Transcripts For CNNW First 20240705

Be departed. If he has to leave, he might not survive. Im victor blackwell. Lets start the show. What caused the civil war its not a trick question. Any response that does not mention slavery is a wrong answer. And asking you rather what you want me to say about slavery, thats the wrong followup. This week republican president ial candidate nikki haley fumbled on all three points. It created a striking moment the at a Campaign Town Hall new hampshire. Watch this. I think the Cause Of The Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldnt do. I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are. I will always standby the fact that i think government was intended to secure the Rights And Freedoms of of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people. In the year 2023, its astonishing to me that you answered that question without mentioning the word slavery. What do you want me to say about slavery . You have answered my question. Thank you. The former governor of South Carolina, The First State to secede citing slavery, haley has had to answer this question before. A day later she did try to clarify her answer. Of course, the civil war was about slavery. We know that. Thats unquestioned, always the case, we know the civil war was about slavery. But it was also more than that. It was about the freedoms of every individual. It was about the role of government. I want to talk about this with michael heir yacht, author of can black af history, the unwhi unwhitewashed story of america. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for having me. When you saw this, i want to cite the reason i wanted to talk with you not only because of the book, but also you a few months ago wrote this history of nikki haley. What do we need to know . Nikki haley is from South Carolina, which was The First State to secede, but was also a confederate embracing state. The Confederate Flag wasnt removed from the State Capitol until she was governor. She initially fought against it until nine black people were slaughtered in a charleston church. We need to know that to understand that nikki haley, first of all, she tended a segregation academy. A school that was named after an insurrectionist. That informed her view of slavery. Initially here in the answer, as someone who is live on television and sometimes misses a word, screws up an answer, the first answer, she didnt say slavery. Its when the person said you didnt mention slavery. And she said, what do you want me to say . Why would i include that . What do you want to hear about that. Exactly. I want to be clear about this. That is Identity Politics. They like to talk about Identity Politics when it relates to black people. That is i play ing the race car also because nikki haley avoided the subject of slavery to identify and to sympathize with a very specific kind of republican conservative voter, who is probably not even in new hampshire. Shes talking about South Carolina conservatives. That was the political conservative reality she grew up in. Thats the landscape shes used to playing politics in that was Donald Trumps administration. That was the South Carolina legislature she served in that denied taking down the Confederate Flag. That was the South Carolina that existed when she was governor. That was the South Carolina that existed that led to a white supremacist killing nine people. So Chris Christie is trying to capitalize off this. They are the closest to one another. Still far behind donald trump in new hampshire. He says that shes just trying to accommodate everybody with this. Lets watch. Shes been having this problem for decades in terms of her answer about this. If you go back to her running for governor in 2010, she said that the civil war was about change vs. Tradition. She called slavery a tradition. And its not change vs. Tradition. Its right vs. Wrong. S. Asked a very simple question and responded with just really incomprehensible word salad. This is not a candidate thats ready for prime time. Not that difficult to identify and acknowledge the role slavery played in the civil war. What do we need to know about the answers on this . Is this something she does often . Shes been doing this since shes been in the South Carolina legislature. She has a history of doing this. And you have to ask yourself, does this kind of person will this kind of person represent black people and people of color when shes president. What will she say . Will she just appeal to a certain constituency who embrace white us isupremacy and that kif tradition . Or will she stand up for the values that americans believe in. Will she represent americans and not just white americans . I wonderer, though, people who care about this, for people who are republican or right of ssht and they have a problem with this, where do they go . Do they go to ron desantis who says yeah, slavery, but they are now black smithss so they have skills out of it. Or donald trump who says imfwrants are poisoning the blood of the country. Whats the alternative . 