Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion 20140818

Before we fill the rest of the room. End to here at the qn day starts. I would like to welcome john bassett iii. [applause] and looking forward to hearing from you tonight sir it can i also particularly with like to welcome any spokesperson here from henry county has you share the spotlight as well. I can tell you about all the amazing words beth macy has won from her writings. But the real mark of her gift as a journalist asks eight simple question how many of you remember her story . By a show of hands how many remember young selena with all the patrons and cheering her on at harvard . [applause] or award wedding stories witting stories about the refugees living in our community but then children were going to buy stocks with 12 languages spoken . Or her series about teenage mothers. Or how families were navigating caregiving for their elderly loved ones or maybe one of her columns printed with precious think that instructed from 2005. [inaudible] [laughter] friends of bill i bet we have a lot of interviews by bass. End we were lucky because we knew our story would be in good hands. And then she met her beloved husband and now her two children she worked for the Roanoke Times telling stories about the us that have helped us know each other better than we ourselves. Journalists are supposed to be objective but photojournalist mary bishop who is here tonight. [applause] told her it is okay to carry about care about the people you interviewew och into care about their story. Factory man is not religious but it is taking place in Church Settings doing the right thing regardless of the cost about reals human beings and theyre all too human frailties. And when they did treats each other with grace and humility this is about to do is related to the gloom and big industry but most of all this book was about what it means to live in community. So please join me to welcome beth macy. [applause] i am already tearing up. That is not good for you. I will read three passages from the giddy and then from the end and then the middle but it is good to introduce you to john. I will start with chapter one there is a prologue that proceeds it with that watershed moment 2002 when john and his son why it went to china to see who was making said cheap chest of drawers you wanted to eyeball the guy who was making it that would become the Worlds Largest petition. So this is where i tell you how i found the story. I was driven initially by the question would have been to all those people from henry county who lost their jobs . Half of the workforce almost 20,000 people and where did they go . The second question it was, was there another way it could have been done . And friend of mine who was visiting last week said your book is doing so great it is wonderful. You found this amazing story to go to china and back. It is like living history. [laughter] once in a reporters career a person like john bassett becomes a long he is brash the good old boy from rural virginia larger than life rule breaker that stood almost singlehandedly against the outflow of furniture jobs from america he is asshole. [laughter] i made sure it was okay to say that in church. [laughter] when they heard i was writing a book about globalization with him as a character aha despite what i might have heard about made in china furniture said they could pick and one another on this chair and it would not fall apart i got at 160. Confided jolt to breakfast and working on the impact of globalization of southwest virginia and articles inspired by freelance photographer who was making an hourlong tracks three times a week for more than one year. Church services and tattoo artist and textile plants converted for use in a food pantry . The disabled minister wallowing away the time in his kitchen. Of the people of henry county were refreshingly open what happened to them and wondering why the paper did not do more to counter the effects of globalization not that Media Outlets had done better. The greatest economic crisis was largely covered from the top down primarily from the perspective of big business with the obama administration. The percentage of the economy soaring with displaced workers was just 2 . Of the people love henry county wanted their stories to be heard we had to help it would be a to writers and photographers to paint the picture of what happened when one after another the textile and furniture factories set up shop. Where workers were paid up a fraction of what the laborers were earning. Some 20,000 people have lost their jobs. In the early 60s it was a manufacturing powerhouse more millionaires per capita earned than anywhere else in the country but by 2009 onefifth of though labor force was unemployed in many millionaires left. Now was virginias highest rates for nine and 11 years. Police arrested a 34 yearold man trying to salvage the factories copper casings that sparked an electrical fire. His burns were visible in the police mug shot in i heard other similar stories. Outside of a pharmacy and offered her 100 issue would purchase the Cold Medicine that is the main ingredient to make methamphetamine. But most people were scraping by to grow their own food or work parttime at walmart or babysitting. The food pantry said he could tell by their disfigurement the women bent over selling machines had homes in their back some men were missing fingers. It is a last resort to