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tv   Politics Nation  MSNBC  October 14, 2011 3:00pm-4:00pm PDT

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employment act of 1946, which requires the federal government to, quote, promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power in this country. let's be honest. if nothing gets done, then the wall street occupiers will be no better than some of the people occupying seats in the congress. the difference, of course, is we haven't had to pay them. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "politics nation with al sharpton" starts right now. hey, it's a republican nightmare. running against the guy who saved the american auto industry. >> an american auto industry that's more profitable and competitive than it's been in years made it worth it. >> president obama talks jobs in michigan, and the south korean president is with him. hey, republicans, you can learn how to work a crowd from this guy. >> thank you. >> he knows how to get on your
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good side. >> instead of blocking the jobs plan at 63% that voters support. a big victory and a new spokesman. >> the wall street wrecked the economy three years ago and nobody is held responsible for that. i'll be that spokesman. >> former congressman alan grayson on unfairness in america. rick perry is hoping to make a comeback? sure sounds like i've heard that plan somewhere before. >> drill, baby, drill. >> all right. wait to go, governor. plus honoring the dream. martin luther king iii, on the dedication and keeping the dream alive. "politics nation" starts right now. welcome to "politics nation." i'm al sharpton live from
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washington, d.c. tonight's lead, republicans are trying to put this economy in reverse. this week, republicans voted against putting nearly 2 million americans back to work. but hear, at least they're consistent. remember this? >> there's no question but that if you just write a check that you're going to see these companies go out of business ultimately. >> i would not support this kind of legislation. >> this is only delaying their funeral. >> the fact is this doesn't fix the problem, it exacerbates the problem in the long term. >> i join my colleagues in opposing this bailout plan. >> we simply cannot ask the american taxpayer to subsidize failure. >> you said, quote, if general motors, ford and chrysler get the bailout that the chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the automotive industry good-bye. >> that's exactly write. if you write a check, they're going to go out of business. >> out of business? willard, check this out.
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the auto bailout saved 1.4 million jobs. 1.4. let that sink in. 1.4 million. it also prevented over $the 6 billion in personal income losses. $96 billion. kept in the pockets of working-class americans. republicans might have selective memory. but this guy doesn't. >> two years ago it looked like this plant was going to have to shut its doors. all these jobs would have been lost. the entire community would have been devastated. i refused to let that happen. the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been saved made it worth it. an american auto industry that's more profitable and competitive than it's been in years made it worth it. the taxpayers are being repaid the investment paid off.
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>> i love it. president obama has a proven track record on jobs, saving jobs. republicans can't say the same -- well, joining me now is jim gregory. jim gregory is an assembler out of flint, michigan. he works on the chevy, and his job was saved by the bailout. richard wolffe is with me tonight, and erin mcpike, a reporter for real clear choices. jim, let me start with you. putting aside the politics and the bigering, let's put a human face on this. what would your life be like?
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how would it be different if president obama didn't bail out the auto industry? >> my life, my family's life would have been turned way upsidedown, reverend. we're very thankful of the obama administration, and giving us the loans so that we could continue working and supplying monies toward our communities. it would have been devastating to my family personally, as long -- as well as other families in the community, because every one of our jobs equals eight on the outside. and i would have lost my home. i probably would have ended up selling everything i had just to make it. and as you can tell -- >> you were on the verge of losing your home and having to sell everything, had this bailout not happened? >> well, absolutely, because eventually if i'm not working, there wouldn't have been any money left coming in.