12k3w4r you have to ask yourself, do you care about everybody in the country or these political issues. If youre going to dismiss nikki haley buzz of her views on race, you have to dismiss all of the other republican candidates too, because they have segments of this. This is why these questions were asked. They have denied the history of this country. They have denied slavery. They have denied diversity and equity and inclusion. They have specifically engineered a platform that e erases people of color. And you have to ask yourself if youre a republican voter, and you care about black people, are those two things incompatible. I appreciate you coming in. Thank you. Were less than 48 hours away from a president ial Election Year. Theres already a tough mix of issues. In january immigration will be out front in washington when congress and the white house pick up their funding fight. Next year the Supreme Court will have a role to play on the issue of abortion. Specifically, access to abortion pills. Theres a also plenty of anxiety about the economy. The Biden Campaign appears to think that bidenomics is the best way to connect with black voters. It was the focus of a speech ahead of the holidays in milwaukee. Black Business Ownership in over 30 years, as cross the country, wages for workers are up. Black wealth is at record 60 since the pandemic. So many of you look, i mean this from the bottom of my heart. Were just getting started. Black Small Businesses grow, everything benefits. The community benefits. Everyone benefits. Its not a joke. It gives hope and prospects for people. When you increase the middle class, the poor have a shot and the wealthy still do well. The middle class does well and we all do well. Thats what we call bidenomics. By the way, so far, we have created 14 million new jobs. More jobs in three years than any president has created in four years. If that issue resinating with most black voters . A group of strategists say they took notes on what worked in races in michigan, georgia and what kind of outreach is actually effective. Joining me now is one of those strategists who served as the statewide political director for Stacey Ament Brams campaign for georgia governor and now he works with the renegade collective. Also with us is an Associate Professor of Political Science at emery university. Let me start with you. What works . If you say what biden is doing right now is not connecting, and we have seen a softening of the numbers that he needs to win, whats wrong with that . And what is right with what you suggest . So i want to be clear. Were talking about what democrat need to do in general. This is bigger than whats going on next year in the 2024 election. Were looking at whats going to happen between now and 2045 when america is then going to be a majority minority country. So with that being said, we need early engagement with black voters. We need an intentional strategy from the beginning of your campaign all the way throughout. And so we cant just accept the stops at the churches and the fish fries and all those things. You have to have an intentional strategy. Tough go where the voters are. Its more so about listening and paying attention. So when we think about investment, that is usually tied to finances. Were talking about investing time in your communities because were not monoliths. So investing that time in the community so you can understand what the needs are, you cant prescribe something unless you understand the painen points. So were saying take that time, spend more time in our communities so you can understand what the needs are and direct your policies and your statements and everything based upon that. So were two and half weeks out from the republican primary. Were about 11 months out from general election. Is this fivealarm fire or something that needs more attention . Its somewhere in between. President biden is going to have to put that Multiracial Coalition together in order to win in 2024. And given the fact that people are not particularly enthused about a rematch between him and former president trump, you dont want to lose any votes. So you have to doing everything to touch voters. You increase Voter Turnout when you personally reach out to them and touch them. I interpret this report as s saying you need to do the effort of making sure youre reaching voters not in passive ways, but in direct and personal ways. And in some instances, reaching out to voters multiple times, particularly those new to the process so they understand and they are ready to show up on election day. Are you seeing any increased urgency from i know youre not focused on the 2024 president ial campaign, this conversation is, from the Bidenharris Campaign . You can tell that there is a strategy thats in place. We can look at what was going on in october and september and the intentional about spending time at hbcus and things of that nature. Those are great opportunities, but there has to be more. Its not just about the president ial candidates and everything like that. Its about the down ballot races too because theres a lot more at stake and a lot more thats going to be on the ballot. Theres an economic message. Theres a good economic narrative that the white house has. We know their first ad that focused on young black men was about entrepreneurship. But is that the best approach into black ert voters . What does your report say . We believe you have to have a multipronged approach to it. Having conversations about economics is extremely important. In the past with youre trying to connect with black voters, statements have been around legalization of marijuana and criminal justice reform. That does not speak to the total thety of the black experience. Adding that economic piece and focusing on entrepreneurship is important buzz we know thats the pathway to economic freedom. Once you have economic freedom, you can have freedom across the board. When some democrats point out that these numbers are weak or soft, not just with black voters, young voters, the coaligs that the president needs, there are others who say here they go again. Either Chicken Little or senator fetterman said james should shut the f up about the president s numbers. How long does it take to turn these around . I can imagine that its not going to be Third Quarter of 2024. Were going to see tightening with polling. Polls are a snapshot in time. They reflect where people feel now these numbers are going to different in september and october. The