we're all children of god. we're all made in his conage. we see what happens around the world when violence can rear its ugly head. it's got no place in our society. o this easter week of course we recognize that there is a lot of pain and a lot of sin and a lot of tragedy in this world but we're also overwhelmed by the grace of an awesome god. we're reminded how he loves us so deeply that he gave his only begotten son so that we might live through him. and in these holy days we recall all that jesus endured for us, the scorn of the crowds and the pain of the cruise fix in our christian religious tradition. we celebrate the glory of the

resurrection. all so that we might be forgiven of our since. and granted ever lasting life. and more than 2,000 years later it inspires us still. we are drawn to his teachings, challenge to be worthy of his sacrifice, emulate as best we can to lo one another just as he loves us. and of course we are always reminded each and every day that we fall short of that example. and none of us are free from sin but we can look to his life and strive knowing that if we love one another god lives in us and his love is perfected in us. i will tell you, i felt the spirit when i had the great his honor etling holeieness pope fran sis.

those of us in the christian faith regardless of our denomination have been touched nd moved by pope fran sis. now some is his words, his message of justice and inclusion, especially for the poor and the outcast. he implorse us to see the inherent digget in each human being. ut it is also simply and pro found hugging the homeless man shing the feet of somebody who normally ordinary folks would just pass by on the treet. he reminds us that all of us no matter what our station has an obligation to live righteously and that we all have an bligation to live humbly

because that in fact is the example that we profess to follow. so i had a wonderful conversation with pope fran sis and i invited him to come to the united states and i sincerely hope he will. when we exchanged gifts he gave me a copy of the inspired writings the joy of the gospel. and there is a passage that speaks to us today. christ's resurrection is not an event of the past. it contains a vital power which has permeated this world. and he adds, jesus did not rise in vain. may we never remain on the sidelines of this march of living hope. so this morning my main message is just to say thank you to all of you because you don't remain on the sidelines. i want to thank you for your ministries, for your good

works, for the marching you do for justice and dig city and inclusion, for the ministries that all of you attend to and have helped to organize throughout your communities ch and every day to feed the hungry and how's the homeless and educate children who so desperately need an education, you have made a difference in so many different ways not only here in the united states but overseas as well. and that includes the cause close to my heart my brother's keeper an initiative we launched to make sure that more boys and men of color can overcome their odds. we are joined by several faith leaders doing outstanding work in this area mentoring and helping young men in tough neighborhoods. we're also joined by some of these young men who are working hard and trying to be good students, sons, citizens. and i want to say to each of

these young men here we're proud of you and we expect a lot of you. we're going to make sure that we're there for you so that you then in turn will be there for the next generation of young men. and i mention all this because f all of our many partners for my brother's keeper it's clergy like you and your congregations who can play that special role to be that foundation, that rock that so many young men lives. their so i thank all of you already involved. i invite those who are not to give more information to see if they can join in this effort as brothers and sisters in christ who never tire doing good. and in closing i will recall that old prayer that i think more than one preacher has invoked. lord, fill my mouth with worthwhile stuff and nudge me when i've said enough.

the almighty is nudging me. i thank you for joining us this morning. i wish you all a blessed holy week and easter. i would like to invite my friend joe hunter to deliver the opening prayer.

so the laboratory was put here because of that reason because they could grow the plants here on site and then do the preliminary research on site. it's a really exciting project. the laboratory was interesting for many reasons. one of them was at that point in american history there was no patent process for plants, chemicals, patenting. and so part of the reason why this lab was so important was that it caused the u.s. government to come forward with what was called the patent, the u.s. patent law. which then said that if you invented something with plants and it was a process that was worthy of patenting, it was issued a patent.

>> vermont senator bernie hall held a town meeting at the new hampshire school of politics. topics included civil liberty, wealth and income inequality, campaign finance and change. senator sanders is considering a presidential run in 2016.

thank you very much for inviting me to p with you this morning. s vermont's senator, in my political career i have done undreds of town meetings throughout the state of vermont and it is great to do a town meeting here in new hampshire. and the reason that i do town meetings the reason he and i think why i think st. answer level holds meetings like this is i think that there is an understanding that the way we do politics in this country very often is basically not the right way. the smartest guy in the world cannot talk about the major problems facing this country in a five-second sound bite and the media does a disservice to us and to our nation when they look at politics an american

idol show, who is going to win and who is ahead and who is up today and who is down tomorrow. the problems are serious and if we take our responsibilities seriously as american citizens we need to talk about the real issues. respect each other's different point of view and learn from each other. let me begin by telling you a little bit about myself and about my political history, which is very different i think than most folks in the united states senate. the reason i started off my life living in brooklyn, new york. you all heard of that town south of here. was a paint salesman that's what he did his whole life.

he came to america from poland at the age of 17 without a ickle in his pocket. he worked very hard never made a whole lot of money. but turned out not being very political. he ended up i perceive as i grew older how much he loved this country and he loved this country because it gave him the freedom to raise two kids. he never went to -- didn't graduate high school but his kids graduated college. and that was a pretty big deal in our family. and he had financial security in the sense he never that he always had job. never any money but he had a job. and that meant something to somebody. i went to the state of vermont just about 50 years ago, which is the best decision i ever job.in my life.

-- in the early 1970s, i ran for statewide office. senator wince ston some probably remember 1970s, i ran for statewide office. senator wince ston some probably remember there was a special election and i election and i ended up with 2% of the vote. now, i was a persistent guy and i wasn't going to give up in one election. then we had the regular election in 72 and i ran in the third party and i got ended up with 2% of the vote. now, i was a persistent guy and i wasn't going to give up in one election. then we had the regular election in 72 and i ran in the third party and i got 1% of the vote. not the smartest guy in the world and not knowing really ha state. and on election day i when to came back and ran for senate again and got 4% and i ran for governor and got 6%. and then i did figure out that was enough. all right. i got a clue. all running on a third party

without any money. but then back in in 19 1981 a friend of mine came up to me and he said you know there's a race in burlington, the largest city in the state of vermont has only 40,000 people but it is our largest city, beautiful city. and he said i'm looking over the election results in the last time you ran, he said, and while you only got 6% of the votes statewide you got 12% in burlington and there was some low income and working class wards where you got more than that, you got 12%, 14%. and maybe you should run for mayor. so we got some people together and we thought about it. and i decided to do it. running as an independent. and i was taking on at that point back in 1981 an incumbent mayor who had served five terms and nobody but nobody thought that this democratic mayor was

