people made similar comments that was not the most violent or most -- highest number of americans killed. if we go back to chicago in 1919, 40 years before that, rosewood, huge numbers of people killed. some of the issues became part of the reparations discussion prior to 2001 that was largely directed by dr. charles ogletree at the law school. i was with dr. ogletree in july -- late august 2001 at the u.n. conference on racism in south africa and others may have been there. controversial at the time because the bush administration barred secretary powell from taking delegation.

that was the peak of the reparations movement that was so fertile at the time. i used to joke until that movement, no one ever said the words reparation in america who was not wearing a dashiki. anybody who was in every fashion. during the meeting, it was in the durban city hall, extraordinary memory of mine the black caucus was there, remarkable constellation of african-american leaders and others in the room to discuss the reparations topic. ogletree was trying to win over more leaders and jesse jackson makes a surprise appearance and walks into the room. if you know his history, reverend jackson historically was opposed to reparations and viewed as a great distraction of the movement as did other civil rights leaders. he walked into the room, he took over the space completely. to the microphone and began talking.

as he was speaking, he said all of you know, i have always opposed the movement of embracing reparations of but my views have changed. he said the request so fight must be a central objective of the civil rights movement and as we do that, other things must fall away. it was an extraordinary moment. i am witnessing a turn that is going to be highly consequential. two days later, we got on planes and flew back to new york and two days after that, the planes crash in the world trade center. nobody heard the words reparation expressed again for a long time. we are back to a moment where there may be serious consideration about whatever

reform it may take. did you want to say one last thing? >> institutions like this, harvard, brown, georgetown, places where it is happening and students are intimately involved in driving the conversation and defining justice comprehensively. and i applaud the work you are doing encourage you to do it not that you need help applause but you have it anyway. >> we have to cut it off. one more? no, sorry. thank you all. we enjoyed it. >> here are some of our featured programs coming up on c-span. tonight at eight like eastern, the state of the black world conference discussing the results of the 2016 election. panelists include the author of meloniehere yet."

campbell, and mark thompson, m radio's "make it plain." >> even when we get together as , we have to bring others together to win. we do not want to struggle for struggle sake. we are not activists and revolutionaries because it is fun. they did not participate for awards, for twitter, for instagram. it was necessary. >> than a discussion of the founding fathers and the purpose of government. >> it turns out the meaning of america is persuasion. the meaning of america is love.

the many of america's building a better product or persuading someone to marry you or persuading someone to join your church or synagogue. there's a huge civic mindedness in american history. newtd sunday at 6:30, gingrich, van jones, and patrick addictionscuss opioid and treatment. >> people have to change their minds. but also have to change their brains back. this is a biological thing. organ, and once these doctors hand you the phils and say, hey, we took the molar out of your mouth, take these pills, you broke your collar bone, take these pills, for a lot of people, those pills organ.that >> watch on c-span, c-span.org, and listen on the c-span radio app. >> former cuban president fidel castro died last night at the

age of 90. cuba has announced nine days of mourning, with the funeral scheduled for december 4 in santiago. bill castro is simply cuban presidency in 1959. he led the revolutionary government that toppled the government of batista. in 2010, he gave a speech to the cuban national assembly. he spoke about the u.s. and president obama. this is about 15 minutes. [applause]

♪ [singing and foreign language]

mr. castro: my message to the national assembly -- outset, only eight weeks that thelieved imminent threat of war had no possible solution. so dramatic was the scenario we faced before, that i saw no perhapsternative than the likelihood of there not

being any survival by this reason to behad no a direct target. with thery difficult knowledge that human beings always cling to the faintest .ope despite all of this, i made an , itmpt, and fortunately didn't take me long to realize there was some hope, a very profound hope, in fact. additionally, without taking advantage of this opportunity,

then the disaster could lead to the worst possible consequences. there would therefore the the no hope -- there would therefore be no hope for the salvation of the human species. nevertheless, i am now sure that it will not end this way. and quite the contrary, currently, we see conditions that are developing that could lead to a situation that would have been unforeseeable until very recently. make theill have to

