respect the culture of the world leader who you are entertaining. it was really fun to work on those and make all of those plans. he always did a tasting of the food that the chef had proposed. we would ask members of congress to come to the tasting and tell them they were guinea pigs for the state dinner they were hosting. of course, they would be very forthright and say, i do not think you should do this. this is not that tasty. they would be more forthcoming than our friends would be, who would just say, that is great, whatever you've got. that was fun, really. we would spread it out over a number of nights to do tastings and talk about what we would have.

of course, we would try to get entertainment that represented the united states in a wonderful way, like the new orleans jazz band that we invited to one of them. that was to show the heads of what supported us and what american music was important to us. we would usually travel the day after the state visit with the head of state. our very first state dinner was september 6, 2001. it was right before september 11 and it was with mexico, president fox and martin fox. relationship we expected to spend the most time on. we had a long border with mexico and it was of particular interest to us, all of the border issues.

ie next day, marta fox and traveled to chicago. andent to a show mexican-american art that was at the museum. we invited all of the artists to a luncheon afterwards. which was interesting, this chance to be able to show both art, but thatcan originated in her country, in mexico, to the first lady. jimenez, a favorite of mine, traveled to us and came to the state dinner. he could not come to the museum because he had worked in a show. -- he came to the museum because he had worked in that show. i forgot where george took next day.fox the when the prime minister from japan came, he happened to have a gray glove for elvis presley.

and we knew that. for our state gift, we gave him his own jukebox it was built with elvis presley 45's. that. thrilled to get the next day, we took him to graceland and priscilla presley was waiting on the front porch to welcome the prime minister. we never forgot that. it was so much fun. we wore gold framed elvis presley sunglasses and ate at the rendezvous afterwards, the famous restaurant there and had a little elvis impersonating band that the prime minister singh with -- sang with. it was really fun. >> besides barbara bush, what other first ladies have you studied and have adapted their style or not adapted their style?

>> you really do study all of the first ladies when you live there. you live with their decorating choices, their furniture, the effects of their lives at the white house. certainly, in times that are tough, like hours after september 11, you think about the other families and how they coped with what was happening then. certainly, lincoln is the one you think about the most, the worst time in our countries history, when brother fought against brother and mary todd lincoln was very unhappy. her brothers fought for the confederacy and she wished them dead and they did die. and then they lost a child while they lived there as well. you can imagine what it was like for her to have those tragedies

and you knew what it was like for him as well. time when ourat a country was at war with itself. things that is comforting about living there with all of the history that you live with is that you see how we have overcome, in our country, the challenges that we face. you think about the long years and eleanor ii roosevelt and other times in our history and how difficult it was for people and how we overcame those challenges. so there is a certain comfort in is not that, while peace forever, neither is war and we will be able to overcome these types of terrorism. time passes and things change. i do think, in our country, that things get better. that is a reassuring idea while you are living there. >> you write in "spoken from the

heart" about growing up in the era of civil rights. what was that like for you? >> it was very involved, really, at least emotionally. 1968duated from college in and i had to teach. , an i got a job in dallas institution in austin in inner-city schools, because i wanted to work in inner-city schools, because i thought african-american children were being left out. that is what i did in houston. i was a predominantly african-american school, almost that ihildren -- a style taught was african-american. i felt that was one way i could be involved in the civil rights movement. i also grew up in a town in texas that named their new high school that was new when i started, named it robert e lee.

i remember thinking that that was not appropriate to it never occurred to me to go to the school board and say anything. i was a child, i thought. i did not think i had that. at the time, i discussed it with my mother and she thought there was one school board member who wanted to name it robert e. lee. all of the other school that we went to when we were in elementary school were named for texas heroes. ie, samilly -- bow houston, davy crockett, heroes of the alamo, really. the junior schools were named for the battles. , thelamo, san jacinto battles of the texas revolution that led to texas being a country, the republic of texas, for 10 years and finally being

annexed to the united states. somehow, i did not think robert e. lee fit in that group of texas heroes, but who knows. , that is what my school was named. and we were segregated. george washington carver was the name of the high school. reunion, myed the high school reunion at the white -- not kids, kids they were six years old by then, -- they were 60 years old by high school and george washington carver. that was the first time we met the students that were our age. you when youprise first became first lady at the