come stand in line to get a box of food. But there was one old man 70 miles out who would buck the trend from a family that once ran the Largest Furniture company in the road he was from that family he was john bassett the name stamps behind Door Number Three on lets make a deal. [laughter] behind the ties of globalization from political intrigues and judging from what i was told of the asian competitors serious cowboy grit and as he explained imitating the patriarch place they were not going to tell him how to make furniture. [laughter] but there is another juicier story. John bassett was no longer living in virginia he was booted out of the business by a domineering relative three decades later they had talked of the fight scene on the porch and a rescue squad car and my favorite detail john bassett to paying the ambulance driver 100 that he had his battered brotherinlaw hauled away like something out of a dynasty. [laughter] but was it true . [laughter] elected family infighting had to do with him giving the middle finger overseas . Plenty. Now we will skip ahead to the end of the chapter. The moment i heard that the company took on big business i knew i had to find out whod. Tueber lives and managed to turn in to the largest for better factory in america up. Said that i went to read that southern patriarch and his Furniture Company and i already knocked out his family tree at the library. I called around to get the real scoop and it already interviewed several workers who were laid off not long after the managers showed up to take pictures of the Virginia Assembly line to copy that. One girl described her mom home from work heard these shot after standing on concrete floors what was of Little People doing the work today . I already knew that jb3 was screwing his middle age son to take over he had returned home after Business School and i heard that they cut the salaries rather than and layoffs more mineworkers and stopped to pull a paycheck. One afternoon a Furniture Store owner describes how globalization had taken 70 percent of his business a store that was frequented that worked in the textile plant working down the road at Stanley Furniture and his mother at fieldcrest was a sprawling textile plant from Marshall Fields and now was at the Weekly Community food bank. And the diner was frequented by retirees a photograph would display of a stack of fieldcrest towels. Bassett furniture wrestle longer made at bassett with his determination john bassett could have kept some of the factory going if he could have kept the company he should have made up of shorthand for that statement scores of people said the same thing. Knowing all about jb3 mission and there was another version of that evil brother of what the story of the man that old bloated jb3 out of the company he was raised to run but would he reveal what it felt like to be the black sheep with the chip on his shoulder or chummy their real story how he fought the chinese . If he wouldnt those who came up under the thumb to be old enough to spill the beans . You donny realizes one type of spiderweb you have going said the man and his nemesis. War and peace will seem like a 0. 10 novel compared to your spider web. [laughter] lucky for you the scorpion is already dead. John bassett comes from an imposing family of millionaires whose ancestor signed the magna carter magna card debt that they should keep the family secrets where they belong in the closet who would he tell me as a daughter of a former factory worker . From a 55 yearold displaced family furniture worker for gave me her nebraska contact because her phone was about to be turned off and also a of a textile worker he tried to raise a 14 yearold daughter alone working the only job she defined as a 30 an hour week receptionist with no benefits i recall receiving full Financial Aid for college because my mother widowed made only 8,000 a year test driving cars for a honda subcontractor. Had a party she was helping to cater what she said to him literally made me gasp. If they would open back up today the only way to get their point to be call on my belly like a snake, i would do it. John bassett had perhaps schools and Vacation Homes. I am the underdog but fortunately he was to review was ready to the admitted or not. With any luck at all he would help me to explain this part of history to the executive board room from a handsaw too smart bombs and the logs the sales from the porch of virginia to asia then returned months later. So that is the set up. Then i go back to virginia when his grandfather started the business and his birth in 1937 born during the epic flight he had not even told me about it i said to do know you were born during the epic fled . He said no. [laughter] there was things that i heard about them i know that were stories be he did not necessarily realize like this epic flood that was of a precursor to the dramatic exit from the town and even with his company did not realize it was a story. So what to that like . It was the key moment i knew i would build that book around and then come back and then his son and i was talking on the phone. And doug is a president he is the sweet one and why it says if you dont like dogs there is no one in my family that you like. I really like doug. [laughter] and he says man that i he was hired. Yes. It is in my book it is a character out of the of movie. [laughter] remember i had been over this story with him 30 times and i had