its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap.org] >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, funded by these television stations and more, including sparklight. >> the greatest town on earth is the place you call home. sparklight is our home too. we are facing our greatest challenge. that is why we are working round-the-clock to keep you protected. we are doing our part so it is easier to do yours. >> sparklight supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> on "washington journal," we look at the news and your comments with the conversation on efforts by some parent groups to review and possibly remove books they deem inappropriate with moms for liberty and the national coalition against

censorship. later, will write and josh -- will wright and josh nburtram. host: good morning and welcome to "washington journal." covid-19, sluggish supply chain, rising crime numbers, increasing inflation, and concern over public schooling is what cities and towns are dealing with as we near the end of the first month of 2022. while municipalities are facing bad news others say their cities are on the verge of coming back after the pandemic with jobs,

major infrastructure investments, and an influx of new residents. what is going on in your place of residence? what is the most important issue facing your town or city? we're going to open regional lines. that means if you are in the eastern or central time zones, you can call (202)-748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zone, your number is (202)-748-8001. keep in mind you can always text us at (202)-748-8003 and we are always reading on social media on facebook at facebook.com/c-span, on twitter@c-spanwj and on instagram @c-spanwj. this as the u.s. conference of mayors was meeting this week as

the cities struggle with coming through the covid-19 and its economic impacts. here is an example of the concerns they had as the president of the u.s. conference of mayors, republican francis suarez of miami, referenced government overreach and inflation as the obstacles for some mayors. [video clip] >> we also know growing the size of government and increasing deficits creates a vicious cycle of excessive taxation and fleeing residents. every democrat and republican will agree fiscal sanity is the basis for shared growth, shared opportunity, and shared prosperity. and it is based on a simple concept, arithmetic. whether you are a reagan republican or clinton democrat we all agree we need to tackle inflation before it tackles us. inflation is a tax on senior

citizens, young people, working people, and poor people. for poor people and young people, inflation wipes out hard earned savings. for seniors on fixed income it makes it hard to pay for medication and food. as mayors we see it firsthand and we need to lobby our federal government to stop it. host: speaking of lobbying the federal government, the mayor of the nation's capitol, muriel bowser, talked about how the influx of federal money has helped d.c. and other cities during the pandemic at that same meeting. here is washington, d.c. mayor muriel bowser. [video clip] >> i know our ability to move forward has been aided by the efforts of the biden-harris administration and the american rescue plan and infrastructure

and jobs act. [applause] i am quite sure your cities have had the experience of what we had with the transformative infusion of dollars. thanks to these investments d.c. is set to rehabilitate and replace some of our oldest high cost bridges and highways and replace them with new infrastructure. in addition to traditional infrastructure we are also poised to build out charging stations, more high-speed internet, and we will continue to improve our water infrastructure. we know too we are looking forward to other investments like continuing to reduce prescription drug costs, expanding affordable housing, expanding the child tax care credit, and for goodness sake,

having more of our children in pre-k. these are not contentious issues. these are supports that recognize the reality of what everyday americans are experiencing and as mayors we know covid is not our only emergency and tom, you are quite right. we are responding to gun violence that has been increasing in cities and towns and facing new concerns about housing and homelessness, cybersecurity, and climate change and doing it all at once. we know we are focused on our very democracy and focused on making sure we are protecting the precious right to vote, and for us in d.c., getting the right to vote in congress. [applause] that is why it is so important we pass the john lewis voting rights act in the 51st state. host: we want to know what is

the most important issue facing your town or city. is it inflation? is the covid-19 pandemic? is it empty store shelves? what is going on in your particular town or city? derek is calling from seattle, washington. good morning. caller: good morning. the most thing i am worried about is media. this fascism and racism is going on in the united states. i am not worried about no ukraine. i am worried about these people flying these flags around us. that is what i am worried about. host: let's talk to lila calling from california. good morning. caller: good morning. i am very concerned we are going to have the same problems. it looks like we might have a drought again. we had some good rain.

we had no rain in january and the marijuana industry has taken over this valley and they are using all the water. we all have wells and they are using all the water. there was no water for the deer and the animals and we have really bad fires all around us. i think something has got to be done about this. host: is the drought worse this year than it has been in previous years? or is this almost like an annual event where you have these water problems? caller: well, it looks like it is going to be an annual event. we got water. would got some good rain earlier but then we have had no rain in january. the amount of rain we had is not enough to soak down to where it

is going to improve the wells. the wells, you know, they get the water under the ground and it keeps diminishing and not being replenished. host: what do you think your city can do about this or is there something they should be doing about this? caller: you know, ever since they made marijuana legal in california the people have come in and thought property here in droves. our population has probably doubled and to me all humans need food and water in order to survive. we can survive without marijuana. host: let's go to ken calling from arkansas. good morning. caller: morning.

how are you today? host: i'm great. what city or town do you live in? caller: hot springs, arkansas. host: what is the issue facing hot springs, arkansas all right now? caller: i have to applaud biden for his attempt to support the local communities and the mayors and the governors. but i do have a major concern about how this money is used and who is going to. i have a problem helping companies that we support with our tax dollars so they can continue to provide services and bill clients. it is like they are getting double pay and that bothers me. that is not only for broadband providers but all these contractors that we supposedly pay taxes for to have them do

the work they should be doing and now we have to cosponsor them financially under the tax burden of the american people to support what they should already be doing. host: is there something you think hot springs should be doing that they are not doing? caller: well, our roads are in bad conditions, a lot of potholes and cracks in the road that need to be resurfaced. in a lot of communities had street sweepers that come by. we don't have that. host: all right. since the caller brought it up the story in "the washington post" about how some cities are using the federal money that came to help them with the pandemic for other reasons.

let's look at that story. more than 160 sprawling golf courses already. the area around palm beach garden, florida. it serves as a home base for the country's professional league. but the 115 acre, 18 whole expanse that could soon become the city's next outpost could have a key feature that sets it apart from the rest. its construction could benefit from more than $2 million in federal coronavirus aid. the spending in florida counts among thousands of new investments nationwide as cities and states look to spend portions of the generous $350 billion stimulus initiative. democrats in congress approved the local windfall as part of the american rescue plan hoping to give cash-strapped governments a booster fighting the pandemic and bringing

economies back. the result has been measures to promote vaccines, prop up businesses, safeguard schools, and replenish local coffers. alongside a slew of political endeavors a pet projects whose immediate economic benefits may be in the eye of the beholder. that is from today's "washington post." as the caller said some of the federal stimulus money seems to be going to things that may not, and look like they may not be directly relevant, to the pandemic. let's talk to joe calling from wilmington, north carolina. good morning. caller: hey. how are you doing? host: fine. go ahead. caller: we are experiencing an ice storm. wilmington has seen massive growth the last 10, 15 years.

being a very affordable southeastern beach community that has a midsized university, uncw, a lot of people are moving down here to get away from the ice and snow. i would say half of my neighbors are from new york, new jersey. you know, some of the development is not being strong. if we look at the fiscal responsibility, and some of the stimulus money has not been going, i think, the right direction as you discussed. some things like -- if you look, the only two presidents that have balanced budget are democrats and that is andrew jackson, and he used a lot of land reclamation from the westward push during his

administration. of course, the last was william jefferson clinton. i think we could use the funds differently. we have got so many people and now we just see massive growth in the hospitals where people cannot afford. it is just crowded. i think a reflection of physical responsibility is what is necessary. host: is there anything in particular you think the local officials in wilmington should be doing right now? of course, we expect them to make sure the roads are plowed and that you recover from your snow and ice storm, but what long-term do you think local officials need to be doing right now to make your city better? caller: well, you got a city council and they are controlled by realtors. and conglomerates related to the

development as well as the county counsel. people are looking for a person that can speak for all the people and not have their hands in other people's pockets. host: kevin calling from new york. good morning. kevin, are you there? let's go to carl calling from minnesota. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a local 49 worker/builder. we have a 30 mile project to save this town and we have to get it done in less than five years. the money from your great country of washington, d.c. is helping. the lady from california, i got to go to california and see the

canal and i was spreading fertilizer for the greenway carrot farms out of bakersfield. i got to see them pumping water and just wasting it because they had the water rights from the 1920's. these were cotton growers and let me tell you, the knowledge i could bring back to this area. they gave me ideas for starting my own company but i am looking at the white house right now and it is the most beautiful picture from a guy that is 50 years young. i got so much i could give to this country i think some way or somehow. host: let's talk to danny calling from yuma, arizona. good morning. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: we can. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. real quick, i am from yuma, arizona and i am a border state. what is going on down here is

really bad. our small city of yuma cannot handle the influx of all the illegal immigrants coming through. we don't know -- let me make this quite clear. i am for legal immigration. everybody should come that wants to but do it legally. don't jump the line. we have some the people down here we cannot handle all of these people. it is really bad and i think america needs to know this is a very serious problem. unless you live down here you really don't understand. host: you said the influx of immigrants is hurting your town. in what way are they hurting the town? caller: they are hurting the town, for one thing, where are you going to put these people to stay? where you going to feed them? where are they going to go to the bathroom? all of these problems crop up

and we are a small community. host: just so you are clear, are you saying there is a homeless problem in yuma right now? caller: there is a lot of homeless yeah. [laughs] yes, sir. host: what are the issues you see? what are local officials doing about this? caller: right now, it changes from day to day. mayor nichols is a good guy. i like him. he seems like he is on top of the problem but every morning when i open the paper there is something different that goes on from day to day. let me make this quite clear, this is not only our problem, it is going to be america's problem. these migrants are being shipped off all over the united states in the middle of the night to

residents they don't know what happened. host: we are talking local issues today. what you think your local officials should be doing? caller: well, you want to know something? locally i think we need help. they need to get the federal government to help us address this problem because it is out of control. host: let's go to matthew calling from biloxi, mississippi. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. host: go ahead. caller: how are you? host: i'm good. caller: there seems to be a lot of issues going on with the funding that came down from the department of labor down to the states for the unemployment for the pandemic.