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as you well know, michigan was one of the hardest hit. we've lost thousands of manufacturing jobs, good paying jobs, and as you know also, a lot of homes have foreclosed, and i would have been right in that bunch right there. i would have lost my home. i would have had to foreclose and move somewhere. i don't know where. >> jim, how do you feel when you hear republicans say that we shouldn't have bailed out the auto industry? let me show you something that willard mitt romney said. let me show you something and tell me how you feel when you hear this. >> should they have used the funds to bail out general motors and chrysler? no, that was the wrong source for that fundsing. >> now, this willard mitt romney, this week at the debate saying we shouldn't have done it. it was the wrong source for this funding. >> i would like to know what he's thinking, because i guarantee if he was in my situation, he would have wanted the loans to come through to
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help support his family. i have a special-needs child. i mean, my health care and everything all depends on my job for my child. i just think he's -- i just can't believe he would even think that. i mean, i've got a question for any of the republicans -- to my knowledge, reverend, i don't think they've passed one bill yet to create a job. and my question is, how can you stand up to the national anthem if you're at a ball game, how can you stand up and salute that flag, knowing that you could have killed a million point 4 jobs. they would have stuck us in a depression, and i thank god every day for president obama and the democratic party and what they have done for the working families of this country, and as far as i can see they've been fighting. >> i wanted to start the show
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tonight putting a human face on it, somebody that doesn't have a political ax to grind. we're marching for jobs here tomorrow. so people understand, he says he has a child with special needs, about to lose his house, i mean, this is real stuff. this is not some newspaper talk. >> right, real people, real jobs. we often treat politics like a game and these debates don't seem real, but they have real-world impact. when you're asking to be president of the united states, what you decide affects real people. for mitt romney, whose essence of his whole candidacy is that he understands the economy, he understands businesses. for him to say that just then, never mind the question of whether you have a heart or whether you have jobs or you care about people losing their homes, it doesn't make any sense. it doesn't make any sense, because this program worked, number one. number two, if you know anything about finance, there was no other source of this money in late 2008. the banks wouldn't lent to each other. does he think that someone was going to give that money to gm?
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there was no money out there. the federal reserve was giving money to mcdonald's and big corporations to meet the payroll. mitt romney saying that stuff kills his own credibility. >> erin, how does the republicans' run against people like jim? forget they're running against the democrats or the president. they're running against people like jim that are saying very openly, i was on the verge of losing everything, i needed this bailout, i'm glad that it happened. how are they going to run against that? i am not sure, but let me return that to mitt romney. head authored an op-ed in "new york times," and the headline -- in fairness to the romney campaign, the inspection numbs decided what the headline would be, but it was "let detroit go bankrupt." that will be a big challenge for him. if mitt romney is the nominee, you will see that headline
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splashed across campaign commercials over and over and over again next fall. that will be difficult for him to overcome in michigan. >> jim, you rolled your eyes when erin said that. what makes you -- how do you feel when you hear a headline from a guy who wants to be president saying let detroit go bankrupt? >> wake up, america. don't be fooled. because this guy is not for you. for working families, labor, firemen, police officers, everywhere you're at, imagine if we wouldn't have had the fire department, just like 9/11, down there to save all those people during the 9/11 attack, if those people had gotten laid off not to give this money out for these jobs, where would we have been then? that's what i ask. i mean, again, i go back to what have you done to create a job? you've done nothing but hammer
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down president obama has tried to do to help create jobs. that's who i see out there trying to help. i don't see what the republicans are trying to do. i really don't. >> richard, let's look at this screen here, how trust in the president's job plan actually has gone up nine points since september. >> yeah. >> they're going against the flow of public opinion. >> that's what tells you what happens when the president gets out there talking about the stuff. they don't understand how the sausage gets made, but what they hear is a president talking about jobs, he's fighting for jobs. those numbers right there, i had senior democrats saying this shows if he carries on doing this, if it moves another 10, 15 points over the next month or so, we're in a totally different landscape, not just for this jobs bill, but also for the election. that changes the dynamics, so the president making this case
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is having an impact on the numbers, and ultimately has an impact on real people. >> well, i think that you're right in what you're saying, richard. erin, i thank you for being with us tonight, and richard, of course, and thank you, jim gregory of united auto workers. thank you so much for coming on the show. >> thank you. i just want to say something to, al, um, about this redshirt that i'm wearing right here. you hear a lot of anti-american slogans toward unions, things like that. and we're very proud. every worker back at flint assembly, we just put on a third shift with 750 jobs added to our plant. you can multiply that by eight, multiply it by three, because we have three shifts running. that's how many jobs we're going to be creating, thanks to that automobile loan that we got from the american people that we paid pretty much back. i'm able to go and spent money
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at grocery store or go to best buy and buy an appliance, or lumberyard. that's what i'm trying to tell you, and our union won benefits, our health care is very important. one other thing, the reason why i'm wearing a redshirt. every friday at our plant, we wear red to honor our veterans and our armed forces that are over in afghanistan fighting in iraq for our freedom. we appreciate it. i just want to let you know one other thing about the flint michigan, the home of the hd silverado. when the 9/11 attack happened, just so the american people know, the labor, the union, workers, volunteered their labor. they stayed after work and built trucks for the new york city fire department because of all the vehicles that they had rue ends. gent motors donated those trucks.
