Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20121126

Support for Economic Growth and job creation. The u. S. Economy continues to be hampered by the lingering effects of the financial crisis on its productive potential and by a number of headwinds that hindered cyclical adjustment of the economy. The Federal Reserve is doing its part by providing accommodative Monetary Policy to promote a Stronger Economic recovery in the context of price stability. As i said before, while Monetary Policy can help to support economic recovery, it is by no means a panacea for our economic ills. Uncertainties about the situation in europe and the prospects for federal fiscal policy seemed to be weighing on the spending decisions of households and businesses as well as on financial conditions. Such uncertainties will only be increased by a delay. In contrast, cooperation and creativity to deliver fiscal clarity, in particular a plan for resolving the nations longerterm budgetary issues without harming the recovery, could help make the new year a very good one for the american economy. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much, chairman of bernanke. German bernanke has agreed to be questioned by two of our members. Todays questioners are alan s. Blinder, professor of Economic Affairs at princeton and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, and martin feldstein, a professor of economics at harvard. If you have questions, you can email them to questions econclubny. Org, and our president will read them. Alan, you have the first question. Thank you for coming here and speaking to us today. You alluded briefly to the reserves Communications Strategy as an important method of Monetary Policy these days. As we all know, the fomc is struggling summit with this communication, in particular how to move away from a calendarbased form of guidance such as through made 2015 and toward more Economic Conditions based guidance. Could you explain to us why this is so hard . In particular, why we cannot use suitable words to replace the kind of threshold numbers to find and formulations such as Charles Evans and others have advocated . As you know, communication about our policy has been very important for some time. As a general matter, when the shortterm Interest Rates, our usual shortterm policy tool, goes to zero, one of the main tools we have for influencing overall financial conditions as providing guidance as to where we expect the rate to go in the future. That Forward Guidance has evolved over time. We use qualitative language, even before my chairmanship. More recently, we have begun to talk about dates. We have been giving assessments of what we expect policy to become less accommodative, when we expect to begin to raise the federal funds rate. A difficulty with dates beside the fact that it is not very transparent, is that it mixes together two issues. One issue is how long until the fed thinks the economy is going to need lifesupport . How long as the economy going to be in weak condition . But also, what is the feds response how is the fed going to respond to Economic Conditions . Those two things are conflicted with the date. We recognize that. We have tried to address that a bit in our language that i mentioned in my remarks, going back to september when we said that air date with respect to the rate beginning to rise is mid2015, but we also make clear we anticipate raising rates only after the economic recovery has begun to strengthen. Clearly, an important reason why we are looking to hold rates low for almost three years is we want to be particularly sure not to take away accommodation before the hour economy has established an upward momentum, so to speak. Different ways to communicate that information one would be to provide specific numbers on what Economic Conditions would make us consider the prospect of removing accommodation. Several people on the committee have made suggestions. This is something we are looking at very carefully. It does have the advantage that it would help to distinguish between our anticipation for the economy and how we would react to those conditions, and would have another advantage which is that as Economic Conditions vary and news comes in that makes the markets think unemployment will be low or high for longer for example that would automatically lead the markets to adjust rates appropriately. There are definite advantages. On the other side, and there are issues in number of my colleagues have raised Monetary Policy is a complex process, as you know. We have an enormous amount of material prepared for us every meeting forecast, detailed data analysis, so on. The question is, first of all can we reasonably summarize those conditions under which would begin to tighten policy . Just two or three numbers . Even if we could, could we get sufficient agreement on the committee to do that . So this is a very promising direction. We are continuing to look at it, continuing to try to improve our communications generally. But as the committee is still discussing this particular approach i do not want to front run those discussions that are still ongoing. Thanks very much. You spoke about housing. Can you explain to us that the level of mortgage lending and therefore home buying is being depressed by the commercial banks overly tight lending standards my question is, what can the fed do to improve this and therefore increase mortgage lending beyond reducing Interest Rates . As i indicated in my remarks, the housing sector has been a major player in this drama, first with the boom and the collapse, and now playing a role in the recovery, as we hope. In terms of expanding mortgage lending, the growth of the housing sector, you said beyond Interest Rate policy you do have to mention, one of the strongest things we can do is maintain low mortgage Interest Rates. They are at historic lows, as you know. Combined with a 30 decline in house prices across the country, it means we have extensive affordability now for people who are interested in buying a new home. The reason i bring this up is that i think there are some positive dynamics that can occur here, particularly to the extent that the Housing Market appears to be now moving in the right direction. We are beginning to see increases in house prices. That will feed back on mortgage lending decisions one of the reasons they have been keeping mortgage conditions tight is that they have been afraid of further house prices declines, a weak economy, unemployment, the sorts of things that could lead to mortgage defaults in the future. If we can get ourselves into a positive virtuous circle here, with rising house prices, rising construction improving unemployment, that will result in an easing of mortgage lending conditions. As we keep rates low, the profitability of mortgage lending goes up, there is a lot of evidence right now the banks are beginning to expand their capacity and their interest in making more loans. I think the Monetary Policy part is a very big part we have some other ways to address this. I would summarize them as regulatory, supervisory, and analytical. On the regulatory side, very much involved and the writing of the rules for implementing both doddfrank and the basel accords. While those rules are about broad financial stability, many aspects of this rules to effect mortgage lending. For example, the capital on mortgages the rules for securitization, and so on. Our objectives in writing those roles are of course the primary purpose of doddfrank and the basel accords are to ensure financial stability, but we should take into account the housing aspect there. On the supervisory side, we have made an ongoing effort to promote mortgage lending by first encouraging banks to take an appropriate balance between prudence on the one hand and making loans to creditworthy borrowers on the other hand. We do not take the view that tighter is always better. The balance struck we encourage that. We have done a variety of things to try to help on the margin. For example, we have encouraged banks, rather than selling empty foreclosed homes into the market, to rent them for a period, that is a program. There is also the very large settlement the outcome is that banks and working hard to increase their modifications to reduce foreclosures to assist homeowners who were unfairly treated in the past. From a regulatory perspective we are trying to help. In that respect, we are like other regulatory agencies. Finally, i do not want to underestimate this part the reserve, we have devoted quite a few good economists to study and housing issues. We have been influential in talking to other agencies, the treasury, the congress, in providing ideas and approaches. For example, as you may know, a year ago we put out a white paper which describe some of the key issues and approaches and provided some analysis for things to be done to improve mortgage lending. We have been very supportive of steps like those taken by the housing oversight body to take steps like clarify the conditions under which mortgages would be put back to lenders or creating programs to convert empty houses into rentals. We have a lot of influence from that point of view, and will continue to do that. These are very challenging problems, and the barriers to mortgage lending and more active growth in the housing sector are many and diverse. There is not a simple magic bullet we are trying to work wherever we can. In discussions of on conventional Monetary Policy, which you were discussing several the question of lowering the Interest Rate on excess reserves often comes up and i am often asked, why does not the Federal Reserve do it . You could probably what would your answer . Here is the question the question is the following. The Federal Reserve is the repository, so to speak, of a very large amount of reserves that the banks told with the Federal Reserve. Pondweed currently pay interest on those reserves, the we currently pay Interest Rates on those reserves of 25 basis points, 1 4 of 1 , a very low Interest Rates we pay. Parenthetically, this ability we have to pay interest on reserves is going to be very important in the future. When the time comes to raise Interest Rates, one of the tools we