-- that one could beat him. and the point that i want to make is not only that i won the election by all of 10 votes to everybody's great shock, that was after the recount. it was 14. it went down to 10. but that how we won that election became a political lesson that has stayed with me for my whole life. nobody thought that we had a chance. and what we did is we put together a coalition. you all know what coalition politics is about? it's kind of an old phrase. not much in vogue now. but what we did is we said to the low income people in the city who came back and ran did were getting a fair shake in terms of city services, we're going to stand with you. we talked to the union, the union workers who worked for the city. we said, look, you're working

hard. you deserve a fair shake in terms of contract negotiations. and we talked to women who had ever had an opportunity to get into city hall at that time and we said we're going to open the door to everybody, working people, low income people, and women. you're not represented in city hall. we're going to do that. and we talked to environmentalists who were concerned about a number of projects anti-environmental. and we put together this strange coalition that was so strange i often worried what would happen if we got them into city hall at that time and we said we're in at the same time. they're very different people. but they had the belief that we should open the doors of government that we should allow everybody in that government should not just work for the downtown and the big money interest bus it should work for all people. and we won that election. we won that election by 10 votes. now, i am very proud of what i accomplished as mayor of burlington. i think many of you have been

to burlington. it's a great city. but of all of my accomplishments as mayor and of all of the many accomplishments that i'm proud of that i did when i was in the house and that i'm doing in the senate, probably at the very, very top of that list is one that most people, most media people would think is irrelevant. but here's what that accomplishment was. we doubled voter turnout from 1981 to 1983. [applause] now, how did we do that and what is that lesson for today? what exists all over america today is that millions and millions and millions of people working people, low income people, young people say look at the political process and they say not for me. i don't know what these guys are doing but it sure is not

relevant to my life. and, no, i am not going to vote. so we have millions of people who don't vote. or we do have other people who go at the same time. into the p hold their nose and they vote for what they perceive to be lesser of two evils. or we have other people who will vote for that th or that issue. somebody will get them going on this issue or that issue. but what we did in birling, and it's the lesson that i've never forgotten, is that if in fact you listen to what people have they need, and you do your best -- and it's hard and you're not perfect and you make mistakes and can't always do everything you want. but if people know you are listening to their needs and you fight for them. you know what? they participate in the political process. they come out to vote. and we ended up -- [applause] we ended up winning in burlington. we took on democrats, we took

on republicans, and we ended up winning 2-1 in the low income and working class wards of the city. and that lesson has always stayed with me. how in fact do you make government relevant to all of the people in a democratic society? how do you involve people in the process? how do you stand up and fight or ordinary americans? now, my view is they need, and am going to be talking to you about today, is that our great country -- and we all love our country and we worry about our country. that our great country today probably has more serious problems than at any time since the great depression of the 1930s. and if you throw in what the scientific community tells us, that climate change is real, that it is already causing

devastating problems, and that it is likely to get worse unless we reverse and cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, throw that in, we may have more serious problems today than at any time in the modern history of this country. and at the center of what those problems are, what people perceive, what every poll tells us is that people understand the sad reality that the great middle class of this country which was once the envy of the entire world, that middle class is disappearing and people understand that millions of people are now falling into poverty, that we have more ople living in poverty today than at any time in the history of the united states of america. and people understand that real unemployment if you include those people who have given up

looking for work and people working part time when they want to work full time they is rstand real unemployment not 5.6% but it is delotion to 12%, that youth unemployment is near 20%, african american youth unemployment almost double that. and people understand because they are living the reality that millions of americans today despite a huge increase in productivity, despite all of the robertics and all of the space-aged technology and all of the increase in productivity so that the average worker producing more, people understand and know because it is their lives that they are working longer hours for lower wages. and that many people in my state and in your state they're not working one job, they're working two jobs, they're working three jobs trying to cobble together an income and

maybe some health insurance. and people understand when we talk about health care that there is something profoundly wrong when in this great nation we are the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all people as a right of citizenship. now, there are a lot of angry people out there. they're angry in vermont, they're angry in new hampshire, mississippi, california, all over this country. and what they are angry about -- and i'm going to bore you with some statistics but i think it is important that you hear it. ey are angry that since 1999 the typical middle class family has seen its income go down by

more than $5,000 after adjusting for inflation. people are working hard. why is their income going down? they are angry because that same typical middle class family, that family right in the middle earned less income last year than it earned 25 years ago. and maybe that's an issue we ight want to be chatting about a little. little. they're angry because the average worker made less last year than 44 years ago. so you see these guys and they're angry, furious. they don't quite know where their anger should go but they're angry and that's they're angry because why. they're working, their incomes are going down. typical female workers earn

$1700 less last year than they did in 2007. despite all of the increases in productivity. are angry and they are frightened and very, very nervous about the fact that half of all americans are angry than $10,000 in their savings accounts. can you imagine that? half of all americans. that means your one automobile disaster, y from

our kids going to go out

and get a living wage? are they going to find any job at all? do you know what it means for a kid who graduates high school who can't find a job in two years three years? do you know what that does for that kid? that kids' entire life? nd that's what turns our worrying about -- parents are worrying about. i think perhaps maybe the most important point i want to make this morning is not just to talk about what's happening to the working people of our country and to our middle class. but to point out to you as strongly as i possibly can that this economic collapse is not happening to all sectors of our society. yes, unemployment is high for working people. yes, the middle class is

shrinking. yes, over 40 million americans today despite the modest successes of the affordable care act continue to have no health insurance. but there is another economic reality out there that everybody in this room and everybody in this country should also understand. and that is that today the wealthiest people in this country are doing phenomenally well and corporate america is enjoying record breaking profits. and in fact we are becoming a nation in which some people on the top have more money than they could ever dream of while at the same exact moment you have working people in new hampshire -- people with jobs walking into emergency food shelters trying to get some

food to take them over the week or their families. today the united states has by far not even close the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth. and that gap between the very, very rich and everybody else is growing wider and wider and wider. 38% the top 1% owns over of the financial wealth of america. before yeah ask me questions le me ask you a question. who knows roughly what the bottom 60% of the american people own? what's the guess? 11%. what do i hear? that we do auction. 5%.