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we started that. as far as i know today, not one transplant -- the one that shelby and corker and the rest of them are supporting the foreign auto makers that do nothing as far as i know, for the american mime from what we have done. they only sent their condolences. >> jim, let me say this. i'm glad you got it out. i want you to come back again and bring some of the other workers with us. people in america need to understand beyond the beltway politics in this town. this is not about just politics who's up, who's down, what party is in. this is about people like you, like your child. people that have worked and sweated all their lives that were on the brink of losing everything, and some have. that's why we're marching in d.c. tomorrow. people have to be above our politics. this is not about anybody in washington. this is about the jim gregorys of this world. thank you, jim. thank you, richard, thank you,
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heir. ahead, the protests for fairness gets a major win, so rush limbaugh hops on the distortion bandwagon. former congressman alan grayson joins us. plus rick perry emerges. he meets the press again, and again, and again, after hearing his jobs plan, i think it's time to go back into hiding. and the strike is over. michele bachmann starts all over. we'll explain this one. you're watching "politics nation" on msnbc.
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the fight for fairness is going. we're here live from former congressman alan grayson. the unofficial spokesman for the movement. stay with us.
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new york city, let mess show you a number that really hit home this week. the top 10% in american owns 40% of the wealth. how is that fair? the movement is now in more than 100 cities, with weekends of marches planned. washington is starting to take
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notice, but it could use more of this kind of talk. >> if i am the spokesman, that we should not have 50 million people in this country who can see a doctor when they're sick, that we should not have 47 million people who need government help to feed themselves and we shouldn't have 15 million families who owe more on their mortgage than they are worth, then okay, i'll be that person. >> congressman, thanks for coming on the show tonight. >> thank you. >> how did they defend it? >> it shows what tools they are via establishment. they're tools of the establishment. they're tools of that 100.
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one thing i mentioned earlier this week is there's only four countries in the world that have more unequal how working for zimbabwe? there's so many ways that ordinary people are not getting a fair deal. the result is what you see, massive unemployment, many people can't see a doctor when they're sick. and it's gots to end right now. the cattle are saying we are not going to be cattle anylonger, stop prodding us. >> you know what go ahead me, congressman? when you have people raise these questions, when people like us go to the streets like we're doing tomorrow, like the people in lower manhattan, they're demonized. castigated. 1% controlling 40% of the wealth like this is supposed to happen? let me show you what some of what kantor and others have said
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about people that are just raising the question of fairness. let me show you this. >> mobs occupying wall street. >> dividing our nation. >> to protest wall street and bankers is basically saying you're anti-capitalism. >> left wing lunatics and nuts whose first thing is to violate the law. >> they will come for you and drag you into the streets and kill you. >> fringe of the fringe of the fringe. >> very obeetian, compliant, smug, stupid idiots. >> they will drag you in the streets and kill you. idiots, mobs, i mean, people that are saying that americans should not be controlled by 1%, almost half of the wealth in this country, and that's what they're called, congressman? >> it's shocking to me. sheer so out of touch with the way ordinary people actually tlif. there's so many who don't have a job, so many afraid of losing
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their jobs, so many wonder how are we going to pay the mortgage or rent this month? so many are frankly living in their cars. that's the america we have seen today that's been created by wall street. there's a reason why they're occupying wall street and let's say not central park or grant's tomb. it's because wall street perpetuates the sim and controls the political -- dominates the political life in this country to the point where you're not allowed to be heard anymore unless you go and show up. so you're doing the last thing that people can still do in this world, showing up. they're showing up and saying we will not take it anymore. >> well, you're right, because just this week they voted -- they stalled in the senate a jobs bill that would have created 1.9 million jobs, and they're not telling us don't even complain about it, just
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shut up in silence? which we can see a continue d down sliding of the american people's income? look at this graph of over the last decade where the income of average americans have gone just in the last decade. down 7%. so, i mean, we're sinking while the top 1% controls 40% of the wealth. on top of that, they're going to call you everything but a child of god to even protest it? >> well, look, we can still do that. that's clear from what's happened up to this point, but it's a shame it's come this far, that this is what people need to do in order to be heard. in the end what we're supposed to be doing is creating a good life for ourselves, a good life for our grandchildren, a good life for everybody in america, but people see they're falling into debt slavery.
