. good afternoon. i'm joy reid in for martin bashir. the big question on syria may no longer be if but when. >> is america about to strike? >> officials here at the pentagoning are operating as if this is in fact a done deal. >> if you were to come, you're ready to go like that. >> like that. >> with small strikes. >> four u.s. navy destroyers and two submarines. >> the crisis has outpaced the world's response. >> what we saw in syria should shock the conscience of the world. >> we are supposed to be outraged by anyone using chemical weapons. >> they're trying to come up with an objective that punishes assad. >> if the syrians had oil, we would have been in there. >> how do we reconcile not wanting to get into this war. >> these people don't want american troops and for this to

become another iraq. >> smash ath face of bashir assad. >> the president continues to work with his national security team when he has made a decision and has announcement to make, he'll make it. >> we begin with mounting signs is of impending u.s. military action against syria with senior officials telling nbc news strikes could be launched as soon as thursday. secretary of state john kerry ratcheted up the rhetoric yesterday saying evidence of a large scale chemical weapons attack is undeniable and there's little doubt assad's regime is culpable. today chuck hagel said the world's most powerful military is ready to attack. >> suffice it to say the options are there. the united states department of defense is ready to carry out those options. if that would occur, that would occur also in coordination with our international partners.

>> but if you were -- you're ready to go like that. >> we are ready to go like. >> international international support for action is growing. today the arab league said the syrian government is responsible for the gas attack that kills hundreds. france said it's ready to. up nish those who gassed innocents and stepped up support to the rebels. prime minister david cameron recalled his country's parliament from vacation preparing to vote thursday on action. notable exceptions include russia and china. u.n. security council members against an international enter veks in an apparent effort to build a coalition, the president is now working with -- working the phones including a call today with canadian's esprime minister stephen harper in which the two agreed a firm and timely international response is needed. while the house said today that president obama is still weighing what ha response will

be, it does not include regime change. >> the options that we are considering are not about regime change. they are about responding to a clear violation of an international standard that prohibits the use of chemical weapons. mass death, the killing of innocent women and children, has to be responded to. >> however, even as it made its case, the white house said there is no military solution to syria, only a political one. let's get right to nbc chief white house correspondent chuck todd, host of the daily rundown. we're still hearing the white house say they are mulling and considering action. is your read right now the idea of military strikes is pretty much a done deal? >> it's not about if. it's about what kind i have strike is it going to be. if there is a debate that's left that's being had inside the administration, joy, it has to do with, okay, if you do this, are you going to hit them hard enough he doesn't do it again.

if he does use chemical weapons again, are you prepared to hadity him again. so those are the type of questions going on at this point. but there's also the second track that you brought up. let's not forget the call the president made overnight in australia. so there is clearly an engagement going on of trying to put together a coalition of the willing to borrow a phrase that was familiar to us back in the day. of countries that without a u.n. mandate, they want another mandate somewhere else and you brought up the arab league. that is the other tract here. if there's a debate that's left being had internally, it's about what type of strike to do, how hard to hit, how long to do it, and how are you willing to do it again if somehow assad uses chemical weapons again. >> and chuck, brought up that phrase coalition of the willing. anything that reminds people of iraq shows you why people seem so le reluctant on this issue. i want to read you what john

boehner's office had say. he has consulted account president and he issued a statement. it's the speaker made clear that before any action is taken, there must be meaningful consultation with members of congress as well as a clearly defined objective and a broader strategy to achieve stability. what was missing in that statement, chuck, was the notion that congress would have to approve of a strike. >> right. that is not something that the speaker's asking for. there are certainly some members of his conference, there's some democrats who have memories of the iraq war that are wondering should there be a vote on this. but the white house believes that this is something that what they're advocating to do in a military strike is narrow enough in scope that it does not require congress to authorize anything. they're not talking about months of action. we're talking about days of action. and the white house is also going to argue this is something they have to do within a certain period of time for it to be

