Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20150220

With islam is an ugly lie. We want to get your reaction to that. We have set aside a fourth line this morning for muslim americans. We would like to hear your viewpoints on this as well. If you cant get through on the phone lines, try social media. The conversation is going on there as well. You can email us. From the hill newspaper, obama plays defense on islam. That message has been drowned out by the debate over whether u. S. Is in a fight with radical islam. From the Financial Times newspaper, obamas muddled stance. As recently as two months ago, obama has launched 2000 military strikes. Now mr. Obama want to supplemented. These operations would go on whether Congress Gave him what he wanted. It is hard to see why such a charade is needed. Republicans complain that mr. Obama is tied one hand behind his back by ruling out american roots on the ground. He would also be tying his successors hands. He already has the scope to wage war on isis under the law that authorized force against al qaeda and associated groups. He is seeking congresses blessing. The legal trappings are optional. The picture on the battle grant is becoming confused. Assad is americas ally. The administration refuses to endorse airstrikes in libya. Here is the president in a longer statement from this weeks summit. At the same time we must the knowledge that groups like al qaeda and isis are targeting their propaganda to muslim communities, particularly muslim youth. Muslim communities including scholars and clerics have a responsibility to push back, not just on twisted interpretations of islam but on the lie that we are engaged in a clash of civilizations. That america and the west are at war with islam and we seek to suppress muslims. Or that we are the cause of every ill in the middle east. That narrative extends beyond terrorist organizations. That becomes the Foundation Upon which terrorist build their ideology and try to justify their violence and that hurts all of us, including islam and especially muslims. They are the ones most likely to be killed. There is a complicated history between the middle east, the west. None of us should be immune from criticism in terms of specific policies. The notion that the west is at war with islam is an ugly lie. Regardless of our faith, all of us ever responsibility to rejected. Host we want to hear from you. Mohammed is on our democrat line. Caller thank you cspan. Thank you mr. Obama. I think when we look back in history, we will find that he will be one of the most wise residents weve ever had. President s weve ever had. Im glad he stressed the lie about all muslims being bad it. There are good and bad in any kind of religion or ethnic group. I think there are very good muslims. I would lay my life down for this country and i am muslim myself. The media gives negatives about islam. I am glad he is trying to bridge this gap so people will be educated. I tried to educate my christian friends. I think these guys are criminals and im glad he is not giving them the entitlement to spread their propaganda by calling them is linux terrorist. Islamic terrorist. You can get them into young peoples minds. Host is there a solution to what isis is doing up . Caller i think that is one of the things he is trying to do, educate people and take people out of poverty. The world is globalized. You cannot shut your borders down. I think people are pressed into a corner. You can see potential violence. People become criminals because they are impoverished and they dont have opportunities to get out of that. I think the more isis feeds to younger people, and we push muslims away, there are 1. 2 billion muslims in the world. Host we are going to leave it there. Thank you for calling in this morning. Larry is on next. Caller president obama is a muslim. Islam is at war with the west. The radical islamic have decapitated egyptian christians. The is it ans incidents that happened in france and copenhagen. Islam is at war with the west. President obama is intoxicated off intellectual vanity. Look at january, look at all this turmoil thats occurring. We are heading to world war iii or it host why do you think he is a muslim . Caller i have seen photos of him. His father is from kenya. He as an in the closet radical muslim. Look at the document of his words and his actions. He is a radical islam must. He is going to bring destruction on america and the world. Host charles, go ahead. You are on the air. I apologize, the connection is so bad lets talk to jerry in chicago. What you think . Caller i want to make a quick comment on the last color. Caller. I would like to say i am retired. He has a strategy to fight isis. Caller were not going to telly people what the strategy is. It is getting the other arab countries involved to fight isis. To downplay that he has no strategy or plan, lets give him credit where its due. Host that is jerry in chicago. The New York Times has a News Analysis as its lead story. That is unusual. They are writing on terror. President obama argued that force of arms was not enough and called on all nations to put an end to the cycle of hate i expanding human rights and president obamareligious tolerance. The challenge of his approach was staring him in the face. Robert is calling in from virginia. You are on the air. Caller thank you for taking my call. I just want to say that i appreciate what the president said as far as trying to get along with our neighbors. This is about violent extremists. Host thank you for calling in it. Our fourth line this morning is set aside for muslim americans. John is in florida on the democrats line. What you think about the summit and what the president had to say . Caller i think he did a good job of laying it out. The republicans need to put their money where their mouth is and they like to call him week. When he asked for war authorization powers they run for the hills. Its a difference between driving the bus and being responsible for everybody on it and the passengers trying to be backseat drivers. They beat at the president and call him a muslim at the same time hes trying to defend the country. He has to be responsible for the security of the nation. The republicans are so cavalier with all of their remarks about how he doesnt care about america. Its ridiculous. I know it goes on with both sides of the aisle. The bottom line is they want to defeat isis, the president asks were authorization to do so and they should put their money where their mouth is. Host next is the independent line. Caller thank you for taking my call. I think it sets a dangerous precedent for the republicans to claim that obama is a muslim. Thats a bunch of rapid ganda propaganda. Its important for people to be able to distinguish islam from the radical terrorist and to just club it altogether, they dont recognize they are offending millions of muslims all over the world. No disrespect, i look at all religions as cults. It creates these cultish mindsets and behavior and this is what we are beginning to see. Host bill king it tweets in. Obama taps a czar to deal with propaganda. In an address to World Leaders on the final day of the summit in washington, he said poverty and political grievances fuel alienation that can lead to extremist killing sprees like the attacks in paris and copenhagen. The link is undeniable. Steve is in San Francisco on the democrat line and. Caller i have a comment pertaining to turkey providing guidance. Turkey has laws against religious differences, ethnic differences. These may be derived from others. He described his evolution over a. Amount of time. Thank you very much. Host next up is david in michigan. Caller yes, the people we are fighting against our primarily muslims. They recruit from the muslim faith. When they recruit, they are recruiting muslims. The ones that are fighting were once peaceful until they became isis and now they are violent. Its as lane as the nose on your face and when you try to smartypants the definition, you can wind up in a lot of trouble. You are fighting muslims. They are warlike muslims. That is all there is to it or it. As far as the permission to go to war, the republicans are worried that mr. Obama has screwed up every involvement hes had where ever he has involved himself. Why allow him more of a permission to get involved in a warlike manner around the world went everywhere he goes all the leaves is incivility . Host this is the front page of yesterdays the new york post. Keith is next in wisconsin. Caller good morning. I just want to say that americans have an aversion to any sort of self reflection or introspection. Look at what we have done in the past 20 years since bush took over. Its not a pretty picture. Abu ghraib, guantanamo, the black sites, the torture muslims have a long memory. This is what has radicalized muslims. Its not any scholar in the middle east. Its what americans have done. You have wrought this on to yourself. Wake up. Look at what your government is doing. Its not rocket science. Its not hard to figure out. Host the fbi chief is not invited to meetings on extremists. That is a little bit from New York Times. Wesley is in sacramento. Caller thank you for cspan. Mr. Obama has been very diplomatic about this crisis. George bush junior, when he decided to go into iraq, colin powell said it if you broke it youve got to fix it. I think that not going after george bush and dick cheney and not putting them in jail started this mess in the first place. Host paul is in new york. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. If you look at it, bush and obama were both messing this up. Obama pulled them out and that vacuum created isis. To the rocket scientist, thought was are from the koran. They are being issued by imams. If you get rid of them, they are giving the instructions. When obama said, why is he the bottom line is we have troops and partners. If were not going into kill them host this is the usa today. The white house announces Rudy Giuliani. It was a horrible thing to say. You probably heard what he said. He clarified his remarks on fox news. Hes a patriot im sure. In his rhetoric, i rarely hear him say the things i used to hear Ronald Reagan say or bill clinton site about how much he loves america. I do hear him criticize america much more. When its not in the context of statements about the exceptionalism of america, it sounds more like he is a critic than a supporter. You can be patriotic and a critic, but youre not expressing that love that we are used to from a president. Host our next call is from West Virginia. Caller my replies to the earlier caller that said that congress is not giving the president permission to go to war. I am retired military. The president doesnt want to go to war against them. This is propaganda to make it sound good. We are over there now and we are dropping bombs a day. They are dropping 100 sorties a day. The kurds are fighting against isis. The president hasnt supported the kurds yet. They havent given them weapons. We have American Veterans that are voluntarily fighting for the kurds because the president doesnt want to support them. Obama was raised muslim. You watch his rhetoric, everything is geared toward the protection of the muslim faith and the radical muslims. Im pretty sure there are good at muslims. For a man to go back to the crusades and claim that thats one of the reasons the radical muslims are acting the way they are is a bunch of crap. America wasnt even created then. He went over to Foreign Countries and apologized for america. Its just a bunch of baloney. Youve got to look at the list of lies they have done throughout his administration. I am also a High School Foot coach. After two years, if my program has not improved, i cant blame it on the last coach. He has had six years and he cant steve keep blaming stuff on bush. Caller good morning. Host please turn down the volume on your tv or it. Caller good morning. I would just like to ask everyone if in the United States or anywhere in the nation, please stop taking your frustrations on mr. Obama. If you have issues about anything it has nothing to do with him. Stop it. Stop taking your frustrations out on the president of the United States. Host gary tweet sin. Here is another tweet. Caller i support what obama is saying. He is right on time. His name is barack obama, the blessed one. He was chosen for it. He is telling it just like they should be told. So people wont be giving isis credit like they are muslim. They are not muslim. They are killers. The people should listen to what he says. This is a really smart man. He was chosen for his job. They should see how he works for the people. He is still working for the people, just like president carter. There are some republicans, not all of them, but some of them that are helping the terrorists by calling the muslim. Host this is dana in riverside new jersey. Caller i would like to say that i believe president obama is doing what he has to do. He is not muslim. I am tired of everybody disrespecting him. Giuliani and everybody. This is the worst i have ever seen, the disrespect this president is getting. The world is seeing that everyone is disrespecting him and that is not good on the world stage. Republicans need to stay in their place until they get in the white house and then they can show is what they can do. Thank you. Host jim tweet martin is indianapolis and he is a democrat. Caller i called not too long ago and i was feeling kind of terrible about obama but now i see the republicans are really try to make it like it is obamas fault. The republicans only represent 2 of america. They are doing what the muslims did with their people. When you put people under pressure, like they do us here in the United States, it leads to war. If the republicans think they can keep on with this rhetoric later on down the road, these people in the United States are going to rebel. Over what the republicans are doing. This is wrong. Host from our Facebook Page if you want to join that conversation, here are some of those comments. Those are some of the comments on our Facebook Page. If you want to join that conversation, it is at the very top of the page. Fairmont, West Virginia, republican. Caller im a for some caller. Im a christian. I have been watching and paying attention. There are really good muslims and their maybe are some doing it the different way. It is not a holy war of a kind. I wouldnt want anybody with their radical version of being a christian saying this is a holy war because they would get on my people. I wouldnt want that. Present obama, i think, is doing it right. He is not rushing in and putting boots on the ground. Let them over there put boots on the ground. We can do strikes. They are doing strikes over there. And he wants to keep them from recruiting. They have to take care of it over there. We cannot do it. The next president will have to take care of another war and there we go again. Host a poll, what is the best way to fight this lot of state. 