lesson here is that you shouldnt take black voters for granted. I remember years and years ago working far democratic pollster and talking to a campaign aid for a Congressional Campaign who saw soft numbers. They are going to turn out and vote 90 democratic. This is not always guaranteed. Even if they do vote 90 , its a question of do they turn out at rates that are going to allow democrats to be able to win. So if i were in the Biden Campaign, what i would take from messages like this is you dont neglect black communities and dont think you can just do some one off event in a community that doesnt touch people personally. Just make sure that you have a sustained presence in communities where people are knocking on toors, personally talking to people. Thats going to be the best way to increase Voter Turnout and guarantee you maximize turnout within this loyal constituency. Look at the polls and preparing for conversation, theres something thats always bug ged me. As we shift in the call tar for democrats, South Carolina coming up first, as close as these jirns are in the swing states, We Sigh Seethe white voters are breeken broken down. Then its people of color. Or black voters, maybe they will separate latino voters. We need to know more about these specific groups than we do. Why are all people of color lumped together, but we can tell you what a suburban white mother who makes more than 50,000 believes a about a certain issue. Its a statistical power question thats based on the sample size. If youre doing a statewide poll that has 1,000 respondents in it, if its going to be proportional across the United States, what were going to be looking at is 130 of those are going to be africanamerican. Thats really not going to give you a lot of statistical power to be able to do that breakdown. Its going to be similar when youre breaking this down state by state depending on how large the black population is. You might not actually have enough people to really say anything unless you aggregate. So what this is a call for is to make sure that when were doing Public Opinion polling, were actually sampling large enough groups of people that you can do that. And this also speaks to the necessity of having surveys that are just of africanamericans and just of la knows. In my own field, we have certainly suffered from this. So my friends have created an Election Year survey for president ial Election Years that has thousands of Recorrespondenten Dents of color to allow us to make those type of granular things. We dont have the money to do it all the time in the same way that we would like to. And its cost prohibitive according to news organizations. Certainly as we get deeper into the democratic primary, look at 2028, 60 of the democratic primary voter base there is black. So separating these different parts of the electorate is necessary. Thank you so much for being with me this morning. A mother in indiana says her adopted son with Special Needs is facing deportation. She worries he will die if the u. S. Government sends him back to haiti. She joins us to explain. Plus a new year, new s specl frfrom dchapappell. Most people regardless of political affiliation agree the u. S. Immigration system is broken. When i say immigration, you might envision migrants crossing the boarder, 10,000 backlogged asylum claims. This morning i want you to hear a very different story. Its a about a teenager who has been in the u. S. For 15 years. Hes been adopted by a loving family, but he could be forced to leave. He may not survive. His name is jonas. He was born in haiti. Hes nonverbal, blind, has autism, and cerebral palsy. He came to the u. S. In 2008 on a medical veto and was adopted by a family in indiana. But his mother says the do documents necessary to allow him to stay were destroyed in the Haiti Earthquake in 2010. Rebecca says shes tried for years to get this all sorted out, but a couple weeks ago, days before his 18th birthday, rebecca says she received a letter is a saying if jonas doesnt voluntarily leave the country before january 2nd, he maybe deported. They are worried now this would be a Death Sentence Given what takes to care for jonas. She shared a Video Showing husband morning routine. Heres some of what its like. This is his bed. It looks more like a fortress. This keeps him super safe. T hes so strong. Hes almost 18. I still change him like i would an infant. Cnn reached out to the United States citizenship and immigration services, but we were told they will not comment on individual immigration cases. Rebecca and jonas are with us now. Good morning to you. When read through this story, i couldnt belief at some point somebody wouldnt come in and use discretion and say this boy, soon to be a man, has to stay in this country. You knew you wanted to adopt. You have three children. Your eldest is blind. When you saw jonas on an adoption page, you knew this was your son. Brought him here, everything was fine. When did things start to go wrong . So after going through all of the immigration process, sorry, one second. Hes going to hop out here. Going through all the immigration process, they ask you for all sorts of documents. In june, they asked us for some rfe. Its request for evidence. It was a request for something to prove that he had physically lived with us for more than two years and legally we had to have an original Birth Certificate for haiti, which that was destroyed. Those types of thing i i had copies of all that stuff, but one of the things like when you go to the dmv and you need these things to prove. They gave a list of six Different Things you could choose for to prove residency. One was the School Records. So i went down to the school. I got all the records. And it was on like five pieces of paper. Every single page was