effective. and that is why they don't feel the need to call into congress or aware powers act. frankly, there are plenty you have members of congress at least in the leadership who think, you know what? this is going to be a hard vote to get. is it worth trying to get? aren't we better off politically to have our hands clean of this. if it doesn't go well, we get to cite size the president. if it goes well, we can say he was operating under the authority we had already given him with the war powers act. >> we also hearded from joe biden at the american legion moments ago. listen and respond on the other side. >> there is no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in syria. the syrian regime, the president believes and i believe that those who use chemical weapons against defenseless men, women and children should and must be held accountable. >> and chuck, talking about

accountability, again, the administration seems reluctantly to have come to the conclusion they have to do this. congress or the politics of it put aside. >> well, i mean, look at the media campaign that's going on here. joy, are this is not necessarily for the american public. this is for the world community. it started with john kerry yesterday. you had chuck hagel sitting down with the bbc. around the world, is there any other more watched english language network in the world than the bbc? there's chuck hagel? then you have the vice president of the united states putting his signature on this. so this clearly, there is a little bit of a concerted effort here to build international support for the action that it looks very much like the united states government is about to take. >> all right. nbc's chuck todd. thank you. >> you got it. >> all right. i want to bring in our panel now. steve clements at the new america feds ration and david

corn of mother jones magazine. and steve, this does feel like deja vu all over again. we hear talk of coalition of the willing, talk about strikes inside of syria. what we are not hearing is the idea of boots on the ground and regime change. >> i think that's right. this is a very different response that the obama administration gave just basically six weeks ago when there was an action to help begin trying to supply and support rebels inside syria because of chemical weapons, red line being crossed. this is a much more serious deployment of chemical weapons and the administration is calling it right by differentiating between the civil war inside syria and the fact that a key international norm has been very very badly violated and calls for a different kind you have response. that's what they should have done before and they kind of screwed that up. this is the right response this time. >> what steve is talking about is a very cautious president. he came into office with a reputation of having been against account idea of dumb wars and not wanting to speed into another iraq-like situation. was there overcaution in your

view? >> he took his time with egypt and with libya and probably ended up with a good policy positions. he wasn't overly cautious when it came to the bin laden raid. he took his time there. i think here the key thing here is whether you can have a punitive military actioning that doesn't get you into a war that you don't want to be in. and i understand to protect international norms against chemical weapons and to maybe prevent assad from using them in the future, other people from using them in the future, there's an arguments to be made for a punitive strike. can you do that without having too many unintended consequences that gets you more drawn in that may end up with civilian deaths or something going wrong. you should do something but maybe you know, you can't see exactly what it's going to lead to. so that's a good reason for caution. i think the president's probably struggling with a very difficult decision on what type of action sends a message but doesn't do

what he doesn't want to do which is to get in irk in this war to become responsible for what happens next. >> steve, i think that is the real question here. if you do strikes in syria, what do you get for that? again, we're not doing regime change. if the strikes are punitive, what does that get the united states and the international community? >> it sets up a line and creates a punishment, a cost for what the regime did. there was confusion before about low yield chemical weapons use in which that punishment wasn't delivered to the players. and the view is now among the interrogation community that the failure to create a cost for the use of chemical weapons before or whether no matter which side used them the failure of the regime to keep control has led to the escalation of their use. the view is today if you don't put some hard punishment on the regime, they will take it further. you'll begin to see the chemical weapons spread to other parts of the northeast, the middle east, northeast africa region. so that is the concern. i think that's why the

administration feels it needs to -- there's a legitimate case though that they may not have the ability. what chuck todd just said, they're going to hit hard one time. we don't have a lot of cruise missiles in this area. we've got four dozen, five dozen cruise missiles. if you have to come in a second time, if you have to come in a third time and if there are unintended consequences what happens. >> it depends what impact the strike will have. you can't take out his chemical weapons facility. the depots, you can't strike them. it's too disbursed. you can't physically stop them. the question whether you create a psychological punishment that he abides by or whether you cause him to do other things or whether it spins out of control in a way that -- so in theory, is the ability to punish the attempt to punish sounds justified. and sounds good. you know, but as you know, every plan that meets the battlefield often goes in a different direction. >> we eventually have to talk about the political consequences in this country.

you heard chuck todd say the republicans are essentially going hands off. i wish we had more time, steve, david corn, thank you both. coming up, on the eve of a historic day at the lincoln memorial, we'll look at the great expectations facing the president. ...so you say men are superior drivers? yeah? then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. silence. are you in good hands?

