[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> the dedication of the martin luther king jr. memorial has been postponed indefinitely as hurricane by rain news that the east coast. it had been scheduled for sunday morning. already this week, there have been a couple of events related to the memorial, including today's lunch and honoring pioneers of the civil-rights movement. in 2.5 hours, a town hall meeting with republican rep kevin brady of texas. after that, a heritage foundation report on terrorism.

>> oscar people with little known stories. american university professor dramatic -- clarence lusane tells us who they work. >> i discovered fascinating individuals whose mark on the presidency's and whose marks on the white house were virtually unknown. -- virtually unknown except for a few scattered stories here and there. everyone knew george washington and thomas jefferson had slaves, but most people probably do not know that eight out of the first well presidents had slaves. >> sunday night on "q&a". >> now, here is that what's in front today. civil rights activists and those who marched with dr. martin luther king celebrate his life and legacy. this is about 2.5 hours.

>> i want to let all of you know we have a plan for hurricane irene and it is to pray very hard so it will dissipate and not hurt anybody. we are going to have the dedication on sunday at the martin luther king memorial. [applause] for everyone, very quickly, at the martin luther king memorial is a -- it honors a man of hope,

peace, and color. the united states congress passed a joint resolution in 1996 authorizing the alpha phi alpha fraternity to establish a memorial in washington, d.c. honoring dr. king. in december 1999, the national capital planning commission and the u.s. commission of fine arts approved the site location for the king memorial on the national mall. it is noteworthy that the memorial site located on the tidal basin adjacent to the fdr memorial is in a direct line between the lincoln and jefferson memorials, creating a visible line of leadership. the ceremony and groundbreaking took place on november 13, 2006. on sunday, august 28, 2011, we will dedicate the memorial. please give dr. martin luther

king a warm round of applause. we celebrate his name. we celebrate his vision. let me hear you celebrate. [applause] let me hear you celebrate his dream. we have a busy schedule this afternoon. we are going to work with the program through lunch. please enjoy the program, enjoyed the lunch. we would ask you if you socialize and you speak to each other, please keep your voice is as low as possible so that those who want to follow this -- follow the program can a.d. do so. it is my pleasure to introduce the mayor of washington, d.c., mayor vincent gray. [applause]

>> it is a great honor to welcome you here today and welcome you to the city, especially the civil-rights pioneers to a joined us today as a part of this luncheon. frankly, i cannot describe adequately in words what it means to be the mayor of this great city at a time when we celebrate the dedication of this memorial to one of the greatest human beings who ever lived, who gave perhaps the greatest speech ever delivered and delivered it in a fashion that no one else could have delivered like the rev. dr. martin luther king jr.. for those of you who have yet to see the memorial, you should get

down there as quickly as you can. it is awesome. it does all inspiring. he will leave absolutely having been moved fully by that. we hope that you'll enjoy the next several days. we will do the best we can to keep the weather as nice as we possibly can. for those of you who do not know, we had an earthquake a couple of days ago. we sent a message out that says , sorry, not this week, no earthquake. we already overcome the consequences of that. we will do what we have to do to overcome the consequences of the hurricane. for those of you who have yet to see the memorial, you should get down there as quickly as you can. it is awesome. it is odd-inspiring, and you -- awe-inspiring, and you will leave having been fully moved by it. we hope you'll enjoy the next couple of days. we will do the best we can to keep the weather as nice as we can. for those of you who do not know, we had an earthquake a couple of days ago, and we sent a message out and said, sorry, not this week. no earthquakes. we have already overcome the consequences of that and we will do what we have to do to overcome the consequences of

irene. many of you fought the battle of civil rights, the battle for freedom, justice and equality, and i want to commend you for having waged that battle. i was fortunate enough to have been there at the lincoln memorial the day that dr. king delivered his speech, and frankly, it is as fresh today as it was when he delivered it on august 28th, 1963. i want to ask you, and i know dr. king would, i want to ask you to join in a battle we are waging in the district of columbia. that is a battle for 600,000 people to be free in our nation's capital. it is time, ladies and gentlemen, for that to end. with six and zero thousand people who in this city pay tax -- 600,000 people who in the city pay taxes to the federal government every day. they do everything that is required to be a citizen. we send our sons and daughters off to fight wars in faraway places. we serve on federal juries and we fulfil all the responsibilities of being a citizen. yet, we cannot even improve our own local laws. we cannot even approve our own local budget. we're the only nation's capital in the democratic world to not have the votes in our national

legislative body. we ask you during the time that you're here to stand up for freedom in the district of columbia. back in 1965 in lafayette park, dr. king gave a speech and he called on congress to correct the injustice in the district of columbia. he said the congress had been derelict in their duties and sacred responsibility is to make justice and freedom of reality for all citizens of the district of columbia. in the spirit of this memorial, in the spirit of what dr. king stood for, and in the spirit of freedom, justice and equality all across the united states of america, i asked you to stand with us, the 600,000 people in this city, as we dedicate a memorial, dedicate our commitment once again to dr. king for freedom and justice. enjoy your stay in this great city. we welcome you and we look

forward to several days of wonderful activity as we dedicate a memorial to dr. king. thank you very much. >> please welcome our soloist, minister ernest pugh. [applause] ♪

lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmony of liberty. let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies. let it resound, loud as the rolling seas. sing a song, full of the faith that the darkness has taught us. sing a song, full of the hope that the present has brought us. ♪

facing the rising sun, in our new day began, let us march on until victory is won. i know the road may be rough and the going may be tough, but let us march on until victory, a victory is won. let us march on until victory is won. ♪ [applause]

>> and now, for our invocation, please welcome rev. dr. granger browning. >> let us about our heads in a word of prayer. eternal god, our father, we come today to give your name all the honor, the praise and the glory, for this is the day that you have made and we have so much to rejoice and be glad in it. we come in the name and the spirit of jesus and we want to say thank you. as we gather today in the capital of the united states, those who built that capital may never have dreamed that they would one day be congressmen and congresswomen. what a mighty god we serve. as we stand in the shadow of the white house of these united states, those who built that white house and that oval office, may have never dreamed that one day their people would occupy that white house as the

first family. as we stand below the monuments to the war heroes, we stand today to say thank you, because we never dreamed that one day a monument would not be built to a president, but to a profit, not to a war hero, but to a man of peace. we say thank you to those who marched with him, sacrificed with him, went to jail with him. many of them are here today. oh lord, as we say thank you for this monument, we will never forget the movement. we pray in the name of jesus that we will not be satisfied simply because we have a monument. we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like mighty waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. we pray today that you will send as 21st century profits to be will let freedom ring in pennsylvania, where our young

people do not have jobs. that you will send modern prophets that will bring righteousness to places that still need justice. that will go to mississippi were young black men are still being lynched. we ask for modern day profits until every mountain, every hill, and every valley is lifted up. we asked for every person to join hands and sing lift every voice and sing, for harmony and liberty. until we do reach the mountaintop and look over and see the promised land. glory hallelujah to the life and legacy of dr. martin luther king jr. amen and amen.

>> thank you very much. steve gersky is a member of the board of the martin luther king memorial foundation. >> on behalf of the board of directors of the martin luther king memorial foundation, welcome. as i watched the today show this morning, they reported on the words that the merriam- webster dictionary people had added to the dictionary, like fist bump and bromance. bromance is the word that best describes our relationship with gary johnson. -- harry johnson. sunday, when you visit the memorial, we hope you will see the definition of breathtaking. although we see dr. martin

luther king as a person who spoke for people of color, i see him as someone who spoke for everyone. i was only 8 years old when i stood on the steps of the lincoln memorial and heard him speak. all of us, including this kid from brooklyn, have been molded by the teachings of dr. martin luther king. the dream is among us, hope for something better. the great among us seized the opportunity to take the actions necessary to make their dreams and the dreams of others come true. while many of us only dream of bettering our lot and a lot of those dear to us, the great of us dream of the betterment of the lot of money and hope to enjoy just a piece of that dream. dreams can be simple and limited or they can be lofty and limitless. as we gather to honor dr.

martin luther king, we honor those who helped him turn a dream into a movement and a movement into a reality. the civil-rights pioneers chose to take action when instinct of self preservation were pulling them away from action. by their courage, dedication and fortitude, they helped to bring the world to a better place. big dreams can yield monumental results. with their steadfast determination, dr. king and the civil rights pioneer is taught us to look beyond ourselves and our dreams, to of patience when the mountain to be climbed is high and steep, and to keep dreaming. the gift that dr. king and the civil-rights pioneers gave us led a group of alpha phi alpha members to dream of a memorial honoring their brother. they believed that they too could make their dream into reality, and they did. for some of us, like me, our

dreams are simple. we dream of being respected, making a difference, and of leaving our children a better world than the one we inherited. we are blessed when events in our lives help us achieve and exceed our dreams and expectations. such as been my experience as a member of the board of the memorial foundation. when i was invited to sit on the board, i was presented with an opportunity to make the difference i dreamed of. when board membership provided me an opportunity to work with harry and other wonderful board members on the construction of this memorial, my dreams were surpassed. to have the opportunity to address civil-rights pioneers and you, i had to pinch myself to make certain that i was not actually having a dream. i am forever grateful to dr.

king and the civil-rights pioneers, and i am so honored to have the opportunity to participate on and bring color and contrast to the board, and to address it today. it is with great pleasure that i now introduce to you the vice-president of design at general motors, ed roberts. [applause] >> thank you and good afternoon. it is a real privilege to be here today and to recognize the legacy of dr. martin luther king. let me begin by saying that i'm really humbled to be in the presence of so many people that i admire and really look up to. my career choice and life has been a bit different than most. in fact, i did not realize when i first contacted general

motors back in the 1960's that they did not have black car designers. automobile design has been a part of my life since i was very young. i have been drawing cars since i was two and a half years old. i started reading car magazines when i was 8. it was through those magazines that i learned where general motors cars were created. at age 11, i wrote to gm and requested information about careers in design and the education that was needed to get there. their response was quick and very helpful. this information really created a path for me which eventually led me to howard university school of fine arts, where the professors and staff gave me great inspiration and great help.

they understood what my goal was and really helped me form as a designer. upon graduation, i immediately started working at gm and spent my first few years gaining experiences and learning from them. as a gain experience, i was given greater responsibilities which led me to an assignment in germany. that was way out of my comfort zone, but frankly, it was one of the best experiences of my career. a year later, i was back in detroit and was quickly moving to a more leadership position at general motors design. i was designing trucks for gm. that was way out of my comfort zone as well, but designing a new generation of chevrolet

trucks and designing the new cadillac escalade really cured that. today, as gm's vice-president of global design, i lead an organization of over 1800 creative people operating out of 10 design centers in eight countries around the world. i am proud to say that i am the first person -- [applause] thank you. i am proud to say that i am the first person at gm to lead design from a global basis and to lead these studios, and the first african-american to every lead a global design organization in the history of the auto industry. [applause] thank you. in addition to my role, gm was also the first to establish the minority supplier program, the

first to implement a minority dealer program, and the first and only of the company to have an african-american serve as the secretary to the board of directors, mr. rod gillam. at gm design, we are responsible for the design of every car and truck for gm globally, and you know what? i am not out of my comfort zone. i enjoy what i do. [applause] there are several significant steps that prepared me for this, and i hope the young people in the audience are listening. the support from my family and friends as a child, the education that i received from howard university, the opportunity to learn from great designers at gm, the risk of an

overseas assignment, of building a global design organization that i lead today, and writing that letter at age 11 to gm design. it did not come by accident. it was all through preparation, listening, taking risks and building relationships. all of these steps and the lessons i have learned have paved the way for me to be here today to share in this very special moment as we honor dr. king's legacy. thank you very much. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome guy vickers. >> good afternoon.

i am the president of the tommy hilfiger organization. i want to speak from the heart. i bring greetings on behalf of the tommy hilfiger corporate foundation, but more importantly, i want to talk just a moment about the man, tommy hilfiger. tommy hilfiger and i grew up in a very small town in upstate new york. i have known him since i was 10 years old. we went to middle school and high school together. he is the godfather of my son, who is here today along with my daughter and my lovely wife. the reason i mention that is that when we were youngsters --

i remember, we were sophomores in high school when dr. king was assassinated. we had no idea that 20-30 years later, we would be working together, running a corporate foundation. when i was in uganda this past june with tommy, we were working in an african village and speaking about some of the work we were doing, and we mentioned that we were investing and supporting building the martin luther king national memorial. it was so awesome to see the people in this village acknowledge dr. king. they smiled broadly, and they were really excited that we were involved with a remarkable. i can tell you, this has been an assignment that i have been

working on for the past 11 years. it has been a labor of love. it has been something i have felt honored and proud to be associated with. again, on behalf of our company, we would like to say thank you for allowing us the opportunity. we invested a little bit over 6.2 $5 million for this effort. we have an executive on loan who has been with the foundation for years, and i have been working with this project for 11 years. harry johnson, i give you my salute, and his staff. i want everyone here to know, we only have 11 -- i believe, if i'm correct -- 11 staff- professionals, that have been carrying the banner. that is unheard of. this organization is top notch and they have worked very hard.

i would like to have everyone give them a round of applause, the memorial foundation staff. [applause] and now, it is my honor and -- i was a little anxious, because no one gave me anything to introduce this next person. then i stopped and said, there is nothing that i can write, and nothing that has not been said, nothing that we do not already know. the next person that i have the honor and privilege of introducing is none other than martin luther king jr. the third. [applause] >> good afternoon. first and foremost, on behalf of my wife andrea and the entire king family, we first want to say thank you to the

alpha phi alpha fraternity that began this idea over 20 years ago, of which i am now a proud member of as of november of last year. i thank my brothers and our president. secondly, and perhaps equally as important, the martin luther king memorial foundation is led by a chair and a board. as the primary person that we have seen over the last 10-11 years, brother harry johnson, thank you. [applause]

and his entire team. and then i must thank every corporate sponsor that has made this important, several folks that we have already seen today, and many others who gave, and the hundreds of thousands of americans that donated to this memorial. i come a little briefly with mixed emotions because when the project started and when we broke ground, my mother and sister were still in our midst. but i guess they have gone home with dad and are looking down smiling on this occasion as we approach august 28th. it is certainly my hope, and while this is a civil rights pioneer in luncheon, and many of us have been involved in the

civil-rights movement and will be speaking briefly today, but i want to take just a moment to talk about my dad as first and foremost a family man. because we knew him as a very articulate spokesperson. we knew him as one of the leaders of the modern civil rights movement. but probably around 1965-1966, he transitioned to a human rights leader, not just civil rights. it is a basic human right to have decent health care. it is a basic human right to have the best education that one can have. it is a human right to have a decent job, to have housing and to have justice.

and he wanted to see this nation eradicate what he called the triple evils of poverty, racism and militarism. while we have made great strides with race, we're not there yet. but in relationship to poverty and militarism, certainly poverty, we have made almost no strides. i would appeal that this is not just an issue that the president of the united states must address. it is an issue that all of us must address. i cannot be what i ought to be until you are what you ought to be and you cannot be what you ought to be until i am what i ought to be because we are tied together. what affects one directly affects all of us indirectly. we are at a critical juncture in america.

while we're celebrating this monument, let us not just put dad up on a shelf and idolize him. let us practice his ideals. he had a philosophy of nonviolence and we are engaged in three wars as we speak, just our nation. we must practice peace. i hope this memorial will inspire your young people specifically to both study martin luther king jr. and then embrace his ideals. finally, i want to close with something my mom often exposed us to, my brothers and sisters and i. we had the opportunity to

travel with her to antioch college. at that college is a statue of the educator horace mann. there is an inscription under that statute that i think is most appropriate today. what it says is, "be ashamed to die until you have won a victory for humanity." you might say brother king, that is still too grandiose. but not really. you can win a victory in the your neighborhood, in your place of worship, in your city, in your state, or even in our world. but be ashamed to die until you have done something to make this world we all must live and of little better than when we arrived. thank you and god bless you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome american operatic mezzo-sopranos, barbara conrad.