a lot of issues on accountability on the funds, especially on the stimulus. a lot of the stimulus funds, a lot of people did not get it. i did not get two of them and had a lot of issues with the unemployment claims. took me quite a few months before they even went through. then a lot of stuff was supposed to be retroactive from the time in which you file. it is automatic you get your backpay from the date the state signed it in and did not get it. i had to continuously complain for a couple of months, almost until the end of the period where they were not paying unemployment before they would do anything. it has got very out of control,

the funding. a lot of things were set on the news about so many people -- said on the news that so many people were getting paid. something like a million people got a stimulus check and it doesn't make any sense. there a lot of cyber issues. host: we are talking about local issues today so tell us about something going on in biloxi. you are on the gulf coast. how was your local city and government county doing in biloxi? caller: you know, everything seems to be, you know, it is very slow with all the controversy going on with the pandemic staff. it is kind of starting to pick back up again it seems like but i feel like a lot of things are hidden that have been going on for long periods of time in the

federal government needs to address the situations that are going on and take some kind of lead on getting the states functioning properly. host: president joe biden went and spoke to the nations mayors in washington yesterday and began to talk about how the american rescue plan funds are actually being used at the local level. here is what president joe biden had to say. [video clip] >> many communities are putting those funds to work keeping people on the job, connecting people to better jobs. in seattle, the money is being used to be given premium paid a local child care workers so they can keep childcare centers open and available for folks who need it. not sure that would've have happened if it had gone directly to the states. you know, in phoenix, partners

with community college, these funds will help people find jobs in the semiconductor industry. in milwaukee, you are training workers to get rid of lead pipelines and the idea we have our kids drinking out of fountains that have lead pipes feeding the fountains. everybody deserves clean water, everybody, city, suburban, or rural areas. here in washington, d.c. it is funding the expansion of an infrastructure academy. preparing local workers to take the good paying jobs and many factoring, construction and utilities. look, i urge every american to look at what you are doing. i urge every mayor to follow suit. to use the rescue plan and the

resources intended not just to stave off disaster but build for the future around the people who make communities run. use your funds to cover childcare costs, temporary paid leave to help workers dealing with omicron, build pathways to better jobs through union based apprenticeships and on-the-job training, gives people in every zip code the chance to deal for themselves, deal them into this booming economy. that also means building more affordable housing so people can have safe places closer to their jobs. funding programs to fight violent crime. we should not be cutting funding for police departments. i propose increasing funding. host: let's look at what our social media followers are saying about the most important issues facing their towns or cities. here's a post from facebook that

says, i live in new york city so right now it is crime. crime is the number one issue. a tweet says, columbus, ohio. income inequality and crime. gosh, it is almost like these two things are related. here is a tweet from philadelphia that says, i live in a small town new philadelphia and infrastructure is in need of repair. philadelphia has a serious crime problem. another tweet that says, in arkansas, covid infection numbers have broken all-time records everyday since monday. every day brings record infections brought on by the unvaccinated in my state. mask mandates are in effect in all public buildings right now in fayetteville, the college town. this one says people are laying in the er for days because of

lack of space and staff. we want to know what the most important issue facing your town or city is. at the u.s. conference of mayors meeting the mayors talked about ways to get people vaccinated and there is a story in route50.com about what the suggestion was. public health experts advise the nation's mayors on thursday to consider steps like paying people in professions at high risk of contracting covid-19 to get vaccinated. the advice during a session of the annual winter meeting in washington, d.c. came as mayors said they are still grappling with how to encourage or people in their cities to get the shots. about 67% of the u.s. population five years old and up is fully vaccinated, federal data shows, while nearly 80% in that range of had one dose.

something to think about is paying people in high-risk professions to get vaccinated, joshua sharfstein at the bloomberg school of public health told mayors. they offered incentives ranging from cash jackpots, to pickup trucks to guns. subsequent research cast doubt on how well these programs worked. even so, as the pandemic drags on and omicron has caused cases and hospitalizations to search city leaders are looking at vexing incentives as an option. we want to know what the most important issue in your town or city is today. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, your number is (202)-748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, your number is (202)-748-8001.

let's go to daniel calling from sanford, texas. good morning. caller: hello. host: go ahead. caller: ok, they are flying in planes from the border to abilene. that is 40 miles from me. and they are scattering people, the illegals, all around my county. the dang thing is if you don't want to live in america, don't try to invade us. they are basically going to take over the country. host: in your town of stanford, what problems do you see the immigrants causing? caller: well, what are you talking about? they get free health care, free schooling. host: how does that affect you?

caller: how does that affect me? host: yeah. caller: well, let's see, hell i never got nothing for free. i paid for everything i ever had to do. host: one of the issues you see going on in stanford? caller: besides the illegal immigration? host: yeah. caller: you can get away with murder here. there have been two murders here and they got away with it so hey. host: what do you think local officials should be doing to solve these problems? caller: what can they do to solve these problems? host: yeah. caller: that is a damn excellent question. host: any suggestions for local officials? caller: the only thing they can do to solve these problems is

bring 200 illegals to my town and say we will put you in a motel until we get you a place to stay. host: i don't think local officials are doing that are they? caller: i don't know if local officials are doing it but the thing is whenever your border is being flooded and the material is laying on the ground for the border wall all you gotta do is put it up. they cannot get permission from the government to build the wall. host: let's go to richard calling from nashville, tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. i live in nashville, tennessee. 50 years now and i have lived all over the country, l.a., florida, northern indiana, chicago area. i got to tell you, nashville is a great city to live in. you got the music industry here but in my 30 years ago they

decided to tax the music industry as they were going more into technology and a lot of studios in nashville are done in the back of a home that has been set up as a studio. i have been in them. i know a lot of the stars and the songwriters. a lot of them don't even live here anymore, they moved out. the mayor raised to the property tax 34%. he is a democrat, senator cooper's brother. 20 years ago when the titans came to town from houston he was having trouble getting the new stadium. they came here and they said they would not raise taxes on the city but they did in the way they did it was the did not raise property taxes. they went around and reevaluated everybody's property and they added on square footage in your

home. that is how they paid for the titans' stadium. the biggest issue in nashville as we have a lot of homeless here. two, nashville is the smallest, richest city in the world because of the music industry. but there is a big medical industry here. i paid for my mortgage six years ago. my property taxes on my three bedroom, one bathroom house which is a nice little house in a nice little neighborhood has all the black-and-white people moved out and all the foreigns have moved in. i've got guatemalan on one quarter, vietnamese on one corner, glad to see them here. as far as i know they are legal but my city has been overrun and they are using cheap labor. you can go to any construction site. you can fly over nashville and see them building skyscrapers.

they are not building homes. they are not allocating land. the city owns a lot of land. they can transform it into public housing, they could do a lot of things for the people but they are not. but money never trickles down. host: let's talk to catherine calling from gilbert, south carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: hi. you are asking what our local issues are and in gilbert, south carolina our local issue is the mayor. it is not only the neighboring cities of lexington into columbia, which is our capitol city, we have no workers. nobody is working. there is help wanted signs everywhere and nobody wants to work. host: let me stop you really

quick because the u.s. postal service says, at least for the christmas season, most of the mail got where it needed to be and on time. what i'm hearing is that is not true in your area. caller: not at all. we just now have been getting a backlog of mail where we got christmas cards two days ago. it has been really delayed and most of the time we have to go to the post office to pick up our mail where we stand in line for a long time and the three people who have shown up for work are working so diligently and so hard. it is not a matter of who is working, it is a matter there is nobody to work. host: some people would say, you know, you have email, you can pay your bills through the email, you can send packages

through fedex and ups. do you think the mail service is still necessary for people? caller: absolutely it is still necessary. host: why? caller: not everybody is online and not every establishment can you pay online. for instance, our household, we would like to be as paperless as we can but there are still a couple of entities who do not do electronic payments or are not online to pay. and then there is a great deal of elderly people who are not online. host: ok. well, house republican leader kevin mccarthy also addressed the u.s. conference of mayors on friday and talked about ways mayors can work with congress on legislation that will help

americans. here is what house leader had to say [video clip] >> we vote together more than we vote apart. there is a lot of great friendships internally but what happens is technology also does other things. the elections say about somebody you don't know and you say things differently. television stations give us opinions and you can give whatever you want philosophically. as elected leaders we should push to the places of how do we find greater common ground? i love the idea of laboratories throughout and i promise you this, i am not shy. i will steal any good idea you have. i will give you credit but i will take a lot of credit myself because i stole it. [laughter] to be competitive for the future i think the two greatest threats is the amount of debt federally

and china. they are taking critical minerals and others and i would never bet against this country because we are focused on the same path. i think a lot falls on your shoulders as well. i think you are natural leaders throughout. i think you have the ability to set the tone. so many times something devastating happens in your city you have no control over but the way you handle it, the way you are the father and mother to the city itself, you heal, you become healthier, but also what you do we watch it and we are there with you. i mean, there is not a moment in time we don't see one of those stories we are not crying at the same time. it may be a natural disaster and after that takes place you find the greatness of the nation, the people come from all over just to provide food or shelter to others. when we start honoring those things and building those up better i think people will look

much more willing to do more of that. host: let's see what social media followers are saying now about the most important issues facing their towns and cities. here is one tweet that says, i guess my city is not alone in dealing with the mindless resistance to covid precautions. i am seeing record numbers across the country fueled by the unvaccinated. i the corporate and far right media for the misinformation that made this possible. here's a tweet that says, in my local community covid is not running amok. the economy is great, store shelves are mostly full, we don't notice inflation, gases under three dollars a gallon, crime is no biggie. i guess, maybe the cold weather. a post from facebook that says, inflation but it is a global problem. another post from facebook that says, covid rate is so high and

also it is nearly impossible to give young people to staff a restaurant because of turnover and quitting, mostly among the young people. one final problem saying the most important issue facing their town and city's crime and parking issues. we want to know what is the most important issue facing your town or city? let's talk to greg calling from pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. i think the most important issue here is getting access to something other than fake news. i think it is a national problem and a local problem. you have advocacy journalism done by anybody and everybody. there is nobody, nobody on either side and, as an example,

your cross-examination of yuma and texas about illegals. there is no doubt it should be clearly obvious what influx of illegals does to the locals who have to deal with them instead of the citizens who are paying taxes and paying their salaries. it is time for journalists to understand they are not gods. they should be doing more. yesterday the irs says our computer system is 40 years old and we are still processing 2020 tax returns. where did the money go? host: let me stop you and what i've anything you said is -- what of anything you said is fake news? caller: i am talking about the fake news you and others seem to protect divided and destroyed and are doing. host: i assume by fake news you

may news that is incorrect. or news that you don't like. explain what was said that was incorrect. caller: so your question to yuma, he told you they were overwhelmed with illegals and your question to him was, what is the problem? host: so the question was incorrect? caller: what question was incorrect? host: the question i asked was incorrect? was there something factually wrong with the question? caller: not factually wrong. host: so it wasn't fake, right? caller: when one community is overwhelmed according to that listener it is obvious what it is. host: so you don't think people should explain their opinions rather than parroting what they heard? caller: agree.

you should cross-examine every single caller. when the next republica democrat calls and and says trump is a racist, dah, dah, dah i hope you do the same thing. host: let's go to the next caller. john is calling from los angeles. caller: i was born in san francisco and raised in los angeles. do you want to know what is wrong with l.a.? let's start with the mayor. his approach to the city is completely hands-off. i hope he gets out quick and goes to india. a wonderful person is the sheriff of l.a. county who does understand what the problem is. we have homeless that are incredibly bad. you go to the corner on the west

side, what is going on here. crime is nuts and they will not let us our warm ourselves because we go to jail. host: let me ask you two questions. number one, what should local officials do about homelessness? caller: there has been a lot of stuff floating around. i think the best thing to do -- and i hate to say it because i don't want to sound like a nazi -- but i think homeless encampments run by the state or city might help. you can put industry in these places and try to train these folks. the mentally ill which is incredibly out of control, i think the state that had any sense of caring would help these people but they don't. what happens is the criminals go

crazy because there is not enough cops on the street, there isn't. i talked to the local sergeant in west l.a. and off-the-cuff he said, we are not there. i am not ready to pack a gun because of this but it is getting to the point where i do carry pepper spray everywhere i go because i am worried about my wife and all of that. i tell you what, i love l.a. i love l.a. i was here when the raiders were here, i love the raiders. they went to vegas as all my friends did. everybody i grew up is now living in las vegas, nevada. i don't blame them one bit. host: the second part you were complaining about crime in los angeles. what should local officials do -- what can local officials do to bring those crime rates down? caller: i am not complaining. i am making an observation.