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working together, we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that in fact, we have no choice. we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. you should ask yourself your own questions about, am i wringing as much bias out of myself as i can. am i judging people as much as i

can based on not the color of their skin but the content of their character. >> president obama doesn't speak about race very often. but when he does, it's significant. the first time he talked race on a national is taken was when he was still a presidential candidate and felt it necessary to respond to a media fury over ser monz by his then pastor jeremiah wright. last month, after the verdict in the zimmer trial, the president once again felt compelled to speak out which brings us to tomorrow when president obama, our first african-american president will take to the steps of the lynnon memorial and deliver a speech exactly 50 years to the day after dr. martin luther king delivered his inspiring words to a crowd of hundreds of thousands. there to watch peacefully -- there to match peacefully for jobs and freedom. the expectations on the president are great. and been surely his speech will

be praised by some and criticized by others. for more, i'm pleased to be joined by founder of operation joe john hope bryant and former u.n. ambassador ambassador consider andrew young. thank you to you both for being here. ambassador young, you knew very well dr. martin luther king jr. and give me sort of your thoughts about 50 years later, seeing an african-american president stand in that same place on the lincoln memorial and deliver a speech in front of another march on washington or at least a commemoration of it. >> well, he might need to deliver some of the same speech that never got heard. dr. king's introduction was in a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. when the architects of the republic wrote magnificent words of the constitution and declaration of independence, they were signing a promissory note to every american which every prey american would fall

heir. and if you look at the constitution as a promissory note for the fulfillment of the unaable rights of all human beings, everything you talk about is the human race. and i think this was never a black march. this was the march and the dream was a dream that made a southern movement a national movement and an international human rights movement all at once. it probably changed from civil rights to human rights. and it included all of the other factions. women were not mentioned in the constitution. gay and lesbian folk were not mentioned in the constitution. all of the immigrant issue was -- well, everybody was an immigrant when the constitution was written. the constitution was written by immigrants. so the fulfillment of this dream

is a continuing resolution as the congress would say. but i would say that the president's charges to do what the spirit says do. >> right. >> he's not speaking to black people. he's speaking to the world. and every time he speaks, he has to speak to the whole world. >> right. and john, obviously, the first march was also about jobs and about economics. it was about economic uplift. what are you hoping to hear from the president on that score? >> well, i think i'm going to echo in many ways what ambassador young just said in a different way. i think the way you triangulate race is to talk about class. i mean, whether you're white, black, red, brown or yellow you want to see more green. people forget there are more poor whites in america than poor anybody else. that the new racism in my mind is poverty. and there are more people today who don't have a bank account. they didn't have the right to vote in 1962. poverty just hurts.

my phrase is poverty sucks. if you're poor, your housing sucks. your health care sucks. your relationships unfortunately are probably penalized. number one cause of divorce is money. number one reason they drop out of college is not academics, it's money. health issues, number one cause for stress, heart attacks is money. i'm not saying it's everything. but i'm saying it's real close. you can solve the poverty issue, at least radically address it, you can stabilize the other issues. in our neighborhoods that you and i care about, kids want to to be rap stars. i'm generalizing but unfortunately, i back it up. a lot of kids want to be rap stars, athletes or. now i though they're modeling what they see. we've got to give them something different to see. it you had to be suited was cool. i think the president has got to go into an area that brings