platform you are given and the voice you had? >> i knew that intellectually because i had seen my mother in law and the platform that she had to talk about literacy, which was her interest. johnson andady bird how she influenced me at home in texas because of her interest in native plants. until it really know it made the presidential radio address in the fall of 2001 after the terrorist attack to talk about the way women and children were treated by the taliban in afghanistan. >> good morning. i am laura bush. i am delivering this week's radio address to kick off a to focus on the brutality against women and children by the al qaeda terrorist network and regina supports in afghanistan -- and

regime it supports in afghanistan. the people of afghanistan, especially women, are rejoicing. they know through hard experience what the rest of the world is discovering, the riddle oppression -- brutal oppression of women is a singular goal of the terrorists. >> right after that, i did the radio address from our ranch and austin, where jenna was a freshman at the university of texas. jenna went shopping at a department store and the ladies who sold cosmetics said, thank you so much, mrs. bush. thank you for speaking for the women of afghanistan. >> not only because our hearts break for the women and children in afghanistan, but because in afghanistan, we see the world the terrorists would like to impose on the rest of us. all of us have an obligation to speak out. we may come from different backgrounds and faiths, but parents the world over love their children. we respect our mothers and

sisters and daughters. fighting brutality against women and children is not the expression of a specific culture. it is the acceptance of our common humanity. >> that is the first time i realized that people hurt me -- heard me and that what i said, people listen to. i knew from then on -- although, i think you never really know until maybe after you leave and see what the platform is. but lady bird johnson had that saying that she had a podium and she was going to use it. and she did. >> do you think you used yours? >> i hope so. i tried to use it. i talked a lot about the women in afghanistan and i still do. i am worried now. i was there three times when george was president.

i would like to go again. we i am worried that once draw our troops down, that their rights, which are fragile, will be jeopardized. issue, literacy. you started the national book festival september 8, 2001. >> that fall was when i felt like what i was working on was getting going. dinner fortate mexico and the first national book festival. i started the texas book festival when george was governor. i thought it was just natural to have a national book festival off the big national mall, and it still goes on and still draws lots of april and is still hugely popular. and is stillople hugely popular. that was the weekend before the tuesday morning of september 11. even on that morning, i was on

my way to capitol hill to brief the senate education committee on early childhood education. i hosted a summit on early childhood education that summer and i was going to brief the committee on early childhood education, when i was getting into the car and my secret service agent leaned over to me and said, a plane has just flown into the world trade center. we went ahead to the capital, got in the car. he just assumed as we started driving that it was some strange accident. by the time we got to the capital, we knew the second plane had hit and we knew what it was. , thejoined senator kennedy chairman of the senate education .ommittee in his office in just a few minutes, senator judd gregg from new hampshire join me.

he was the minority chairman of the committee. the three of us sat in senator kennedy's office. he talked the whole time and told stories about things that were in his office. he showed me and laughed. framed thatt he had his brother, jack, had written to his mother. he thought that was funny. i often wondered if that was his reaction to something as shocking and horrible, because that was the way he had to deal with it. of course, he had many shocks in his life. or if he thought i would fall apart and he thought that the way he could keep things going andto keep small talk talking and keeping things going. anyway, in a few minutes, i left and went to a secure location. how did you leave?

>> the secret service came to get me and said, it is time to -- at first, they wanted to take me back to the white house. they had to figure out where i should go because obviously, the people at the white house, the staff at the white house was getting word to run. people in my office who worked for me were kicking off their high heels and running from the white house. i know they expected to have glamorous, really interesting jobs at the white house. no one ever thought they would have to run from the white house like they did. anyway, the secret service came to get me and senator gregg and senator kennedy walked me out the door and then i drove to where i went with the secret , the building that had been reinforced after the

terrorist attacks on our embassies. after the oklahoma city bombing, a lot of the federal buildings had been reinforced and that one had been, so that is where i went and spent the day. >> have you talk to your husband -- had you talked to your husband? remember.t i have the laws to the day to remember, but i did talk to george once i got there and the girls, and of course, my mother was the one i really wanted to call. i wanted my mother to say everything is going to be all right. of course, i called her and said, everything is going to be all right. i wanted her to say, certainly. >> you had been first lady about seven months when 9/11 happened. could you describe how, here in dallas, 50 years ago, jfk was shot in the city. what do you remember about jackie kennedy?