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they owe more than think own on the house, they have no conceivable way to get out our survive. that's what's happening right now, and people are fed up. >> with the money that is not in the politics, how do you win? how do you maintain a congressional seat when they've got all of these tricks where they can bring in all kinds of money to get guys and keep guys out of office like you that would dare even question this unequal arrangements. >> in my case they buried me with $5 million of negative ads. alan grayson is a liar, a national embarrassment, alan gracing is a dog, a clown. people have to see through that, and they're already starting to see through that. in the end, money can't vote. only voters can vote. that's the one thing that nobody has been able to take away from us. >> liar, loudmouth, clown? they said that about al
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sharpton. they need to get new adjectives, alan grayson. thank you for being with me. >> thank you. thank you for recognizing the importance of this movement so early. >> oh, no problem. ahead, more than 40 years after the dream. where do we stand now in the fight for jobs and justice? i'll talk to martin luther king iii about his father's life and legacy, and all the memorial events this weekend. emily's just starting out... and on a budget.
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today rick perry finally released the first part of his big jobs plan for america, and it's centered on the killer ds -- deregulation and drilling. >> america's the saudi arabia of coal. i will work to open up alaska's abundant resources to oil and gas exploration, resume the pre-obama exploration in the gulf of mexico. we'll begin tapping the energy potential of the american west, getting the epa out of the way. that's your job plan, rick perry? drilling in alaska? get the epa out of the way?
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sounds like someone else's slogan. >> americans, we need to produce more of our own oil and gas. >> drill, baby, drill! >> let's drill, baby, drill, not stall, baby, stall. >> so now we have job plans from all three top republicans kinders. there's herman cain's 9-9-9 class war fare plan that steals from the poor and gives to the rich. we can't forget willard mitt romney's 59 points of recycled republican talking points that do nothing to create jobs. it's no wonder president obama is feeling confident about next year. >> i'm looking forward to that election. i'm looking forward to the debate. i think we've got better ideas. >> joining me now michael steele, former chair of the republican national committee,
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and lieu dubose, editor of "the washington spectator." thank you both for being with me. lou, you've been following perry for a long time. is this typical for him? >> it is typical for him, reverend sharpton. you know, he's running a great campaign, i think, thus far, for governor of texas. he just hasn't quite made it to the presidential level, maybe not even a great campaign for the governor. oil is part of texas's past in terms of revenue and what it means for the economy here. he has promised a jobs plan, says he will deliver one next week in a speech in south carolina. this is a long lead time, if it works, to get to a full employment, 1.2 million that he's talking about. he's got permits, they have to build infrastructure, it's a
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energy plan and drag as a jobs plan. >> you would think, michael, that governor perry, who claimed this great texas miracle, would have come out with a jobs plan to show what he did in texas he will do for the u.s., but when you dig a little deeper into the -- what he did in texas, it's more of a mirage than a miracle. let me show you this graph of what he did. lou can help interpret it for us. job creation until perry lost 300,000 jobs from 2009 to 2011. so that's a miracle? maybe he's talking about drilling, because he really doesn't know how to create jobs, mr. steele. >> well, i think that's one side of the numbers. the other side of the numbers is as a lot of folks will tell you, texas has led the way in creating jobs. certainly those numbers come from the first part of the recession where everyone suffered a significant number of
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jobs loss, even at the beginning of the obama administration. now they like to brag about creating 2 million jobs. if you put it together, you come up with a slightly different number. this is part of a series of plans he's going to be putting together to create jobs. this is the energy side of the equation. then there will be a manufacturing side of the equation. there are other aspects of our economy that will be creating jobs as well. next week in south carolina, so -- >> so we're going to get a little at a time. >> it's taken up 2 1/2 years to get something from president obama. >> if you weren't filibustering and jibing in the senate -- >> excuse me, wait a minute. >> i love it the way republicans say 2 1/2 years, you just voted down the jobs plan -- >> when you had the 60 votes in the senate, you didn't get it done, so don't give me this filibuster the last year. >> when you had the votes in the senate, we had to fight tooth and nail to get a health care
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bill that was -- >> you had to fight your own. >> exactly. >> you had to fight your own blue-dog democrats that weren't buying this takeover. >> and i didn't give you nothing for christmas, i'll give you a pack of blue-dog democrats from me. >> that's your problem. >> no, they're going tore your, because we'll sent them to you all. let me ask you, lou, when he talks about eliminating epa, isn't this more rhetoric than jon crazy creation? >> eliminate those activist regulations that are already on the books. there are a raft of new rules and foot-dragging from the epa. from the department of interior, that are killing jobs in this country. i'll stop the epa's draconian measures related to the regulation of greenhouse gases, reform the bureaucracy, and in particular the epa.
