Transcripts For CSPAN2 David Rubenstein The American Story 20240713

Phones were all theho rage. [laughter] facebook was founded the world war ii memorial was dedicated, george w. Bush was reelected president. Major League Baseball retur to washington as the Washington Nationals. [applause] fast forward 15 years the Washington Nationals are in the world series. [applause] and David Rubenstein is back as we all know cofounder as well as chairman of the board or the boards of trustees of the jfk center for performing arts. The Smithsonian Institution and the council on Foreign Relations and we all know he is a engaged in many many many other philanthropic activities too numerous to mention. David coined the phrase patriotic philanthropy with generous financing of the restoration of the historical landmark including the Washington Monument the Lincoln Memorial the Us Marine Corps war memorial Washington Library and monticello in montpelier and the arlington house also purchasing copies like the declaration of independence, the emancipation proclamation and magna carta to ensure they are publicly displayed in places like the smithsonian a National Archives. Of course we here at the Economic Club hear his entertaining interviewerha at the signature event and since 2016 as the host of Bloomberg Television as part of conversation he has become quite the television star. A lifelong historic history to follow his passion the american story conversations of master historians with his ongoing gifts to the nation to donate the proceeds to the library of Congress Literacy award. T [applause] now in his 12th year as president david has completed 133 interviews that has over 900 members we can surely say without speculation the Economic Club would not be what it is without david at the helm with a hearty round of welldeserved recognition and applause please welcome david to the stage as our extraordinary leader. [applause] thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Wow. For that undeserve a standing ovation. [laughter] but carla will interview me in a few minutes i wanted to set the stage for the background of the book let me say first and want to thank everybody for coming i realize im not as famous as the people we bring in for interviews thank you for giving me your evening and making it what it is my experience with the book i was asked by and wechsler if i would speak to the Economic Forum i said okay but i dont know what it is. [laughter] i wasnt invited back to speak again. So you may wonder how i got to be y the president. I wonder that myself. But like many elections in our country in smokefilled rooms but i got a call and asked if i could come see him in his office in new york. I said okay he said i will lock the door and make you say here until you become the president of the Economic Club washington. I said im not a member he said thats not a problem. [laughter] i agreed because hes very persuasive. Hes the type of person you can say no but eventually you will say yes its just easier to say yes in the j beginning so i said yes and that he said mary takes care of everything. And she does. [applause] all you have to do is get one business person perne quarter to come in and talk to the members and read the cards for the questions and thats it so i started to do that i realize most Business People i do word speakers nobodys looking and then the questions come up to members these are all members not current members and the questions werent very good. So i pretended i was reading the questions but i was making them up so that i went to the interview format. So let me just talk about leading to the book one is interviewing second is my interest philanthropy and third is my interest in history. I had a little background about a professional interviewer and thank you for coming. That what happened i started to draw people to our events nobody wanted to hear David Rubenstein speak. So i would get former secretary of state or former president s to come as a draw. They would come and that was 250,000 and it was not that great. So eventually i said what if i interview them and make it easier than people falling asleep . I said why dont i just interview them in the agent would say the same theme we dont care. [laughter] so why would interview them and it was livelier. So when i got to the Economic Club in washington i felt comfortable to do some of the interviews its fun to do it and then i have to make it withth some humor so that led to the show and some of you mayho have seen it. Is some of you that are members said why dont you do this on television for bloomberg . I said okay i didnt think it would happen that i talk to them they said we will put it on. I realize 60 minutes doesnt have that big of a feeling that they play at 20 times a week all over the world. [laughter] so i said whats the name of the show . Will call it the David Rubenstein show. I dont think along jewish name will work. [laughter] they said its not a problem. [laughter] okay. Thats what we do. So i began doing these interviews i enjoy it. I do read a lot and i do like to work on the questions that i dont use notes theres it but wheng with i do it is better to do it without it for me. So it works out pretty well so thats how i came to be the interviewer and then other places and now i find when i go to other places children are college kids or business kids see me they think thats all i do. So thats all ive known for now so let me talk about m philanthropy. I started carlisle with a couple of people in 1987 it turned out we got lucky. We were qualified. We didnt have aun background i was compelled because the secretary of treasury and the Ford Administration left when carter became president he did something called leveraged buyout he put in a Million Dollars in two and a half years later he had 8 million. I said thats better than practicing law. [laughter] but i figured it was more profitable so i went down theow street and said