off and basic le of pursuing prosperity. that k there are formulas are available but they'll equire risks on the part of political leaders it will require a slow building of trust. it is difficult in the aftermath of violence we have seen. i don't think we get that right away. the u.s. goal is to make sure the cease-fire holds, that gaza thategin to rebuild, and some measures are taken so that gaza feel some sense of hope and the people of israel feel confident that they

are not going to have a repeat of the kind of rocket launches we had seen over the last several weeks. secretary kerry has been inconsistent contact with all the parties involved in. we expect -- has been in constant contact with all the parties involved. we expect the process to be moved forward. there is a need to involve the palestinian leadership in the west bank. i havebefore hamas. i have sympathy -- i have no sympathy for hamas. i have sympathy for that international people. they have shown themselves to be responsible. they have recognized israel. they are prepared to move two-state arrive at a solution.

think they are sincere in their desire for peace. they have also been weekend i think during this process. eakened i think during this process. we have to rebuild that as well. they are the delegation that is leading. my hope is that we will be engaging with them to try to move what has been a very tragic situation over the last several we anymore construct if pat. --nk you -- that disruptive constructive path. thank you. thent to remind folks people who participated in our fellows program.

probably you and looking forward to what great things you'll do when you go back on. thank you. >> coming up on c-span, a discussion about the ready for hillary apc efforts to support a -- pac efforts to support a hillary campaign. then first lady michelle obama and laura bush at a summit. 900 all in west africa have died after contracting the ebola virus. two americans are being treated for the disease in atlanta. the house foreign affairs africa subcommittee will look at the threat of ebola what can be done to stop the disease. coverage begins at 2 p.m. here on c-span. c-spanican history tv on

3 this weekend friday night at 8 p.m. eastern. watergate, 40 years later. a cbs special report on the nixon resignation. and a live call-in program with john farrell. sunday night at 8 p.m. on our series the presidency, gerald ford becomes the 38th president of the u.s. tv.an 3 is american history >> the super pac called ready for hillary raised $2.5 million over a three month period. his digital director was on a panel with clinical consultants that discussed how they are ready. this is part of the annual netroots nation and known conference in detroit --

national -- nation and all conference in detroit. >> let me do some quick introductions. we are running short on time. we are going to get started. if folks have questions, we will try to take a few. afterward, feel free to come up. and hopefully we can get questions answered and get through everything as quickly as possible. first, to my left, we have nikki titus. she had that the digital operations. then we have -- what is your title? >> politics advocacy and non-profit client partner. a lot going on. >> who used to work with me.

and then we have eli down at the end. he generally causes trouble, but is one of the founders of rising tide interactive and has been working with the ready for hillary campaign. i'm going to turn it over to you guys. nikki is going to walk through the first slides. we will go from there. >> to echo mike, thanks to everyone for sticking around and coming down today. we are excited to share the work ready for hillary has been doing and paint a picture for you so you can see why it is a different kind of super pac and something we should be excited about. eli is going to walk through the why we are different. >> i just want to give a shout

out to a couple of other folks in the room. you have safed, the communications director and in the back, tracy, the senior adviser. they are awesome. >> we have upended the model of what a super pac looks like. we have a few statistics about the more traditional model. and how they have existed up until this point. americans for prosperity, which is the primary vehicle of the koch brothers, you will see on the left is the 22 -- 2012 revenue picture. we have broken that out into donations that were raised from checks over $1 million and checks below $1 million. as you will see, that is just an

enormous amount of money coming from a relatively small group of people. on the right represents the amount of money was spent at the presidential level on independent expenditures. as you can see, it was almost all television advertising. there was a little bit of digital in there. almost all of these ads were attack ads against president obama. it was very much one way communication. the super pac was pushing out negative information about the president, the user, very little opportunity to interact. it is just one-way communication. similarly, this is american crossroads, a picture of the 2012 cycle, which was cofounded by karl rove. on the left, you will see their

revenue picture. we broke it out differently. the red represents grassroots donations that are $200 or less. that is overrepresented because otherwise you would not be able to see any red at all. it accounts for approximately 1/260th of the revenue, from actual grassroots donations. on the right side, you have an enormous amount of television advertising against the president one-way. >> so now specifically about ready for hillary. let's start with a quote from "the new york times," repeats small donors and need leaving -- emulating the advantage in battling republican outside group/year.

so i want to jump in from a facebook perspective and talk about advertising trends we see on facebook within the third-party super stack -- super pac space. overwhelmingly the advertising i see is certainly negative. well facebook is an amazing two-way communication channel, it is definitely used for most super pacs to just be this distribution of really negative content. for the most part, that is repurposed think tv and blasting it out to audiences on facebook. to juxtapose that, and why ready for hillary has been so unique, in their evolution on facebook, it is this mailed of grassroots support a lot of folks use facebook for and social media. as well as a strong direct response channel. it is this meld of brands.

that is a unique combination. sort of makes it a model of how super pac's can leverage digital. and then to highlight some of these things, so you can see how we are different, 98% over contributions are $100 or less. compared to the crossroads number, which was based on $200 contributions which was 1/260th of everything they raised. 98% are 100 of or less. and i believe the number currently is we have about 30,000 individuals who have given exactly $20 and $.16 -- $20.16. we have 20,000 donors and if you are on our e-mail list, you we are very close to breaking one hundred thousand, which we are excited about. if you have not donated, hopefully this will help you. three out of four of our donations are for $25 or less. we have no six-figure donations. could take unlimited funds, but we decided we were only going to take up to $25,000. as you can see, we are focused

on our low dollar donors. 100% goes to a grassroots infrastructure. we are not running tv ads. we're finding hillary supporters and engaging them in a positive way. >> that is the goal, to be able to have this enormous list of supporters that, if hillary decides for president, she will be able to access not only money to respond to outside groups but also to make sure we can turn out individuals on the ground for key events. make sure there is an army of people who are going to be willing to volunteer for the campaign at a moments notice. that is all great in theory, we

wanted to walk through in practice how we sketched out how you would build that model from the ground up. this organization really launched in april of 2011 with a small website that garnered an incredible amount of media attention. interestingly, and this is true of almost any organization, less than 1% of your target audience is ever going to type in the url of your website. in order to make it successful, and currently we have identified 2.5 million hillary supporters in the database, we needed to find them on the internet and give them a hook to come in and join our movement so we could build and have the infrastructure to achieve our

ultimate end. the first way we did that, and while there was a lot of press from the very first thing, we bought google ads on hillary clinton's name so when individuals were looking for information on her, they also had the opportunity to raise their hand and say i am ready for hillary. i want her to run for president. search engine marketing, while thought of as the first piece of internet advertising, is a relatively small piece of the total pie. that is why we also did display and social advertising on websites that hillary clinton supporters are likely to visit including news and entertainment websites. we can target them based on individual domains to make sure

that whenever hillary is in the news and people are reading about it, the opportunity to join the effort as well. >> sorry. could not see. so to talk about the facebook component of this, there's a couple of elements to that strategy that were interesting and again unique, particularly within the super pac space. so on one side, this idea of building your grassroots support and doing acquisition. fan acquisition was definitely something where we, facebook was recommending a much more scaled-back strategy. advent don't go all in the fans. be thoughtful about it. a lot of people still go aggressively toward trying to get to large numbers of fans. one interesting thing i would

like to call out that most people don't do, that we recommend, is think about fan acquisition in the context of social context or one degree of separation. you don't need, if you are focused on a congressional race, you don't need to get 100% of eligible voters fans of your page. you need enough to get on hundred percent coverage through their friends. the reason is that allows you to serve, whether it is ads, or organic content, which has a lot of impact, message recall, that sort of thing. that was a big part of the fan acquisition strategy ready for hillary had. figuring out our target markets and selectively do fan acquisition to grow the community of people who then, through their friends, we can reach everyone in that audience. that was strategic and cost-efficient.

