every seal knows that under the keyhole at the darkest moment of the mission, it is the time when you must be the most calm and composed. when all your technical skills, your physical power and your inner strength must be brought to bear. if you want to change the world, you must be you are very best in the darkest moment. we can never do enough for our nation's freedom providers, our heroes, but we can always show them we appreciate what they have wrought and sacrificed for -- font and sacrificed for. fought and sacrificed for. it every citizen in every neighborhood in every community and every town and city and

state would make it a priority to seek out and serve the needs of the veterans and military families within those communities, to have the courage to take determined action to walk with our veterans, many of whom have lived through the darkest moments of life in combat or have come home mentally or physically injured and face many dark moments ahead will showhe people our appreciation with a willingness to serve up of self to help them move forward just as lieutenant dan taylor was able to do, we will be at our very best in someone else's darkest moment. thank you for allowing me to speak at this important dedication ceremony. i'm proud to have played in some small role in this effort. thank you to those brave warriors in attendance today for

everything you have done for our country. may god bless all those still way,ing in harms our military families and may god bless and watch over our america and help us to continue to honor our heroes so we may endure. thank you. [applause] >> we conclude our special feature with remarks from basketball legend kareem abdul-jabbar. he discussed racism in sports on a panel organized by the u.s. conference of mayors. this is 40 minutes. >> on when to come back to you.

i think most of you know, kareem went to college when civil rights was at the top of the game. you play professional sports in the 60's and 70's. ?re we at the end of an era help us connect with what you were going through then and where you think we are today. >> what has happened is when we we had thect that legal means to combat racism, a lot of black americans said, ok, we have the tools to achieve something. has taken us decades to achieve those things. when it comes to working on what is in people's hearts, we have a very long way to go. even though we have these tools,

we have a long way to go because people do not understand their own bigotry. it is so endemic to the human experience. people don't get it when they are intensely affected by racism. they are not even aware of it. we have a long way to go. >> emmett till was killed in 1965. you go to the march on washington in 1963. nixon gets elected in 1968. 13 years, the country was transformed.

1968 was the marker of full freedom for african-americans, that is 46 years. if you say that dr. king was killed in 1968 and affirmative-action, full freedom for black folks in 1968. i am 45. i will be 46 and november. we walk around as if things are changed. we have amazing freedom. in the history of the country, african americans, 46 years of so-called freedom. when you expand the on donald sterling and the issue of housing and economics and inclusion and go beyond that, we have come a long way. we're only talking about 46 years of so-called full freedom.

if you think that we have gotten over the issue of race, we have to be delusional. it did not happen in 46 years. you still have in south africa blacks don't have access to power. they don't control capital. >> i will ask you both the same question, you remember a football player for the philadelphia eagles who got recorded saying the n word. what are your thoughts when you first heard that? >> i'm going to hold on to what you talked about 45 years. i want to come back to that. i will address the riley cooper situation. it was my job on sunday and thursday to talk about it.

i had watched riley cooper. he has been playing football for a lot of years. one of the things i talked about was i was coming from a basketball camp with my son in las vegas. as we walked by the pool, they had music blasting with the n word. everybody was having a great time. riley cooper steps in angry situation. and here we go saying everything about riley cooper. i said it then and i will say it now, we ought to take responsibility as african-americans for injecting the word out there and making it ok. riley cooper said in a moment of heat.

you let the word go in a moment of heat. do i count him as a racist? i don't think so. he has been around people all of his life. richie incognito's situation is different in miami. i thought that is what the word and how it was used back in the day. he used it as a systematic way to break down another man. that is racism. a systematic way of raking down the other man. that is not tolerable. [applause] >> when they say athletes are not smart, you get these to up here. i am sitting next to the dictionary. this knows every meaning of

every word and for him to be able to break down the issues, this drives me crazy as a former athlete. people don't give athletes credit for what they do. these are great examples. >> he knows more words than don king? >> this is true. kareem and i were on streetcar in san francisco. we were getting an award. we were riding around. i said, tell me something about the great walls of china? he said did you know how the

quarry was built? you had to deal with it. >> my reaction was swift, aggressive, and negative. i saw that tape. we put out a statement that said he needed to clean up and fix it. quite honestly, i was left with the impression that it was not the first time in his life he did use that word. that calls into question a host of other issues. the team tried to deal with it. he suddenly had to go away. it was never really clear. they were just trying to get him out of town. out of the situation.