50 of americans approve of this statement. 57 disapprove and 54 disapprove of his approach to terrorism as well. Michelle in uniontown pa democrat. Caller good morning. I dont understand why this is such a big deal that obama says we are not at war with islam and we are at war with terrorists. If you look at president worse if people have the internet, go check it out. Bush said the same thing. We are not at war with islam. We are at war with terrorists. People, check it out. Get your facts straight. Giuliani needs to tone down his rhetoric. Stop it. Host this is from the hollywood reporter. Brian williams resigns from the congressional medal of honor or directors. Lawrenceville, georgia, you are on the washington journal. We are talking about what president obama said. Caller good morning, peter. I am not a supporter of the president. I think he is one of the most incompetent president s we have had. This is probably the only time i will ever defend him. For someone to call in here and accuse him of being a muslim or a closet muslim is so patently ridiculous it is beyond words. If he is a muslim, why is he letting his daughter being raised by his grandmother that is a christian. Hes screwed up this war with islam state. I dont agree with his policies, but the guy is not a muslim, period. Host tom, new jersey. Caller i just wanted to say basically the president i dont care whether the guy is a muslim or not. Basically, he has lost credibility with the lot of the American People. Just him saying that the war with islam is an ugly life, i mean, with his credibly his credibility, who is going to believe whether he is telling a liar telling the truth. People dont believe him and that is where he has a problem. If they dont believe him, they are not going to believe he believes in america. Thats all i have to say. Host mary, Magnolia Springs alabama. Whats your opinion . Caller i started as a democrat at 13. I campaigned for john kennedy. I campaigned for bobby as senate. All these people are trying to tell me that this is the smartest president that was ever in the white house. I would go back to fdr who helped us go through world war ii and he said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. John kennedy said ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. They instilled faith in ourselves. They instilled faith in our country. John kennedy said the torch has been passed to a new generation. And he knew, if you did not fight hate, antisemitism, i mean, if you didnt just fight and bobby was for live love and weve got monsters roving through the world now, tearing apart babies crucifying, in fact, people that are for womens rights or for gays rights, i suggest you go to iran or saudi arabia or to enroll in isis. See what they are doing to the gays and women of the world. And though boko haram. Did the president do anything about those 300 young girls . No. Did he do anything about the hundred 32 boys watching a supper game in iraq . No. He didnt do anything as a Community Organizer in chicago. The last time i looked at chicago, it was an abscess. Host that is mary in Magnolia Springs, alabama. A key component of their joint defense was to point the finger at maureen, arguing that she met with williams in secret and her marriage was too fractured to support a conspiracy with the governor. That happened today in richmond, virginia. St. Louis, illinois, we are talking about what the president had to say at the violent extreme summit. Caller i want to thank you for your evenhandedness. You are the calmest guy i have ever seen on television. I imagine, when you leave the studio, you must rest somewhere and drink down if its a whiskey. [laughter] host thats not going to happen. That would not be a good idea. Caller i want to address a few things. The guy who said he was a football coach, i would sure hate for one of my children to be in his Football Team or whatever team he had because he is not a i mean, think about a coach. His analogy that this president is a coach then your staff has to be with you. Your players have to play for you. If they dont, if you sit on their hands, you never win a game and that is what theyre doing to this man here. When he got in office, the whole world was enthused about america. It was looking like america was standing up to all those pretty words they have been saying for years to people. But may come as a poor black man, if they can do this guy this way and the way they treated him and disrespecting him at every turn, everywhere you look, there is no hope for us and i guess there are a bunch of people all over the world who are saying the same thing i am. Why in the world wont they stand up . They are undermining do you know how close we are to Nuclear Annihilation . Host is there a solution to what is going on with isis in the middle east and some of these terror attacks . Harold is gone. The president hosted the white house violent extremism summit for three days. Here is a little bit of what he had to say. [video clip] at the same time we must acknowledge that groups like al qaeda and isolate i our andsil are targeting their programs to muslim communities, especially muslim youth. Scholars and cars have a responsibility to push back, not just on twisted interpretations of islam but also on the line that we are somehow engaged in a clash of civilizations. That america and west are somehow at war with islam or seek to suppress muslims. Or that we are the cause of every ill in the middle east. The narrative sometimes extends far beyond terrorist organizations. That narrative becomes the Foundation Upon which terrorists build their ideology and by which they try to justify their violence and that hurts all of us, including islam and especially muslims who are the ones most likely to be killed. Obviously, there is a complicated history between the middle east, the west, and none of us i think should be immune from criticism in terms of specific policies. But the notion that the west is at war with islam is an ugly life. An ugly lie. And all of us have a responsibility to reject it. Host we are back live on the washington journal. This is from the Washington Post. Rose in harrisburg, pa is a republican. Want to get your reaction on what the president had to say. Caller i just wonder why it is sewed difficult for him to say islamic terrorists. I am beginning to wonder. When i first voted, i voted for him the first time. But i will be darned when i voted the second time. I also agree with giuliani. Thank you. Have a nice day. Host jonathan calling from mclean, virginia. Independent line. Caller first of all, big fan of washington journal your quote washington journal. I find a constantly the funneling. Iraq is a country that the United States rated in 2003. Left the country in total chaos. As a result, the best estimates is that some 750,000 people civilians, have died as a result of the war and the subsequent chaos. When one group of people arise to try and represent their interests or fight in this conflict, some crazy group of people, the first thing americans do is to blame islam instead of looking at what was done to the country. The population of iraq is some 36 million. Imagine if 750 thousand people out of those 36 million, the proportion of the United States would be about 7 Million People. Imagine a 7 Million People had died for an unjustified, pointless disastrous invasion of our country which destroyed the government. After that, crazy people from the appellation mounds when around and so to destroy and killing people in the name of christianity. That is ludicrous. Host from what youve said, is the reason isis has developed and blossomed is because of the u. S. Invasion of iraq . Caller beyond that. The entire reason isis exists is because the coyotes the chaos introduced by the invasion of the country. You had civil war in syria. You have a disastrously weak government in iraq that was only representing the interests of the Shiite Community totally disenfranchising the sunnis. This is basic information. Yet some people decide this is because of islam. Theres 1. 5 billion muslims in the world are going everyday eating food, going to work raising their kids. Yet, when there is a crazy group that arises in a country that has been completely destroyed and turned into a war zone by the United States, people want to blame the islamic religion. Host doesnt violent extremism predate the invasion . Caller where . In iraq . No. Host anywhere. Caller violence has been around with human beings since the beginning of time. Been iraq, there was no al qaeda in iraq. There was no Extremist Group in iraq before the invasion. This is not something the people debate. Even republicans would say this. Host thanks for calling in this morning. Deborah is in waldorf, maryland, democrat. Caller good morning, how are you . Today, i just wanted to say that im so proud of our president and i support him. I dont agree with everything that he says. But what i do feel is that, as a United States citizen, ideally we should all support our president. Especially congress. They are representing the people. So represent the people. Do the right thing. Let the world see that we are united. Because the house divided cannot stand. Thank you for my time. Host from the Washington Times this morning tracy in leesburg, virginia. Caller i want to thank john from mclean for calling it like it is. We need to sit back and call a spade a spade. It is easy for us to say in america and our pretty little houses and then say what is the problems going on in the world that we created . If anybody has ever traveled outside of this country, there is a strong distaste for america, for the things we did wrong. And thats the problem. I think there is unwavering hypocrites and it there is a terrorist group in a Muslim Country and we dont want to say what our role is on it. I think that is dead wrong. And then the irony of, we say, well who is going to pay for it . We want to step up and go over here and take these people down but we dont want to pay for because congress you know this is such a ridiculous discussion. I think we should be spending more time fighting terrorism which is what it is, the right way. Stop going on a play on words, islam, terrorism with the heck cares . Somebody who doesnt really like america, they dont care what the word is. It will do everything they can to bring this country down and that is where our focus should be. Giuliani is a washed up governor with nothing to do. We have spent the last two days focusing on something this crazy man said instead of focusing on the right thing. Good muslims, good people, good religion, and going from there. Thats my comment. Host sahim is calling from highland park, michigan. Caller good morning. My thing is how the war started. They were started with or. They went over there and started killing muslims in the name of ore. They needed a fall guy. So they blame it on all islam. They tore down the towers and said the muslims did it. Muslims never did that. Youve got to follow the money. It was printed on a 20 bill. It shows you how the towers fall and things like that. I was wondering, if obama is muslim do he have the freedom to be muslim if you want to be muslim. Would that be a big factor if he was muslim . Host are you muslim . Caller yes. I will die that way. Host when you hear the term islamic terrorism, what do you think . Caller i think about the ku klux klan, the kkk neonazis people in the United States who are try to bring this place down in deceiving the people and the things that are about to happen to this country, they dont deserve it because they have been lied to. They have been hogtied. They have no idea that the laws and lies of a lot of people. The cia job is to go to other countries and break every rules and regulations of the country. Host do you think that isis is a terrorist organization . Caller i think ku klux klan are terrorists. I think neonazis are terrorists. What is a terrorist . If i say different thing, if i say this, i could be considered a terrorist. But in the United States, they can go around and kill people. They can orchestrate and low up the federal building. They labeled me a terrorist because we are muslims and we fight for the right to exist in this country . We peaceful people. We are the best of people. But if you go kill people for no reason, you cant blame it on islam. You got to look inside the cup. Its not the outside that is unclean. Its whats inside this country that is dirty and fill the, you understand . Because a lot of the things that was done was done from right here. We need to bring bush, cheney and the rest of them up on war crimes because they lie to the American People. All these chemical and biological weapons, where are they . Host we will leave it there. From the wall street journal, a followup on the clinton foundation. Run for near has this opinion piece the wall street journal reported a reach of donations. He writes that this is sleazy because of the clear conflicts of and trysts. What do these of interests. What do these Foreign Countries expect in exchange . He concludes his column this morning with this dee is calling in from portland oregon. Caller good morning. I must admit i have to agree somewhat with the Muslim Brotherhood just called in. If you want to talk about calling things what they really are and trying to label islam. Anybody with common sense can understand the difference in the way that obama describes that. The reason i can agree with that bother that brothers because if you want to call the iail tent they isil terrorists and that is what they are, terrorists, what do you call the clansmen and american apartheid and the White Supremacy . They are christians. They are american christians. They believe and they serve in god and they want to kill all black people come all jews everybody that dont look like them. Now i ask you, are they christians . It is quite easy for isil to recruit in this country because when you bring people that are not