the other component is the diversification of their content. a lot of super pac's, this is a one directional channel of negative commentary, negative content. just a repackaging of video to do that. page posts, youtube, that sort of thing. ready for hillary is focused on having a broad range of different types of content on facebook. close, status updates, a lot of imagery. that is something they have a huge arsenal, beautiful imagery. a lot of photo posts, which is similar to what you would see in a grassroots organization than a super pac that is hammering you with single types of content. it is interesting because it was not just kind of all fluffy and feel good content. every content had a message and often had a specific task. this idea of diverse content was interesting and compelling and

engaging you would want to see, but with a clear component to that. and ultimately the page strategy as well. >> in addition, we have a very strong on the ground residence and actually you can see one thing. we are doing ready to lead training with women across the country. that is one component of what we are doing on the ground. the other things is the ready for hillary bus tour. if you have not had a chance to see at the bus, it will be at the event tomorrow evening. it has gone coast to coast. we have had phenomenal turnout at every event. we have hosted a day of action. we are out on college campuses and are organizing ready for hillary university chapters.

we have also done roundtables with constituency groups such as black americans, all across the country as well and have had great turnout and a lot of activism coming out of those. we spent the month of june on the road attending pride events all across the country and some phenomenal support, which we were excited to have. and we also host to 2016 fundraisers. it is more about getting everybody together in a room and showing a large group of support for hillary than it is about ringing in $500 contributions or having a traditional high dollar fundraiser. the next component is moving folks through the letter of engagement. so those events on the ground are one component. we think about the strategy in a different way.

>> those also give us a good opportunity to reach out to people and bring them into the process. once you have somebody who has taken some sort of action, you can't say we want you to donate money and own a piece of the movement right away. and so building engaged and lasting support means engaging people in a lot of ways. so on the lower end of the side you will see what we like to think of as low bar asks. liking the facebook page, free bumper stickers, asking people to sign pledges on the website to support hillary clinton for president. what they have taken those actions, it is easier to move them up to get invested. >> as people move through these low bar actions, we are able to put people into the social organizing tool, which is a great place to give supporters something to do, using the two ool to reach out to friends

and bring them into the ready for hillary network. the other tool that is very powerful for us is that it feeds into the voter files. we are able to learn more information about our supporters by matching them up directly. another component that is part of moving people up the ladder of engagement is purchases. are you a buyer? some folks like to mix their donation as a purchase. they feel better about it. i am buying a t-shirt. instead of just giving $20. you get a little value. and ultimately getting folks to make a contribution to ready for hillary. we want to spend time talking about ready for hillary in 2014. we are gearing up to do a lot of really exciting things as we head into the fall.

one of the big things we are doing, we will be helping candidates up and down the ticket that hillary campaigns for. we first did this with terry mcauliffe during his governor's race and also phil deblasio. what we planned on doing is capturing, with a photo, a picture of hillary while out she was campaigning for the candidate and taking a quote from that event and putting it on a photo and putting it on facebook and going to our supporters and saying we know you're into hillary. here is what she has to say about his candidate. here is why you should support them financially. we plan on mobilizing our network not just financially but driving folks to engage on the ground, whether volunteering or turning out to organize themselves in their own community. you think it is a really great value add.

we have folks who have said they are really for hillary. that is awesome. some of these folks are interested in her. they might not be out there engaged in the 2014 process. here is an opportunity to take that group of people and to wreck them into -- and direct them to the midterm elections. we are looking forward to them hitting the ground across the country and amplify the work we anticipate hillary is going to do in the last 90 days of the election cycle. so that is our presentation. i'm going to let mike go ahead. we will try to take some questions from folks and then we'll go from there. >> thanks. i will take the first question, if that is ok. can you tell us about -- so, these movements that we see around the presidential

campaigns, by their nature they are not sanctioned by the actual candidate. how did you guys get the idea to go ahead and start this and why the super pac? >> ready for hillary was started by two volunteers and a po box. in january of 2013, i guess. and the idea was to capture all of the latent energy around the hillary candidacy and give people a place to go. we chose the super pac structure because we believe to the structure was going to allow us to do some cool things. it did not only have to be used for evil to run aggressive negative ads. we wanted to take the structure and say let's go out in the field and give people a positive thing to focus on and show

hillary we are ready and we want her to hear that and know that from us. >> cool. one more, my next question is, on e-mail, it seems like you guys are building a huge e-mail list, a list of supporters. what are you going to do with that list if hillary were to announce and get started? >> our game plan is that hillary will decide to run. when that happens, we will be the first ones to say, hey, everything we have been working for is here and hillary is ready. we will be able to direct them into an official campaign site. we would plan on doing that for a period of time. we will continue to take our list and pivot them to hillary. the other thing is we are certainly going to be looking

for ways that we can sell or trade or swap our data with the potential candidacy. we really believe we are gathering great information and data that will be helpful to her, should she decide to run. >> that differentiates this group from some of the other draft efforts that might have come in previous elections. what we have seen is that these lists are enormously valuable. the obama campaign raised some $400 million from internet donations of this magnitude. and the romney campaign in some sense seem to be caught flat-footed in that they suffered because they had a much later start whereas the obama campaign was able to really never stop messaging and organizing their grassroots

infrastructure after the 2008 campaign. they had a four year head start on everybody else and the ability to have that type of enormous infrastructure to go to, we think, can make a great deal of difference. >> one other thing that is important to note, and is often overlooked, while secretary of state hillary had to shut down her political operations. people are always like, oh, hillary clinton. she spent four years representing our country around the world or that is what she was focused on. we have brought her supporters back out to say we're going to stand here and get organized and let her know we plan on being there right out of the gate so she does not have to spend time building the initial network. >> sounds good.

questions. if you have a question, raise your hand. go ahead. >> what about the restriction on super pac's? how does that play into the calculations? you can't just hand the list over. >> right. we are an independent expenditure. we do not coordinate with any candidate. but we do believe that the laws are such they do allow assets to be sold and traded among candidates and committees and state parties. so we believe that we are going to wind up in the right place. >> more questions? cool. >> how does the messaging differ for an organization like yours versus say a traditional campaign organization?