interviewed the translator from taiwans she is of a woman says she remembers. [laughter] but i had not interfered doug. When he tried to tell me . Hes new york he was really cold. The way he sat there chainsmoking. He was on a chaise lounge and you did not tell the . I said when we get off uh phone go sit with your dad. [laughter] so when i wrote my book proposal it caved in with 27 chapters the 27 chapter would be about the great romance in 2012 i could witness firsthand with a petition in 2005 and that resulted of american manufacturers but john put a package of his factory that the law was intended for so it is a great tie the story where he says that the and at the end you dont have to dragnets then back if you dont go out with ritchie bremen down the street. [laughter] so now he could keep his business that was a great triumphant moment in the book. I knew that would be the end then i spent a lot of time in bassett and i really fell in love with these people. One of the things that i noticed the first abandoned factories was called bassett superior of wind it made low end furniture really cheap and really profitable it made a million justin profit and the community it was very proud and with those conveyor belt. So that displaced workers went to watch it burn like going to a funeral. Like a funeral for everybody that you knew then they started to tear it down. The very last scene just know that when this happens this is how the book had to end because i was crying. I knew what he had done was the allied air in the industry for business and in general and i knew i had to end with that. I should not read the whole thing i will not read the whole thing. One of my last trips to bassett i went on the two were at Historical Center whose family implanted in town surely after the founder got its start. Her grandfather was illuminating all the lights when he flipped the switch on the boiler. More than did women interviewed pat wanted me to get the story exactly right to honor the workers and the pioneer owners. It is history. If you dig it up and it is true it is your job to tell its. She was 70 years old and still ran the center for volunteers even though she officially retired one year before volunteers bring in chocolate whenever anybody makes the trip to a shop of a store known for Chicken Salad and it appears in the kitchen for hungry researchers and reporters but the daughter wrote a history of Mary Hunter Elementary School in the seventh grade and she was the founder johns grandfather and his wife pocahontas she was there a long time servant in the family home. She had interviewed the successor as the family made for the project and your 90 she was still serving their christmas dinners and guarding her little patch she like to place the walker her grandchildren insisted she use inside the wheel barrow and would feel that over to her vegetable crop so she could grab it and pretend to use said all along. [laughter] john bassett caught her doing that once were for her death during the and frequent trips to bassett he never failed to stop by greece sees house and never failed to leave without handing her some money. He said if i go to the pearly gates whod you know, the first person i will say is gracie because she will put in a good word for me. It is a wealth of geography and history. Of brick behemoth in trailers that astonishingly somehow still stand. And if one is lucky the benefit of someone who month after month help me to see the effects of globalization and her home town. And it eliminates the center at night after they stopped providing security like teen they have solicited donations at a cost of 720 per coal per year although some businesses gave up and had their lights removed. When i asked pat 482 where i had already seen it. Where chauffeured around town from the Mercedes Batista prefers driving over writing. I stood on top of the roof of my car while a former clutched rancor it ankle to keep the falling on the Railroad Tracks to recreate the version of the postcard of the 1930s pat has a they she wanted me to see. As she drove we passed the high school as a class of 60 now a Storage Facility by a classmate who opened it to see your citizen walkers two mornings a week and also operates a clothing bank. Some homes are rented out to visiting trout fisherman as those who walk but it still leads with their rich way grandfather clock with the talks and no longer made in ridgway but china like everything else. After get to the destination he drove next to a recycling center and i had been one team to see her grave of four months and while i walked around those headstones i found it no mary hunter. Johnson had not been quite three years old when she died. Gone but not forgotten said her headstone. See the grave i thought of so many of reconstruction era furniture workers mustve had a promise of the afterlife. To grow with the slave in henry county plantations by 1921 bussed 56 rolled factory worker who ministered on the side and rented at a farmhouse with six kids and i got goose bumps when i realized i had already seen his photo in the picture likely one of the lighter skinned black man wearing overalls and a hat is hand written note it said purves will follow what happened cannot deal. Glorious may day we watch them fish in the middle of the river we found our destination overlooking the town. Of factory undertaker hired after that has met suit the has matt suit. But the black sorority ben