white into this country and you start to subject them to the racism and the apartheid system, they recoil at it. Its horrible. Its terrible. And it would seem to me, when i look at this in an overall way america has just about lost its soul. And everything on obama. Its not obama. They hate to see him as being the leader of this country. I guess the next thing for them to do is to bring to blame erectile dysfunction on obama, too. Host sean in North Carolina, what do you think . Caller on the war part, i listened to these last two guys and i sat here and laughed. They are talking about the klan. The clan hasnt been active since the 70s. It is ridiculous. Back to the war on isis, you look at the isis guys on tv, they are driving around on 42 50s, quiet . We pulled out our troops to early. Now we have iraq, syria, we have a big mess. We are going to put troops on the ground. That is all we are glad to do with it. Host mary, another republican in hamilton, ohio. Caller good morning. I understand that president obama thinks the main reason that isis gets recruits from the muslim countries is because of poverty. A lot of the leaders and others are not impoverished. They come from welltodo families, middle income people. The recruits they have gone from our country, from europe and canada are middleclass people i understand. They are not poor people. So thats not the reason. Its the ideology. They believe that our faith is wrong. That christians and jews people are wrong, and buddhists. And they believe that their faith is the only true faith. That does not believe the weight they do. As far as poverty, president obama could have issued an executive order sending money into the poor black communities in this country. To help build youth centered, playgrounds, grocery stores, but he did not do that. I cannot understand why the black people think he is such a great president , when he has not helped them that much. Peter what do you think the solution to a nice is is is there a solution . Caller we should send special forces, not the army, but special forces to help the armys of egypt, of, what is that other country jordan, they should send in the troops and we should be there to help them. With air power and with plans, strategy, because they do not know how to do it. We do. Peter we will leave it there and move onto keith in murfreesboro, tennessee. Democrat. Caller yes sir. I have heard callers talk about some of the problems in iraq and it is obvious that, when the Bush Administration went in, the democracy they imposed on the iraqi people, the shiite is 60 , the sunnis around 30 , i wondered how the republicans think that would work in the United States if we had the same thing with the democrats at 60 , and 30 republicans. Do they think that would work out well . It is no surprise that the sunni population is having a problem with this. That is my, and i would like for some republican to respond to that. Peter from the New York Times saudi king unleashes a torrent of money as bonuses flow to the masses. Peter frank in new york, we are talking about the violent extremism summit and the president s language, what do you think . Caller good morning. The president , i want to say that obama is the greatest president ever. Isis started let me educate you isis started [indiscernible] they did not come from foxnews and Rudy Giuliani they do not like obama because he is black. They are confederates. Giuliani made millions from 9 11 going to talk shows on all that. In new york, we know that. Peter that is frank in far rockaway, new york and this is raymond in west haven connecticut on our republican line. Peter caller i am a veteran of the United States military. Without a coalition, middle east and muslim leaders, we are not going to defeat isis. Therefore, what the president is doing. We have no idea of how to do this the way it is supposed to be done. Giuliani is an idiot. We need some real republican leaders. Peter this is the Financial Times. Slaughter on libya sure fuels. Isis advanced with porous borders and a plentiful supply of weapons in europe, the vast and largely ungoverned state of libya is emerging as a significant outpost for isis. Peter al, Powder Springs georgia, democrat, what do you think of all this discussion . Caller what i wanted to make a lot of people aware of, is that there was a general who wrote a book called war is a racket. He stated that the u. S. Government fought these wars for profit. Winston churchill is quoted as saying, world war ii did not have to be fought, but it was fought because london wanted it, it was londons war, because germany sought to extract itself from the International Financial system. Peter tie in what you are saying to what we are talking about. Caller it all stems from that. We do not know when isis is. They did not exist until obama pulled us out of iraq. When he pulled us out, he destabilized egypt, he destabilized libya and syria for what . Then isis pops up. Where did it come from who are these people . As far as we know, they are cia. There is a lot of deception that goes on from our government. When a prophet, this is what they want. The people who run this country are the people sitting in washington, it is the money, the money runs this country. Those guys are nothing but paid thugs. Peter we will leave it there and move on to marry in michigan. Caller good morning, america. Nice to speak with you again. I call often i am a cspan junkie, i appreciate you guys. A couple things first of all i happen to be an independent now that it is because i was a lifelong democrat until several things happened. 9 11, the aca i do not believe that these things should be opposed on the American People without us having being able to decide about it ourselves. I also would never agree in my own life when i ever sign a contract that would bite me for the rest of my life without reading it. Any simpleton knows this. Peter i am not sure where you are going here. Caller my point is, i object to president obama, not because he is black, it is because of his policies. Peter this is steve in oregon, republican line, we are talking about violent extremism Conference Summit held by the white house and the state department the last three days, covered on cspan extensively, what is your opinion of it, the fact that the president says we are not at war with islam . Caller i would like to remind everyone that the nuremberg trials establish that everyone who goes along with terror is guilty. It doesnt matter if it was david caress, or tim mcveigh the Oklahoma City bombing or robbers, they are all guilty and should be brought to justice. We are at war with people who terrorize others and people who stone women and those who want to vote we have to extend this war to everyone, not just anyone who advocates violence should be put down. Peter lakeland, florida democrat. Caller thanks for taking my call. A couple of things. The lady said a few minutes ago that president obama give an executive order as to helping blacks in the black community. I do not know about every american, but a lot of us do not look at president obama as a black president , we look at them as the president. He is here to help all of us not just black people. If he helps all of us, we arise we will rise with everyone else. About the middle east, i keep listening to these people talking about send troops over there, when the body bags and all the injured kids keep coming back, what are they going to say . That we just leave our young kids over there my soninlaw and might one of my daughters went to iraq and every day i was nervous during that time. But everyone else that wants to send someone elses kid and just cares about there has been no care in the United States. These people are trying to get themselves together to do their own thing. One other thing about all this racism that i hear i grew up in the south and new our parents taught us to stay in our place, as long as we stay in our place, we will have trouble. And president obama seems not to be in his place, thats why hes having trouble about people. They do not figure that is his place to be president of the United States. Peter we will continue to take your calls for a few minutes on this topic. We want to show you and alert you to the fact that every weekend on cspan2 and cspan3 48 hours of book tv on cspan t tv and 48 hours of American History on cspan3. We often go around the country with our local content and visit cities around the country so we can get a look at their history their literary life, and then we put those pieces on cspan2 and cspan3 on booktv and American History tv. This week and are visiting greensboro, North Carolina and here is a little bit of what we will see. We are called the gate city because of this building, the room we are standing in which was governor moreheads mansion and he started the North Carolina railroad right here in the city of greensboro. You could not get anywhere on the east coast without coming through greensboro. Or a long time, we forgot our roads and what the gate city meant and we are truly a legit six have. It is a to a logistics hub. We have emerging industries, such as health care, advanced manufacturing, logistics, error not ask, error not ask a aronautics. We lost jobs because tobacco the textiles, they all closed up the mills and it hurt our community very badly. Though we have reinvented ourselves and come at this point, we are focusing on advancing manufacturing and logistics and other things that reflect this new century. Some of the problem greensboro faced arent unique to greensboro, they happen in communities all around the country. Issues with race relations, my hope was that they would improve over the last few years but they have actually seemed to be more challenging. I do not know if that is unique to greensboro, or because of things happening on a national level. We have a deep history when it comes to the civil rights movement, not only the february 1960 with the sit in movement but as far back as the underground railroad. We are an active community, and i think that is a good thing, we have dialogue and civil rights are something that is always in the forefront of our minds. Peter that is a little portion of our visit to greensboro North Carolina. You can see a lot more this weekend on booktv on cspan2 and American History tv on cspan3, 48 hours of history, 48 hours of books every weekend. Act ii your calls on what the president had to say about the west being at war with islam, he called it an ugly lie. Modesto, california, democrat, what do you think . Are you with us . Go ahead. Caller i wanted to say that they blame everything on obama but you have to go back. They have been fighting each other for thousands of years over there, and it does not make sense that one man can come in were america could come in, and clean it up. Bush ran around promoting democracy. All around the world, he said in mock receipt is what needs to be pushed, and he did it. Then these people had elections and then americans said that their elections were you legal that the people they elected they would not recognize. That kind of backandforth irritates people, anybody, it would irritate america. Peter do you think the u. S. Has a role in the middle east . Caller i think we should leave it demo alone and let them work it out. It does not make sense to spend a fortune and he lives that are lost. Peter a tweet. Peter brian, republican wilmington, North Carolina, what is your thought . Caller my name is brian, i believe that, because, in the past, we funded their weapons sorry, peter dont look at your tv, just talk into your telephone. Caller we gave weapons to them for we started fighting them and it is because of i have to go. Peter thank you for trying, we appreciate it. David brooks, the national a solution peter that is david brooks this morning in the New York Times. We have two segments coming up we would be looking at railroad and environmental safety. This is off the recent train crash in West Virginia. Then, after that, we will continue our historically black colleges and universities tour and we will be talking with the president of Xavier University in new orleans. That is coming up on the washington journal. Here are some of our featured programs for this weekend. Saturday morning, starting at 10 a. M. Eastern, live on cspan our nations governors get together to discuss issues affecting their states. Guest include denny meyer ceo of Union Square Hospitality group, and a real bar to roma of fox business news. And maria barta roma. Sunday feature speakers include jeh johnson, and epa administrator gina mccarthy. On cspan two, saturday, booktv is on the road, expressing the literary life of greensboro, North Carolina, part of the 2015 cspan cities tour. Sunday at 9 p. M. Eastern, on afterwards westmore retraces his career choices from combat veteran to white house fellow wall street banker, to social entrepreneur. On American History tv, on cspan3, saturday night, just after 7 00 the 1960 three interview of former nation of islam minister malcolm x. , discussing race relations, and opposition to racial integration. Sunday at 630, p. M. Former cia chief of disguise john amend as tells the story of of a husband and wife kgb spy team at infiltrated the cia through the use of sex in the 1970s. Find out complete Television Schedules at cspan. Org. Let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. Call us at 202 brigham . Or send us a tweet at best like us on facebook, policy on twitter. Follow us on twitter. Keep track of congress and follow the republican new members to its first session, new congress rest access on cspan cspan2, and cspan radio and cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Peter a discussion of rail safety and what can happen when a tanker, an oil tanker, goes off the rails as it did in West Virginia last week. Joining us is bob deans of the National Defense counsel and brigham mccown, the administrator of the pipeline and hazardous safety materials administration. What happened in West Virginia last week and how serious was it . Brigham anytime we have a transportation accident, derailment, loss of fossil fuel and a hazmat incident, it is serious. The u. S. Uses almost 19 Million Barrels of crude oil each and every day in our country. As a consequence, we have to move it, we have to move it where it is extracted to our refineries. Because we are finding oil in places where we lack traditional Pipeline Infrastructure, more and more this material is