it's a great pleasure for us to have susan ford bales, daughter of president and mrs. ford, with us today. she is a highly articulate spokesperson on issues related to breast cancer and with her mother, betty ford, helped establish october as national breast cancer awareness month. susan has been extremely active with the betty ford center and its programs to address addictions and served as chairman of its board for five years. susan also has a very special role as the official ship sponsor of the "uss gerald r. ford" aircraft carrier cvn-78 that is under construction. this new ford class carrier will be christianed in 2013 and commissioned in 2015. susan is also a trustee of the ford presidential foundation and serves as co-chair of the foundation's program committee. she is an avid supporter of all we do at the library and museum and played the key role in convincing our speaker to fit this into his schedule today. along with her brother, steve, susan has stepped forward to represent the ford family at many events in grand rapids and across the country, giving very g

scholar who focuses primarily on american intellectual history susan has received numerous awards grants the guggenheim rockefeller and ford foundations as well as the national endowment for the humanities she started a writing career as a reporter for the washington post and has been a regular contributor for over twenty five years to publicly publications like the new york times magazine newsday the nation and alternate the most recent piece on alter net is entitled the ungodly constitution of the founders ensured america would not be a christian nation she's also the author of many critically acclaimed books including freethinkers history of american secularism and never say die the myth and marketing of the new old age susan joins me now from new york city susan welcome. nice to be talking to. i wish i could see you i wish you could too we've got to get a monitor there in new york thank you both so much for being with us under these circumstances you write a column called the spirited atheist at the on faith website published by the washington post i'm curious how did you arrive at atheism and secularism and what led y

i am honored to be here and the ford family is glad to be here and we have trustees from the family. my sister susan and my brother mike, if you guys would stand and say hello? [applause] i want to thank chris matthews for being here. i want to thank the winners. we are proud to have you here. every time i come over here, i think of all the stories you guys missed and did not cover. i was sitting at the head table and there was a story that dad and mom had a dog, liberty, a beautiful golden retriever and one night, liberty had to go use the facilities on the self lawn of the white house. she went over there and she nudged data and got him out of bed and he put his robe on and slippers and took the dog down the stairs, down the elevator to the diplomatic entrance at 2:00 in the morning. he goes out the diplomatic entrance with the dog and walks out on the sell lawn and a dog does its business and he turns around and the secret service had not realized he has left the building. [laughter] the next thing you know, dad is standing at the door because the door has been locked in his pajamas with the dog