, thecedented decision ,resident of the united states who surely, because of his multiple concerns, has not yet realized that although his are now beginning to , we can see this unfolding through very simples steps taken. tortures inflicted on geraldo have stopped. this is a situation that had not occurred in over 12 years of by the effortsed

against cuba and against him. today. stepn state that the next will be authorizing a gianna -- adriana to visit him, or his immediate release, or maybe both. , that hist from her spirits are more tired than they have ever been in the last 12 years of unjust and cruel imprisonment. given that iran will not give up one bit to the demands by the united states and israel, and that several of the combat

resources available have already attackbilized and an will be launched as soon as the deadline has elapsed by the june 9, council on 2010, stipulating the norms and requirements established. all of man's plans have limits that cannot be exceeded. scenariois critical president barack obama would issue the order of this

preannounced and heralded attack following the norms of the large empire. in addition, at that same points , in which the order would be issued -- that is in addition. to anlead incalculable number of nuclear energy -- nuclear weapons accumulated in an absurd competition between the powers thet would be ordering instantaneous death, not only of hundreds of millions of people.

an incalculable number of inhabitants in his own country, in addition to the crews of all of the ships of the u.s. fleet, deployed on the scenes .urrounding iran simultaneously the conflagration would spread in the near and middle east as well as throughout eurasia. it was a coincidence that at this specific moment, the

president of the united states is a descendent of african and christiansuslims and . this is achieved, then we need to be aware, and that is what we are doing here. the leaders of the most powerful , both on the planet allies as well as adversaries, with the exception of israel would urge him not to do this.

the world would then render all deserved.ors he the current order the current survive,er would not and inevitably, it would .ollapse it would collapse. immediately. the so-called convertible currencies would lose their as instruments of the imposed bothas sweat and sacrifice without , new modese people's

of distribution of resources and , education, and the direction of social processes would come to the surface peacefully. but if war were to break out, then the current social order would suddenly disappear, and the price would be infinitely greater. population may bury the nonverbal -- the nonbillable -- the nonrenewable resources. climate change could be prevented. the useful effort of all human --ngs could be in short

could be insured. the sick could be attended to. the essential body of knowledge, culture, science that is at the service of mankind could be insured. , and the adolescents young throughout the world, would not perish. -- would not perish in a nuclear holocaust. what is desired, esteemed comrades of our national assembly. , i am here to respond for my comments. i am also here to respond to any questions you may have. to listen to your

opinions. thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] >> in 2010, then former president fidel castro gave a speech to the cuban national assembly. we will show you that speech in its entirety tonight at 1055

eastern here on c-span. now, here is more reaction to the death of former cuban president fidel castro from today's "washington journal." this is about 40 minutes. a cuban leader fidel castro has died at the age of 90. the headline in the washington post, obviously, the story thanned much, much later the publication of papers. the post righting "fidel castro -- turned his island into a potent symbol of the world's greatest ideological and economic divides of the 20th century has died. it was announced on cuban state tv by his younger brother, raul, who succeeded his sibling years ago as the leader. cubaastro took control in

on new year's day 1959 share his nation's wealth with its poorest citizens. castro, chomping monstrous cigars became a spiritual beacon for the world's far left. more from that and other reports let's go to your calls and reactions on the death of fidel castro. illinois, philip, good morning on the independent line. caller: i was born in 1959. at least 50 years the u.s. has been having an embargo on cuba. do? was castro supposed to here to control every element of the government or would it have -- it would have definitely failed. aroundeople were running

in cuba and florida celebrating. understand, but they don't fully understand what the u.s. was trying to do to cuba to make it small tourist site, like they have done to jamaica and other places in that area. i applaud him. mentioned somer of the protests on the streets of little havana in miami. we are joined by daniel chang with the miami herald. tell us about the events that have been going on in little havana and elsewhere this morning. guest: good morning, as you can imagine there has been a lot of celebration as your last color just noted. traditionally, people will breakout their pots and pans and