hall tear by trucks so as the landowner could use that it was to extend a wealthy mans long. If you tell people 10 years ago i would be here today they would say you for a complete fool. And as an already happened at the site to a temperatures ceos said he did not know why it they would do what with the demolition. They already allowed town the volunteers of local Farmers Market to convey a good host the festival. Perhaps the land behind a superior would tie a into the trails maybe we can make it a quaint little destination to sell our story reminding me clave Economic Development and try. Then i found myself drifting to the smith and the upper river the dam was in power making mode. 30 seconds before my boat hit the cement a gentle powell turned into whitewater rafting. My guide was afloat fisherman who ran the particleboard plant for 34 years. We swiftly but passed a factory somewhere brandon there were personally called the concrete from bassett superior placing the chunks on the riverbank. When the river was not rushing demanding full concentration he told me stories. Canid dead goose would roam the the river bank and a blue heron would track ahead every few minutes. Air temperature was 64 but the water by is just 42 which is why people fish prerelease land and the trout find it ideal. My full immersion baptism came right after we rounded the bend near the old Stanley Furniture factory in town billed them to block the passage and we paddled it but i hesitated that put me in the worst position parallel to the log. The underwater plunge was bone chilling and abrupt after being trapped for a moment i found my way to the canoe and we rode out the rapids together him inside the bow and be on the outside he said you are fine now. Before long i was not my feet were numb and my fear of hypothermia led me to the bank with poison ivy. [laughter] he went to on downstream he would disappear around the curve i emerged 10 minutes later years as stanley town strip mall near a Family Dollar store. When i appeared the woman was taking up the trash was startled i looked mad like somebody who stumbled out of the mug shot and she shook her head. I will not ask. [laughter] pat picked me up that the cbs next door then retract down jim had guys searching for me along the river. Any yvette and rescued my reporters notebook the scrawled inside was legible somehow the people loved asset wanted their stories told. [applause] kiev never listen to me talk about long before. I know it is killing and. [laughter] this is john bassett he is factory man i will just read a relief fund section this book was not fun to write it was learning about International Trade law back through 1930s does anybody know about this . I went to indonesia and for us future brighter that is what i consider myself it was a lot of business and i tried to rights of both and i would want to to read and i say i am a daughter of the displaced factory worker putting my cards on the table. A lot of it is just hard to understand the stuff that was not familiar to me and reading the economist every week was hard. [laughter] but this part was fun because after hundreds of gogols andy would say she is a exaggerating, he probably called me 700 times he called 03 times it just today. [laughter] so this was fun to write. I was like id nail that. This is my introduction to john. He did just broken on his own left for richard out running that struggle company it decided to strike out on his own air with three security guards make stability is time of john bassett career nbc had apple level managers the banks were not space we another time and i had invested millions they could easily go broke. This was not a hypothetical case. But garretts wife martha and the head of the planned predicted that it would be m moneymaking venture. And then the still no one works harder 04 locker hours. Then the telephone rings. Calling christmas morning. Major it is on so we dont ruin that stock the stack of letters and 8 30 a. M. That was given us trouble all the ones i decided they had to go he calls on the vacation if i am calling you that i am working also. He calls on saturday when he mowed the lawn if you cannot get to the of paul and he will likely issue of screening your calls. 1915 new years day he calls the previous sales person and says what have you sold for be this year . He calls occasionally to share a dirty joke. He calls from the phone next to the toilet in one of the bathrooms of his home in calls from his car be he is not sure what button to push you call him on his cell phone and then he calls from the bet dont worry after anesthesia he thinks the fourth thing he was to tell me the story about apollo 13 the way theyve worked day and night so nobody would die in the refuse to except failure and guess what america they worked hard and smart and so can you if he is practically in tears 30 more people at Stanley Furniture will lose their jobs. He prefaces the conversation that this is off the record. This is off of everything. This is just as girls. [laughter] he calls and calls and calls. He never identifies himself with that baritone voice and the sense of timing of what could it be . He called so often in the beginning to get the plant running that garretts wife finally grabbed the phone retrying to cut carrot out of all of his sex life . [laughter] john bassett laughed so hard that he actually gave him the night off. [laughter] his personal rule is simple and comprehensive and not open for discussion i dont call gentiles on easter weekend or jews on the aum comport. But if he feels the need to lecture or tell us a dirty joke or tell the idea he calls. Ladies and gentleman, john bassett iii. [applause] when we came out she said she would be through in nine minutes. [laughter] when you read the book can she wrote a beautiful book. This girl can write to. [applause] last sunday after church i was getting ready to play golf and we were on the practice tee and one of my good friend says the aha aha dash a whole new york city in the Vacation Home in North Carolina and he said i am jealous. I said what you mean . He said i called kathy last night and it was 9 00. 