what they can do is fund the cops. we need the flag waived by lapd especially on the west side. you answer calls and you put people in jail and you might have a little more safety on the streets. that is one thing they could do. he is a criminal. he has made felonies non-felonies, there is no bail anymore, there is no -- what's the word for it? sorry, i get upset. there is no repercussions for criminal actions. these people are on the streets the next day. they walk into century city or beverly hills or melrose and they are going down here and robbing people in the streets in the middle of the day. this is ridiculous. host: let's go to douglas

calling from forks, washington. good morning. caller: good morning. i would say the main thing with our community is our roads are terrible. they are getting worse all the time and i know our city government must have received some money because they got a whole fleet of new dump trucks and flatbeds which is good, they needed to update, but i hope we can fix our roads. secondly is housing. it is not necessarily the affordable housing -- everything will cost more for the younger kids -- but there is no housing. every time one is built it is snatched up. other than that thank goodness we are a small community and we

are not suffering like some of the big cities are around the country. i am pretty happy about that. host: let's talk to gary calling from illinois. good morning. caller: hello. i am talking about the social ills of society. host: we are talking about local issues. what social ills do you see in illinois? caller: social security is broke. they said that in the past and we have to get the illegals in our area to fill it back up to make them citizens again. you don't hear that on the news but i heard it one time. i am on disability and social security is broken up that it has to be paid on the first week, secondly, third week, fourth week. they need to stop the abortions

so we can have regular citizens and not have all the illegals coming in to replace it. mexicans moving into town here and at the factory they told us we need to learn their language. no, we need to move to your country. we need to get into the cars and blast up and down -- they just put a new blacktop in front of my house and they use it as a racetrack. there is a post office, a senior village, a fire department, post office, my house, school across the road for me. goes 80 miles an hour up and down the road. host: william calling from fort smith, arkansas. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you, jesse? host: just fine.

go ahead. caller: on a local level in the city i have been living in a house for years and i moved here february of 2007. what i have been paying for it is the defects in the apartments. the miniblinds have rope strings, that is illegal. my shower has black mold, that's illegal. you know who pays for these replacements? i do out of my disability or social security check. i think these rich property owners who bought about this housing should be making these payments on these repairs and i shouldn't have to suffer to do that. i grew up in abject poverty. i have calluses on my hands from being a young boy and i live in poverty still. but i don't think i should have to pay for these repairs the department of health says are illegal. host: have you complained to

your local housing authority? caller: yes, sir. i have complained on the state level and i have complained to a senator of arkansas. it is all covered up. i'm sorry. host: what about the state level? have you talked to city officials? what did they say? caller: yes, sir. nothing. it is all big money. the golden rule. there is not a damn thing we can do about it, jesse, i'm sorry. but this is what is happening to the poor people in the country. the rich people have dominated us and they are continuing to and there is nothing we can do about it. host: many people are complaining about rising crime rates in their cities. chicago mayor lori lightfoot,

who also is seeing record crime in her city, talked to the u.s. conference of mayors about the need to address poverty as a solution to crime. here's what mayor lightfoot had to say. [video clip] >> coming into my tenure as mayor almost three years ago i really focus on equity and inclusion because what i knew in my city was there were too many people who have been left behind. chicago is a great, prosperous city but not all of our communities, all of our people, were benefiting from the economic prosperity that we had achieved. i put equity and inclusion as the north stars for my administration which means as we think about coming out of covid and addressing the economic meltdowns that have followed we got to make sure our recoveries are equitable and inclusive. chicago has had a decades long disinvestment made long racial

divides which manifested in present-day challenges of violence and poverty. frankly, many of the issues and challenges we see in our city the answer is poverty and the solution, the long-term solution is investment and strategy. you have heard of the challenges we had over the last two years in particular with violence. but the same areas where we see high rates of violence are the same where we see high rates of poverty. it is almost a one-to-one match. i am saddened to share that, for example, eight point 6% of the city's population has been identified as living in extreme poverty. 19% of the city's population are living in poverty. poverty creates and fuels violence and there is no doubt about that. it leads to life expectancy

disparities, wealth and health care gaps, and we also all that in bold relief in the early days of the pandemic particularly when we saw the pandemic falling disproportionately on black and brown communities. the solutions to the violence also have to address poverty. host: let's talk to jack calling from warren, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. i just had some things to talk about. man, my biggest issue is the back child support. we never hear anybody talk about when you go to jail or prison or something like that people living kind of poor when they get out. you do five or 10 years in a penitentiary and when you come out you owe back child support. nobody is talking about that. you never be able to get a job when he says, oh, he has a felony. then you go to your burger king

job, mcdonald's job, they are hiring you at seven dollars, eight dollars an hour. then when you work all year you don't get income tax check. i-57 years old. last time i had an income tax check was in my 20's. it is because of back child support. it is killing us black men and poor white people. we need people like you, educated black man, to speak on something like this. you have the power. you are real educated. i am not educated. i have a 12 grade diploma. we need help. host: let's go to tracy calling from independence, missouri. good morning. caller: greetings, jesse. you are my favorite host and i wish you were on every day. my problem here is that my vaccinated friends and family are all getting covid. it seems like this

one-size-fits-all policy is not working at all and they never change the formula for new variants. we keep doing the same thing expecting it to be different. it does not make sense. if we want to tackle this, we have got to come up with a plan or vaccine that works. three or four jabs per year and you still get covid? that looks like failure. host: friends and family who are vaccinated who are contracting covid. are they going to the hospital? what type of symptoms do they have? caller: the only person i know who went to the hospital was someone obese and that is what we need to focus on, people losing weight. i am not vaccinated. the people who adopted the polio jab early, we act like it was a huge success, that they got polio and they got simeon virus 40 and it was called that because there was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

it is also three or four jabs in a year with no trial for safety or efficacy. if anybody is out there ordering this be mandated, you are ignorant. our media sounds like a pr for relief and nobody is questioning anything. everyone needs to stop pushing -- they made billions of dollars and they have no liability if anyone gets injured. host: let's go to mark calling from los angeles, california. good morning. caller: hey, this is mark from california. thank you for c-span's dedication to showing all sides to everything. host: what's going on in los angeles for you? what is the most important issue facing los angeles? caller: here in los angeles i think the most important thing

probably is the homeless situation. first off, what got me to call was you had a previous los angeles caller and he said our mayor was lagrossa. it is not, it is eric garner city. i thought, am i in a time machine? no, it is eric garcetti. he doesn't know who the reset mayor is. but the issue is the terrible homeless situation. i wish all sides could pull together to come up with solutions for training those willing or able to work. to work together to come up with

solutions and in los angeles there are people living homeless under overpasses of the ventura freeway, the hollywood freeway, it is crazy. we need to come up with something where we can help these people move forward to come out of the mental state of homelessness into being able to move forward and gain employment and have a fruitful life. host: mickey is also calling from los angeles. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am also calling in response to the caller earlier from los angeles who did not know the mayor. that is what prompted me to call and then you said his friends moved to las vegas. maybe he should consider moving to las vegas. but if he really does not want

crime he should move to rochester, minnesota. having said that homelessness is an issue. right by where i live there were hundreds of homeless people by the veterans administration. since the biden administration came our mayor works with the veterans department in washington, d.c. the donald trump administration did nothing. the move them across the park which is a whole another story. it is a beautiful land and they are not doing anything with this land. homelessness is an issue but when you have a city of 8.6 million it is a border state. you are going to have issues. if you love it, you live it. you go to beverly hills, people are driving $5 million lamborghinis. what are the police do? they pull over the black motors because their taillight is broken. host: we would like to thank all of our callers who called in for

the first segment. coming up, we discussed book banning efforts that are cropping up across the country. that discussion with mom for liberty's tina descovich at the national coalition against censorship's nora pelizzari. they will be coming up in just one second. later will write and pastor josh burtram discuss their podcast "faithful politics." a podcast for those who enjoy discussing politics and religion. ♪ >> book tv every sunday on c-span two features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at 9:15 p.m. eastern vanderbilt university professor michael eric dyson examines the impact

on black culture and politics on the united states with his book "entertaining race, performing blackness in america." and then a theoretical physicist talks about his book "emotional: how feelings shape our thinking." watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and find the full schedule online anytime at booktv.org. >> in march 2017, lance geiger from the basement of his house in illinois created a new business, however his business can be seen all over the world on youtube. since that day in 2017 he has been known as "the history guy." he has produced hundreds of tentative and him -- 15 minute short documentaries.

he is surrounded by hundreds of artifacts including military hats and ship models from military operations, and lance geiger is always dressed in his dark shoot -- dark suit, glasses and a bow tie. >> lance geiger, the history guy on this episode of booknotes+ which is available on the c-span app or wherever you get your podcasts. c-spanshop.org is your online store, browse through our latest collection of products, apparel, books, home decor and accessories. there is something for every c-span fan and every purchase help support our nonprofit operation. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back and we are

here with moms for liberty's linda desk of the rich and with the national coalition against censorship's communication director nora pelizzari to talk about efforts around the country by some parents groups to review and possibly ban books that they deem contain questionable content. good morning. guest: good morning. host: let us start with you, tina. tell us what moms for liberty is and where you all get your funding. guest: absolutely. moms for liberty is a national grassroots nonprofit organization and we worked to empower and organize parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government. our funding primarily comes from small donors just through our website and checks that come in the mail. have of our funding comes through march aside -- merchandise sales through our website. host: tell us about the national

coalition against censorship. >> the national coalition against censorship ncac has been around since the mid-70's. we are in anti-censorship organization and primarily fight for youth censorship and youth free expression, and against censorship in the arts and culture, but we oppose censorship in all forms because we believe that free expression is a human right and a huge help to democracy. host: who financially back your group? >> we are a long-standing nonprofit. we have a lot of ended -- individual donors, we receive a few foundation grants you -- you are there, we are funded like many 500 three c nonprofit organizations and we have -- and we are nonprofits. host: you have been mentioned in

many organizations, what are your chapters concerned about and what are they asking schools to do? guest: i want to make it clear we are national organization but we focus on empowering chapters to work within our communities. there has been no effort at the national level to organize or push down any issues into the chapter including evaluating curriculum or books. it is interesting to watch our chapters across the country dig in and look for concerns they have as parents. they are finding a lot of the same books concerning and it rises to the top. our chapters meet monthly, and their job is to kind of be the watchdogs of school districts. they are supposed to go over school board agendas, they again and see what they are spending their money on, what curriculums they are adopting. when they are doing this they are uncovering concerning information. host: what type of information in books are concerning your chapters? guest: i want to make it clear, i appreciate the opportunity to

be on your show because the book -- the term book banning is offensive for us and we title or organization moms for liberty for a reason. we have no desire to ban any books, but we are moms, that is the first word. we absolutely have the right to vet what our children are learning. we are finding books and libraries in elementary school libraries that are obscene, vulgar, and by anybody's standard so we have concerns about allowing those to be accessible to children. host: here are some books that some communities have found concerning and that we have heard about in the news. one of them is called "all boys are not blue" by george m. johnson. is there a about this book? guest: there has been quite a few chapters that have brought that book forward as concerning, more particularly in pennsylvania. one of our moms found that book, which depicts very graphic and

obscene sexual acts in a very detailed way. she found it in her daughter's elementary school. i do not know at one point we became a society that everybody remembers the side room at blockbuster where the vulgar and missing -- and obscene material was. the material in the side room was never placed right next to finding nemo and that was for a reason. who decided, and it was not moms, that it was time to pull that obscene material and put it next to finding nemo. host: here is another book " racism, antiracism and you." what is concerned concern about that book? guest: it is interesting, i have not seen any of our chapters bring those books forward. i do have those books in my collection, and i do not have concerns about children reading any of those books. some of our chapters might and a part of this discussion is that

we need to recognize that different communities and the supreme court has said it themselves, that these decisions need to be made locally and in different communities. i would like to say that they need to be made with parents with a seat at the table to decide which age these books are appropriate for. some of those concepts a seven or eight-year-old might not be able to grasp so we need to evaluate that as a community. host: let us go to you. what do you take of the efforts like groups for mom -- like moms for liberty. >> i want to push back on a few untrue things because parents do have a seat at the table. and, mechanisms exist and policies exist in school districts repair parents to file complaints about materials that they disagree with. but, where i take issue, also as a mom, is that no individual has the right to impose their personal beliefs on what my

child or all other children in a school district are allowed to read, are allowed to learn, are allowed to explore and allowed to discover. so, no individual personal beliefs can be the deciding factor in what books are included in what we are talking about largely of late are attacks on books in school libraries. we are not talking about books that children are being made to read, but books that children are allowed to access if they have an interest in the book or that topic. what the supreme court has set about school libraries is that a school cannot remove books simply because it dislikes the ideas and seeks to prescribe intellectual orthodoxy. the policies that already exist in school districts called for a formal process when a parents disagree -- on a parent disagrees with a book in the curriculum or school library. they file a formal complaint.

