in their sacrifices and in their moral strength and moral center. they find a motive for their lives in the moral choices they make on what to do with life. tavis: there are two people who come to mind, i count myself as one of them. for the purpose of this conversation, there are two people who come to mind who you helped push to find their moral compass, to find their center. for all of the hubbub, there are books about jack kennedy. i was reading one the other day taking on chris matthews and others for the deification of jfk. they both started out on the wrong side of the civil rights question. their exposure with you and others helped to push them toward his better self. talk to me about the role you played in exposing them to find their own moral compass. >> bobby kennedy and john kennedy was troubling to those of us caught up in the adventure of the civil rights movement. from a technical point of view, everything we wanted to do was dependent on the federal government. the laws that oppressed us the most severely were laws of the state. the

those are all moral issues and that's the influence i think of the religious community.frican american clergy have joined in on this and want to get more involved and they see it as an extension of the civil rights movement. >> and this is the 25th anniversary of the catholic bishops' very important statement at the time, economic justice for all. and some of us at georgetown went back and were talking about this, and in a lot of ways that statement from 25 years ago parts of it could be a manifesto for this movement demanding economic justice. >> but do you hear in all this something that not only protests what we have, but that goes on to say that we ought to change it, fundamentally change the system, the political system, the economic system. is that in there, too or not? >> well, i think the i mean the occupy movement has been very consciously not about particular demands, some people have criticized them for that, although i think historically a lot of movements change things not by putting up a program but by saying we need to move in a different direction. but i

morales. >> no puede ser que vengan y lo quieran sacar, porque se le antoja a una autoridad., la democracia en bolivia hace muchos aÑos que estÁ y no la vamos a dejar morir. >> bronca porque se burla al pueblo, bronca porque se acaba la democracia, frustraciÓn porque ha habido un atropello brutal. >> legisladores del oficialismo lo sorprenderÁn! >> tiene que rendir cuenta de los recursos del estado! >> se sumÓ la decisión de la noticia, del departamento de santa cruz para que declare sobre la causa. >> lo que me preocupa es la democracia. >> el gobernador que sigue en el puesto. >> la detenciÓn de costas podrÍa hacerse efectiva en los primeros dÍas de enero. >> en mÉxico otro resbalÓn del peso frente al dÓlar. se compra a 13 pesos! >> va a estar inalcanzable para cualquiera. >> la terminal aÉrea, lo adquieren en un mÍnimo de $ 18. cuando regresemos estaremos en la ciudad de belÉn. detalles del ataque suicida en afganistÁn que causÓ la muerte de 13 personas. al volver contamos todo! ♪ >> vela en ese centro del mundo. belÉn, los turistas han invadido las calles. se encuentra y

morales. >> no puede ser que vengan y lo quieran sacar, porque se le antoja a una autoridad.emocracia en bolivia hace muchos aÑos que estÁ y no la vamos a dejar morir. >> bronca porque se burla al pueblo, bronca porque se acaba la democracia, frustraciÓn porque ha habido un atropello brutal. >> legisladores del oficialismo lo sorprenderÁn! >> tiene que rendir cuenta de los recursos del estado! >> se sumÓ la decisión de la noticia, del departamento de santa cruz para que declare sobre la causa. >> lo que me preocupa es la democracia. >> el gobernador que sigue en el puesto. >> la detenciÓn de costas podrÍa hacerse efectiva en los primeros dÍas de enero. >> en mÉxico otro resbalÓn del peso frente al dÓlar. se compra a 13 pesos! >> va a estar inalcanzable para cualquiera. >> la terminal aÉrea, lo adquieren en un mÍnimo de $ 18. cuando regresemos estaremos en la ciudad de belÉn. detalles del ataque suicida en afganistÁn que causÓ la muerte de 13 personas. al volver contamos todo! ♪ >> vela en ese centro del mundo. belÉn, los turistas ha invadido las calles. se encuentra y nos cue

i do not believe in christian morality. i think it is a corrupt morality. i think it is bad. i do not believe you are your brother's keeper. i do not believe you belong to anybody else. i believe in the morality of rational long-term self- interest. i think your own responsibility is to your own happiness, rationally pursue the of the long term. i do not believe and sacrifice. i do not believe your job is to take care of other people. i believe one of our jobs is to take care of ourselves, make our lives flourish. i want to ask the opposite question. what is the morality that says that i cannot accumulate beyond a certain amount of wealth? what if i am selling products that you guys love so much that you keep buying, and you buy more and more, and i make a profit? why do we live in a country where making wealth, creating value for people, trading what people value for value, is somehow despicable morality? giving it away after you have made it is good. if you want to make bill gates a sane, do you know what he would do? he would give it all away and given to attend. then we w

i do not believe in christian morality. i think it is a corrupt morality. i think it is bad. i do not believe you are your brother's keeper. i do not believe you belong to anybody else. i believe in the morality of rational long-term self- interest. i think your own responsibility is to your own happiness, rationally pursue the of the long term. i do not believe and sacrifice. i do not believe your job is to take care of other people. i believe one of our jobs is to take care of ourselves, make our lives flourish. i want to ask the opposite question. what is the morality that says that i cannot accumulate beyond a certain amount of wealth? what if i am selling products that you guys love so much that you keep buying, and you buy more and more, and i make a profit? why do we live in a country where making wealth, creating value for people, trading what people value for value, is somehow despicable morality? giving it away after you have made it is good. if you want to make bill gates a sane, do you know what he would do? he would give it all away and given to attend. then we w