40 you doing . And she said i am in bet with john bassett. [laughter] you will read the book and find out what we did and how reid did it so i will not touch on that unless he would like to ask me questions. I will take my nine minutes. [laughter] and give a little insight into why we did it. I grew up us john bassett from bassett Virginia Home of Bassett Industries and i dont know many people can say thats and it was somewhat of a the unusual position to be as a young man. I had wonderful parents they believed to touch you teach you what your responsibilities were indicted here my mother saying he were born with a silver spoon in your mouse but you are no better than anyone else in doubt you ever forget that. You have a responsibility to the people of this community and we expect you to live up to it. There but also tell me the story of the parable in the bible of the pilots i could hear my father saying sign you were not born to bury your talents but to use your talents. So those types of lessons stuck with me in those days i was a baptist but now im episcopalian by the way. [laughter] [applause] if they have more fun. [laughter] so why do we do what we did . When my grandfather started Bassett Industries he started in the Furniture Industry because we add a wonderful labor supply that aided manufacturing jobs. Because they needed some place. And then the railroad has just gone through what became bassett virginia that unable them to make a product to ship it to the whole United States. Back in those days if you had no way again how do we get this product may be 30 or 40 miles you would never build the Furniture Industry that way. The railroad gave them the access to the American Economy and they used it. There were hard workers, a dedicated, wonderful people working for us. I have the telegram on my archives there were three actually back in those days and he was trying to say i was selling furniture the secretary of the company sent a telegram in said your factory is on fire. Then one hour later he received a telegram that said the fire is out of control. Than one hour after that he received a telegram and it said everything we have this berndt to the ground. , home mrs. Bassett sr. And that happened three times and they would rebuild every time. You would have to admirer that type of spirit. So when my grandfather started i can assure you he had no idea what globalization was and when you have retailers and large cities like it lanza that is where the customers were. So they did what was logical so then going fast forward with globalization. Our company and association and supported that which he turned into the World Trade Organization that we now refer to as the wto. And we were told it actually increased we would make products to china or asia or other places and that did not come to pass. We were told we had to have more modern and efficient factories. But they would level the Playing Field everybody plays from the same set of rules. But that is not what happened. Globalization ended lower the price we have benefited but the retailers benefited because if they had some of the savings they did not pass to i s but there was nothing wrong with that. But the retailers could by the sources overseas as well as local and a devastated the manufacturers. How many . 63,000 factories closed over 300,000 workers lost their jobs. Those are the statistics we look at. Then ask yourself what are we going to do with this company and how are we going to prosper or even survive . It was interesting. So initially we went to china. The chinese said less make this product we will sell it to you and you can sell it to your dealers you dont have to worry about government regulations are hospitalization and or retirement or anything else. But it didnt take me long to figure out a lot of the Furniture Companies were sending engineers over there to teach them people tell me how quickly theyll learn to make furniture you can learn pretty quick when they teach you how to do it and once we told them they would ship the product they knew where the customers were. [laughter] then they said this will not work. You were going down a path that will be a path to your demise. Our products are made here in the United States. [applause] but how will we survive . Frankly i felt we noted obligation to the people who worked for us. I really did over the last 100 years we have done very well. We really have than they paid for a lot of College Tuitions and wonderful homes and vacations we never would have done it without the people who worked in those factories. And this was our time to look after them. So when we learn to about the petition and dumping is when you sell something in your country excuse me at a Lower Country cheaper