bang them. of crowds waving large cuban flags. because we have exiles or emigrants from many parts of latin america there are folks here in solidarity from venezuela, colombia, ecuador, in other countries. after theed shortly new started to spread. i would say maybe around 1:30-2:00 a.m. people started spilling into the streets. setting off fireworks, people in their pajamas, this has been awaited here for a very long time. there was a lot of pent up was released. some of it is bittersweet because cuba remains under fidel's posthumous rule. many of the folks who ts of repudiation and had their homes taken from , manynd suffered greatly

of those have passed away. the children feeling he bittersweet sense of victory perhaps. i'm not sure if that is the right word. there are a lot of emotions here. host: do you think it is a hopeful crowd? many of the restrictions on cuba have been changed. changing with the obama administration's policies. are you finding people mainly hope now that castro has died? guest: i think that people have -- the attitudes towards cuba have softened with the new agenda into didn't exactly grow up under castro. i think that generation has taken advantage of the opening, or easing of the relationship. they travel there and they send not just remittances, but clovis and whatever they can. what people are

hopeful, they are still -- raul is still there. that holds back their sense of exuberance, perhaps. that may temper their hope for what comes next. again, fidel may have passed, but the government and systems he created are still very much in power. i think that is important to people. you talked about banging pots and pans, but so far nothing violent or out of hand in miami? spoken withve police and have not heard of any incident. i think the police also deployed an extra police officers. again, a lot of folks have planned for this day when this would come in miami. as long as the demonstrations remain peaceful, i think the will continue. we haven't heard of any violent

so far. host: we will let you get back out on the streets of miami. thank you for the update this morning. guest: you're welcome. we hear from jeff next in honolulu, and hawaii. thank you for calling. morning, listen, i have been watching the news this morning and none of the major news organizations are telling any of the american public about how fidel killed over 50,000 of his own people. he has up to 10,000 prisoners down and gulags down there. the only reason the president normalized relations with cuba is for obama's legacy. it didn't have anything to do with cuba. it was all for obama's legacy.

it is a good idea right now that we do all that we can to help the people on the streets of cuba. tyrants that run cuba, but the people that cuba belongs to. the others goat next, and quick. ,ost: here we go with tampa charlie is in tampa, florida on the republican line go ahead. it is not known but for a many people but cuba has one of the most articulate dynamic ballet companies in the world. what is interesting about that is that the thing that used to be called arabia is now audsaudi arabia because the saudi family owned it. the castro family sold the

entire nation of cuba stole it and still own it. right, los angeles is next up, your reaction to the death of fidel castro and what it means for u.s.-cuba relations? cuban history,n and american history, and the founders of america, i heard in one program somebody was insulted by the fact that obama compared the founding of this country so-called founding .athers with fidel castro he was highly insulted. now, the thing with america is ordrink this history -- d,ould i say history kool-ai of the so-called american revolution.

was something front down from heaven. america is still in the process of dealing with its demons. sessionin of the dealing with hate crimes. here we are 300 years up from a annihilating one group, enslaving another, and the group of the so-called free this country was landowners and slaveholders. who spoke at once out of their mouth about the so-called liberty in the equality of men while they held slaves. mandela, freedom fighter, martin luther king, freedom fighter, these were the allies of fidel castro.

people who were dictatorg the vicious that america put in place over the little island of cuba before fidel took control. what was the nature and condition of that place? immigrantsw many to get $15,000, stipend started. why is this given to the cuban people? host: lots of views from capitol hill and the house and senate will be back next week. he was ed royce who released a statement on the passing of fidel castro saying for more than half a century the cuban people have suffered under the castro plan. nobody should rule anybody as long as fidel castro did.

raul castro is no better for cuban to your -- who your for free -- yearn for freedom. the duck castro's death cannot bring back his thousands of victims nor can it comfort their families on facebook. -- nor can it comfort their families. on facebook he fights -- writes that today we remember them and honor the brave souls. donald trump tweaking a little after 8:00 a.m. eastern fidel castro is dead. republican line, chicago. good morning. sorry i called on the wrong one. i just wanted to say to you it

typifies a change now in latin american dynamic system i think don't understand why people are celebrating the death of this man. cubaould be learning from and how they manage their medical resources. a small island country that can provide free and adequate health care with the results of lower mortality rates. it is kind of appalling to see people who have no idea how severe the property was in cuba before fidel castro came in. there is a reason he has been in power all of these years. the cuban people on the island support many of the initiatives. the previous color was correct in pointing out that fidel castro has been very active in ending apartheid.