what different messages are you guys using? that maybe would be different than what other people have seen before. >> one of the things that is unique about this organization is that we are not so -- it would be presumptuous to think ready for hillary could dictate what hillary clinton's message is going to be. this is not a campaign. it is focused on building a grass-roots army and infrastructure. for every time hillary goes out and gives a speech about recent things that have happened, we are echoing that to make sure our e-mail list knows the key points she has hit on and give

people opportunities to really join in the efforts she is promoting. and also using her as a force of personality. a lot of the imagery you see on the facebook page and on the e-mail list and other channels are things we have done a lot of testing on and seeing that people really respond to. she is an inspiring figure. and really focusing on using those as hooks to make sure people take additional actions to further achieve our ultimate goals. >> also it is interesting, and politics there is very few organizations that have access to this kind of brand. like this very much is, in my work, when i think about trends and where people on facebook are having success, it is the really big brands from this idea of constant brand management and how they are going to add value so that at the end of the day, you can make those asks and keep people engaged.

ready for hillary is unique in the sense you have access to this amazing brand. there is an element of consistent reinforcement. >> doesn't it concern you that you are so much on facebook. for those of us who do not facebook from anything else, you are limiting the group you are addressing. >> we may have skewed, allowed

you to see a skewed view of where we are focusing. facebook is a large component of our online strategy. however, it is by no means our driving force. we have a successful direct mail program right now that has been doing phenomenally well. we are seeing a lot of positive support there. like you saw our on the ground support. we are on the ground, with the ready for hillary. we are attending festivals and fairs and other community events across the country. you don't have to be on facebook to be part of this network. >> like this is skewed digitally because we are at netroots, but even within the internet sphere, there is an enormous amount of outreach outside of facebook. you are right. there are a whole lot of people who are hillary supporters that don't have facebook accounts.

we have engaged in a lot of ways to get folks involved. the search engine marketing, display advertising, we have used a lot of targeting strategies. i could bore people for a really long time. we have done list rentals with progressive groups. facebook is just one piece of a larger puzzle. >> we also are active on mobile and have also done some constituency targeted campaigns that are fabulously successful, targeted to spanish speakers. which we were able to capitalize on hillary's remarks on immigration and amplify that message, which was awesome for us to do. >> cool. i think we are over time. maybe we can take one last

question. >> really quick, you touched on it a little bit, how did you, for the online advocacy, how do you turn that into actually getting the actual data? if you're getting people on facebook, like, not going into your database. i was wondering how you do this. >> we have used facebook fan campaigns to expand our reach for advertising and our advertising is very much interactive. i need you to click on something and come to our page and then i have your information. one of the ways we do this is by asking people to sign a pledge or to say i want a free bumper sticker. we will send it to you. we are focused on making sure that information comes back to us and into our database.

if we don't, we are obviously losing an opportunity to make sure that someone who is interested in hillary, that we can stay in touch with them. >> the facebook like, obviously we want to convert them into taking a higher bar ask. even just an e-mail address, we are trying to make sure we get their address so we have information on them. we can do that through the store bumper sticker, donations, and more. >> we are doing it on the ground. we are at the ready for hillary, a great deal of book signings. there we are with hillary supporters and we are able to capture their information by asking them to sign up directly. we bring all of that information to communicate with those folks so they know there is an

organization out there on the ground making sure that we give her every advantage we can. >> cool. like i said, folks will be around afterwards to take any questions you may have been thanks to you guys for doing the panel. [applause]

and, i think, what separates us from them is is not being afraid of reality and science. and, one experience is ever was the debate at the creation museum. somebody tweeted at me that they had proof that the earth is 6000 years old. i am like, you know, awkward. fire was created in thousand years ago. he tweeted back. i said, i may be a whore. you are still wrong.

and so, what if i am? what does that have to do with a new thing. i know many sex workers who are smarter than me and believe in science. [applause] yes. my favorite thing is when you talk about -- is my personal belief that earth control is a human right and should be free for anyone who wants it. anybody who needs an abortion should get one without apology. [applause] popular things to say outside of these walls. super-popular. i am telling you. people love it. my favorite thing that i put up in the universe and people come

back at me with is, why should i have to pay for your birth control? i do not want to pay for your birth-control. i think it is funny. i would pay any amount for yours. [applause] without further ado, i will resell the we are doing. this is ignite. without further ado, jean pittsburgh. >> hello. i am the founder and i am talking to you about how we took over the world and build a community and less than a year. lesbians are taking over the world. what is this? we are a community of queer women.

if you take nothing else away from today, high-fives are magic. give your neighbor a high five. it is tradition. you nailed the high five portion of today. what problem are you try to solve? four lesbians in tech, we can go to events and they look like men. we can go to lgbt events and they also look like this. we decide to do a series and this -- how to provide value. we decide to happy hours and we were not sure if women in tech exist. i have done gay events and it is hard to get women to show up. i thought one of thing -- one of three things was happening. there are not lesbians.

that is not true. they are home with their cat or girlfriend. no judgment. we wanted to create value. we had to figure out how to provide value. something magical happened for me. lesbians showed up to something. it was crazy and they kept showing up. all of a sudden, people in other cities e-mailed me and all we did was provide value by connecting. it turns out that finding lesbians is not easy and there is no secret handshake. i am upset about that. we can start one. i said, yes. we can host one in chicago. if there is a happy hour, i will do it. this is the best, ever. there are lesbians in tech. we have happy hours in 14 different cities and three international cities. london, berlin, toronto.

we have built a community of 4000 queer women in tech. we all have passion projects and it turns out that sleep is not totally overrated. we had to figure out how to make it sustainable. we became too broad. it turns out that lesbians all need to connect. we lost the tech focus. people started calling us "lesbians with jobs." we had to figure out how to get back to the value. we hosted a series of hangouts and people attended the events from all over the world. they said that they wanted deeper connections outside of happy hour. that is how we got to our first summit in separate cisco back in february. we -- san francisco back in february. we have people like megan smith. people wanted role models.

i said, who is a career woman in tech you would want to hear speak and 95% did not have one name. the other one said megan smith. people wanted this. how did we get the money? i saw paper on twitter -- i stalk people on twitter. if you put handles in your twitter name, that would save me time. tell your friends. people would say, what is your vision. screw that. strategic clans suck and they are a waste of time. -- plans suck and they are a waste of time. run experiments. in san francisco, they got jealous. i said i would listen to my community. if we can sell tickets, i will do it. they proved it to me and we had a summit.

the white house called and asked us to help plan the best innovation summit -- the first innovation summit. i said, i have to check my calendar. i can work something out. i said, yes. of course. we are going to host another summit and it turns out that people really like summits. you are all invited. there are going to be a lot of high-fives and allies and friends are all invited. how can you build a community that takes over the world question mark start with value. do not go too far ahead. do not create the strategic land yet. when in doubt, give high fives. thank you. >> please welcome depak. >> last year, i met a smart and courageous young man named

robert. he works at a pot bellies in washington dc and he makes less than $10 an hour with no benefits. -- washington, d.c. and he makes less than $10 an hour with no benefits. he told me that he barely exists. it has to be paid, he said. he said, how can i get ahead on poverty wages and no benefits? last year, even though they had a mediocre year, the ceo doubled his pay to $2.3 million a year and his wage is $1000 an hour. robert is not fighting for $1000 an hour. he knows he deserves to be paid more and that is why robert has

joined with his coworkers in washington and across the country, bringing others with him, to the fight to higher wages and the fight for $15. this fight has inspired millions who see themselves and robert's story. one third of our country live below 200% of the poverty line and earn less than $47,000 for a family of four. how did we get into this mess? between 1959 and 1973, there was a relationship between economic growth and reductions in the poverty rate. they broke apart in the 1970's. had they stayed together, the poverty rate in united states would have fallen to 0% in 1986 and stayed there. if wages had kept pace with productivity, america's lois aid workers would be making $17 an hour. -- lowest paid workers would be making $17 an hour.