a review committee made up of educators, administrators, parents, ideally, also train students because we are losing the student voices quite a bit. they meet, they read the whole book, not just the potentially offensive passages. they read the whole book and they evaluated based on labor -- evaluate it based on literacy, historical and educational merit. doesn't have value for some students. now, should every book appeal to every student? no. there would be no books if that -- of every book had to appeal to every student. every student should be able to go into a library and find folks -- find books that widen their worldview. host: i saw you nodding while nora was speaking. do you agree with what she says. guest: partially. here in florida, we are both former school board members and

in florida there are state laws that require school districts to adopt policies, the one that she spoke about that there are school districts that do not have set procedures and policies in place and we encourage those school district to put those in place. i agree with her that one person's standard should not set the policy for a school district, that would not make sense. what needs to happen is that communities need to come together. she referenced the supreme court saying that a library or school district cannot pull books out because they disagree with what they say. that same court case said that you absolutely can pull them out if they are vulgar. what we are finding and those standards are set by individual communities. what we are finding in some of these books are vulgar. one of the books that has been rising to the top and a lot of the areas in chapters is " genderqueer" which have real-life looking cartoon depictions of sex, oral sex, masturbation.

they should not be placed in front of children, that is obscene in boulder. what that comes down to is that each community has to decide to the committees and processes if that book is proper for their community. these discussions need to be happening. what is happening to us is that we are being called book banners because we want to have discussions about what goes before our children and that is unfair. host: i saw you shaking your head. did she say anything you disagree with? >> a couple of things. i, first of all want to push back on the idea that " genderqueer" or most of the books being attacked recently is vulgar. there are explicit images because it is a graphic novel. the graphic novel format is an accessible literary format, studied and be part -- and become part of literary canon. graphic novels are a legitimate

teaching tool and legitimate literature. graphic novel as a format belong in schools. "genderqueer" is a memoir of the author's experience of grappling with their gender identity and the scene that she references is a dream sequence where the author imagines sort of the difficulty of sexual encounter as a person with gender dysmorphia. so, the memoir as a whole has been reviewed by several committees and when those committees that i referenced earlier are formed, and they read the whole book, and evaluate it on its value as a whole, by and large the recommendation is to keep in -- to keep the book. what we are seeing is that people are trying to bypass the procedures. people are not calling for procedures that privilege the educational value of books.

they are calling for parents to be able to make decisions for other people's kids. and that is where ncac and other free-speech organizations have a problem because what you are talking about is suppressing the human rights of kids to read and discover what interests them. "genderqueer" is not a curriculum, it is a book on a library shelf and if a kid needs to read it because there are kids who need to read a book like that, that expresses their experience and makes them feel less alone, those are the kids who will find the book and those of the kids whose life it might save, frankly. host: let me take a break and remind viewers that they can take part in this conversation. we will open up special lines. so, our first line is for parents, parents if you have something to say in this conversation we want to hear from you. your number will be 202-748-8000

. our second line is for educators. the people at the front lines and the people in the schools. we want to know what educators are saying. teachers, librarians, administrators. your number will be 202-748-8001 . we are going to open up a third line, this one for the people who this affects the most, students. if you are in high school, middle school, or elementary school even. we want to hear what you will say. students your line will be 202-748-8002. keep in mind, you can always text us at 202-748-8003. and, we are always reading on social media on twitter @beat -- c-spanwj and facebook at facebook.com/c-span. nora brought this up so i will ask this question, the constitution has a first

amendment and the first amendment says "congress should make no law restricting really been -- religion or restricting the free exercise thereof or abridging the free expression of the press, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." is there a first amendment issue for the parents, educators, or the students that we need to talk about? let us start with tina. guest: our organization is solely focused on a parental's right, they are and inherent right to guide and direct the upper -- upgrading -- upbringing, education, and medical care of their children. that is an inherent right that we are born with. the opportunity to vent what goes into our children's brains and what they are taught and what they have access to is -- takes precedence. do children have a first amendment right?

i think the supreme court has weighed in on that, but i think that parents absolutely have the right to guide the direction and upbringing of their children. host: what do you think? guest: i agree that parents have the right to input into their own child's education. they do not have the right to impose what they believe on all children's education. host: this fight over school libraries, one question i have is is it actually an obsolete discussion because many of the book that children's -- that children are reading our electronic and not on library shelves where they can guard -- we get them regardless of whether they are in a school library or not. is this irrelevant? considering children can have access to these same books electronically without a teacher or educator getting them? let us start with you, tina. guest: i do not think this is irrelevant because these are books that taxpayers are funded put in the local library.

i think there is an absolute discussion. if children have access to other books at home then parents have parental protections. i am not sure if you are talking about digital books in school or digital books at home. in either direction parents have the right to see what their children are learning so that they can have discussions and they have a right to decide what their children have access to. host: what do you think? >> i agree that this is not irrelevant because access to e-books requires a lot of things, it requires the internet access, electronic devices, there is a whole range of access issues, and availability of books on shelves in schools is some kids' best access to reading materials. it is important to note here that again, policies exist for parents to go to their school, go to their teacher and say i do

not want my kid reading this book, or -- we encourage districts to not -- that do not have those policies to have those policies. parents should be allowed to -- to influence their child's own education which is how we prevent parents from dictating how other kids are allowed to learn. host: let us start with joe from rockville, maryland. joe is a parent. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning to both ladies. i am an older parents, 70 years old and my children are grown. but, i would like to hear their comments on there were books that became politically incorrect at some point, i guess in the 90's or to thousands like "huckleberry finn" and "to kill

a mockingbird." they were part of the standard curriculum when i grew up and i remember reading those books and writing book reports, everybody wrote book reports on "to kill a mockingbird." so i would like to hear those comments on those two books and similar books that were part of the standard curriculum way back when in the 50's and 60's, and 70's. host: let us start with nora and then go to tina. >> i have several times throughout my stint defended "to kill a mockingbird" and " huckleberry finn" from censorship. there has been a push in some communities to remove books that yuse -- used historically accurate but racist language and told stories that were outdated and we argue that those books should not be removed and that students need access to discover

the ideas that they are going to discover. students need to be challenged, students need to have access to materials that are difficult and complex and that a school is the best place for students to interact with information that they might find confusing or difficult. host: what do you think tina? guest: i think that nora and i agree on more than we disagree on. i did not know we would come into this conversation this morning agreeing on so much. the one thing that i may disagree with is that school is the best place for them to learn. i believe is the home and with family is the best place to learn some of these more challenging topics. you know, i have no problem at all with challenging books. that is what we need. if anything i am glad that this discussion is happening because thank goodness we are focusing on libraries.

if you look at what has happened to the public school library it is disheartening. we have set on school boards in florida watching the funding going down. they changed the name of libraries to media centers and some people support that. i have spoken to librarians who are not title of -- who are not happy about their title changing. instead of showing kids these great diverse books and expanding their minds, they are teaching them how to use a mouse and how to google properly. i am thankful we are talking about books and libraries, and let us get some focus back on that. host: kevin who calls from arkansas. kevin is an educator. good morning. caller: i appreciate you taking my call. i have a comment for ms. desc ovich and a question that will follow the comment. part of my studies as a historian is i examine issues related to books and censorship

in the mid 20th century, and i kind of looked into moms for liberty, and i have discovered that they are very similar to organizations that were concerned about books back in the 1940's and 1950's and 1960's, especially groups like daughters of american revolution with the american legion and the farm bureau, many states especially the southern states, these organizations got together and they were very effective at shaping state-level educational guidelines and curricular guidelines. what the books in schools back then that they objected to, mostly presented ideas about racial equality, and racial egalitarianism. that is the one things that moms for liberty seems eerily similar to some of those semi-patriotic organizations from the 20th century. there is a book that looks at these campaigns to get

objectionable books out of the schools from the 1960's written in 1962 by jack nelson and jean roberts called "the sensors and the schools -- censors and the schools." this is a question of the -- that the authors dealt with in the 60's is how do we know that students, young children are reading these objectionable books? according to the national report card on mathematics and reading, are reading sense -- abilities of students is going down, it has been dropping precipitously in the last 20 years. not only that but i have taught in mississippi, arkansas, and louisiana, all at the college level. i gauge my students every semester when we begin the year and i asked them how many books have they read, and very few hands have gone up. i asked them how many of you are equipped at using a library? and usually no hands go up.

that is my question and comment. thank you. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i really appreciate your call and your experience and your knowledge. and i agree with you that statistics show that half of american children graduated from high school are not reading on grade level. i comments before your call was the focus back on libraries, readings -- reading and education it is vital. we know what happens to children who cannot read. just look at our prisons, look what is happening to these children that cannot read. and, it is vital that we focus in on that. i will challenge your comments in the beginning about us trying to censor books. we want the parents' voice and those processes in place that many school districts have but not all. we do not want one person in a community driving what is

happening, we want to come together as a community and make these decisions. host: anything to add to that? guest: i think there is a little bit of this ingenuous nest in that answer because what we are seeing is at school board meetings across the country, people are going in and attacking educators. people are saying that a librarian who has a book on their shelf that that particular person disagrees with, that librarian is somehow harming children intentionally, and that is just devastating. especially to people who have devoted their lives educating kids, getting kids books. this rhetoric that only parents care about kids is untrue. a lot of those librarians and teachers are parents as well. and so pairing -- saying that parents voices should be the loudest in a public education system is inaccurate. educators' voices need to be a

big part of this conversation. this is not just for parents to set a curriculum. if it where we would ask everyone to homeschool. host: that brings us to our next question and this goes to you tina and then nora. how much influence should total -- should parents have in determining what books go into libraries and the curriculum in the schools? who should be making those decisions, educators or should parents? how much influence should parents get? go ahead. guest: i did not know if you want me to start with that one. parents need a seat at the table. they one have the right to guide and direct the upbringing and education of their children. should it be the sole voice, absolutely not, it is a public education system. they are a major stakeholder, these are our children. i want to push back with what nora was saying because she is accusing us of being

disingenuous and putting a blanket statement of what she has seen and what people are doing. i can only speak for moms for liberty members, that is who i am accountable for and who i am trying to work to help them understand the education system. i do not know who these people are attacking teachers but it is not our members and organization. her organization have -- our organization is -- has a lot of members that are teachers. there is something going on that those side room videos from blockbuster and that type of material have been put on a shelf in an elementary school. it is not acceptable how it is happening. we do not want to attack an individual and there is something going on and we deserve an answer. host: go ahead and respond. >> what i hear is an indication that there is a conspiracy to corrupt children going on, which i would push back on as being untrue. and i think that individual

cases of parents disagreeing with the inclusion of particular books should be handled individually using the procedures that exist in school districts. most school districts have procedures. what we are seeing recently is parents trying to go around the procedures or not even parents, just other community members trying to go around procedures and insist that books be pulled before they can be reviewed by a committee, which privileges the opinion of the complaintist over the opinions of the people involved with putting the books on the shelves in the first place. we have to allow parents to use the systems that already exist, and advocate for policies in their school districts that allow them to influence their own child's education. and again, their own child's education, not my child or the entire community's education.