your predecessor had a leveraged buyout of 80 million i will do the legal work and he said no. I asked a couple of other people if they would join and we raised 5 million in started in 1987 i was compelled to do it then because i led the First Company at the average age of 27 i read that 37 and so i thought if i dont do that nows we made a lot of mistakes and one of the largest in the world we came up with an idea. That private equity was mom and pop business. Because you were supposed to spend 100 percent of your time managing the fund that you raise to buy out the fund. And then to manage the fund and then do something else. And with the forgiveness is i wouldnt spend a hundred percent of my time because of the fidelity of private equity to buy out the fund and then to build a large organization. And then to go overseas. And that novelty and then Forbes Magazine like everybody standards except bill gates so if you have a lot of money what do you do with it . If i say i will give you hundred Million Dollars tomorrow youll laugh for a moment so then what do you do you will buy a plane and a bow and a couple houses that you have 89 and a halfmillion [leftsquarebracket what do you do . So when you have this amount of money you can only do a limited amount of things with it. But its the same dilemma you can be barreled with it like the pharaohs and build a pyramid but thats not a great idea second give it to your children which is what most people historically have done. Theres nothing run on wrong with that one of my kids are here i should say thats a good idea. [laughter] but theres no evidence of a child inheriting a billion dollars wins nobel prize. So then you get down to you can give itow away after you pass away. Im not sure if i passed away i would be in a place to see what the executor was doing then bill gates called me and said can i come to your office . We had lunch and then we started the giving pledge i said i would be happy to be one of the first people so historically most people give it away to Educational Institutions and cultural institutions i have done that but one thing happened by happenstance that is often the best things if i said what can i do with my money with an Educational Institution they may have said in a couple months to say that happenstance. As you heard i was replying back from london to new york and i was looking at a viewing of the magna carta so whats it doing in new york . I got there to go to the viewing there were 17 copies of his first ones done in 1715 theres a couple versions one is in the australian utrliament and british institutions and one was bought by ross perot thats been in their position roughly 500 years give up their land or the magna carta they gave up the magna carta ross perot said over his lawyer and bought it for 1 million he goes back to customs they say what is in there he says the magna carta they say go through that actually thats what happened they put it in the archives and then tried to sell it i was told the curator would sell that to somebody overseas andnd i knew it was an inspiration for the declaration of independence because there were so many things that led to our declaration of independence itke no taxation without representation so i thought one of these copies so i resolved i would buy it the next night that was a little presumptuous so i didnt tell anybody i wasnt the person that went to some of these that much they said you come here youth will bid and then you start bidding if youve ever been to these s auctions you get carried away and then i start bidding then eventually they said sold. The head is said to be said who are you never seen you before. [laughter] and that you just bought the magna carta. So we slipped out the sid door nobody will know who bought it or you can tell these hundreds of reporters i said i dont mind i came from very modest circumstances my father worked at a post office and i got very lucky in my Business Career so i will give this to the United States government to give back to the country so that i went to dinner that night and said im sorry im late i just had to buy the magna carta. [laughter] the next day is on the front times he set up so sorry i didnt take you seriously nobodys come to my house before to buy the magna carta maybe you have a seat at the National Archives but then i started to get calls. [laughter] but i realize i was asked to buy other rare copies like the emancipation proclamation and the declaration of independence and i realized if you put them on display the human brain is not yet so evil if you look at it at a computer slide you might go to the next slide but if you visit the realnd magna carta you are compelled to spend some time preparing for it to learn more about it or afterward you might be compelled to learn more so i thought maybe it a good idea if on display to do this because people would learn more about history and similarly whatt happened the earthquake affected the Washington Monument i asked them how much it cost to fix it they said to take a long time toid get the money i said all put up the money dont worry about the bureaucrats and said we will get it fixed in congress will put up half the money so congress did and we fixed it and now weve had some problems but the same thing with historic monuments. Or the Lincoln Memorial if it needs repair if they are in better shape people go to see them. Or prepare to learn more about it before they go there or afterwards. Why is this important . Here is a sad situation stem is very important. We want Stem Education but we have stopped teaching civics and history. We havent stopped but not as much as wes to and the result is you can graduate from any college today without taking an americanou history course and they have a history major without taking in American History course. Right now three quarter of americans cannot name the three branches of government one third cannot name one branch amazingly 20 percent