finding itself on the railroads. Although, rail is mainly say when you have at this type of growth in moving crude oil by rail accidents can happen, they should not happen, and we need to do a better job than we have been doing. Peter before we get to bob, i want to ask you about the editorial this morning in the Washington Post. Safety goes off the rails, the conclusion is the oil industry is pushing for less longer timelines to fix its infrastructure. Its lobbyist argued that only a tiny fraction of Oil Transported by rail ever spills or ignites. Raising transportation cost for Oil Companies could crimp Domestic Production when crude oil prices are low. These arguments should be rejected, the Washington Post writes, accidents have become too frequent and are potentially to catastrophic. Do you agree . Brigham i do, if you look at the Safety Record of railroads and all transportation methods they are safe, they have become say for each year, but, even if that accident rate stays the same, if you are transporting 400 more by rail, you are going to have more accidents, and that is something we cannot let have happened. I do not subscribe to the theory that it is either cost or safety you can have both, we need both, and the American People, they expect oil to get to the terminals, oil to get refine, to get to their gas tanks, and expected to be done safely. Peter bob deans is also with us. Do you have an issue with oil being transported via trainiss . Brigham bob we are producing more petroleum than ever. A lot of that is being moved by rail, when it is coming from areas like north dakota, that dont have that Pipeline Infrastructure in place. As a result, six years ago, we were moving about 10,000 tank cars a year, last year, more than 40 times that much. A lot of that is, the kind of product we are moving, oil from shale is more explosive that conventional crude oil. They can reduce the dangers by investing in equivocal stabilizers to take some of the gases out. A lot of the producers in north dakota have not done that. We are putting a dangerous kind of crude oil on these trains. We are putting a lot these tank cars were designed decades ago not for this persons purpose and the National Transportation safety board warned us, the of the Obama Administration is saying we should phase out those cars. This oil is going all over the country. The train at exploded in West Virginia was on its way from north dakota to yorktown virginia, so he could get to the east coast refineries. On route, it is going to small towns, they do not have equipment, the training, a chemical foam in place to deal with this disaster. All three of those things need to be addressed. Peter is this an argument for an xl pipeline . Bob it is not appeared pipelines themselves are risky. We have had nearly 6000 pipeline blowout or leaks over just the past two decades that have spilled 100 million gallons of toxic crude oil or other hazardous liquids in our rivers, lakes, field, and streams. Most of it has not been cleaned up. Keystone xl pipeline is a plan to take some of the dirtiest oil on the planet, height it through the bread basket of america to refineries in the gulf coast most of which will be sent overseas. It is not a plan to help this country, it it about big profits for big oil. Peter brigham mccown, should standards for these cars be increased . Brigham i disagree on Keystone Pipeline, the environmental lobby, they do not like rail but if they say type lights are safe, but they do not like pipelines, we have to deal with reality and depoliticize the talk. Anytime you hear about ready oil, it is all about bunk. It does not help our safety, it undermines safety, blocking these types of projects. Years ago i called for increased tank standards, the standards we have, they date back to the 1960s. They need to be updated. If you look at any industry in our country, we have gone through serious technological revolutions, yet rail still does what they have been doing for a long time. We can do better, but the country has been focused on how to make the package, or a tank car more robust, we ought to be asking the question, why cant the railroads keep the cars on their tracks. If we can prevent the accident from occurring in the first place, we do not have to get into this debate about if the tank car is Strong Enough to not spill its contents. Bob i want to address the point about the keystone situation. This is some of the dirtiest oil on the planet, that is the result of the state Department Analysis that shows, from the wells to the exhaust pipe, this is this oil is 17 more carbon intensive. The state Department Found that that is the equivalent of putting 5. 7 million additional cars on the road, which is about the number of cars in the state of pennsylvania. We would have to park every car in the state of pennsylvania to offset the additional carbon pollution, as compared to conventional oils. That is not my opinion, thats what the state department said. Peter do you foresee congress doing anything in terms of israel derailment rail derailment in West Virginia . Bob we hope so. How are people prepared to cope with that. The administration has made some recommendations. We hope it will move forward expeditiously. Peter he is currently the principal and managing director of a group called the United Transportation advisers. Mr. Mccown, do you think there should be changes in the regulations to help oil a shipped . And what would you guest welcome of a duty to be updated. Talking to my former colleagues at the department of transportation, i think they are going down the right path. Acting administration or administrator has been a doing a has been during a traffic job. He is a life a career fire service guy. The role that my agency is responsible for, beefing up the tank cars, that is over at the White House Office of management and budget. Secretary fox has been a good job meeting into this issue. You are going to see new regulations coming out in may. They will be too fast for some, not fast enough for others, but the fact is we can only build so many tank cars each and every day. And i think they are going to be pretty aggressive. But separately, we got to get a handle on rail safety. The federal railroad administration, together with the ntsb and the Industry Companies to figure out why train cars are derailing. And whether it is track issues weather, whatever it is. We have to keep the trains on the track. It is that sybil. Peter how dependent are we on rail transportation echo for goods and services . Guest i think we are fairly dependent at this point for numerous reasons. Number one again, we still import a format a fair amount of oil. 40 of all the oil that we import comes from canada. That is not going to change, and we ought to be lucky we are lucky that we have it. Having been in the military and been overseas, i would much rather get the same type of oil from canada that we currently get from venezuela, saudi arabia. It is not dirty. It is not any different than oil we currently get in. Number two four rail transportation we are dependent on rail transportation for the for seeable future because we lack the Pipeline Infrastructure. The pipeline operators, the people that built this private infrastructure, they are having difficulty because every new pipeline project gets blocked by the same people that claim that they want to clean up the environment. And the state departments own study says that when you transport oil by rail, you have more accidents. Frankly, they even put a number of deaths on that figure for not building a pipestone a pipeline like keystone. We have to remove politics from this debate. Guest well, two quick points. A lot of the pipeline operators themselves in north dakota are rejecting some of that crew for the simple reason that the producers are not investing in the stabilizers, not making that crude as safe as it needs to be. We are moving about 25 million gallons a day on rail. As far as canada goes, we dont have a better friend in canada peter. When secretary jack a was sworn into years ago, his very first task was with canada. Have one of the largest borders in the world. We have the hundred thousand people a day cross that border. We have the worlds most robust trade operations. We are good friends, good allies. Here, have a problem. We just finished the hottest year on record in 2014. Since recordkeeping began in 1880. 16 of the hottest years have all happened since 1997. Canada and the United States need to cooperate around clean energy solutions. Investing in efficiency so he can do more with less waste. Getting more of a power from the wind and the sun. Building the most Energy Efficient electric and hybrid cars anywhere in the world. And United States and canada are cooperating around those areas. We need to do better. That is where friendship can really grow. Peter lets take some calls. The numbers are up on the screen. We are talking properly about Railroad Safety, its Environmental Impacts at times and whether some of the solutions. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7458002 for independents. Rachel, please go ahead. Caller since as long as i can remember, we have been you can only what are your yard on a certain day. That doesnt show you that we have a shortage of clean water to drink. And another thing, when they went through for the Keystone Pipeline, they always talked about the jobs. It went from canada all the way through texas. Ok. That pipeline had to go through businesses. It had to destroy businesses, schools, whatever was in his way. And we havent even talked about the ranchers and the farmers. We dont hear from them. We only hear from the Oil Companies. Whether we have a hear from the people affected . Peter thank you, maam. Guest rijo, ip should the question. You mentioned the water. That pipeline would transit more than 1000 waterways from the Yellowstone River to the platte river in just the three states where construction would be concentrated. Post three states have 100 and 10,000 110,000 ranches and farms. That is where the real jobs are in this region. Those of the resources we need to protect. And that is what we need to stand up for against the pipeline. Peter amanda is calling in from florida. Hi, amanda. Caller yes. I was wondering in terms of the railway, is the extremes in weather extreme heat and extreme cold perhaps affects the rails . Guest sure. That is a very good question. You know, unlike pipelines which are buried under the ground and are away from people and, to some extent, the weather railroads are like streets, roads, and bridges. They are exposed to all the elements. We dont know exactly what happened in West Virginia yet, although the acting administrator, the fra to Railroad Safety agency says she doesnt thinks be played a factor. But we do know that several derailment have been caused where either the tracks heat up in the summer, or the track gets brittle and even breaks in temperatures in extreme low temperatures. That is one of the issues we need to look at. How can we deploy sensor technology, how can we use other methods to validate the safety of the tracks before we put these 100 plus cars called unit trains that can transport 2 million or 3 Million Barrels of oil donna track . Peter and the wall street journal this morning. The train was traveling below train track speed limits. Bob deans, in your view, what was the Environmental Impact in and what is the Environmental Impact . Guest fortunately in this one it has been minimal. There was a huge fireball blowing up there. But what we had in lynchburg last year, we had 29,000 gallons of crude oil going into the james river. It was seen 140 miles downstream in richmond. That was a real problem for the shed that year. We had another one of these disasters in huntsville, alabama the year before. And another one in north dakota. It is a serious problem. And one of the things that ring of that bringham mentioned other factors that go into it, we only have peter, about 400 inspectors federally who look at our railroads nationwide. We need to bump that up. You cant have a 44 increase in oil moving by rail with the same small group of inspectors trying their best to do their job. Peter do you agree with that . Guest well, i think we have to keep in mind, under notions of federalism, most inspections whether truck or pipeline or rail a lot of these inspections are done at the state and local level by providing grant moneys to the state. I think we need to get together with the states and have a discussions a discussion to see how we can better address them. The federal government uses an audit type activism to china data if i integrity threats ors thats to identify identity integrity threats. But we need to do a better job in anticipating failures and finding out the root cause of failures. Peter paul. Dayton, ohio. The independent line. Caller yes, hi. Listen. I have a comment about how we can solve this problem once and for all. The oil industry, the gas and oil industry, is obsolete. We dont need gas and oil anymore, ok . Every time we shipped oil, like the valadez, that leaks. We transported, now we have this train derailment. We build new pipelines underground. Ok . We need to concentrate on not going to mars, but solar power and electric power. Peter paul, think of a much. Bob deans of the Natural Resources defense council. Guest excellent points. Number one, we are making huge progress in improving our mouse for gallon under agreements that was reached between automakers themselves and the Obama Administration. We are going to be almost doubling our gas mileage by 2025 to 54. 