan is supposed to be. we have done that. we have created it. we are revising it. it is never going to be done. it will be an evolving document. it should be.

>> and on the second question, we've just gone through a discussion about how you begin to understand threat. our sense is that we can make the greatest inroads with working to develop ways we can help each other to think about a safe and secure case. that is where we're going with the cyberspace strategy is part of our approaching. it is a foundation of peace for how we build for marks. it is a key element of where we're going with our thinking on the defense cyber strategy. i think that is the thrust of where we are headed.

>> if i could get the panel to touch on the news that lockheed martin recently suffered a cyber attack. i know that not much can be shared but i have read it is probably chinese and origin. what would that mean if this was not a state-sponsored attack but a group of individuals operating on their own? how would the united states prosecute them? >> starting with a dialogue. lockheed has reported intrusion activities the some of us are involved in understanding what

has happened. the analysis is ongoing. we stand ready as part of our information sharing program to assist and collaborate. as we have talked about, the analysis on these activities is challenging. a lot of different pieces have to be put together. from the vantage point of working with lockheed, the question is better directed to lockheed nor the fbi. there is an element within the information sharing act where you begin to move from analysis to see what can be done to remediation. there are two sides of the process. determining when you reach threshold's that allow you to move in much more proactive

ways. that is where we are in terms of lockheedionship with and other partners. >> lockheed does not want this to happen again. they're interested in what ever might help them be better protected than they were as a result of recognizing they had been penetrated. we stand ready to help them in that regard. >> we have a twitter question. can the panel comment on the difficulties in considering cyber attacks as acts of war? >> i think max was starting to lead to this earlier. how malware is designed. as you think about cyber capabilities for purposes to

harm or to create challenges, there have been intermediate stops along the way in terms of redirection activities that make it difficult. there are ways across -- to provide a great sense of anonymous activity that makes the analysis very difficult. sometimes you can find water marks to help you. we have tools that assist. today, attribution is difficult. >> that is one of the things we want to think about internationally to see if we could build systems in which the ability to hide behind a national border or to jump can be better tracked by cooperation by those in the

international community. >> thank you. that gentleman in the second row. yes. >> i am here as a boutique -- geek and day cyber security guy. i think the government is behind. while i am worried about that. i have been listening to you policy people with this astounding -- it is cool to hear which he talked about. i'm trying to ask him policy speech. nod along. by social contract, the state gets obedience in return of protection. that is the idea. the state is not delivering when it comes to cyber security. the u.s. spends $50 million a

year fighting cyber crime which is way more than the rest of the world combined. guess what? google spends more. >> what is your question? >> what gives? is there not four -- why is there not more focus on cyber crime than cyber warm and it's best the knowledge of all of these things share the same cause? i would like to hear web access to say. -- what max has to say. >> the government is a little behind but they are on the right track. they're moving in the right direction. there are a couple examples where there were very large cases that i've brought to the fbi that were criminal.

they did not pursue them or pursue them aggressively. we ended up pursuing them under civil recourse under the same act. we found the individuals and prosecuted them. we won the cases. the last one we had statutory damages of $8 billion. the judge thought that was onerous so he reduced it to $800 million. those were cases where we felt that the enforcement was a slam dunk. it was not something that the bureau wanted to focus on. they had other things going on. to be fair. part of how policies are going to evolve are going to be

creating a stronger awareness on both sides of what the capabilities are and what the priorities are and how sometimes the private enforcement route will be better for people. an agreement will be made on how that can happen. that goes back to my point from earlier on howl cyber warfare and security need to become a unified idea. i think that action between government and a criminal and civil needs to be a more unified. i wish i more legislation to do more civil activity against people who are committing cyber crimes. we would have done a lot more. legislation going forward, it

means that google facebook or microsoft can be aggressive in civil action and deter criminal activity just from that. >> i think that is a good question. that is part of what we're trying to get out with respect to the legislation. to have the private sector share with us when there has been a penetration and do it in a way that they do not fill their bottom line is jeopardized but that the government will be in a position to do something. we also need to ensure we actually have enough investigators that can actually do this. that is an issue as well. that is part of the personnel side we are talking about. there is a need. dollars follows that. it cannot all be done by -- he still have to answer the question about government involving in the lives and