of americans think treasure circuit 10 percent of collegee graduates judge judy is a member of the United States Supreme Court thats not the case. Survey was doneeca recently any naturalized americans in this audience . If youre naturalized you take a citizenship test you live in this country for five years then you take a test 100 questions you pass 60 you are sworn in. 90 percent of the people past the same test was given by the Woodrow Wilson foundation to citizens native born in all 50 states 49 out of 50 majority of native born americans only state past the people dont know as much about history then you run into the problem if you dont know about your past youll repeat the mistakes so one of the things im trying to do is to get people to do this through my philanthropy that we will talk about tonight with the library of congress dialogue so we will talk about how this led to the book. With an interested interest in philanthropy. [applause] paula was given an introduction before. And born in florida and the librarian of the city of chicago. Where he was in the past 22 years. And has done a spectacular job as library offia congress. Library of congress. [applause] first you tell everyone one of the secrets as a good library and i have the article. I said it doesnt work for everybody but it works for me but the best interviewers have notes. [laughter] because we have worked to gather. But when you were in baltimore. And i heard there were difficulties as a child. Checking out books remake thats true. So there was a library. So you could go get a library card and you could take out 12 books a week per guy would take out the 12 books and i would read them that day that id have to wait a week. s why would read 12 books a week then i would have to wait until the nextlde week. And you are legendary therefore that. I dont know but i read a lot of books. Your interest in literacy. Let me describe this. One of the great pleasures is my reading and reading books. And then you can be exposed to so many things. Reading tweets or newspapers or to read anything. But this is hard to believe that 14 percent of the adults in this country are t functionally illiterate. You are functionally illiterate you have a pretty good chance to be part of the criminal justice system. Two thirds of people in federal prison system are functionally illiterate. If you have 1,750,000 kids all large par are functionally illiterate with a will never recover or learn how to read. We will not solve the problem tonight but one of them people cant read. So i encourage people to read i also encourage them illiteracy is cant read. That 30 percent of College Graduates never read another book because it might be a newspaper and those that cant read books and those just two other things we really have to solve that problem. I understand you read hundreds of books a year quex. Its not that complicated. Not reading physics textbooks or chemistry books. I dont read novels i read books i know something about. History, biography and government and politics. I can read them pretty quickly. If i had to read a physicsm. M. Textbook i might read one book per year. Im reading things that i know and i have to forcefeed myself i have a lot of programs interviewing authors. It is discourteous if you dont read thehe book. So i like to read the book and that takes time so recently actually so my book is a light walkthrough history you can read it pretty easily so its a serious book in American History. And its a great book. And then by interviewing so thats one of my tricks. I have to ask you is that the literary equivalent . So hard back . [laughter] i would say i like to buy hardback books because i can carry them around they dont get crumbled up aswo much. I am not not opposed to paperback but with the Amazon Kindle i am technologically unsophisticated. My office with no. And then it would break right away. I like to go bookstores. And carry them around i knowm it looks strange but im old. Thats why i do it. Planes are not that big of a problem. [laughter] tt yes i like to carry books around as a secretary of the smithsonian he wrote a book recently with the african history Culture Museum but the book isn small print i said when you get older on the next edition so my thing is to make sure the print is big enough. I dont know if the eyes get worse but the print is smaller. If its decent size print as my book does. [laughter] you can get through it pretty quickly. And all the books i have ever read. And is a terrific collection. That some of you may have heard of it and that when the country was started there was no Printing Press. So people came over the puritans to massachusetts they said we dont want to be members of the Anglican Church werc are different so we have to own prayer books but they didnt know how to get one because they had no n Printing Press in the United States. So that came over 1635. And then with a prayer book. And then they were in financially troubled and so i bid to buy i paid the highest price ever paid for a book i didnt realize at the time that was true then the woman who was selling it said we didnt get half as much as that so i overpaid. [laughter] and thats an important part of my life. And the next book quex. Im on a lot of University Boards as of may oma matter , my Law School University of chicago, the Harvard Corporation im the only person who has ever wrote a book for card like this is embarrassingng so i recently got on the board of American Academy of arts and sciences and i have not written a book and its embarrassing. So eventually i thought i better get it done before my brain isnt working. So i thought we would do this series so i will describe how it came about. s include important to include so many things. And those where the Congressional Researcher. And then a way to engage in a different way. But those who dont know the library of congress is a a misnomer its really not just for congress. When john adams