we have been lost in the haze of a tired and stale debate. conservatives blame the victim and promote trickle down. many liberals say that there is not much we can do about inequality and poverty generated in the market and through the market. we can have ameliorating programs to help at the margin. both miss. we need to value labor in proportion to the contribution to the nation's online. -- bottom line. the best anti-poverty program is a job that pays a living wage. we can break out of the debate we have been stuck in for the last 50 years and reduce poverty by taking three simple steps. we can raise wages so that workers earn a living wage and

workers catch up with productivity growth. the minimum wage would go up a lot, like in seattle. and, we need to make it easier for workers to bargain with employers through collective bargaining at the workplace. number two. we need to eliminate racial and gender inequity in the labor market. poverty is not just economic. it is a racial justice issue and a women's rights issue. we need to tear down the obstacles to employment and we need to create workplaces that recognize that workers are people with families. clearly, we need to change things so that your paycheck is not smaller because of your skin color or that you are a woman. number three. we need important policies in this country and we have to invest in key sectors of the economy. the green economy. early childhood education.

we need to create millions of jobs and make them accessible to people who need them. this strategy would reduce poverty in united states of america by 80%. this is the moral crisis of our time and this issue ought to be at the center of progressive politics in our country and in the 2016 election. we now know what to do and we need to build the public will to do it. change in america comes through social movements. social movements help to make the impossible possible. few in this country would have believed that marriage equality or a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would move to the center of political debate and now, it is a question of when they will be achieved and not if. we can do the same on this issue. we at the center for community change are launching a campaign

to do just that. join us. this is the richest country in the history of the earth. we can build a society in which everyone has not just enough to survive. they have enough to thrive. thank you very much. [applause] >> so, i hold the dubious distinction of being a repeater. i was here last year and it was terrifying. i am your token misogynist. not misogynist. masochist. i am going to look at the incoherence of innovation. you look at machines and apps. we have subverted everything natural and necessary to a mechanistic view of the world.

look at how we look at human needs. food. shelter. education. we are still he -- fully in a mechanistic place. we used to have a metaphor of education that was a garden and we would nurture the intellect and culture interests. it entails that children are organic matter and they are all different with known things that they need. in the analogy, soil, water, sunlight. there is a magical alchemy that educators are responsible for. we have moved to a language of the factory. we have inputs and outputs. the kid is a product of a good

school. the entailment is that children are uniform widgets. why do they need arch? -- art? the teachers are factory workers and it is a conveyor belt. a stamp is put on their ass. none are left behind. we have monetized children. we invest in the future and our kids. they are too small to fail. we can kid ourselves. the prevailing understanding is financial return and that is how it is used. police say that a reason to do anything is because it is lucrative and we have fallen so far into this paradigm of reifying the economy that, the basis on which we decide something is right or wrong is whether or not it grows or shrinks gdp.

we have wandered so far from the reasons that we exist as humans that we are the adults in the charlie brown cartoon. what the fuck are we even saying? i know that when i look in my baby's eyes, i definitely think, man, i love that sweet roi. that is how parents feel about our children. right? we think, that is some money. children are not just giant money suckers. within this monetary framework. if you want to hang out there and you do not believe me, investment language is bullshit. we are talking about miniscule amounts for social issues. what we are talking about is

adding to -- more appropriately, not taking away from food stamps -- it is a fucking catch-up. it is insulting to the people who need this. we have wandered so far into this innovative paradigm of loving the economy and we are in plato's caves. we think we are looking outside and we are looking at shadows on a fucking wall. look at the place on the slide. the opposition is going away from us and the persuadable's are getting on board. they love this message. do you know what is set -- what is being said in this moment? america is a nation of values founded on the idea that all men and women are created equal. we hold that all people have rights, no matter where they come from.

the reason we do things is because it is more or less lucrative and that is the basis of judgment in our society. that is not even particularly innovative. we do not need to say that. we need to say that all people have rights. do you? that is a conversation we want to be happening -- having and the conversation that our opposition is thrilled that we allow them to avoid. [applause] >> yes. i'm going to say one thing. that is a good take home for all of us. we are going to see a lot of people with a lot of interesting ideas and we have been in a conference with a lot of people with ideas. commit yourself to being a pack mule for someone in this room.

be a grunt for that project. it is their voice. can you make that commitment? that is what we need to do. we need to focus on ourselves and what we are doing. you can focus on your project and be the legs, the body, the hands of someone else. moving on. [applause] >> when i was in india and preparing to move to the united states, one of my teachers told me that the next time she saw me, i would be an american. i was excited by the prospect and it turned out to be a lot harder to fit myself into my new

country than i would have hoped. i watched hours and hours of television every day to figure out how to be american and i think that i was doing ok. something happened. all of the white girls were supposed to come to my birthday party and did not show up. i try not to see color. i know. i was always really aware of my own and felt so strange. my friends told me that they did not see me as indian and i was just like them. i went to my first rally under duress. i was taught that changing the roles around race had nothing to do with me. something miraculous happened at the rally. for the first time in the 12 years since my family immigrated, i felt a sense of belonging and i understood that being an american is not about looking like marcia brady. it is about working with the people around you to create the most effective community possible.

as the demographic change, lots of people imagine that racism will just fade away and we will fall in love, marry each other, have millions of babies, and have exotic looking hair, skin, and eyes. you can trust me on this. you cannot just date your way to racial justice. [applause] what we can do is organize our way there. there are three things that i have learned about how to build multi-racial communities and organizations. the first thing that is the most important is the real and complete self-acceptance. clear-eyed self-acceptance.

they had excluded black families from buying or getting mortgages for their homes. by the early 1970's, middle-class families had been explicitly chosen by congress as being ok to emigrate because we were privileged in our home countries. we were considered ok to move in and i felt guilty about that for a long time. i felt so bad about it that i would build community with all kinds of people other than my own. your community has to include you, with all of your privileges oppressions. we have to talk about racial hierarchy and discrimination. color blindness is a corrupt concept that is based on the idea that our brains can do something that they are not capable of doing. [applause]

in a context where the universal in a context where the universal is white, we have to be clear about who and what we are talking about. the third lesson is that equity has to be the goal. not just diversity. think of our project as a party and you can invite me to the party. i could be interested enough to go. if the music does not suit me, i find it boring, and i did not have a way to change it, i will not stay very long. in politics, this lays out as people of color to me to a meeting and nobody listens to a word they say. that is called tokenism. in this framework, we acknowledge that all the good things at the center of our society, the great education, the safe housing, the excellent health care, all communities contribute and deserve to have