people together versus unfortunately -- you talk about class. you get race for free. and but class is an issue that wraps up everybody in america in an aspirational tony tone that says we can all do better and all become owners in the american dream. >> at the same time, though, ambassador young, do you have issues like the trayvon martin case which still remind -- >> no trayvon is a martyr. we've had a string of martyrs from the time of emmett till. every generation has its martyrs. they're going to continue. and we celebrate them and we point -- we lift them up to show that they're not lost. i can never forget the three weeks after this magnificent speech, four little girls were bombed in their sunday school class and then two kids who nobody ever knew about were slaughtered riding bicycles for

nothing that the world will never be perfect but we can never accept these kinds of suffering and justice. and for me, zimmerman is just as much a tragedy as trayvon. his life is ruined over a love of guns. and a false sense of what manhood is. >> wanted to be a cop. >> so the president's -- the president's business is to talk to us and say something that's going to have an impact on egypt at the same time. because our problems of poverty are reflected in the 50 million people who are in the streets of egypt because the economy doesn't include them. >> egypt's problem is jobs too. >> the world is falling apart. and nobody can bring it back together and nobody can define a vision of victory but a president of the united states. >> it's very interesting that the arab spring that everybody refers to was started by a guy

named mohamed whose cart business was taken from him by police and he tried to get it back. they said there's no permit. you can't get it back. he lit himself on fire because his dignity of being able to take care you have his family through the cart business and to be able to put food on the table was removed. that was economic, too. so the issue of human dignity and financial dignity is all wrapped up into the same issue in my opinion once again. it was a march for jobs and freedom. >> right. >> not a racial march. i think that we've got to revisit that and finish what dr. king had intended when he. >> and knowing we'll never finish it. >> right. >> absolutely. >> that we're here to make the kingdom of god come on earth. >> indeed. >> until he brings it. >> i wish we had more time ambassador john young, andrew bryant, thank you for being here. >> please tune in tomorrow to

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kind of gun violence that took the live of those 26 children and their teachers is still with us. along with our unending culture of violence. the shooting in oklahoma of as trailian baseball player of chris lane by teenagers who allegedly had nothing better to do and in georgia at the hands of a heavily armed young man in mental distress and packing 500 rounds of ammunition and an ak-47. thankfully it, tate talked down by a bookkeeper. but what have we as a country done about it? the president met today with mayors from across the country to discuss youth violins. surely that conversation has to involve guns and some states have already acted. but what about congress? also due back from its summer recess? what have they done about the more than 22,000 americans killed with guns since december 14 of last year when those 20 children and six teachers were massacred at sandy hook?

what have we done about the ready availability of guns to the deranged and doo praved? what did we do with our summer so on the first day of school at sandy hook we could say we've done all we could to make all our children safer? the simple answer is, not nearly enough. okay ladies, whenever you're ready. thank you. thank you. i got this. oh, no, i'll get it! let me get it. uh-uh-uh. i don't want you to pay for this. it's not happening, honey. let her get it. she got her safe driving bonus check from allstate last week. and it's her treat. what about a tip? oh, here's one... get an allstate agent. nice! [ female announcer ] switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. only from allstate. call 866-905-6500 now. here we go! hold on man. is that a leak up there? that's a drip.

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priebus. >> i'm what happens when a greek and german get married. >> he's like the about yourer in an insane asylum. >> i'm not interested in a story here or there by hiring a couple people down the hallway and calling it ouch. >> you say you want to reach out. >> that's not going to do it. >> not enough to say just we have to have a new message. >> kong is conservatives are increasingly coming understand attack from groups who think they're not doing enough to dismantle obama care. >> the biggest job killer in this country. >> the only crisis weise have is one that's manufactured in washington. >> if it doesn't happen now, it's likely never to happen. >> their number one priority. >> a group of tea party activists has vowed to rally outside john boehner's office today and retitle obama care boehner care. >> rather than calling it obama care, we should call it boehner care. >> john boehner has had the house of representatives cast how many votes. >> after having taken 40 votes to try to get rid of obama care. >> do they really love barack