>> hello, everyone. i am greatly, greatly honored to be here with you today. very quickly, i just want to tell you that all those years ago when harry belafonte introduced me to dr. king, i was at his office and i was singing some him from down-home in the south, and he came up to me and said do not stop singing, baby. we need your songs. this is not the exact song, but this is one i would like to honor him to sing. ♪ ride on, and no man cannot hinder me.

he is king of kings, lord of lords. he is king of kings, lord of lords. jesus christ, the first and last. he is king of kings, lord of lords. jesus christ, the first and last. ride on, king jesus.

no man cannot hinder me. ride on, king jesus, ride on, and no man cannot hinder me. he is the king. he is the lord. ♪ he is the king. here is the lord. oh.... jesus christ, the first and last. no man like him.

right on. ride on. ride on. jesus. [applause] >> excellent job. thank you. ladies and gentlemen, another warm round of applause for barbara conrad. i also want to ask you to also join me in another warm round of applause for martin luther king iii and the king family. the king family gave so much of their own privacy because of the important work of martin luther king, and we sometimes forget the tremendous sacrifice

that they have made over the years. we remember the king family. ladies and gentlemen please give them another warm round of applause. i also want to echo something else that martin luther king iii said, and that is the very important role that the alpha phi alpha fraternity has played in this day coming to be. i want to recognize james williams, milton davis, harry davis and herman may send. while he will be introduced

formally by thomas hardy, i do want to acknowledge that eric holder, attorney general of the united states will be with us, and let me express my thanks to him on behalf of the entire civil rights community. under his leadership, the idea of enforcing the law that dr. king and others got on the books, has re-emerged as an important policy for the department of justice, and eric holder has not gotten enough credit for his work and leadership. mr. attorney-general, i want to thank you for that important work. at this time, i am proud to

introduce thomas hardy, the senior vice president of government solutions with at&t. [applause] >> let me say how honored and humbled in to stand before you representing the two hundred 58,000 employees of at&t as co- chair of this luncheon. today's luncheon and the events leading up to the unveiling of dr. king's memorial paid fitting tribute to an iconic american who inspired so many to stand for social justice and equality. i know that many of the blessings that are in my life

today as well as many of us in the audience and others -- we stand on the shoulders of dr. king and others. at the company at&t, we a taken much from the principles of justice and equality that dr. king and the civil rights movement so passionately advocated. we recognize that diversity and talented employees are key to a company's success. we said social and economic inclusion as top priorities. african-americans have made significant contributions to at&t dating back to 1876. lewis lattimore assisted alexander graham bell in securing the patent for the telephone. more recently, an at&t scientist named robert m. bell

led an international team that won an award for data analysis excellence. in keeping our commitment to diversity in education, the proceeds were dedicated to science and youth organizations. african-american and diversity is important to at&t. as a direct result, our commitment to recruit and retain the very best talent, 40% of our management, 31% are people of color. in 2010, at&t spent over $9 billion with minorities, women and veterans enterprises. but the cultivating and diversifying our base helps us

keep our commitment. dr. king once said everyone can be great because everyone can serve. at at&t, service is at the core of who we are. more than 300,000 at&t employees and retirees are involved with service organizations. donated at&t pioneer's 9 million hours of time worth more than $192 million. also worth noting in 2010, at&t chairman and ceo co hosted a reception at the national archives to pay tribute to a texas for an opera star. i think you just heard her. barbara conrad did a great rendition of ride on jesus. most of you have a cd on your

chairs of the story that chronicles her rise from a student who faced discrimination to what i can truly say is an international opera diva. we are so proud of her. [applause] we are reminded of dr. king's insightful words, when the architects of our republic, constitution, and the declaration of independence, they were signing a promissory note to every american. it was a note that all men would be guaranteed inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. if a man does not have a job or an income, he has neither life,

nor liberty, nor the possibility for the pursuit of happiness. continue to invest to extend broadband, to bring wireless broadband access to serve rural communities, and create new jobs across america. in closing, at at&t, martin luther king's dream of equality will become a reality. i would like to introduce to the 82nd attorney general of the united states and the first african-american -- please welcome eric holder. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you. thank you. good afternoon to all of you. it is a privilege to stand with you all with so many distinguished leaders and old friends and with so many members of the king family as we celebrate the life and enduring legacy of our late, great drum major for justice, the rev. martin luther king jr.. fourl the more than decades have passed since his tragic death, it is clear that his spirit lives on. it still has the power to bring ordinary people together to accomplish extraordinary things

soon inspire acts of courage, compassion, and cooperation and to move people to blaze new trails to overcome longstanding obstacles and, of course, to make history. in three days, we will do just that. together, before hundreds of thousands of people here in our nation's capital, and before millions of people on television all around the world, we will gather near the place where nearly half a century ago dr. king shared his dream with all the world and called for the best in the american people, the best in all of us and the presence of leaders who once struggled alongside dr. king and shoulder to shoulder with many others who strive undaunted to advance his cause still today. we will join with president obama to dedicate a permanent memorial to this extraordinary

leader and to his enduring legacy. this moment has been a long time coming. it has been too long. it never would have been possible without the tireless efforts of many of the people in this room. some of you have been working for decades to secure appropriate recognition of dr. king. you deserve the profound appreciation of your fellow citizens for all your efforts. i personally want to thank you for everything you have done to make the start of this commemoration possible. [applause] while we have much to celebrate this week, our time together must not simply be marked by revelry and pageantry. rather we must seize this unique and important opportunity to rededicate ourselves to dr.

king's vision of racial and social equality, to revitalize his efforts to expand economic opportunity, and to reaffirm the values that we're at the heart of his sermon, the root of his actions, the core of his character, and the center of his life. tolerance, non-violence, compassion, love, and above all, justice. although we consecrate this weekend, we must rekindle within ourselves and within our fellow citizens the spirit of the man who enlightened nation to these eternal truths of humankind and the quality of all people. despite all the has been achieved in recent years, the work of strengthening our

nation and empowering all of our fellow citizens is complete. -- incomplete. this work is now our work. this task is now our task. this dream is now our dream. the challenge before us and the divisions that too often separate to many of us from one another have evolved over the years. addressing them will require the same skill, the same perseverance, and the same vision as those so nobly exemplified by dr. king. the time to act has never been more urgent. let me be clear. it is obvious. we have not yet reached the promised land that dr. king spoke of. i say this fully aware of the fact that a direct beneficiary of the civil rights movement is now in the white house and that another direct beneficiary --

[applause] and that another direct beneficiary has the honor of leading our nation's department of justice. but we are not yet where we need to be. [applause] still today, after so many decades of struggle, even in america's most vibrant and prosperous cities, it cannot be denied the their communities where learning and job opportunities remain internally closed and where thousands of children grow at risk and in need. where the promise of equal justice is unfulfilled. even knowing these stark facts, we must resist the temptation to give into cynicism and despair. today, we're called to look upon our country as dr. king did, seeing not only great

challenges, but also extraordinary opportunities. it is our moral imperative to remember the greatest lesson that he left behind, that each one of us has the power and the obligation to improve the lives of others. this is, as always, a difficult task. the work of protecting our union has never been and never will be easy. and it may not always be popular. but dr. king's example and very soon a monument in his honor will stand up as an eternal testament to the fact that the work of eternal peace and justice, one person can and will make a difference. an individual must stand and be counted. individual actions count. those were willing to march toward progress, to defend the principles, to reach out a hand to others, or simply take a seat in a courthouse or in a

classroom, at a lunch counter, or at the front of a bus can and indeed will change the world. each of us has this ability. i firmly believe in each of us has this responsibility. we have no excuses for failing to act. all of us have been blessed with extraordinary examples set by demand will guide our steps forward. on sunday, we will have the opportunity to rededicate ourselves to this mission and a this dirty and to the work that --and to this journey and to the work that defined and distinguished dr. king's life. as we dedicate the tomorrow, it is fitting to remember that, as long as this republic endures, this site will remain an indelible mark of our national landscape. his statue will stand at long last inside of four other national monuments to our nation's president, its

architect, it's great to emancipated, and it's great defender. five towering giants of our history whose legacy resides in the freedoms that each of us enjoys today. on the national mall, dr. king, not a president, yet far more than an ordinary man, will be honored among men who are, in a historical sense, his peers. and his legacy, if we work to make it so, will inspire generations to come. i want to thank you for everything you have done to make this possible, for your continued commitment to dr. king's work, and for sharing his faith that one day we will surely work and walk together into the promised land. thank you very much. [applause]

>> once again, please welcome minister ernest pew. ♪ ♪ let your glory feel this place fillr all consuming fire this tabernacle ♪ purified our hearts ♪ surround us in this place lifet you to breathe new within us.

♪ let your glory fill this place ♪ let your all consuming fire purify ♪ breathe new life within us ♪ ♪ anybody in here need him to rein on us? ♪ anybody need him to breathe ♪ power down

♪ can you hear it? ♪ rain on us ♪ shower down in your spirit ♪ let your glory ♪ let your all consuming fire ♪ purify ♪ surround us in this place ♪

♪ rain on us ♪ lord, rain ♪ shower down ♪ shower down ♪ send your spirit, lord ♪ lord, breathe on us ♪ shower down ♪ shower down ♪ send your spirit, lord ♪ rain ♪ rain on us ♪ breathe on us ♪ shower down ♪ shower down ♪ shower down ♪ shower down

♪ shower down ♪ shower down ♪ we need to pray as a people ♪ we need you ♪ we need you to shower down ♪ restorate ♪ we need you ♪ shower down ♪ shower down ♪ ♪ and breathe new life ♪ send a refreshing love

♪ saturate our hearts [applause] >> once again, please welcome comedian john slocum. >> you did not clap for me? just give me a round of applause, just a little bit. [applause]

i was looking around the building and an of something. hi, how are you? i want you to raise your hand if you have in your pocket your aarp card. they are actually doing it. [applause] we want to pay tribute to the people who paved the way. this is about civil rights, pioneers past and present been civil rights leaders, just raise your hand. if you fought for civil rights, if you are in the building, can you raise them a little bit higher? i have a special love for those of you that paved the way for us. because of this event, they have made arrangements for you to get around. i saw something yesterday that really messed me up. i saw a woman was waiting for one of the shuttle buses. every time a bus would pass by, her loose fitted dress would fly up and people would grab her hat. -- and then she would grab her

hat. i saw it happen again. the bus went by, her dress went up, and the woman did this. so now i am thinking that maybe she did not know what was going on. i said, ma'am, excuse me, you should probably watch. people can see. she said, look, young man could -- listen, yemen, -- young man, i am 89 years old. i know what is going on. i know that when the bus passes by, my dress flies up. i do not care. my sunday dress is old. i just bought this hat. [laughter] i had to let it go. the old school people in the house, make some noise. let me hear you. let me hear you strong. [applause] we need for some of the back in the day to come back today. remember back in the day no one was hungry because we fed each other? all we needed was some white bread and some bologna.

who remembers a white bread and bologna? let's hear some noise. a fried baloney sandwich. crispy on the outside, a slice in the middle. you called your flag that government cheese. amen. back in the day, we had two things, water from the faucet -- remember on a hot summer day, we went outside. there was something about that water from that water hose. what ever happened to kool-aid, ladies and gentlemen? kool-aid was the way -- we had a container full of water. you put the kool-aid in it. then you took a two pound bag of sugar. you don't scoop it. you don't dip it. you pour the whole thing in there. and then we ask forgiveness on sunday. remember that? we need that back today. church was different back in

the day. they did not have the praise and worship team before the preacher. back in the day, they had the old the deacon who stood in front of the congregation. no one knew what he was saying. but all we heard was ah, eh, ah. come on, say it with me now. ah. we knew what that meant, though. raise your hand. you remember that. the good old days, yes indeed. we are on a mission. we will start it today. we want our kids to have names that they can spell. can i get a witness? i hear you. i sign autographs for a living. every week, i give one of these. what is your name? my name is loquita zimbabwe jackson. my friends call me pookie.

i can't spell my real name. [laughter] check it out. they are naming their kids after things they cannot afford right now. escalade. courvassier. mortgage. [laughter] my people, my people. the good part about the afternoon as that the food is coming appeared get ready to eat -- coming up. get ready to eat and eat and eat it again, pass the hot sauce. thank you for your love. [applause]

>> please welcome executive vice president and executive officer of bt networks vicki l free. -- bet networks, vivki l. free. >> thank you so much. good afternoon, everyone print on behalf of bet networks, it is truly an honor. i am the reality of bet marketing networks. -- i am the vp of marketing for be et -- bet networks. you have heard many people say a debt of gratitude to harry johnson, to the dr. martin luther king, jr. foundation, and the countless warriors who have

been supporting this effort for over a decade. we join you all in expressing that debt of gratitude and we stand here today on the brink of seeing an idea come to fruition. i am actually representing a generation whose lives remain a lot easier by our forefathers and the warriors of the civil rights movement were actually here today. we did not face some of the struggles that you talk about. you give us the opportunity to walking your footsteps by opening the door to opportunity. and the idea that we can truly achieve greatness. the call mine generation, a generation xers. we keep that responsibility alive. we're proud to sponsor this effort to help realize the first memorial of an african american on the national mall.

on august 28, we are dedicating our entire day of programming to dr. king's memorial and legacy. and for those of us who are fortunate to be here this weekend, thank you very much, we know we have family and friends who would love to be here but can opt. -- cannot. we will be broadcasting live on sunday to allow the masses witness and participate in this momentous occasion. [applause] thank you very much. it is not possible to represent the extreme excitement and pride that the employees at bet feel about what is taking place here this weekend. but our employees just introduced a video that

represents a snapshot of the oil -- toil and triumph of the civil rights movement. there was a tremendous amount of pride and excitement and passion that went into creating this video and i am proud to share it with you today. thank you very much and please roll the video. >> from anywhere is the sense of justice everywhere. ♪ >> the land of the free and the home of the brave. >> we are willing to be beaten for democracy.

you misuse democracy. >> it was like being involved in a holy crusade. it became a badge of honor. >> i said i do not have to stand there. >> we face nonviolence and -- we still advocate nonviolence and passive resistance with love. >> it was a genuine revolution. >> they came in jalopies, on trains, buses, anything they could get. somewhat. -- some walked. >> we will be demonstrating here until freedom comes. ♪

>> and i have seen the promised land. i mean i get there with you, but -- i may not get there with you, but i want you to note tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. [applause]

>> please will come u.s. -- please welcome, u.s. congresswoman dallas tx, sheila jackson lee. actress, author, philanthropist, victoria rawl. president of la raza, janet mordia. and the rev. jesse jackson. [applause] >> who am i in this room with pioneers and laborers to speak about justice? when so many of you have had your pedigree, your dna in fused with the word justice by delivering you have done in the

-- by the laboring you have done in the valleys of despair, who am i? but i come today as a beneficiary and an actor who uses the tools of a lot to be able to implement and to call on those who can render justice to do so. i call with appreciation to the organizations that toiled, the southern christian leadership conference with which i had a chance to work, the naacp, the urban league, core, and so many others that one cannot name. then i come with the idea of justice, cesar chavez to work with martin luther king, who understood that people need to come together. who am i? yet, as a young child, knowing that the bible said justly and the bradley, having the -- up rightly, having the opportunity

to see a man walk taller than he was and walked alongside of a lovely woman who continues to litigate and press forward on his issues, loretta -- coretta scott king, and together they brought forth yolanda, martin iii, dexter and bernice -- who am i? but justice is imbedded in our constitution. when the opening words say that we come together to formulate a more perfect union and the declaration of independence that says we are all created equal with certain inalienable rights of freedom and the pursuit of happiness. yet i believe that so many of us have a malaise about justice. we suggest that somebody else should do it. when i sit in the judiciary committee chaired by the hon. john conyers who sat with my predecessor barbara gordon in the first early stages of the watergate proceedings when she said we the people, i wonder if we recognized that we should be fighting for justice that martin is asking is never to give up on what is justice.