access to those good things. in this framework, we do not craft a strategy until all of the communities we are concerned about have a chance to shape it. we do not set the play list for the party without asking what they want to listen to. working in a multiracial community is beautiful and it has excellent reward. you laugh at everyone. everyone's jokes and eat food. you get to unlease the potential in every human being. that is our job as progressives and the key to a great life. thank you so much. [applause] >> why are you so funny and your content sucks? i'm not talking about you or

you. i'm talking about all of us. progressive and ernest do-gooders. how is it that we make up such a dynamic and hilarious group of people and, when it comes to putting out content for our issues, we struggle. we struggle to find humorous ways to talk about issues we care about. we often be people over the head with jargon or difficult realities or sad stories. there is a reason. the issues we work on are serious and the solution requires serious investigation. are they not going to take us seriously if we are funny? who has a luxury to laugh? i do not have time to laugh. think about this. scheuer gives us the opportunity to tackle difficult issues in

new ways. -- schumer gives us the opportunity to tackle difficult issues in new ways. a video used humor to talk about an issue that was incredibly difficult. interpersonal racial aggression. humor also motivates us to get off our asses. sometimes, they need a push and they are more likely to do something if you make them laugh about it. we all remember the great schlep. there is a science to this. up were the -- upworthy did a study and you will not believe what they found. [laughter] people love stories they can relate to. they like stories with heroes and villains. they like underdogs.

they like to be shocked. and, they like a gotcha moment. the next time you think about making content, think about how you can connect on a human level and what is something that happens every single day that you could connect with somebody on. this is an example of a video that we did with the aclu on reproductive rights. this is a legislator pretending to be a doctor. taking the highly contested issue to a logical conclusion. we do not want random medical advice from bozos. think about this video that we launched. santa is pretending to be the nsa. this was widely popular. most people think that santa is as creepy as the nsa. [laughter] do not be afraid to say what everybody is thinking. sometimes, it is most obvious answer that gets the biggest response and resonates the most. [laughter]

meet people where they are at. if they want cat videos, give them cat videos. the internet survives on the systematic humiliation of animals. talk about your issues in the simplest way possible. people do not know as much as you do and what is the one thing that they need to know when they walk away from talking with you. do not be too liberal. -- literal. you are right that it is your health care decision. when is the last time someone has talked like that? do not be afraid to use metaphors or layman's terms. think about what motivates your audience. why should i care? why should i care about your issue? your state? your e-mail list?

remember that humorous content is a nonoffensive pickup line at the bar. how you follow through means everything. we want to inspire people. we want the numbers of people we need to make a change we want to make and we need to get new strategies to engage new people. making them smile is one of them. whatever you do, do not try too hard and do not start a joke with -- [laughter] >> i'm not a blank, but -- we all know where that ends up. use an authentic voice and humor in your everyday life. have fun with it. [applause]

>> amy smith. [applause] >> i am amy. i am an obamacare success story. i am one of the millions who can help win in november. it has been proven that the attacks of obamacare do not hold up and they cannot even poke holes in the success stories. the success stories have the advantage of being true. democrats need to tell those stories. a lot of democrats are not using obamacare success stories to their full advantage. 20 million americans and counting are benefiting and it is awesome. it is what we have been fighting for and the fact does not change minds. what changes minds are personal stories of how americans benefit

and the stories the dennis -- benefit a value statement. what is in it for the voter? when a cancer pain shouldn't says that if it was not for obamacare, i would be dead, the value is obvious. use stories to show what people get. they get insured, despite pre-existing conditions. they did to keep their doctors and the peace of mind that, even if you are diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, the coverage you pay for can never be taken away and you will never hit a lifetime limit. let me demonstrate with my story. i have to buy my insurance and the cost kept going up. i was paying $1400 a month. why did i not shop around?

i could not. i am a woman and i could be charged more because of that. obamacare gives me the right to buy the same plan as everybody else. i am not discriminated against for being self-employed. i have the same coverage i have before for $900 less a month. i did not get a tax subsidy. my premium sound expensive and i would pay more for the insulin to stay alive if i had to buy it without insurance. i'll never pay more than $5,000 a year in out of pocket costs and my previous plan did not guarantee that. i told my story and help others tell thiers. they cannot afford coverage and they cannot afford to do without. they take different medications for different conditions and they qualify for tax credits. they got qualify for $227 a

month. i was told, in tears, that without insurance, she did not know how long they would last him she was not sure that they would make it to the wedding this summer. they did. there is linda. charles' cancer treatment will be covered. the coverage will allow charles to keep all of his doctors. this is what linda told me. i see these advertisements with people saying that they cannot keep their doctors and i know that is all crap. those are her words. the truth needs no embellishment. desiree will tell you the same. she says that she knows about people because she works in a pharmacy every day and has not seen a person's costs increase and she has seen a lot of costs

go down. she has held a woman who has not had insurance for entire life. she filled a prescription to manage a condition. it was a condition that was copy for it turned serious. other young people get it. he has a black mark on his credit record because he had to use the emergency room for routine care when he did not have insurance. doctors give her an optimistic outlook for recovery.

tell stories like these. tell the stories and give people a reason to vote for a democrat. people want to vote for the things that matter the most for them. one day, the life saved by obamacare maybe theirs. [applause] >> christopher. >> there have always been gay people. we were so in the closet that we did not know each other. in world war ii, we enlisted and we found each other. san francisco was a major wartime port. now you know why the city by the bay is so fabulous. a man named frank was fired from his job because he was gay. rather than cower, he became an organizer and activist. 50 years later, president obama would formally apologize to him. an executive order will be an

any business who ever does business with our government from doing that again. harvey milk became the first openly gay elected official in california. he was gifted and inspiring. a former colleague killed him. after his death, america was faced with the aids crisis. the government did not seem to care about the rising death toll. imagine all your friends dying in a few short years. for many americans, that is what the 80's were like. they gave rise to a generation of activists who fought for the rights that we have today.

this is barney frank in 1987. that is me. barney frank came out and was reelected. i am from massachusetts and that was the first time that i had ever heard about gay people and he was in a place of power. our ranks in washington have swelled. we have seven members of the house and one senator. we have wisconsin and arizona. we have a lot of work to do and we only have two women. only one person of color and no republican. gave republican makes my skin crawl. if you are not at the table, you are on the menu. they do not make it easy for us. this is mike. one of the only two openly gay republican legislators. this year, he lost his primary to and anti-gay tea partyists. some of his colleagues said

that, we knew he was gay and he did not have to come out. had he stayed in the closet, he would not have these problems. basically, if you come out, we turn you out. this is not just a republican problem. this is patricia todd from alabama. you heard me. alabama elected a lesbian. the democratic party tried to stop her and the establishment and candidate she beat try to knock her off the election ballot because they thought her lesbian status would be bad for the party in november. the victory fund -- in november . she has one the right and is doing great stuff. this is my first time in michigan.

what a great state. you do not have any openly lgbt legislators. you are going to change that and these are the candidates who are going to make history in michigan. i want to end this talk on the optimistic note of what -- 500 openly lgbt americans in office today. i think harvey milk would be proud of what they and we have accomplished, especially the biggest accomplishment. we elected the first openly-gay united states senator. baldwin said she did not run to make history. she ran to make a difference. harvey milk would be proud. gay people are like straight people and use their spouses and children in their campaign ads. we just got the right to get married and now, we use it to get votes. harvey milk would be proud.