what do i hear? 7%. what do i hear? the answer is 2.3%. ok? let me repeat it. now, wealth is what we accumulate our entire lives. not what we earned last year. so if you took the wealth of america and converted it into a large pizza with 100 pieces what you've got is one guy slices of pizza and 60% sharing in 2.3 pieces of pizza. and that gap in wealth is worse than at any time since before the great depression. one family, the walton family of wal-mart is worth about $148 billion. that one family owns more wealth than the bottom 40% of

the american people. over the past decade the net worth of the top 400 billionaires in this country has doubled. got that? we're seeing more and more millionaires and more and more billionaires. and their wealth and income is exploding. charles and david coke. ah, the koch brothers. they will hear you at the other side of town. they're entertaining some of their friends over at the other side of town i understand. i'm going to al qaeda a about them later but i want to mention to give you an idea. now, the koch brothers they're struggling. they want to be the wealth -- they want to be the wealthiest family. they haven't made it yet. but they are doing ok. under that terrible obama

administration which is destroying all initiative and all wealth and which they hate with a passion their wealth went up from 68 to $80 billion. 12 billion increase in wealth in one year. she ther good friends, woulden ailed son who owns the largest casinos in the world mostly off the coast of china he is the eighth weltiest in the world. he is a poor cousin only worth 38 billion. but his wealth just last year went up by 11.5 billion. now, talk a little bit about wealth. what about income? income is what you made last year. in terms of income the last information we have covers the year 2009 to 2012. and during those years 95% of

l new income went to the top 1%. 95% of all new income went to the top 1%. so you've got people in new hampshire, people in vermont, people all over this country working hard, what are they finding? well, got 2% reduction in their pay or maybe their health care costs went up all over this country including many federal employees by the way. today are earning less at a time when 95% of all new income went to the top 1%. the top 25 hedge fund managers made more than $24 billion last year. now, that $24 billion, just to put it into the real world, is enough money to pay the full salaries of more than 425,000 ublic school teachers.

24 hedge fund guys made the equivalent of 425,000 public school teachers. today corporate profits are at an all-time high. crmp eos of large corporations earn close to 300 times what their employees make. each and every year the wealthy and large corporations avoid paying their fair share of taxes. one out of four corporations in is country pays nothing in taxes. and the wealthy and large orporations avoid paying about $100 billion a year because they stash their money in the caymen ilents and bermuda and other tax havens. you have magerp corporations over the last five years companies like general elerk rick boeing and other whose make billions of profits manage at the end of the year to pay

nothing. so that's the economic reality of america today. the rich doing unbelieveably well able to manipulate a rigged system tax breaks for them sending american jobs all over the world getting golden parachutes of tens of millions of dollars when they retire. families of orking this country, this is a very, very difficult moment. so let me just talk a little bit now about some of the problems. where should we go? let me touch on some of the areas that i've been working hard along with other members of the senate and other members of the house. when you ask people what the most serious problem facing this country is they rattle off a whole lot but at the top of every list is the issue of jobs. jobs. and they understand as i mentioned a moment ago that real unemployment is a lot higher than official

unemployment and they understand that we need to create millions of decent paying jobs in this country. and let me give a few ideas as to how we can do it and do it quickly and do it in a way that economists tell us can be very effective. i don't know about new hampshire but i do know that the roads and bridges and waste water plants and water systems in the state of vermont have serious serious problems. in fact, the society of sil engineers talks about trillions of dollars in infrastructure deficits. we need a massive amount of work to rebuild our roads, rebuild r bridges, our rail system which is now falling further and further behind europe, japan, and china. if we invested in a significant way in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure not only would we make rebuild our rail system which is now falling further and further behind europe, our country more competitive and productive. we can create millions of jobs doing that and that is exactly

what we should be doing. our ould also be rewriting trade policies which have benefited corporate america but at the expense of working people. corporate america has got to start reinvesting in the united states of america and start creating jobs in this country ather than in china. and then we also have to pay a whole lot of attention to the age situation in this country. today nationally we have a $7.25 minimum wage. that is obscene. that is unacceptable. we have got to raise the inimum wage.

there will be today nationally legislation on the floor i believe of the senate when we come back in two weeks that calls for 10.10 an our. i would go further than that. but 10.10 is at least a start in bringing millions of people out of poverty. we also have to deal with the issue of pay equity. is that right, women? all right. and women should not be making 77 cents on the dollar that a man makes. paying our l be people equal wages for equal work. say a word about health care. heard one or two things about this. affordable care act, revolutionary communist socialist plot. as i think many of you know, the concept of the affordable care act came from republican think tanks. and it was implemented that that well-known communist mitt

romney a few miles south of here. i voted for it. with hesitation but i voted for it. among other reasons because i was able to get $10 billion in it to expand community health centers all over this country. and get some other provisions prevention disease and make it easier for people to get to medical school and pay their medical bills so we can deal with primary health care. but let me be very clear. i think the affordable care act has been a modest success. obviously the rollout was a disaster. and that's all anyone can talk about our republican friends can talk about. five years from now nobody cares about the rollout nobody cares about a stupid website. what people care about is whether human beings in this country are actually able to go to a doctor when they need to. there was a study some years ago at harvard university. what they told us is that

45,000 americans die each year because they don't get to a doctor when they should. and i talk to a whole lot of doctors and every one of them will tell you she walked into my office she was really sick i said why didn't you come in here six, eight months ago? i didn't have any health insurance. i don't want charity. by the time she walked into that room it was too late. all over the country that is what happens. as a nation we have got to ask ourselves a very simple question. how does it happen that in this nation we end up spending almost twice as much per person on health care as the people of any other country and yet we d up with 40e million people with no health insurance even more including people in this room who are underinsured who have large copayments and deductibles? and yet at the end of that our health care outcomes compared other countries in terms of

infant mortality, in terms of longevity, are not particularly good. and than that. but 10.10 is at least a start in bringing millions of people out of poverty. we also the answer is that to a what e answer is that signifie health care in america is about is making money for private health insurance companies. so i believe the affordable care act is a modest step forward but we've got to take a bigger step. and that is recognize that health care in the year 2014 must be a right of all people i believe we should move to a medicare for all single pair program. i said a word before about education and i will just add a few words to that. education is what life is about. education is what life is about it is what and

life is about when you're older. every psychologist who has ever studied the issue understands that the most important formative years of a it is what human eing's life are 0-4. d every psychologist who has

written about the issue understands that if kids at that age get the emotional and they understand. they need the best educated workforce possible. and what they understand is that it is insane that it is self-destructive to say to working class kids, well, sorry, you may be really smart, you may be really energiesic