5 miles per gallon. That is real progress. A story in the New York Times today, saying in kansas city, theyre planning to put 1000 electric charging stations in the city area so that folks can actually use electric and plugin hybrid cars a lot more effectively. That is happening around the country. It is very important. We need to continue to reduce our lines on this field. It is essential for our future. By the way, it has created an enormous amount of jobs. We have the legal quarter of a million of americans right now we get up every day and go to work putting up Wind Turbines and solar facilities. Lester, wind and solar provided 5 of our electricity nationally. In some places, texas, the oil capital of the world, it is about 9 . In other states, as high as 25 . We can get nationally up to a third of our electricity from the wind and the sun by 2030 according to the doe. We need to do it. Peter the author of this book, a message of hope for a planet in peril. What is this, mr. Dean . Guest the message here is how can ask a better world for our children. By recognizing that the National Systems that we depend on for every job in this country, every job in the world, for our prosperity, for our very lives needs fundamentally to be protected. It is common sense, peter. Peter who is francis . Guest he was, for many years, the president of the Natural Resources defense council. She is an iconic person. She wanted to write that book as she retired and looked to the next chapter of her right life. Peter bringham mckown, whatever over to do these days . Guest im a lawyer, and im also a consultant that gets together with others to try and find solutions to the transportation challenges we have. Im also chairman of a newer nonprofit called the alliance for innovation and infrastructure. And i think, as bob pointed out texas is a great example. They are leading the way in oil, they are leading the way in renewables. We need more renewables. Totally support the concept. We need to continue the good work we have done in reducing our Greenhouse Gas emissions but this isnt about having a single tool in the toolbox. Renewables cannot get us where we need to get today. They just something cant. Even the world for castro that by 2040, we are still going to be largely dependent on fossil fuels. Our goals as former regulators, is to figure out how we can improve the system, how we can get the products that we have to have from point a to point b safely as possible. This is not a zerosum game. We need all the tools in the toolbox. Clearly, renewables are part of that, but so too are false of feels for a long time to come. Peter is train and rail travel energyefficient . Guest train is rail is very efficient for a lot of different types of commodities. It takes a lot of volume off of our roads. Trains are great for transportation of materials across country. You know, the Transportation Network we have, even though it has deficiencies and even though we can point out where it can be improved, is the envy of the world. Thanks to president eisenhower with the eisenhower interstate system, with no railroads out west and our stateoftheart Pipeline Infrastructure system, we can move things around more efficiently than any other country. Just like when there is an accident, you know, we need to be say, how can we improve the system . Not, i will never drive again because of this and play not realistic. The valve mike and safety harbor, florida. Mike, youre on the air. Caller yes, thank you cspan. Mr. Mccown, i appreciate what youre saying at least, but i dont have the faith in the federal government to accomplish some of the tasks. It appears that we have an infrastructure problem, which is ongoing and covers the gamut of bridges, roads, rails, etc. In theory, we will go with that. Mr. Deans, you mention some things. First of all, the main problem with the Keystone Pipeline remember this is an extension of an already existing pipeline that hasnt blown up and hasnt had all these crazy leaks and stuff but the main problem is the seizing of the lands the Eminent Domain and handing it over to the canadian Oil Companies. That has not been addressed. So there is one issue. Secondly unintentional consequences. Whether we like it or not, we are stuck with oil for the better part of 30 years. If we had a brandnew Energy Source that we could use across the board, it would take 30 years for our country to retrofit. Let alone if we stopped the use of oil and fossil fuels. We are talking about billions the number of deaths in the third world because they certainly cannot make the jump from fossil fuels to whatever the latest technology is. So i dont necessarily want to demonize something that im going to get in my car here and run my heirs with. Im sure you flew on an airplane. Also, i dont want to get off topic, but you did mention the climate. We have to look in respect to the actual facts, and that the rhetoric. Peter mike, we got a lot there on the table. Things are calling in. Guest yes, thanks, mike. I want to start with your stuck with oil because i thought that was a great phrase and it kind of harkens back to something that bringham was saying earlier. Theres no doubt that fossil fuels have played a crucial factor in the development of this country, but you know, the great thing about this country what the old those railroads what the those canals, what enabled us to win the cold war what enabled us to put a man on the moon was the fact that we, as americans, embrace the future. We arent dragging, kicking and screaming, into the future. We have a Bright Future ahead with these clean energies. Efficiency. We have cut our energy use in half in this country as a portion of our economic output in just the last 35 years. Think of what we can do in the next 35 years if we put her minds to it. And were going to. Our congress right now, in the past two years, mike, the fossil fuel industry spent more than 720 million to advance its agenda on capitol hill. That it is trying to drag us back, trying to anchor our future in the fossil fuels of the past. We can go there. We have a Brighter Future ahead. Peter bob deans is with the National Resource defense council. Bringham mckown joins us from dallas. He is the former acting director for the United Transportation advisers. What kind of Pipeline Infrastructure is there in the u. S. . And what is traveling through some of those pipes . Guest well, we have almost 2. 5 billion miles of pipeline in our country. And the vast majority of that transports natural gas from production sites through what we call transmissions lines, which are be similar to your interstate highway system, all the way down to our homes and our factories. But we also transport almost all the oil that we get to the country via pipelines to the refineries. Then that oil, when it is turned into other products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, kerosene, is transported back to the Pipeline Network out to distribution points where a truck or some other method will take it to a storage tank or write to your gas station. It is the most efficient way of transporting the large volumes of Energy Products we use. And that is why it has transported the line share of these items for nearly a century. It is the only one way transportation system. That makes it extremely efficient, it is also the safest by the does to go by Statistical Analysis by the u. S. Government. We are very reliant on pipelines, and, you know thankfully so. Peter jill is calling in from jupiter, florida. Academic. Caller good morning. I think we can agree that if we leave politics out of this safety first is the issue. Especially when it comes to water. The people of West Virginia have had a tremendous blow this year. I guess into last year. First with the coal industry leaking tanks of chemicals into their waterways. Now, we have tank cars derailed leaking into their waterways. Since the gentleman is, you know representative of a pipeline you also have a very aging pipeline underneath the great lakes. Which is a huge freshwater resource for michigan and other states that surround the great lakes area. Safety first i think should be the health and welfare of people. And we talk about keystone now, this isnt about the trains , but have to consider the health of the people at both ends of the pipeline. Whether it is the nations up north, whose water is so contaminated they are looking at disease. Then you have air pollution, as well as the water than the other end of the pipeline in port arthur, texas, the refineries, the people that live there have water and air quality issues. Peter jill, we got the point. Thank you very much. Guest jill, excellent point across the board. Ill just end by underscore what you first said. Lets talk about this for a second. To get these tar sands out of the ground, you are stripmining the forest in canada, one of the last truly wild places anywhere on earth. We have strip mined ourselves right now. We have gutted out a portion larger than the city of chicago. In there, there are waste containment kits that would cover the entire city of washington dc. These are wildlife graveyards, leaking 3 million gallons of toxic sludge every single day into the river basin. And the local people there whose families have used that river for sustenance for generations, can a lucky the fish out of that river. That is abhorrent. The pipeline would encourage expansion of that karen does practice. That in itself is enough reason to deny this horrible idea. Peter mr. Mccown . Gets, well, i respect bob, but i think he is totally wrong on this issue. Joe, i used to live in jupiter florida. I am in appalachian. I grew up right near where this built occurred by rail. I can tell you that we have to move you on this rhetoric. You know, if you want to disparage it, it is tar sands. Can we please agree to remove all the rhetoric and just speak the truth. The truth is that canada is developing the oilsands, whether we buy it or not. It arrives in our country every day. The truth is, we need to move it as safely as possible. And that is with a brandnew pipeline. The truth is that we depend on canada for 42 of the oil we import and we are going to for the foreseeable future. The truth is i would rather get my oil from canada than saudi arabia or other places. And the truth is is that if we dont buy this oil, they are not going to keep it in the ground. That is a fallacy. The Obama Administration has disavowed that fact already. It will get shipped somewhere else. We need to start dealing with reality versus the way we wish the world was because that is not going to get us anywhere. And while we do that, and well we block important Pipeline Infrastructure projects and we block upgrades of existing projects, those people are undermining the environment, not helping it. And that is the true tragedy of this discussion. Peter to tweets two tweets. The source of this oil carries a real a high real cost. Keystone xl will replace those dangerous trains with a nice, safe, quiet, nondiesel burning pipe. Bringham mckown. Guest well, i think some of that is true. This has been the most scrutinized pipeline project in our nations history. For crying out loud, we figured out how to win world war ii and less time than it has taken this president to figure out whether he wants to build the pipeline. Transcanada, the operator, a u. S. Company by the way, has agreed to 57 conditions. Many of those go above and beyond what the law requires. Many of them have since been incorporated into law. We do have an aging Pipeline Infrastructure. We have aging infrastructure everywhere. In the safest thing we can do is to build a brandnew pipeline versus relying on less efficient and less safe methods of transportation. Peter bob deans. Guest the tar sands pipeline is not going to take one drop of oil off of american rails. That is not how it works. Where these tar sands are located, they are not there are not roads up there to move that. That is why the pipeline is so important to the industry. If they could expand without the pipeline, we wouldnt be hearing so much about it. Here are the facts. Guest how are we getting millions peter mr. Mccown, well give you a chance. But let him finish. Guest most of the oil from canada is not coming from train. It is coming by pipeline. And pipelines, as we know, carry huge risks with them. We have had 6000 pipeline blowout or leaks in just the past two decades. We dont hear about most of them, but let talk about a couple. The kalamazoo river five years ago. 38 miles of that wonderful river in michigan was essentially killed off by a dirty tar sands pipeline blowout. We had a blowout four years ago and the Yellowstone River. 42,000 gallons of oil in the Yellowstone River. We had another blowout we had the same thing happening just last month in the Yellowstone River. We had pipeline blowout after blowout, and it does carry a risk with it. It is a bad idea. In his to be denied. P brigham mccown. Guest well, we transport there are 42 gallons in a barrel. 11. 3 Million Barrels of oil around the country each year. On average, 32,000 barrels are lost still. You know, by hiking up type line accidents and fear mongering is not going to get places. We spill more gasoline at service stations. We clean up gasoline from highway accident that we spill on a pipeline. You know, the fact is that there is a certain level of risk in everything we do. And when we leave the studio and get in our cars, there is a risk that something may happen to us. And i agree with bob, america did not get to where it is today because we didnt risk it. America got to where we are today because we had the fortitude to be bold to be brave , and not hide in our homes. Again, as a regulator, it is so frustrating when i hear people say, well, i dont like real. I dont like pipeline. We have to bring debate the debate back to reality. It is to be good stewards to the environment. We need to move these products as safely as possible, and you cant do that by blocking every idea and blocking every method we have out there. Pipelines are safe. Can they be safer yet . Yes. The older ones spill . Sometimes. There are good oral trains coming from canada to the gulf coast refineries, and so keystone will be very important i will make us more safe. Frankly, bob knows that. Peter bob deans, a short response and then we will move on to calls. Guest i have enormous respect for you, bringham. Risk is always inherit, but who is investing that risk . Why should folks in louis in virginia burden the risk of having oil drop in their backyard . Who is carrying the risk . Our farms, our churches, our schools, our environment. We need to do everything we can to reduce these risks. Peter emmanuel is calling in from germ, the carolina. Caller good morning. Speaking to the educational piece, i write now and currently involved in an Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Program through the city. It is a great program, and it is a part of the Obama Administrations and epas brownfield program. We received training osha first aid, and Wastewater Treatment plants. It is a 40 hour course. It provides participants an opportunity to learn basic knowledge about protecting the health and safety of personnel working with hazardous waste. Those are just some of the things that can be done until the problem of spills are solved. Again, it is a great program. And it is