now, i can imagine what my good friend frank smith said because he and i are long-time friends and frank gave me an opportunity to introduce one of my first bills in the congress, a bill that i'm especially proud of that led to the establishment of the first and i suppose still only memorial to the african-americans who fought in the civil war. frank has been prodigious in the way in which he has expanded learning about the civil war and about african-american participation and the work of -- and the memorial so that it is more than a memorial on u street itself but a museum as well. now, this 150th anniversary of the civil war of course is being observed across the country in many ways. i especially appreciate that the -- that your forum, the conflict, preservation and resolution forum is presenting this opportunity today. it's going to be a four-year commemoration as such, but i can tell you that there has been little note taken of the ses kwen tenial in the congress. i introduced a resolution early on for the study of african-american life and study indicating that this was the 150th

frank smith has been eloquent about this and also president ayers. i think david blight's sorry of that era is exactly right and it's exactly what most of us haven't quite remembered. said david, the age of jim crow was not only the creation of aggressive southern legislature but the result of the north's long retreat from the legacies of a long war. amen to that. perhaps the most discretional era in american history, that era post 1865 in which with the politicians on both sides of the mason-dixon, african-americans were subjected once again to something like a slavery. that it seems to me is a kind of memory that needs at least the empirical realism and the rep t repentant spirit. by way we justify our ways acting toward each other. i'm not sure whether i made it within 15 minutes, joe, but that's my take on it. [ applause ] >> my pleasure and honor to introduce honorable eleanor noorton. congresswoman now in her 11th term as a congresswoman of the district of columbia is the ranking member of the house subcommittee on economic development of the b

speakers include yale professor david blithe, edward air, and frank smith who heads the civil war memorial and museum. this two-hour event took place at the johns hopkins school for advanced international studies in washington, d.c. >>> i'd like to just start with -- with david blithe, and then we'll take it from there. >> thank you, joe, and thank you all for coming. thanks for inviting me on this panel. usually among historians, we are fragmented into writing about the south and north, the west, new england, women, black, native americans, whomever. it's great to actually be on a panel called species history. i like that. it's the human species, after all that's our subject. i've written a great deal about this problem of civil war memory. but all i'm going to try to do is place us somewhere and then just to try to trouble the water a little bit about what we actually mean by civil war memory and why it hasn't ever quite healed, perhaps. there was a speech made by the african methodist bishop in 1905, fanueil hall in boston, the 100th anniversary of the birth of william lloyd garrison, i

frank wolf. >> thank you, mr. smith. i think this administration has been a total failure and quite frankly, i think the groups around this country should know this and not pretend it is not true. christians in egypt should know this administration failed them. iraqy and syrians should know this administration failed them. the vietnamese in vietnam, both buddhists and catholics ought to know this administration failed them. the catholic bishops in china and the house church leader in china should know this administration failed them. the dalai lama ought to know this administration failed them. buddhist monks and nuns set themselves a name. i want to bring it back to this and i did not know you had made a request. i would like to ask both of the wives if they would say publicly, i see the media here looking, but what would you say because there is still an opportunity to meet after the vice president from china leaves. what would you say if you had an opportunity to meet with president obama and shame on them both if the

frank wolfe. >> i thank you, mr. smith. >> i think this administration has been a total failure. and quite frankly, i think all the groups around this country -- >> should know this and not pretend it is not true. the coptic christians in egypt should know this administration has failed them. iraqi and syrian, chaldean christians should know this administration has failed them. the vietnamese in vietnam, both buddhists and catholic ought to know this administration has failed them. and of course, the catholic bishops in china and the protestant house house jewish leaders in china should know that the administration has failed them. and the dalai lama should know that this administration has failed them. 11, 11 now buddhist monks and nuns have set themselves aflame. but i want to bring it back to this. and i did not know that you had made a request, i would like to ask both of the wives if they would say publicly, i see the media here looking. what would you say, because there's still an opportunity to meet after the vice president from china leaves. what would you say if you had

frank wolf. >> i want to thank you mrs. smith and senator brown for your work on these issues. i do have a statement i want to read and say. i woke this morning to read a powerful but thoroughly unsettling piece by chinese dissident yujia in "the washington post." he said chinese dissident exiled to the west today get a very different response than soviet writers received not long ago. i would go further that mr. yu. chinese defectors get a very different response as evidenced by a story that broke days ago about a senior communist party official in china that reportedly attempted to defect to the u.s. and was turned away after his request for asylum was rejected. the soft-spoken man who i recently met endured beatings and torture from chinese secret police. he asserts china is a greater threat than the soviet union ever was but now the west lacks visionary politicians such as ronald reagan to stand up to that threat. i could not agree more. in fact, just last week, along with a number of other members, we urged president obama in a letter signed by a number of members to do wh

frank church. john sherman-cooper, eugene mccarthy. margaret k smith, birch bayh and that's quite a cast of characters and those are names that many older americans remember today. of those names, which names pop out to you, and which have impressed you the most? >> let me say first in full disclosure, the narrative of the book focuses on the last years of the great senate, the late '70s, and then -- but the book is backlit by what happened before. my basic argument is that there was a great senate from the earl '60s through the '70s, so all those people you indicated are part of that. the ones that stand out most prominently in my memory would include hubert humphrey, who was perhaps one of the greatest senators of all time, although i think someone of a tragic figure because of what happened to him in-during the vietnam when he was vice president. but as senator he really invented the modern senator's role to some extent. he communicated the senate to the vast public on issues like nuclear disarmment and civil rights particularly, and he was one of t

frank. >> this is not the only time she hung out there. >> it was demented if you think about it. >> the videotape shows four individuals who are extremely mentally traumatizing another individual. >> local journalist jim smithe case from the start. >> this kidnapping is one of the strangest things i've ever covered. for me this is in the top four or five anyway of all the cases that i've covered in 20 years. so you had such diverse opinions on both side of this case. you had people who thought it was nothing and you had people who thought it was extremely serious. the community was totally split over whether these kids were the most evil thing that ever happened or they were just kids that pulled a prank. >> he said that they were going to bury me alive, they were going to slit my throat and they were going to leave me there and that i was going to die. o worth? ♪ imagine zero pollutants in our environment. or zero dependency on foreign oil. ♪ this is why we at nissan built a car inspired by zero. because zero is worth everything. the zero gas, 100% electric nissan leaf. innovation for the planet. innovation for all. that's how it is with alzheimer's disease. she needs help from me. and her medication. the