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>> lou? >> that goes back to dick cheney's speech at the american petroleum institute when they were elected, and we saw what happened there. i want to go back to, if you would, to to 01, to one bill that sort of defined what rick perry's relationship with working people. it was a bill passed by unanimous consent in both bodies of the legislature with no opposition, and was vetoed 20 days after the session ended, thus it could not be overridden. it was a bill that provided that public school districts within 50 miles of the texas/mexico border, would be com compelled to charge -- contractors would have to pay a living wage of $8 an hour. there was no opposition to this, and perry vetoed it. i think it in packet is because, you know, his relationship with labor is rooted in ranch
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culture. that's just where he comes from. it was the same with race culture two news cycles back. labor is an expendable commodity, businessmen are clients and corporate executives are clients, and laborers are constituents. how can you justify -- how does he justify -- he needs to answer this -- vetoing a bill that provided $8 of living wage in the rio grande valley, one of the poorest regions of the world, all organized by a faith-based congress gas advocacy group in the valley. it's a bad story and history, but it is what he is. >> michael, getting away from perry, because i wouldn't want people to feel that the other guy's really better, explain to me, if you have a lower middle income american, struggling to
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make ends meet how given me a $9 across the board tax sales tax. >> 9%? >> 9%. how does that help me? you and i always raise our voices with each other, but i'm going to be very civil and quiet, and i want you to explain to america how you can make any sense out of this idiotic 9-9-9 plap -- >> i'm not going to use pell george tiff words to describe the plan. this is the process where herman cain has to explain the impact on states like florida and new hampshire, for example, that don't have a sales tax that will now have a sales tax under his plan. how does that wash? also, the impact on the poor. i know as a lieutenant governor of my state of maryland, working with our team, there is a connection between tax rates and poverty and the income flow. so if you're going to take more
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money out of the system, put a greater burden on the poor, you've got to scut for that somewhere. >> so let me put this in english. that was in republican talk. michael steele can't explain the 9-9-9 plan, either. he told you herman cain will have to explain it. >> wait a minute. >> there was a democrat and republican, and neither of us can make sense -- >> that's not what i'm saying. >> michael steele, have a great weekend. lou, have a great weekend as well. >> thank you, reverend. just ahead, the legendary singer and activist harry belafonte, and his memories of the civil rights movement and marching with martin luther king. stay with us. the postal service is critical to our economy--
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delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.
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this weekend, the president will dedicate the martin luther king memorial, but dr. king must be more than a memory. what he stood for we need now more than ever. martin luther king iii and i will talk about that in a moment. s amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal.
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welcome back to the show. on sunday, thousands of people will head to washington to be a part of history at the official dedication of the martin luther king jr. monument. one of those who stood proudly
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at his side was actor and activist harry belafonte. >> you were very close to dr. king and martin luther king and you had a relationship very different than most, i know from having spoken to people very close to him, including mrs. king. you tell the story of a guy who was not too congenial in appearances, but something transformed this guy. tell that story if you don't mind. people need to read the book, but tell that story. >> the location was the university of maryland, we took over -- i mean, we negotiated to give an appearance for dr. tinge.
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king. when i arrived there was a state trooper looking severe. i saw the seething in his face, and i just registered that fact and made sure that i stayed abreast of all that was going on so that he would not be provoked into anything. each time i passed to go back to the dressing room where he was guarding, i had to take a look at him. that sternness prevail. at the end of the evening, when everything was over. he was gone. i got back to the fieldouts on the campus, got the desk to get the key to my room. the lady told me there was a letter for me. when she gave me the letter, i felt it. it was rather weighty. it had something in t i opened it, and when i opened it, i took out a letter, and accompanying the letter were six bullets from his revolver.