the idea that debt and morality is the same thing. look at world history ended is impossible to find a money lender who is not represented as evil. how do you swear that? there is a fundamental in coherence behind the way we talk about these things. the historical legacy of systems of violence we are no longer able to see strikes me that the most powerful way invented to take a relation of fear and coercion and make it seem moral -- a conqueror -- i could kill you and didn't so you owe me your life. therefore you owe me. i will tell you how much you owe me. i am allies guy who let you off the hook. after that you better give up the money. suddenly the guy who's the victim is running around feeling like a chump all the time. you turn the moral relation around. the only real reply is who oppose what to? will moment you say that you're using the language of that. they have to use the language of that because it is the language of people running things but they use it to slowly blow away and say that morality is something else. they have

what's a moral victory? if you're looking for a bright spot in this game, has to be the running back, roy helu, his third straight, 100-yard game. the first redskins rookie running back to ever do that. hakem, that's it, from the locker room. 4-9 redskins. what more do you need to see? >> we'll see you tonight on "redskins final." >>> big-time boxing in washington last night. main event, phenomenal, even if it was a little controversial. peterson upsets amir khan. the new championship of the world. ninth round, check it out here. huge upper cut by peterson. then watch this. the right hook to the head. and then a body shot. oh, wow. 12th round, still a close fight. here's the controversy. khan pushes peterson, the referee deducts a point. cooper not having a good round there, because the second time he did that in the match, khan said he felt like he was fighting two people in the ring. here's the decision, lamont, the new champ of the world. what helped lamont peterson win, his power punches. he landed 188 t

morality is most important because the the soldier can do so much good or so much bad. by no means will my conscience objection eliminate the need for militaries tomorrow but the goal is to create a society that moves ever toward that. peace is not a utopian vision it can happen but it takes people willing to commit both their faith and their practical efforts to achieving it and you're not going to achieve that by constantly falling back on yesterday's wrong solution. you have to have the guts to try something new. and. people who are applying for conscience objection and refusing military service are saying i have a different picture of tomorrow's humanity and i want to be involved in creating that. no one really wants to go to war but you know sometimes something's came into what it. was all about. like all different cultures if i feel. as well as there's one person try to take the power from some other person a force it isn't always be war. well maybe we are night. maybe it starts out me naive and then you know as more people become conscious objectors as more peopl

is our special report on the tough decisions a soldier sometimes has to make the life and death the moral dilemma of shooting to kill that's coming up and soldiers of conscience. thought. oh the upper good reason why i joined the army. i mean easy for my recruiter i say i want to shoot a machine going to jump out of a plane right here. i was raised on american pie i was a cradle conservative i was voted most likely to succeed most conservative when nickname among a lot of my friends was g.i. josh and i wanted to defend my country and i tried to listen to marines or that a high school that hurt playing football so join the national guard and then end up going to west point and being a commissioned officer. put it bluntly i'm a patriotic son of a gun i love this country it's done some great things for me about some great opportunities both my grandfathers fought in world war one my father fought a war to head off of the far korea because it was the fall in vietnam or so there's been a family member in the military since there's been a country. at some point every soldier has to face the que

i believe it not to be only morally correct but -- not only morally correct but most desired and to give that up to be anointed by your product, there is no bargain here. i will just be who i am. tavis: you have done the remarkably well. for the 85 years now. 85 years young. harry belafonte is an authentic american hero. i have had him on this program 22 years. the documentary gets into more texture about his life. go to hbo and pick up the new book, "my song". it details of life very much lived until this moment. if i were ever to marry a man, it would be you. >> i am glad i can compete. vis: that is our show until tonight. until next time, keep the faith. i am so heartened ♪ >> one day at a -- one-was on stage. paul robeson came to see me. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with kerry mulligan and shelby lynn. that is next time. we will see you then. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all

bill and not say that you have a moral obligation to make sure that we're funding that's been. how much is that for me every year the increase it hits us because the price of oil isn't all that it's used to give subsidies for air conditioning i mean it's not something it's all very much for giving a system if you want to look at who to blame how about the democrats aren't the democrats controlling the senate do you think president obama's going to veto this bill i don't think so i don't think it's that role in the price of oil they control the senate they control the agenda they wrote the bill carl levin how are levin is the is the chairman going to give that you're going to get you're going to get an increase in the heating assistance program for low income people through the house of representatives with paul ryan and enjoying always early in the republicans even though democrats control this all fall if only legislation has to originate out how is this has nothing to do why does the president veto it if it's so bad if he's got a problem having our present to be telecast has