i do not think you would end up -- i do not think he thought he would end up on a stamp. it is the first time a gay man had the honor. my partner and i went to a celebration to celebrate the release. he said to me that if it was not for the work of harvey milk and everybody who has come since, he would not have the privilege of working there. i think harvey milk would be proud and he is smiling knowing that millions of americans are licking his backside. thank you. [applause] >> i am from minnesota. an incredible state legislator is a guy named scott. he is the guy who proposed the, the, the reason we have marriage in minnesota. scott and his partner have been

my friends for a long time and they tried to get the constitutional amendment in the minnesota house duchenne to have marriage be -- the minnesota constitution to have marriage be between a man and a woman. whatever. so exhausting. i went to minnesota to do some door-knocking. this is turning into a funny story. i am super-fantastic. the giveback that i do is epic. so, bad of may. -- me. i was going door to door and i was in a neighborhood that is a neighborhood that is sort of -- it could go either way. it is conservative, white, middle-class, and there are some hipsters. you do not know what you're going to get. this woman opens the door and says, come on in.

i am like, ok. she is like, why are you here? i was like, maybe you should have asked me before you let me in. i am here to talk you about amendment one. she said, i am so conflicted. i said, ok. she said, here is my deal. i am not sure that i am ok with two guys getting married and i do not want to be a jerk about it.

[applause] >> i was raised in nashville, tennessee by a single mother who worked as a secretary. she married a stockbroker everyone from working-class and middle-class. i was an overachiever and i graduated high school with honors and college credits, working two different jobs. by the time i graduated, my parents divorced and it was clear i would be on my own. i moved to new york and i got state residency by attending community college downtown. on september 11, i witnessed the attacks on the world trade center. after watching people jump out of burning buildings and running from the collapse, i spent a lot of time thinking about what america could have done to

provoke such an atrocity. this experience fun and really change my understanding of the negative impact of american capitalism abroad. i had grown up in the 1980's as a child of capitalism with an unwavering faith in entrepreneurialism. ayn rand had been a favorite author. i found myself at the center of another ground zero, moving to los angeles and witnessing the mortgage crisis. i witnessed it firsthand through my boyfriend. his business cater to the subprime mortgage industry and i became a poster child for the recession. my boyfriend's business tanked. i had a full-time job as an office administrator and i picked up a second job cocktail

job on the weekends. my mother was laid off and looked for work for three years. she moved to three different states and work at target or in the holidays, not earning enough to go off of unemployment. she had a heart attack and did not have health insurance. the doctors at a walk-in clinic forced her to go to a private hospital and she ran up a $25,000 bill. she was losing everything and there was nothing i could do to help her. in 2009, i was laid off and i went back to school full-time to complement my bachelors in business with an associates in fashion design. i worked two different part-time jobs and did not make enough to go off of unemployment. i found a full-time gig and business was slow. i had three different part-time jobs and, even then, was scraping by. all of this, while going to school full-time. the american dream seems impossible now and i grew up with the promise that, if you

went to college, if you got a degree, any degree, you would be set. the 2008 financial crisis exposed that the game is rigged. the bankers escape prosecution and the negative impacts of capitalism that i have observed happening are hitting home. my anger -- my apathy turned to anger and i started a blog. i joined the occupy movement. i thought that everybody could agree that we need to restore glass-steagall and reform the banks. it is clear that wall street would avoid substantive reform. politicians are in the pockets of the financiers who bankrolled the campaigns. the root of the problem is money in politics.

i started a show called, "the undercurrent" with the young turks. i think we have an obligation to try to prevent another ground zero. we are gathered in detroit and this is arguably ground zero for the destruction of the middle class. we are at a critical juncture for more ground zero. the transpacific partnership has been shelved until after the midterms. if the republicans retake the senate, these issues skew in favor of the corporate agenda. if we are creating video content to change the conversation to one of populism, videos like this to educate people about the transpacific partnership and the ever-expanding power of corporations. deregulating industries and shredding the social safety net. altering the climate past the point of no return.

we know the root of these problems and now, we must be bold and get money out. [applause] thank you. >> jones. >> good evening. i am a storyteller. i use social media to tell my stories, with the hope that my openness inspires others. over the last years, i have received hundreds of letters from fans and readers around the globe. they come in that i help in so many ways. i am going to share a few of those with you. >> i have been following you on

twitter for a while. you have taught me so much and i will always thank you for that. i have family on twitter and have not been able to openly share with you and others. thank you for sharing your story about how you discovered feminism through hip-hop music. you make it accessible and your younger sisters appreciate you. as a black woman, i can stand up for being a woman without betraying my race. you helped me see that. thank you. thank you for putting a name on what i have experienced over the last 20 years. i never realized that there were others who felt as bad about being harassed on the street as i do.

i have had grown men try to have sex with me since the age of 10 and i have gained 100 pounds from 18 and 35 to deter attraction to me. i wish someone would have asked me if i was ok. thank you. for the first time in my life, i feel strong enough to tell my mother that my stepfather raped me. reading you helped me more than you can ever know. thank you for your courage in sharing your story. i love reading about your passion for writing. your articles inspire me so much. i am a 56-year-old white woman from austin texas and you and i have nothing in common. i want to reach out to you and let you know that listening to you opened my eyes. i am not a feminist and i believe in equal rights. i realize that i have a lot to learn about you.

thank you for being you. i just want to say that i appreciate how can you are when it comes to sex and sexuality. i have never heard of pan-sexual before you talked about it. you probably hear this a lot and i want to thank you for encouraging me to explore my sexuality and be more honest with my boyfriend. i want to be choked when he fucks me. over the last year and change, i have lost 80 pounds. i am aware of your weight loss journey and the negative experience that you have shared. it takes a lot of courage to talk openly about weight issues. you inspire many. the last 3.5 years of my life have been difficult and, in

2009, my partner of 13 years committed suicide. i found her and my life has not been the same since. i gained 30 pounds and everything hurts. being part of this community, i have learned that it is important to be deliberate about self-care and it is not selfish. thank you so much. you have done so much for so many. i am e-mailing you as one social worker to another. we need more like you. your blog about suicide not being selfish came at the right time. i was at my end.

i am still there and your story about how you wanted to take your life is important. you have no idea. you wrote like you knew me and your words say my life. my son went to live with his father because i had been struggling with depression. i love my son more than life itself. i felt like a failure. when you talk about your son, you helped me realize that i made the best choice for mine. thank you so much. you are always meticulous when explaining to people on the internet and your levelheadedness sets the bar. thank you for sharing your voice and being a constant inspiration. you help me channel my frustration and sadness. words are powerful and you never know when somebody is listening when you share your stories. somebody needs to hear what you have to say. even if you do not feel very strong about it. you have a voice. use it. >> sara.