go toto this day they parts of the world united states would never go to. host: talking about how long he has been in power they say fidel castro held onto power longer than any other living national leader except queen elizabeth ii. he became a towering international figure who's important in the 20th century far exceeded what might have been expected from the head of a caribbean island nation of 11 million people. on the democrat lineup, go ahead. -- line now, go ahead. caller: i always wanted to travel. when i had a chance to i went to a travel agency and saw the map of the caribbean and cuba was blanked out. cuba didn't exist for america. , who must be remembered as a great man who the power ofom

america. americans used to go down there d, andmble and whore aroun stuff like that. cuba became free of american domination. he went too far like most dictators will do. but his initial value to the cuban people cannot be underestimated. now that you can travel to cuba, would you travel there? caller: possibly. i am worried about borders. i can't get health care in toada because i'm too old become canadian. the border issue of both cuba and canada and the u.s. crossing the borders is so difficult taking a life with you back and forth is very complicated. i think we should get rid of borders and get rid of governments.

a lot, douglas on our independent line, go ahead. yes, i was pretty young one castro took over. i can remember this, that america was full of castro. .hey were against the batista one castro took over, -- when castro took over, he got into the hotel then went back into the bush and got those -- they were treating the black folks like mississippi at the same time was treating black people here. he integrated cuba. to havewe are going whites, they were all going to be cubans. hilton into a

school. that is one america turned on castro. america turned on castro. they said he is taking the kids away from the parents. problemwhen the started. the southerners in america that the pressure down. that is the southerners in america that pressure down. that is when problems started with castro. i have seen it, and i have been watching it for a long time. you can send us a tweet at c-span wj. one saying, castro was so great, thousands risk their lives to escape his wonderfulness. in college we thought castro was , freeng true democracy education and health, not so great. is a perfect example of what can happen when citizens

want change without considering the possibility of the worse. good morning, democrats line. host: i am sorry, my voice is from damage after surgery. i'm not sick. i have long said that the cubans will regret reestablishing relations with the united states , because the interests here will be in returning cuba to a one crop plantation economy. that it was when castro had his revolution. sympathy with the miami cuban immigrants. wealthy ones who established the schools for america's, the school for torture, where we

teach torture methods. has established wonderful medical systems for the cuban people. .hey have free education they produce doctors that are sent all over the world. they offer the united states 1500 doctors after katrina. we cannot even provide that ourselves. our ingenuity shortages of medical personnel. host: fidel castro was announced on state television late last night by his brother raul. here is what that look like. [speaking in a foreign language]

host: president raul castro announcing the death last night. getting your thoughts and reactions to the death of castro and whatsapp -- what that means for u.s., cuba relations. here is daniel from elizabeth bill, pennsylvania. onst: i was going to touch thatducational and medical is in cuba.

pretty much everything has been touched on through our previous color, especially the ones from illinois and the previous caller. fivecan speak on the cuban .- spies this buys that we are spying on groups in miami that we will blow up at his hotel. it contains beautiful women and men singing and dancing. they went to the fbi and told them about it, they were sentenced to life in prison. many of those years were spent in solitary confinement. i guess that is about all i have to say. host: here is kenneth on our republican line. thank you very much, i

love c-span he has it is the only reliable information available in america. iyway, when i was young worked for the united states military. cubained for refugees from that had been tortured by fidel castro. .hey no longer could hear there pure terms had been ruptured. runught them how to machines and grinding machines. these men, when i left there, they were still there. when i left, these four men broke down and cried because it had been so long anyone had ever in any way.them it was a horrible, horrible experience for them in their homeland of cuba. i am glad fidel castro is dead.