[applause] and so my challenge is for you to be reminded that work cannot come without action. it is for you not to give up on the tools, for you to be litigator's of life. as martin iii talked about working on something we are willing to -- talk about dying for something that you believe in, beneficiaries of martens -- we have to be willing to die for justice. you wonder in the 21st century, our wonderful legacy, president obama and eric holder, beneficiaries of martin's walk and talk, you wonder whether there is work for you. let me provide you very briefly with your challenges. you must litigate equal

opportunity. you must not continue to slide away from jobs without challenging whether or not you have been fairly treated. do not be afraid of the courts and the administrative procedures to insist upon a form of justice. martin king wrote in 1961 about love, law, and civil disobedience. he said that we must be determined to resist reactionaries. my friends, you are now entering a reactionary period probably worse than poster construction -- post- reconstruction in the new jim crow system. i do not use race as an excuse. but i want you to litigate justice. that is why we prepped hard to change the crack cocaine and those who wrote the legislation so that president obama for the first time in history reduced to the comparison of crack cocaine to take our brothers and sisters out of jail. you must leave no child behind

because there are those bright side minority children looking to you to wonder why have i been condemned for scores when i am a talented artist or musician or writer? you must litigate leave no child behind. and as we look to all the elected officials and the say here comes one more minority official, you must understand that the tide is being turned by redistricting. you must litigate to ensure the opportunity for children that come behind us. you must recognize that the scapegoating of public employees may not be you today, but as we are well aware, they may come for me at night, but they will come for you in the morning. then as we go to our respective communities and we shake our heads about school districts and we ask the question why are they performing poorly, you must stand up against the closing of minority school districts as martin king said,

you must resist retroactivity that takes us back and reactionary actions. as martin pressed forward on civil disobedience, you do not know that he said that the end and the means must be coherent. for someone who wonders how i managed to speak about justice, it may be because andrew james -- andrew young, and hosea williams and others managed to touch me as i worked in the deep south registering poor farmers to vote. maybe it was at that time that the soldiers of dr. martin luther king, who grew on civil disobedience, it touched in me a desire to be a lawyer that

would some day find the opportunity to litigate her entire life against just as. -- against injustice. and so the naacp legal trust fund, go out and litigate, and lawyering does not come from a law degree, but from your willingness to litigate. -- your willingness to die for justice. find something somewhere to touch and say, i am going to litigate. i'm going to stand. i will make sure that martin's mountaintop, his vision for his people, is never downed by reactionaries. and those who want to throw us along the highway of heap of garbage because we're people. we, too, are america. we, too, will litigate for justice that is embedded in our dna, our pedigree, our legacy.

it is martin's dream for justice to spend justly and uprightly. -- stand justly and uprightly. god bless you and god bless the united states of america. [applause] >> i am honored to be among such distinguished guests, the king family. i thank all of you for your love for children. i was asked to speak on love. i am awe struck as a former foster youth of 18 years. being here and washington, d.c. and witnessing this

extraordinary occasion. i represent the canny e. casey -- annie e casey foundation, serving 500,000 children in the nation today. i thought it would be appropriate to read a brief expert from the man more of the -- memoir of the woman who raised me. it bears mentioning as i hail from the free state during the missouri compromise that black children were not allowed to be raised by any other family but black families. and there are a lot of black people in maine. believe it or not good that said, my foster mother, born in 1902, whose sister was the first executive secretary to the united states gov., gov. deaver, give me this gift of love. agatha arsis, room, i jumped into bed first.

there were trinkets, be it, pill bottles, jars of cold cream, face founder. -- powder, fabulous and expensive way constanzo. -- expensive way this -- wigs on stands. all in the compact new england sleeping space. in the rare occasion that i was ill, there is always a jar of vicks they arrive at the ready. does anybody know what i am talking about? that cure that she would rubble on my chest with love and then give me a teaspoon of with love. i always thought it would kill me. i never asked why. i just swallowed. i could feel it like a soft ball of fire. i had to see how deep her wounds were pinned how heavy was her burden, still facing the wall. i watched her shadowed so what fighting against the patterned wallpaper. i had to see more.

i saw the agonizing steps she took with her over 30 finger and her bent over spine. not turning around to see if i was awake or asleep, she always remembered that the neck and chest were all up part of the face. add the new all and assumed that i had seen her restless body, curved and beautiful. she knew that i had seen her without her wig. how did she channel away the pain. after popping their role laid, she instantaneously look into the blackness of the time they cricket sang its first note. i join her in praying, not understanding why this foster mother prays for redemption or

maybe i knew that she was as close to god as any human can be and threw her i could be, too. i was still trying to figure out what god was and what god meant. just lying there breathing with those plastic beads between her fingers, this was my fortress. she was my belonging, along with 500,000 other foster children needing a mentor, needing love. she was my mentor god bless the child and god bless all of you who care for other people's children, giving them love unconditionally. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. it is a true honor for me to be here today during this historic week for our country. like millions of americans, i

am filled with joy that dr. martin luther king, jr. is finally receiving the permanent tribute he deserves in our nation's capital. i look forward to welcoming members of my community to washington to visit our newest monument. we all know that dr. martin luther king, jr. was a man of great faith in that faith included his unshakable belief in our country. he reviewed the majestic documents of this great nation, the declaration of independence and our constitution. he knew that the path to equality and justice lay in embracing our country's most fundamental values and principles. in his iconic "i have a dream" speech whose anniversary we commemorate this week, he spoke eloquently about the declaration of independence.

part of history, in fact, was that this nation would one day live up to that creed. we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. i believe that he did this in part to demonstrate that those core tenets of our democracy cannot belong just to a few or just to one party or just to one group of americans. they belong to all of us. i think there is no better time than right now to remind us all of that. he quoted from these cherished documents to reaffirm to other americans that democracy and living up to our ideals are not just abstract concepts, but a breathing and living reality. it is why his words also resonated so deeply with the latino community. thousands were on the mall that day, including my predecessor, who marched with dr. king. i am a child of dr. king's hope.

i know about the power of his dream. his dream was an inclusive dream. it was universal and transcendent. and he lived his words. we are caught an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single sermon of destiny. when he wrote to one of our communities great leaders, caesar traumas, during one of -- chavez, during one of his

the fasts, in that telegram he said our separate struggles are really one. a struggle for freedom, for dignity, and humanity. dr. king's telegram was a call to action and his words are just as relevant today as we continue to fight to make the promises of democracy real for all americans. it is why we are working so hard to make sure that all of us have a voice and that all of us exercise our right to vote. nothing is stronger than our commitment to civil rights and human dignity. nothing is stronger than our commitment to full and equal political participation. nothing is stronger than our commitment to increased opportunity for all good nearly 50 years have passed since dr. king's legendary speech. so much has been accomplished yet it is clear that there's so much left to do. it is my hope that 50 years from now we will be able to look back on this time and that historians will say that we took advantage of this moment, that we came together, reminded of the vision and his great dream,

and that we wrote a special chapter in our country's history, that we came together and stepped up to build a coalition, the bridges, the understanding that allows us not only to advance our respective communities, but to move our entire nation forward. together, we can move mountains. thank you all so very, very much. [applause] >> let me express thank you to god for being a part of this. i wish for all the men of the fraternity to stand. give them a huge hand. [applause] a really big hand.

[applause] the children of martin, please stand. the king family, please. [applause] and the members of the king staff are here who marched on birmingham. i want you to stand. otis moss and j.t. and so on all of you on dr. king's staff, please stand, staff members of dr. king. [applause] give them a big hand. [applause]

dr. king's staff, give them a hand, will you please. [applause] give them a big hand all of them. [applause] let me ask you a series of questions, please. how many of you have a family member in jail? please stand. if you have a family member in jail, please stand. a family member in jail, please stand. be seated. those of you who are in hong -- you know someone who is in a home foreclosure or are behind in your hand, please stand pin -- someone who is in home foreclosure or behind in their rent, please stand. be seated. in your house, there is a student loan debt, please stand. we will get to it. someone in your house is in credit-card debt, please stand. how many of you need a job? or know someone who needs a job?

please stand. [laughter] be seated. you know someone who has contemplated committing suicide, please stand. today, i consider myself blessed having just left to jail a1963 -- just left jail in 1963 to come to the march on washington and to hear and see dr. king and will wilkens and dr. russo and whitney young and john lewis. i prayed with them, talked with him, to walk with him in the battles, they confrontation --

the confrontation bottles of selma and chicago and birmingham and cleveland and new york and gage park. we made our case against war in new york and united nations. many see the dream as an idle dream. i have been asked to speak briefly on the issue of hope. it is important that we connect hope, faith and substance. why is dr. king down there talking about dreaming? unless you understand the broken promise, the dream does not quite resonate with you after years of legal slavery, african americans were in the slave trade industry. the civil war to end slavery and save the union are inextricably

linked. lincoln made a promise in the emancipation proclamation. congress made a promise that was passed by one vote, the 13th amendment. the court made a promise in brown v board of education. speaking at the march in washington, over 100 years later, he said, emphatically,the promise had not been honored. the check has bounced. mark insufficient funds. [applause] those who came through ellis island had a message of support. give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, of those who reach the port in jamestown, va., it is 165 miles from where the slave trade was initiated in this country. dr. king's dream was not

abstract. dreaming of equal protection under the law, dreaming of ending skin idolatry, dreaming for a day public accommodations bill, dreaming for the right to vote, dreaming of open housing, dreaming of it will have quality -- equal, high-quality public education, dreaming of a poor people's campaign, dreaming of ending immoral unnecessary wars. so the march on washington was an act of defiance. he said, i will go to washington in a political campaign. engaging in civil disobedience, tie up the courts of our land, and we wipe out poverty and not wipe out the poor. we speak of this idea of hope.

he believed you had have negotiation and confrontation because -- before you could have reconciliation. faith is a substance of things hoped for. i see ministry churches and names on their finance, faith -- names on and their vans, faith baptist church, hope church of god, substance church of substance hope, of substance institutions. we hope we hit the lotto, but we will not talk about that type of hope. hope for things unseen. today, we hope for a national jobs summit. we hope to bailout homeowners and not just the bank system. we hope to have the glass- steagall act. we hope that drones can drop bombs in pakistan can drop food

in somalia. we up to and the jail industrial complex. we hope for a fairer tax code where the will of his pay their -- wealthy pay their fair share we hope for the repeal of the bush tax cut extension. the rich got more money than all the state budget deficits combined. we hope for change and we fight for that change today. we hope for fair trade policies. lastly, we are in a pain because way have a captain -- those who -- the captain of the

ship of state, but the captain is facing turbulent waters and mutiny on the ship. those who engage in states' rights want to overthrow the captain and threaten those on the deck of the ship. but we are all in the same boat. they will not allow the top of the ship. -- they were not allowed to topple the ship in 1851. we must stop them in 2011 and 2012 could the tea party is not -- 2012. the tea party is not new. it is just a new name but an old game. their interest is not a negotiation. their aim is to and the reign of democracy. too much wealth in the hands of too few people, too many wars, and too much violence and too much pain and too little will to fight back. this is the time to act when the state's rights voices are trying to take the voter rights back.

many are facing voter rights suppression. as we meet today, workers have collective bargaining under attack. building jails, closing schools. the rich get tax cuts while we lay off teachers. it is time to leave the fighting to make the dream alive, to make the dream real. today, we pray for our capt. of this ship of state. to stop the mutiny, we must fight back. we have come back. we're in the whole of that ship. that is a painful reality today. number one in short life expectancy. number one in infant mortality. number one in unemployment. number one in race-based crimes. no. 1 in home foreclosure. while we have a captain of the ship who is african-american,

the president of our choice. we need a ladder those who put us in the hull -- we must march out. -- put us in the hall are not going to lift us up. we are not -- we must march out. do not let them break your spirit. i know is hard and difficult. do not let them break your spirit. that is what marching is about. we march because we are not afraid. we fight back because it is time to come back to washington. we fight back in dr. king's name. we fight for jobs. the lord is our life in our salvation. it is healing time. it is hope time. we leave here to go back. to maintain gains, to maintain our present, to make the case of -- our president, led to change our politics, but more than that, to make the case my people.

god will hear our prayer and heal our land and we will all keep hope alive. march on. god bless you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the one and only chairman emeritus naacp julian bond. [applause] >> thank you a great deal. it is not right that i should be asked to follow rev. jesse jackson. and you know it is not right. [laughter] i want to thank back some of you -- i want to take some of you back to august 20, 1963.

i was one of 260,000 people from around the country who gathered at the mall here in washington to hear this amazing array of speakers and a witness what we did not know at the time to be the biggest civil rights demonstration to be held in american history. the civil-rights organizations that sponsored the march each had a press spokesman who spoke for the organization and who worked in the march. bill this organization then and -- the oldest organization and then and now was the naacp. and the spokesman for the naacp was a distinguished man named henry lee moon. it seems to me that his job was delivering pronouncements. i was the youngest person of the spokesperson group. representing the youngest organization, the students' non-

violence coronation committee. my job was to give coca-cola's to the movie stars. one thing i will remember was giving a coca-cola to sammy davis, jr. and him saying to me, "thank you, kid. but i have other memories of martin luther king. the king family lived three -- the king family and the bond family lived three doors apart in atlanta. their children and my children, the king children and my children, they played together and went to school together. i saw martin luther king in the grocery store, in the drug store, and the bank. to me, he seemed to be a familiar figure. it had not yet reached the heights of fame he was destined to reach. you could almost say doomed to reach. his assassination sadly propel them into the atmosphere of -- propelled him into the

atmosphere of distinguished people that we are so, sore, so sorry to have lost. but he was a famous person, but an ordinary person and a person who was easy to approach. one man who was put to follow me in this program, amos brown, i was looking up to be a student -- lucky enough to be a student of martin luther king's. another are lots of people in -- i know there are a lot of people in this room and lots of people in this world who will say that i was a student of dr. king. but amos brown, julian bond, and six other people are the only people in the world who can honestly say that we were students of martin luther king. martin luther king only taught one time, only top one class, -- only taught one class, with only eight people in the class. i am one of the eight. if you hear somebody else say that, they are telling a big lie. [laughter] i wish i could tell you that i had the wit to take it to a reporter to class or that i had

-- to bring a tape recorder to class, or that i had taken extensive notes in class and kept them until today. but i did not do that. in fact, i remember almost nothing that passed between teacher and student in the class. but i do remember -- in fact, i remember also almost nothing that happened in that class. but i do remember one day, he said, julian, i hope you do well. -- i do not feel well. unemployment is high. racism is everywhere. i feel awful. i have a nightmare. no doctor, i said, turn that around. try it, i have a dream. [laughter] yoon know i made that up because -- you know i made that up because nobody had to write

dr. king's speeches for him or tell him what to say. he had a marvelous personality and a marvelous gift. he is one of the few people who could talk to black and white people in the common language of christianity and have each of them understand what he was talking about. we miss him so much. this monument we're going to dedicate on sunday is a fitting testimonial to him. but a more fitting testimonial would be if we decided that we would carry on this work and make the dream come true. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome bill gray. >> everything that has been said ought to be said. except for those of you who may

say anything bad about me. i want you to remember that the person who wrote my recommendation to become a rockefeller fellow at a theological seminary was dr. martin luther king jr., and the person who came to new jersey to install me in my first pastor had was martin luther king jr. i want us to really reflect on one historical point. there were three revolutions in america, the war of independence, or the american revolution of the 18th century, the civil war of the 19th century, and the civil rights movement of the 20th century. all three were watersheds in american history that changed fundamentally the direction of this nation.

america has honored the leaders of the war of independence with the washington monument and the jefferson memorial. we of honor the leaders of the -- we have honored the leader of the civil war and with the lincoln memorial, and now this week, located between all three, we gathered to honor the leader of the third revolution, the civil rights movement that changed america. and when we go on sunday to that great moment, i hope all of us will remember that the martin luther king memorial represents truly the beginning of the fulfillment of american democracy and equality as a result of the civil rights movement. in fact, in my mind, that revolution was greater than the

first or the second, but it was the culmination the to find who -- that defines who we are as a nation and the direction that we decided on. i am honored and delighted to be a part of those who lived on the apartheid side of america as well as the struggle for freedom in america. i, like all of you, will be delighted to stand there on sunday and rejoice, and say thanks be unto god for this moment in our lives. [applause] >> please welcome the rev. amos brown. [applause]