than your country or use selling a product that is under cost so you can drive the of their people out of business then you get all the business and is recognized by then wto 159 countries they all recognize it as the illegal trade. And there are laws on the books from the 30s in the United States the says dumping is illegal so the law has been revised but it is a lot. Since 1930. We did not know about the of what the federal government never told us we had a pale lawyer 75,000 to explain to us what our rights were. Remember when they first came out when jackson was on the 20 bill it was larger than they put in some color because they wanted to make it harder to counterfeit. The United States government spent 33 million to advertise the new 28 bell. And i was testifying in congress i was criticizing because you dont tell american manufacturers what their rights are and i can assure you that there is nobody in my family that doesnt know how to spend 20. [laughter] [laughter] so we led that antidumping petition. I was the chairman of it and still and although i will retire soon 2002 through 2014 hopefully this is the last. It was the largest ever in the country of china. But it was a split industry. Is so they could join us in will they join us . Or were they not going to join us . Then what will you tell the employees . The retailers became very upset and we were boycotted and still are in some places. Some have come back but they refuse to buy our products because we were the the antidumping petition. And Staten Island set and would go to the market and people would look at you with this made then i would come back to the factory and the people want to hug you. I never had that kind of juxtaposition or reaction. But there were duties placed on chinese furniture. So that is what we did. We took some money that we received, and we bought more machinery. There is no machine in the world that makes what we make that we dont own and we will spend any amount of money to stay competitive and efficient. We have to. But we invest in equipment. But here is the real secret to what we did we organize the people who space worked for us and said the youre here for you. We will not abandon you in this is the way we have to do and when i Start Talking to them i always say i give you the good news and ill give you the bad news but i will never lie to you. I will tell you the truth. And we need your help. And their attitude of whole organization change. Very efficient workers but they need the leaderships. Somebody has to get in there to say follow me. I dufy had crossed the rubicon when i was walking through the finishing room and the of wind stopped the conveyor stopped everyone started to walk toward me. [laughter] we have the problem. To we have Sexual Harassment . What type of problem . [laughter] but i noticed they did not have a frown on their face and they burn not belligerent. Theyre very respectful. And the lady came up name talent and she said john we have something to tell you. We see what you are going through and we see what you were trying to accomplish for us and we want you to know tell us what you want us to do and we will give you everything you ask for. When you have that kind of spirit within an organization, it is amazing what you can accomplish. I hugged all the women. [laughter] i should call the mens hands and eyes said i have my first request. Get your butts back on the job. [laughter] but it was the people. That is our secret. It probably is true of football coaches as well but certainly football coaches. And if you are getting ready to pay to go play the champions and you get your team ready to go out on the field and the sportswriters have said you are 14point underdog or when you go out and play the game and you lose by ten points they will say we covered this thread. [laughter] tell me how many football coaches are going to keep their job by only losing ten planes. In america we have to start thinking of ourselves as winne winners. America has to turn around and take its competition. I had a captain when i was a lieutenant in germany and he said its time to take names and kick ass. [laughter] its time that we do that and thats what we intend to do. We have wonderful retail here and that is the grand furniture. [applause] and they have a made in america gallery. A lot of retailers they dont want you to know where it is made so we are still fighting this battle. We are still fighting the battle and it has been a long time in doing this and that is a beautiful part about this book because it tells you the story of what happened and im not opposed to globalization. [applause] [applause] the ushers will walker probably outside of the i o and collect questions. Dont be shy. Go ahead and pass them around. While we are going around i will start with a few questions. Tell us how you know when you hear a good story. The test like does it make me laugh, does that make me cry, does it make m that make me thif something i havent thought before . This story had it all because it had this great main character who was still alive. I told him about a year ago i told him dont die and dont close your factory. [laughter] and i is it shows my age and rossa posted this today, but i really love the people. I really do and i feel a responsibility for them. So, when she connected with that, she connected with me. Do you have a favorite story . Do i have a favorite . Im trying to find one i can tell. The first