our guest today on whitney dialogues at the first amendment center has been andres serrano. i'm ken paulson, back next week with another conversation about the first amendment, the arts and america. i hope you can join us then for speaking freely. captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. captioning by captionmax www.captionmax.com yeah. that's it. [off-key notes] announcer: you don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent. when you adopt a child from foster care, just being there makes all the difference.

first amendment. they're expressing their religious beliefs. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children. captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. welcome to a special edition of speaking freely exploring how protest and the first amendment came into play during the civil rights and antiwar movements. i'm ken paulson. my cohost today is john seigenthaler, a highly respected journalist who also served as special assistant to attorney general robert f. kennedy during the civil rights movement. after retiring from newspapers, john went on to found the first amendment center. john and i are delighted to welcome a pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist whose recent book, called the children, focuses on the work of courageous young people in the civil rights movement, and whose earlier book, the best and the brightest, was the definitive study of american policy in vietnam. david halberstam. [applause] i have to ask the first and most basic question. you graduate from harvard in 1956. five. '55. with great distinction. no, i was a terrible student. [laughter] i was in the bottom third of my class. t

first amendment. they're expressing their religious beliefs. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children. captioning provided by the freedom forum first amendment center welcome to speaking freely, a weekly conversation about the first amendment, the arts, and american culture. i'm ken paulson, executive director of the first amendment center. today, we'll discuss one of the most powerful and provocative songs of the past century. the song is strange fruit, and it's the subject of a new book by our guest, david margolick. welcome. thank you, ken. are there other books out there about a single song? i'm familiar with dave marsh's take on louie louie, but this has to be an unusual premise for a new book. i don't think there are very many. i think there's a book about amazing grace, and i'm told there's a book in the works about we shall overcome. but i think there really aren't many songs that you could write entire books about. this is one of the few. and this was not a tough sell to a publisher because they saw your piece in vanity fair. they saw the piece in vanity fair, and they thought that it could be expanded upon into a book. and it certainly wo

first amendment. they're expressing their religious beliefs. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children. captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. welcome to speaking freely, a conversation about free speech and america. i'm ken paulson. our guest today is a highly respected actress, activist, and citizen; susan sarandon, welcome. thank you. i know you've spent your entire career, your entire life balancing art and activism. when was the first hint that you would some day be the kind of woman who was arrested for her beliefs? well, i was--i was just lucky to come of age at a time when your, i think, natural sense of need for justice and need for equality and all those things had issues that were very clear. i mean, there was the war. there was, you know, the rise of women wanting equal pay. there was voter registration in the south, desegregation. and there wasn't quite as much ability-- at that time, the media wasn't owned by just a handful of people, and so you were getting a lot of views, and they hadn't yet figured out not to allow the press in. so you had pictures. you had-- part of being young

first amendment. they're expressing their religious beliefs. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children. captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. welcome to speaking freely, a weekly conversation about free expression, the arts, and america. i'm ken paulson. since the founding of jefferson airplane in 1965, our guest has produced an extraordinary body of music, sometimes popular, sometimes provocative, sometimes both. we're delighted to welcome rock and roll hall of fame member paul kantner. [applause] not long ago, paul, the washington post called you "the political conscience and space cadet of the jefferson airplane." do you plead guilty as charged? oh, and more. were you really the political force behind a very political band? no, no, we're a very apolitical band, if you really analyze it. and--we have the luxury of coming from san francisco, which is very nutritious for off-the-beam, off-the-normal-beam kind of people and nurtures them, really, in its own way. and we, in contrast to, say, berkeley, for example, in the '60s or the s.d.s. or the weathermen, chose and got away with creating our o

first amendment. they're expressing their religious beliefs. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children. captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. welcome to speaking freely, a weekly conversation about free expression and america. i'm ken paulson. today we'll look at the history of comic book censorship. our guests today include wendy pini of elfquest, joe quesada of marvel comics, and carmine infantino, the former publisher and president of d.c. comics. welcome to you all. (man) thank you. [applause] well, what a great lineup, and we've got folks with every possible perspective on comic books here. just by way of background, there is something called the comics code that is on comic books, most of the comic books i grew up reading-- many of which were illustrated by carmine-- had the comics code authority approval on it, which basically said this comic book has been sanitized for your protection. every comic book we read as kids was censored in some way for our own good so we would not grow up warped in any way, and all of this was inspired by a guy named dr. fredric wertham, who wrote a really in