but guess what you can't the afford to go to college. that's the way it is. or if you do go to college you're going to come out $50,000 in debt. maybe we can learn something from countries all over the world who say that you will get a college education without cost regardless of what your income is. think of what that means to kids here in manchester, vermont, --. in manchester vermont and manchester new hampshire and man chesters all over the country. when kids who are in the fifth or sixth grade know and have been told that if they do well in school, if they study, they are going to be able to go to college. they are going to be able to make it into the middle class. just doing that can transform education from all over this country. now, i want to talk a little bit about another area that i

have spent a bit of time working on, the issue of retirement security. at a time when only one in five workers in the private sector have a defined benefit pension plan, when half of americans have less than $10,000 in savings, and two third of seniors rely on social security for more than half of their income, our job is to stand up strong and say to our friends at the other side of town today, right wing republican friends, you are not going to cut social security. now, i am going to give you -- it's a lot of difficult news out there, challenging news. i'm going to give you a success story here which you helped make happen and millions of

other americans made happen. i want to take you back two, three years ago to washington, d.c. and here is what was going on in washington, d.c. my republican friends were saying, well, you know, we have this terrible deficit and we're going to get to that deficit in a minute and how that deficit was caused. but we have this terrible deficit. therefore, we are going to have o do what do they call it -- well, we're going to have to cut social security. this exy come up with pression chain cpi. really amounts to significant cuts in cola benefits for seniors and for by the way disabled veterans. and as chairman of the veterans committee, i was more than aware of that. what we did -- now, at that years, virtually

every republican, bowls and simpson all these guys talking about it. many democrats talking about it and the president of the united states talking about it. and people like pete peterson. pete is a wall street billionaire. and this guy has put hundreds this ex millions into an obses to cut social security. it's a funny story the last time and the first time i was on this campus was i don't know a year ago, year-and-a-half ago, pete peterson group -- he has a group running around talking about the deficit and they came here. so organized a group of seniors from new hampshire vermont and massachusetts to say hello to those folks. and we filled up not this room but another room and it was a very interesting meeting because pete's friends heard mi rom folks they did not necessarily want to hear from. but the point is right now when so many people living on the edge, when poverty among seniors is actually going up. we have waiting lists for

the meals on wheels program and meals programs, when many seniors are in trouble, it would be morally grotetesk for anybody to talk about cutting social security. our job in fact working on legislation right now is to expand social security. and when anybody tells you in a lot of i'll use a nice word misinformation out there about social security going broke i think you all know that social security can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible american for the next 19 years. and if you do one simple thing you can make social security tronger for the necessarily want to hear next 5 years. right now somebody makes 10 million a year, somebody makes 117,000 a year, they both contribute the same amount into the social security. if that cap in

social security is strong for the next 50 or 60 years, we can expand benefits. i want to say another word on an issue which is very troubling to me and it's an interesting issue because it's brought some strange bed fellows together. we pride ourselves on being a free society. and we need a serious national conversation about what that means. what does it really mean? are you a free society if every telephone call that you make ends up in an nsa file? i don't think so. are you living in freedom in some of your email exchanges are intercepted? or there is knowledge on the part of the government about the websites that you visit? i don't think so. and that is why i voted against the u.s.a. patriot act and the reauthorization of the u.s.a. patriot act.

so we have obviously got to be vigilant against terrorism. it is a very serious issue. but i do not think we have to undermine the constitution of the united states to do that. let me touch on -- i mean, i keep saying this important issue. every one of these issues is jygantically important and we can talk about it for hours into itself but there's one that sticks out. having to do with whether or not this planet really survives. and that is the issue of climate change. despite what you may see on fox tv, or in the media in general, the debate about the reality of climate change is over. the scientific community is overwhelmingly in agreement that climate change is real, it is caused significantly by human activity. that right now we are seeing devastating results of climate change in terms of floods, in terms of heat waves, in terms

of forest fires, in terms of extreme weather disturbances. and what the scientists tell us is that situation will only get worse unless we boldly address the problem significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions and ve towards sustainable energy. so it is -- and i say this i don't mean to be overly partisan today. i am partisan, obviously. and my republican colleagues disappoint me to say the least every day. but while we can have disagreements on so many issues it is very frightening to me and i think to you that you have virtually the energy. so it is -- and i say this i don't mean to be overly partisan entire republican party rejecting science in terms of climate change. they don't reject science in terms of cancer research. they don't reject science in many, many areas. but because of the power of the fossil fuel industry, the oil

companies, the coal companies, the gas companies, because of that power they are willing to push aside what is the overwhelming scientific evidence. and the truth of the matter is that if we are aggressive in reversing climate change, if the united states of america becomes the leader, we can have a huge impact in moving china, moving india, and moving other countries. and, by the way, when we move to issues like energy efficiency and weatherization, in vermont right now we are weatherizing thousands of homes. i'm sure here in new hampshire. and by the way your senator jean shaheen has been very active on this issue. and when you do these things you cut people's fuel bills very, very significantly. you cut greenhouse gas emissions. and what else do you do? you create jobs. that's what you do. o we should do that --

[applause] be patient. i'm coming to the end. all right. now, and i mean it in truth. i don't know how to juggle -- people say why did you put this first, that thing second. they're all enormous. they're all about the future of america. but i want to get to another issue which maybe in a way super seeds everything else. and that is what for many people is not a particularly sexy issue. nd that is campaign finance. the united ears ago states supreme court made a decision that had people to say the least scratching their heads. they said in the citizens

united case -- and by the way, my understanding is citizens united is one of the hosts of the republican event over there. that they said that corporations are people. and equally important, that individuals could now spend as much money as they wanted in the political process because they had the first amendment rights of freedom of speech to do that. what is the impact on that -- of that case and what's the impact of the recent mccutchen case that we heard a few weeks ago? and here is the impact. and i want you to think very, very seriously about this. new body in vermont and in hampshire and -- we all have different opinions about this that and the other. that's called democracy. t i would hope and respect

especially to those people who fought and died to defend democracy and our way of life that there is a not a difference of opinion, that in the united states of america billionaires should not be able o buy elections. now, let me give you very concrete examples of what i'm talking about and it is happening literally today on the other side of town. a few weeks ago we saw a remarkable spectacle in las vegas, nevada. they have a lot of spectacles in las vegas. but this one was really quite remarkable. and that is sheldon aidleson worth many, many billions of dollars called the republican candidate for president to come to las vegas to tell him what hey would do for him and how