have to do that will be this interest on excess reserves, which we can raise at the appropriate time. This is in the power of the board of governors to race. By raising it, we will cause shortterm rates across the spectrum to rise. Banks obviously are not going to lend into money markets at a price lower than they can get from the fed. This is an important instrument for us. Well be using it at some point at the appropriate time to begin to tighten Monetary Policy. The other direction why dont we just pay no interest on excess reserves . And thereby get a little more accommodation . That is something we considered repeatedly i do not rule it out for the future. The costbenefit analysis we have done in looking at it, starting at where we are at 25 basis points and falling, if we were to cut the rates 25 basis points to zero, our estimate is it would effect shortterm Interest Rates, overnight rates, by Something Like eight or nine basis points, an extremely small amount. That would have an even smaller effect on the Interest Rates to care about the rate on auto loans or houses. While going in the right direction, the effect is considered to be very small. If there is no return on overnight money, a variety of different institutions, money market, so on, might become more illiquid because there will be very little incentive for participants to transact in those markets when they could just pays zero why not just hold cash . The concern is it would be a less liquid market. Those of the kinds of concerns we have. We have seen some interesting experiments. Relatively recently, in europe, the deposit Interest Rate has been cut to zero. It is hard to judge what the fact that really is. The markets in europe are not really working much anyway there is a bit of a question about what effect this has. Those of the kinds of trade offs. I think think of this is a major tool that is unused. If it were used it would have some effect that would at least be marginally disruptive in terms of market functioning. It would add a few more basis points in terms of accommodation. It is a relatively small cost benefit equation. Then, you mentioned the fiscal cliff. Everybody here, a lot of people who are not here, are worried about what would happen if we went over the fiscal cliff. The combination of higher taxes and spending cuts are estimated to take 4 out of a relatively weak gdp. Even if we do not and some deal is struck, the combination of eliminating the payroll tax reduction, which seems to be something the administration supports, that, together with some base broadening, would probably be at least 2 of gdp. If there is going to be a deal, it would involve spending cuts as well. Even if we avoid going over the cliff, it looks like there will be substantial fiscal contractionary impact next year. In that environment, what can the fed do to try to offset that to make sure that it does not take us to the edge of ore over the edge of a recession . We will see what deal comes out. But you are correct that even if the most extreme scenarios are avoided, some plausible scenarios still involved relatively contractionary fiscal policies over all. I made that point in my remarks when i said that under most plausible scenarios, no matter what happens, the tightening of federal fiscal policy will outweigh the stronger expansionary state and local fiscal policy we are getting. That is right. It is up to congress and the president to figure out how they want to make the tradeoff between getting budgetary improvement in the long run and providing Additional Support for the economy in the short run. They will have to see how that goes. Again, my advice on this is do no harm. In that respect, what i am particularly concerned about is that we avoid the full force of the cliff, which would be quite substantial, as you point out. So if there is some federal tightening, to some extent by state and local governments, that would be an ongoing headwind. But again, in that situation the economy will still be growing, albion not necessarily at a rapid pace. What the fed reserve can and will do is continue its stated policy, which is to do additional asset purchases, take whatever other actions are appropriate to try to ensure that the outlook for labor markets improves in a sustained way and a substantial way. We will continue to do our best to add to the recovery. The point i made, and i want to reiterate this, is that the ability of the fed to offset headwinds is not infinite. We have certain tools, we have obviously used are easiest tools, and we can certainly have a meaningful contribution to supporting recovery, but in particular, in the worst Case Scenario where the economy goes off the broad fiscal cliff, the largest fiscal cliff, which according to our own analysis would throw the economy to the recession i do not believe the fed has the tools to offset that. That is why i believe it is important for the congress to address these fiscal issues soon and in a bipartisan way, a way that achieves the necessary longterm sustainability concerns the value of talk about recently, but also takes into i know you have talked about recently, but also takes into account how much strain will be experiencing in the next six months to a year from fiscal changes. Fromts have a question the audience. You talk about the uncertainty of businesses because of all the things he mentioned. That is impacting decisions on investment. How much growth has been lost because of that, do you anticipate . It is neither here nor there, but when i was a graduate student 30 years ago i wrote my dissertation on the question of how uncertainty effects investment spending. I concluded it is not a good thing. [laughter] they gave me a ph. D. For that. [laughter] so it seems pretty clear one of the benefits of the way the Federal Reserve operates, we have to of reserve banks around the country. At the fomc, we have folks from all around the country with different experiences and different backgrounds who in turn are talking to the local citizens and other Business People, bankers, trying to get a sense of the economy. We hear an awful lot around the fomc table of an anecdotal nature. It is certainly true that businesses are very concerned about uncertainty, and that seems to be a drag on their spending and hiring decisions. In fact, it is kind of striking that right now consumers seem to be actually doing a little better. Consumer sentiment has risen, Consumer Spending has been a bit stronger, but businesses, partly because they are more exposed to the global economy, perhaps in the be more aware of the fiscal issues or more directly connected to fiscal issues, Business Confidence has been low and investors response to that has been weak. That is an important factor. It is restraining particularly longerterm investments, a leading business is to wait for a resolution of uncertainty before they commit to new hiring, new products, new markets. In that respect is clearly negative. You ask for how much i think it is probably significant, but it is very hard to assess any kind of rigorous way how the effects are. I think theyre meaningful because, as we see, businesses have been cautious and conservative lately. The other thing that is very important is uncertainty about what theres a lot of uncertainty in the world now. Uncertainties in europe, in the fiscal policy, uncertainties about the stability and strength of the recovery. It is a little bit hard to separate all these different factors when you ask Business People what they are most worried about. But what we like to do is to attack the issue on all fronts. Fiscal policy has a role to play. Our european colleagues will take necessary actions to create stability on the continent. As the Federal Reserve, we will do what we can to support ongoing recovery and growth and jobs and create the demand for output, the demand for product, that will remove that uncertainty about the future and sustainability of recovery. If we work out all these margins, i hope it will help restore the confidence we need for a strong recovery. I really have a sense that there is a lot of unused capability, not just in terms of unemployed workers, but in terms of potential products, new investments, new technologies, things that are just on the shelf and not being utilized to the full extent. These people are waiting to see how things will of all. I do think it is an important potential for the economy to strengthen significantly if there is a greater level of security and comfort about where we are going as a country. So i hope very much that is what is going to happen. Thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2012] next, a conversation with Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of teachers. After that a discussion on china posture economic political and military power. Then African American photojournalist show their work and discuss their careers. To listen to mayor bloomberg who said the damage was unprecedented, maybe the worst storm the city has faced. The storm surge was 14 feet. Governor christie said the damage to new jersey was unthinkable. We had fires, Hurricane Force winds, massive flooding, snow look back at the flooding to the subway systems, the shutdown of the stock exchanges, you get the sense of the massive scale and scope of this storm. I have read dozens of stories about how for many consumers their only link to information or to people was through their smartphone, social media and their smartphone. It obviously had an impact i think the networks performed really well. My assessment here is some networks did well, some networks did less well. But we really do not have solid information because there are no reporting requirements on these networks, no standards by which to measure their performance, and it is entirely voluntary whether they want to talk to the fcc or state and local governments or not. I think they responded well i also heard some of them did less well. The first step is we have to find out who did well and who did not do well and how we make sure everybody does well. The impact of superstore and sandy on Telecommunications Systems tomorrow night on the communicators. Now, a conversation with Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of