>> hi. i was born in iran and moved to new york two years ago. my accent has a hint of kangaroo. now, you know why. i came in before september 11. my mother and i took a look at our passports and asked us to follow him. to put this in context, i had been lavished with toys from flight attendants for 12 hours and i thought this was going to be awesome. what happened was that we were taken to a small room and my mother was fingerprinted. he took a mug shot of her and fingerprinted me. he found a stool for me to stand on because i was too short for a mug shot. i was crying because i had only seen bad people in movies be treated this way and i did not know what i had done wrong.

i know that my story is not unique and i know that there are countless others who experienced racism and racial profiling on a daily basis and fight back. i want to shout out that the people who are fighting against stop and frisk and are at the forefront of the immigration debate, i was proud of when they held the vice president to account on the stage. we need to do more in the realm of foreign policy. i do not have time for applause. we need to do more. i talk about foreign policy and i do not mean a savior complex or colonialism.

i'm talking about foreign policy as a gateway that encourages civil rights and goes into our everyday rights. a lot of people sought entire communities labeled as extremist and, as a result, the patriot act said that if you talk to anyone suspicious, we are allowed to take away your rights. as a result of that, we saw mosques infiltrated and it was applied to drug raids and impacting people of colors. thank you to edward snowden, we found that the patriot act has become the basis for the government to listen into every single one of our conversations. i just want to say that this all comes from foreign policy. that is not the only example. i know that many of us grieve

when we heard about soldiers and civilians losing their lives. it is great that the wars are coming to an end and are winding down. what is scary is that the military is donating the equipment to local police forces here in the united states and we are seeing tanks in suburban streets. that is not ok. only a few weeks ago, on a drug raid, a police officer through a flash grenade into the crib of a toddler. here in the united states. it does not have to be this way.

that is why it is so important for progressive voices to be part of the foreign-policy debate. foreign policy is just what we allow our government to -- how we allow our government to treat people who did not live in this country. we are only a year old. . want to say thank you thank you to the community. thank you for the work you do and for being the people that stand up.

[applause] >> you are drinking. what did you expect? those were the first words someone told me when i confided in them eight years i had been sexually assaulted. it was these questions about my choices, as opposed to saying the choices of my rapist, that were in some ways more painful than the violent act itself. i stumbled into rape culture, a world in which rape is seen as the norm and victims are blamed for their own us all. there are many myths about rape. it is a myth that there are blurred lines of consent. it is that ms. that rapes are

committed by strangers jumping out of the bushes. it's also a myth that rate cannot happen to men. what's true is that rape culture is very real. i know you've all seen this picture before. this picture is supposed to represent love and patriotism and romance. what you might not know is that these two people are strangers, which makes this picture an assault. fast forward to last summer when robin thicke's "blurred lines" was the number one song in the country and feminist spoke out and spoke up and said no, enough is enough. i refuse to accept this. he went from number one on the charts to the number one creep just a year later. when you see us a statisic as this one that only 3% of rapist ever spend a day in jail, i want you to be as horrified as i am. this is not just my issue. this is not just a feminist issue. it's everyone's issue. last year when i went on fox news and said i should not have

an ar-15 in order to not be raped, i was told by the right wing that my statement was shocking and bizarre. i'm here to tell you that know, we need to be true to the people about consent and bystander intervention. i should not need a gun on every first date to be safe from sexual assault. [applause] the morning after the segment, i was sent this rape threat at 8:00 a.m. in the morning, and it was one of hundreds of threats. i am here to tell you that i can't be out here alone. survivors cannot be the only one speaking up and speaking out. that's where you come in, allies. rape is not an inevitable occurrence. it's not something we should trivialize and it's not always boys will be boys. i'm here to tell you that rape culture israel and we must end it.s real and we must end

when you see an advertisement like this one, you call it out in public. you don't just turn to your friend and say that is offensive. you stand along side me and say no. this is not just an issue for women or for feminist, like i said before, or for people who have survived it. it's everyone issues. boys will not be boys. this is ridiculous. because rape culture is a spectrum, it also includes street harassment. i know i'm flawless and i woke up like this, but stop telling me to smile. [applause] when you see someone catcalling a woman on the street, i want you to speak up and speak out and go up to the woman, like feminista jones says and go up and call them out for their harassing behavior. don't just ignore it and pretend it's not a problem, because it is.

do not say what an administrator said to my friend, rape is like football, you might want to review your plays and see if you would have made different choices. you going to more like john kelly and stand up and say that rape can happen in any kind of relationship. he is the first person to testify about rape in same-sex relationships. talk back to george will who made this idiotic notion that being raped is somehow a privilege that contains a coveted status. all survivors spoke out using that #tosayno. i'm here to say that you need to make your move now. you need to stand alongside survivors and the allies in public. i know it is easy to be cynical,

but i'm optimistic because campaigns like this one are shifting the conversation away from what women can do to prevent rapes and onto maybe we should change the behaviors of the potential rapist. i want to get to the point with an answer to the question i posed in the title of this presentation. i want the answer to that question, how do we end rape culture, to be, we already did. thank you. [applause] >> let's talk about corruption. when i say corruption, i'm not talking about the sleazy guy with a shoebox full of $100 bills. that's old-fashioned corruption. i'm talking about corruption in the year 2014. the enormous amount of money pouring into american politics.

i could show you all kinds of scary charts or numbers, but everyone here already has an intuitive sense of this problem. if you can afford a lobbyist, if you can put money into campaigns, you get a better version of the government than everyone else. that's why we keep seeing headlines like this. the matter how common sense the solution, unless the money is there, your issue gets stuck over and over again. this is an immensely complicated problem. when i say money and politics, most people say the money going into campaigns are citizens united. there is the revolving door. it's just a big incestuous -- this is the reaction you get when you talk to people about money and politics. today i'm going to talk about the solution, how we win this thing.

i'm so sick to death of seeing this headline over and over again, seeing the same great reform ideas show up in washington, get some democratic votes and zero republican votes and then die the same slow, painful death. us talk about strategy. this absolutely has to be a bipartisan movement. i know what some of you are thinking, who is this asshole telling me we have to work with this party of the koch brothers. when we talk to republicans about the issue, they say the exact same thing, but instead of the koch brothers, it's george soros. everyone is angry about the same thing. if you look at the numbers, more importantly, you see that both sides support the same policies we need to fix the problem. it's not a left-wing or right-wing issue. it's an american issue. until we start treating it like one, were not going to win.

so when you are dealing with the problem this huge, you cannot just nibble around the edges. there are all these different things we've got to fix. conventional wisdom would say let's take one at a time. what we have found is if you put them all together in one big omnibus piece of legislation, it's more powerful together than it is along. this is all stuff you can do without amending the constitution to overturn citizens united. that is to say that the strategies work in tandem because like the majestic full tron, we are so much more powerful when we unite as one. also that is an awesome picture and i needed an excuse to put it in this slideshow. we got something called the american anticorruption act. i don't have time to get into the policy stuff but i would love for you to check it out online. i want to talk about the name.

when you call this issue corruption, not money and politics, not campaign-finance reform, you get a 50% bump with conservatives. it is honest, because that is what this is. for those of you, i know what some of you are thinking now. this all sounds great, but do you really expect this to get anywhere in washington? i answer is no, absolutely not. we need to stop throwing ourselves at a brick wall with reforms in washington that are clearly going nowhere and focus on the 13 states where tomorrow we could put a statewide anticorruption act on the ballot. it's a game changer for two reasons. one, there are certain states where this is just good policy. number two, it's good politics because every single win at the state level goals momentum for national reform.