through the community college. Peter thank you, sir. Brigham mccown. Guest i would like to say that these programs are important. The agency that i had the privilege of leading gives out millions of dollars in grant money and preparedness and response training each and every year. We need that. You know, when a regulator looks at risk, there are two aspects to it. One is prevention, and the second is mitigation. Prevention means keeping the accident from occurring in the first place. And we need to do a better job at that, especially on rail. For the reasons that we had previously talked about. Mitigation leads reducing the consequences or the size of a spill. And we need to continue to do that. Have a lot of First Responders around the country. And every single fire truck, they carry a guide that informs them of how to respond to a hazmat incident, and how to respond to every single type of hazmat that is being transported. There is more we can do around the country, and you know, this is all about continuing improvement. We are safe, but we can be safer. And we need to adjust our plan accordingly, given the amount of oil that we are seeing unreal. Peter ridges calling in from all hell. The republican line. Rich, good morning. Caller morning to you. It seems like a lot of good points. It seems like no energy is safe energy. We dont like natural gas because theres carbon in it. The epas totally killing the consumer. Right now, the individual is facing the cold weather. Their bills are going up, their electric and gas. Partly because the epa is just killing them. They are not allowed to burn coal. The other thing is 5 of the energy being produced by solar and wind is no way and off. If we shut it all off today, we would all be frozen. We need other types of energies. It is coming into peoples bills. Some people are going to be shut off because they can afford the new bills with the epa regulations that didnt go through congress. They just decided the spectrum in there. Power plants are sitting idle. They could be running and getting more heat and more backup. I will hang up and listen to your answer. Peter bob deans, the Natural Resources defense council. Guest thanks very much, rich. I think you are recognizing the Obama Administration tried to clean up our dirty carbon plants power plants. We need to do that. But the industry has been about the business for some time of shifting away from coal and towards cleaner types of sources. 44 of all the new electric generating capacity in our country in the past three years has come from wind and sun. 44 . These are decisions that are being made in the marketplace by our utilities. It has nothing to do with the epa. That is progress. That is moving in the right traction. And it hinges on what emmanuel said just a few minutes ago with his work. He is at the cutting edge of a major move it Major Movement towards clean energy jobs. Are now working every day and wind, and solar, and building the next generation of energyefficient cars. Making a more Sustainable World for us so we move into an area where we have a diversified mix of energy choices. And we are doing more with less waste. That is what drives rates down. That is the key to Affordable Reliable Energy for every american. Peter gary treats reads and tweets in, rail and have for too long neglected the tracks and acquitted. Charles calls in from ohio. Child. Caller yes, i have something to say. You are all talking about it but all the oil spills always seem to happen whether it is pipeline or real always seem to have the where fresh Water Supplies are ruined. Now they want to build a humongous oil pipeline over the freshwater aquifers out west. Do you think that they a 9 11 style attack on this trip i could ever happen . Peter brigham mccown. Guest well, the aquifer which runs from south dakota all the way down to texas, i think that is the jerking source youre talking about. You know, we have thousands of miles of pipeline through the aquifer. The brassica has the pipeline that crosses the platte river that has been there since the mid1950s. The federal governments radio to a requirement for pipelines running through source water aquifers through environmentally sensitive areas are more robust. There are more stringent requirements for pipelines in those kinds of areas. Frankly, look at look at the transalaska pipeline. If you want to look at a pipeline that, by the way, is above ground that runs through the most pristine parts of alaska and our wilderness has an exemplary Safety Record. I think the point i would like to make is it is not a zerosum game. It is not winners and losers. It is not safety or oil. We can have both. And just like the energy the that bob talks about, we dont need, you know, a gigantic hammer is the only tool in the toolbox. We need lots of different tools, a coming together, what were seeing is a rebirth of the american energy, or an energy renaissance. We are experiencing it. Throwing out numbers the return of the economy has been literally empowered due to a resurgent of american energy. Both renewable and possibly a. Look at the price of the pop. Look at how we have inoculated ourselves against instability from the middle east. All of these factors together are allowing the American Economy to grow. And when you grow the pie, there is more for everybody. The way to the future is to move things safely, efficiently, and with and as you know as efficiently as we can. That allows us to reap the benefits. But to get down for six years over a routine infrastructure fight and have it become the poster child for the Environmental Movement is absolutely absurd. Peter bob deans what is the longterm environmental effect in your view of what happened in West Virginia . Guest i hope the effect will be that we wake up and say we have a problem in our hands. We are putting our communities at risk by moving oil on trains. We have to make the products safer. By taking the volatile gases out of the source. We have to make a train safer by doing exactly what brigham said. Take them off the tracks and harden the shells on the takers. And third, we have to look at where they are routed. Right now, peter, there are 25 million americans living within a mile of where an oil train passes through. Most americans dont realize that. But they did the research. 25 million americans. We can do better than that. Peter bob is in both carolina. The independent line. Bob, we are listening to what you have to say. Caller well gentlemen, you are all having a very interesting conversation. Im going to try and Say Something simple and common sense. We have to have all the above and the energy of this United States. You know, solar and wind are good, but unless you are going to put lithium ion packs in every house with United States, well, the power goes off not. Well, we can transport with rail or we can do it in trucks or we can do it in pipelines. Trucks are beneficial. A pipeline is a good way, but they are expensive to build and they take a long time. We are stuck with rail right now. Now, my grandfather was a machinist. I am sure there would be an oldschool way to figure out how to prevent the cars as they go down the road and expel the gas to some cut a filter. And also, the president has a jawbone task in his in being president. The oil and rail and Gas Companies plenty of profits. If he can jawbone them a little bit and asked them to go inspect all the real tracks that they are going to use for Oil Transport for the rail. And the energy that we heavily that is dates, one of the biggest projects in china right now is they have a big huge coal plants. Theyre trying to figure out a way to burn coal to make it clean. We have 250th of coal reserves. If they are properly and environmentally taken out of this country, we can help how this country for a long time. Another peter you know what, bob, we are going to leave it there. Guest thanks, bob. You put a lot of good things on the table. My grandfather was a machinist with the railways. So we have a Little Family connection there. The big picture here is that the risk we have been talking about today needs to be minimized. And it is to be recognized that this risk is a part of the price were paying for our continued dependence on oil. We have been drilling oil in this country for 150 years. We have made an awful lot of progress when you look around and communications and other things. And we can move away from this dependence on oil. That is the way to ultimately reduce this risk. To create a future where we are not where we are over time using less and less of this, reducing risk, and moving on to the cleaner Energy Future that can put americans back to work and make this country more secure. Peter brigham mccown. Guest totally agree with that. We didnt makes and we need to move towards renewables. When renewables can replace fossil fuels because they are fishing, i am all for it. In the meantime, lets not kid ourselves by thing obstructionists and getting in the way because what that does is it forces the movement of these materials onto less safe methods. And that undermines the environment and doesnt improve it. Peter a tweet, we need more renewables, but renewables considering that get us where we need to be today. John is in jonesboro, georgia. The republican line. Caller good morning. And thank you for taking my call. I would like to ask mr. Deans where he gets his numbers. Excuse me. Because the numbers just do not add up. At one mistake that i just noticed, when mr. Deans said that they are creating vacuums the size of the state of chicago. My jockey as is pretty good. I am sure chicago is in illinois. Why is Warren Buffett building or take the cars . One other question i would like to pose to mr. Deans, when you fly, are you flying on solar energy or are you flying on windmill energy . Could answer that, mr. Deans . Peter before he answers that, can you where is your concern. Do you have a concern when it comes to the environment . Do consider yourself an environmentalist . Caller let me tell you something about the environmentalists. We have been having global warming, and i believe they had to cancel their meeting in new york the last global morning warming meeting that they wanted to have because ofsmoke. Because of ice and snow. How about the people in the northeast right now that are absolutely freezing to death because they cant you want to put a block on coal. Brought to put a block on oil. Well, like i said, this country was built by people that take risks. All he wants do is go up there and im not sure where he gets the numbers from. Peter ok, lets get a response from bob deans. Guest takes the call. I wrote for the Atlanta Journal for 25 years. And the information im giving you is the most authoritative numbers i can find. Most of them are coming from the government the gold standards, the best numbers you can get. I appreciate the call. But i just want to go back to one mischaracterization you may. The reference i made to chicago was the side of the fourth in canada that is being gutted down , strip mined, and reamed line industry to produce some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet. In these to end. Bextra bringing it up. Peter this tweet from bp killed the gulf coast. Nobody wants to get those fish. Bottom is dead. Chemicals they try to hide oil with its poisonous. Guest well, you know, the offshore incidents was horrific. And i point out something that i started uncovering when i was at the federal government. And that is i helped oversee the largest cleanup of the oil spill on alaskas north slope. And that was done by bp. We talked with the chemical safety board following a bp accident at the texas city refinery. Thank you, it raised the alarm on bp several years ago. You know again, if we have a plane crash, we dont suddenly say we have to stop flying. We need to say, what happened and how we fix it . That is typically what we all do as americans. You know, bp was tragic. It was preventable. It better never happen again. And i think bp has paid an enormous price in fines and penalties. Im actually fairly pleased with the federal governments response. Dont get me wrong, i was a regulator. I find a i find Oil Companies every day, i jump up and down, and said some things behind closed doors that i probably cannot even repeat here. We have to hold them accountable, but thats different from saying we have to put them out of business. Because we rely on these products each and every day. They are not optional. Have to have them come as we have to have a decent working relationship. But again, they are like your kids. You love them, but you have to hold them accountable. P them and the final question. Mr. Mccown, are you satisfied so far with the government response to what happened in West Virginia . Guest so far, i am. But it is too early to tell. You know, the federal government is looking at the issue. Again, my point all along has been you know, and i had a grandfather that worked at the old chesapeake and russell kentucky. I love railroads. I have model trains still of them in my basement. But, you know, recently cannot for these kind of spills. It is one thing if you spill a boxcar of celery or lumber. It is another thing when you have 100 plus unit train of crude oil going on the tracks. We had a similar issue when ethanol started being transported by rail. The railroads got together, they looked at it, they replaced a lot of track, and those accidents went down. We transport a lot of Hazardous Materials by mail. A lot of it, frankly, more volatile thing crude oil. And we dont have any spills. The issue is real is taking on a lot of products right now. They have to. They are a common carrier. And the question we have to ask ourselves is how to safely move these trains and keep them from having a derailment . Peter bob deans. Guest first of all, i want to say how much i have enjoyed being with you today, bringham. I thank you for that. I also want to say that, in general, we are not stuck with oil. We are not stuck with coal. We are not stuck with gas. We are not stuck with putting our lakes, rivers, farms communities at risk. We have a great opportunity. The opportunity to invest in efficiency so that we do more with less, get more of a power from the wind and the sun, and get the best all electric and hybrid cars anywhere in the world. We can do it. Dont let anybody ever tell you we cap. Peter bob deans, the Natural Resources defense council. Here is his book. Brigham mccown has joined us from dallas. Iq