roberts in my class at e. lee high school. i was in a philosophy class and you had to have certain scores and grades to be able to take. it was just one class that a history professor taught. us thatin and told president kennedy had been shot. i went home from lunch that day and i went home to where my parents were. i was with them then. after that, the funeral that followed, i remember just lying on the couch with my mother and that.nd we were watching i was amazed, really, at her strength. she was very young, really young. i think she was only 32, if i am not mistaken. she really had such strength.

not only did she have the strength to be able to withstand it with such race and poise -- grace and poise, but she was also able to plan a state dinner after the most unexpected thing that could ever happen to a first lady, in a way. i think our whole country was so beautifully and so memorably land that i think it helped in a lot of ways, everyone in our country, as he watched. and she did too with her strength. >> did you find yourself becoming a role model or somebody that people look at after 9/11? >> i do not know that, really. i guess so. i get letters that said that from people. i did not expect to do that. like,ure it was just well, she did not expect to be a

role model. you did not expect that people would watch you do that. you might expect that people would look at your clothes or how you entertained. i did not think it occurred to first ladies that you would be a role model in that way, the grace you have, strength you have, to be able to handle and lived through in a way that gives other people strength, the shocks that come in our history. >> you write in "spoken from the heart" about a difficult period, november of 1963, and a loss of faith, your faith. why? >> i was in a car wreck that i wrote about extensively in my book. the whole time, i was in the .ospital not injured really i mean, i had a cut on my leg

and a broken ankle. i was praying that the other person in the car would be ok and the other person in the car was one of my best friends, which i did not know. i did not really recognize that at the time of the crash. his father came up. they lived just past where the corner where the car wreck was and i recognized his father, but i did not understand that that was mike that was there. because i prayed over and over for him to be ok and he was not, i thought, nobody listened. god was not listening. my prayer was not answered. i went through a very long time of not believing and not believing that prayers could be answered. time and a me a long lot of growing up to come back to faith. you recovered your

faith? >> i have recovered my faith. my faith is very helpful to me in those years. george and me. we lived in the white house. i cannot imagine living there without a strong faith. faith in the goodness of the lord and live. that was the quote that i used in the christmas card that first year. it was in the lectionary the weekend that we went. .veryone came the cabinet was there with us as well. they were all there that we can. chaplin, whodavid happened to be a methodist "i shall had chosen

see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living." that was the little program for camp david that we can. -- that weekend. so i use that for our bible verse in our first christmas card, because that is what i think we saw. we saw americans lined up to give of themselves by lining up to give blood after september 11. >> how do you think you grew or changed in the role of first lady after 9/11? >> i guess what happens to a lot of people is you grow just because you are strong. you already were strong. and i was and george is. i did not know that, maybe. i did not know the kind of emotional strength i had and physical, really. physical strength that i had, the stamina that i had that i

knew george had, but i was not so sure i had. grew is theway i way that i found out that i had that strength and that i could go on. not only go on, but go on and help any way i could, the people that were around me and the people that were affected, the families that lost somebody on september 11 or our whole country as we came to terms with the idea that we were vulnerable , that we could have this kind of attack that we did not expect. that was the shock for us. we never had anything on our homeland like that, except for pearl harbor. and that seemed remote to us because ite -- then was world war ii, a long time ago. that is the big adjustment for all of us in our country, to imagine that that could happen

to us. >> you talked about stamina. were their days at the white house when you are so tired that you wanted to quit, you wanted to say no more? >> no. there really were not many. there were days when i was physically and emotionally tired many of thoseter occasions, the times when we met with the families of the fallen, the troops who had died. we met them over and over for the whole time we lived in the white house. i never thought i wanted to quit. i wanted to thought quit. i know george did not either. also, we go to bed early. intuitively have known how to take care of our health. we love to go to bed early and get up early, we worked out. george exercises. we do all of the things that i

think are what you need to do for emotional health as well as for your physical health. >> did you work out in the white house? >> i had a trainer that came to the gym upstairs at the white house and my sister-in-law, margaret, came and worked out with me. at the very end, the last couple of years, i had a yoga instructor, and that is what i do now. >> you do yoga here in dallas? at a class? >> i have an instructor who comes to my house. >> makes it easier? >> yes. have been involved in education as an issue, no child left behind. has that been a successful program? >> i think it has been really successful. the important part is the it is really at civil rights issue.

