ron dellums, pat schroeder, tom hayden. humbled, and i hope in some way some of what i say can make a difference. i was just a soul brother from providence, rhode island. my parents fled the paralyzing racism of alabama and virginia and fled to rhode island, to the genteel racism in rhode island. [laughter] there, in new england, people say, "please screw," you know? [laughter] but my family was very strong, deeply rooted in faith and values of hard work and education, and in fact, a belief in this country, despite the racism, that we could in fact find equality, that we could in fact achieve progress and make a difference. unlike my parents, my brothers and sisters and i grew up in integrated neighborhoods. we went to integrated schools our whole life. it wasn't a ghetto. some of my best friends were irish and italian, armenian, chinese and jewish. it was a very different world for us as opposed to our parents. but when i was 10 years old in 1961, father died. we had a house fire. and in his attempts to put it out, he was

includes the former chair of the house armed services committee, first african-american to head it, pat schroeder, one of the youngest women ever elected to congress. you have to hear their stories in a session panel that took place a few weeks ago when we went down to washington for this amazing weekend on vietnam and the power of protest. you will watch some of it on memorial day as we remember. wayne smith also part of that broadcast. he is an army medic that went into south vietnam as we talk about the meaning of memorial day. these are the kinds of programs you get on a regular basis. you will see edward snowden, tom drake, who was persecuted by the obama administration. these are top-level nsa employees who were deeply concerned about what the nsa was doing, spying on americans. we will bring you a documentary called "the war on whistleblowers. we are in the chelsea manhattan. you can come in and drink in fair trade organic coffee, you bring a guest, watch the broadcast live. we tour you through democracy now, you meet the team that makes it happen. today you would have been hanging at buff

includes the former chair of the house armed services committee, first african-american to head it, pat schroedergest women