they would support his agenda. now, i understand i'm stepping on sensitive toes here. you think that new hampshire has the first presidential primary in the country. right? the add elson primary is now the first primary in america. and the difference between the new hampshire primary and the aid elson primary tells you everything you need to know about what is happening in politics today. in new hampshire candidates come and they're democrats and republicans and hometown meetings and talk to people and people end up voting. vote and people vote for whoever they like. that's called democracy. what the aidleson primary is about and if we don't change it this is the future of american for whoever they like. that's called democracy. what the aidleson primary is about and if we politics, is that billionaire saying tell me what i want to hear. and if i like what you're

telling me, i am prepared -- and remember, he earned $11 billion more last year -- i am prepared to put hundreds of millions or dollars or maybe $1 billion into your campaign. it doesn't matter to me i have so much money it really doesn't matter. obama in the last presidential election spent a little over $1 billion. mitt romney spent a hair less. both spent $1 billion. these guys could take $1 billion out of their pocket today. they would not notice it. it was gone. so whether or not you are looking at now is a situation where billions nares are going to control the political process. and if we do not get our act together we are moving rapidly down the road to an olgarkic form of society where billionaires control not only the economic life of the nation but the political life as well.

my friends, of any issue that we bring people of any political persuasion, i do not care if you are conservative or progressive, we have got to fight to defend american democracy and not allow billionaires to take it over. [applause] by the way, while it is absolutely true that the republican and right-wing billionaires are spending a lot more money, there are democratic billionaires as well. we have got to oppose that. i am not much into constitutional amendments. some people, 50 different constitutional amendments every day. i am not into that. i do believe in introducing a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united.

[applause] and in my view, we need to move toward public funding of elections. honest people can and do and will have differences opinions. that is called democracy. what we want is campaigns that are based on ideas and not simply the ability of billionaires to flood the airwaves with ugly 30 second airs. let me tell you why it is important and what is going on today. on election day, back in 1980, david koch -- i'm using this as an important example -- david koch back in 1980 --

he financed most of the campaign. that is all fine. i want to take you down a road now. i want you to understand this. i want you to understand what this libertarian platform ran on in which ago one percent of the vote on. the ideas that he espoused were considered extremist, wacky, kooky, way out of the mainstream. today the political tragedy of the times is those extremist ideas are now mainstream in the republican party.

i want to give some examples. i will give you quotes from the libertarian platform of the 1980 party that koch ran on. "we urge the repeal of federal campaign finance wars and the immediate abolition of the despite -- you understand what that means? do you understand that two weeks ago in a decision it was said exactly that. that is where the republican party today in 2014 is moving. they want to end on restriction on campaign financing. that would mean a handful of billionaires will sit in a room and say, let's put $20 million into new hampshire. let's put $150 billion in two california and vermont. it is a drop in the bucket. to allow unlimited spending, we will certainly lose the

foundation of american democracy. that is what they were talking about 34 years ago and that is what is happening today. here is another plank 1980 libertarian party. "we favor the opposition of medicare and medicaid programs. they haven't succeeded, but they are trying. if you read the ryan budget passed by the house last week, that budget would end medicare as we know it and move it toward a voucher type program. this we are going to give you when you are 65 or 67 and they probably want to raise the age

for medicare eligibility anyhow, here is your check. you can go to any private insurance company that you want. if you have cancer, that would last about one day maybe. that is their plan to have a want to deal with medicare. enters the medicaid and other health-care programs, the ryan budget does not end medicare, but it would go away insurance over a 10 year period by cutting medicaid by more than $1.5 trillion and would end the affordable care act. this is what they also said. "we favor the repeal of a fraudulent, ritually bankrupt and increasingly oppressive social security system. pending that repeal, participation should be made voluntary. many of my republican colleagues

believe just that. furthermore, the koch brothers party said -- we support the repeal of all taxation. as an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against taxation should be terminated immediately. today's republican party does not believe in the end of all taxation. but the recently passed ryan budget passed by the republican house provides a $5 trillion -- the ryan budget would provide an average tax break of at least $200,000 per year for

millionaires. lastly -- again, see what is happening today. the libertarian party stakes out a very clear position on the minimum wage. "we support repeal of all laws which impede the ability of any person to find employment such as minimum wage laws. do understand what they are saying? many people do not. they are saying we not only oppose increasing the wage, and we want to do away with the concept of minimum wage. our freedom loving friends at the other end believe that you should have the freedom if you're in a high unemployment area to work for three dollars an hour.

you don't want the government coming in. they should have the freedom to throw all of their crap into the river and air and pollute our society. if you don't want to restrict them from doing that. if you are hungry, you have the freedom and feed your families. we do not believe in nutrition programs. if you are 65 or 70 and you are sick, you have the freedom to die. we do not believe in federal medicare or medicaid. [applause]

that is the essence of what the koch brothers and their organizations believe in to get richer, freedom for coal companies to continue looting our nation, and moving us in a disastrous -- freedom of wall street to continue to go about their greedy, illegal ways to disrupt our entire economy. that is their definition. in my mind, here's where we are. i touched on a lot of issues. all of them are important. there are many that are terribly important as well. where we are in this moment is pretty clear to me. that is whether or not -- it doesn't happen by snapping your fingers, whether or not we can bring about a political

revolution in this country which demands and urges millions and millions of working people, middle-class people, young people, old people, people who are so disgusted with the political system today that they do not want to vote or go near it and they turn off the tv. can we somehow bring that into the political process. on every single issue based on every poll, what these guys, the right wing guys are talking about, they may be reflect 10% of american people. 15% of american people. go to alabama, mississippi, stand on the street corner and say, do you believe that we

should cut social security, medicare, medicaid and get tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires? they will laugh at you. no one believes that. our job is to understand there are issues. i believe in gay marriage. we have to understand and respect differences. for reprint together working families all over this country to stand for an america that makes sure that every single person has a modest living. can we do that? i think we can. it's with the challenges about is whether we move in that direction and bring in tens of millions and get them involved in the political process. have meetings like this all over america. having debates and having

discussions and expanding and strengthening our democracy. that is the way i think we have got to go. there is another way. that is a handful of billionaires pumping hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars into campaigns and having candidates come before them and getting that -- that is where we are in america. it will strengthen democracy and i vote for democracy. thank you. [applause]

i just looked at the clock. my goodness. thank you for your patience. how will we do this? we have some questions, i think. i would be happy to -- [taps microphone] >> if you could give this address to every home in america, i think you would be president. [applause] i have a request -- question for you. a simple request -- can you do two things if we could require television networks and every station and all of the cable news to get their licenses from us to give free airtime for 90 days before an election? we would not have to raise billions of dollars.

