according to the spanish the maya offered blood to appease their gods. maya nobles committed excruciating acts of self-mutilation. here, a woman pulls a rope embedded with thorns through her tongue. by spilling blood, the nobles believed they could communicate with powerful ancestral spirits. this monument commemorates another bloodletting -- but whose ? stuart: in the glyphs that follow, we have the name of the person who is the subject of the sentence -- the one who let the blood. and in this case it's the king of copan. he has various titles that tell us that, for instance, here -- the number "13" -- that he was the thirteenth king in the sequence. now lastly, we have the personal name of the king. and you can see here another number using, in this case, three dots with three bars being 18. and then finally a head of an animal, which is a rabbit. and this is the name of "18 rabbit." keach: "18 rabbit" -- an odd name. but he was one of copan's greatest kings. he reigned from a.d. 695 to 738. on monuments, he's portrayed as a great warrior and shown to c

keach: bacabs and powatuns were the maya gods who held up the earth and the sky. they were also the patrons of scribes. bacabs wearing a star were found carved on a throne in a large house near the workshop. the house belonged to an important noble thought to have been a scribe. was the star being made for him ? the artisan's workshop is right next door to the house of the noble. was there some kind of relationship between the two ? there were not yet enough clues until preparations began for the reconstruction of the workshop, directed by project architect rudy larios. when larios began digging into the foundation, he made a startling discovery. interpreter: on dismantling the wall, we quickly found some stones that appeared very strange and a small slope in the west part of the room. when we investigated further we found this. keach: larios had discovered a hidden tomb beneath the artisan's workshop. the tomb had been reused at various times and several bodies were discovered, one on top of the other. the skeletons were removed from the tomb and taken to the lab

in copan, the captive would have been taken to a temple in the west court and sacrificed to the maya gods of the underworld. linda schele believes the ritual involved hundreds of people in a public ceremony of sacrifice and dance. the image of the dance has people dressed in the most incredibly elaborate costumes. it's almost like if you've ever seen the mummers dance in the thanksgiving day parade with the great feather fans around them. it was just like that. only these were iridescent green quetzal feathers. there would have been musicians. they would have played drums this high... turtle shells with deer horns. they had great rattles like this. they had long wooden trumpets. they had whistles of all sorts so that the whole place would have been filled with this incredible cacophony of sound. at the right moment, the king would pull a stingray spine through his tongue or cut through his genitals and pull paper or pull rope through it to draw the blood. some of the captives would have been sacrificed up above and thrown down to this part of the ceremonies. others of them the king himsel

. >> jon: how "in god's name" did a 21-year-old kid end up getting a mentor like maya angelou. >> "in god's name," i do not know. what i can tell you is i'm he internal-- eternally grateful. i believe gratitude is thity-- i'm forever traitful she allowed me in her space. by the time i met her she was an international icon. i ran for city council ins will and less-- . >> jon: all right tragically sad. >> i ran for city counciler when i was a 20 svming i lost that race. it is laughable now to think that i thought my life was over then. but when the only thing that you think you were born to do, you fail at you don't know what is next in your life. >> jon: right. >> so in that moment when i didn't know what my next step was i couldn't find my own voice i didn't know where mi place was in the world i get this invitation out of the blue to go to africa for two weeks with maya angelou. and all i did for two weeks was carry her bags around africa. i kid you not. i carried her bags around. it was the most sublime and joyful experience i've ever had to be exposed to that kind of mind. this is

god sent a rainbow in the sky. and we are the rainbow children of maya angelou. alison: the stamp generate some controversy because of the inclusion of the quote widely atriblta attributed to angelou. it turns out it comes from a book of poems written by another author. and she is considered one of the funniest minds of the generation. leon: that's right. still ahead here find out why some people in lucille ball's hometown are not laughing about one tribute. reporter: how much is too much to spend on a county animal shelter? i'm chris papst. we'll tell you how that question is being alison: "7 on your side" tonight as a proposed $4 million animal shelter in spotsylvania county is coming under fire. leon: "7 on your side" investigator chris papst reports tonight some county leaders say they think the money could better be spent elsewhere. chris: spotsylvania county has a bit of a problem. its current animal shelter has grown too small, can't be expanded and needs costly repairs. so a new, no kill shelter based on humane society's specs has been proposed. but an es

god bless chicago. amy: and we will speak with broadcaster tavis smiley about his new book, "my journey with maya." maya angelou: you may try todod me in the very dark, but still like dust, i rise. amy: all that and more coming up. ♪ welcome to democracy now democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a white south carolina police officer has been charged with murder after a video showed him shooting and apparently unarmed aspen american man who was running away. this happened after north charleston police officer michael slager stopped walter scott for a broken brake light. slager is seen a shooting at scott eight times as he runs away. walter scott's brother, anthony, is grateful for the witness again forward with the video. anthony scott: from the beginning when it happened the first day, i always wondered. and i think through the process we see the truth. and we cannot get my brother back, and my family is in deep mourning for that, but through the process of justice has been served and i do not think that all police officers are bad cops. but there are some bad ones out there,

maya angelou postage stamp. they believe a fire in a maryland sub station is the cause. >>> rand paul announces his run for president for 2016. >> today i announce with god's help with the help of liberty lovers everywhere, that i am putting myself forward as a candidate for president of the united states. [cheers and applause] >> paul now the second candidate to fishily announce his campaign. leland vitter is live for us. good morning, leland. >> good morning to you. with a little more than four years in the senate, rand paul has positioned himself as an outsider despite his credentials. he remains a mix of libertarianism. he strikes a different tone than many of his republican competitors. a doctor by trade, he says that his message will appeal to a variety of voters. >> fu raise defense spending, which i do think we need defense spending, i would cut domestic spending the exact same amount. there are conservatives, several of them who are running or may run who say increase defense costs at all costs but i don't care if you pay for it. >> he opens himself up from conservative hawks who say he is weak in the area. >> rand paul supports president obama's