i hope he spends eternity in hell. city,here is salt lake gar sean go ahead on our democrats line. guest: good morning c-span. --ust wanted to say host: i am sorry, you are breaking up a little bit. i'm going to let you go. the connection was bad. the new york post reporting on the death of fidel castro. castrost dictator fidel who took hold of cuba and ruled it with an iron fist for five decades, died on friday. the ruthless leader impoverishes country and cause migrants to flee the island. he died at 90 years old. towardsher raul said victory always.

he was scheduled to be cremated today according to the press. was afterp my president obama normalized to dramatic relations. as part of his brutal hold, he executed thousands of innocent people. he admitted to holding 15,000 political prisoners in the 60's. part of the reporting this morning from the "new york post." good morning jack, democrats line. guest: hi, good morning. my statement is, we tend to criticize communist governments perform poorly with oligarchies. in the island of cuba, the life expectancy is higher than most other countries, as well as the literacy rate. i would like to know to the great senator ted cruz of texas,

what the literacy rate is in texas, because in cuba it is 99%. what is his response to that? host: there is news on the incoming trunk administration. fills white house counsel security jobs. trump, the president-elect and ounce he named a libertarian lawyer as his white house counsel, and a former reagan official to his top security staff. elected a member who had served as his campaign member. he will serve as the president's legal advisor, a job that restrains what the chief executive wants to do. sayseputy national advisor

-- she has expressed opposition to many of obama's national security policies. will serve under retired lieutenant general michael flynn rates from spain for national security adviser, and if pierce critic on obamas stance on islamic extremism. in jeff -- jeff is in jesse, west virginia. guest: there is one local man here that will sleep better -- he wasecause when one of the black ops that went into kill fidel castro. the last trip out that he made, two of his fellow soldiers did not make it back the last trip that he went out on. they with out on a five-man gun

team to try to kill fidel castro. out, threelast trip made it back and to did not. i guarantee this man will sleep better tonight. host: how old of the fellow is he? man,: this is an elderly his benefit from our government because he went in under the plaque -- black ops .ield the man that came in to give them their orders. that was the man in sunglasses. man comes in with glasses and they gave them orders to go out. the five-man gun team was down there. , to said the last trip out

of his brothers did not make it back to the base. , he is sitting back and an oxygen -- oxygen bottle in his chair. this man cannot even get his benefits because he did black ops. jeff.sorry about that appreciate your story. glenda in dallas, texas. guest: good morning c-span. i want to respond to the caller from texas about the cuban people that he trained. i sympathize for the cubans, that i would like to acknowledge the fact that here in america, as black people, how they that there isand no acknowledgment on the behalf

of what blacks suffered here in america. , just want to say that because this is where we are now in our differences. not able toe are acknowledge and recognize our differences and why, then we are going to have a problem here. , do sympathize for the cubans and demand that spoke on the benefitm, and of being able to sympathize for others. also for black lives matter. thank you. host: walter is next up in florida on the independent mind. guest: my comment is simple. then understand all sympathetic lead for the death of castro, that he may have done some good things for the cuban people. i think the american people must that the major thing that i think of when i think of

cubans castle, is missiles pointing at the united states. that should never be forgotten. what do you think of fidel's role in that legacy? guest: it was unfortunate because the united states, even thegh it disagreed with cuban government and castro's ruling in the country. pointing missiles, russian missiles at the united states, i could never forgive or forget that. i cannot forget that. host: russian president has had words of praise for the late cuban leader. on our republican line. guest: i would just like you to remember all of the businesses that was appropriated by the cuban government down there. take people and

have short trials and put them up against the walls. let's not also forget the aside when he gave the woman who murdered the new jersey state trooper. host: "associated press" fidel castrorning, clung to socialism and mentored new leftists is their headline. wasl castro's revolution colliding. cuban soviet lifeline was severed. power outages normally tuned to a nighttime soap opera. the title of an american book seen just right. castro's final hour. that was in 1992. castro's final hour became weeks, months and years, even as china and vietnam embraced free markets. castro embraced his beliefs and went on to rule for another

decade and a half. along the way he became a the latin american left, mentoring a new generation of leaders. hugo chavez of venezuela and rafael of ecuador. world leaderird prompted so much u.s. hostility for so long. castro brought the planet to the brink of nuclear war in 1962, sent tens of thousands of troops to aid leftist governments in africa and nurtured guerrilla movements that fought u.s. backed governments across latin america. here is jane on our democrats line in toronto, ohio. sorry jane. jane in ohio, go ahead. cuba, my husband was from but he was put in jail because he would not go into the military.