the other question is you talk about jobs. young people on the street corners, college students getting wasted a few nights a week. they don't all, but it happens. how about a youth core requirement that you cannot start college at 18. you got to work for the country for two years. you will go into the military or the hospital or an indian reservation. they will be paid by the government, by the american people to work for the greatest country in the world. it used to be the greatest country in the world. >> they are both sensible ideas. why the democrats so passive and laying down and almost conceding that we are going to lose the senate and it will be taken over by mitch mcconnell and his right wing packs? why are we letting this happen?

that is three jumbo jets equivalent to crashing every week. people would stop flying and start paying attention. most do not know that their data. most people do not know that bill mcguire took $1 billion with him. people do not know these things. they would be pissed if they did. here is what my view is. i talk about the republicans. we have had a long history of republican governors. the have had moderate republicans in the senate and in the house and in government. those moderate republicans today

could not get into the door of today's right wing republican parties. the lately that politically, they had to move from essential right party to a right wing. if you look at the the democratic, look at what harry truman talked about 1948. truman was considered them to be a conservative democrat from missouri. read what he has to say here and there a few democrats who could talk and his language today. focus on the american working class to a centrist party which sadly -- it receives a lot of corporate big-money as well. i agree with you. i caucus with the democrats. i often rave on this issue.

the democrats about to stand with the working class of this country. [applause] they have got to have the bucks to take on big-money. there are more good democrats that are working really hard and you know. they do not get into the media terribly often cared they will not get on tv talking about the important issues. i think we have got a question here. >> thank you. my question is in tune with education. the union later a couple of weeks ago did a story on an effort that i am making with introducing an alternative or an improvement to the affordable

care act. has even gone as far as to putting up a website www.citizencare.us. what i have done is about three years in the making. anyway, i made the effort of talking with schultz and kelly ayotte's office said. the discussed the program. >> time is short. >> would you be willing to take a serious look at this if you want to see it as improvement? >> we'd be happy to. i do not know if you have time to do all of the questions. be as brief as you can. >> i was so happy to hear your

words on the finance reform. but even before citizens united was decided, we were in a mess with campaign-finance. can't we go farther? can we restore the right of the people to limit campaign funding? it is not just operations to limit the rights of wealthy individuals. >> the answer is yes. >> how? >> that is what public funded elections is about. i think that makes a lot more sense when we limit the amount than having billionaires by

elections. it is hard stuff. we have got to figure it out. but he a situation where a serious candidate can jump up and run an election knowing that here she is a certain amount of money to get the word out without having to spend half his or her life raising the money? one of the dangers things that the citizens united decision does is the other side is that the good guys have to keep up. it is no great secret that members of congress are not worrying about unemployment or education. it is a terrible situation. >> hi. i want to bring up two issues. one is about a war that is happening in ukraine. hitler in the 1940's carried out genocides.

it is a bigger issue than just russia is a bad guy, etc. we are looking at something that is driven not by the local commissions there, but why the collapse of the european and u.s. financial system. the bailout that began in 2008 has created a condition for them looking to bail in. it is basically a detonator for the financial system. that is that driver for war. i would say the way to get this nation off this track is for the temples of the democratic party who are opposed to a lots of the policies of obama to break with obama. as long as he is in office, that is are the nation is heading as towards war. we need to break with wall street as well. that is something i know you are a proponent of. >> you raise an important issue.

it is one of the issues i hardly got into at all. one of the things i will extrapolate a little bit, a right wing friend -- the reason they had to cut social security and medicaid is because of the deficit. how do we get into this situation? does anybody remember that when clinton left office in 2000, the country was running a significant surplus? the economists were projecting that surplus would only increase. what happened? he went to war in iraq. i voted against the war in iraq. i think history will record that

as -- does anybody here recall that all of those guys were just so anxious to get into that war -- do you remember any discussion about what it would do to the deficit? how do we pay for that? it just slipped our minds. and there we gave huge tax breaks to the wealthy. in terms of issues of another thing, forgive me. military spending -- everyone agrees terrorism is a serious threat. there is something a little wacky when the u.s. is spending almost as much as the entire rest of the world on defense. in france and germany, they have

got health care for all people. their kids get free education and we paid the military bill. maybe want to think about that as well. >> thank you, senator, for come to speak to us. could you comment on the natural gas industry and exports? >> lot of people use propane here? propane gas prices have shot up. serious problems. we wrote to the department of commerce and asked them to stop the export. we have people in vermont and hampshire seeing a huge increase. i would suggest we take care of people here first. >> yes. thank you for being here. i'm a proud member of the new hampshire alliance for retired americans. we work strongly to make sure that we do not get those cuts in social security. my question to you is i am

appalled by the fact that we elect congresspeople and senators to washington to work for people when in fact they spend at least 70% of their time on the phones trying to raise money. what about the people and not just the politics? >> that is a moment ago. i have got to tell you, both sides do it. they get on the phone. here is the problem that you have -- if you knew, if you were a senator and you knew there was an unlimited amount money that would come in, what do you do? what the koch brothers and all of these guys has made is a bad

situation much worse. we have to stop it. that is why spend so much time talking about the need of campaign-finance reform and overturning citizens united and moving to public funding of elections. your point is that it is not just the fact that we have so many 30 second ads. in both parties, they are distracted. someone is coming to your stay and you were senator and you'll spend $20 million. give them the phone and not focusing. that is why you need to change the system. ok. the line keeps getting longer and longer. [laughter] we do two more from both sides? >> i'm a disabled veteran. quick question -- how does the self-serving attitude of congress get changed to where the common folk are heard more than themselves? >> i think it gets back to a simple point.

they do not stay up nights worrying about you when they are getting their funding from millionaires and billionaires. they worry about their agenda and not yours. you're a veteran, yes? i'm chairman of the veterans committee. we have introduced the most offensive veterans legislation introduced in 20 years. a long way to deal with the many serious problems in the community. all of the veterans organizations reported to the floor because most of you -- most americans think it takes 51 votes to win. that doesn't. they could filibuster after filibuster.