the kids who do get left behind are the ones who are in the poorest parts of town. the ones whose parents do not speaking was. -- speak english. they are the ones that get shuffled through. that is why it is very important to know how every child is doing. that is the part that a lot of people complain about, the testing. but you have to have that. how else would you diagnose any problems? you would never go to your doctor and say you cannot do a test on me to find out what is the matter with me. you have to have accountability. forink it is very important school districts and teachers and principals and states who design the curriculum and the programs that they want their children to have in their state

to realize that accountability is a very important part of it. one of the things you can tell if you do testing is which schools are successful and which are not. a lot of times, you find out the ones that are not are the ones in the poorest parts of town. and you need to address that. school districts and parents need to be an advocate for their children and make sure that every single one is successful and every child in the united states gets a great education. it is our obligation as adults in the united states to make sure that every child does get a great education and we know it and we know all of the results, we are reading them right now about how american students are 20 biggest the economies in math and science. we need to change that. and we can change that. we can make sure that students get a really good education.

how many hands did you shake as first lady? >> i do not know. lots. how many pictures did i take? millions. >> you had a full-time photographer. all first ladies do. did you get used to having your picture snapped at all times? so. guess there were probably a million terrible pictures of me out there, but it is just all a part of it. it,really do get used to but you know all of those people very well. the photographers that traveled with me, i know them and i know their children and their lives. you aret so much like with strangers all the time. you are with people that you know very well, that you like, that you remain friends with. some of those people have come with us here and work at the bush institute and the bush center. i stay in touch with many others

all around the country. when we just had the dedication of the bush library last april, ,lthough the first ladies staff on and off during those eight years, came and we had a big party for the first lady staff so i could see everybody and i actually have a book that one person made of all of the babies that had been born since 2001, since that first staff, all of the first lady children that they have had since i first met them. >> you also had two teenage family.d a large bush how do you keep the public and the private separate? >> upstairs at the white house is your private space, the private apartment. i did not bring furniture because i knew there was wonderful furniture to choose

from to decorate with and use upstairs. i did bring one chest of battles for sentimental reasons. their, -- we got to that was for sentimental reasons. there, -- andgot as soon as we got there, we went and picked out everything and tried them out in spots to see if you wanted to keep them at see if they wanted to be recovered and we got things recovered. money.s private money that goes in the white house historical association. it is a big foundation. it was started by jackie kennedy. it has raised money for the white house historical association. so that you are not spending government money when you

recover a chair for the white house. floor,e second and third all of the bedrooms, a lot of little bedrooms and the solarium that we all love. the sunroom that is up there. it is added maybe in 1927. that is where the girls would have parties. the first two rooms i did for the girls bedrooms. bedrooms right down the hall from the president's bedroom. other children would've used. clintonong to chelsea and little john kennedy and caroline kennedy had he used and glendon and lucy johnson had used. they were perfect for barbara and jenna. beds so theyuble can invite a girl so eight girls could stay in those suite of

rooms. that happened a lot. they were freshmen in college. they never really lifted their almond they stated their -- never really lived there, and they stayed there. their friends would come to visit or for weekends or holidays. renovations did you initiate at the white house? >> we worked on the lincoln bedroom which was so much fun and so interesting and i worked with the white house historical association advisory board which is art curators and furniture experts and wallpaper experts. historians. that is how i got to know bud. he is the director of the new african-american smithsonian oneum is going up right now

the mall in washington. that's was really great to know him like i did working on all of those rooms. i know he loved working on the lincoln bedroom. the lincoln bedroom when he lived at the white house was actually his office. until teddy roosevelt built the west wing which he just a dead to get out of the house -- which he just did to get out of the house because yet the wild kids upstairs, the president's office on the second floor at the far end of the hallway from the president's bedroom. when the lincoln a lifted their, the room -- lived there, the room was his office. the room he signed the emancipation proclamation and after truman restored, he moved all of the furniture associated with lincoln, the big bed. and the other pieces of