along with his two brothers, e over in 1980 on embargo. there were upset because of the incumbent over the embargo. he said there were guys thrown off the boats into the water. that, cuba isd good, but castro was not good for anything and neither is his brother, he is worse. in fall church, virginia. independent line. guest: good morning to you. idelst want to say that f should get the prize for the number of assassinations he escaped from us. with the number of assassinations we planned on him and he beat 90. it is a miracle. i think he was a courageous man. he was an honorable man and did

a good thing for his people. appreciate your calls and reactions prayed we have given you reactions from the florida delegation members of congress. president-elect donald trump and marco rubio who was just reelected as senator in florida. saying,sed a statement "he promises to bring freedom and prosperity to cuba. his communist routine turned it into a prison. millions of cubans were forced to flee their own country and those accused of refusing it were killed. death does not mean freedom for the cuban thele, or just as for democratic activists religious leaders and political opponents. he and his brother have jailed and persecuted. the dictator has died, but the dictatorship has not." toms river, new jersey, leroy from the democrats line. guest: thank you for taking my

call. i was in the marine corps in florida during the revolution. , months before that happened, in downtown miami, there were rallies of thousands of people supporting castro batistabatista because also shot and killed people. when castro got in he went to eisenhower and ask for 1000 tractors. eisenhower turned him down and that is when castro became a true communist. i remember that as history, i've lived it. ,ost: rochester, new york abraham. your thoughts on what is next in u.s./cuba relations. i want to make a comment regarding what is currently going on in america. it is very hypocritical to judge a man like him and for his deeds, although we are committing crimes against native

americans and taking over their land. that is a huge issue that we have. host: thank you abraham. a couple of comments on twitter. since 1969i met a cuban in madrid, her family was very wealthy, castro took everything she left. thompson says, they say every human being has two sides, the good side of fidel was ruralting to work for africa. is it any wonder they come when u.s. citizens pay for their taxes. good morning. democrats line. guest: good morning, i just want to say to all these americans and so-called christians who are handling the death of this man an individual. god's child, and wanting him to go to hell.

ways just reprehensible the we speak about people and talk about the love of god. look at what we have done to people. the guy that talked about his neighbor is not going to sleep , because cuba's leader died, or x leader died. know why weeven went there, or why they fought and why they overthrew cuba. read history white america. everything america puts its hands-on. do think people are protesting more about what fidel castro stood for, rather than the individual himself? to thathe honest answer would be looking at both sides. some of the churches are saying , but lookt into power at the good that he did. the cuban people that come over

here and get our money and feel like they are white. they are oppressing people over in the land of cuba. look at what we did to saddam hussein. your history and know what is behind. all we look at is what the media tells us. if you are not looking at bbc, youree speech tv, do not what is going on outside your border. america is not glass. until we make it right with people, we will not go forward. the world is looking at us and doing everything we do. we are mixing people's races. look at what israel is doing to the darker people in the palestinian. i appreciate your comments and all of your calls this morning. we are getting word of a statement from the white house that has just been released. a statement from the president on the passing of fidel castro.