teachers. This is about 40 minutes. Host Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of teachers. She joins us from new york. Thank you for being here. Guest it is great to be with you and to all of your watchers and listeners we have a lot to be gratified for on this thanksgiving holiday. Happy thanksgiving. Host thank you for sharing quite a bit of your thanksgiving weekend with us. If Congress Gets ready to really delve into the fiscal cliff and the scheduled cuts of sequestration, what is the goal of your organization . Guest the last couple weeks right after the election we have done nothing other than san the recovery comes as well as fighting about needing balance in terms of the budget. I do not even think the word is the appropriate word. What happens in december is the bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire, and they should expire. That has been litigated. In terms of what mitt romneys position was, what obamas position was the president , by the way, has gotten the greatest votes total for a reelection of any president in history. He was out there saying we need a balanced approach. We are getting out of a recession, it is still a very tenuous recovery, we need to invest in education, infrastructure. We need to find some revenues. That is part of the fight in washington in the next month. Host this socalled fiscal cliff you said the tax cuts should expire. What would be the impact of tax cuts expiring for the middle class and others . Guest look, this election was about how we recreate andry imagine the American Dream for those who want to be in the middleclass and those who want a broad and middleclass. Of course it would hurt if that is part of the reason why they talked about it as a real deadline. We need to maintain the middle class tax cuts. We need to maintain a balanced approach. What the movement is trying to do is push at that, make sure there is a safety net for medicare, for Social Security, for medicaid, making sure those investments in our future like education and infrastructure finding some of the revenue to do that, which is why we are pushing for the expiration of the bush tax cuts for the wealthy, those over a quarter of a million dollars. Here are the numbers to call sequestration, these scheduled cuts that will take place unless congress and the white house act, would mean an 8. 2 cut in most department of education programs. What would it do . Guest lets take a couple of examples. We know Early Childhood is so important to help repair kits for school. Rich folks are able to do this when they put their kids into programs, or have kids at home this would cut 100,000 slots of headstart, which means 100,000 fewer kids would 000pre k programs. Would have prek programs. This would cut hundred thousand slots in terms of medical Centers Across the country. There are thousands of cuts slated for kids who are in schools that focused on disadvantaged kids. That would mean cuts to music, cut start, cut suit reading programs that kids need to get ready. Look at 8. 2 when you think about what it is about, it is about the investment kids really need. At the very same time, as we are saying to teachers, we need to help kids apply knowledge. We need to raise standards. We cannot be about cutting the things that will help kids. I look at teachers across the country there are 300,000 fewer teachers today than there were at the start of the recession. That is a 10 decrease that has meant kids have less art, last music, last extracurricular activities, last ap courses. We really believe kids should have a decent shot at success. Host mike in pennsylvania, independent line. Caller i have a question what is your annual salary . I will take that off the air. Guest my annual salary is about 250,000. I would be happy to pay more taxes. I think should. Host last year to steve florida, republican caller. Caller im curious, the democrats, they control the white house, the senate come of all these cuts she is talking about, so many less teachers, i am curious, what does she think who does she think is causing that . Is she blaming the republicans . It is strange how all these cuts guest i am not blaming anybody right now. I am trying to give an example of what would happen with these cuts. I agree i agree with republicans when we say we cannot waste money. We cannot waste money with bureaucracy. We are really pushing to make sure there is an audit, for example, of all the money spent on testing. But at the end of the day, what the recession did was a state after state after state cut a lot of money out of Public Education. Kids suffered for it. What the federal government has done in education is it is a backstop it helps kids who are most in need. That is why a lot of funding like title 1 goes to kids in rural or urban areas who are most in need. What i am saying is that every day until the december deadline lets solve it, but you cannot cut your way to prosperity. We need some revenues in there to make sure we have a balanced approach. Host a headline recently obamas Education Plan is dominated by loose ends. His agenda looks less like real reform and more like tying up loose ends. Practical budget issues and a struggle between congress and the administration getting in the way. How will they find education reform in the next four years . Guest first off, we do have to reauthorize the elementary and secondary school act, which was known during the bush era as no child left behind and lots of states are now getting waivers for. The act was about getting resources to the kids who needed it most so we could leverage level the playing field. We saw equity in Public Schools and actually a greater increase in student achievement at that point than we had in the no child left behind era what we really need to do is not Close Community schools, stabilize communities and have them be more vibrant, which has been a real problem in the recession and in terms of the School Closure policy. The other thing we have to do is we actually have to teach more and test blast. Less. But when you have places like in rochester n. Y. Where School Superintendents say in the first two month they spent 20,000 tests for 4000 kids that is too much testing. We have to refocus on how we help kids critically think, Work Together in groups, and apply knowledge. We have to more teaching, not testing. Host from wisconsin, independent mind. Caller i have a little bit of a statement here. In wisconsin, 89 cents of every dollar that goes to education goes to teacher benefits and pensions. Which by the way they contribute nothing to d. So it is not the 8. 5 you were worried about for the kids that is the key word. When i went to school, i am 73 years old, when i went to School Parents fed their children before they went to school and if they could not afford food for their children they got a job. What do you think of that . Guest i believe that people should work hard. I know a lot of people were trying to find work right now. I taught in the nyc Public Schools i taught in crown heights, brooklyn. When my kids came in and were hungry in the morning they were not as focused. I think we as a society have a responsibility to all children, not just some children. When kids have parents that can afford to have breakfast at home, it is fantastic. But if they do not, we have to do something about that. In terms of pensions and benefits, let me say that teachers and wisconsin get an average of 24,000 pension when they retire. That is an exchange for working a job or you cannot actually save money for your pension. That is why Social Security is so important. We need to make sure we have retirement security. People across the country employers across the country employees pay into their benefits. Lets check those numbers again. They do not sound right. But we should be paying into pensions, we should be paying into benefits, but we need a fair shake. 24,000 a year for working 30 years is not what i consider unfair. Randi weingarten, president of the American Federation of teachers. Lets talk more about campaign 2012 and the results of the election, not just the National Level but also in states through the country. Looking at house races a veteran of the House Education Committee lost her seat. She was endorsed by the National Education association, lost to a democratic rival. She had gone against republican support for vouchers and other initiatives. Im reading a piece from the washington post. What does her loss mean to you . Guest you had a lot of redistricting that when on through the country since 2010. There were several in places like illinois and ohio and around the country he saw people, given what happened in the state legislature, given the loss of population and some of the northern states, you saw some real advocates who lost their seats like betty sutton and representative biggert. You also saw real advocates regain their seats, like ken bishop in new york. In the senate, elizabeth warren, tammy baldwin. I think we have lots of people in the house and in the senate who understand how the how to walk the walk of real folks back home. Understand that if education is not both funded and policy is not done well at home, we are not going to help a generation of kids. Im very enthusiastic about lots of the people who ran in this last house of representatives. Host john kline, republican from minnesota retained his seat. He is the chairman of the House Education Committee his proposal mandated School Districts to link teacher of violation to standardize test scores. Randi weingarten, does his return signaled a direction that the House Republicans plan to continue . Guest think about what you just said to get the i have a lot but itect for rep kleiine, the same time people in the congress to have said that the federal government should be involved in every single teacher evaluation through United States of america at the same time they also say that the federal government should have less role in education in america. Those things are somewhat inconsistent. At the end of the day, we have to have policies in state and locals throughout the country that are about nurturing good teachers and good teaching. Having a robust curriculum. Having