obama that much. >> i've made this argument to my republican friends privately and by the way, sometimes they say to me privately i agree with you. but i'm worried about a primary. >> every des ot in the world has had some version of nationalized health care. >> i'm worried about what rush limbaugh is going to say about me on the rao. >> hitler did it. they all do it. >> i can't force these folks to do what's right for the american people. >> and let's get right to our panel. joining us now, karen finny host of disrupt with karen finny, goldie taylor and jared bernstein, and an msnbc contributor. goldie, right to you. boehner care. this is the new fetish among the tea party groups. what is this about targeting baner? didn't he hold 40 votes totes repeal obama care? >> he did indeed. this is the gop civil war we all predi predicted. there is a schism ahead.

tea partiers are not going to kowtow to the establishment the way they expected they would. they intend to primary those people who don't stand hard and fast on gop principles like getting rid of obama care or repealing or maybe not funding obama care. they're going to stand hard and fast. so people like mcconnell have something to worry about. if they don't pull this together hard and fast, their shot at taking over the senate majority is the at stake. >> and karen, weigh in on this. i am curious as to is what ted cruz's game here is. republicans to goldie's point. they want to take over the senate and win back the senate. how does harming john boehner get them there? >> well, ted cruz is all about ted cruz. he's thinking about himself and his own ambitions. he is not thinking about you know, the greater good of the party. instead, he's legitimate mizing that sort of house wacky tea

party caucus and also he's pay the participating in outside events with heritage foundation you know on repealing obama care, driving that message, driving that message. the thing that was interesting over the weekend in an interview he seemed to try to walk back just a little bit to sort of open the door, well, even if we don't defund obama care, we just have to delay it. but don't forget, they want to delay it because they need to delay it and they want to do everything they can to dismantle it before october 1st when a lot of the benefits kick inning >> and jared, you know, we've heard a lot about obviously we're looking at the march on washington anniversary and about sort of what martin luther king jr. would think about so many of the issues of the day. i want to play sound what president obama believes that dr. king would think about obama care. listen to this and react. >> what do you think he would say about obama care? >> he would like that. >> well, because i think he understood that health care,

health security is not a privilege. it's something that a country as wealthy as ours everybody should have access to. >> jared that was an interview today. what do you think about that? >> that resonates with me and probably a whole lot of other people who aren't a fringe member of the tea party and the other folks you've been talking about so far. we do focus on those people a lot. thankfully, most of us aren't like that. most of us resonate to those words. if you think back to the kinds of things dr. king was fighting for it, it was a march on washington for jobs and freedom. and he talked about housing. he talked about health care. and he recognized precisely as the president said, these are not privileges. these are the kinds of services and goods and consumption that families in an advanced economy must have if we're actually going to call ourselves an advanced economy. >> goldie, what's incredibly striking to me is ted cruz where he comes from, texas the highest rate of uninsured in the

country. is it even conceivable his stand to take down this health care ta could help so many texans, is there any way this could be popular in texas? >> well, unfortunately, it really is. if you look at the road to economic mobility, it is a pot mark filled with sinkholes today. it would be people like ted cruz who don't want to the fill in that will infrastructure, who feel like they don't want to use their hard earned dollars to help other people. those other people get things like quality health care access to quality basic education. those kinds of things that would, you know, help them along this economic trail. so there's really an us versus them kind of mentality going on. unfortunately, it has taken root, you know, among grass-roots republicans. >> karen, and despite all of that, you know, to goldie's point, this is a grassroots issue. it is popular with the base. cruz is still looked at a conceivable presidential candidate. i want to read you, speaking of right on right crime is way before its time.