is president of the United States the authorization one authorization was from congress they authorize 5000 to buy 300 books or something so it was small and it was in the Congress Building in the capital. And in 1814 the canadians invaded the country. Now its the british. [laughter] the british invaded our country they burn the white house and they burned all the books. Jefferson it was always close to bankruptcy said he would sell his collection to the idbrary of congress which he did it was controversial many people didnt want to take it because he was not considered a christian but it ds and not as much as the son of god so they had to go through all of the titles to make sure nothing was in improper. So congress bought it 20000 that was the collection of the library of congress and really the library of the United States now it came in under budget. It is three big buildings and then jefferson and adams but then the official monument but members of congress because the Congressional Research service does a lot of research forot them. I like history and the library of congress ive been involved with the National Book festival with the chair that if anybodys been to it but the idea came from laura bush she was here with the inaugural party 2001 and said do you have a National Book festival here . Like we do b in austin . He said we dont yet but we will. [laughter] so they started that year it was on the mall then admitted to theov Convention Center now theres 200,000 people coming in and one day and 140 authors to autograph it spectacular its for free. So anyway i love the library of congress one of the things we could do is to help educate members of congress about history and as a member of congress theres one here. We have a member of congress or the smithsonian board. Please stand up. [applause] thank you very much for coming youre a great supporter of the smithsonian. Roger thank you. So the idea is i would find an appropriate person to interview we would ask them to bring one of their guests so we have been doing this more or less once a month when congress was in session we have a dinner, a reception where members can come and this is the interesting thing. Members of congress do not generally socialize with those of the opposite party. Occasionally but generally they dont. Not as much as they used to. So without the press being there they can mingle with the opposite party because we dont have as much legislation as we use to there is not as much interchange so they look at documents that relate to the author and then we come down and have a dinner members are encouraged to sit with the opposite house and party that i will interview like David Mccullough or people like that now we have had 40 we just had evan thomas on his book on Sandra Day Oconnor some of you may have heard of this book is terrific Sandra Day Oconnor turned over her family papers to evan thomas he went through them and discovered the Marriage Proposal from rehnquist to Sandra Day Oconnor. [laughter] Marriage Proposals were different in those days its like dear sandy how about getting married this year and she said no. [laughter] some actually start off with those types of questions. Your first interview. Thats right. With the first one he wrote a book on jefferson hes a terrific scholar now the head of the foundation so what i tried to do is interview them in 45 minutes the members can ask questions and i added one person named john roberts he is not as well known to members of congress as he should be but they dont spend that much time like Doris Kearns Goodwin or robert carol i interviewed john roberts and in the interview in the beginning i said did you always want to be chief justice he said no. When i was little i had no interest. Did you want to be a s justice . No. A judge . No. Not a judge either or a lawyer. I wanted to be a historian. Thats American History i told my father that and he said thats a nice profession but you wont make any money youll write to books nobody reads how do you support your family. He said i dont know. He went to harvard and majored in history. Coming back from springo break this sophomore year got off the plane got in the cabin said to the cab driver take me to cambridge he said you a student at harvard . Ke yes. What is your major . History. The cab driver said when i was a student harvard thats what i majored in also left buffy that maybe his father had good ideas. [laughter]on spent those are the types of things that come up. You have funny things like george washington. So it turns out could have lived a little bit longer. No member of his family lived past the age of 50 brick what he was asked to be president he was 57 he said im too old but he did it for four years. So he stayed for the eight years. He goes back around the age of 6465 to mount vernon. He tells people what to grow and rides around. It is a tradition that if you are passing through mount vernon you stop off and pay homage to the great man even if you dont know him. It said that george and martha never had dinner alone for 20 years because all the guest would come and thats where their marriage worked. [laughter] they always had guest all the time. So one time hes writing out it was sleeting and snowing he was dripping wet he has guessed there and did not know them but did not want to change with dry close and sat there and had dinner and goes upstairs the epiglottis get swollen he cant breathe they call the doctor so to cut the veins to get the bad spirits out that doesnt work. So he died. In his will he had a provision he wanted this leaves one the slaves to be free he said it would them freed upon my death but upon the death of my wife. How would you like to be Martha Washington sitting there knowing that the slaves know that they will be free as soon as you die quex so ultimately she freed them quicker. He said dont bury me for two days. The reason is he was afraid of being buried alive. Doctors were so bad