>> the afternoon, ladies and -- afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. all you members of the human family and individuals gathered today who punctuated your day i come into this historic and -- by coming to this historic and memorable proceeding in which we gather around these tables to honor civil rights heroes

and sheroes of yesterday, today, and hopefully those of the future. i am amos brown. senior pastor of the baptist church of san francisco, and as i stand before you, i say to you in the words of our former president william jefferson clinton, that you may rest assured that if you ever see a turtle up on the stump, you better know that he or she did not get up there by himself or herself. i am here today because of the love and support of my wife, jane brown, members of third baptist church who are here in the audience, and my fraternity

brothers. brother harry johnson has been the moving spirit behind this occasion. i am here today because there are many persons who labored with me in this movement that we celebrate today for human dignity, decency, freedom and peace. but more importantly, i stand before you today because as my schoolmate julian bond referenced, dr. king taught only one class in his lifetime. that was the morehouse college during the semester's of 1961- 1962. we sat in a seminar in social

philosophy, and i am delighted to say to you that dr. king and rose to that great position of teaching because he had a great mentor in the personhood of benjamin elijah mays, howard washington thurman, and he has passed on to julien, others and yours truly, the great pearls of wisdom that we received from him sitting at his feet at morehouse college. i want to frame my comments by saying, after all is said and done about dr. king, we must never forget that he was a black baptist preacher. [applause]

i know many have not understood that, but may i remind you that he was also influenced by another baptist preacher whose legacy impacts our opportunity today. the story is told that in 1926 when howard university decided that it was being inclusive and offered the opportunity for an african american to be president of the prestigious institution that we know it to be today, when they were thinking of who should be that person, there was many who had earned degrees and had the right

to be president, but the board of trustees decided that there was a black baptist preacher that we have not said enough about. his name was mordecai johnson, pastor of the first baptist church of charleston west virginia. when dr. johnson arrived in washington, he did not seek to find where the next cocktail party would be. he did not seek to find where the next social appointment would be. he sought out justice louis brandeis. and in the course of a conversation he said to him, justice brandeis, if you were to build a first-class law school, what the advice would you give to the builder?

justice brandeis told him, on the condition that he would not tell anyone what he said until he was dead, he said, dr. johnson, if i were to build a first-class law school and take this school from being a night school to a first-class school, i would build a law school to teach young lawyers how to become a -- i would not teach young lawyers have to become corporate lawyers just to put money in their pockets. i would not build a law school to teach young lawyers how to be criminal lawyers, also to make money only for themselves. he said, i would build a school that would teach young black minds how to master constitutional law. from that conversation, dr. johnson went, and knocked on the door of one charles

hamilton houston, told him to get to work and to build that law school. it was the providence of god that in his first class, there was a black boy named thurgood marshall from maryland who had applied to the university of -- who was denied admission to the university of maryland law school, out of the hills of richmond, va., robert carter from new jersey, jim neighbors, the sage law mind. when they came together, they went before that high court, argued and interpreted the constitution better than thomas jefferson and got the unanimous decision outlawing segregation in public education on the

grounds of equal protection under the law. [applause] i tell you, a preacher did it. a baptist preacher laid the groundwork. do not ever forget that martin luther king was a baptist preacher inspired by mordecai johnson. women got equal rights under the law. gays are crying for their day of equal protection under the law. handicapped people have a better day under equal protection under the law. everybody owes something to the black baptist preacher martin luther king and mordecai johnson. [applause]

and, in a class, dr. king told us not to become priestley preachers, concerning the status quo. he said be a prophet and speak truth to power. i never shall forget his words. truthing to speak some before i take my seat. i know barack obama is in the white house, but i have some news for you.

i learned a long time ago that my dad had diabetes and my dad had diabetes and hypertension. his older brother had a stroke. the brother next to him had a stroke. one year ago, i had a stroke. but thank god, god spared my mouth and my mind that i could come here and speak to you today. but strokes are in my dna. racism is still in the dna of america. we need as therapeutic peace to get this out of our minds, out of our souls, and out of our bodies. and i hope that we can make this monument more than stone, but bring meaning and hear the message of martin luther king jr.. he sat at the feet of other teachers and he learned something about personism. what does that idea mean? everybody is a person. everybody deserves respect and dignity and should be treated as such.

i say to you, we need some therapy in this land until we get busy, get out of our system, phobia, something martin luther king would stand up for if he were alive today. he knew that gays were until we get busy, get out of our systems homophobia, something that martin luther king would stand above if he were alive today, he believed that days work live children also.

he knew a game man was the logistical brain, the organizer behind the march on washington in 1963. god knows we must not become that which we hate. if we do not want other folks marginalize us, we should not marginalize gays, women, and stand up for justice. stand up for truth. stand up for consistency. stand up and do what the teacher would have us do until the day will come when all of god's children will be able to say i am black and i am proud. i am brown and i am sound. i am yellow and in mellow. i am read but i ain't dead. i am gay but i am godly.

i am straight but i am a sensible. i am white and i am all right. that was the message of martin luther king jr., my master teacher. [applause] >> wasn't that powerful? give him another round of applause. ladies and gentlemen, according to the contract, we needed to be out of this room by 2:25. every speaker has complied by the time rolls. did the audience has been great. give yourself a round of applause for being on time.

before we close out with the benediction along with an accompaniment of music, let me on behalf of the martin luther king memorial foundation say thank you to all of the program participants today. today begins four days of celebration as we celebrate the formal dedication of the martin luther king memorial on the mall. we want to again express our thanks to all of the corporate sponsors and supporters, the individuals, the foundations, everyone who has given money, time, any sense of support to this project. when it was envisioned, there were many doubters. there were many who said it could not be done. this is a tribute to many, many people. again, a warm thanks to alpha

phi alpha fraternity and warm thanks to harry johnson's and credible leadership. let's give them all a big round of applause again. [applause] i want to just say as the contemporary leader of one of the six organizations that helped to organize the march on washington, two things. one is the continuing debt of gratitude we also to the men and women who organized the 1963 effort, but also that 1963 and the march on washington was just one part of a broad movement for social and economic justice which endured for many years in this nation. all of us on this day have to continue to remind ourselves that our accomplishments, the doors we have walked through, the things we have been able to do could not have been possible without the sacrifice of others

at generation ago. it is touching to see rev. jesse jackson and julian bond, amos brown, andrew young, and many others, joseph lowery, many others who truly, truly were alongside, within, and an integral part of the effort in the 1960's. those of us who lead today civil rights organizations know that while leadership has expanded and changed, while we do have an african-american in the white house, we do have an african-american at the department of justice, black people in congress, city hall, a county governments, state legislatures, that our continuing role is to be the conscience of this nation, to challenge this nation to continue to work to achieve dr. king's dream. it is important, and i say all the time, those who say nothing

has changed since the 1960's are absolutely wrong. those who say that america has arrived and equal opportunity is abundant and flowing are equally wrong. we must give credence and credit to the distance we have come while seeing today, 2011, at the dedication of this wonderful memorial, a time for each and every one of us to reaffirm our commitment to social and economic justice, the important work of this nation in the 21st century. dubois said the 21st century would be about the color line. i believe it will be about the economic line combined with the color line. we have important work to do. thank you for being here. please congratulate yourselves

one more time for traveling from afar, being part of something great, and committing your life to social and economic justice. give yourselves a round of applause. ladies and gentlemen, rev. otis moss, accompanied by an outstanding user group. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome naturally 7. ♪ >> it is our honor to be here at such an auspicious occasion. we feel right at home and we would like to bless this house. ♪ bless this house, o lord we

pray. make it safe by night and day. bless these walls so firm and found. bless the room and chimney.

let thy peace lie overall. bless this room that it may be ever open to joy and love. [applause] >> now we would like to mix the old with the new. how many people here like motown? i knew you would. i knew you would. we do a style, we call it old

play. my brother is going to start a little something that goes a little something like this. [beat box] this is a little bit of news school. he is on the base. one, two, three ♪ i got a message for you and you know that is true. ready or not, here i go. if you hear the thunder rolled

and if you try to hide i ain't on your side. you better be wise. ♪ i am coming, ready or not. i have been jealous a long time since i have been waiting for you, you, you. every time was the wrong time, and now it is my time to move. ♪ you had better be wise because i am coming. what you going to do tonight if i come through tonight?

i am coming ready or not. ready or not. ♪ i don't care what they say i don't care what they do. ready or not. you ain't chicken for me and you know that's true. every time that i call you've got a message for me. ready or not, here i come. if you are trying to hide, you ain't got no pride. you bet to be wise because i am coming.

what you find to do it tonight if i come through tonight? i am coming ready or not. ready or not. ♪ you cannot hide, gonna find you. ready or not, here i come. you cannot hide, then a fine view. ready or not, and if you hear the thunder rolled that is my bass drum. you better be wise because i am coming. what you gonna do to night if i come through to night? ready or not. hey, hey, hey. ♪

i am come in, ready or not. what you gonna do it if i come through? i am coming, ready or not. ready or not. >> give it up one more time for my younger brother on the drums. we had no use for a bass guitar. give it up. on the trombone.

what you gonna do tonight if i come through tonight? i am coming, ready or not. ready or not. clap your hands just a little bit louder. clap your hands.

clap your hands just a little bit louder. clap your hands. clap your hands just a little bit louder. clap your hands. clap your hands just a little bit louder. tap your hands. one, two, hey, hey, hey. what you gonna do tonight if i come through to night? i am coming, ready or not. ready or not. ♪ [applause] >> thank you so much. god bless. >> please welcome rev. otis moss for our benediction.

>> once again, please welcome the rev. otis moss. [applause] >> those who are able, let us please stand and join hands.

as brothers and sisters, and keepers of the dream. if you have the strength, hold hands with the person next to you, recognizing that whether friend, relative, husband, wife, child, or member of your organization, you may never have the opportunity to hold this hand again in this world. we regret that sister dorothy cotton could not be with us today. her job with the southern

christian leadership conference was a revolutionary task, a leading the citizenship education program. may we llift up in prayer the reverend fred shuttle's worth, whose body is now a frail, but whose legacy and laborers are immortal. may we bow our heads. and i looked on the hill, and i saw men, women and children standing with their hands united, and each one looked into the eyes of the other, and

nobody was afraid, and i asked the angel, what is this? and the angel said, this is the kingdom of god. and i asked the angel, where is this? and the angel said, in your own heart. and i asked the angel, when is this? and the angel said, when we all learn how to love one another as god loves us. teach us, o god, to love one another, and send us away from these sacred and fleeting days

of celebration to the hard and necessary days of labor, the task, toil, voter registration. as we hear all of the marvelous king quotations, send us away from here in a mind to be of transformation, social transformation.

hear us as we are surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses, and keep us forever in the path, we pray. this is our prayer, and the name of our lord, amen. ♪ national captioning institute] cable satellite corp. 2011] >> although the dedication ceremony has been postponed because of the approaching areicane, other defensevents

still scheduled. you can see live coverage of an event on c-span tomorrow at noon. in a few moments, a town hall meeting with republican representative kevin brady of texas. in an hour, a heritage foundation report on terrorism. then we will re-air luncheon of the pioneers of the civil rights movement. tomorrow morning, nicholas burns looks at their role of nato and libya. we will focus on trends and demographics in crime with james lynch.

"washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 p.m. eastern. ♪

>> c-span is covering several members of congress this month at their town hall meetings treated kevin brady served on no ways and means committee. this is an hour. >> it is my pleasure to introduce kevin brady. kevin considers it an honor to represent the eighth district texas in washington, d.c.

he is the senior member of the house ways and means committee, chairman of the trade subcommittee, and vice chairman and top republican of the joint economic committee. as a deputy whip of the gop, kevin is involved in the new conservative house majority's effort to protect the unborn and bad legislation and regulation and cut federal spending and debt. his honors are many, but some of his favorites are being named a hero of the tax payers, a defender of liberty, a small business champion, and a super friend of the seniors. above all, kevin never moved to washington. he commutes to his job at the capitol and he and his wife are able to raise their sons in

montgomery county. ladies and gentlemen, i give you our friend and our u.s. congressman, kevin brady. [applause] >> thank you very much for the introduction, for the chamber of commerce leadership in the region. is this on today? great. i want to thank dr. jones, an old friend, for leading us in prayer to they, and i want to thank carol. i love scouts, and my wife was a girl scout. my 12-year old is a scout, and i think any meeting opened by a boy scout troop is loaded be pretty good beating. join with me in thanking our scouts again for all they did. thanks for being here at the

town hall meeting. we held 54 town hall meetings turned the health-care debate. one of the reasons we lived back home here is to make sure we stay close to the neighborhoods that i represent. we have a chance to do a lot of town hall meetings. we did three-day. we will continue to do it. the reason is, we need to hold lawmakers accountable. it is critical when they go to washington or wherever they are, be able to explain their votes and update you on what the issues are. more importantly, the town halls are important to me. what i have learned is you cannot be an expert on all issues. it is impossible. you depend upon people in your community, small business people, those involved in veterans' issues, others who are teachers, they will tell you about what is gone on, and how

the government is holding the bag. today i would like to go through a few slides about the financial crisis, talk about how this new bill on cutting that will work, talk about an upcoming vote that is very important, dealing with a balanced budget amendment to the constitution, and share with you in about two minutes when i think is the real solution to our spending problems in america. as i do that, i want to thank to the veterans museum, all the leaders, volunteers, i tell people i do not think any county loves their veterans and as quite as much as a walker county. as a look at the museum next door, it is full of harris, and my son is reading colonel etheride's book.

the love coming to this museum. this is one of the things, never forgetting those who sacrificed to keep us free to us as a lot about this community in this area. the key to all these folks. let me see -- thank you to all these folks. john, thank you for your leadership. we have had the pleasure to work on tax issues, property rights. thank you for the work you do in austin as well. i want to talk about the financial crisis and where we are at. one of the three great lies in america include the video is

ready to go. i am convinced in america. by the way, if you get a chance, we are serious about staying in contact with our employers, that is you. come to our website. we have a newsletter, a blog, we do a lot of work on the joint economic committee to get our economy going, but we want feedbox from you on these issues. -- we want feedback from you on these issues. this chart shows america's future if we do not change our ways. the green line is the revenue, and overtime revenue goes up and down some, but for the most part it is always about 19% of our economy comes into the federal government. we are in a recession today, getting a little better, coming out of one, trying to do, so

revenues come out some, but the red line is america's spending. this is the problem facing our nation. there is a sea of debt and deficits continuing to grow, and to put this in real terms, because we have two young boys, we look at that that, a child born today, in huntsville, walker county, a baby born today, they share -- their share of the debt is $46,000. it is as if they owe already something that uncle sam. if we do not change our ways, by the time they are 13 -- by the time they're 22, when they graduate, they get ready to start their lives across they will owe more.

nine people and not actually buy luxury sedans for washington. they pay the price in other ways. they pay the price through higher taxes, to pay for all the spending, they pay for it in higher interest rates, which makes it more expensive to live, and they pay for it in the sluggish economy, because just like in your business, in your family, if you are loaded up with that much debt, it is going to slow you down. for young people, what this chart means is that the most important time of their life, when they start to launch their lives, their family, all that goes with it, they're going to have fewer job opportunities and then they are on the have less money in their pocketbook when they do get a job. i see mayor turner here tonight. i hope your wife is doing ok. i understand she was in a car accident today. we hope she is doing ok.