core, mitt romney has no moral core? let me make this point about what happened last night. last night, governor romney said that the epa was the president's tool to crush the private enterprise system. when he was governor of massachusetts he boasted he had the toughest rules against co2 emissions from plas that he had the toughest rules when it comes to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, and now it's like that never happened. now he's on the other side of it. this is the reason i suppose why he and his aides absconded bit the hard drives from their computers when they left the governor's office, because they think they can just erase the past. what you said before, doesn't matter now. and so yes, when it comes to his public character, he doesn't have a core. it has nothing to do with his personal life. i honor his personal life, respect his personal life. this is about how you behave in the public arena. >> republicans will make the point that your political past and the obama campaign of 2008, this is standa

deficits are moral issues. how you resolve them is a moral issue as well. cannot take the deficit on the backs of the poor. how you do it is a moral test. host: jeffrey in washington, thank you for waiting. caller: it is a wonderful to have this program where americans can call in and be part of this wonderful conversation. i would like to give you a little background about myself. i am a poor, white man, 45 years old, conservative my whole life. first of all, i'd kill myself as a christian man -- i bill myself as a christian man. the founding of the country was based on christian values, not that they are perfect or absolute. but from the beginning document, the thought before the beginning document, all these ideas were being filtered through christian values. they were not as arbitrary as some people think. they were set in stone. that would be the right way to refer to them. they were written before we were here. our morals and standards that were supposed to conduct -- they are morals and standards that we are supposed to conduct ourselves with. we can

. >> people who may not agree meet or rise to certain moral standards they have their politicians up held to, in that sense the argument may be true. >> is it us, the media, or is it the public's moral standard? we have seen the shift that we in the media tolerate all kinds of things in washington when probably public morality was at a higher level than it is today. there is a much greater tolerance for personal conduct today. in everything except politics. there is less tolerance for diversion in morals and politics then there is in everyday life. >> i think that is true. culture has changed in that sense. the role of the public and the role of the media, have both played a role in that change of dynamics there. certainly in terms of journalism, there is still a got-you attitude, ever since the early nixon years, in terms of watergate. that has bled into journalism in terms of reporting those types of facts and details that, as you point out, was not a case in the 1960's, for example. >> what do you think? >> going back to the blogs, it is this paparazzi-style tabloid reporting in s

deficits are moral issues. how you resolve them is a moral issue as well. you cannot take the deficit on the backs of the poor. how you do it is a moral test. host: jeffrey in washington, thank you for waiting. caller: it is a wonderful to have this program where americans can call in and be part of this wonderful conversation. i would like to give you a little background about myself. i am a poor, white man, 45 years old, conservative my whole life. first of all, i'd kill myself as a christian man -- i bill myself as a christian man. the founding of the country was based on christian values, not that they are perfect or absolute. but from the beginning document, the thought before the beginning document, all these ideas were being filtered through christian values. they were not as arbitrary as some people think. they were set in stone. that would be the right way to refer to them. they were written before we were here. our morals and standards that were supposed to conduct -- they are morals and standards that we are supposed to conduct ourselves with. we

folks, i don't need to tell you what this would do to morale. say a staff sergeant and his bomb-sniffing dog begin to have feelings for each other. at first they keep it professional but soon their nightly patrols are turning into moonlit walks. before long no one else in the squad wants to be in the shower when they're soaping each other up. because now it seems weird. next up, homosexual penguins. for years... where's my bullwhip. [whipping noise] thank you. let's be consistent with our theme. [laughter] for years i have warned you about these depraved aquatic avians. for six years now two male penguins named harry and petter have lived together as a nesting couple at the san francisco zoo, making them the second gayest birds america has ever seen. now, folks, it's not just san francisco now. gay penguins have appeared in germany, china and toronto. it's so bad they've even inspired a hit children's book "and tango makes three," which paves the way for such sordid future titles like "good night morals" and "green eggs and dan." but finally, fi

>> isn't the morality of capitalism capital?idual to buy a house with no money and no job, have you not corrupted capitalism? if you allow a bank to sell $700 trillion, that's a "texas," of idle credit speculation with no collateral, no money, have you not corrupted the morality of capitalism? is it the morality of capitalism capital? >> you have to put yourself in the game. you have to put skin in the game. and the problem is, i hear my grandfather saying this in my own mind, we learned this once before. why do you think glass-steagall put a wall between commercial banking and personal banking? when that wall was taken down, the whole framework fell apart, and here we are, right back where he was in the great depression. >> and the 1920s was an issue of leverage. people w

the problem with reflexive fire training is it does bypass their moral decision making process so as in previous wars before we had this kind of training a soldier would look at a target and think through you know thinking through should i shoot this person ok now i'm going to shoot what i think's time that's dangerous. when you train a reflexive lee don't they learn to make those decisions much more quickly but the price of that is they're not thinking through the great moral decision of killing another human being. we sleep comfortably in our beds at night because a violent men do violence on our behalf when i first read that i thought to myself i'm the person who allows people to sleep comfortably in their beds at night but hadn't actually gone to do the violence yet. i grew up in an evangelical household in eventual christian household i grew up hearing stories about the nobility of service. and war is not fought by or for ideas it was thought by individual persons it was that's human will. liberty and democracy were not necessarily in the forefront of my mind i was first told to