listen to what conservative blogger jennifer ruben had to say. smarts don't always equate to common sense. his political judgment has become distorted by ambition. is it possible that ted cruz is tilting at windmills campaign to take down obama care could actually hurt the republican party's ability to take back the senate and could actually make it almost impossible in 2016 for them to get the white house back. >> sure. absolutely. again, i think ted cruz has found kind of a niche and an issue and a group that is willing to listen to him. he's riding that wave. i don't think to even the point that jennifer -- it's not about what's politically savvy for the party. i mean, again, this is all about his own ambitions and kind of seeing a moment and an issue that he can ride. you know, we were talking about dr. king and african-americans. this is yet another issue that if the gop paid attention to their own occupies report, they would recognize that being

against obama care does not help them win the black and latino communities, both of whom are underserved communities who will be helped greatly by the passage and emt implementation of obama care. >> excellent points. jared, you're the policy guy. i want to talk policy. the pot hole potentially for the democrats and for the president is a, in the implementation of obama care which is complicated which has to be done state by state. not all states are participating or that republicans are able to use these threats to defund obama care to actually go ahead and shut the government down in which case, the blame could theoretically wash over the president too or am i getting something wrong? >> no, i think it's possible. i think the thing about it is, you can't really defund obama care. this is a man doer to part of the budget. that's on automatic. what you can do is black its implementation. of course, that's serious and what they're trying to do. what we're finding out and this gets back to something karen was saying, the states implementing

this in good faith are finding it's working much the way we thought we would when we designed the thing which is we're bringing down premium costs, bringing people low income people under medicaid. helping subsidize people so they can ultimately get affordable care in these settings. i forget exactly what they're called. in the exchanges. so in many ways, the best advertisement for obama care will be be obama care itself once it's implemented. >> the states most recalcitrant are basically ceding to the federal government the ability to the run the exchanges. >> they really are. that's happening for us in georgia. it's happening in states like ohio and indiana. where those governors have been obstructionist in terms of the implementation. and they've caused more dilemmas along the way for small businesses, for the people who would want to participate in these exchanges. so i find it a bit of folly for the national gop but it would more to reduce them to the local

party that they're quickly becoming >> meanwhile the federal government they mate the most they get. >> this attack on john boehner from the far right is something he's used to. he's done this before. this could backfire in the sense you mentioned earlier around a government shutdown and a debt ceiling. if he decides the base has gone too far out for me to work with at all, this might facilitate not having the government shutdown, getting past the debt ceiling. >> sympathy for john boehner. we can all come together around that. thank you karen finney, goldie taylor and jared bernstein. catch "disrupt" every saturday and sunday on msnbc. come up, a member of congress weighs in on the situation in syria and offers insights into tomorrow's 50th anniversary on the march on washington. i'm angela, and i didn't think i could quit smoking

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as congress wraps up its recess, there's a large and growing to do list waiting for them back in washington. from major decisions on syria to issues that he had been working on before the break. members of congress have their work cut out for them on all fronts. more more i'm joined by representative maxine waters, democratic congresswoman from california. and congress woman, i want to get your reaction to the developments on syria. if it were to come to a vote if the house of representatives whether to take military action in syria, what would your vote be. >> well, at this time, i think i'm leaning toward trying to do something to stop assad from using weapons of mass destruction. i think it is not in the best interests of this country or any country to stand by and watch chemical weapons be used and

kill thousands of innocent people. so i'm leaning in that direction. i would hope that something could happen where we could have some diplomatic relationships with iran to back them off of their support for syria. i would hope that something would happen for us to be able to get a handle on al qaeda to avoid all of this. it's very complicated, and i don't think it can be avoided. it is not now a matter of whether or not the president has is decided to retaliate in some way. it's how and when. that's where the decision lies now. and i lean in that direction. >> okay. thanks, congresswoman. i want to shift gears obviously tomorrow being the 50th anniversary of the march on washington. president obama expected to speak as well as former presidents carter and clinton. what are you looking to hear from president obama tomorrow? >> well, i think, you know, these kinds of speeches are about inspiration.

it's about hope. it's about helping people to understand that is a country of ideals that we should all try and live up to and that he's doing everything that he possibly can in order to bring about a decent quality of life for all of the people of this country. and peace on earth all over the world. i think it has to be about inspiration, it has to be about hope. it has to have people understand that they're important, that they're special. and they have a role in all of this to play. and they can do good also. so it's all about helping to uplift us and help us feel good about ourselves. and better about the future. >> and congresswoman, we heard millerly evers williams speak on saturday. there were a lot of other great woman speakers. talk about the role of women in the movement. they were not able to attend some of the meetings in the white house afterwards.