cyberspace. the same way we asked when we talk about conventional crime, police presence, how much is appropriate. how much is enough? those are all questions we're going to have to answer because we are never going to be 100% perfect. how do we find that balance? we do not have the balance now. we need this law or something like it to put ourselves in a better situation to deal with this. the penalties for cyber criminals are not adequate. we will have to fix that. >> i take the critique but i would also like to push back. when we think about what we're doing in the government, a huge focus from howard schmidt -- we continue to grow our cyber

center in terms of forensic specialists but also on the training site. we are training people to try to assist in dealing with the threat and with the loss from the standpoint of defense, intellectual property. we are backing that up with dollars as we move forward. do we have a ways to go? yes. but there has been a recognition within the department of defense and other departments about the fact we have to do more from a public sector standpoint. we are doing more. >> how about one in the back? that gentleman in the middle. >> i reporter with bloomberg news. you said on the lockheed case you were still investigating the challenges.

what are you investigating? lastly, the pentagon said the impact from the intrusion was minimal. how did you come to that conclusion? >> dod does not have the lead. it is the fbi working with lockheed. we know based on our informational sharing arrangements a lot about how the defense aspects they manage are affected. that was the reasoning for why we made the assessment. >> right now it is pretty early in the process. it is hard for us to give you anything definitive but even much information. these things do not play out the back quickly. think about a normal criminal investigation. you cannot answer within days after an event has occurred.

that is equally true in cyberspace. >> the gentleman back there. >> i am a cnet fellow. one of the key aspects left out of the debate is the national guard. title 10, title 32, a great congressional support. they knew danzig to be talked about her put up front. instead use the marines during cyber com stuff. >> we have established over the

last dozen years of variety of national guard units on the international side where we are taking advantage of expertise in different areas, whether it be in the financial services or locating with the national guard unit in washington with companies like microsoft, our deputy secretary announced in february the expansion of that program. we continue to work to locate and build guard units around the united states. at the same time, we are working with homeland's security on looking at ways we can leverage them in a military capacity and her homeland. the next steps along the way drive this into some pilot programs to look at ways we can do that.

how we can better leverage expertise with the different authorities. a good concept for where we are working through that is in guardsmen taking advantage of their expertise with information dissemination. >> we have already been using the guard to do things like of vulnerability assessments. as this bill out in the cyber realm, i know we will subject to the availability of personnel, speaking to have them be part of our general our reach to the private sector. >> we will have one last question. yes. >> this might be a little of

subjects, but there is a lot of talk about the plight -- private sector. i was wondering about smartphone technology. what is being done to protect that technology, especially if it will be used to respond to an emergency? what is being done to protect that technology? >> we are certainly looking for any problems of that nature that might be able to be dealt with with respect to the actual cyber security within the technology as being built by the manufacturer. to create a sense of awareness that they need to worry about the security as well. that ends up being a private sector decision as to whether or

not they want to include security within their package. to the extent that there is disclosure about failures of security in that regard, it places a premium on them to do something about that. we at the pentagon do not have the authority to tell them they have to have the security measures in their technology. >> one of the areas that we have built upon is the pilot program in thinking through not just smartphones but mobile devices in general. we are constantly running pilots. that drive you to solution is the take you to a realm of intention. -- encryption. as well as relief operations.

>> if that is it, and thank you, everyone, for good questions. [applause] there will be a 10 minute break between us and the next panel. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> prospective presidential candidate rick santorum. thaddeus mccotter and ken blackwell. >> live on in debt, the balance between security and liberty, the difficulties of a climate change treaty and the limits of international law. your questions for eric psner. -- posner. he will take your calls later tv.y on c-span 2's book