i want my child to be able to week -- to read widely and a deep value of mine is that my child reads widely. does that mean i should be a bull to force anyone else's child to read anyone -- to read any book, but it means my child should have a wider range of access. that is a personal value. my opinion should be taken into account as one of many, but should not be taken as more valuable than the opinions of educators, so the books that are on shelves should be reviewed periodically, should be reviewed by committees made up of mostly educators and some parents, but also some students because what we are losing is a voice of the students. when we have heard the student speak at the school board meetings and speak about book challenges and speak about how much they mean to them and how difficult it is for them to see stories that reflect their own lives attacked is dangerous to other students and what that

does to them. we need to listen to students as well because what we are talking about in a lot of cases is not small children. what we are talking about his high school libraries where students have varying maturity levels and we cannot be stocking the school libraries based only on the least mature among us. the school library is therefore a choice, for people to make choices and we have to empower students to make those choices. again, parents who want to influence or restrict with their own children are allowed to read are free to do that. absolutely free to do that, but they are not allowed to impose that restriction on other people's children. host: speaking of students we have a student on the line. let us go to eva from georgia. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. i am really delighted for the exposure this morning for the

moms for liberty, the group that describes itself as nonpartisan and as a means of moms, liberty, and freedom and as a historian and phd student right now down at the university of florida, actually and the university of quarter force -- florida course has been ground zero as the issues when it regards to censorship of professors and their legal. most of our universities of course offer peer review, offer dual governance, and so do our k-12 schools. our k-12 schools, i am in my mid 60's, so i come through a historical journey of education whereby we had parent-teacher associations. this moms for liberty is a group that is 501(c) four -- 501(c)

and ms. tina stated that she was a conservative value promotion so primarily i am set -- are we saying that only conservative book viewpoints and as the censorship advocate stated, you cannot have just one perspective. and somehow you -- we have -- if she could answer has she been involved with the parent-teacher? she was a school board member. most of these groups are primarily in florida which has the largest chapter. the 501(c)4 is dark money that is not reported and yet they have a political pac. i am not sure that mobs who sell t-shirts, i am a mama i remembered this sale up -- sarah

palin mama bear nonsense. we want our children to have education that is broad, extensive and we are not going to fall for this nonsense that you are back again, this is the same nonsense trying to involve yourselves, inject yourself and personal views as opposed to the collective that we have to give our children a broad understanding of the world history, education, tolerance, and equity and justice and liberty for all. host: go ahead and respond. guest: she had a lot of information and i am not sure what to respond to exactly except that look, i want my children to have a broad education and understand liberty and justice for all and i want all children to have access to that. there are some misconceptions about her organizations. she asked if i was part of the parent-teacher organization and as a matter of fact i served two

terms as president. during that time period we adopted title i schools and i did both drives to donate to libraries. i have been involved in education of all children for a very long caught -- very long time. i am passionate about it. i do not want a 1 point worldview and nor do i want my organization from a 1 point worldview. it is unfortunate that there was stuff in what she said that was untrue. host: one of our social media prop -- followers has a question about how broad your efforts are. this follower wants to know " does moms for liberty investigate books at private schools, charter schools? are they just towards public schools or do they expand beyond that?" host: most -- guest: most of our members and the goal is to become the watchdogs of the local public school chapters but some are private or homeschoolers and i

have seen some groups pop up about concerns of private schools which is a subgroup. it is not the main drive of our organization, no. those parents have more control in input because they are giving their dollars directly to the schools so it does not seem to be as much of an issue. those children are being taught what they want them to talk. public schools, a lot of places you do not have a choice, you go to the school in your zip code. and so, that is our main focus. host: do you see these type of efforts happening at private schools and charter schools, or do we see these type of efforts happening at public libraries? >> i mean, ncac have been existing since the 1970's. so book bans and censoring what kids should read are not new. they have taken place at schools and libraries around the country for as long as schools and libraries have existed i am going to assume. what we have seen recently is

this increase in attacks on particularly school libraries, and tina is right, private schools are a bit of a different animal. the first amendment applies to public schools, it does not apply to private schools, so we are not really getting into unconstitutional free expression restriction talking about private schools, but we are in the unconstitutional free expression restriction when talking about public school. but, that does not mean that students at private schools do not have the same human rights of free expression. we would advocate that parent should want their children to read as widely as possible no matter what school, but parents who send their skid -- their kids to private schools have many more opportunities to influence what goes on in that school. and, public schools need to serve the public and the public good. host: let us talk to jacqueline

calling from michigan. she is a parent. good morning. caller: hello. i am just calling because i feel like banning books is just a form of suppressing history. a lot of history is harmful to -- it is hurtful to our children. but it is history, and they need to learn their history. and, the civil rights movement, there were white people who stood side-by-side with lack people to help us achieve the things that we have achieved today. are you going to band that from your children, because you feel like it is hurtful, the civil rights movement was hurtful, do you feel like slavery was hurtful. our children have to learn about slavery, i do not like my

children seeing their ancestors hung and beaten, however, it is history. it is history. and we have to -- the children has to learn that we stood side-by-side to help stop slavery and things like that, so do you want to ban or do you just want to ban history from the white children to stop the heart fullness -- the hurtful history that white children would be heard? think about it, lack children have to see those things as well and it is hurtful to our children, they have to learn and they have to learn about it. host: go to respond tina and then nora. guest: absolutely i want to respond. we do not want to ban any book, we find it very offensive, nobody wants to ban a book within our organization.

i cannot speak for the entire nation, i can speak for moms for liberty. we do not want to block history in any way. children need to learn about the civil rights movement, absolutely. they need to learn about slavery and the dark parts of our history, absolutely. the question comes in for us at times is what parts of that history are appropriate at what age to be taught and how should that be taught? i think parents deserve a voice in that, it is simple as that. host: nora? guest: my family is also from michigan which is exciting. i want to say that i am speaking about the generalized attack on books right now, not directly about the input of moms for liberty. but, what we have seen is a strong push to sanitize history or to say that the dark parts of

american society are all in the past, american society right now is bright and shiny. we want to make sure that when we talk about what kids are and are not allowed to know and learn that we are encouraging schools to teach a variety of perspectives and we are encouraging students to speak out and parents to speak out -- to seek out a variety of perspectives so that students can make their own choices. school is not a place where you learn facts, it also exists to educate future citizens. and future citizens need to have the skill to analyze and critique, and to receive information, evaluate it and make decisions, develop opinions and believe their own belief system -- and develop their own belief system. preventing students from learning from particular

perspectives or learning particular elements of history has -- there is a danger in sort of suggesting that education should always be easy or simple, or happy. when we learn difficult things, that can be uncomfortable and that is what learning is. host: now, tina, one of the books that a chapter of mom's for liberty in tennessee wanted banned was this book. "martin luther king jr. and the march on washington." in a letter that they sent to the tennessee state lawmakers they said that "this book along with other books reveal both explicit and implicit anti-american, antiwhite and anti-mexican teachings." can you tell us what the objections were to this book and other books similar? guest: i would love the opportunity to explain what

happened because it has been depicted so poorly and dishonestly throughout the media and we have not had an opportunity to explain what went on. our chapter formed and soon after a mom came forward had a small child in public school and that child was biracial and the child came home from school very upset. asking about their light half and if they should hate it and the mom was just perplexed. on she started digging -- when she started uncovering what was happening they had just finished a nine week session of the civil rights movement. and so she brought that to our chapter, and i do not know 50 or 60 of our chapter members spend 1000 hours going through every line of the curriculum from kindergarten all the way through six grade for their english language arts curriculum. they put it in spreadsheets and laid it out and i am proud of them, this is what parents should be doing, dig in and see

what the kids are learning, what they saw was a connected and consistent problem from kindergarten through sixth grade that had some concerning issues. and what may have violated a recent state law that was passed. it was not anything about dr. martin luther king's book, it was not anything about ruby bridge's book, they do not want that book banned nor do they want to ban the stories. she has gone on public trend -- television and cnn and said they do not want to ban the books. those stories are important and those books are important. when they looked at the curriculum and you mentioned the teacher's manual. the teacher's manual for young children, second graders has you focus in and instead of the story on ruby bridges and what she did, one of the pictures in one of the books as the n-word sprayed on the wall and a teacher focuses in and the

teacher's manual tells him to talk about that word, to second graders. our objection is that parents need to have that conversation and that should not be introduced to seven-year-olds at the school districts. as a community, those parents had a right to come forward with those issues and discusses a community do you want our seven-year-olds to be introduced to this? they be they do or do not, but our chapter played their role in uncovering the information and sharing it with the community and now they have a discussion about it. host: what do you think about the discussion? >> i think that what is appropriate for individual seven-year-olds varies because there are seven-year-olds who have encountered that word plenty of times for they get to second grade. and i think they should be considered as well. i think that suggesting that people are upset that parents are having conversations about what is going on in their schools or what is being taught in their schools engine -- is

disingenuous. what we are upset about is tactics to pressure school officials to immediately do what those parents want rather than say could a review committee be formed to discuss this and the part of a broader conversation. but i am sorry that that student had that experience and it sounds upsetting and i hope it was an opportunity for that student and their parents to have the beginning of many conversations that they are likely to have throughout that child's life about what it means to be biracial in america. host: let us see if we can squeeze in one more caller. dwight from newark, new jersey. dwight is a student. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: yes, i just wanted to know if the issue being pushed

like support racism? or like -- host: are you still there. caller: i apologize for that. it is like ok for racism, we can teach racism, but we cannot teach gays? like racism is cool, but not to teach gay in our schools. host: i will let you go ahead and tackle that one first, nora and then tina. >> thank you for that question. that is interesting because i feel like we are getting a little bit stuck on talking about books about race, that i think it is important to note that as much as tina and the leadership of moms for liberty might like to say that no particular viewpoints or no particular political agenda is

being privileged here, what we have seen in the data is that the increase in challenges primarily centered on books written by and about people of color, experience of racism, and queer stories, lgbtq authors and characters in books, and the attacks on books that tell lg deep -- l -- lgbtq+ stories have been pretty aggressive and there is often times sort of a suggestion that the various -- for example my daughter's current favorite book is "prince and knight" a story book in which a prince falls in love with a knight.