furniture that mary todd lincoln had ordered. he moved them to that space which been lincoln's bedroom. we redid it. we had a little square about this big of wallpaper that have been in the room when it was his office. we reproduce it. we knew we had the bill of sale of the carpet that had been bought at the time that lincoln lived there. we went to the same place in england which done in the carpet for him and we do not know for sure which of the patterns they had sold. we do not really have a picture of it. but we knew on the bill of sale, whichsaid ga which -- go the curator thought meant green and oak. we went and had that done. not know about the first lady and her role you think the american public should

know? sees the first lady and glamorous circumstances, state dinners and a beautiful down. a speech where the heads in suits are whatever. what they may not imagine looking at the white house from the outside is it is actually a very normal life upstairs on those two floors that are the white house residence. --st light is probably, i first ladies probably and i would lie on the couch and read books. my cats would curl up next to me . they great palladium the window associated with the west side of the white house. the one you see. it is wonderful to sick at the window and though -- it is wonderful to sit at the window and the late afternoon when i was waiting for george to come home from work.

is a nice couch to lie on. >> mrs. bush, there was a speech on april of2005 2005 you are well known for. as a price to everybody. how long was that in the planet -- in the planning? >> george always said he is delighted to come to these president nurse, baloney. [laughter] >> the famous dinnerware georgia said everybody comes in and make -- the famous dinnerware george to everybody comes in and makes fun of the president and he came and made fun of himself. he is very fine he. he has been very funny and everyone one of those corresponded dinners. -- he is very funny. dinner and gridiron alfalfa dinner and lots of dinners for the president's. he has to have a funny speech

and make fun of himself. year, he said, i cannot, with another joke. why don't you do it? >> did you say ok right away? >> ok. i knew i would work with the joke writers. it was funny and shocking to people. i remember i was sitting next to the president of the white house respondents who obviously did not know i was quick to spring that. georgia stands up -- george stats up and tries to make a lame joke and i jump up and say, no. when i did it, the people were sitting by me gasped. they were shocked. something was wrong that i was jumping up like that to the podium. it was fun.

that is when i called myself a desperate housewife. roastody knows that is a at that is what everybody at the white house correspondents dinners are like. make it for the president. the people from overseas were shocked. would we would travel overseas, some world leader would say, are you a desperate housewife? >> i am married to the president of the united states adheres our typical evening. [laughter] 9:00, mr. excitement is sound asleep. [laughter] it i am watching "desperate housewives." [laughter] [applause] with lynn cheney. [laughter] gentlemen, i am a

desperate housewife. [laughter] on thatf those women show think they are desperate, they ought to be with george. [laughter] >> you compare your mother in law to -- [laughter] >> exactly. you have to ask her. [laughter] >> you talked about the first lady being seen glamorous and etc., are we too obsessed with your hair and makeup and clothing? >> yes. for sure. i do not think to get around it. maybe what we've have a first gentleman -- maybe when we have a first gentleman. critique the way they look all the time. their choice in tie where their hairstyle or whatever. eight.be there wi what is your advice for the first gentleman?

>> be quiet. it would be interesting when it happens with the first gentleman. i hope that will take on men's health. you call this a parlor game. if you have disagreement on policy with the president, how'd you get that across or would you? >> i would not. i would tell him, the parlor game part is to find out, the press try to know, what did you think about it and how does that differ from your husband? my answer was always, i am not the one, you did not elect me. i do not have to tell you what i think about an issue. on the other hand, there's plenty of debate on all the issues. i do not have to be one of the people debating the president. and i think that is really the case, very few times do you see

a spouse of the president, you know, making public disagreements with the president. >> you do write your memoir before the election season, i talked to george about not making gay marriage a significant issue. >> i did. i did not tell anyone at the time. shouldn't the first lady receive a salary? >> i do not think so. there are plenty of perks, believe me. a chef. that was really great. i miss the chef. i do not think so. i think the interesting question really is not should they receive a salary but should they be a will to work for a salary at their job that they might have already happened. i think that is what will have you come to terms with.