that very often they put you in a coffin and you were not dead thats why they put bells in the coffin you were supposed to ring the bell if you were alive dead ringer term comes from. Turns out he was dead. So Thomas Jefferson. And had a high pitched voice and had a relationship with Sally Hemmings and makes it prettyal incontrovertible. So what about Sally Hemmings . And then said i had a stepmother who cannot marry again. So he had two daughters one of them he brought to france when he was ambassador. That dad was so young nine or ten to have somebody escort her over and that was Sally Hemmings. Thomas jefferson saw her and had not seen her because she was a slave and at the time i believe she was 14 or 15 the age of consent in virginia was 12. It was raised from ten. When he saw her he saw his wife in many ways. Marthas father was john a slave owner. He had impregnated a slave and as a result was Sally Hemmings. When he saw her as a 14 or 15 yearold he saw his she was three quarters white so she was very lightskinned not unlike his wife and for whatever reason he had a relationship with her and said if you come back from france i will free all of our children. And they had six children for live to adulthood and sure enough upon his death she he freed all of them. But not her because if you were freed as a slave in virginia you had to get your name approved by the state legislature because they didnt want freed slaves living in the state and she wanted to stay in virginia. He didnt want to free her he never denied it he just never admitted it. It was complicated but he had a relationship with her for almost 40s years. But Charles Lindbergh is an interesting situation. Why is he so famous . He flew 33 and a half hours from new york and then there is a prize awarded there is more than one person many people die doing this a male pilot and didnt make that much money. And financed it. And was the most famous man who ever lived because the world was connected electronically so when he w. Nded everybody knew nobodyec was ever famous. He won a Pulitzer Prizewinning book on this in 1999. Ten years of exhausted work he knew everything about lindbergh and his incredible life story and then his child is kidnapped and killed with the trial of the century at the time. It wins the Pulitzer Prize and said you did write the book and tell the whole story he didnt know if this was he finally agreed and with seven children and three german women out of wedlock and they were sisters and didnt know they were each having an affair so there were seven children and spending ten years of your life with his wife and had seven other children. These are things you learn when to interview these people who read these books. And with the authors and then to do a lot of research. Many times ive interviewing authors if they havent wrote it in five or ten years ago there was one author he hadnt read his own book in 20 some years so i just read the book. And then realize he made a mistake so when you say you dont know what you are writing . Where you suggested that a different fact but then you dont press it too hard because then you embarrass them but some of them have not read their book in a while. We have heard quite a bit what congress thinks. Doris, i dont know the reaction i dont know what congress thinks about it. Thats because they get to be at the opposite party and socialize and learn about American History. And then they say this is the most enjoyable thing which is not the greatest thing. Becauseng h theres no legislation. And they call that date night because they bring their spouse sometimes they fly in. I think they enjoyed a lot. And the program is worked out pretty well. So what i try to do most of the interview is there you will see you can learn a fair bout of the history of these people one of the most famous is robert caro. Some of you may have heard of him. He wrote a book on robert moses was a very important person in new york in that book the power broker was one of the best nonfiction books ever written. It took seven years. So his editor said write a book on National Power that was Linda Johnson that was 35 years ago now he is written for volumes onor Lyndon Johnson and has the fifth volume to go in everybodys waiting and hes 83 years old. So what he thinks about the vietnam war and we dont know but he did incredible research and so Much Research that members of congress who came to this they would bring their dog eared copies to have them autographed when you listen to him he has uncovered stuff that was staggering. Johnson was elected 48 by 47 votes landslide lyndon. Robert caro went back and did research and found one of the people who managed one of the precincts where Lyndon Johnson had one where 202 votes were cast alphabetically. [laughter] so without those in favor of john said he may not have one by 87 votes. So there are some interesting things. You also mention she is a wonderful writer and historian but they are not great telling. Nd scott writes incredible books now writing one on Thurgood Marshall but if you look at David Mccullough hes incredible the way he does these books starting off from yale and then on the brooklyn bridge. But over 60 years with his wife they put these book on these books together he does a paragraph at a time then she reads it back to him and he listens and says i have to change that they have been doing this for a long time he told the story once at one time she read the paragraph back and she said that doesnts mind that sentence doesnt work. Read itt again. And said i dont think it works read it again. Its okay. Leave it in. She did think it was good it was a bad sentence. And gore vidal said this is the bat on the best book is ever written but there is one sentence. [laughter] now taylor branch. Taylor branch is somebody that was in politics then became a writer he wrote a trilogy on the Civil Rights Movement and recover that. And Martin Luther king. That Martin