do not have favorable -- do you know how many republican votes i got? i needed three more. to answer your question, -- look, it is not easy stuff. you have got to bring your representatives in. what is your agenda? if you're not voting for your agenda, you tell them, have a nice life. you're not getting reelected. that is what it is about. not saying it is easy. it is not. hold them accountable. >> i'm a disabled veteran from massachusetts.

thank you for what you do for the veterans on the veterans committee. two quick things -- my daughter is 29 and still paying off her college. there's a lot of chatter on facebook with some of these people who want to pay the fine on the affordable care act and who do not want health care. she cannot file a bankruptcy. i don't think people willingly i think there should be a two tier minimum wage. i think it is worth more to have someone work for some best to juggle schedules and things like that. it would give them less of an incentive to give employee things like walmart does. there should be a $12.50. obviously, there are exceptions,

for walmart or target like that. >> thank you. >> i'm from new london. i have got two words in a phrase for you -- soil, water, endless warfare. in 1981, the agriculture department reported that the six feet of topsoil that covered the plains was down to two feet. the soil is going down to the gulf of mexico. it will be gone. as for the endless warfare, what do we do about the pentagon's drain on the civilian economy? r&d and job creation, and what

do we do for brave young men among whom which were two of my childhood best friends, sent abroad to fight and die for the sake of what i will politely call an official story. thank you. >> thank you. >> last question right here. >> i would love to see him on the ballot the next inheritor of the norman thomas program. i think we are entrenched in 19th century thinking of the economy. nothing seems to improve. it just sits there. people seem to be satisfied. you have tried to engage in political conversation, but they do not want to get into it. what will it take for someone on

the left? >> people are not satisfied. people are frustrated and they are angry. they may not know how to go forward. i have to say that these guys have done an amazingly good job in dividing people up. they are dividing people up. it is on gun issues on the abortion issue and the gay issue. that is what they do. our job is to do the opposite and bring people together. [applause] let me just conclude. i want to thank you for coming out. around here we haven't had that many beautiful days. this is what american democracy is supposed to be about. let's do this all over the

country. let's get millions out there talking about the real issues facing america. we will change this country. thank you for being here today. >> thank you for being here. >> thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

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at the state level. in health care come and education, and veterans administration. >> if i could just get the two together, that would be wonderful. >> thank you very much. as i said, we're trying to keep republicans from getting control of the senate.

>> coming up this morning on c-span, comedian lewis black on his career in politics. live at 7:00 a.m. eastern, washington journal with the congressional efforts to change tax laws, and a discussion on fairness and equity in the u.s. tax system. >> april 15 march is the one-year anniversary of the boston marathon bombing. tonight, an event with two journalists, former tv news producer casey sherman and former boston herald investigative reporter dave wedge discussing their book about the attack. here is a look.

>> the day of the bombing, the richard family had her decision to make. they can either go to the marathon or they could go hiking, which is what they did quite often. it shows the marathon. ,hen they were in this position when the first bomb went off, bill richard knew it was a bomb. a lot of spectators that we have talked to, a lot of first responders, they thought it could've been a few things. chess former fire, a cannon that was used as part of the pageantry, a manhole fire as well. though richard knew it was a bomb and he knew had to get his family away from there as quickly as possible. bill richard jumped the barricade and got onto boylston street because he thought his family would be much safer on the street than they would on the sidewalk. >> we should qualify this. they were at the second bombing. they are the first one and bill reach over the fence and grabbed

henry, the oldest boy. >> henny was a person that was to requiem front of bill. as he is pulling henry to safety, he is reaching to his next child, which is probably martin. that is when the bomb went off. it is interesting, we have suspectthat the bombing had chosen that family, and targeted the family. there's fbi surveillance film that shows him casing that family number going back-and-forth behind them before he dropped that backpack. the heart of america? you choose an all-american family. that is what he did. martin was still alive after the .ombing for a few seconds the only words he ever uttered were, where is jane? jane is his younger sister. jane was almost torn apart. she lost her like.

her life was saved by first responders. their mother denise suffered severe injuries to her i and other parts of her body. one of the things that we found out in the course of writing this book was that the day of the bombing, as martin richard thought he was -- remain on boylston street because it was part of a crime scene and he would not remove it, his body was lying under a sheet as was the body of lingzi lu. the boston police were outraged. they wanted those victims off that street. they're one of those victims reunited with their families wherever they were. one boston police officer said that, i am not mentally this kid, not tonight date i'm going to stay with him. i want his parents to know that he was never left alone. now that is heroism. those of the stories that i said we have learned over the course of the past year and they still

took us up when we recount them because it is incredible. what so many people did in the wake of this on for sicko tragedy. >> you can see casey sherman and book,wedge discuss her "boston strong" on c-span tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. former treasury secretary henry paulson and president obama's former asia adviser discussed china's economy and its role as the world's second largest economy. you can see this event live starting at 9 a.m. eastern on c-span two. thatere's an old saying victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan. i wouldn't be surprised if is poorer as a

result of recent activities. senator goldwater asked some questions about the use of carrier aircraft from the carrier essex with the markings painted out. we figure that somebody over there has told them about that thing on wednesday morning and that therefore goldwater's going to spring up. they're going to try to spring it in a way that it was u.s. air cover. historic audio from the aftermath of the u.s. backed attempt to overthrow cuban premier fidel castro, saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span radio. online at c-span.org, and nationwide on next him satellite radio channel 120. on x m satellite radio

channel 120. >> during his hour-long remarks, he also discusses his appearances on comedy central's "the daily show" where he provides periodic commentary in back is black.d this show may contain language that some find offensive. >> is one thing for a comedian to make you laugh. it is quite another for a comedian to make you think, make you mad, that you question authority. our guest today does all of that. lewis black's original humor with angry rants and so nervous breakdowns portray an everyday man at odds with the mass society around him. mr. black is probably best known for his appearances on comedy central's "daily show." his "back in black" commentaries are among the shows most popular segments.

mr. black lampoons popular culture, family values, politicians and religion. few subjects are off-limits. less known is that mr. black is a writer and the first -- and diverse performer. he's written more than 40 plays, a few books, release several comedy albums and produced and starred in numerous specials for hbo, comedy central, and others. he has also acted in the "law and order" tv series and appeared in a number of films. the son of an engineer and school teacher, lewis began writing plays at springbrook high school in silver spring, maryland and in college. he attended the university of north carolina chapel hill and maintains a residence there. while at unc, he lived in a theater commune. he earned a masters in fine arts from the yale school of drama in 1977. mr. black is a progressive thinker who once described himself as a socialist.