time i have talked only to his son because he does the media stuff. My hair was long at the time so i showed him my jeans and my hiking shoes and i could just see the look on his face thinking why did the newspaper send him down here to interview x. I knew he was going to give me ten minutes but i had done my homework and i knew the whole story and i think that he was just going to talk to somebody who was genuinely curious about what he had done and how he had been. I will tell you this when the Company Closed they ran a cartoon and there was a picture of a coffin and somebody was kneeling in the last meal and it said its the last nail in the front of the coffin in virginia. And i wanted to say wait a minute. [laughter] your subjects tell some hard things. How do you wrestle with having to Say Something hard but true . Not sleep. [laughter] i call my friends and talk about the issues like i always come back to is that fair, is it true . You really should be wrestling with these issues. I dont want to hurt anyones feelings and i know parts of these books have hurt feelings and thats hard for me. But i think to put them off some of the things and would be hard for others and it is constantly weighing out his affair and is it true. Spank what was the hardest part . The race chapter. Knowing that it would hurt some people that have to do with what went on years ago. If you could live any portion of your life over again looking at this whole story which portion would it be and why. The while its a lot of things i would do different. I really didnt apply myself in college. Whats the charge me more than anything else was the United States army. We were right on the eastwest german border in the center. Thats right where we were and we saw people literally enslaved and it dawned on me that we saw several people shot that tried to get across the border that we could do nothing until it got across and several of them were killed. And i realized i grew up in a free country and in a wealthy family. And i was given all this. And i said i missed my shot at college and yes i graduated etc. , but i certainly could have done a lot better. And the only reason im not over there and im over here is because i was born in america and i never forgot that. [applause] what did you learn from reading the book lacks [laughter] i learned a lot of things about my ancestors i didnt kn know. They said what do you think about what your ancestors did . Obviously you were not going to condone it. They had to do something to entertain themselves. [laughter] what stories have you heard since the book was published that you wish you could have included . Walked. Somebody started a Discussion Group on facebook that he was a great participant in. And the first questioned him moderator, i dont even know her all that well but she posted where are you from . Welcome, everyone, where are you from . I thought who is going to say much about that. They started putting these recollections of things that happened and i think it was this morning i woke up and there was a question about name the businesses that you missed. Because theres just a handful of businesses left. This morning there were 120 businesses listed and not just like the name of a business but a story. So its been really cool to see kind of people come together around this book. Its real memories, some of it is anger about what happened and to some of it is just the air and give great, but its you used the word ca community but t to me is a real wonder that these people no longer have any actual place they go to work that they see each other at church and what not and this weird little place on facebook has become where people from the county are telling stories about what happened to them and i think theres something just really palpable and precious about that. They dont do this but maybe once. I gave you one shot and then, you know, i really get upset. And that is the word cant. I really truly despise it for two reasons. Number one, if you say you cant do something or i say i cant do something it means number one you can quit trying and you can quit thinking. I dont mind people saying i have a problem and can you help me with this problem because we are not getting this solved. Okay lets work on it together and we do not always succeed the late could succeed the first time that you dont say i cant do it. You have to get a mindset that we are going to do this. And again i come back to this country. We have to get out of this mindset. We can do it if we really want to do it. A question from the audience. Clearly you have a tremendous report. How did you all create that . 