art and music. Having services for kids and having real collaboration. Those of the things we know can turn around schools or make good schools even better. The federal government should, when they do policy about schooling, do things that not only do no harm but actually move that kind of agenda. I would like to see it go away from the Silver Bullet theory that if you just actually put a test score in a teacher of valuation that will make things great. Or you have a charter school, that will make things great. That is not what makes things great. What makes things great is when you have teachers who are supportive and have the time and trust to do the things they need to do, have the tools they need, and you have kids who have the resources they need, including, if they are hungry or cannot see the chalkboard, they have those resources to make sure that happens. I next caller in anaheim, california. Caller the first part of my question, i have two daughters currently attending private school. I this move them from a Public School. My cost is approximately 30 per student day there were two teachers, it was a wellknown program, private instruction, the average class size was 10 students. More days per school year than the Public School, and so forth now theyre getting older and i am moving them into the Public School system. I got a note that said, if your children are absent or are not there during the course of the year for a given day, the school does not receive money for the days they are not there we were hoping we would make a country should recover their costs of 40 a student day. How is it that at a public level where they have a fraction of the number of days of instruction per year and hours per day are shorter, they are asking for 40 per student day where they were getting a better quality of education at 30 a student day at a private level . How is it in a state like california where we are going broke paying for pensions that we can justify more money toward pensions, more money toward teacher benefits and so forth . Second question, you have mentioned the bush tax cuts to the rich and have this election was about that and letting them expire then you immediately recant and say, well, on the one the taxcut for over 200 to 2,000 to expire, and he said overall these were tax cuts across the board, the rich, the poor, and everybody in the middle, but you only want to that tax rates go up for the rich. I am trying to reconcile those two parts. I will take the answer off the air. Guest i have no problem giving you the answer on the air, but the answer is the bush tax cuts, there were two parts. One for the middleclass, and one for those who were wealthier. What were focused on is a balanced approach so that we can give the middleclass a shot at success as the economy is recovering. The gap during rich and poor in this country has never been greater. We need to find ways to create more balance. We are fighting to say, lets have, lets go back to the tax rate we had in the clinton era. Talking about marginal tax rates for those were making above 250,000. The bottom line in terms of california is it is not about pensions. It is about how you have cut after cut after cut. As a result of that, california has had few revenue measures to try to get money back into schools. In a Public Education system, parents should not be asked to subsidize each and every day. That is what is happening in lots of places because of the cuts in Public Schools. Across the country, parents are being asked to subsidize. It would be better if we had a Broader Tax Base where Public Schools would get the investment they need from taxes. But you are also right that there has to be transparency and there has to be accountability in terms of what is paid for. Often we say, lets go and look at the kind of wellrounded education kids have and private schools. But the other thing is that Public Schools it is our moral obligation. What were seeing is that kids have special needs, we have to pay more for education for kids the special needs. Guest president of the American Federation of teachers. She was elected in july of 2008 following 11 years as a vice president. She has experience in the law and also teaches at clara barton high people in Crown High School in crown heights. Our next caller is keen on the democrat line. Good morning. We actually have jim now from wisconsin, caller indepen. Caller i would like to ask Randi Weingarten, first of all, she is from new york, if i remember. Teachers to sit in classrooms and they do not have students they get paid. That is because of the unions. About an author who wrote a book called the shadow boxers. In 10 states, like california, with a debt of 200 billion to support public unions, ill. Another one. 200 billion because of corruption in the public unions. In new york and pennsylvania. When i went to school, i am 65 years old, when i went to school i personally witnessed students sent out of the classroom and then they came back in the school and they did it again or they talked back to a teacher eyewitness to this. I can tell you, the high school i went to, the teacher, he was a nice guy but he had no business being a teacher. That is the problem. Because of the corruption of unions. Let me just ask you this. I think if there are lots of things that lots of us could do better in life. But what a Teachers Union is about, and i have been a teacher, i have been a lawyer, and the head of the Teachers Union, we are about making sure we give the boys to teachers we are not independent of teen we give voice do teachers. We are not independent of teachers. If someone is a pedophile, they should not be teaching. If someone has done something terrible to kids, he or she should not be teaching. What we need to do and what we have done in new york, and i was in new york during that period of time, if someone we have a zero tolerance policy if there is an accusation against a teacher. They are pulled out immediately. But then there is an issue about, is the accusation right or wrong . Where they are right is it took far too long for those cases to happen. That has been changed. When i was head of the Teacher Union in new york city, i tried to get that policy changed and made lots of proposals, but the government did not want to do it. At the end of the day, it has to be about somebody of good character, somebody who wants to teach, somebody who knows how to teach. Those of the ones who should be teaching. That is what we have in schools across the country. If there is an issue people should get due process, but due process should not be a job for life. We have to make sure people are treated fairly, but also that kids get the best teachers possible. Host lester to new jersey and hear from david on a democrat line. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am a teacher, and i would like to address a lot of the things that came up with the caller. This last caller, about in the classroom, as i am sure ms. Weingarten, i taught in new york city, and one of the things i learned a long time ago is when there was disrespect in the classroom a lot of it came from the home. If it was not respect in the home or respect for authority in the home it came out in the school. What ever you did, it did not make a difference. A lot of the things u. S. Saying, usa terrific things. However, i think there is an argument, you lose the argument because people do not to pass a certain issue like pensions. Somebody brought up pensions as if there is too much attention. I am not commenting whether there is too much. I know the argument and the teachers put off getting their money until later on and you are able to get people to do that. I understand that. But sometimes maybe is not worth of the argument. I would rather see us negotiate for more pay and have the amount of tension pension later on be more in line with pensions of other services. It seems people do not did past that pension question. That leaves us to not be able to argue the very good issues you have already argued, which are winnable. There are winnable arguments but there are some losable arguments, for instance, Health Insurance. Teachers get hired and if they have a family of two or 3, a lot of districts are paying for the Health Insurance of the entire family. In the private sector and the private union sector even that is not the case. Guest lets leave it there and go to a Randi Weingarten for a response. Guest i think what happens is people do not really know the facts about health care or about pensions. The average pension for teachers around the country is somewhere between 20,000. 25000 dollars after someone has worked 25 to 30 years. That is because it is deferred. It is deferred compensation. Most teachers pay into that. What happened in the last recession is that there was less of a pay into it by the state dollars and things like that, and that is where you see some of the School Systems and states. This is the bottom line teaching, firefighting, being a police officer, all of these are jobs where you want the best and brightest. You want to make sure people can work as hard as they work, make a difference in the lives of kids, and when they retire can be treated decently and retire. That is why there has to be balanced approach in the private sector and public sector. What were facing now and the private sector is were facing retirement insecurity because folks no longer have pensions they can rely on. That is why Social Security has become more important. I think you are raising the bigger issue, the larger issue that what i have seen in the last election is that there is a big fight rhetorically about education, but at the end of the day people love their teachers. What we as the Union Movement have to do is make sure people get the support they need to do the job that we are asked to do, making a difference in the lives of kids. Host Randi Weingarten, a story this weekend educators fear layoffs and other fiscal cliff pain. One instructor in portsmouth says she has no idea how to offset toaid government aid the at her School District will not receive. The only way to deal with it would be attrition or layoffs. Officials across the state are worried cuts could shrink