the point of this chart is we do not have a revenue problem in washington. we have a spending problem in washington, a major spending problem. if you look at the revenue, the green, you can double everybody's taxes in america today, everybody's taxes, and we would still be running a deficit as a nation. you cannot tax your way back to a balanced budget. the only solution is to put discipline and control on spending. this next chart, i like to put this to remind ourselves, this is the federal budget today. the yellow eye chart here is the fence -- defense. it is a big part of our budget, and it should be. our big responsibility is to keep this nation safe and to keep you safe in it. i am strongly pro defense, and we are going to spend the money

it takes to make sure our troops are safe, have the most up-to- date equipment, finish their mission, and they can return home to their families as soon as humanly possible. defense is a major part. the green part is what a lot people think is the rest of the government. that is non defense spending. that would include highways, transportation, air traffic controllers, border security, veterans' care, education issues, they are all in that green chart. those two is what congress, through their appropriation, funds each year. yet great control over those two pieces of the pie. if you look at the rest, social security, medicare, medicaid, interest on our debt, food stamps, for example, that is the bulk of our spending as a

nation. those we call entitlements, or mandatory spending, but that means they are on autopilot. if you are eligible for social security, you get it. if medicaid, you get it. who stands in my you get it, and regardless of how many people needed, that money is spent talking period. and we're gonna have a big challenge going forward, and one reason we cannot balance our budget unless we get a better handle on doesn't have a month, you will see why in a minute. what drives our that going forward, we have three very important programs, social security, medicare, and medicaid, very important to seniors, to our poor, and they are growing, and the reason is we are signing up 10,000 seniors each and every day it to social security, because those baby

boomers are starting to retire. it is going to drive those costs forward in a major way. medicare, especially, because it is tied to health care, which is expensive. in the not too many years, those three programs will literally eat up every dollar that is sent to washington. there will not be another dollar left for any other part of the government. in fact, today, if we added interest on the federal debt to that, we're almost there. that is why you will see we talk about the need to be able to figure out a way to preserve social security for every generation, to make sure medicare is there for every generation, and the longer we put off a solution, the harder it is going to get. next chart. what can we pay for a much month? i have the joint -- i had the committee put this chart together because i want to know if we can live on cash flow

alone. if we did not raise the debt at all, we just lived on what was coming in each month, while with that mean? this chart, i will explain it, but at the end of the day, it tells us how far spending is out of control and what comes in. the bottom line here, dark blue, as the interest on our debt. we will never default on our debt. we pay our debt. social security is the next dark line. medicare is the light blue, and then we get into defense of our nation, medicaid, veterans' care, housing, welfare, issues like that, and the rest of the government, highways, air traffic control, the rest of the government. still lots are how much cash is coming in each month into this government. as you can tell, it falls short

of paying for what we need. in seven months, we do not even have enough money to pay all our military cric. and only one month we only have enough to pay for all the government, so the only way to balance the budget in america is to make every day april 15, and that is the last thing anyone in this room wants to see, my guess. it tells you how far short we are and how big we are in spending going forward. the budget control act -- the debt ceiling bill that was just passed, i think everyone knows what the battle lines were. the president up 2.5 trillion without any cuts at all. the house rejected that. he then asked for a budget for

$2.50 trillion without tax increases. we turned him down. then he asked for the whole amount for the next election, and we said no, this is too important to hand anyone, any president a blank check. our positions were pretty clear in the house among republicans, because if you want a dollar for borrowing authority, we have to cut at least a dollar out of the federal budget. there will be no tax increases. we are and overtaxed nation. it is exactly wrong for our economy. finally, we said no blank check for the next election. we have to have cut first. the bill cuts more than it hikes, the dollar for dollar cuts that exceeds the amount of the next question of the new borrowing authority. the first phase of that, $970

billion in cuts, cuts the equivalent of that massive stimulus bill. the second amount coming up this fall, $1.50 trillion, as about the size of "obamacare," in its first 10 years. it is not enough. this cut in my view are not enough. the deficits we are running up each year, we need to go much deeper than this. we passed cut, cap, and balance, a bill that would cut significantly more than this and put significant controls on government. unfortunately, we did not get a single democrat " in the senate on that bill. the president of course rejected it outright. he did not get a blank check.

the tax increases. controls for us, house republicans. we will cut discretionary federal spending two straight years in a row. we need to do more. it achieves about 2/3 of the ryan budget we passed earlier this year. we believe it is a game changer in the size of government and its use about 2/3 of the budget cuts that paul ryan laid out in discretionary spending. it forces a vote on the balanced budget amendment this fall. the reason i think that is important is that every lawmaker needs to be accountable to getting us to a balanced budget. we have too many people who have talked about the need for a balanced budget amendment for years, but they have always thought the vote on it, for a decade. the new law this time changes

that. it requires an up or down vote, with every lawmaker in washington standing up and declaring whether they will support a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget in america. my view is, i am a supporter of this bill, and my thought is, if families have to live with an error means, businesses have to live within their means, the government needs to live within its means as well. we are going to see people stand up and take a vote, and finally, the president does not get a blank check. this is done in two phases. one of the reasons i support this bill was that it changes the trajectory of our federal government. it starts to shrink the size of the federal government. i had the committee run the numbers. i asked the missile question -- where does our government grow

about discuss -- i asked them a simple question. are you figuring this out, thinking -- taking out all the tricks -- take that out of there, and they did. what this chart shows is that if we did not pass the bill, government continues to grow, over 23% of the size of our economy, and that is how you and measure the size of your government. is that enough? absolutely not. if you are satisfied with that, we have a pretty strong disagreement. i believe it needs to go farther. every chance i get, and those of you who know you in our district know every chance i get to cut taxes or to cut spending, my voting card is yes. i reserve the right to

fight for more tax cuts and more spending cuts, and that is exactly what weing to do with the next step, passing a balanced budget amendment this fall, and i want to talk briefly about what i think the real solution is. pass the balanced budget amendment -- if his last three vote in the house and senate to send it to the states, and then votes at ther3/4 states. it takes to incendy house members to pass it, 67 senators. -- it takes 270 house members to pass it, 67 senators. we now have to under 40 house republicans to pass it. we will need 30 democrats to send it to the senate and send it to the states. we need 67 votes in the senate to pass this amendment.

47 republicans have signed a letter committing to that. we will need, to win that fight, 20 democrats to set forward and pass this amendment down to the states. it is going to be, as you would imagine, a fight, and we are calling to meet everyone in america we e'en in with their lawmakers they are right to support this amendment or not. the next that is sending it to the states. we will need 38 state legislatures to approve that the amendment for it to become part of our constitution. we will need 38 states to do it. this map shows the red part of the country, our legislatures and states controlled by republicans. the blue by democrats. purple are split, and nebraska is non-partisan. as you can tell, to get this amendment ratified, will require all 26 republican-

controlled legislature's, all eight of the split, nebraska as well, and then we will need at least one more, if not two democratic states to approve it. it is going to be a battle this fall in congress, and then hopefully, if we can prevail, and it goes to the states, and everyone in america, their elected state legislators, will have a chance to weigh in on a balanced budget amendment. tell me if i am wrong. how much time will elapse in the state legislature to the time that amendment gets to austin and you approve it? not very long, i would imagine. we have got a challenge on the balanced budget amendment. think is the solution to getting the federal government's spending under

control, and right now it seems to me people -- debts and deficits -- is country has added $5.50 trillion over the last four years, over the last -- is that we have never imagined in our lives, and people in our district are either angry or have given up. they have almost disappeared their country will ever live within its means. there are solutions to doing it. but we have to take lessons that we have learned from how this government works and how the state government works. earlier this year, some of you may remember i asked my committee to look across the globe. i said i want you to look at every country that has got themselves in deep financial trouble like america has. what they did to get out of debt, and what they did to get their economy going at the same time, and we studied for 40

years in our global competitors, and what we learned is 26 times, nine of our competitors, when they got themselves in trouble, including canada, next door, when they lowered their spending and they lowered what they owed as a nation, guess what happened -- our economy took off, and it took off dramatically. we know what the model is to get our economy moving as well, and to get our financial house in order. the second thing i did is i asked the same group, look at the state to i think to a better job of controlling spending than washington does. tell me the tools that states use to control spending. we look at them. we look at sunset laws, line item vetoes, balanced budget amendment, tax limitation amendments, and we took what we learn from our competitors and took what we learn from our states and put them in a bill to control spending in washington.

act, andall the max it puts guard rails, discipline around the federal government, where you shrink the size of the month. a creigh guard rails and such a way that neither party can jump those guardrails, or borrow under them. what the bill does shrinks the size of the federal government by 1/4 this decade. it starts to shrink it now. it sunsets programs and agencies because we literally have a big government, we do not even know all the programs and agencies that exist today, much less the ones that duplicate time and time again. the latest report we got from the gao commissioner, we have one program duplicating itself

84 times. each with its own bureaucracy, its own staff, own money, and we cannot afford that. it sunsets agencies. we put guard rails around the white house. we require each year they sent an honest budget to congress that stays with in the guard rails, so it has to be a real budget that stays with a nose guard rails. we give the president, every president, a line item veto, and the reason we call it an item reduction veto is it is a sharper scalpel. governor's use this, and what we found was that the governors who have the best success in controlling spending and cutting out poor girl projects is when a budget came to them, may not only had the authority to zero out whole line item, they

could search for the pork and cut it out. finally, we end forever the threat of a government shutdown. you guys have seen this acted out before. it comes in the fall. party's fault and his hat over spending. there is the threat of a government shutdown, and at the end of the day you see more spending. add in this bill we end that threat and we have a simple budget that continues. if congress that locks on the budget, the federal government continues on, but at a 10% cut. when congress gridlocks, it is the tax payers who win and not the bureaucrats who win. congress needs to do its job each year. two years now we have not seen a

budget of the senate yet, in the last more than two years. this will force lawmakers to the table. we did things differently in this bill to make sure that we do not drive, make it possible to cut taxes, keep these taxes low, and we make sure congress cannot game the system because that is what they do in the past. a top economist at american enterprise institute call plan towell conceived pro cut government. the cato institute and citizens against government have weighed p as aport of the ma

way to control spending going forward. people often ask, republicans call where is your jobs plan, your government jobs planned? we believe that is the problem. we think washington is in the way of its recovery, and history proves us to be true. as government spending rose, johbs along main street shrink. the opposite is true as well. here is the chart that shows from 1981 when president reagan started to shrink the size of government, to 2001, we shrunk government severely late, and during that time we grew 37 million new jobs in america. when we started spending more as a nation, 2001, you can tell

where the attacks of 9/11, the war in iraq and afghanistan, the last four years you can see the spike. as government has grown, we have 2.5 million fewer jobs today. the answer to grow this economy is not more stimulus, not war bailouts, not more spending from washington, it is the opposite, get our financial house in order and shrink government. the map shows you the glide path that we put in place to get government shrunk down to the size we can afford overtime. -- over time. and this is a change, the spending the way it is projected to go under the matt act. it is dramatically different. the reason i bring you that, is we are going to fight for a balanced budget amendment. if we can get it through the congress, we're going to affect

-- are brought to fight for it at the state level. we will need laws to put guardrails around future congresses year from now. we need the right solution. i'm convinced the matt act is the right -- the map act is the right way to keep government affordable again. with that, we have some other stuff. let's stop at powerpoint at this time. let's take questions and answers from the crowd, any subject we want to talk about tonight. let's hear from you. you got a microphone? >> i am from liberty county. you mentioned the sunset provisions, which are good, but they only work if they are allowed to work. in 2001 and 2003, republican

controlled congress is of which you are a member asked what are now called the bush tax cuts. these included sunset provisions automatically and in 2010. this was done because congress did not want to fight notbyrd act, which would have shown that they would not snively increase the deficit during the following 10-year period. now you have reneged on that sunset role. yard try to avoid the consequences of those accepted -- of those acts. my question is, after 10 years, contrary to what we were assured, our country's economy is the worst since the great depression, much worse since bush took over. on what basis you claim that

making these tax cuts permanent would do what they have failed to do in the last 10 years? >> -- thank you for your question. i disagree with almost every part of a question. we did the next best thing. we phased in over time. unfortunately, the votes in the senate were not there. as far as the economy, i was glad to take, over the bush years, unemployment that averaged 5.5% than the 9.5% that we are enjoying under president obama. we will fight to extend those tax cuts for everybody, for every family, for seniors, ford jobs.

fed think the president has is exactly wrong. the worst thing we can do today is raise taxes on americans. why do we not just tax the millionaires and the villain is? s? and the billionaire' the answer is that our tax code is wrong today. we're taking more and more taxes and laying it on fewer and fewer americans. at the end of the day, that is a recipe for disaster for this country. i appreciate the comment appeared >> i have a follow-up question. -- i appreciate the comment. >> i have a follow-up question. you said you knew the question was coming. >> i met from the crowd. we will not be raising taxes for anyone for any reason. [applause] >> i want to say something about

taxes. first, i want to thank you for understanding that you represent everyone in your district, not just those people who elected you. i appreciate that very much. i appreciate you as a thinker. with respect to taxes, we talk about taxes as income taxes. you mentioned that half of those pay the taxes for the other half. i am sure that you are paying your taxes and i am not supporting you, but i think that we should give the opportunity to the other half of our country so they can contribute to the way our service and contribute to the country. so as we restructure our taxes, we need to figure out taxes and spending. [applause] when we talk about taxes in the upper 50% pay for everyone, we

should think about increasing taxes for everyone can is called a fee. it is called a transaction forwarded. i do not care what is called. we need to restructure that. >> i agree, one, that our tax code is unfair. you cannot design it to be harder to comply with than what we have today. it needs to be fundamentally reform. we are pushing for that reform in the tax code. many view -- many of you already know this. i think a flat tax would be an improvement over what we have today. but if we really want to reform the tax code so that the next generation sees fairness and we jump-start the economy and we remain the strongest economy in the world, my view is that we need a fair tax a consumption- based tax. [applause]

yes, ma'am. >> i am from johnsonville. why is medicaid less than medicare? it seems that there are so many more people on medicaid. >> great question. the main difference is that all seniors hitting that age going to medicare. medicaid is for the low-income. it in crude's -- it includes both children and low-income families. medicare, because it is primarily health care aside from financial health and it continues to grow at a very high clip, that is what is driving medicare going forward. you hear a lot of efforts to try to scare seniors in america today.

the problem we have -- medicare is so important, but it runs out of money in 12 years. some accountants say that it becomes insolvent in 12 years. if congress does not act, medicare and itself. we need to act now to keep that program in place, both for these seniors and for the next generation as well. we propose that, if you're 55 years or older, there is no change to you. your medicare today -- if you get into medicare in the next decade, medicare does not change. but for the next generation, we make some changes, give them some choices, providing models that federal employees have, and their prescription drug plan offered to seniors today will not only continue, but to be more tailored to them. my concerns is that congress,

like it has in the past, will put its head in the sand. it is too tough or too popular -- or not too popular and they will not act to save medicare now. my mom is on medicare. i am not going to do anything to jeopardize that for her. but i know there are young people in this room for paying of their salary to pay for medicare and it will not be for them. it will not be around for them unless we begin to act. how many of you believe that congress needs to act now to preserve the program? [applause] that is what we see in our district. >> my name is bob olstein. know whether i was fortunate or unfortunate to come up in a time when my parents came from the start of the

1900's all the way up to 1995- 1996, over 100 years. both my parents seemed to think and were firm believers in one thing -- if government found a way to have an income tax, it would never decrease. it would only increase. over the years, the government has proved them right. every year that i hear an election, somebody will do something about it. it is never radical enough or if enough people are willing to stand up to pay the price that it will take this country to get back to the point where government ceases to take your freedom, ceases to take our

income. the people have a choice. right now, in my lifetime, i do not see that people have a choice. it is all up there in washington. as much as i hate to say it, over the years that i have lived and participated in the military and other things in my life, all i have seen is a degeneration. as taxes increase and entitlements increase, socialism to the point that i would say better than half of a person's salary now goes to illegal immigrants and people that are no longer working, whether it is their choice or whether they just want to live off the government.