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this thing said, dear mr. belafonte, when you and dr. king walked into this place, my life had been set on the sights of making sure that your voice not be heard beyond that which we were anointed to do in defending this country. i've heard you speak, and more importantly i've heard what dr. king has had to say. i know these bullets will never find itself taking a human life. from this moment on, i'm on another path. i thank you both for this revelation. and the officer signed it. it hangs in my home. i have it as an important piece of memorabilia. but that was a very profound and impactful thing that happened. >> i remember visiting year home when you had actual letters from gandhi and dr. king. dr. king used to come to your home when he was in new york and stayed there. tell us, you know, the world is memorializing him this weekend
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with a monday mustn't, but you knew dr. king. tell us who he was to you, the kind of person and character he was. >> dr. tinge was what i dearly hoped all america would know him to be. i think a lot has been lost to us by those who -- not the divine intervention is not the miracle of all things, but to be totally dependent on divine intervention can sometimes lead you askew. everybody says we're the next dr. king. i hasten to answer that question, where was the first dr. king before you met him? he was silent. he was somewhere off into the rural parts of black america, and the most humble of an environment with a tiny church, a wife who was pregnant. they came to him and said we'd like you to be part of our movement, and he said, no, i don't think i can do that. they said action would you at least come to the church? he said, yes, i can listen to
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what you have to say. i'll never forget, a.d. nixon, the one who invited him was relieved to hear you're coming, because it would look kind of silly you're not being in the church since it's your church we're holding the meeting, but when dr. king saul that and heard the voices, he emerged. what i've seen in america, all the student campuses, the prisons, the young spirits i've talked to, the native-american movement, et cetera, et cetera, you have found we are resplintant with hope, with articulation, with young people who knows exactly what to look for. they'll shape the detail that's necessary, and you'll see a microcosm of all of this down on wall street. i feel a great sense of faith and hope in what's going on, and i know it will escalate. ahead, at a time of protests for fairness, there's no better time to honor dr. martin luther
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king's dream. his son and heir, martin luther king iii, on the dream, next. [ female announcer ] instantly smooth wrinkles with a shot? wait a second... with olay challenge that. new regenerist wrinkle revolution... relaxes the look of wrinkles instantly, and the look of deep wrinkles in 14 days. ready, set, smooth... regenerist. from olay.
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[ deep breath ] thank you! that's the cold truth!
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this sunday, president obama will lead the nation in observing the official dedication of the martin luther king jr. memorial in washington, d.c. we are honoring the legacy of a man who fought not just for civil rights, but for economic equality and justice. tomorrow we will be marching for economic equality and justice in the national jobs and justice march, where we will march from the lincoln memorial to the martin luther king monument and rally, labor and civil rights groups. joining us, and i think the one who has symbolized his father work in this generation is martin luther king iii, the president and ceo of the king center. thank you for being here tonight. >> honored to be here, rev.
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>> i'm sure it's a proud weekend. we prepared for it in august, and nature interrupted, but almost providential, martin, because now with protests all over the world about the wealth gaps that your father fought about and with the jobs bill failing in the senate, i think it's a real appropriate time for us to march tomorrow and raise the legacy of your father. >> it absolutely is. in light of the fact that none of this -- i think this was brewing back on the 28th, and although that was the anniversary of the march on washington, now there is a real potential movement developing all over this nation and throughout the world, so it is most appropriate that the dedication take place this weekend. >> you have fought in your own life, about poverty. let me show you this graph of how we have seen an increase in poverty in this country.
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poverty rate in america in '69 was 13.7% a year after your father was assassinated. today it's 15.1%. is that why you are so passionate about this inequality and why you spent a lot of time on this question? >> absolutely. in fact, my father talked about erat indicating what we called the triple evils of poverty, racism and militarism. we know that race is not where it needs to be. we have made great strides, but in poverty and militarism, it seems we've made almost no strides. when you live in a nation with an inordinate amount of wealth, even this day, with a terrible economy, something is wrong when 1% of the wealth in this country -- when 1% controls almost 50% of the wealth. we are certainly going the wrong way. dad talked about it, in fact he probably was killed, quite frankly, because he talked about a radical redistribution of
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resources in our nation. while there are people who will consistently fight that, they'll fight to the end, it's a breath of fresh air to see young people engaged and leading a movement. quite frankly we forget that dad was, what, 26, 25? so he was a young person when he was leading montgomery. it's young people who have to continue to lead these movements throughout our nation and world. >> now, you have headed the king center and kept it going. tell people around the country what the king center does. as we see activist, a lot of the activists need to be trained and schooled in what to do. >> the king center's large and primarily historical focus has been to teach people to live together without really destroying personal property. when we look at balance that occurs in our communities, and in our nation -- not just in the
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african-american communities, but in our communities broadly, balance often is the language of unheard, people who are left out, not included, so when we look at poverty in america, it's critical that we learn how to resolve our conflicts without destroying one another, but, you know, you've got domestic violence, bullying now, all kind of balance that is occurring in our school systems, and in our system in general, and my dad and his team fought against that. we at the ding center are fighting against that, because we believe that nonviolence is certainly needed today, perhaps more than ever before in our world. we saw that happened in egypt. we saw a nonviolent movement begin in egypt. by and large, it was nonviolent. what we see in new york and around this country is nonviolent, and hopefully it will stay that way. i think there will be great success if that happens. >> martin luther king

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