Luther king stayed up late the night before preparing that speech and he had a speechwriter to help himor but he was the last person giving the speech on the march on washington. Kennedy was against it and thought it would lead to violence and didnt want it but did not block it. That the Justice Department was holding onto the microphones that if somebody says something they would yank the cords. So the other one didnt want to speak after luther king they wanted to speak before that because he was a great orator. And when he gets up hes going with it and its a pretty good speech but then ms. Jackson is behind him is said tell him about the dream. So he departs from the text and he talks about i have a dream. Many whites had never heard that speech before or heard Martin Luther king speak before and were mesmerized. A black preachers sermon and that he had given many many times. That people around him had heard it before many times but the whites had not heard it. The press had not heard it and it was mesmerizing. When it was over and it stole the show that he went to the white house to see kennedy and i have a dream was the first word he gave when he greeted martin but if you read the New York Times the next day didnt get as much attention as it subsequently got after king was assassinated it played attention and is not as big of a deal that he did it. And likeke that address in the gettysburg address but they dont use the word i they and with god and with a broad terms about the world. Thats what those are so successful. To introduce each the one that touched you personally was about jfk. Yes. Some of you may be close to my age but when i was in the sixth grade my teacher asked us to watch the inaugural address in school was closed that day he gave it januh 1961 he is not a great speechwriter actually not a gifted speech giver and had many coaches and people would criticize him because he spoke too quickly and then you just see a flop of hair. But in this particular case with the intellectual blood bank and then it was considered inappropriate not to write your own inaugural address. So he was very sensitive to that after writing his book profiles in courage he was determined. So it was a speech from Adlai Stevenson so three days before the inauguration kennedy comes back from palm beach that this time correspondent covering the white house he is called back into the cabin by president elect and say what do you think that this guy will be inaugurated in three days and to ask my input so he gave his input it turns out the speech was already written but kennedy wrote it out in longhand couple of pages but it turns out the speech was brilliant because it was short only 14 minutes and had a way of calling on people to do something and the most famous line is asked not what you can do for your country one country can do for you but what you can do for your country and that was the signature line. He loves speeches by churchill there was always a signature line to remember. Kennedy wanted to have that and that was the signature line and it worked out even his republican opponent said it was a great speech. As a six graders that i will go into government and politics i didnt realize then the highest was private equity. [laughter] i later learned that. It was an incredible speech. And how he was a great speechwriter. Patriotic philanthropy that help people. Philanthropy is reminds people of the heritage so from monticello to say all put up the money to fix it but so they know that Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner despite the good things that he did then wrote the sentence of the declaration of independence that we hold these truths to be selfevident all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights how could he have written that when he has slaves . The view is that all white men are created equal he was against slavery earlier but did not follow through. So that people can walk to us history and so a book by joe mcclure would take weeks and weeks to get through it. And this is once was described. But ted sorensen said about them when she put the book down you cant pick it up again. [laughter] but one thing to think about and one man said down to the breakfast table in the 18 eighties in stockholm. And he was reading the newspaper. His name was nobel that he turn the page and read his obituary. They said he died the inventor of dynamite thank god hes no longer with this one with us. But it was his younger brother that had died in the earlier version of fake news they put his name in there. So if you had to ride your write your own obituary so that my partner and my spouse that they are happy and then to encourage what we might be able to do to make your life more rewarding than it is today. And then to contribute and that philanthropy and that time is the most valuable thing that you have you cannot get time back but you cant get time back. And that many of you personally if they were philanthropic or at say what more we could do to get back to our country and then to give back to our country. And then to make another announcement with the jefferson memorial. So there is the Education Center we are building that now in Lincoln Memorial so when you go there if it will ever be done you could actually go there and learn about lincoln and we will do the same thing with jefferson. Hopefully when people come to washington they learn more about our president s. Thank you for sharing cap up. [inaudible conversations] thank you very much. Good evening. Welcome and thank you all very much for being here tonight. We are delighted to have someone who has been here, here meaning this store but our original location a good number of times approaching 30 years now. And having Lawrence Weschler back and for him to come the seattle feels like having a member of the family back. We just have literal family in seattle so that part of seattle and she is an author too. We will give her the word,