talked to would say the best years of my life. in responseference is what convinced me to come to yale. and i have subsequently through years thought about i said that same thing. and i think it is in part what sam has said. yes, there is tracking. but i think there is tracking because there is a model of success the people see and want to duplicate because that is the only model they know of. but the one thing i loved about yale is it lets you be passionate about whatever you wanted to be. >> amen. whateveruld work with professor, doing whatever kind of work you wanted to do, and people volunteered to do it. and they did it because it was important to them to do.

and i loved that. and other institutions -- they will remain nameless -- are sort of picked by reason of how smart the professors think they are or the ir picked for programs based on that. when i was here, law journal, you wrote on. you could volunteer for almost any organization and get in. i hope that is still the case. but my point basically is i now echo sam. i told the students be happy here. i did not finish my advice by saying, be happy by doing what makes you happy. be passionate about what you are doing. and that is the value of what you are getting. >> thank you. clarence? >> well, i guess i told him not

to do what i did. [laughter] i, and i think sonia is right that there is a lot we did not know. i came here at a time, where i could've been more positive. there were so much here that i walked right by because i close my eyes and my heart to it. i credit jack danforth with a lot of opening my eyes to things. when i met him, again through who did notesi, i rememberorts, meeting him when he came on campus and he was a young, tall attorney general with that spot in his hair. he clapped his hands really loud

and said, clarence, plenty of room at the top. i said, boy, that guy is off his rocker. [laughter] but that was just how cynical and negative i was. and here he was positive and you,etic and believed in believed in the possibilities. and what i tried to convey to the students is that attitude of hopefulnness. you're here. at one of the best of not the nation. you are here. and make the most of it. the friendships, the opportunities to learn, to do things, to grow. i also suggested to them that when they take a job, the jobs are wonderful. but all of the other things are equal, work for the person.

work for a good person, a good person can turn a difficult job into a wonderful job. and a bad person can turn out beautiful job into a miserable job. i was fortunate to work for jack danforth. some people might not of thought the work was glamorous but i got to work for a good man. later, i0 plus years think of in an even more positive light than i did when i worked for him in 1974. think it is important to work for good people, people of integrity, people who are positive. and finally, although i did not get a chance to say this to them, i do believe this. you treat people the way you expect to be treated, whether they deserve it or not. they are owed that. that is hard to do. a part of going to the things

that sonia mentioned earlier is go.ability to let things to forgive and forget and to turn and move on. that is not so easy. but you want to be forgiven. you want people to give you a pa ss sometimes. you want people to think better of you. so you do it to others. so i feel very strongly that we are required to treat people the way that we want to be treated. think even when it is hard, you are required to be honest, not to give in to fads, not to go along to get along. i think a lot of people -- i grew up on segregation. and i'm convinced that some people went along because it was easier to do that than it was to oppose something that was dreadfully and morally wrong in our society. >> we are so very proud of all of you. and we're grateful to you.

thank you. pplause] >> that was wonderful. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> coming up on the next "washington journal," the economic impact of raising the minimum wage at the federal and state love and with ross eisen break and dan mitchell. then former deputy attorney on the role of the justice department possible rights division in the ferguson, missouri case following this week's grand jury decision.

plus we will be looking for your phone calls, facebook comments and tweets. all on "washington journal," live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. up next on c-span, american history tour travels the country to explore his store places and hear from authors about native americans from before the arrival of christopher columbus all the way to today. first, the battle of legal bighorn -- little big horn where native americans defeated colonel george custer and his regiment. then we tore a pueblo near santa fe, new mexico. after that, a visit to fort mims in alabama where the native americans known as the red s massacred -- settlers.

>> in the battle of little bighorn, also known as custer's last stand, warriors defeated the seventh cavalry regiments and killed the commanding u.s. officer, george custer. we will hear about the conflict from a park ranger at the little bighorn battlefields national monument in montana. >> folks, this is an incredible story. it's a story that attracts 400,000 people a year from all over the world. come through that gate. the vast majority of them, 90% of the time never been here in their lives. i like to see who you are this

morning. if you've never been here in your life, please put your hand up. now hold it way up. now, just look around. it's always the same. 90% of the folks come here never been here in their life, and yet, except for these little tykes over here, there's nobody in this audience who has never heard of george armstrong custer. there's nobody in this audience who has never heard of sitting bull or crazy horse. and i promise you this, there's nobody here who has never heard of elvis presley. well, folks, it's a simple story. and yet it's a complex story. you are on the battlefield right now. on june 25, 1876, george