i really enjoy listening to congressmen and senators who will run and they all makes sucpromises. i heard a man over here say y do not do more? excuse me? not yet. he's going to respond. i know this. my question to you is, all the rhetoric aside, if you had a chance to go for a fair tax and you had a chance to go for a zero budget, how strongly would you stand up for it? would you be willing to put your career on the line for that? i am now done. >> bob, thank you. the answer is absolutely yes, i would. the only reason i run for congress is that we have two

little boys. we have a 12 year-old and a nine year-old. their future will be less than mine and yours if we do not win the battle in washington today. i know people do not like the battles that we're having, but it is about the future of the country. will we have a government that continues to grow and grow and take more and more of what we earn or will we have more faith in people and shrink the size of government and make it constitutional again and give our kids some opportunity? the only reason i'm here is to make that sacrifice to get this country back on the right track. we will need, as we find these fights, your support in doing this. i am a co-sponsor of the fair tax, as you know. i have the sunset law. i think the real answer on how we get spending under control is that we will need more votes and more people behind it.

thank you. >> i live in riverside, texas. good to see you again. my subject for today is the federal register. the story today on 7:40 a.m. was at the federal register last month passed regulation that will greatly affect only the state of texas power plants. very selective. while the number of bills that have made it to the house and the senate is not at an all-time high this year, national forests are being laid down by the administration's regulators. is there any way that we can review, muzzle -- my preference is to put the federal register in a state of review that will and january 2013. right now, the federal register is the tool with which the

administration is enacting their agenda. >> the point that scott is driving home is that, in the federal register, we see all the new rules and all the new regulations that are getting pumped out of washington at a level we have never seen in our lifetime. they are regulations dealing with obamacare, creating 159 new federal agencies, bureaucracies, new rulings with dog-franc -- with dodd-frank. we are told that when there is a new bureaucracy, hold on to your pocketbook. the epa is on steroids these days. it is pumped up and taking its biggest swing against our state of texas. it is taking our refinery

permits for new rules on air drip. and penalizing us because we are a state that has not bought into their back door effort to put caps and trade and global warming regulations in place. so we are fighting all of these in a major way. but scott, here's the answer. those regulations go out the door. they are in place. they're doing the damage. congress rarely moves quick enough to repeal them, especially if the white house is supporting it, which it is. the answer is a bill that has been introduced by one of my colleagues in the ways and means committee, jeff davis from kentucky, called the rein in act. it puts a stopper on new rules and regulations. if it has an impact of more than $100 million on our

economy and in our country, before those rules and regulations go into place or into effect, congress has to approve them. i think that is the solution to stopping that tidal wave of regulation. between now and next november, this president will -- we will pass the rein in act out of the house. we will have another fight in the senate over. ultimately, we need a bill like that. do you agree? is that something that might be helpful? >> yes. in addition to not being very green by playing down many national forests for the paper that it prints -- [laughter] kind treesur live. by putting it in a state of review, that puts the register

process on hold. i chose to make it january 2013 because that is when president. will be sworn in. [laughter] -- president perry will be sworn in. [laughter] [applause] >> i apologize for not standing. i have a bit of trouble. i know this is a sensitive subject. i see very clearly that there is a sort of royalty, a class kind of difference between what our congressmen, federal employees, and so forth are receiving by the way of salaries and benefits, etc. the question of what the private sector used to be or receive is ahead of what the federal government employees receive. all of that is reversed now.

i see a situation that we, the taxpayers, are relegated into certain programs, such as this new health care. the federal employees have a different program. they do not have to participate in social security. there is something not right here. it is getting worse instead of better. >> thank you for being here. you are right. congressman should live under the same laws that everyone else in america has to live by. [applause] and there has been some progress along that line. in 1984, congress changed social security and their retirement system and health care. they ended their separate health

care plan. they put them in with the rest of the federal workers. and members of congress -- we have bluecross-blue shield. we have a choice of health care plan. we pay for it. for retirement, they did the same thing. they put this in with the rest of the federal workers. that is to get away from these cadillac plans. then in 1994, speaker newt gingrich and that congress passed laws to put congress under the laws of the land and a whole list of those agencies, regulations, osha, people opportunity apply to congress. so there has -- equal opportunity to apply to congress. so there has been some progress there. the salary in the federal sector has gotten too large. they are now outpacing what is happening along main street. it used to be the opposite of that. study whereaw one stead

there were how many more federal workers in a state that made more than the governor of that state. that has to and. i have a bill that starts to reverse that. it cuts the size of our federal work force by 10%. shrinks the size of government, starts to reform some of those plans. i do not think it is the end solution, but it is the start of the solution. i get the same e-mails that you get about members of congress and retirement. i know members of congress got full retirement after two years. no one would serve longer than two years. i know that to be the case. thankfully, they changed a lot of those plans as they should have. now i think it is in a better position. this gentleman right there.

>> i would like to give back to the federal registry. i checked that document today. the united states government has 551 agencies. the great vast majority of them people have never heard of. i noticed that since congress has been on recess and the president has been on vacation, the epa has been on fast forward. i noticed that some of the things this congress has voted down, such as cap and trade. they went ahead and did regulation just like it was law. they seemed to ignore congress. my question to you is who oversees these agencies?

many of the regulations have attached an excise tax, such as tires, dryers, many things. who oversees these agencies and who gives them the power to do that? thank you. >> the question is who oversees these agents is like epa? the answer is congress does oversee these agencies. the problem with this, the epa, for example, they have taken a supreme court ruling that allows them to regulate certain emissions -- greenhouse gas emissions -- and they have taken that and stretched that into a global warming agenda. this is one of our biggest fights in washington. and the house, at the very get go, not only voted to repeal obamacare, the president's

health care plan, but to repeal the 40 to do captan trade through the back door, to do the epa regulations on our refineries, on our cement plants, and so forth. our problem continues to be the same. none of those bills devote in the senate. they certainly never make it to the president's desk. i am convinced that, if we are going to stop these regulations, you have to turn them back. we will have to repeal some lawmakers along the way until we get to the point that we can repeal them. [applause] just straight talk, you and me, that is what it will take. yes, sir. >> the obama administration released their epa regulations where they will eliminate 65,000

jobs in coal. did that come to congress? >> no, i did not. that is why we need a new law for that. i can tell you -- i am not exaggerating -- but coming from an energy state, this white house sincerely believes that energy jobs and oil and natural gas and coal are expendable, that they're not clean energy jobs and they do not count. meanwhile, we become more dependent on foreign forces of oil. their 100-year supply and it is gaining every day. we're getting blocked in washington from trying to access this. it is a fight. i do not understand why we do not create more american-made energy with american-made workers. whenever the president says i

want the energy companies to pay more to get our deficit under control, i have a solution. put the energy companies back to work. we can read least $7 billion and taxes a year off the table because we do not have access to the gulf, to the coast of alaska, and we leave 1 million jobs on the table by not doing it. this is a constant fight. unfortunately, oil, natural gas, and to certain degree nuclear, they are all on the bedside. it makes no sense. >> we have time for three or four more. >> great. >> bill bonn, trinity. the department of

transportation has a move going now that will require acl corp. -- a cdl or a commercial driver's license to use farm equipment. [laughter] >> our recent is that regulation? >> i read it the first time about a week ago. >> that makes no sense at all. let me get the information from you. let's grab on to that. we would be glad to challenge that. that makes no sense at all. this tells you that these bureaucrats have too much time on their hands. secondly, they have never been within a thousand miles of a far more range. you can tell that as well.

>> you're talking about safety for the nation. when we talk about safety, we come in texas, arizona, and new mexico, are very concerned about our borders. i have heard from all possible and they have already had several gunshots that have come across the border right there in town. when we talk about government safety and air country's safety, we need to talk about the border, the illegal aliens -- i know that that is not politically correct -- but i cannot make myself say the other word. in conjunction with that, all the foreign aid, people say we have to send this money to foreign countries so that they will like this.

they are not liking is one bit more now than at before we said then millions of dollars. >> i agree. foreign aid merely be 1% of our budget. but every dollar counts. there are plenty of countries that can stand on their own that do not need $1 of our help. we will significantly cut aid to those countries. i can tell you that. second point, you are right on target. when your own administration admits we only have operational control of less than half of the border, you know there is a real problem. if a country cannot control its borders, it cannot control its future. period. i really believe this. you have to shut the back door of illegal immigration so you

can keep open the front door of legal immigration. people want to come here and better their lives, but to have to come in through the front door. it affects the texas landowners across the border and they will tell you what is happening today. we need more boots on the ground on the border. we need deportations for those who break the law. i think that the president's new backdoor amnesty is exactly the wrong thing. sends the wrong signal. i also believe that we have to shut off the magnets of jobs in america for those who are here illegally. not only is it illegal, but it

is unfair for a company in huntsville to follow the rules and have its competitor across the street not follow the rules and win the bids and get the contracts as a result. i know this is controversial in washington. but i am a co-sponsor of legislation to end what many people called angkor babies. when those moms come across the border -- [applause] i really believe that front door of legal immigration is what built this country. the more we allow and turn a blind eye at the back door, the more we invite more of that. i know the constitution is that dispute whether that legislation should pass. i say to send it to the supreme court. let them make the decision about citizenship or not.

i will live with the results. i do not believe that that is what our founding fathers intended in that section of the constitution. we have a lot of work to do. it has to start with the white house. >> because of technical problems, we were unable to bring you the last few minutes of this event. to learn more about capitol hill, you can get c-span's congressional directory. you will find contact information for senators and representatives, including twitter addresses. you will also find district men's and committee assignments. it is $11.45 plus shipping and handling. order online ad c-span bought or/-- at c-span.org/shop.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] next, the terrorism report. >> tomorrow morning, former undersecretary of state nicholas burns talks about the role of nato in libya. we will discuss the position of governments disabling cellphone use. and we will focus on trends and democrat max -- and demographics in crime. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> two of the newly reopened slave quarters at george washington's mount vernon on c- span 3.

they provide a historic the accurate depiction of slave life in 18th-century virginia. alexander butterfield talks about the secret taping system in the nixon white house. the civil war ended in a tremendous loss of life, but great advances in medicine. the director of the national museum of civil war madison talks about the lessons learned during the four years of civil war. get the complete weekend schedule at c-span.org/history. >> according to a survey of global terrorism, there has been more than 38,000 terrorist attacks in the past 40 years against all nations, including the united states. now an hour-long discussion on the survey findings and counter- terrorism strategies since 9/11.

>> good morning and thank you for joining us here at the heritage foundation. it is my privilege to welcome everyone. we welcome those who join us on our heritage.org website. we will ask everyone to make that courtesy check to make sure sell phones are off. we will post this program within 24 hours on our website for everyone's future reference. hosting a discussion is dr. james k. care final. he is director of r. douglass and sarah allison's center for foreign policy studies and deputy director of the catherine and shelley: davidson

institute. he is a member of the national academy's board for science and technology. the department of the army historical advisory committee, and a senior fellow at george washington junior -- george washington university homeland security policy institute. he has authored several books, including private sector public course, contracting and con tracked iraq, as well as co- author and with one of our colleagues here, winning the long war, lessons from the cold war for defeating terrorism and preserving freedom. [applause] >> let me thank all of you for coming. numbers are important and they really matter. they could also be horribly abused. there is an argument about why are we are worried about terrorism? if you look at the statistics, you're more likely to be killed

by a meteor that a terrorist. this is way overblown. we should be spending money on this. all those numbers are true entirely irrelevant. terrorism is not about killing people. 9/11 is an aberration because, per-capita, it is one of the most horrific terrorist incidents in modern times. terrorism was never about killing people. it is about threatening a way of life. and you do treated differently than a car accident. so it is significant. their people out there who are threatening our way of life. some of them actually do not want to kill us in the hundreds of thousands. they want to kill us in the millions. those are big numbers. that would make a world-changing difference. members are important. but they are important in context. i hope that that is what this event is about. let me answer all these stupid 9/11 questions up front. then we can get to the real work.

are we safer? of course we are safer. when dave and just talked about coming empirically, if you look at the numbers, we're safer than we were september 10, 2000. it is demonstrably probable. america is a harder targets than it was 10 years ago. are we safe? no, i course we are not say. .- we're not safe it is remarkable that we are as safe as we are given the size of this country and the freedoms we enjoy here. will we be less safe in the future? probably. the reason for that is because of decisions made by this administration and going for it and how they deal with counter- terrorism been when president obama came into office, many analysts said that this was bush like it if you got below the rhetoric, the administration was doing a lot that the bush

administration had done. that is a true statement. that is why, generally, the progress we have made on the war of terrorism has continued. but the administration is going in a very different direction. that will create greater problems in the future. i have concerns that, if we stay on the new path that this administration has lined up, in two years, we will be back where we were on september 10, 2001. the heritage foundation is releasing a counterterrorism strategy, an alternative to this administration's. i want to talk about the foundation of this strategy. what did this based on this empirically what works and what does not work and what we have learned. it is an assessment of not what we learned from 9/11 -- i get very angry of people who are very reflective and use 9/11 as a baseline to determine how far

we have come. it is interesting, but irrelevant. the world has moved on. the world that we live in today and in terms of what we do and what evil people who want to kill as what to do is significantly different. so looking at 9/11 is really fighting the last war. we have to deal with the threat that we face today and we have to learn from what we have done in the last 10 years. that is what we have tried to capture in our counter-terrorism strategy. the foundational part of the strategy is looking at it empirically on america's experience in combating terrorism over the last 40 years. i have asked two of our premier analysts to talk about some of the empirical research ribbon to understand terrorist trends. speaking first will be dave small house and -- dave m

uhlhausen. he will talk about a tax here and worldwide over -- he will talk about a taattacks here and worldwide over the past 40 years. and then just good zuckerman -- jessica zuckerman will continue the conversation. dave, over to you. >> thank you. i thank everybody for coming out today. with the 10th anniversary of a terrorist attacks coming, america will be thinking about the last 10 years. there have been many other

attacks against other nations of the world. i co-authored this with gen baker mcneil. the data looks at -- it starts in 1969 and goes to 2009. the data was obtained from the rand database on worldwide terror incidents appeared in only includes terrorist attacks that were successfully carried out. the rugged and became more than just numbers and bits of information to me. it got me -- the raw data became more than just numbers and with some information to me.

in 1983, we had 241 american servicemen killed along with 58 french servicemen killed as well. another incident was the 1985 hijacking of twa 947 by shiite terrorists. we knew that a u.s. navy diver was killed. who can forget seeing the videotape, watching this live, or watching it on the nightly news, saying that the pilot of the airplane -- seeing the pilot of their plan in the window with the terrorist in the background. and next was the 1985 hijacking of a cruise ship. in this case, an american who was a wheelchair-bound was brutally killed and thrown into

the mediterranean. these are just a few of the terrorist attacks recorded in this data set. it is only a tiny slice of all the terrorist attacks that occur worldwide. from 1969 to 2009, there have been over 30,000 terrorist attacks against all nations, including the u.s. parent of these attacks, about 8%, 3000 instances, have been against the united states. the reminding -- the remaining 92% were against other nations. if we just look at international terrorism directed at the united states, nearly 5600 people lost their lives and more than 16,300 people have suffered injuries during this 40-year time span. how harmful has terrorism been

during these 40 years? let's look at the fatalities. the average number of fatalities for a terrorist attack against a nation other than the united states is often about 1.7 incidents is paired for the united states, a averages about two incidences' per terrorist attack. excluding september level, the number drops to about one. the same holds true for injuries. the average number of interesins yields about 3.9 injuries per incidents. the united states has about 5.9. if you exclude september 11, it drops to 5.1. it is obvious that most terrorist attacks are not as deadly as september 11, but people do die and people are injured. what about other regions in the world? what are the targets of terrorism?