>> rick santorum was among the speakers at the faith and freedom conference. the group is holding a meeting in washington, d.c. he is expected to announce his candidacy on monday. we will also hear from michigan congressman mcartor and sector a state can blackwell. this is about an hour and 10 minutes. ll. this is about an hour and 10 minutes. ♪ [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. it is great to be here. it is even better that you are here. it is vitally important that you are here. greg referred to the time

magazine article, which still cannot figure out being one of the top 25 most influential evangelicals and america. i was, because of is doing what you are doing, coming here to washington d.c. and standing up for the values that made this country the greatest country in the history of the world. [applause] people say that as someone who was a leader on both issues, when i talked to the media now as i travel around the country, people always say you are the social conservative candidate. i said yes, i am very proud of the fact that i was the point man in the united states congress on issues where i believe they are vitally important to the future of this country, that i showed the passion to lead. i have always been pro-life and

for traditional marriage, but i had always been like a lot folks that were not here last year that came this year, to come and make the pledge, about the social goods are to is that they will check the boxes, they will be for the things that social good targets care about. ladies and gentlemen, i don't just take the pledge. i stand out in front and lead, to make sure that the voices of those who do not have always are out and brought and being included in the national debate. what is misunderstood by those in the national media, and if they would just come and listen to the enthusiasm and support or not just the issues of marriage and why, but all the issues that social conservatives care about. i, too, have been a passionate point man on all of those issues. i came to the u.s. senate as a leader on welfare reform.

social conservatives believe in the dignity of every human person. at the moment of conception, but also for the poor in our society, for those on the margins of society. they believe that poverty is not the ultimate disability. they understand that we need to provide an opportunity for everybody in america to rise and fulfill got potential for them. when i lead on welfare reform, i led social conservatives who engaged in the debate to make stronger families because they understood that what government was doing by involving themselves and subsidizing this party was destroying the family and the very foundations of our community. these were social conservatives who went out and did something that had never been done. we ended a federal entitlement. [applause] it is a great lesson to learn,

that we can in federal entitlements if we paid a vision that is not just about dollars and cents. america is not just about dollars and cents. social and started understand that. we can reach out across the aisle and across the ideological spectrum that bring people together and paid a vision for this country that is positive and uplifting because social conservatives believe in that. we believe in limited government. social conservatives understand that the bigger the government, the smaller the person and the more repressed the family. believe in the power of the individual. they believe in the necessity of strong families and understand that government can be a destroyer of that. social conservatives are leading

on these issues. we need to understand that social conservatives also are out and concerned about our national security. there is no greater brand to the state of israel and social conservatives in america. no greater brand. i've stood and fought for the state of israel, not because, as i do believe, that israel is a vital place for jews to be in this country for safety and security, or people that have been repressed throughout the course of centuries, millennia, but also by art a strategic partner for this country. and so i have fought, candidly assessing who the enemy is that we confront in the middle east. who attacked us on 9/11? >> in the summer of 2006, i've been out and gave a speech and

said that even president bush got it wrong when he labeled the enemy as an enemy that -- calling them a terrorist spirit is like calling those who attacked us at pearl harbor kamikazes were those who we fought in germany. there is a tactic, it is not the enemy. the enemy or radical islamists who want to destroy us. they want to destroy us not because of what we do, but because of who we are. there is a foundational difference between what we believe and they believe, and they believe that what we are is evil. they want to destroy us.

what did i do in the united states senate? i bought the syrian accountability act which helped it syria out of lebanon and relieve pressure from the northern border of israel at the time. i thought president bush. at three major meetings with the president. he kept saying no. i kept pushing and pushing and finally he said yes, and the bill became law. i went back in 2004 before anybody had even heard of the threat of iran. i offered a bill and went out and fought with president bush and condoleezza rice. out went to the floor of the senate and fought with joe biden, who blocked my bill for weeks. i continue to fight up until the last they are within the united states senate, but it eventually passed. we passed increased sanctions on iran. i have been out there fighting for the causes that social

conservatives care about, and it is not just cut social conservative causes. they are causes about who we are as a country. i think this electric -- this election is probably the most consequential one. people say to me, you have been out of politics. you have seven children. why are you objecting yourselves to this type of scrutiny? i said because i have seven children and i am concerned about the future of this country. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, this is a great country. it is a great country because it was founded a great country. there is one statement that everyone in this room should remember the president of the united states sums it up on how you look that america. he said about six weeks ago. he was talking about medicare,

medicaid, and unemployment