notarized. Everything was signed. There was a staple. When i put this pact together to send in, i put sticky notes on each small pact packet to show what this was supposed to go for regarding the evidence. And when we got the denial letter, i was dumbfounded because they said i only turned in School Records for the 2324 school year so that did not prove two years of residency, which has to be for the specific form. And i thought they just didnt flip through the pages. They literally did not flip a page. Its one thing to say, oh, we need more evidence. But to then go from that to, well, hes got 33 days to volume the Tearily Leave the u. S. Or face deportation, i thought, how is this they say they go on everything individually and ethically and humanely. The actions are completely outside of their mission statement. I dont want people to think this comes down to just from june to december. You have been working for years since hes been here renewing the visa every six months. And the documents that they need from haiti, those arent available. Do you believe that it is realistic youll get to january 2nd and someone will come to take your son to return him to haiti . It wouldnt even be a script in hollywood. I cant imagine. It doesnt say on january 2nd i. C. E. Is going to deport him, but hes out of compliance with department of homeland security. Hes out of compliance with uscis. They can stop any Forward Movement with his Immigration Papers and start deportation hearings. Its insane. You wrote a letter in jonas voice and posted it on facebook addressing President Biden and what you and he have had to deal with. Has there been any phone call, any response other than the expected letters that you have detailed saying that youre not in compliance, hes not in compliance and could face deportation. Has any person reached out and said, we have to figure this out . You would think so, but no. They have not. I really would love a phone call. Nothing has happened. Its pretty much been crickets. So what is your next step then . Thats a great are question. Our attorney, someone hired an attorney for us, thank god. She did all of our submissions last week to petition to reopen his case because in the denial letter, it also says that this cannot be appealed. So she did all of that leg work. Then it was the holidays. So everyone was gone. We just wait. And they said its going to be expedited. Our senator and congressman said its in expedition. What does that mean when youre waiting years for one document, what does expedition mean . I think they run on a completely different vocabulary, time scale, maybe on a different planet than where we are. I dont want to have this whole conversation about the work to keep jonas here without you telling us about jonas. Tell us about your son. Jonas is an amazing kid. Obviously, with autism and Different Things, i was hoping he would be here beside me the whole time, butst theres a the lot of unpredictability. But hes a happy kid. He loves his family he loves his school. He gets to go to school every day. He loves when its warm out. His favorite place to be is we have a big Closed Trampoline in the backyard. His favorite thing is food. He eats like any 17yearold boy. Times five. So hes happy. I wish i could know what he was thinking. I wish i could know what hes all the time, but hes a happy boy. Rebecca, listen. I hope that in the next week or two, someone will call you. They will see this and say that theres an issue with paper, but hes with a loving family and has been for 15 years. We will stay in communication and update everyone as you try to resolve this. Rebecca try ing to keep her son jonas with her family. Thank you so much. Thank you. Coming up, new research on racism, trauma and the impact that you may not realize dealing with discrimination has on our brains. Racism as hasnt impact on our emotional health. We have known that for some time. But now researchers say racism impacts our physical health too. A team of experts write that racism changes the brain and the effects on coping may help to explain why black people are twice as likely to develop Brain Health Problems such as alzheimers compared with white people. Dr. Fani is one of the researchers looking into this. Shes a clinical neuropsychologist and Associate Professor here at emery university. Thank you for being with us. I was floored reading the findings of this report is that you can look at a scan of the brain and see the impact of racism. Explain that. Its pretty striking. So we have been able to see that there are functional and structural changes that happen in the brain over time with increased exposure to racism. And by that, i mean there are different types of racism. Type of racism i study is racial discrimination. So when you say that the different types, were not talking about overt slurs that happen periodically. Were talking about a continuous, systemic approach. Yes, absolutely. I studied both. So it could be something thats overt, but many times the type of racism that people experience are in the form of microaggressions. So these are kind of subtle slights or indignities that people face on a daytoday basis and maybe verbal or overt, or they maybe covert or im implicit. They maybe hafrs so they dont have to be verbal. And they dont have to be intentional either. Many times people unintentionally engage in these behaviors. What are the changes . What do you see in a brain thats been impacted by racism . So what we have been able to see is that theres greater activity in areas of the brain that are involved with vigilance for threats. So theres a greater vigilance thatment comes about as a result of experiencing racism on a chronic basis. Theres also the greater activity in areas of the brain involved with coping and