sacramento mayor kevin johnson is a former nba star with a longstanding commitment to education. nded st. hope, a community development corporation to revitalize sacramento's inner city communities in part through education. as mayor, mr. johnson has made education a top priority. putting students first can make an incredible difference. take, for instance, patrick. i met patrick in my first month as a teacher near new orleans. when i came upon him violently beating another student. patrick was from new orleans but had moved up river post-katrina. tall, muscular, covered in tattoos, he looked fairly menacing, and he had a reputation to go along with it. he was a soon-to-be 18-year-old sophomore, in danger of falling further behind. he ended up in my class the next semester, and i learned he was a good basketball player. unfortunately, his poor grades and the fight had left him ineligible. however, our basketball coach and i promised patrick that if he worked hard and stayed out of trouble, not only would he be with on the team, he would graduate from high school. two years later p

crew, kevin johnson from juniper. these are all people who are not looking at partisanship but citizenship in addition to that, with 9% unemployment, 42 statements in america who have budget deficits, there's a crisis of confidence in america, and it's serious. we need a sense of urgency and we need leadership. it's about job creation and the economy. we can't get to that until the leaders in washington remove the uncertainty in america. >> so, when you say withhold political contributions, to everyone or -- >> i want -- >> what -- >> what i want to do is, we set up a website in the last 24 hours, which is upwardspiral2011.org. you can get information there. we're saying two things. please suspend your donations and your contributions to the incumbents in the administration and in congress until we have a long-term debt ceiling deal. we send a signal that the status quo is not working. there's a crisis in america. congress should not be in recess. and we've got to get the country going, getting back on the right track

sacramento mayor, kevin johnson, and former washington d.c. michelle rhee, talk about ideas they are implementing. it's about an hour and ten minutes. >> thank you michelle and mayor, this is one the most requested programs. thank you for being here and being part of it. let's start a little bit about both what you are doing in education, and would you give us your thoughts about what is the state of public education in america today? >> who's going first? she's the boss. the real answer is it sucks. i mean we're nowhere near where we need to be. there should be an out rage, there should be a national crisis. we should all be waving the flag and doing everything that we can. just think about this, the children that are in school today will be the first generation that are less educated than their parents. that to me is alarming that in the richest, most powerful country in the world, and we're losing our competitive advantage. secondly, when you think about this, if you go out, ten, twenty years, there's going to be 120 million jobs that are g

joe johnson young from riverside could not fulfill one of her wives linda's last wishes. that they be buried together at a veterans cemetery. this is not right. doctor kevinwas tragically killed this past thursday on his way to san francisco general hospital. he leaves behind his husband and two children who now, because of doma, essentially lose ride that would have gone to a heterosexual couple. for some reason, the congress of the united states when it passed doma in 1996, sought essentially to deny rights and benefits provided by the federal government to legally married same-sex couples. this must change. that's what this is all about. however, long it takes. we will achieve it. thank you very much, mr. chairman,. >> thank you very much. our first witness is congressman john lewis. civil rights legend. is also a close personal friend. he is often referred to as the conscious of the congress. today, congressman lewis continues to be as he has, a powerful advocate of matters of quality. congressman lewis, please go ahead. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. chairman leahy and other members of the senate, i thank you for inviting me to testify before