we have done the polling for a hypothetical state act. i am from the great state of colorado so i'm going to be the guy who brings up marijuana legalization. here is an issue that 20 years ago was a late-night punchline, but using the strategy, by building a coalition and going state-by-state, they have legalized it in two states and we are doing the same thing with money in politics. check us out and i will do a quick shameless log, we are running a fake candidate in kentucky. thank you so much. [applause] >> are you having fun? i just had to say one thing because it is important to announce.

shannon moore and jeannie have worked for 10 years tirelessly to end the mine in alaska. the pebble mine will not be built in alaska. i think it's so important to give them a shout out. they were tirelessly on issues that are hard including water and climate. these women have made it so compelling and interesting, and they are tireless fighters. i just want to give them a shout out because i love them. i have been to bristol bay and seeing what this place is, and for them to work this hard to preserve salmon and fisheries and our environment, thank you. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, jessica morale us. -- morales. [applause] >> i just want to take a moment

to have a moment of silence for eric gardner, who was killed yesterday by the nypd in a choke hold. in 1964, young people from around the country went to the south. in mississippi they registered voters, they got arrested, they lived and worked and some even died, and they change this country. they were willing to risk everything because they lived in an america that told them that their lives didn't matter. and those radical idealistic organizers became today's icons. the names are mary king and hollis watkins. 50 years later, two young leaders, the son of a preacher from florida fighting stand your ground and sophia, who is fighting for undocumented immigrants as a daughter of peruvian immigrants, were invited to speak at the march on washington, and they were not able to speak. we came together in boston, in north carolina, and on a tiny island in georgia.

we are adopted in southern and organizers and artists, and we are all of those things at once. which side are we on? are we on the side of an america that continues to incarcerate people at a higher rate than any other nation? that rips families apart by deportation? what side are we on? are we on the side of an america that continues to allow black and brown used to struggle for inequality education? what side are we on? are we on the side of an america that fires and believes and even kills people because of who they love? it's ok with them getting married but isn't ok with him

having full federal equality under the law. last week, are freedom fighters went to national governors association meeting in nashville, tennessee to demand a meeting with our elected officials. and they were arrested while black. the charges were eventually dropped as having no probable cause. they were calling for our demands. free, fully funded public education for all. [applause] two, to stop deportation and keep our families together. to end the school to prison pipeline, equal access, opportunity and protection under the law, and free and fair elections and the right to vote. we know that another american -- another merrick as possible, and we are building it. would dream of an america where we can be educated without crippling debt. we dream of an america where family stay together regardless

of their status, where educational institutions build a school to power pipeline. would dream of a true democracy that represents us, where we have the safety to pursue our dreams. we need to know, what side are you on? it's not enough to celebrate the 50th anniversary of freedom summer. we have to use the precious gift they gave us to take the power away from those who are still trying to silence us. i'm on the freedom side. what side are you on? we are in a fight for our lives and the very survival of our communities. for too long, our government has denied people of color the basic freedoms of liberty and life that are the very foundation of this country. i'm on the freedom side. what side are you on? half a century after the brave men and women risk of bodies and lives in freedom, america still holds little regard for black and brown youth.

if you're ready to be on the freedom side, i need you to take up ledge to be with us this summer and beyond. our voices matter, our votes matter, our lives matter. if you are ready, stand and repeat after me. this summer, i pledge undying hostility to any government restrictions on the basic rights and freedoms of marginalized youth. i will use the power of my vote to remove policymakers from office who support measures that harm people of color, and replaced them with people who care about us. we're going to ask you to join us in a chant. she was a freedom fighter and she taught us how to fight. were going to fight all day and night until we get it right. what side are you on, my people? what side are you on. we're on the freedom side. she was a freedom fighter and she taught us how to fight. we're going to fight all day and night until we get it right. what side are you on, my people? we are on the freedom side. what side are you on? we are on the freedom side.

♪ [applause] dan up for yourselves, you guys. thank you so much. thank you all. i just want to say this community is one that i'm very proud to be part of. i love that you are here. i love that you care.

i love that you often times work way harder than the pay that it means to work for other people, and i love that you consider other voices and other perspectives. please always do that when considering how you want to push things forward. let's go drink and have fun. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> on the next "washington journal" new jersey congressman chris smith talks about the ebola virus. zogby discusses the isreali-palestinian conflict. "washington journal" begins at 7 a.m. eastern on c-span.

weekends book tv this . "marriage equality" and obamas versus clintons." afternoon, president and ceo of the new york public library sheds light on the library's past, present, and future. the, television for serious readers. first lady michelle obama and former first lady laura bush hosted a program on creating opportunities for women. this is 45 minutes.

>> good morning. thank you so much. thank you so much. my name is michelle obama and i am an african american woman. [cheers] myself and my husband, it is truly a pleasure and an honor to welcome you all here to washington. we have so many distinguished leaders here today. you for they thank and thete leadership issues we will be discussing today. i would also like to judas dr. jill biden who is here as well. she has been a tremendous partner over the past several years. i am thrilled she's with us here today. and of course, thank you to all

of you for joining us at this event. we have a fabulous program lined up for you today. we will be discussing important issues and hearing from renowned experts and we will be making some really exciting announcements about new initiatives across africa. this is going to be a really big today. this has been a day that has been a part of a big week that has been part of months actually. as you may know, the summit that your husband's are tending the sick is the largest gathering of african american leaders hosted by an american president. about six weeks ago, 500 young leaders from across africa arrived here in the united states to take part in the mandela washington fellowship for young african leaders. i have to tell you that these young men and women are truly

extraordinary. age.are barely half my they have already started their own businesses. -- as part of the mandela fellowship, they have undertaken intense coursework and leadership training at your server -- universities across america. the passion and intelligence and dedication of these young leaders has inspired all of us here in the u.s. that had the pleasure of spending time with them. i have the plumage of speaking with these fellows last week. i met with a group of them who share my interest in girls education. fellows will be doing a presentation about their stories and their ideas. i will not steal any of their thunder. they are remarkable individuals. i can tell you that while we

talked about a range of issues, there was one thing we kept returning to again and again. easy and people emphasize how desktant it is to support at support from leaders in the government. this is the same message that i hear so often from the young american leaders that i meet with. these young people are working so hard in their communities. they are facing so many challenges and obstacles. they're looking to all of us for inspiration. they're looking to us to champion the issues they care about. most of all, they are looking to us to empower them to be part of the solution. that means that we all are going to need to do everything in our power to bring these young people to the table. we need to spend a lot of time with them, more time listening, and i mean really listening to

their voices, to their views, so that we can understand the challenges that they are facing through their eyes. and we need to learn from their experiences and from their expertise. you see, these young people are developing all kinds of new technologies and social media strategies to address problems that our generation hasn't yet solved. whether it is an app to fight cervical cancer or a new approach to clean energy, they are coming up with solutions that we never could have dreamed of. so the question is, can we in our governments learn from them and follow their lead? can we embrace their ideas and incorporate them into policies and strategies? and in our work as first ladies, first spouses, can we find new ways to be more inclusive of these young people and show them that we truly value their