he described his humor as "being on the titanic every single day and being the only person who knows what's going to happen." [laughter] many critics and observers think mr. black belongs in the same company as those people who influenced him, george carlin, richard pryor, and lenny bruce. one thing is for sure -- he is funnier than i am. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome lewis black to the national press club. [applause] >> if i knew there were going to be these things i could read off of -- seriously. nobody told me there was -- i thought you are doing that by heart. [applause]

i would have written the speech and stuff. instead, i've just got notes. to those watching c-span and public whatever you are out there, i may use profanity, so tough. [laughter] because i can't work and really speak without using it and talking about some of the things i'm talking about. if i make it through the whole thing, it will be exciting for both of us. i want to thank all of you who were up here on the dais with me, just so i could say the word dais. it's the only time you use that word and i would like to thank my friends who joined me today and i think our absolute proof that if you look at tori to barry lynn, i have the entire political spectrum of washington. so when people say he was right to say -- i do say i'm a socialist and i am a socialist.

and that is about as powerless a position as you can be in in the united states. i really just wanted to start with that because the idea of calling anyone outside of maybe bernie sanders a socialist, to call obama a socialist is you've got to be out of your mind. there are seven socialist left in the country and if you want to see the leadership of the socialist party, you can go to a cemetery and find them. we have no effect. as a matter of fact, when i was a kid, you read about them and i can imagine many of the history books have forgotten that evolution is a real thing, that socialism is even discussed historically.

i got this background for my parents who are here today. my father was a mechanical engineer and my mother was a schoolteacher. and they are really the ones who shape the way i look at things. if anything upsets you, they are here. [laughter] you can discuss it with them. [applause] it has been tough because i've been trying to figure out -- i have 25 minutes to speak and to actually speak to what i would speak to, you would be sitting here for an hour and a half and then you would probably leave and i would still keep talking. there really is a bunch of things i want to cover. my parents are the last of the middle-class families in america.

i was raised middle-class. absolutely middle-class. when i hear a discussion in congress about the disappearing middle class and what needs to be done, i don't think they have a clue. i don't think they have any sense of history. i don't think they have any idea of how it works. it worked really remarkably. i don't look back at that time and go, oh, it was a golden age. tv wasn't in color until i was much older. so it wasn't that great a time. [laughter] but you have to realize that there was a sense in the community i was and where everyone was middle-class stop there was truly a sense that somehow, everything would be ok. things would be taken care of.

we had a thing back then, and i know this will come as a shock in washington called taxes. listen to the lack of a laugh in this room. listen to the lack of a laugh in this room. taxes. ha ha ha. you can't even talk about it. you won't even crack a smile. it is extraordinary. what those taxes went to were things like when i finished school, at the end of the school year during the summer, there was a 10 to 12 week program down the street that i walked to that was a recreation center run by montgomery county in which i could go there at 8:00 and go there until 5:00. no one called childcare.

it was called get the little shit out of the house. as a result, i spent a lot of time at that place. my parents didn't have to worry. it was extraordinary. those don't exist. they may exist in pockets around the country. gone. gone. a community effort, gone. there was a high school, junior high, elementary school. we went down six times a year, not just me, the whole school, went down to watch the national symphony. that's where i learned i had no interest in classical music. [laughter] but it was an effort. it was arts in the school. now you have to fight to get arts in the school because nobody wants to pay for it. nobody wants to pay for anything anymore. that's the way i look at it. nobody wants to pay to get the things that would allow really

to be a great education to children. and i had that education and we were middle-class. it wasn't some wealthy neighborhood. my parents were earning your basic kind of salary and they have health insurance. my mother taught at my high school. she was a substitute teacher there and i will tell you just as a side light, the fact that my mother was a substitute teacher where i went to school and that i don't have asthma today is really extraordinary because that's the kind of thing that could really break a child. [laughter] but my mother was seriously funny, which has made it easy for me to deal with the other students because students would come out after a class and talk about how my mother had told some jackass sitting in the back

row what an asshole he was. my mother would say the reason you have to learn this is because in two years, when i drive up to the sears on the corner to get my gas, i don't want you to be standing there pumping it. [laughter] i got my mother -- part of what formed the way i look at things is my parents, we would sit around with my brother, my parents, myself and walter cronkite. i literally thought until a few years ago that walter cronkite was a part of my family. [laughter] and then my mother would go in and out of the kitchen and whatever was on the tv, she would yell about. i can't believe they are doing that today. my father would just sit there and when the vietnam war occurred, i think it was a

profound change in my life because -- let me get this off while i remember it. if we are not going to have an army that is drafted so there's no kind of failsafe system within their system so that people might respond to a war in another fashion because we are insulated from the army, it might well be considered that if you want to go to war, there will be a tax and then maybe people will think about it. that's just a thought. apparently no interest here. [laughter] so my mother was immediately against the war in vietnam. my father was a mechanical engineer who worked for the navy department or the department of defense -- navy? the navy department.

he made sea mines. sea mines are a defensive weapon, for you younger member s of the audience, it looks like a beach ball and has spikes and submarines at them. you put them in the water to protect your harbor from an invading ship. he listens to my mother yell on and on about this. one of the main reasons we declared war was that the decision was made over something called the gulf of tonkin resolution. which i would have googled last night but i'm a very busy man. so my father said he didn't know if the gulf of tonkin resolution was based on the geneva accords, so that we were going to war over these geneva accords. my father said my mother was

full of it because she didn't know if this was a legitimate war or not and that he was going to sit down and read the geneva accords. do you know anyone, do you know anyone, anywhere, a distant relative, send out e-mails today, that you know that read the geneva accords? you didn't. did you really? of course not. the geneva accords, he sat down and read them. he went to the library, he got them, he finished it and he announced there was no legal basis for us to be in vietnam. there was no legal basis to go to war and so he took an antiwar stance, as did my mother. mainly over the legitimacy of it. during the course of the next dt

few years of that war, we mind haiphong harbor. when we mined haiphong harbor, we put sea mines there. so my father who was essentially building defensive weapons, his weapon was being used offensively. he decided at that point in time that in all good conscious, he could not stay at his job. at the age of 55, he retired. that's my agent. i will have to go now. there are big things on my horizon. his retirement had a profound effect on me because i had never seen anybody, and i've seen few people in my life make a choice