and they get married at the end. somehow the existence of that book is sexualizing. it contains no sex it does not even contain a case. it is a book that acknowledges the existence of a people and that has been attacked and at least half a dozen counties in the last year. so, i think we need to be very honest about the books that are currently being most censored. host: you get the final word. guest: i cannot speak to that book in particular, i have not heard about that book. as a final word i just want to say that i think nora and i agree and it sounds like we agreed that books should be challenged -- or can be challenged by parents that should be challenged by parents also and there should be a process, i am glad we agree on that. every school district should have a process. school districts should follow their policies and parents should push for policies. where we disagree is that parents need a larger voice and

parents should have a larger voice in all decisions made about their children. host: we would like to thank tina descovich co-founder for moms for liberty and nora pelizzari the commute occasion director for the national coalition absent -- against censorship for being here. thank you so much for lending us your time this morning. >> thank you. host: coming up next we will go back to our original question of what is the most important issue in your city or town. and later, will wright and pastor josh burtam will discuss their podcast, "faithful politics" a podcast for those who enjoy discussing politics and religion. we will be right back. ♪ >> exploring the people and events that tell the american story on american history tv. watch an event marketing --

marking the 30th anniversary of the -- of justice thomas' on the court. a look at the herbert hoover presidential library and newseum with the great-grandson of president herbert hoover who talks about how the presidential library believe all. watch american history tv every weekend and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch any time at c-span.org/history. >> sunday, to be on in-depth, age georgetown university law professor will talk about race relations and inequality. her books include "the failures of integration," and her latest "white space, black hood." joining with your phone calls, facebook comments, and text and

tweets. live sunday, february 6 at noon eastern on book tv on c-span two. ♪ during the final three years of world war ii nearly 3000 nazis were detained and interrogated at fort hunt, a top-secret facility along the potomac river near washington, d.c.. sunday night on q&a robert sutton, former chief historian of the national park service and author of "nazis on the potomac" talks about fort hunt. >> there were two russian-american soldiers at fort hunt, alexander should belinsky and alexander dallen. they were conspicuous throughout the fort, and if an interrogator thought that someone was being cagey and not forthcoming with information they would call in one of these two fellows and

they would say you do not want to talk to us, how about if ivan takes you to the soviet union, maybe they would like to hear what you had to say? that worked incredibly well both at fort hunt, and in europe. >> robert sutton and his book " nazis on the potomac" on c-span's q&a. you can listen to that and all of our other podcasts on the c-span now app. ♪

>> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back and we want to know from you what is the most important issue facing your town and city? we are going to open up regional lines, so if you are in the eastern or central time zones we want to hear from you at 202-748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, your number will be 202-748-8001. keep in mind that you can always text us at 202-748-8003. and, we are always reading on social media on twitter at c-spanwj and facebook.com/c-span. many of our callers from the original segment on these questions said that crime was

one of the biggest issues in their city or town and "the washington post" has a story about how mayors around the country are feeling about crime in the united states right now. i will read a couple of paragraphs of that story to you. "the past two years have been dreadful. the public safety in u.s. cities as homicide numbers soar, sometimes to record levels. experts say a constellation of factors is to blame including the pandemic scars, and a breakdown in trust between police and the community is that they serve during the social of rest of 2020. but as 2022 kicks off, city leaders from coast-to-coast say the stars might be aligning in a different way. flush with federal pandemic relief funds, mayors are pumping money into crime prevention programs that have demonstrated early promise. police chiefs are using advanced data to target places and people

for intervention even as they attempt to mend badly strained neighborhood ties. and community such as mahr's tired of burying their own, are rising up against those most responsible for their deaths. the results might be a golden opportunity to break the trend of spiraling violent crime." we want to know from you what are the most important issues in your city and town right now? let us start with mike calling from new york. mike, good morning. caller: good morning. yes, that is correct, i am from a small upstate new york town and i feel that what is happening to my little small community is the same that is happening to every small community our large community it does not matter. american community.

it is you know the inability to address our real problems, inequality, -- income inequality, loss of jobs and loss of freedoms that are being whittled away at on a daily basis. everything american seems to be windowdressing. we seem to be mad at immigration movement rather than large corporations that own the media, whom they own every basic aspect of our lives. and, you know, it is a lack of truth, and it just creates a lot of division between what we choose to create, which is different classes of americans. host: let us talk specifically,

what do you think local officials should be doing or can do about any of these issues? caller: well it is a typical thing, it is a small community. it is a recreational area. it is an area that is where the upper crust on these recreational properties and they live in their bubble, and the local community, which is x working class, we used to have some industry. there is no working class. we are close to the county seat. you can see the poverty. it is in your face every day. the economy grows as the recreation increases. you know seasonally. you know, it is just my own

community suffers the same problem all of america suffers. corporate america dictates what we are going to address and what we are not. host: donald also calling from new york. pronounce the name of your town for me. caller: yes, sir. canastota you new york -- new york. host: what is the most important thing? caller: i wanted to say in canas tota new york, there is a lot of racism and underage drinking. i tried to cash a check in a bank and was not allowed to for $1200 and it was a people check. we need a lot more black and african-american or african state troopers. there are people driving without

licenses and a lot of under age drinking. the marriott of -- the mayor of the beach is a major drug dealer. i saw a lot of drugs going to the post office. and at verona beach and silver beach. i think they really need law enforcement there. host: ann host: ed, good morning. guest: -- caller: hey, jesse. the problem in my place is the same problem in the whole country, the whole world. you know? it is about greed. it is all about greed. host: could you tell us exactly what you mean about greed in desert hot springs? caller: i have been here about 40 years and i remember just 10 years ago, everybody was against

cannabis and marijuana and the drug and the drug problem and everything. guess what? since california has legalized cannabis, we are becoming the major cannabis producer in california. that's bringing in a lot of money to our city and stuff. that's the only reason that they are letting them do that. as far as the homeless people, you know, people got what they got and they don't want to give it up. the homeless people, they need to do what they -- they need to get normal and have normal lives and stuff. everybody is concerned about what they want to do and what they -- it's mim -- it's my, my, my, me, me, me, all about greed.

host: let's go to stand, calling from scottsboro, alabama. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. host: go ahead, stay -- stan. caller: i live in a small, rural town in northeast alabama. like a lot of other issues these guys have covered, it's all on point, but another issue i've got is food insecurity. we've got to feed our nation before we can do anything else, and i hope america has taken over the food situation, like the speaker said there, like in my community, we have the disparities between race and the economy separates us all because of different classes and different income levels, but all of us have to eat, jesse.

that's my number one issue in america today. host: so whose responsibility is it 10 food security? is that a local issue, a state issue, or should it fall to charities? caller: everyone's issue is food and security. host: whose responsibility is it to solve that problem? caller: it's all of our problems. we all have to work together to solve it. it cannot be solved by one thing, but it is a fact that corporate america has taken over our food and our farms. i am retired now, but i used to farm food. i would not want to farm nowadays, because you cannot get anything for your produce, your cattle and hogs. they are doing the same thing they did 10, 11 years ago. the corporate america has adjusted their food situation. they determine what we eat. you can't get anything other than what's on your store shelves, and they determine

what's on the store shelves. host: during the u.s. conference of mayors, the president of that organization, republican francis suarez of miami, came out to talk about the rising crime rate in cities across the nation. here's what mayor francis suarez of miami had to say. [video clip] >> public safety is the foundation of our quality of life. american cities must be safe and secure for all who live in them, no exceptions, no asked uses. it is a commitment to safety and security that has defined our country and set us apart from the world. as mayors, we owe it to our residents to increase, not decrease funding for our police, because being a police officer is the hardest job in america today. [applause]

never has a profession been asked to do so much for so little pay with so much scrutiny. we have to work together to get crime and homicide rates down across america, just as we did this past year in miami. the support the mission of public safety, we must invest in the guardians of public safety, our police. host: to robert, calling from st. petersburg, florida, about the most important issue in his city. robert, good morning. caller: good morning. well, to me, one of the issues here on the gulf coast of florida has to do with environmentalism and perhaps global warming. it is estimated that there are 100,000 pythons in the everglades and they are moving north.

i have a daughter-in-law who works part-time in the pro shop at a golf course in naples, and they recently removed a very large python from the edge of that golf course, and it is hurting business. although she works part time, she is friends with the manager, the owner, and she feels that people have shied away from the golf course because of these pythons. they are doing nothing but growing and it seems to be a problem with the community, the chamber of commerce does not really want to acknowledge. they recently had a large mobile home community here in the county, where a guy went out to his toolshed and found a six foot python in their, in what was remarkable about it, he

lived in the middle of this mobile home community and this was the first time anyone had seen that. that means the python had to come in here. that is a little talked about subject in central and south florida, especially southwest florida. host: definitely a florida issue, pythons. let's talk to elaine, calling you, washington. what's your most important issue happening in olympia, washington today? caller: it is the tent cities that line our freeways, all of our roads, all of our parks. it used to be that when i was poor and i did not have much money, i went to live in a mobile home park. i could buy my own little mobile home, and that was used for the down payment of the next one, and that was used for a down payment on a home.

now, mobile home parks have gotten a bad rap. there are a lot of homeless people out here that could be living in inexpensive environments,, but the governments have stepped in and put a cub on -- kabash on that, and they are not around anymore. i think that has to do with a lot of the homeless around here. host: speaking of homelessness, the website smart cities dive has an article on it on how mayors feel like homelessness is happening and the control they have over it. i will read a few paragraphs to you. a few mayors in a survey of over 100 cities feel they are being held accountable by residents to address homelessness, but only one out of five of those

surveyed feel like they have substantial control over the issue. according to a report released tuesday, from the 2020 menino survey of mayors. the menino survey of mayors, led by the boston university initiative on cities, included conversations with 126 mayors between june and august 2021. mayors reported having limited staff to address homelessness with nearly one third saying they have no staf, exclusively dedicated to serving homeless populations. furthermore, mayors have limited data on homelessness. 38% reported having only having access to citywide data. if a mayor feels like they do not have the authority, the data, or the choice point, they need to build a system that can and homelessness -- end homelessness.

they should put those issues on the table and recognize the local system -- reorganize the local system. this is from smart cities dive, how mayors feel like they do not have the data install these homeless part -- data to stall these homeless problems in their own cities. let's go to betty, calling from palmetto, florida. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. my name is betty mitchell. i am 90 years old. i have to say this -- when i was growing up, in florida, we had what was called the wpa. they would give people groceries every wednesday. each week. what i don't understand, people don't want to help nobody. on christmas time, they have

food banks and nfl, but people have to live year-round. and people are thinking they are not working -- you spend all of it in a week when you pay your rent. it is ridiculous, the way the top people are treating poor people. i grew up poor. i had two grandchildren at 50 years old, i did not want them to go into foster care. i did not go on food stamps or nothing. i worked two jobs and raise them. everybody does the same thing. i don't want the government to take care of me, but i think [inaudible] a lot of them get several

hundred dollars a month, how can't they pay rent, $1400 a month, with a $700 check? host: let's go to june, calling from hartley, delaware. june, good. caller: good morning, everyone. i concur with the lady calling from florida regarding homelessness. we have had this problem for a long time. i listened to a lot of people when they talk about homelessness, they talk about food, needs, but housing seems to be the number one issue. it is one of the reasons for homelessness. i get a check for social security for $1800, but three quarters of that goes to rent. if they can come up with a solution where they put a control or top on rent to prevent landlords from their greedy motives of constantly

raising rent to the point where people can no longer afford it, i would like to see something done about that. homelessness is a problem -- yesterday, it's a problem today, and it will be a problem tomorrow. host: let's go to joe, calling from kathleen, georgia. caller: good morning. host: turn your television down and go ahead, joe. caller: one thing about it, problems in my community and in my america -- host: joe, turn your television down. caller: let me turn it down -- the problem in my community and my america, there has to be some form of religion for people to have some dunes and don'ts in their life. you can have all the police officers in this country, you

can pass all the laws, but until you have some form of belief, you are going to have all kinds of stuff going on, shooting and everything else. a person has to have some do's and don'ts in their life. you can't let people be lord to themselves. that's all i have to say on that. any questions? host: we'd like to thank all of our callers who called in for that segment. coming up next, we will explore the intersection between politics and faith in our weekly spotlight on podcast segments with will wright and pastor josh burtram, cohost of the faithful politics podcast. stick around, we will be right back. ♪ >> during the final three years of world war ii, nearly 3000

nazis were detained and interrogated at fort hunt, a top-secret military intelligence facility along the potomac river in washington, d.c. sunday night on q&a, the former chief historian of the national park service and author of the book "nazis on the potomac" talks about fort hunt and the importance it played during the war. >> there were two russian-americans at the fort and potomac. they were dressed in red uniforms and conspicuous throughout the ford. if the interrogator thought someone was being cagey and not supplying information, they would call in one of these two fellows. they are like oh, you do not want to talk to us? maybe i've been here can take you to the soviet union. -- ivan here can take you to the soviet union.