programs for young children, programs that give extra support to schools with high income of students from lower income households. Experts say sequestration would be an extra pit for divisions already struggling with education cuts and lower tax revenue. Some of the issues were concerned about the story goes on to talk about the Immediate Impact and the time line of things a sequestration is not dealt with now. The cuts will have already taken effect some of these cuts could have immediate effect . Guest schools throughout america had been taking cuts for several years now, since 2008. There is now about to trim any more. What you are seeing is already cuts, lots of places do not have music, do not have art. We talk about how it is so important to have International Baccalaureate or ap courses, and lots of places do not have them. Class sizes have ballooned. If you are a High School Teacher in cleveland, you are teaching 50 kids in a class. Almost 10 cuts in really important programs that help kids who are most in need they will have an immediate consequence, whether it is your kids in Early Childhood, even less art or less music or higher class sizes, which the title one cuts are about. You will see they will have an Immediate Impact on kids when we should be getting kids the kind of education to prepare them for the knowledge and skills they need in the 21st century. Tom joins us from oklahoma now a republican line. Good morning. Caller i heard earlier you say that children need the best and the brightest. Does that mean nonunion teachers cannot be sufficient to do the job for children based on the fact that they do not pay dues to the union bosses . I happen to have a family of teachers they are nonunion teachers and i think they do a great job. What is the argument, simply because these people pay into a group they are going to be able to teach children better . I do not think for a second people believe that. He influenced two or three generations and me thrud in a fourth included in a fourth. All of these guys were influenced by heuim. But as things progressed, you had color photography and black and white. His influence was really something that without him i couldnt even think without gordon parks being in existence how i would photograph. It is a very bizarre thing. I cant begin to put that in words. What i did was i started really finding out about other photograph e photographers besides gordon par parks. For years i would like in New York Times and see serious work and say who is this man. I will see this work and michelles work and that is why we are sitting here and the world is just small like that. So, he influenced me in that way and then that led me to other photographers. Lets actually Talk Technology for a second. Almost everyone in this room, if not everyone, has a camera phone and is facebooking and tweeting and what else is there of the others. Lets talk about what technology is doing to the field and in the field when, because of these tools, we have moved on to a 247 news cycle. You can take a photo, upload it, it is public instantaneously. How do you as photographers who have been in the field and trained and sort of have done the hard work, how do you protect your rights in this new era of technology but how do you work with the technology . I just want to say im not going to talk about rice, but i remember going places and selfassigning because i felt if i didnt go to this event that it might not be covered and that maybe nobody would ever know what happened. I dont have that same feeling now. I can go to a place without a camera and im cool because everybody else has a camera. I like technology. But would they photograph the way you would photograph . Thats ok. I once had a dentist who said, you know, other dentists dont do such great work because they have to leave some work for the young didnt itses to come. I had to leave some work for the young people. I knew by instant gram. I used to play around on my sons iphone. But reckless said what are you doing. I said i was shot 40 years ago, killed. I dont have to do anything now because everybody else is shooting. He said it would be interesting for us to know what kinds of things you are looking at now and he talked about instagram and i said im going to the studio now and set up an Instagram Account and i think he was my first follower. I still take pictures but i dont have that urge to be every place all the time because all of you are. I remember getting the First Digital camera. It was about this big. I called it the mother ship connection. And the card was this big and if you dropped it you were toast. My First Digital photograph for New York Times was of the u. S. Open and all of my colleagues were like we never have to use that thing. And slowly but surely we all ended up being digitized. I would make a joke about it and no, like we are kicking and fighting all the way to the end. Im like all right, no digital, no doubt. What i used to say. Now i have the new cannon d. X. I havent gotten a chance to really take it through its paces but im getting ready to do the new york marathon. This will be the first time i will ing photographing using the system where you photograph and it goes directly to the desk without having to have a book we dont have to carry the computer. It goes directly into our server. We have the hisystem that it go right it. You dont have to carry the book or the computer. Which is fantastic because it puts a lot of work back on the editors. Thats right. The switch to digital, in the old days the photographer would drop the film off and walker away. Now as you know, you spend hours editing, captioning and filing. It is timeconsuming. In this situation im excited because normally you have to jump off the truck, find the space to go and transmit. And this time i will be photographic and focusing on doing my job. That is really wonderful. I cant attribute this to gordon parks, but i remember an editor at New York Times who was a Weekend Review editor who said to me, he said what do you pref prefer, the around the corn lenses or the honest lenses. I said what is an honest lens . He said it is a lens that you have to kind of move into the ambience of the moment, you have to get up close. And one thing that i did notice about gordon parks and i was surprised to see that this is necessarily not applying to roy, is that gordon parks, at least in the photographs i have seen of him, he used honest lenses. I never saw him in a photograph with anything longer than, say, a 75 or 80 millimeter. They were like mostly a normal lens or below, like a 35 millimeter wide angle lens. I was wondering if roy were to come up in this time if he would appreciate the technology. And i would guess that he would, that element really like working with digital cameras and just to share something historical with y you, when you saw the First Digital pack ever was in 1987, 1988, thereabouts. I was working at new york news day on third avenue near the United Nations and something was happening city hall and John Paraskivas one of my colleagues was asked to go down to city hall and file immediately but use this thing because this was the only way to file right away and it was something that was made by a Company Called leefax out of boston, some guys from and they were making scanning equipment to digitize negatives and take it back to wherever the Printing Presses were. But at any rate, john literally put on something that locked like a looked like scuba diving gear on his back. I kid you not. It was that big. It was a huge backpack and had a cable running into the camera. He transmitted that back to news day and made the paper and it was noisy as hell. It was a very grainy image, very messy image. It was not anything that you would see from film. But at any rate, that is the kind of stuff that people were dealing with 25 years ago. And when digital cameras first came out, i was one of the last who wanted one. Exactly, i remember. Because, because, because the images were very noisy, the cameras were very heavy, they big and objetrusivobtrusive. But today you look at what we are using now, michelle has a bigger camera which is probably of a norm, but this is a digital camera here and it will make a file probably as good as that camera right there. There are some arguments back and forth whether it can, but in my opinion this would make a beautiful file. It will blow up nicely on a poster it times square. So it gives you an idea of what the changes are and what has happened. And i do think that gordon probably would have adapted very nicely to it because he adapted so well to the Film Industry like stanley hubert. He was a photojournalist with look magazine right after world war ii and he was really a great photographer. He used tiny little cameras with lenses like there o this one. He and gordon parks were contemporaries and both basically did the same thing. I. He and gordon parks were contemporaries and both basically did the same thing. They went from magazine photojournalism to the Film Industry and one of my favorites of his is dr. Strangelove. And eyes wide shut is probably his last film. You might be familiar with that because it starred tom cruise. But i think both of them, if they were alive today, they probably would be using digital video cameras to shoot their films. Of stuff we see on television are shot with the cannon mark 3 or mark 2 the predecessor actually. So it is amazing how the digital platform has taken off. And it makes it a lot easier, especially james perhaps you could address this without stepping on your toes. That the different conduits that are being used to get pictures to you so you can put them out there. Exactly. It is a necessity. Everybody wants everything instantaneously. Are we comfortable because of come ra phones that everyone camera phones everyone is potentially a citizen journalist . Are you comfortable with that . If im breaking news i do not like and i will let them know you need to move out of the way and let a real photographer come in. If you have a camera phone or iphone and you are like there and real photographers, journalists or photojournalists this is what they do for a living, i have to push you out of the way. I heard