for certain targets, the united states is disproportionately the object of that. you look at military personnel, out of all attacks worldwide against military personnel, the united states accounts for 43%. that is a significant proportion. of all attacks against diplomatic institutions, the united states accounts for about 28%. for businesses across the world, when a businesses targeted during the 40 years, the united states accounts for about 44%. where does terrorism occur against the united states? most occur outside, which i think is good. what region of the world -- you think the middle east, the persian gulf accounts for most

terrorist attacks? do you think most terrorist attacks occur in the middle east and the persian gulf? only about 20%. in 40 years, 36% have occurred in latin america and the caribbean. europe accounts for about 23%. africa is 4% and north america 4%. from 2001 to 2009, how do domestic terrorism and other terrorism compared to reach other? there were 91 homegrown terrorists incidences of all kinds within the united states. as opposed to 380 terrorist attacks against united states elsewhere. the most prevalent u.s. targets of international terrorism was businesses at 27% and diplomatic

offices at 17% the two most prevalent u.s. targets for domestic terrorism were businesses, at 43 percent since -- at 43%. what was the preferred method of attack? with international terrorism, bombings account for 65% of all acts pin for domestic terrorism, arson is the most frequent and accounts for about 46%. all these domestic homegrown incidences', arson is the preferred method. these arson attacks were conducted by left-wing groups such as earth liberation front and animal liberation front. the human cost from 2001 to 2009, we had 21 fatalities from

domestic terrorism and almost 3900 fatalities from international terrorism. the same holds for injuries. we had about 83 injuries for domestic terrorism about 5100 injuries resulting from international terrorism. that is a brief overview. you can get more detail in this report on line. i hope this report is helpful for the public and policymakers to understand the trend in terrorism over the last four years. >> in 2007, the heritage foundation became the first and only organization that track and sorted information. that year, we reported 19 publicly-known terrorist attacks have been thwarted since 9/11. the fact that the united states

has not seen a large-scale successful attack since 9/11 truly speaks to our counter some successes. but applauding our achievement and taking only a 4-looking approach to preventing the next potential attack is not enough. reviewing those terrorist plots that have happened since 9/11 can provide valuable information. perhaps two of the most memorable was recently have been that in times where in 2010 and the christmas bomber in 2009. were it not for the intelligence community or the quick response of law enforcement, these two plots and whether or three examples of how everyday people have prevented terror attacks. bystanders notice specific behavior when a man tried to

detonate a bomb in times square. by standards immediately reported what they sought to police. authorities were able to apprehend him, but only after he boarded a plane at j. -- at jfk airport to divide. while it was technically successful in the sense that no one was harmed, relying on citizens to detect and for a terrorist attack is far from an effective strategy. this does not mean that there is no role for citizens in helping our overall counter-terrorism effort citizens, much like state and local law enforcement, no other community and know when something is not prepared in the -- when something is not right. in the fort dix plot, programs like the dhs see something and

say something is absolutely essential. the fbi arrested two men in a seattle warehouse in a plot to attack a local military recruiting center. the seattle police department and fbi worked well in coordinating their efforts with the fbi able to act on information from cl pd. this illustrates perfectly for the need for robust partnerships among state and local law enforcement in counter-terrorism matters. such robust partnerships are equally as important on an international level. terrorism is truly a global threat.

those who attend terrorism at safeetraining camps do so havens around the world. while europe has also served as a base for recruiting and planning attacks, including retrograde citizen who attended a shoe bombing, this means that american home and security measures cannot begin at the point where the threat has already arrived at the united states. looking at the thwarted a plot since 9/11, the five targets that we have seen most are new york city, unclear or unnamed

targets, washington, d.c., airplanes and airports, and new jersey. despite these cleared trump, policy makers -- clear attempts, resources for -- since 9/11, not a single one of the gods have been stopped because of security measures at the airport. one of the three successful plots since 9/11 was a shooting at a ticket counter at lax in los angeles. congress has poured billions of dollars into transportation security measures at the screening line, introducing three- measures like the nin

one-one liquid role. the real lesson that can be found in reviewing the 40 plots that have been diverted since 9/11 is the corner store of effective counter terrorism. simply throwing money at the problem or applying new technologies is not the answer. continuing american success in fighting terrorism requires the dedication by congress and the executive branch to run say security. only in this way can plots can be stopped before the public is in danger. >> i think a lot of people are confused about some things. there is a difference between homeland security at large and anti-terrorism and counter- terrorism. homeland security is about

protecting targets, responding to threats. anti-terrorism is trying to pick up the bad guys as they come through the wire. and counter-terrorism is about proactively going out and stopping the bad guys before they get to you. that includes everything from taking out leadership to disrupting organizations to fresh trading operations and planning, to decrease in funding and fund-raising and recruiting. we published earlier this week -- we had an event that talked about the homeland security part of that and some of the anti- terrorism part of that. here is the focus of what we really looked at. we looked at really where the big bang for the buck is. we have been in this business since before 9/11. time and time again, i come back

to the argument that the bang for the security buck is before the danger gets here. stopping cancer is the best thing. it is nice to be able to treated and recover four. i would never say do not spend money on homeland security and do not have any terrorism measures. but if you do not have your investments in counter-terrorism right, it is like winning for the cancer to strike. those are important, but supplemental efforts. the counterterrorism strategy is really about killing cancer. this administration is about to make a very big pit in a different direction in its

counterterrorism strategy. is dead wrong. i deny use that term lightly. -- i do not use that term lightly. they are ceasing to hold the initiatives in combating terrorism. in every conflict, there is offense and defense. there is going after the bad guys try to score and there is waiting for them to come to you and reacting to that. if he deconstructs where the administration is going, it is shifting from a proactive strategy to going out and stopping problems to basically a conservative defensive reactive strategy. seating the minister to the enemy is always a bad idea. there are four fundamental problems that we talk about. the first is that they really are consciously trying to revert to the law enforcement paradigm

that we had before 9/11. this is the fundamental strategy we used to combat terrorism in the 1990's, which is to treated just as another law enforcement problem. do not give it the respect of an enemy who is trying to kill you. just try it -- just treated like to do murder and fire and everything else. this misreads the enemy we are facing. they are trying to mobilize a global insurgency to overthrow free nations around the world. treating that is a -- treating that as a simple crime is like treating hitler like a simple crime. secondly, is what is going on in afghanistan. the administration is intent on prematurely leaving afghanistan. that will create space for the taliban to come in and restructure a strange where in the country. that will provide an option for allocated to come in and reconstitute and then they will have a dual option, to either reconstitute in afghanistan or pakistan.

the third problem is what i call the small footprint strategy. the administration will never say that they will stop counter terrorism overseas because they will not. but there is what they call the small footprint. we do not have to have an enduring footprint or boots on the ground anywhere. we can have special operation forces and a couple of spies here and there. this is a repeat of the strategies of the 1990's. the problem with the small footprint is that you do not have knowledge of what is going on the ground. you are reliant on the people to give you that, whether it is targeting a drum or understanding which try this on your side. you simply become dependent on others for information. the more you dependent you become, the more they use that information to drive their agenda as opposed to yours. there is a consistent effort on the part of the administration to simply de0enituib -- de-

emotionalize this. what we argued for in our shared gene -- in our strategy in terms of what we think are the key things that are very important, the united states will have to be actively engaged in afghanistan and pakistan and india for some time to come. there is no alternative to that. this administration can walk away. in two years, we will be back there again. that is just the reality of the next decade. we spend a lot more focus on our strategy in is emergent problems, which is state- sponsored terrorism particularly by iran and transnational criminal activities in mexico, which are taking on

characteristics of not only a terrorist organization, but also on insurgency. this president simply refuse to come up with a long-term sustainable program for the detention of terrorists. that is a serious problem. detaining and investigating terrorists is probably the most valuable source of operational intelligence. i talked with senior police officials in new york. there will tell you that 90% of the most valuable information they get is from interrogation. of that 90%, almost all of it comes from interrogations' conducted overseas. we talked a lot of this strategy in capacity building. the united states cannot, should not, does now have to be everywhere in the world. but we work with friends and allies and build up their capacity. we do a bad job at doing that. the administration can say that we are doing that now. but we're not doing it in any way that is efficacious or efficient. we spend a lot of time talking

about cyber security and combating terrorism online. we spend a lot of time in their report talking about naming the enemy and the importance about the importance of talking about islamic ideology. we talk a lot in your report about the issue of domestic radicalization and extremism. the administration came out with a strategy about countering violent extremism. there is some valuable information in that document and some valuable tools. the administration and has not revealed unplanned -- the plan and use the local government.

ahe final point we may is las robust strategy is completely affordable. i keep getting the impression of this administration believes we have to cut back on the war on terror because we cannot afford it. that is true. this nation can afford to defend itself. we cannot defend the country on the cheap, so we talk about the importance of thought. -- of data. you are not going to have the ability. you are going to have a significant decline in intelligence capability.

in're going to see cut things that are valuable, and we are not going to be able to do the official capacity we need to do. those cuts are the biggest threat to our security, so i will be pleased to take your questions and observations and comments, so if you would just raise your hand and wait until you get the microphone so folks listening on the radio or tv can hear the question, and if you would save your affiliation, that would be helpful. >> my name is adam nixon. i am with the middle east broadcasting. i want to talk specifically about the massive terrorist attack. all of us will remember back to 2002. a lot of the conversation was about anthrax, 30 bombs, and we

have seen that conversation waned somewhat, meaning we have gotten better at dealing with these things. how is that conversation affected by the arab sprained? -- arabs spring? maybe the ear of spring seemed to happen on a different track, but yesterday it -- the error of spring seemed to have a different track. yesterday we saw that libya's seem to be insecure. where are we regarding the massive terrorist attack? >> that is a great question and your ego -- a great question. past performance is no guarantee of future, so all of this stuff is no guarantee of what terrorists are going to do in the future.

we have seen a terrorist innovation, some of it quite dramatic, if you think back to the japanese cult. they killed a lot of people, because they have all the money in the world. they just were not smart and research and development. if you look at it from the chapter perspective, there is plenty of aspirational talk about massive terrorist attacks and killing people, so that is certainly out there, but it does remain aspirational. there has been some good work on the high end of focusing on weapons of mass destruction, and i think that is largely well spent. i hate this discussion, where they say nuclear terrorism is a low probability but high

consequences. but is stupid stock. if you are going to issue a probability. you have to have a data set. you have a data set of zero, so how are you issuing a probability? you cannot. you cannot issue probability on things like that. those are comforting words to some people. it is a low probability, but that is a meaningless term. these are things that can happen, and when they do happen, we will pretend we are surprised like the 6.0 earthquake, when it is perfectly predictable. it is worth while worrying about weapons of mass destruction, but what we are seeing is while people still have interest in getting materials, the trend is what i call weapons of mass destruction, and which is

stringing together a bunch of activities to create a larger scale of fat out of scale -- defect out of scale with what you are doing. mumbai was a few guys magnifying there are activities through chaos and destruction. architects are on their way back, and multiple bombings are another good example, where you have a bomb, and people respond, and there is another bomb, so it does not take a genius to say, let's do a couple of those. if i was going to take a look of the future, i would say you need to worry about people stringing things together that would have scope out of consequence with

what they are doing like adding a cyber attacks. if there is a wave of the future, it is to sow chaos by stringing things together. the flip side is when you do that, the more sophisticated your plot becomes, the more signals you send off, if you have a good counter terrorism, that should be more easily countered. that is where we are today. >> stewart, a private citizen. since somebody in this country would tend to lay low and would not be a small criminal while waiting to carry out his plot, has anyone made a correlation between this latest fed -- this latest we will not support whoever we round up with this

latest? >> the data shows, particularly when you looked at the united states, terrorists and to be a small data set, so there is almost no community where you can say, that is where you will find the terrorists. law enforcement have been able to address it, so we saw a lot of activity in the somali community, but it is a red flag. if you try to recruit someone, you are as likely to recruits and fbi agent. you raise a good point, which i think is worth discussing everybody throws out the lone

wolf was something we should all be scared about. a few lone wolves are truly hidden. when we look at the norway guy, when they started, and what did they discover, they discovered a lot of signals of what that guy had done the should have drawn attention of law enforcement. i am not talking about freedom of speech or whatever. the indicators would have us lis triggered an investigation or a police a law enforcement region would have at least triggered an investigation. you are going to find some people that are going to be totally obscure, but the good

news is if they kill a lot of people, it is because they are lucky, not necessarily because they are good. they are probably only going to do it once, because there is no network to support them. would you really worry about is if someone has a network that can do bad things, that is a threat to society. we talk aloud about transnational criminal activity and why that is such a concern. there is $40 billion a year for people, drugs, money, and guns. they were the only people who did not ask for any stimulus money. they have a vested interest. they are an organization, and they increasingly have characteristics but look like a

terrorist groups, so those are the ones you need to worry about. the lone wolves provision is one of the provisions you need to talk about. talk about why they are significant. >> specifically if you look get the three plots, even though they had red flags, if you look at the christmas day bomber, his father went to the state department, points to the need for early intelligence, and within that is the patriot act, and there are three key provisions of have been up for renewal every year, and they have yet to get authorization, and they have been key in thwarting several of these attacks.

we have seen many instances of really point to the fire but this is an important provision for intelligence that -- to the fact this is an important provision for intelligence that should get authorization. >> criminal investigations do not normally work on a calendar, so many of them can go on for months or years, and you think from the investigators perspective, if you are using investigative authority to go after a systematic conspiracy, and you do not know if those authorities are going to be around six months from now, so you are playing an investigation not knowing what tools are going to be available to you next year. that makes no sense, so this annual renewal is the worst thing possible, but the notion that we renew it, so we are in

good patriots, i do not think that cut it anymore. we do not give them an indication of what tools are going to be available, and some of these material cases, it takes a long time to build a case you need to build. >> we are not giving them several tools for criminal investigation. >> i am a congressional staff member. looking of some of the different things going on with the budgetary environment and the strategic environment, you foresee in the future that there could be of blood in the water affect that we could track with our involvement in the rest of the world? is the major threat here? >> dave has got a great start in

his report where -- a great to report it is very clear the soviet aggression post-u.s. failure in vietnam, where the soviets believe we were on the decline and all we needed was a of a push over the age commons and in so you sought insurgencies and terrorism being sponsored worldwide, so the numbers through the eighties go up and up. the cold war ends, and the numbers fall off the chart. there is a case where we went to sleep in the 1970 costs, and things got worse the cold war

ends, and we are literally using the law enforcement paradigm. you find someone, you address them, and we are done. what you do not see in that trend is that are often -- as the numbers are going down, they are waning. now kited is laying the plots for global insurgency, so while the decline looks good, underneath that is the planning and setting for the 9-11 era, and then you see that being and by 2005,iveized, all of our programs are being put in place, and the numbers start to go down again common so

in my mind, they are repeating the mistakes of the end post cold war. the number of attacks us declined. >> if you go to the report on , you can see during the 1980's, terrorism is really taking off in the united states, and then we have a significant drop. then you have slow period. then we have a spike in 2001 and after, and we are building our resources during this time, and hopefully our resources are involved. we have a huge wayne, and then

its many creases. the question is are we going to be complacent, or are we going to realize, by not being proactive, the terrorists are plotting new ways, new innovations to carry out? we do not want to get pulled into a place of complacency and. we want to make sure that even though terrorist attacks against the united states have gone down, we need to make sure we are still vigilant. >> the you want to talk about 2009? >> what is interesting is that while we have seen the number of attacks go down, the number of plots have gone up. >> we have a question in the back.