selfregulation. The parts of the brain that put the brakes on our emotions and help us figure out what is our next steps, what we need to do next. Ask thats in the prefrontal cortex. So thats designed to use these regulatory areas of the brain on a shortterm basis, but over time, we cant engage in higheffort coping and selfregulation. It wears down the brain. It degrades the brain. What are the consequences . So it can lead to increased risk for Health Problems down the line. And that includes problems like dementia, twice as prevalent in black people compared to white people, but it can also influence reflects the behaviors like Emotional Eating or using substances to deal with the distress that you feel. So im wondering what then do we do with this . If the we have to cope. We have to find a way to selfregulate. We have to find a way to weather, a as this term im learning. What do we do if all of that is all we have . Right. This is a real strseress that people face on a day to i day basis. What we need to do is obviously get rid of the racism, but on an a individual basis, something that i talk to people about as a therapist is mindfulness activities. So mindfulness is a practice that involves being more connected with your body in the present moment, and this is a way of coping with stress just different types of stressors including racismrelated stress that validates your own experience. So i think part of the stress that people experience is not just experiencing these slights ors discrimination, but the kind of selfquestioning thats involved with it. Was that really race related, is that discriminatory, all the second guessing in the brain that leads to this erosion. But Mindfulness Practices are involved with centering yourself in the present moment and acknowledging your Emotional Experience so you can move on. Thank you so much for bringing this to us. Its remarkable that you can look at the brain and see the impacts of racism. Thank you so much. Coming up, ye puts out an apology in hebrew for antisemitic comments ahead of whats expected to be a new album in january. We have reaction to that and more. Next. There is a lot of information out there. Hamas is a Terrorist Group oppressing the Palestinian People. Hamas refused a continued ceasefire, a continued pause in fighting and more aid from israelis in exchange for just freeing more hostages. Instead, hamas resumed attacks. Not to protect the Palestinian People or obtain peace, only to destroy israel. We must stand against hamas and stand with palestinians and israelis for basic human rights. What do you dream about . Not the dreams you have in your sleep, the ones you hold in your heart. Dont be sbim dated by the audacity of your dream. Be inspired by it. What happens to a dream, he doesnt know. The dreamer. New special from Dave Chappelle is coming on new years eve to stream on netflix. They say he gets into the incident back in 2022 where he was attacked while on stage in los angeles. Also have a take on the will smith slap at the oscars. The closer, got a lot of attention especially for featuring joke this is some believe were transphobic. Lets talk about this with the cohost of the ringers higher learn podcast. Van, good morning to you. I expect that he will get into some issues more substantiative than the attack in 2022 and his own slap. Hes probably the only comedian people are waiting to hear his take on israel and gaza and serious issues as well. Whats your expectation . Yeah, i think that there are a lot of people waiting to hear him talk about some of the things you just mentioned. Dave chappelles social commentary has become almost as important as his comedy over the last couple years. A lot of people want to hear what he thinks on the stage about the slap or about the attack in los angeles. Over the last year, over the last couple months since everything has happened, post october 7th, hes been doing comedy. There have been reports of incidents between him and people in the audience of people taking issue with some of the commentary or the thoughts he has about the way israel is prosecuting the war. I think hes going to probably lean in heavy on that. And i think that its another opportunity for him to test the limits of what he can say on stage. Whether or not using that well see when the comedy special drops. Lets talk about ye now. A lot of people remember when you were at at tmz. Hes posted an apology. It was in hebrew on social media. Im going to read the english translation here. I apologize to the Jewish Community for my unintended outbursts i caused by my words or action. It was not my intention to hurt or disrespect, and i deeply regret any pain i may have caused. Im committed to starting with myself and learning from this experience to ensure greater sensitivity and understand ing n the future. Your forgiveness is important to me, and im kmiet kmited To Makingment only mends and promoting unity. Your reaction to the apology, the timing, hes got an album coming out in january. Yeah, so im down here in baton rouge visiting family, is and the last thing i would do as i sit here on the campus is an apology. Thats not a christian thing to do. I cant do that. However, i do think that kanye west has a higher standard than he has. Its thot necessarily about him apologizing for anything this he said was unintended. He seemed like it was pretty straight forward what he was saying. He compared himself to hitler. He once again brought up hitler. So what people want to know now is are you a nazi or not. Full stop. Do you love the nazis . Why do you keep bringing them up . Why do you keep trying to usher them back into popular conscientious and relitigate what happened in world war ii. And by the way, this is not a question specifically for the Jewish Community. Im