that same thing when i was a real photographer and it was just i was a woman you need to move out of the way and let real photographers get this shot. But i dont play that because im just as bad as the next guy and im going to scuffle with them. Move. Im more democratic. Shoot with whatever you have. There is what im saying to you. What im saying is like for instance im photographing the president. I dont need anyone with a video camera in front of me because a lot of times police right now i dont think they really respect any credentials that you may have or consider like the worker is supposed to get the because not everyone can get them. You know people dont like photographers . They dont like that attitude and you are always in the way. Theres a certain type of needs to be in that position. For instance, michelle, there was a time when i first met michelle she was photographing this vibe magazine or something and people were encroaching on her like physically to the point where we had to physically come in and take her out because there were people pushing up against her and did not understand protocol and just go ahead and do whatever they want. It worked out well because i got to get on the stage with the artists. That is like a certain, you know, like professional decorum that is very important and i think citizen journalists for the most part they are just who i was 40 years ago when i first hit the street and tried to cover something, whether it was a black panthers on the south side of chicago or Jesse Jackson having something at operation breadbasket in hyde park. I took my camera and shot three or four rolls of lousy images. That is the way you grow. And one day you may evolve into James Mcgrath or michelle. So im a bit ambivalent about it. The only problem i really have with it is that just to maintain good standards, you tphknow . Just be honest with what you are doing, you know . Sure you get the right na name. Make sure you get the information right behind it. Dont manipulate the situation. Dont say hey, would you stand over here a bit. If it is actuality. If it is a real news event. Often i see a lot of young people who even from older folks who perhaps dont quite understand that. But perhaps they will get a mentor and learn from those things. But the only real thing that sticks in my craw that terrence alluded to is you have to blame a lot of this kind of scuffling to cover something or jostling at an event to the Deputy Commissioner for public information. They issue too many press credentials, at least in the past they did. They issued too many press credentials so you would have this like excessive coverage of an event, and it was really very difficult for legacy media to do their work because it was a crush of people. It was very difficult. It made it a lot harder. But perhaps the difficulties and obstacles will render a whole new approach to composition and be what will occur. It is just too easy. You dont want to belly ache too much about that because i dont think people really want to hear that. They say it is too easy to belly aeuche about it. But go ahead. Because it is so easy they are not taking the time to really know what they are doing. Too easy to photograph . Too easy to photograph so they are not really grasping with we are doing. That is really the heart of the question. You all have trained and spent so many years doing this, and someone with a camera phone can potentially come and make the cover of the front page of something. So, that was the question. You comfortable with what technology is doing to the professi profession, to the time it takes . I think it is good for the consumer of news and good for editorial publications of tv they get this content. Theres no way that photographers can be you look at the coverage of the shooting at the Empire State Building most of it was by standers who just happened to be this and photographers had not reached the scene yet. But is it good for anybody on this stage . It is also free content for newspapers and magazines half the time because they just lift off the internet. Somebody puts it on the twitter page or instagram and it is just taken. Good sides and bad sides to it, i suppose. I want to ask a very simple question. Where are the women in the fi d field . I cant speak for where are the women in the field. But i know what i know where i am. Im sitting on the stage right now. So you say what are you doing right now, and im talking to you. So the thing is to be where you are. Symbolic question. I know. There are a lot of things that i could have done. I remember when i came out of undergraduate school, i said i can do this and this and this and people said one thing. So i said photographer. And i kind of chose back in the 1970s. And i didnt look around and see hat there werent any other photograph e photographers. I had a mission and i felt that i was sort of doing it because there were things i wanted to see and wanted to show. And i didnt realize until a couple of months ago that i chose to be a photographer back in 1974 when i met up with a professor of mine and i said you know, i can pinpoint the time i worked as i was a Graphic Design student at pratt institu institute. And i happened to audit a course in documentary photography. And i did an interesting project after that and the professor asked me if i wanted to work in the Public Relations studio there at pratt institute. And there i photographed architecture, portraits, artwork. Mixed chemicals, did invoices. And there was a crew of us, so it was a good portion of my photographic training and photographic practice, filing and all of that kind of stuff. And this man whose name was alan newman left pratt in 1974. So, at that point i think i was saying i can do all of this, and thats when i started working with the Village Voice and whatever papers. They shut the studio down and i had all of these photographic skills and i just started photographing and taking on assignments after that. But i was not looking around to see who else was there. It wasnt until i remember doing a talk at the museum of women in the arts in washington, d. C. , and Sylvia Plathe was on the panel and she was responsible for hiring me at Village Voice and i found out later it is because she went to pratt and they asked me who are your meant torps and i said i dont have one and i looked at sylvia and said will you be my mentor . I didnt know any women in photography when i was coming up. I had a lot of brothers and i would tail behind them from age 16 until they were like here she comes. It was bob black, you know, all of my mentors were men. Then i met Mickey Farrell who was the first black woman i met in chicago who was a photographer and she said i wont be embraced by my brothers and i said i will just hang on until they embrace me. And i worked at the Chicago Daily news as an interpret. And in 19 whafrp the year that was. So after getting good, going out at night and having a police radio and getting pictures in the paper, it was places the white media wouldnt come. I was on the south side of chicago. So somebody said something is going to happen with there girl. You have to find her because she is getting a lot of pictures in the paper. So they said you have to hire here. So they decided to hire me as a midterm photographer because i was going places they could not get and that was the first battle that i won. From there on i when i got out of college i went back to the same newspaper who gave me an internship and he said not today, not tomorrow, never. He said black women are good, you know, but go find you a good husband or whatever because this is not where you want to be. Move forward, i then said ok and like john white, who was a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer said you cannot let this stop you. If you are going to mark time i want you to mark time and stay in flight and with that he said do the next thing so i became the photographer for the late washington. After he won his seconds election i was offered jobs at places like the Charlotte Observer, news day at one poinn i was offered jobs at places like the Charlotte Observer, news day at one point. Eu went to tthe Charlotte Observer and then i was offered a job at New York Times. Went observer and then i was offered a job at New York Times. Iwent observer and then i was offered a job at New York Times. Ent observer and then i was offered. Job at New York Times. We are ready to take questions from you in a couple of minipulat minutes. If you have questions, the microphone is over there. James, i want to touch on something you told me previously. In the middle east it is beneficial to be a woman. It can be. Access to certain stories on womens issues that a male photographer wouldnt have access to. 10 years i have worked with more and more female photographers. And they are working the lines just like the guys but they are able to do quieter, more behind the scenes stories especially with womens issues. How many women of color are there . You want me to give you lets see. I work with personally . None. None. So, get out there. Yes, get out there. Send me your portfolio. I dont think that theres a problem with the numbers with women because i see them out there. I see their by lines and work really kicking butt and there are quite a number of them. Here is andrea bruce right now just because of my age i probably cant rattle off a lot of names. But i can tell you that there are women out there that are winning a lot of awards that they are competing in a big way and the numbers are not small any more. There might be a bit of a problem with women of color but there is not a problem with women. There are a lot of women out there really doing a great job as photojournalists. Quite a lot of them. A lot of my colleagues. Yes, we have a really good representation, i think i think. I dont think women would argue with me, my colleagues. I think we have a real good proportion of women on our staff. Terrence, almost everyone in this conversation has mentioned the police. And some of us have marilyn, you are images featured police. An article came out in New York Times criminalizing photography. Talk to us about the hostility, increasing hostility and arrests that