i i'm sure they would love -- i am sure they would love to hear what you have to say. that worked remarkably well. >> you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on our new c-span now app. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back, and this is

our weekly spotlight on podcasts segment. this week, we have the cohosts of the faithful politics podcast , pastor josh burtram and will wright, who are here to discuss their show, described as being for people who enjoy discussions of politics and religion. good morning, gentlemen. guest: good morning. host: josh, we will start with you. when and why did you to start the faithful politics podcast? guest: thanks, jesse. it was in 2020. the pandemic had just started and will and i had met through some mutual friends. we started talking and he knew i was a conservative and he was more on the liberal side, so we weren't going to agree on a lot. he asked me hey, do you want to

do a podcast? i had been thinking about it, that god had been putting it in my heart to do it, so i said yeah, i would love to do a podcast. the rest is history. we got connected and have become really good friends and have done the podcast, which has really connected us over the past year and a half, two years. host: will, tell us how the podcast has affected you personally, and who do you think you are speaking to out there? guest: thank you again, jesse, i appreciate you having us on. it's interesting, when we started this podcast, we didn't really know what was going to happen. this was a passion of the pandemic. it was around april i met josh, in march. we didn't know each other, our relationship grew over time. if i am being absolutely honest, i didn't really know the impact

it would have on the community. i didn't really know how big of a need there was to actually have another podcast, right? the podcast market is supersaturated anyways. but i did have a belief that there was a belief to have -- there was a need for people to have civil discourse. i am a west coast native, he's from virginia, some might call me a flaming liberal progressive, and he's a conservative pastor who voted for trump. i was like, let's try this. let's try this experiment and see if we can actually have conversations about really difficult topics and bring different viewpoints to the table. it's been absolutely phenomenal and amazing. we've got a lot of great feedback and we have an audience that ranges from believers, nonbelievers, republicans,

democrats, progressives. we have such a diversity in our audience, it's really -- it really gives me hope for how conversation can be structured in the country. host: both of you have already implied this in your conversations, but it seems that you two are very different politically. josh, i want you to describe yourself politically and will, i want you to tell us where you fit in on the political spectrum. guest: yeah, well, i would not call it a card-carrying republican, because i do not think i am actually registered, but i have voted republican most of my life, if not all of it. when i started and was enabled to do it. i am very conservative, i started getting into politics in 2010, after i got married, some issues really concern me on the

national level that i wanted to know more about. supreme court cases, how the supreme court works, the power of the president, all sorts of stuff. i started to really get interested. i would never call myself far right, but i was pretty conservative. any of the major issues you could look at, i would probably agree much more with the republican party than with the democratic party in our two-party system. that's how i've been working -- but my relationship with will, it's really affected me in a positive way to learn how to talk about these things, to learn how to talk to someone who disagrees with you, who doesn't see things the same way that you do and know that you can be friends with them, you can care about them, you can have discourse with them. if we don't come to a place of

understanding, we can't get anywhere. if we don't come to a common ground, we can't get anywhere constructive in our conversation. that is why this is so important. we are trying to model how to have constructive conversations around difficult issues, and especially the people we bring on and interview -- how to ask questions, how to think, how to hear people differently. i am very conservative, voted for trump in 2016, i didn't in 2020 for my own personal reason, but i will guess on who i voted for -- maybe i will let one of you guys in, who is listening. but that is where i am at. host: well, describe yourself politically for our audience. guest: i am a bit of an enigma as far as our republicans and democrats are concerned. i am a former military man, so that is one piece, and the other

side, i was born and raised in california in the seattle area. on a lot of issues from a democrat standpoint, i fully support same-sex marriage, a woman's right to choose, i am for reparations, there are a lot of issues that are sort of traditional, check the box democrat stuff that i am four. on the others, i am very much into gun legislation that has responsible gun control, but is not necessarily taking guns. as a democrat, i am a gun owner, said the navy -- so maybe that makes me a bit of an enigma, but i believe in our second amendment rights. on some issues i am pretty far left and on other issues i am more centerleft. on very few issues am i far right or super conservative or anything like that. host: so the two of you take on

the two issues that we are told never to talk about around the dinner table. first politics and then religion. you describe your podcast as being for people who actually enjoy discussions of religion and politics. why do we normally shy away from those topics? we will start with you, will. guest: a large reason we shy away from those topics is due to the base camps people have affixed themselves to. there is this really great study back in 2014 out of the boston college that talks about the idea of motive attribution asymmetry, which puts people in certain camps, and each of those camps view their own actions, you know, intent through very all truest day, loving eyes. they view the actions of the people in their outgroup, you know, through very evil intent.

the democrats, they want to do these things for their evil purposes, and if i am a republican, i think my view is the right one, and vice versa. if you are a democrat who thinks the republicans are very evil, you are the holy and altruistic one. one of the reasons you don't talk about the topics at the dinner table is because people just don't know how to view each other through an outgroup lens. they don't know how to talk to each other without trying to persuade them. i know this for a fact. when i speak with people -- fyi, i am a horrible dinner guest because i will talk about religion and politics -- but people are so anchored into what they believe.

that's fine. it's fine to have a foundation. but it is also fine to be open-minded to another perspective. not with the intent that it is going to change your mind, but the intent of viewing that other person as a complex individual with their own set of beliefs they have reached through their own set of experiences. host: jump in here, josh. why should we not be afraid to talk about these issues, like you do on your podcast? guest: that's a great question. i would say, it is fear that makes us we don't want to talk about these things. i don't think we should be afraid of it. if someone wants to be our friend and care about us and love us, they should love all of us. part of that means they should love our beliefs, whether they can agree with them or not, whether they think they are legitimate or not, we should care about each other. if i'm am going to love someone

fully and care for someone fully, part of that is what they believe and what they think. i think we get very afraid that either we are going to sound like we are dumb, so we don't want to talk about it, we are going to sound uninformed, we don't want to talk about it. we are going to get in an argument and people don't like conflict. if it turns into an argument, winners and losers, and someone ends up losing. that's most of what we see in the media, talking heads that get on, they talk about something, and they want to win. they want to clear loser and a clear winner. we want people to be able to learn, grow, because that's what helps you grow and learn more, you're finding common ground, you are understanding and understanding first. understanding has a perceived judgment and so often we put judgment before understanding, and i think that's why people get tied up.

they get judged, they do not want the conflicts, and they are afraid of these things. i think we should care about each other. part of caring about each other is listening to things that people really deeply believe. religion and politics are some of the deepest held beliefs that we have. host: let me take a second here to remind our viewers that they can take part in this conversation. we're going to open up regional lines. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, you can call (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, your number is (202) 748-8001. keep in mind, you can always text to (202) 748-8003, and we are always reading on social media, on twitter at @cspanwj and facebook at facebook.com/cspan. let's talk a little bit about the faithful politics podcast. how do you choose your subjects,

josh? where do you get your ideas from? guest: will and i will talk. we will have conversations about things we are interested in and things that are really highly political. we will look at perennial issues, perennial meaning they have always been around or have been around for some kind of significant period of time. ferrigno -- for instance, abortion, same-sex marriage, gun rights, racism in america. then we look at what is hot in the news, what's taking up the most bandwidth right now when it comes to topics people are looking at and are interested in. another way, we find people we think you are interesting -- who

we think are interesting and well educated, i reach out to university professors, will does that too. he also reaches out to a lot of journalists he follows. we look for people who have something to say regarding these issues, look out to them and ask them if they will be on the podcast. we explain it, we show them our guest list, and we just kind of get an idea of what they want to do. so we are digging through the topics constantly, we are talking about it. he will suggest something, i will suggest something. we do different series at different times, so we try to have a wide range of topics that we cover. whoever thought masks or vaccines would be a political topic, yet they are right now. this is what we are trying to pay attention to, and anything can become political because of people and their deeply held beliefs. host: well, talk us through the

production of an episode. how often do you all talk and how often does the show come out? guest: we post our episodes every tuesdays, we are available on every major platform, and we have a video portion we generally release on youtube on some -- sunday. this podcast, it is only a two-person operation. it is just josh and i, but we really believe in having good quality content, good quality guests. most of the days it is just josh and myself pounding the pavement , trying to produce something really good, make sure our mics are good, make sure our platform is good and doing a lot of leg work, emailing people to say hey, do you want to be on our podcast? we do this -- we interviewed --

like, josh is the pastor in a large congregation and virginia, but he volunteers his personal time. host: let's let our viewers in the conversation. let's start with nitro. good morning. caller: good morning. i think that there -- jesus christ was not a political figure. jesus christ stayed away from politics. jesus christ taught me how to pray. why do i need you talking heads, you two are talking heads, why do i need you to interpret what jesus christ has taught me? thomas jefferson's bible is in

the smithsonian institute. he took out all the extraneous stuff and just supplied the quotations, the sayings of jesus christ. of matthew -- in matthew 6:6, if you are familiar with that, how do you pray? do you -- do i need you to be the middleman between me and my superhero jesus christ? host: go ahead and respond. josh? guest: sure, that is a great question. why do we even need this? first, we are not trying to be the mediator between anyone person -- i think there is only one mediator between us and god, and that is jesus. what we are trying to do, we are trying to create a forum in which people can talk about difficult things.

there is no sense that we are the ultimate experts, that we are the only ones that anyone should listen to or anything like that. our purpose is to find our niche and be able to encourage conversations around difficult topics, because we believe that can bring unity to people. we see so much conflict in the media, in our daily lives, that people are afraid to even talk about this stuff. these are the things they believe most deeply in their life. how is it that we can't talk about things that we feel the most deeply about? we are afraid to say it, depending on who is in office. we are afraid to be honest depending on who is in power. that's not the america i love, the culture i want for my kids, for myself, i want religious freedom. i want people to be able to talk about what is deeply on their

heart and be heard and understood, and let the marketplace of ideas and the competition in the marketplace of ideas show which ones are the best. which ones produce the most fruit. there is no sense of -- i think the caller is misunderstanding our purpose -- there is no sense of being a mediator or trying to somehow be the only experts on what is going on. and as far as jesus being political, i agree. he wasn't necessarily a political figure. that depends on how you define politics -- he was killed by the roman government on charges of sedition and insurrection, a political charge. he raised himself above politics, told his followers to be different and raised his kingdom over all others.