certainly, a first gentleman mike continue to work -- a gentleman mike continue to work or whatever he did. that is really the question we should ask. should she have a career during those years her husband is president? in addition to serving as first lady. >> were you ready to leave washington? >> not really. i loved it. i loved living and the white house. it was a privilege. so interesting to live there. a history lesson every single day. it is so beautiful. you might not know this but the white house has a magnificent art collection. today with live with that kind of art, it was a pleasure. i loved that. on the other hand, you know that for years later, the term is up. there's a certain acceptance that comes with that that made

me anticipate a normal life again. and a life back in dallas where we had lived when george was elected governor. i started coming down here looking for houses to buy before we left the white house. i started to anticipate what to that house would be like and what it would be like to live there and furnished in all of the things i would like to do. and started think about building this. the presidential library. i invited all of the hats of the libraries -- heads of the libraries to camp david and not of them had ever been there. they do not know the president holds library they work in -- whose a library they work in. ,nly the most recent presidents did they actually know the president. had of the foundation heads ever been to camp david.

i invited them to come to our camp to see what it was like. the first presidential library as freckled roosevelt. he was the one who first used cap david. the first presidential library was franklin roosevelt. if they sought cap david and we had lunch -- if they saw camp david and we have lunch together and they see the lodge where you s, theyl of the meal will be forthcoming. i said to give me advice. they had a lot of advice. they talked about what you would need to do to get things in your archives. and how you can help nar. own and administer all of the papers of the president. youwhat you could do when are building the library to make sure you do not have to go back and retrofit because of the rules at nar. that was fun.

it made below afford to building a working on that. -- it made me look forward to building and working on this. the dean of yale architecture school and would pick our other architect who is the architect i -do ofent for the re pennsylvania avenue. it was closed when we moved in. it was already closed. when president clinton was president, we were getting ready to open back up when september 11 opened. -- weupus of a avenue knew that pennsylvania avenue would stay closed. i knew of a project he had worked on wellesley. i knew that is what i wanted to do on the grounds.

i already started working each of those committees. the decide committee for the -- designed committee for the library and the other directors and foundations members. i started to anticipate what the next part of my life would be like. i say in speeches that are now with our living the afterlife and the state george calls the promised land. that is what texas is to us. we love it here. it is great to be back home. >> your been very active in the library, and the answer to and getting started. what about when you are invited to speak or contribute to political cost? -- cause? >> i do speak. i am of the speaker circuit. i speak all over. i had a speech in germany last year. a lot of people from all parts of the world as well. i choose which groups to speak

to. we are doing a really great job in a speak to a lot of foundations of various types. this week i spoke in fort worth withgroup that does work abused and neglected children that were with the cps and other law enforcement to help children. and so i speak to all different types of groups that i have not really entered the political fray at all and i did host a romany. for ann that was private. it was not in the press. it was reported in the press that i had the luncheon is not a press event. both, as you know, he has chosen not to speak up politically because he does not

want -- he does not think it is great for former presidents to the choicesessing that they president is making. >> three final questions. africa. a choice you made to continue your activity. >> and that is right. through the bush institute we have chosen to work on the policy areas the most important to us when he was president. , the economy.ion george is working on a free market trying to promote free enterprise and a free-market economy. local health. startedief that georgia when he was president. he has a special program to support the men and women of the united states military and i am chairman of the women's initiative and we have done really terrific fellowship

programs to bring women from arab spring's countries to the united states to work on leadership skills and to be paired with an american woman that is in their same profession. with the idea of how you build a civil society that you needed to support a democracy. ideaserited all of the that support our democracy and ortitutions like free press independent judiciary. all of these countries do not have that. it takes a very long time to build those types of institutions that allow you to support a democracy and allow democracy to flourish. that is one of the things we are doing with the women's initiative. our global health initiative is pink ribbon, red ribbon. with added -- with added the

treatment for cervical and breast cancer to the a's platformthat -- aids that was launched all over africa. many people in africa are hiv-positive and are taking ugs face to the generosity of the american people. they are living with aids. women are dying for cervical cancer which is the leading cancer death of women in africa. areical cancers preventable. there's a vaccine for the virus that causes cervical cancer. the united states, you rarely hear of cervical cancer because when found early, it is easy to remove cervical lesions by scraping. was. webadditive that been to africa three times since we have been home. we will go again i am sure this

summer. -- we have been to africa three times since we have been home. women are getting tested for cervical cancer because they know somebody who has died from cervical cancer. that has been very interesting. a good way to spread a great work of the aids platform that george started. >> you met with michelle obama. but that is right. we hosted a luncheon -- a conference full. that happen to be with the obamas were there which was great. ,t is also very important worldwide for people around the world to see our presidents together. that is what they saw here when all of the presidents came for the opening of the library. george and i were beating with that ethiopian health minister right after we came home.