photographers are going throu through. Where is that coming from . I think after 9 11 it was created in a fashion because i cant begin to tell you. It happened of the 9 11. When 9 11 happened, you know, i went there and i photographed and it was crazy. But after that point everything, including when you go to take a plane, you are going through a totally invasive scenario to just ride a plane from here to there. I think it is because the police, just the structure and format and the whole Police Culture itself doesnt really lend to it doesnt really for instance, like im doing occupy wall street stuff and there was a certain level of hostility there. Let me back up. I was arrested maybe two years a ago. This is true. I was photographic this big fire in chinatown where two people were killed. So, i had knocked on the door and i went somebody opened the door and i showed who i was and they said they would let me the roof and everybody was up there with a video camera and iphone and cop came up and said we have to get off the roof because they are trespassing or to that extent. So, im the last person to leave and police are pushing me down a flight of stairs. Im going down, im not going up and they are pushing me down the flight stairs. I missed some steps and these are Young Police Officers and they maybe just got out of academy and listen to hot 97, so they arrested me basically saying i was resisting arrest and the only reason is i slipped and fell so if i had any injuries they could say he resisted arrest. That is why we arrested him. It was basically to cover their [bleep]. So there is a certain level of hostility that is applied to photographers. I have been told many times dont take any photographs even though they are in public and on city property, they are not invading anyones personal space by photographing and how is it them working. But the level of hostility, i just never understood why Police Officers were very hands on, like they will push you, shove you. And it is like they are trying to instigate you to get you to where you want to throw punches but you have to controlover and contain yourself so that scenario wont ever happen. But im not going to pull any punches but it stems from the top brass of the police and how they interact with journalists, or journalists themselves, as well as the general crowd of people. I dont know how to really answer that even though i read that article. And you were wearing an nypd pass at the time you were arrested . Yes. That begs the question what is the pass worth. That is another thing. You were arrested with credentials. A lot of times it is not choice. I feel like i fail if i let the police stop me. That is why we have honest lenses an and we have long lenses. If i want my editor happy i dont want to be arrested because i want that story in the paper and if i get to dancing with the police im missing my pay. If i encounter that i try to stay away because who wants to go to jail. But i dont care, i can go to jail any time i want. You dont want to go to jail. When you are getting nypd police credentials it states you are allowed to cross police and fire lines unless they tell you to get back. Then you have to follow instructions. So, im kind of like, michelle, you know, i used to tell my kids like play stupid kids sometimes. Because sometimes you if you dont come out looking like the press sometimes you could pass this up as an interested citizen journalist so sometimes i would play the stupid old lady. I saw you. Good. Can i ok, honey. Go ahead. I will keep it moving, sir. But i get the picture. When it companies down to it, i dont want to hear about how i got into it with the police. We will get some questions from our audience. It is two questions. One is, has cripping affected the way you photograph . What is cripping . Dialing through the images . Yes, the way you view them of the you shoot them because if you are going to crip you are not looking at what is. Chipping . Chipping, cripping, sorry. I never heard that term before. The second part is with the proliferation of digital imagery where are we headed . Are we headed it where i wont look at images because i have already seen 100,000 and i dont need to see 100,001 . I like to shoot as if i were shooting a shoot. But i tkdont shoot, peek, shoo peek, shoot, peek. I just want to shoot. For me, i get my settings correct and then im rolling from that point. I photograph manually, so i have to adjust as i go and that is what i do. It is not a problem. It is a problem if you are covering something and you know that this is it, that you have to get this image and it is something that is happening right there, it is an actuality. You are not just going to photograph somebody of a portrait of a c. E. O. In his office, but there is a news element or narrative going on. So, you have to be very careful with chipping. But if you dont chip and you are three or four stops back you will walk away from that situation and say why didnt i take a peek. So, i think digital photograpy y has made it more it has given us an opportunity to cheat a little bit and make sure we are on, that all systems are go. We have the green light to take that picture. And i think that if you dont chip a little bit some call it cheating or peeking you are going to get burned a couple times. I know i got burned before for not chipping and try to go to the photo shop and clean it up. It has made everything a lot easier as far as im concerned, digital photography, and it is just as good, in my opinion. That is my opinion. I really do feel the quality is better than film. Good evening. I appreciated the session so far. Thank you so much. I have learned a lot in a short period of time. Im the founder of a harlem based Education Group called total equity now tweeting at total equity now. I tweeted today with people photos of harlemites carrying Reading Materials outside their bags. The first day of month is literacy across harlem where we ask all harlemites to carry a book, magazine or newspaper or ereader outside their bag so young people and others can see that is part of our public identity. My question for you, and we are tweeting and i have the hashing to on and it is rock those read. Many of the photos are east to west today. My question is how do we build communities around reading and learning . Thank you schomberg for tweeting about the image. How do you help build community through photography . As journalists you are there to capture different events and publish important photographs and tell a story that way. But any suggestions, feedback, input on how to build a community through photography even if through a blackberry, which is what i use today . One thing i like about the digital is the ability to share, whether it is words or images. So i have embraced facebook. So if you want to follow me it s is marilyn with archives and you will see what im up to. I dont tweet. And you can follow me on instagram at sistanance. So i feel like im from an older im adept at technology but i felt the need to reach out to younger folks to let them know kind of what im doing and find out what they are doing. So, i think that use of technology is a great way to build community. There are people that i communicate with who are in algeria, brazil, and different parts of the country. Im more in contact with family and other photograph eers. So, thats what i would do to build community, use technology. Thank you. My question is what advice would you give the next generation coming up to learn photography . What advice would you give them . Join a workshop. Go to journalism school. One of the best things for me was being part of like when i was an undergraduate student and a good workshop for me was im not sure if it is still happening the Empire State College photojournalism workshop. That was great, sort of pushed me out there. Find a workshop. High school er students. I. C. P. Has a high school program, i. C. P. At the point. What else is available. That is a good question. There are programs. There are programs. I guess google it. I dont know. Hit the books or the eequivalent of the books. Hit the books and go to the galleries and immerse yourself in the arts. Quivalent of the bo. Hit the books and go to the galleries and immerse yourself in the arts. It will pay off. If it is something you are start ate about just working. I think that is probably the pwbest thing. Find the time to review your work. To the gentleman over here who asked how to build communities, i use the photo shelter account and you can build virtue agencies and all of these Different Networks inside there. And there are other places that build Community Photograph eers. Theres groups there goes back to gerald there is columbia which radcliffe is part of. These organizations build on platforms of creativity. They give you the inspiration to go forward and critique your work. They build that and it makes you a better photographer. For me, i just hit the becomes. I was always reading a book and read what i read well, read what i read whatever i read, i would apply that theory that i learned in those particular books and just go out and photograph and come back and, say, come to schomberg and do my research and be here and finding out different photographers, finding out about all these other wonderful photograph eers and just really come in and learn and read a book. After that go out and shoot. Exactly. Shoot a lot. And shoot. And shoot and learn how to develop film. People really dont know what film is any more. But that is what i think. Hi. I want to mention the Organization Im part of National Black female photographers. We are a group that started on facebook and im in charge of the new york chapter. Thought ion really, i about it when michelle was speaking but to the panel in general. Can you talk about the process of developing a relationship with the subject you are photographing in a very short amount of time and sometimes in situations . Fful like you talked about how you saw this woman and you were able to get her to open up very fast. But how do you develop that skill . I just like to talk to people. I talk a lot. I dont know that it is a development of a skill. It is just a genuine interest in peop people. I