first amendment. they're expressing their religious beliefs. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children. captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. our guests today are the creators of south park, matt stone and trey parker, and larry divney, the president and ceo of the show's home: comedy central. it's great to have you here. i--we're sitting here at the u.s. comedy arts festival, and i've got this program in my hand. and here we go. "freedom in the arts, honoring norman lear, gary trudeau, oliver stone, matt stone, and trey parker." was that pretty much your intent, become a living legend in free expression here? yeah, i think-- this is pretty heavy company here. do you like that picture of us? yeah, when matt and i were, like, 20, i said, "matt, how can we be honored someday for anything?" and we figured, "let's do a cartoon and go that route." so it's-- "how can i be in the same room with oliver stone-- and not at the playboy mansion?" [laughter] where would i be? norman lear was here earlier and talked about how much he enjoyed your show. and he sits down with a nephew, i guess, and he says the

captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. captioning by tate at captionmax www.captionmax.com >> about four years ago, [inaudible] look at how beautiful this was. there is our relationship to the planet. these regions are the wealthiest, the most powerful. that really has impacted the planet. it is almost impossible now to go anywhere and had it really be completely dark. there are very few locations that you can find. that means our relationship to the sky, there is a way where we dominate the sky. we cannot see anything really. we are blinding ourselves in a way. >> you can look at the images, they are beautiful. when i started four years ago, there was a conversation about environmental issues that was very different. this is not being talked about in the way it is now. . this has just been like an amazing growth. i anticipate the project to be something that opens a dialogue to public interest in these ideas. so the work is really made to be seen in this environment. it's been show in museum, in gallery, but never in a pu

amendment, i will be your first backer. i think that what is happening to a huge number of children in this country, and in particular poor minority children in urban centers, is a crime. they are not getting the education they deserve. you see parents across the country who are incredibly frustrated because of what they are seeing happen in the school district. you see teachers themselves who are incredibly frustrated with the system itself. should that be the right of every child in our nation? 100%. part of the problem in talking about the resources is you look at places like washington, d.c., or newark, new jersey. they are spending $20,000 per child. that is a lot of money. the problem with those places is not are the resources there. it is a question of how the resources are being spent. that, i think, is what we need accountability around, making sure taxpayer dollars are being spent on the things that are going to matter the most for kids. tavis: i want to close by asking after you -- after what you have already been through, why do you remain hopeful about the idea that we can't ever get our arms around this crisis? >> i believe in the children of

first amendment right, and in the case of citizens united, even for corporations, unions and trade associations, is their paramount interest. >> open secrets.org. sheila krumholz is our director. she is from the center of -- good morning. caller: good morning. i think the revolving door is important, but i think money is even more important. in other words, the public unions give money to the politicians, then the politicians give a sweetheart deal to the people that gave the money, and then that money goes round and round and round. but i think the outside group even more important is the universities. 90% of the university professors are presumed to be liberal. the people who are then hired by c-span and others because they went to the liberal colleges, it is understandable they are liberal because they never thought it through as to exactly what is the truth and what is fair and what we really know is -- i have 12 grandchildren. nobody ever teaches them about eternal life. in other words, our life on this life is so short compared to eternity, and eternity is so beautiful compared to the struggles and the wars and all of the nitty-gritty that we have in this life. so i think that the universities

with another conversation about the first amendment, the arts, and american culture on speaking freely. captioning provided by the freedom forum first amendment center. captioning by tate at captionmax www.captionmax.com >> thanks for coming today. we are announcing are temporary homeowner's property tax reduction program. this is what most assessor's up and down the state are doing. homeowners are reliable -- of all property owners are eligible for a temporary, 1-year property-tax assessment reduction if they believe or if we believe dave -- the assess the value has fallen above their market value, which means that the value would be lower than the market value. in general, homeowners who are eligible, chances are, they purchased homes after 2003. we do get applicants who have owned homes since 1995 or earlier. in general, anybody who is owned their home prior to 2003, they are doing well, which is good news. chances are the market value is higher than the assessed value, meaning the property appreciate it. people we are able to offer little relief for, the sad news is, their homes have depreciated. there will be a little bit of relief for them. in