do you feel like the role of women in the civil rights movement has been downplayed? >> well, is the history of the civil rights movement is such that women were not given the respect or the the rightful place in the movement. of course, things have changed somewhat, but still i think there's a role for women to play. when you think about the way that dorothy hyte played such an important role but had to stay in the background, when you think about the fact that myrlie evans in partnership with her husband played such a role but has never received the rightful attention that she deserves, yes, we still have a long way to go. >> all right. and congresswoman maxine waters, thanks you for being here. we'll be right back to clear the air. wait a sec! i found our colors. we've made a decision. great, let's go get you set up... you need brushes... you should check out our workshops...

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it's i'm now to clear the air. president barack obama can't talk about race. that's one of the great ironies as we prepare to mark the 50th anniversary of the march on washington. 50 years after another president, john f. kennedy gave a bold televised address about race and discrimination in america the nation's first black president may face the narrowest restrictions when it comes to discussing race. if he criticizes a will police officer for arrest agafrican-american college professor trying to enter his own home, many consider that out of bounds. if he identifies with the realities faced by millions of black men and women who feel profiled just walking down the street, he's called divisive 37 if he dares to see in the fatal shooting of a black teenager echoes of a boy he could have been but for the grace of god,

he invites rage from his detractors who demand hehan as a fellow americans answer personally for the death of every white american who was killed by someone who is black rare though interracial killings are. yet, it would be a shame for this president not to keep trying to tackle the issue he's in so unique a position to address. what should we expect from this most cautious of presidents to say about this microsoft intractable issue in his speech commemorating the march on washington tomorrow? perhaps he can take inspiration from the story of carol carter walker and judith claire. two 70 somethings who met by chance this past saturday at the marjorie enactment. 50 years ago carol who is black and judith who is white both an ended the march on washington separately. judith grew up on a farm in michigan and served in the peace corps. carol carter walker grew up in segregated washington, d.c. and

just started a job in new york. when they reconnected by chance last weekend, one rural, one urban, one white, one black, rem niszed about all the things they had in common. they both were appalled by the violence against african-american protesters that unfolded in their televisions and flups. they both remember the peaceful crowds at the march and the sense that it was really possible for the nation to come together inning that moment. and they both wanted to do something, however small, to realize king's dream of a country not divided by race but united by a few basic principles. >> well, the major certainly gave me hope that we can doing better. and struggle as we do, we have to be open and hopeful and try to learn from each other. >> i realized that i have to put my body out there. i can't just sort of sit in the house and watch, you know, tv and say ain't it all of or you know write checks.

>> those two women who met by chance at the seconds march on washington will be there to hear the president's speech tomorrow. he should tell them that we can do better. that we do have to be open and hopeful and try to learn from each other. and he should say that to do that, we can't just sit here and watch tv. we have to tell our experiences and hard truths and hope that our fellow americans will listen. but be willing to do so even if they won't. and that includes the president of the united states. thanks so much for watching. and remember to tune in for the all-day special coverage of the 50th industry of the march on washington. including at around 3:00 p.m., remarks by the president obama and at 4:00, tamron hall will anchor a special program that will have dr. king's speech from 1963 in its entirety all right here on msnbc tomorrow. of course, we want to remind to you stick around this evening and welcome ed schultz and "the ed show" team back to weekdays coming up next. ♪

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good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" live from new york. it's 5:00. let's get to work. how would dr. king see the current racial situation in america? >> it took guts to do that then. and it's going to take guts to finish the job now. >> it is the collapse of the traditional family that is wreaking havoc in the african-american community. >> i stand here today in this sacred place in my father's footsteps. >> the other issue is racial profile acvoter identification requirements. while somewhat important are