>> when you were looking at outcomes, did you look at economic impact as a factor? as the strategy, you talk about really is leading, and given 80% of the ids are based on precursors' coming from fertilizer-based explosives. you already mentioned the do five bombings. you already mentioned oslo. what do you think about efforts to rein in fertilizer-based >> is basically counting the number. it does not look at economic and social factors. it is basically as a

descriptive analysis. this is what tactics were used, so this does not taken other draw conclusions about the economic impact. >> in terms of restrictions on material, when you look of a homeland security, it really is a cold calculus, so the question is, we are at the break point between doing something to take a bad thing off the table and the cost to you in terms of loss of economic productivity, economic freedom, and everything else. the constitution is a great guide, because it creates clear lines in terms los non- government can and cannot do, areas where itnto

is about a choice, because there areas about whaterriot' you can do and what government cannot do. you are talking about who will use, which is something you can use for something good or for something bad. you could perpetrate evil with a baseball about. you would want to keep an -- would you do about these things that are dual-use? this is a question of strategy. clearly, you want to pay attention, and on the high end.

there is an enormous effort to regulate a lot of things but do not really rise to the level of concern about weapons of mass destruction. i think it is legitimate for government to pay a lot of attention and concern. when you get to the lower end in of consequence, the balance shift somewhat, and that is not saying you do nothing. it is like a gun in gone home. you could have a law banning guns at home. i would not do that, but i might tell a parent to have the lock and key it in a closet out of the region of -- keep it in a closet out of the reach of

children, so i would put much more investment in the tools to detect people abusing rather than doing things like ending the use of fertilizer. i will give you an example of wasteful activities. almost every truck driver has to have a hazmat licence. that covers everything from fingernail polish. because we feel some potential terrorist might want to get a hold of fingernail polish, the driver has to have that knowledge. that is nouts. having to have a blanket lot is a drain on our society, and that is really are necessary if you're good -- relate on necessary. i would much rather see the

dollar go into sharing tools to identify with five people are going to do. we did what than people are going to do. -- identify what bad people are going to do. >> i want to come back to the question of the budget and the fiscal environment, because it seems you are advocating and expansionary international strategy. i just wonder whether or not there are things in the current strategy that you could identify that you would cut to be able to afford the kind of strategy. barkley are more on the homeland security cited -- >> we are more

on the homeland security side. fear inexcusable. we could not be on a debt crisis, but why are you spending money on things that are not delivering decades? there are a bid -- there is a good deal in terms of programs that are costing money for which we get no value or putting restrictions on our economic productivity and the movement of people, goods, and ideas that are not helpful. the basic ideas our homeland security clearance. i am going to have dave talk, because dave has done some ground-breaking research, and one in particular is to grant we give for a small fire departments.

>> we look at 10,000 fire departments, and about half received federal funding to purchase equipment, and we compared them to the other half. we found that fire departments and receives funding from the federal government actually did know better than fire departments but received no funding in terms of saving lives, so the federal government is putting a lot of resources into paying the fire department to the fire departments. it is just said we are going to assume part of your local budget.

there is a move towards supplanting the routine operations away from trying to help regions, cities, and counsel of the capacity to be able to respond. that is a more valuable role than to just pay fire departments to be fire departments. >> this is something we see in homeland security gross in general. it is opposed-911 -- a post-911 issue. quite honestly, that was the most readily obvious vehicle we have had, so it was the weapon of choice because it was the weapon at hand. what we have seen is after 10 , by and large if someone

was spending a dollar and the government gave them 50 cents, they would say thank you spend 57. we are not doing any capacity building, but the other thing is what we are doing is diverting resources into the state enterprise. if you are saying, what is the problem? i am paying taxes in maryland. i am paying to the federal government. i am going to pay one way or the other. the difference is you are not building capacity. the second thing is you are making the federal government and less responsive, and this is most clearly affective if you look at the coast guard. we are not putting the ships at sea that we need, so if you compare it, here is what

happened. state and local governments would pay for the things they need because they are safety requirements. >> you mentioned obama is trying not to call the enemy by its name. the you feel that is a fair critique? the enemy was identified as bin laden, and after the, it was saddam hussein. the you feel it is a fair

critique? >> i do, and it would have been fair to extend that to the bush administration as well, but i think this is one of the key findings of our report, which in addition to the great work is based on some pretty extensive open source intelligence research. there is a difference between an insurgency and a terrorist campaign. even terrorists that have an ideology, so the bottom line hoff -- baader gang were essentially terraces, who use violence to further a political

agenda curiosa -- agenda. insurgency can have the same goal, which is radical political change, and insurgency can use terrorism or other acts of violence as a component of that goal, but the difference is an insurgency also use other tools to a great extent, including propaganda, a political advocacy, psychological warfare, so insurgency is a broader attack on society than just slaughtering people in the street, and you have to have a different tactic for dealing with the insurgency fan with a terrorist campaign. if you have a wacky ideology and we kill you, you are done.

the problem with being an anarchist is your philosophy is there should be no organization. we got rid of them all. insurgency is more insidious than that. when you are fighting a terrorist campaign, you really do have a choice. look at the mafia.

the point is there is an ideology. look at the sopranos. it captures an ideology for these criminal organizations. the primary expression is through their activity, so we can battle the mafia without contacting their ideology. on the other hand, if the mafia was imbedded in a wide hence destruction, like we see with the cartels in mexico. then you would not only a half to battle them, but you would have do -- you would not only have to battle them but you would have to battle their ideas. battling the ideas is messy, because then you have to explain the difference between

religion and what is the difference between legitimate free speech and not legitimate free speech. i will give credit. there are some very good things in there, because what they talked about in that document is about giving tools not just to defend against terror attacks but to defend the civil society. how do you have an open debate? how do private citizens combat extremist ideas some of those are good tools -- extremist ideas? those are good schools. when they say we cannot fight a war of ideas, that is not true. but fundamentally gets to the root of the problem in the

administration, which is that many things are not politically correct for them, and they either have to not do them because they are not politically correct or to not do them and pretend they are not doing them because they cannot be seen to do them, because they do not like them. was there a question here? you get the last question. it is the last question, because we have to end at noon. >> with your strategy report about why the strategy will fail, islam as needs are rooted in a culture they fail to appreciate, while western ideas rest on these beliefs that of a farmer with power. you believe muslims of all

types basically agree with that assessment? >> i think that is a cultural comment, and i think it is true. it is rooted in practices of value and behavior, so if you are a good person, you are an honorable person. there are views that are based around power, so if people fear you, you are the most honorable person. that is perfectly acceptable and theological explanation of the different views of honor -- anthropological explanation of the different views of honor. this is one of the problems with warfare. the enemy gets a vote, and if

you do not appreciate how they view the world and what you are trying to do, you basically wind up fighting yourself. we are out of time. you have been brilliant copartners, so we thank you all for coming. these materials are on line, so join me in thanking our panelists. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> even though the dedication center for dr. martin luther king, jr.'s memorial has been

postponed because of the coming hurricane, others are still scheduled, including one tomorrow at noon eastern. this includes my angelou -- maya angelou and several lead. you can see that on c-span. the atlantic council is hosting a forum tomorrow on the future of libya. live coverage is on our companion network at 9:30 eastern.

>> note is the ever colored uc. -- notice the color you see. this char is where vervain gets all of its color and a lot of its flavor. -- bourbon gets all of its color of a lot of its flavor. they have discovered 200 flavors. >> this weekend, we highlight frankfort, kentucky, on booktv and american history tv. looked at the history of

literary life of the capital. douglas boyd on frankfurt's's crawfish bottom. span 3, a visit to one of only four distilleries open during prohibition for medicinal purposes. booktv and american history tv, in frankfort, kentucky, this weekend on c-span 2 and 3. >> the martin luther king memorial ceremony originally scheduled for sunday has been postponed because of the approaching hurricane. next, civil rights activist celebrate his life and legacy. this is about two and a half hours.

>> i am honored to be the master of ceremonies today, and we want to welcome everybody here for what is expected to be of great celebration and affirmation of our commitment to jobs, peace, freedom, and what dr. king stood for. i also want to let you know that we us a plan for the hurricane.

[applause] for everyone, very quickly, the martin luther king memorial is the first on the national mall to honor a man of hope, peace and color. the united states congress passed a joint resolution in 1996 authorizing the alpha phi alpha fraternity inc. to establish a memorial to dr. martin luther king. in december of 1999, the national capital planning commission and the u.s. commission of fine arts approved a site location for the king memorial on the national mall. it is noteworthy that the memorial site located on the tidal basin adjacent to the franklin delano roosevelt memorial is in a direct line between the lincoln and jefferson memorials, creating a visual line of leadership. the ceremony of groundbreaking took place on december 13th, 2006, and on sunday, august 28th, 2011, we will dedicate a memorial. please give dr. martin luther king a warm round of applause. we celebrate his name. we celebrate his vision.

let me hear you celebrate. [applause] his dream. we have a busy schedule this afternoon. we are going to work with the program through lunch. please enjoy the program. enjoy the lunch. we ask that you socialize and speak to each other, but please keep your voice is as low as possible so that those who want to follow the program can indeed do so. it is my pleasure at this point to introduce the mayor of washington, d.c., mayor vincent gray. [applause] >> thank you very much. good afternoon, everybody. i want to thank mark, one of our great mayors in america, for being here today. it is an honor for me to welcome

you here today and to this city, especially the civil-rights pioneers who have joined us today as part of this luncheon. frankly, i cannot describe adequately in words what it means to be the mayor of this great city at a time when we celebrate the dedication of this memorial to one of the greatest human beings who ever lived, who gave perhaps the greatest speech ever delivered, and delivered it in a fashion that no one else could have delivered it, like the rev. dr. martin luther king jr.. for those of you who have yet to see the memorial, you should get

down there as quickly as you can. it is awesome. it is awe-inspiring, and you will leave having been fully moved by it. we hope you'll enjoy the next couple of days. we will do the best we can to keep the weather as nice as we can. for those of you who do not know, we had an earthquake a couple of days ago, and we sent a message out and said, sorry, not this week. no earthquakes. we have already overcome the consequences of that and we will do what we have to do to overcome the consequences of irene. many of you fought the battle of civil rights, the battle for freedom, justice and equality, and i want to commend you for having waged that battle. i was fortunate enough to have been there at the lincoln memorial the day that dr. king delivered his speech, and frankly, it is as fresh today as it was when he delivered it on august 28th, 1963.

i want to ask you, and i know dr. king would, i want to ask you to join in a battle we are waging in the district of columbia. that is a battle for 600,000 people to be free in our nation's capital. it is time, ladies and gentlemen, for that to end. with 600,000 people who in the city pay taxes to the federal government every day. they do everything that is required to be a citizen. we send our sons and daughters off to fight wars in faraway places. we serve on federal juries and we fulfill all the responsibilities of being a citizen. yet, we cannot even improve our own local laws. we cannot even approve our own local budget. we're the only nation's capital in the democratic world to not have the votes in our national legislative body. we ask you during the time that you're here to stand up for

freedom in the district of columbia. back in 1965 in lafayette park, dr. king gave a speech and he called on congress to correct the injustice in the district of columbia. he said the congress had been derelict in their duties and sacred responsibility is to make justice and freedom of reality for all citizens of the district of columbia. in the spirit of this memorial, in the spirit of what dr. king stood for, and in the spirit of freedom, justice and equality all across the united states of america, i asked you to stand with us, the 600,000 people in this city, as we dedicate a memorial, dedicate our commitment once again to dr. king for freedom and justice. enjoy your stay in this great city. we welcome you and we look forward to several days of

wonderful activity as we dedicate a memorial to dr. king. thank you very much. >> please welcome our soloist, minister ernest pugh. ♪ lift every voice and sing, till

earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmony of liberty. let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies. let it resound, loud as the rolling seas. sing a song, full of the faith that the darkness has taught us. sing a song, full of the hope that the present has brought us. ♪ facing the rising sun, in our

new day began, let us march on until victory is won. i know the road may be rough and the going may be tough, but let us march on until victory, a victory is won. let us march on until victory is won. ♪ [applause] >> and now, for our invocation, please welcome rev. dr. granger

browning. >> let us about our heads in a word of prayer. eternal god, our father, we come today to give your name all the honor, the praise and the glory, for this is the day that you have made and we have so much to rejoice and be glad in it. we come in the name and the spirit of jesus and we want to say thank you. as we gather today in the capital of the united states, those who built that capital may never have dreamed that they would one day be congressmen and congresswomen. what a mighty god we serve. as we stand in the shadow of the white house of these united states, those who built that white house and that oval office, may have never dreamed that one day their people would occupy that white house as the

first family. as we stand below the monuments to the war heroes, we stand today to say thank you, because we never dreamed that one day a monument would not be built to a president, but to a profit, not to a war hero, but to a man of peace. we say thank you to those who marched with him, sacrificed with him, went to jail with him. many of them are here today. oh lord, as we say thank you for this monument, we will never forget the movement. we pray in the name of jesus that we will not be satisfied simply because we have a monument. we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like mighty waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. we pray today that you will send as 21st century profits to be will let freedom ring in

pennsylvania, where our young people do not have jobs. that you will send modern prophets that will bring righteousness to places that still need justice. that will go to mississippi were young black men are still being lynched. we ask for modern day profits until every mountain, every hill, and every valley is lifted up. we asked for every person to join hands and sing lift every voice and sing, for harmony and liberty. until we do reach the mountaintop and look over and see the promised land. glory hallelujah to the life and legacy of dr. martin luther king jr. amen and amen. >> thank you very much.

steve gersky is a member of the board of the martin luther king memorial foundation. >> on behalf of the board of directors of the martin luther king memorial foundation, welcome. as i watched the today show this morning, they reported on the words that the merriam-webster dictionary people had added to the dictionary, like fist bump and bromance. bromance is the word that best describes our relationship with gary johnson. sunday, when you visit the memorial, we hope you will see the definition of breathtaking. although we see dr. martin luther king as a person who spoke for people of color, i see him as someone who spoke for everyone.

i was only 8 years old when i stood on the steps of the lincoln memorial and heard him speak. all of us, including this kid from brooklyn, have been molded by the teachings of dr. martin luther king. the dream is among us, hope for something better. the great among us seized the opportunity to take the actions necessary to make their dreams and the dreams of others come true. while many of us only dream of bettering our lot and a lot of those dear to us, the great of us dream of the betterment of the lot of money and hope to enjoy just a piece of that dream. dreams can be simple and limited or they can be lofty and

limitless. as we gather to honor dr. martin luther king, we honor those who helped him turn a dream into a movement and a movement into a reality. the civil-rights pioneers chose to take action when instinct of self preservation were pulling them away from action. by their courage, dedication and fortitude, they helped to bring the world to a better place. big dreams can yield monumental results. with their steadfast determination, dr. king and the civil rights pioneer is taught us to look beyond ourselves and our dreams, to of patience when the mountain to be climbed is high and steep, and to keep dreaming. the gift that dr. king and the civil-rights pioneers gave us led a group of alpha phi alpha members to dream of a memorial honoring their brother. they believed that they too could make their dream into

reality, and they did. for some of us, like me, our dreams are simple. we dream of being respected, making a difference, and of leaving our children a better world than the one we inherited. we are blessed when events in our lives help us achieve and exceed our dreams and expectations. such as been my experience as a member of the board of the memorial foundation. when i was invited to sit on the board, i was presented with an opportunity to make the difference i dreamed of. when board membership provided me an opportunity to work with harry and other wonderful board members on the construction of this memorial, my dreams were surpassed. to have the opportunity to address civil-rights pioneers and you, i had to pinch myself to make certain that i was not actually having a dream. i am forever grateful to dr. king and the civil-rights pioneers, and i am so honored to have the opportunity to

participate on and bring color and contrast to the board, and to address it today. it is with great pleasure that i now introduce to you the vice- president of design at general motors, ed roberts. [applause] >> thank you and good afternoon. it is a real privilege to be here today and to recognize the legacy of dr. martin luther king. let me begin by saying that i'm really humbled to be in the presence of so many people that i admire and really look up to. my career choice and life has been a bit different than most. in fact, i did not realize when i first contacted general motors back in the 1960's that they did not have black car

designers. automobile design has been a part of my life since i was very young. i have been drawing cars since i was two and a half years old. i started reading car magazines when i was 8. it was through those magazines that i learned where general motors cars were created. at age 11, i wrote to gm and requested information about careers in design and the education that was needed to get there. their response was quick and very helpful. this information really created a path for me which eventually led me to howard university school of fine arts, where the professors and staff gave me great inspiration and great help. they understood what my goal was and really helped me form as a designer. upon graduation, i immediately started working at gm and spent my first few years gaining

experiences and learning from them. as a gain experience, i was given greater responsibilities which led me to an assignment in germany. that was way out of my comfort zone, but frankly, it was one of the best experiences of my career. a year later, i was back in detroit and was quickly moving to a more leadership position at general motors design. i was degn