both for being with us this morning. Now, one more segment on the washington journal. You have seen that we have been taking it to her of historically a tou of historically blackr colleges and universities around the country. Well, today we are concluding that to her. We will be joined by the cohost medieval host the brought host the provost of Xavier University of louisiana. You are watching watching washington journal. This weekend, we partnered with Time Warner Cable for a visit to greensboro, North Carolina. And after months and months of cleaning the house, charles halpern, who had been given that task which was making one more walk through. In the attic, he looked over at sun envelope with a kind of a green seal on it. And he walked over and noticed the date was in 1832 document. He removed a single nail from the panel and an upstairs attic room and discovered a truck and books and portraits. Stuffed up under the eads. This was this treasure of madisons things. We have had the story available for the public different items on display from time to time but try to include her life story. Some of the items that we currently have on display a calling card case that has a card enclosed with dollys, as well as that of her knees, anna. Some small cut glass perfume bottles. And apparel silk slippers that have tiny little ribbons that tire cross those are jump her foot. And the two dresses are reproductions of a silk gown that she wore earliest and life any red velvet count, which is intriguing both in that it lasted, and is a part of this collection. And also a legend that is now accompanies this dress. Watch all of our events from greensboro, saturday at new eastern on cspan2. And sunday afternoon at 2 00 on american tv on cspan3. The guard towers are gone but the memories come flooding back for so many people who until today, had lost such a big part of the childhood. Released after the war. Some buried at the memories. And with it, the history of this camp. Now more than 60 years later, this sunday, on the only family camp in crystal city, texas. And what is the real reason for this camp. So the government comes to the fathers and said we have a deal for you. We will reunite you with your families and the crystal city and turn the cap. If you will agree to go voluntarily. And then i discovered with the real secret of the cap was. They also had to agree to voluntarily repatriate to germany and to japan, if the government decided they needed to be repatriated. So, the truth of the matter is that the crystal city camp was humanely administered by the ins. But the special war divisions used it as roosevelts primary Prisoner Exchange. It was the center of roosevelt Prisoner Exchange program. Next sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific. Washington journal continues. Peter it was earlier this month that the cspan bus started to her of historically black colleges and universities. We were to happen university, followed by fisk. Morehouse college and spelling college. Today, we conclude artur our to our our tour. Save your university of louisiana and new orleans. An onboard the bus, joining us for a discussion taking a look at historically black colleges and universities, is Loren Blanchard. Dr. Blanchard, think of her joining us. Guest thank you for having us. Peter and we start with your job as provost. It is the first time your college has ever had such a position. What is your job . And what does it mean for academic pursuits at Tv University . Guest well, i am serving as provost and Senior Vice President for academic affairs. You are absolutely right. The provost title was recently added to give a greater role of support to our president president francis. I now serve as his key advisor, not only on academic grounds, but on operational issues. It provides me the opportunity to search as a primer cord and later to serve as the Primary Court in nader to make sure that primary coordinator. And in addition to that, it provides me the opportunity to get some Additional Support to dr. Francis. To not only spread the word about the great achievements that are happening on this campus, but also to lobby for dollars. Peter some of the things on your website tell us that it was back in 2013 wave consolidated some of the programs. It says that in an effort to move able into your from a into your pharmaceutical school at a faster pace. Is that your attempt at trying to make it more faster on campus . Guest that certainly is part of my job. One of the things we have really been working hard to promote here at tatar is a greater sense of interdisciplinary across the different regular areas. Often times you will find on a college campus, and certainly that stands to be the case here and savior, where many of the disciplines operating what we have found is that more and more now, students are looking for opportunities to graduate with multiple types of skill sets that really transcend one specific discipline. But will run across disciplines. So one of the main reasons why we did move to the Division Level was to increase opportunities for faculty to collaborate, to be thinking about innovative programming in such a way where students will be able to benefit more greatly in terms of options that they will have for their curricular experiences. In addition to that, and one of the main reasons we did it, was for leadership purposes. Having 19 academic departments operating under one college with the expectation that one dean will be able to give the kind of resources and the kind of help and guidance to those 19 departments, became a little unwieldy. So the thinking was that to consolidate some of those departments into divisions, six to be exact, where now we have a better opportunity for the dean to work very closely with those six chairpersons of those respective divisions and giving them the help that they need in order to help move those divisions for. And lastly, or the main reasons we did it was for cost efficiency purposes. Obviously, trying to find a model that had 19 departments now looking at six divisions has been really healthy. Financially healthier for xavier. As a result of that, we have been really been able to take those dollars and placed those additional dollars that we would have placed into those model into Student Success efforts. And more portly, to help families shore up their finances for students were interested in enrolling at savior. Peter your student enrollment is about 3000. What is your role and not only recruiting students, but making sure they graduate in four to six years . Guest that has been really the focal point of my work. Since i have been here at savior for the past seven years. The reality is that Student Success really is the number one statistical of our campus. And im sure that you have heard the same thing as you have visited the other hbcus. Not only in terms of looking at the number of students who enroll at xavier, but more importantly the persistence pays providing the kind of support that we know students need in order to be successful. Academic support, as well as social support. In addition to that, making sure that there are close mentoring opportunities. You know, there is a striking difference between being an advisor, an academic advisor, and also being a mentor. And so with that, we really have been working with our faculty in providing the kind of development and support with a understand that they have to play dual roles. Advisors as well as mentors. And lastly, really shoring up our undergraduate research. Providing opportunities for everyone of our students to be linked to a faculty member is heavily engaged in some form of research. We know clearly that Student Engagement in research is one of the primary factors for persistence. As well as Student Engagement and service opportunities. And so, whats the student really gets connected once the student really gets connected and understands that all the types of these experiences tiein to the next up, and that is either moving into a career or moving into graduate and professional schools, that that really is the beauty of what xavier has been able to accomplish over the years. Students really connecting the dots and understanding the value of the overall educational experience that will then lend them into really strong professional careers. Peter Loren Blanchard of the savior of Xavier University. If you have questions for him 202 7488000 for the central and eastern time zones. 202 7488001 for the Mountain Time zones. And if you intended and h an hbcu 202 7458002 for. We had someone on twitter ask. I wonder if you could take a look at what you what has been going on at the high school dr. Blanchard we spent quite a bit of time in our enrollment management work looking at high schools. Looking at the feeder schools. Not only here in the state and in the region, but across the country. Getting a better understanding of why it is that students select xavier and why theyre not. We are finding in the category of why they are not primarily has hinged on affordability issues. Hbcus or historically black colleges and universities, were hit very hard, not only by the recent economic recession but also with the parent plus loan debacle im sure we will discuss more later. What it ended up doing was creating a difficulty for families middleclass, as well as higher economic class families to be able to afford a college education, particularly at a private university. With that, one of the things we have had to do is to really build our base of scholarship support and really work with corporations and foundations to understand while batch typically scholarship board is not one of the areas they would want to invest in higher education, it became vital for xavier and all the other hbcus to get those agencies and foundations to give that level of support in order to keep families whole. More importantly, to get students into xavier and to allow them to persist and graduate. Affordability has been the major challenge as we have been working with our main feeder schools and studying those high schools very carefully. One of the other issues we faced has been under preparation of students particularly in the math and science disciplines. With that, we have been concentrating on two things. One, you may or may not know about xaviers summer programs. Those programs are pipeline programs that begin as early as eighth grade where students spend summers with us, all the way up until the time in which they enter the university through our summer science academy. It provides us an opportunity to not only help them to shore up those math and scientific skills , but also allows us to build a greater sense of scientific literacy, numerical literacy, as well as Critical Thinking and problem solving that we know is inherent to being able to be successful in a science discipline. Pedro i want to give folks a chance for the numbers. 202 7488000 Eastern Central time zones. 202 7488001 in the mountain and pacific time zones. 202 7488002 if you attended in hbc you. Lauren brantford best Lauren Brantford Loren Blanchard our guest. Caller thank all the hbcus that have contributed to my family and of course america. I would like to make mention of a kindred of mine who attended your university. His name was henry palmer who resided in the city of chicago and was a pharmacist. He spoke of you helping him attending that university. A priest by the name of father bolton. Help them to attend university in the area of science. He taught chemistry. Once again i wanted to make mention of your universitys contribution to my family. Pedro thanks, caller. Dr. Blanchard the reality is that while we are a liberal Arts University xavier, our claim to fame has been the work we have been able to do over at least three or four decades in preparing students for stem disciplines. Xavier has had the honor to be able to stand as the number one institution in the United States in the number of africanamerican students in particular that we prepare who go on to medical school. We also have had the unique distinction of being number one in the nation of preparing the largest number of africanamerican students who complete article school. Medical school. We are number three in the nation highpowered and spellman in the number of African American best behind behind howard and spellman in the number of africanamericans in stem disciplines. There is a strong focus on stem but it is also a strong focus on the kind of curricular experiences, Research Experiences that we give to our students that we stand proud of and understand that that helps to create the unique brand at xavier. It is odd. If you think about it, we are at 3000 students now. We have never been higher than 4000 students since the start of this fine university. How unique it is that with only 3000 students and all the colleges and universities, that we had the distinction of being number one in the placement of students into medical professions. I do not say that i not only say that as a point of pride but i say it because it gives an underscoring of how much work needs to be done as it relates to minorities being prepared for stem disciplines. Pedro from middleburg, new york. Jeff is up next. Caller i have a question. You would not use the term historically white colleges. You would be accused of discrimination. My question is, what is the colleges outreach towards other races and is it not racist in 2015 to call a university historically black . Since we are trying to achieve the goal of not having anything related to race, what is the outreach what is the outrage . Why doesnt the college focus on getting the best student population and helping people who are economically disadvantaged from other races . Dr. Blanchard good question. Let me start by saying xavier lost enrollment practice xaviers enrollment practices are not discriminatory in any way. About 10 years ago, you would have noticed that our student demographic had it that we were about 90 africanamerican students and about 5 asian students and 3 caucasian american and then the remaining percent other. Today, that has changed. Although we are coined and recognized and we are proud of the fact that we are and historically black university, the reality is that we are only at this. 70 lack in terms 70 black in terms of our student demographic. The next highest are the enemies rv when you hear the term historically black, it make connote that it is a distinct university and that our practices are focused on africanamerican