have a background, either family background or storytelling and exchange of stories and that opens up the way to taking photographs. If you love your people, you know, the people that you are representing through your camera, then you find a way to get close to them really fast, because time is of the essence. Thank you. I would like to first thank all you for remembering all that you remember and please make this is hymn. And for all those young people that are here this doesnt happen often but we need it to happen more often. And i would just like to say i would like to know your reflection as teachers, as professionals, working professionals, and as upstarts, our young people, there is a piece of business we didnt take care of coming out of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and we are jumping criticism rums curriculums on visual literacy. I dont think we spent enough time in disciplined research and i think we are impacted by everybody now being able to manipulate technology. But being able to understand composition. I heard the word mentioned here but i hear it mentioned very seldom when people are trying to make money through manipulation of image. I want to know if you have any reflection in terms of compositi composition, research, the need for those disciplines, and the actual study of literacy. That is a tough, tough question. I would just reflect on my background in studying film and classics and all of that comes into play. I have a daughter who is now studying photography, and i did study photography after already doing photography. But to start out with what is your interest, and i think that whatever interest you have should go along with the study of photography. I was very much impacted, i started off thinking i was going i was film maker so really i liked that whole thing about editing and juxtaposing one image next to another to make a whole different statement. So sometimes i would try it get two Different Things inside of one frame. Get two Different Things inside of one fram get two Different Things inside of one frame. Tget two Different Things inside of one frame. Oet two Different Things inside of one frame. I dont consciously think of design but i would think it is in there and in teaching visual literacy it is everything. It is film, graphics, advertising. It is all of that. And what context were you talking about teaching and curriculums . Iurriculum i think now it is the foundati foundation. It needs to be fundamental. I would think where. May i chime in . I think i know what you are talking about. I think that the way to learn to be more visually literate is to try to apply things that you know that moves you emotionally and intellectually. Sometimes you can look at something, whether it is a work of art, whether it is a sculptu sculpture, whether it is some great literature you read or some rift on some jazz solo improvisation, you know that has content, it speaks to a lot of Different Things. It could speak to happiness, making you feel exhl rated it hit ted, or perhaps you in a way that caused you to feel a sense of pathos, remind the you of a passage from the bible or koran or Something Like that. It is not easy for young people today because of the importance of the arts. They have really diminished in education. But there are ways of getting around it. There are these community galleries. There are free thursdays at the mode modern. There is the guy who is playing the music in the park, practicing his instrument, or the woman. I think there are ways to get around it. It is a harder hill to climb nowadays because of the fact that the arts is the First Casualty of Public Education. But i think that is the way you nurture literacy, by looking at things that move you intellectually and emotionally. Something was said really important, reading. I read a lot and i think like i collect information and my photographs come out of that experience of reading and maybe not enough reading going on. It is not i think so many people are separating the image making from the intellectual part of it. Look at politics in todays world. You look at the Political Landscape and you look at the things that are going on in the middle east, you know. It is almost like willful ignoran ignorance, like people are delibera deliberately trying to be uninform uninformed. We have to overcome all kinds of our everyday lives. I think theres a way of doing that by grabbing hold of the things that move your humanity. I think there are ways that we can do that. On that note, grab hold to the things that move your humanity. Thank you all so much for joining us. Thank you all, panelists. Terrence, thank you for putting this together, the brain child. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2012] next, q a with ted widmer, then 7 00 a. M. Your calls and comments on washington journal. Congress returns to session and on tuesday they tkpwafrpl and members are expected to take up legislation that would expedite the process for granting legal status to immigrant students who earned advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Also thursday House Democrats are expected to elect leaders for the 113th congress. Follow the house live here on cspan. The senate reconvenientsed it tod today. Coverage on cspan 2. You listen to mayor bloomberg who said the damage was unprecedented. That it may be the worst storm the city ever faced and tidal suffra surge was 14. Give christie said the damage in new jersey was unthinkable. We had fires, hurricane tpofor winds. Massive flooding. We had feet of snow. You look at that and flooding into the subway and shutdown of the stock is exchange, you get a sense of the scope of this storm. Yet the networks performed. S ex sense of the scope of this storm. Yet the networks performe excha sense of the scope of this storm. Yet the networks performed. Exch sense of the scope of this storm. Yet the networks performed. I read for consumers the only information or people was the smart phone. Linking social media and the smart phone. So while there was a impact they performed well. My assessment is some networks did well, some less well but we dont have solid information because there are no reporting requirements on the networks and no standards by which away measure their performance and it is entirely voluntary whether they want to talk to the f. C. C. Or state and local government. So, i take their word for it that they responded well. I also have heard that some of these guys maybe did less well. The first step is to find out did well, who didnt do well and how we make sure everybody is doing well. The impact of super storm sandy tonight on the communicators on cspan 2. If we turn away from the needs of others, we align ourselves with those forces which are bringing about this suffering. You ought to take advantage of it. Obesity in this country is nothing short of a Public Health crisis. They have little antennas that go out and tell me whether somebody has their own agenda. It is a shame to ways that influence. I think that they serve as a window on the past to what was going on with american women. She becomes the chief c confidant and only one he can trust. Who were f the women first ladies were writers. Journalists, wrote books. They are in many cases more interesting as human beings than husbands. If only because they are not first and foremost defined and limited by political ambition. She was the most socially adapt and politically savvy. Dolly madison loved every minute of it. Mrs. Monroe hated it. He warn said you cant woo without including whether women want. During the segment you were a little breathless and it was a hrelittle too fast. Yes, maam. He is probably the most tragic. They never should have married. She later wrote in her memoir i myself never made any decisions. I only decided what was important and when to present it to my husband. Now, you stop and think about how much power that is. That is a lot of power. Part of the battle against cancer is to fight the fear that accompanies the disease. She transformed the way we look at big bugaboos and made it possible for countless people to survive and flourish as a result. I dont know how many president s have that kind of impact on the way we live our lives. Just Walking Around the white house grounds, im constantly reminded about all of the people who have lived there before and particularly all of the women. First ladies, influence and image, a new series on cspan produced in cooperation with the White House Historical association. Coming in february, 2013. This week on q a, listening in the secret white house recordings of john f. Kennedy. , forwarded by caroline kennedy. Ted widmer, how did you get involved in doing a book on the john f. Kennedy tapes . Well, there was a lot of excitement leading up to the 50th anniversary of the kennedy administration, which is three years of the 50th anniversary. Elms around the cuban missile crisis, october, 1962. All of us wanted to have a good book ready for the fall of 2012. And many of us in the Historical Community as well as certainly at the library knew that there were these tremendously rich tapes, only a small percentage of which had actually been heard, and that it would be a service to the Historical Community and to all americans to get the tapes out to the listening public. So the library made the tapes available, but they need add historian to write an introduction and annotate, and so thats where i came in. Im going to run a quick one here. This is from the 1952 senate race. Its not a tape of john f. Kennedy, but its a jingle. Lets listen to this. When we vote this november lets all remember lets vote for kennedy make him your selection in the Senate Election hell do more for you and me look at kennedys history youll see its no mystery hes your kind of man so do all that you can and vote for kennedy we added the pictures and photographs ourselves. But thats a part of the c. D. s that you get with the book. It is. How come thats in that . Well, its audio and its great. Its evocative of a time really before tv. Kennedy came out of politics before television was as important as it became, and then he rode the importance of tv very effectively. But thats from an eaie