that night we were in washington because all the presidents were common to pay tribute to president bush for his points of light foundation. the last big fundraiser. and so i told the ethiopian prime minister that we were going to be there and president obama was quick to send a video. he said, you do not know. you do not know what that means to the rest of the world. would you see all of the american presidents together. -- when you see all of the american presidents together, it is a solidarity. the unity, the idea. i think is a good example for the rest of the world for stock that is what it was. that is when michelle obama could come and be with us for the first ladies conference and also when president bush and president obama laid the wreath together.

>> d.phil. a sorority with the other first ladies -- do you feel a sorority with the other first ladies? >> absolutely. we talk about how our girls are doing. and what you have worked on. also when i am with hillary clinton or any of the other first ladies. >> you mentioned a meeting of michelle obama. what is the first lady initiative? to work with first ladies around the world to talk about the way first ladies can use their platforms worldwide. we have had for a number of years and the united states, you active andis, very involved first ladies who support their husbands and their policies they are working on. cases, they have their own initiatives. often times to help women and

children. and what we want the first ladies from around the world to know is that they can also do that. there is a role for first ladies to have. to talk about especially women's issues and especially issues that have to do with children. we started this first ladies initiative and we began with first ladies from africa with a conference we hosted. then we invited all of the african first ladies to a luncheon in new york when they were all there with their husbands for the united nations general assembly. came for thate luncheon. we just talked about two programs after that luncheon was just to have a festive and friendly luncheon, but we had wendy who founded teach for america. she talked about teach for all

of which is her international program. and then we had our daughter, barbara, talk about her nonprofit, global health court. -- health core. she gotten the idea from teach for america. she recruit young graduates to work in the health field. she partners with safe and secure and stable health organizations in africa and the united states. they write a job description and she recruits young americans who partner with the young people from other parts of the world. fellows. she has two young architects in rwanda who are constructing a ventilation system. not just young health workers, but also young people who can set up the technology or a clinic. young people who can help

organizations build. we had this fun a luncheon. .ven when president came she did not have a first lady to center so she joined us. that was a thrill for me. i've been able to go to her inauguration and a library of beriashe was -- in li when she was nominated. >> the series is called "first ladies: image and influence," and what did you think your legacy was? >> the things i know will last and will last for a long time to things like the national book festival which was this last month in washington. the texas book festival which is this weekend in austin. those are both great and i hope they will continue long after i am gone to entertain people and introduce people to their favorite authors and introduce

people to love reading. and so i ain't that will stay for a long time. that will stay for a long time. and no cello -- and no child -- strongd, strung by bipartisan support. i hope the principles of accountability and responsibility we have to every student in the united states both to our own children but to all children. i hope those will last. hope -- and then, i strength and compassion i was able to bring after september 11 will be something that other people will both want to emulate and also

convert people for a long time. >> laura bush. thank you for your time. >> thank you. spec -- the new c-span website allows for you to watch extensive coverage of washington. look for it on our home page called federal focus. each day, you will find coverage of house and senate debates, congressional hearings, even with the president and members of his cabinet. press briefings. supreme court oral arguments and appearances of by the justices. watch live around your schedule. www.c-span.org, making it easy to keep tabs.

>> a couple of live events to tell you about tomorrow on c-span 3. the senate judiciary committee will hold a meeting about preventing crime. will have that at 10:15 a.m. eastern. at 1:30 p.m., a house oversight subcommittee looks at federal marijuana policy and states that have decriminalized marijuana position -- possession. in a few moments, our series first ladies focuses on laura bush. add in a special interview with former first lady laura bush. ♪