students. That is not the case. Our does are open our doors are open to any student. We are proud that our demographics are shifting. And to counter the thinking that this term has long been used it does not mean in any way that contemporary practices are not used in order to ensure that we are preparing students for professional workforce. Sometimes, people get bogged down with that term, historical, meaning ancient and stuck in our ways. The reality is that it is the opposite. Pedro Loren Blanchard joining us. Tyrone is in baton rouge louisiana. Caller thank you for taking my call. This may be mixing apples and oranges. I want to can i want to congratulate you on academic excellence. And reaching out to Young Students to get them to critically think. I want to ask you something about historical black colleges in general in regards to athletics. This has to do with generating funds. There is an enormous amount of money at these big colleges like lsu, im sure you are familiar with. Florida, alabama, to recruit black kids. They go to these camps. They recruit guys from eighth grade. I do not see the same emphasis on them recruiting academically potentially gifted kids. I want to ask your opinion, even though it may not be academics athletics may not be your department. Can you expound on how much money that generates to those colleges . They did not want the kid that one time. Dr. Blanchard the reality is that we know and certainly with the other historically black colleges, we cannot compete with lsu in terms of recruitment of students as well as the kinds of dollars generated through their athletic programs. Our focus has been more trying to cultivate this notion of athletic scholars. That they do not have to be separate. That an athlete cannot also be a scholar. The reality is that through all of the various sports programs we have here, our focus has been in cultivating them and making sure they will be strong athletes but also we work hard to make sure they go on to be strong scholars. Our ultimate goal is to make sure that they are able to persist academically to graduate and go on, not only to become national athletes, but also to make sure that they are able to move into professional fields of study and that all of the investment they have made out of respect at a respective university, that it is not lost by simply being an athlete and not also focusing on the scholarship side. Pedro we have divided the lines regionally today. Plus a line set aside for those in the audience who have attended us and historically black college and university. That is betty. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I really enjoyed these theories. The question i would like to address to the provost is, what do you wish or think that your alumni base should or would be doing around the issue of sustaining hbcus, other than an in addition to raising money . Before i end this, i would like to say we missed an opportunity to tell the caller beforehand about why historically black colleges exist in the first place. It shows us how much americans either ignore or dismiss the history of africanamericans in this country. Dr. Blanchard thank you. With respect to the alums, the best form of support they can provide for us at xavier is the financial support. Where we also really need help and that we have been relying heavily on our alumni base is for students. More importantly, helping us to determine who are the best and brightest in their respective cities and going out and helping us to recruit those students. Get them here so they can enroll and so that they can persist and graduate. That element has been bashed is and has been important for xavier. The other piece that is important is helping families to understand the value of an hbc you experience and that more importantly, to understand the value of an xavier experience. Particularly as it relates to track record we have with producing strong stem professionals. I think those alums can really be strong voices. Strong voices for the kinds of experiences they had at xavier and how it has empowered them in ways to become leaders in their respective fields. To me, that is probably one of the best ways our alums can really help to promote the work that we do here eggs a beer, we do at xavier. Pedro dr. Blanchard, a response to a couple things that apply to Xavier University. You have an institute on campus that is devoted to chinese language and culture. The first of its kind at an hbcu. What is that . Dr. Blanchard the Confucius Institute. We are no longer the only, but we were the first to establish a Confucius Institute. For the promotion of chinese language and culture. It has been remarkable in terms of our efforts to internationalize both our curriculum as well as our Student Experiences and to give students the opportunity to connect very deeply and richly with china and Understanding Chinese practices as it relates to business, pharmaceutical practices, education, as it relates to art and music. It has been not only humbling but a beautiful opportunity for students to be able to connect with universities in china, with faculty and students, and understanding the differences that lie in our cultures, but also in terms of understanding the kinds of practices that we have that are more westernized versus asian in nature. The Confucius Institute has been good for xavier. It is not only enabling our students, and faculty, to study abroad and engage in research internationally. In addition to that, it also will do upon the kinds of International Experiences we are affording our students to understand how they are being developed in such a way, to not only become global citizens to become global professionals. No longer is the day where students can say the only kind of opportunities they have had to really enrich themselves as well as to develop themselves professionally is just through their work in the United States. They have to go beyond the United States, not only our graduate and professional schools looking for this kind of experiences, but employers are looking for these kinds of experiences because they know it is those kinds of experiences that will not only broadened their businesses but also broadened the workforce in terms of the kinds of perspectives they will bring to those workforce areas. Pedro another quick response. Your University Set yourself apart. Youre a Catholic University. Dr. Blanchard eczema or is the only predominantly black xavier is the only historically black university that is also catholic in the United States. We have a number of sisters who work in various capacities. In addition to that, that particular founding as a black and Catholic University ties in very well with the mission of the university. That mission is to develop professional leaders, but develop them in such a way where there is a strong emphasis on social justice. Strong emphasis on service. As well as an emphasis on working within the realm of research as well as best practices in knowledge and skills so that when a student actually graduates from this university, not only are they content rich, but they are also very spiritually and socially rich. They are able to go out and make their marks on the road marks on the world. Caller hello. My name is ernest braxton. I have two sons in the air force academy. Im retired air force. Pedro go ahead. You have got to stop listening to the tv. We will put ernest on hold. Lets move on to david in flint, michigan. Caller ok. Pedro david in flint, michigan . Caller hello . I want to thank cspan for putting this on with a black colleges. It has been really inspirational to me. I give to the black colleges once a year. After seeing the special with all of the colleges coming on, i will double my giving. Dr. Blanchard that is great to hear. Caller i hope to hear other middleaged people give and help the black colleges. I wish we had one closer in flint, michigan. Wherever it is, it is good to hear. Thank you. Dr. Blanchard flint michigan is only an airplane ride away from new orleans. We certainly have a strong base of students from the michigan area. We are proud about the kind of recruitment we do and that more importantly, in terms of people understanding the value of an Xavier Education, regardless of where they are and understand our real goal is to make sure students are able to graduate and to move into careers they have selected and that they are well grounded and well rooted in their respective disciplines. Pedro lets try ernest in rome new york. Caller im retired air force. Two sons at the air force a county. The point i want to make one of the first black colleges and units its america. John brown i was a little kid only about 13 years of age. I really enjoyed going up there. I lived about a mile and a half away and they were nice people. I attended frank phil State College in frank bill State Teachers College in North Carolina. Then i went into the air force. I think youre doing a wonderful job. I respect you. If you would like to ask me a question about historic colleges , feel free to do so. God bless you. Dr. Blanchard thank you. Pedro gladys up next. Good morning, go ahead. Caller good morning. I am so proud of your school. I did not attend it but im very proud of it. I always heard of it as a child. Im 79 years old now. I think i missed him in you diversity i think i missed hampton university. My grandfather was an orderly to general armstrong. He went into that school at the age of 11. At that time, it was a high school. You should see the letters my grandfather wrote. One letter at least when he was 11 years old. How proud he was of hampton. I will never be able to repeat replace general armstrong. My mother attended the school and one of my sisters. It is really about Xavier University today. Pedro dr. Blanchard, from your academic point of view, when you hear president obama talking about Free Community college what do you think of that as a policy idea . How do you think it could affect universities like yours . Dr. Blanchard i am not opposed to the idea. I think that with a lot of the financial hardships that families have been experiencing, especially since the recession it would serve as an opportunity for students to be able to get the kind of foundation they need in order to serve as a springboard into the fouryear university to complete their education. It could pose to be somewhat of a challenge to historically black colleges and universities. What i mean by that is that, what we have done over the years is that in many instances we have taken those students who typically may not have been accepted by other universities because of the under preparation they have in respective disciplines. We really worked to build a support system around those students and give them the kind of guidance they need so that by the time they graduate, they are just as equally competitive as would be from any other student who would graduate from a yale, harvard or any other university. With that, what ended up happening is you will probably see more minority students who will collect first to go to the community college, with the hope that they would complete and then matriculate into the fouryear. Part of the anxiety is that if you look at those transition rates, meaning that the students who now transition from a twoyear to a fouryear, those numbers are so slim that it worries me to think we would have to be working more closely as we do now, but working even more closely with those Community Colleges to create those bridges so that those students will naturally transition into the fouryear into xavier, so that they can complete their education and go on with a fouryear degree. On one end, i think it will be good in terms of the economic side. How it will help families. On the other side, we have more work to do throughout the nation in making sure that we have more students who are going from Community Colleges directly into four years and being successful in their transition and graduating with a fouryear degree. Pedro the university and our guest located in new orleans. Youre the last call, go ahead. Caller good morning. I was calling in reference to commending you on being such a great mentor to so many Young Students in the city of new orleans. You have not only started as a higher education. I also remember you as a student at Xavier University. You came out into the community and work with so many Young Students from six grade up. He taught speech groups, you also worked as a spiritual advisor to the sisters. I want to tell you, you are such a wonderful person. I must leave you with this, as a to go back and finish your education. She graduated with honors from university. She also became a teacher of kindergarten for 22 years. Pedro thank you caller. Dr. Blanchard if youre never seen a black man blush before, here i am. It is the whole Community Approach of knowing you have got to reach back. It takes one to pull up another and then it is everybody if everybody really believes the understanding it takes a village in order to work with students and get them where they need to be, as well as adult learners. That really is the goal of what an Xavier Education empowers you to do. Pedro you are leaving the college soon . Dr. Blanchard i am. I have accepted a role with the California State University system where i will be serving as executive vice chancellor for academic and student affairs. It will give me the opportunity to scale up some of the work we have already been doing at xavier, relative to Student Success. It will provide me an opportunity to serve as a greater resource to many students and faculty members across 23 universities and enabling them to reach their academic and Research Goals as well as Student Success goals. It is bittersweet at this point. There is a true passion and love that i have for this university. It is also my all modern. Might allma mater. Transition all of that into the work that has been ongoing in california and to join that system. I am excited yet it is not going to be easy to make that transition. Pedro our guest is the provost of Xavier University of louisiana. He also serves as the Senior Vice President of academic affairs. Lauren blanchard Loren Blanchard. Dr. Blanchard, thank you for joining us. Dr. Blanchard thank you for this opportunity and for the spotlight you are placed on xavier and the other hbcus. It means a lot. Pedro eight total universities we have covered over the last month or so starting at howard university. Fisk in that group