that is an inherently political thing, transcending the political earthly schemes we have. to say that jesus wasn't political, i disagree with that. if the language in which you define politics and the way you look at the sayings of jesus in his life and his teachings. host: will, what does the role of faith play in the podcast? your personal faith and faith in general? guest: i think people's faith can help inform, can help guide, can help color a lot of their political decisions they make depending on how they care about their own life. i think that is great. people of faith and people without faith, we are a great country that allows this diversity of thought, and i think it is an amazing thing,

whether you are muslim, hindu, or christian, that you allow your face to color your politics. -- your faith to color your politics. my own personal faith, i wasn't always a christian. i considered myself an atheist for a while and i came to the faith in 2008, when i married my wife. my personal faith has colored my own liberal view of politics from a lot of different standpoints. when it comes to immigration -- jesus was an immigrant, right? freedom of choice -- god wants us to choose him without him commanding us, so i think people having the ability to choose for themselves is a real, really important aspect. faith colors my politics, but

not in the way people would expect. but most people don't see the christian left as a group to be taken seriously. but we are out there. we are out there. host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to richard, calling from california. good morning. caller: yeah, hi, good morning. i am glad you guys are doing this podcast, because first of all, we need to talk about faith intertwined with real events, politics, social issues, you know? in a way jesus was a radical for his time, you know? in a way, he was talking about a kingdom beyond all kingdoms that were in power, especially the roman kingdom. that is essentially the reason why he was crucified and persecuted.

i had an experienced when i was baptized when i was eight, which was spiritual in nature. jesus has been there with me -- it didn't prevent a lot of things from happening to me in life, but i know i was saved through the most difficult times because of it. the idea i see about religion is, people get, there are conservative christians, there are more liberal christians, and they get kind of stuck in their ideology, that i am right and everybody else is wrong. if you don't line up with my beliefs, you are an outcast. right? that is not what jesus said, right? if people just followed simple teachings of jesus, one tipple thing, do onto others as you would have them do unto you, the world would be a much better place. but it gets complicated when people of faith take a position and believe -- just like politics lately -- believe

absolute, outright lies in politics. or base decisions on racism that they don't even know they are doing. host: go ahead and jump in there, well, and you, josh. guest: yeah, i appreciate the question, richard, i hope i got the name right, i agree. i think foundational become one of the issues we are having in this time, or this period in time, is this absence or confidence in what the truth is. so, there are a lot of people that have their truth and another group that has their truth, and that doesn't necessarily make any sense. if two plus two equals four for one group, it should equal four for the other group. we as a society have gotten so good at politicizing everything,

basically, if the democrats call something red, the republicans will call it purple. until we can agree on what the truth is, you know, we are never going to be able to have productive conversation that moves the ball. for believers that also enjoy politics, or at least are involved in the political process, we should have a common set of truths. hey, the bible says x, y and z. ok, i believe that. do you believe that? yeah, i believe that. we can go from there. but unfortunately, that is not how it goes. host: go ahead, josh. guest: i totally understand richard's sentiment, the concern that people are being deceived, the concern that we are using faith as a weapon or at times, we are bringing disrepute to

jesus or the gospel, if you are a christian, because of some of the political issues you take. if complicated, because we are in a democratic society. jesus was not born in a democratic society, he was born into an empire and a place that was occupied by a great, powerful force. there was no voting, there was no freedom in absence from where he was, his perspective. to take the principles of jesus or even paul, a roman citizen, who had certain rights and there were certain things he could do as a roman citizen that he couldn't do otherwise if he did not have that citizenship, that's vastly different than what the context is for us today. we are able to vote. we are able to get on social media and talk about issues that are dear to our heart. we have access to unparalleled

amounts of information that they could not have even imagined or dreamed of in the past. we live in a society that's very, very different, and the challenge is always, how do we live out our faith in this society? in this political process? that adds another layer to us that we have to use things that are beyond the bible, in a sense, we have to interpret what the principles are in the bible and bring them to a place where we can participate in the political process. where we can vote for people, where we can have our views disseminated on a larger scale than anyone has been able to do as individuals before, simply by picking up a phone and getting on live to facebook, instagram, or tiktok -- any number of things -- and just bring it out, and there is a chance they could go viral.

it is a different society, a different context, and i think it's important that we take the principles of scripture and apply them the best they can, but they are living in a different time and can play a part in the political process because we have that ability, and we should take the place bowls -- principles of scripture and apply them as best we can to well trafficked methods of interpretation that have been around for a long time. we can do that. host: one of our social media followers has a question for both of you, gentlemen. this person tweets, what has been one of your most memorable interviews? let's start with you, josh, and go to you, will. guest: we had an interview with someone named james nguyen see that created a lot of controversy for us -- james wincey that created a lot of

controversy for us. come to find out later, he is an atheist -- i knew he was an atheist -- but in my understanding of where he was, he could have sometimes hostile or what could be interpreted as hostile and a dudes -- hostile attitudes towards christianity. so talk to him, to hear his views, generated a lot of controversy, but i thought he was a great guy. talking to him personally, he made really compelling arguments. yet, at the same time, there are other arguments against him that need to be considered. that is one that stands out to me off the top of my head. host: what about you, will? guest: yeah, just to follow up real quick on what josh said, he was part of a three part series

we did on critical race theory, where we brought invoices that supposed end up -- a -- supported and opposed critical race theory. i apologize to any guests listening into this -- if it's not your name that i mentioned, i apologize, you were a great guest. but the one that comes to mind, there are two. someone who wrote a wonderful book called "jesus and john wayne," which filled in a lot of the gaps on this rise of christian nationalism and the toxic masculinity we see in society. she was a wonderful guest, a great interview, a wonderful person. i will throw in one more, because it was another great interview. the author of the book "the

bible and the ballot." it breaks down a lot of modern political issues, and gives you a nuanced, biblical view of how to interpret those particular issues. i would warn people, if you decide to pick it up, be prepared to be challenged, because the way he approaches some of those issues may not be how you would expect a modern-day christian to approach them. host: let's go back to our phone lines. let's talk to eric, calling from hopewell junction, new york. eric, good morning. caller: good morning, josh, will, and that she was the other fellow -- jesse. i love this. a forum talking about a forum. it has been a refreshing portal to what is good in this country

and what our potential is. i have been watching for many years. my comment is, in no small parts, c-span has created an idea in my head that i have acted on for the past almost a decade now. when i am idly standing next to somebody, pumping gas or whatever, i will turn around and break the ice and not ask about the weather, i will say excuse me, i am taking a personal pole. do you believe most people are nice? i have asked many people that question, and by virtue of being alone with them, it has led me to speak to people i would not normally approach or say anything to. you do that for a while and you end up with the positive results that i have received, and you become emboldened. if the result went negatively for me, i would have stopped doing it a long time ago, but i

find my days are enriched by asking people what is such a seemingly mundane question? after having 85% say yes, i think most people are nice -- i hit them with the next question, because i have a backlog of thousands of answers -- most of which are yes -- what do you think most people told me when i asked them the first question? and we have a wonderful conversation like two prairie dogs, briefly looking out over all the other prairie dogs, saying, what do you think of those dudes? it was great talking to you, bye. i just want to say that my view of the world is colored by -- and i needed to do this in order to counter back what i see on my television, telling me what people are like. host: i will stop him there

because his signal sort of broke up there. do you want to respond, will or josh? guest: thanks, eric. i think your comment speaks directly to what i said earlier. we have to start viewing people as individuals full of very complex sets of beliefs that they have attained through their own personal experience. it is a personal initiative that i wish more people would take, similar to yourself, and i would encourage that. we can call it the eric challenge -- go out and ask somebody, do you think people are nice today. that is how we started this podcast. we wanted to encourage civil discourse one conversation at a time. through the lens of one democrat and one republican.

it is like mixing oil and water. most people just don't see that. we wanted to be that change that we want to see in the world. you can add onto that if you want, josh. guest: yeah, i do like that. i am going to start taking polls. i will see what different poles i can take -- polls i can take as i am talking to people. it speaks to, yes, the difference between what you see on media and what most people feel, you know? i am not taking an official poll in this, but it feels like most people are pretty amicable. they are friendly. they want to live their life, they want to have a good life, they want others to have a good life as long as it is not infringing on their life, and they want people to have, to get

their dreams or whatever. most people don't have a ton of animosity towards someone else, if you are just in a conversation. i think it highlights something to me, the importance of relationship, because it is really hard to hate someone that you are in a relationship with. it is hard to hate someone when you know them and you know their kids and you see here concerns in life -- see their concerns in life, they are concerned about the same things as you are and the same things that keep you up at night keep them up at night. when you do that, it's very difficult to hate somebody. but if you want to hit somebody and demonize them, create distance between yourself so you can color them in a certain way and make a caricature of them in your mind, being evil and wrong

and trying to destroy you and your children and your country. it's very easy to do that. people have done that for thousands of years, right? millennia or longer. it's important for us to recognize that yes, most people are probably a lot like us. maybe not everyone, but most people are, and then to operate on that assumption. host: the two of you took an end of your break last year and are getting back into recording new episodes. what can listeners expect in the coming months on your podcast? we'll start with you, josh, and then will. guest: yeah, in the coming months, it will be pretty interesting. we will have some great theologians on the podcast, we are going to be using our facebook group to get questions

from listeners, that we can directly give to our guests. we have a page and a twitter account you can follow as well. we are thinking about doing something called political bs, political bible study, which is equipping people in the church to talk about politics in a way that is, in a way that makes sense. we are excited about the future. will? guest: yeah. recently we spoke with brian taylor, discussing christian nationalism and a christian nation. we will be talking to a couple other people about the same topics from different perspectives. one from the center of american progress and another from a conservative organization.

later on in february, we will be speaking with an expert on qanon and talking to other folks having panel discussions, dealing with elections -- this is an election year, so we want to get our listeners engaged. one of the things you will notice in our podcast, we don't necessarily advocate for one particular person. we want to educate people in the process and have people reach their own conclusions -- obviously, josh and i have their own wants and needs and people that we liked, but we don't try to do a hard push on our show to a one way or another. host: let's get some other callers in here. let's talk to dave, calling from st. petersburg, florida. caller: hi, thank you for taking my call. i heard in the introduction, mr. wright says he supports full

reparations. could you help me understand what that means and what that looks like? guest: yeah, thank you for your question. i am probably going to disappoint you when i explained to you that i am not necessarily a policy nerd. there are a lot of things that i advocate for that i do not necessarily have all the details. i will give you big picture thoughts about reparations. there is a comedian on netflix that talked about how, there is this talk about us never having money for reparations when the pandemic hits, and i say that sort of tongue-in-cheek, but i think there is a racial disparity that was brought about , whether it is the tulsa massacre or another of other wrongs that were done to african-americans in this country, where we did not have a

good start, you know? any progress that was made in african-american communities was stepped upon by the miss justices of the country -- the misjustices of the country. i think reparations are in order. i do not know what that looks like. i do not know if that is a check that gets sent to my bank account every month. but i think there needs to be a much more broader look into what the disparity, the financial, social, economic disparity is between african-americans and the rest of the population? host: josh, do you agree with will? guest: honestly, i don't have enough information to agree. i totally understand the argument and i think it is something to look into -- one of

the things that happened in our previous guest that we had from word and way, he supported a reparation and talked about the biblical foundation for it, referring to the story of zacchaeus and jesus, where zacchaeus gives four times what he owed to anyone he had wronged. moving from that and extrapolating from that into how african-americans in our co untry have been wronged by the government in the institution of slavery and created a disproportionate disadvantage. i am open to having a debate about it, but i am not a place where i say yeah, that is a

great idea. quite honestly, i have not looked into it enough. i would love to answer the question, but on its face, i would not be ready to say yeah. i would be open to understanding more about it. host: unfortunately, we are out of time, so we have to stop there. i would like to thank will wright and pastor josh burtram for coming on with us this morning and discussing their work on our -- on their podcast. thank you so much. guest: thank you, jesse. host: i would like to thank all of our guests, our callers, and you, our viewers, for being part of washington journal. stay safe and wash your hands, and we will see you again at 7:00 a.m. for another washington journal. have a great saturday, everyone. ♪

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