at this time we extend a hand of friendship to the cuban people. we know that this moment fills cubans in the united states with powerful moments. fidel castro altered the course of individual lives, families and the cuban nation. history will record and judge the enormous impact of the singular figure on the people and the world around him. nearly six years, the relationships between the united states and cuba was marked by discord and profound political disagreements. during my presidency, we have worked hard to put the past behind us, pursuing a future in which the relationship between our two countries is defined by the many things that we share as andhbors and friends, bonds family, culture commerce and common humanity. this is for the cuban americans who have done so much for our country. we offer condolences to fidel castro's family, and our

thoughts and prayers are with the cuban people. in the days ahead they will recall the past and look to the future. they must know they have a friend in the united states of america. announcer: henry olson from the ethics and public policy center discusses the future of the republican party. as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. washington journal live at 7:00 a.m. on c-span. is theames madison architect of a constitution, then george washington is the general contractor. it is auild a house, lot like what the general contractor has in mind and what the architect has an mind. larson talksard

about george washington's rule in ratifying the first federal document in his new book. >> what they wanted to do is recruit him in. hamilton already topped to washington about the democracy never working. washington was a true republican, he believed in republican government. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q and eight. the weekly addresses from the focus on thanksgiving. first we will hear from president obama. then incoming house gop vice chair doug collins of georgia. president obama: on behalf of , i want to wish you a very happy thanksgiving. like so many of you, we will

spend the day with friends and family, and turkey and touchdowns. we will give thanks for each other and all that god has given us. we will reflect on what binds us as americans. that has never been more important. as a country we just emerge from , noisy, passing -- passionate and sometimes busy campaign season. we face off in a contest of us versus them. we focus on the candidate we support, instead of the ideals that we share. a few short weeks later, thanksgiving reminds us that, no matter our differences we are still one people. part of something bigger than ourselves. we are communities that will forward together. we are neighbors, we look out for one another. especially those among us with the least. we are always simply americans. the fog of through

civil war, president lincoln saw most.attered the inalienable truths for what so many gave their lives and made possible a new birth of freedom. precisely when the fate of the union hung in the balance, he boldly proclaimed a day of thanksgiving, when the nations just should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged with one heart and one voice by the whole american people. today we continue to give thanks for those blessings and for all who ensure the inheritance. we remember the determined patriots who landed in search of freedom. we give thanks to the brave men and women who defend that freedom in every corner of the world. we honor all people from the first americans to our newest arrivals, who continue to shape our story, in rich our heritage and give meaning to our values. values we must never take for granted.

in america, we are bound by not an inherentt rather stew a common belief, that all of us are created equal. speake may think, worship and love as we please. the gift of democracy is ours and ours alone to nurture and protect. doubt, that that -- is what makes us americans. practice, butwe the ideals to which we pledge our allegiance. the capacity to live up to the creed as old as our founders. out of many, we are one. as long as we continue to want the contributions of all people, as long as we stand up for each other, speak up for what is right and stay true to these ideals, not just when it is easy, but when it is hard, no one can ever take away our liberty. our best days will always the ahead. we will keep building a future

will -- where all of our children are the promise of america. happy thanksgiving. >> thanksgiving always comes with a promise of renewal. these things are especially important this year. our nation faces problems. we just had a very long and divisive campaign. thanksgiving dinner might be more spirited this year. we can be proud to live in a nation where we are free to live and voice passionately. we honor these values by gathering together. it was president lincoln who made thanksgiving a formal holiday. it was a way to bring the country together, in his words it should be solemnly and gratefully acknowledged. this pause for reflection has been our ritual for more than 150 years. there is much to be grateful for this thanksgiving. we are big full for the men and women who fought for us.

we are think full for the spurs -- first responders, doctors and nurses. we are thankful for everyone who opens their doors and hearts to those who are in need. everyday day we are guided by our believes would ignore the of every person, and the hope that we believe our children with a stronger nation. in the weeks ahead, we want to set things on the right course. for a better way to address our biggest challenges. there will always be difficult days. if we listen and learn from another, if we seek to not exploit one another, our journey will be brighter than the one behind us. we will give thanks for the heritage we share for a more perfect union. this thanksgiving we are humbled by the opportunity to serve, and a chance to walk with all americans for a brighter future. we wish you a happy and help >> c-span, where history unfolds

daily. c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies, and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. joining us this week is steve bene, federal council for pandora media. how did and/or get started? -- pandora get started? steve: it's an honor to be included on the show. founder2000 our had been a composer for film. directorsd talked to that he was supposed to compose film scores for. they would all is told him they wanted something for a particular scene that sounded like this meets that, or some kind of sound they had in mind they would