a black man. I would like to know whether or not kanye west represents nazis, white nationalism, White Supremacy and all the things that the nazis stood for. I think its a fair question to ask from a guy we have loved this much. Im not sure the apology quite get there is, but im hoping had he can prove hes not a nazi. The Antidefamation League appreciates the apology, but there has to be more than just this post on social media to prove that this is more than just paving the way for a new album. Do you think he cannot just professionally, but personally, resurrect himself . Hes not left the fore front. Hes still been making music. Hes still been out publicly, but he can be the kanye of 05, 2010 . Its interesting. We want that so badly for him. Its profound in a way that there are certain people right now that are done with kanye west forever, i get it. But then theres another group of people that its deeply uncomfortable and disturbing to watch him in the state that he is in. Like we want kanye west to be happy, Healthy Abecause he was that inspirational to us in the past. Certain things you flirt with, and they stretch the limits of your patience and your humanity. You dont want to give humanity for atrocities like that. He has some work to do on himself and his reputation. That post not enough, good to talk to you. Thank you for coming on wellle right backck. There is a lot of information out there. Hamas slaughtered more than 1200 innocent people, holds innocent hostages, and raped countless innocent women. And now hamas is trying to hide Sexual Violence against women. They dont want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them stand with palestinians and israelis for basic human rights. Stand for all women. If you think in 2024, i get it right, although theres great economic news, its been tough. They are here to set us up for a better 2024. Shes a personal finance columnist and author of what to do with your money when crisis hits a survival guide. Good to see you again. We talked in the break. Before people start and open up the Savings Plans and getting into the things, we want to give them excellent advice. First, you have to look at y yourly statements. Ewe cant fix something you dont know the details of. Walk us through. Thats right. So often times, people know they are in debt but they dont know how much or how much they spent through the year. This is a good time as the new year, maybe not this weekend after you party, but next monday or tuesday, i want you to go back and look at your Credit Card Statements for the year. Look at your Bank Statements and highlight all your spending. Right there in your face so you can see what was for the year and you can stop lying to yourself. People are good about lying to themselves about money. You dont think you are, but youre like i didnt really spend that much. You most certainly did. You say embrace the debt. Not just be aware, but embrace it. Thats right. You got to hug like the teddy bear. Carry it around. I want you to carry it around. If you embrace it and its ugly, then youre going to face it and try to pay it down. So i want you to get those Credit Card Statements and keep them on your desk. Not out of fear, but incentive to pay them down. So there was a lot of spending over the holiday. Despite the fact that some people are still struggling, i need you and the new year to look a at that debt and i want you to punch it like that bully that messed with you in elementary school. Punch your debt. So this was interesting. The Social Security statement, even for people who arent near retirement age, they should check it. Absolutely. You want to know what youre going to get when its time for you to step out of working fulltime. And that also is inisntive. If you look at that and think, i cant live off that, perhaps you will reign in your spending, try to save. Change some things in your life so you can free up some money. And every time i do that, people are like what about paycheck to paycheck. They cant save anything. I used to be there. My grandmother used to struggle, so i understand the struggle, but that might mean you have to change some things in your life. You know how i am a about this. Maybe you have to live with somebody. Maybe your kids stay home. Not because they have debt, but because they are saving so when they launch, they stay launched. That sounds great. Lets talk about Retirement Savings. How often are we expected to look at Retirement Savings . I would say once a quarter youre going to be looking at now. If you have been saving, 2023 ended on a high note. The dow was up. The s p was up. So if you looked at your statement, you should be very happy. But maybe youre not putting enough in there. So you want to look and see perhaps youre over in some areas. Maybe you want a 60 40 stocks vs. Bonds. But now is the time to look at it this time of year. Then in another three months and four months, because if you look at it every day or too often, you might get scared because the market goes up and down and you start making decisions based on happening now, when you should be looking longterm. Michelle, always good to see you. Have a happy new year. I appreciate the good advice. If you need inspiration, if you need another example of why you have no excuse for not going back to school, here she is. 101yearold sara. She doped dropped out of college when she got pregnant. Since shes raise 12 children, its her time. I am very, very grateful that god has enabled me to do this. She finisher her first semester with a 3. 5g pa. When she crosses that stage in may, she will be 102 years old. Her granddaughter will be getting a degree of her own. Sa hthank you for joining me today. Smerconish is up next. Finally liveing the dream. Im Michael Smerconish in new rk