700 phone calls. [laughter] we dont always get along. We have had a lot of different emotions around this. And we have had some really hard days that we will not go into here. I have probably been more mad at him than anyone else in my life, but we are still in are still talking and he said that at the beginning this isnt going to be like Lyndon Johnson doesnt talk to robert caro. They know who robert caro is. [laughter] this is a smart group. Scenic one of the things you did first of all its very rare that you get a ceo you dont have to go through the pr person to get through. I can get them anytime on the phone or i dont call them because they will call me. But i think i could i can get to them anytime i want to and then in this age its like you cant even get to the city manager anymore. You have to go through all these Different Levels and so it is very rare that you have that kind of access to somebody who is they dont answer every question i asked by a long shot but the other thing that is unusual is that he volunteered names and telephone numbers and secretaries names of people that he knew would say bad things about him. And they said some Pretty Things about him. [laughter] what is his motivation for that . They only asked to read one chapter and it was after i had won the lucas prize in columbia. I had come back and i was going to be going through North Carolina. He said we want to know what you read your awardwinning chapter . I was in South Carolina on my way back to virginia and i called my husband and i said they want me to read chapter one. The first quote in chapter number one is hes an asshole. [laughter] he said i will read it to you. One condition you cant say anything until im done. And he was very good and they listened to it and he had a couple of corrections. But they were pretty minor. So i appreciate that he valued freedom of the press. Press. Press. Let me answer one thing about calling him an asshole. [laughter] first of all time she is not the first one that said that. [laughter] but when she had the party bringing the book at the end they asked me to say a few words. The last thing i said is there are people in this room that before the book was written that they knew i was and asshole. [laughter] and i said the only thing that has changed is now when they read the book, everyone is going to know. [laughter] who would you like to play you in a movie . [laughter] the person that probably could play me the best is dead and that is george c. Scott. My Favorite Movie was patton. When tom hanks tweeted the week before last, i called and i said it do you know who he is [laughter] he said i may be a dinosaur but even i know who tom hanks is. And another question from the audience. How are you preparing for the stephen cold air show . Stephen colbert show . This guy is quick. Im watching him and, you know, it depends on the questions he asks. It really does. I mean if you read the book, he can get somewhat risque so if he goes there i can hold my own. [applause] she put in the book he has two great loves, furniture and sex. I said youve got it all wrong. It should have 69 and furniture. [laughter] my mom is on the front row. [laughter] they turned the tv on and there was this author that wrote that the california. When i told him he wants you to come on he didnt know who it was that he was a very quick study and he went and was watching it and thought of it. We talked about it so the other night he called and said shes s on tv. Turn it on. And so i watched and right afterwards he calls and he said what did you think . I thought she was fine and he said she was terrible. [laughter] i said i thought she was great. She was scared to death, she said. And he said i can tell you one thing. I am not scared to go on. [laughter] so this is your warning. Do you think that Stephen Colbert could be worth some . [applause] people were totally upset and everything. Everything. Weve are at the furniture market so i went up to the stage of one of our Coalition Members who also was buying from china but he did join our coalition. And nobody was full and i said can i see so and so and they said let me see if we can get them and al in all at once, they became totally quiet and there were 40 or 50 people there. I look over and here are four of the largest chinese importers or exported to this country. And they are all about 5foot to. Thats him right over there. Everybody in the lobby just stopped talking and it got deathly quiet. And its my sense of humor. So i walked right over to them and stood right next to them and of course i am 6 feet and they are 5foot 2 inches and i leaned down, i bent down so i would be on the same level and they all look at me like this and everybody is waiting and we were that far from each other and i said boo. [laughter] so out came the cameras. Theyll wanted to get their picture taken with me so they could email it back and say guess who i had my picture taken with. [laughter] this is just very sweet. It says not a question but more of a declaration of gratitude. Thank you to john and death for having the courage to stick to your ideals and put the existence of others before your own and to recognize to whom to thank and whom we should be grateful. You are truly the original american heroes. [applause] and so for the final question tonight, we will end with both of you and please answer where do you think america is Furniture Industry will be in five years . I know better but i want you to answer first. [laughter] he would say you would never have to drag us back. I know hes struggling to keep the factory going. He was for you he has a 111 Million Dollar it is a net worth of the company. And they would also say if you could keep the factory going 20 more years if you wanted to. But shes got to be efficient and have the right tools. Hes not making money hand over fist. A lot of this is a labor of love and a sense of responsibility for the people that work with him. In terms of everybody else there are not Many Companies to compare them to. There is one other furniture maker in old port North Carolina. I think ashley has an assembly plant. Its not everything that comes from china. Most of the full screen is made in the United States because we know that all of you ladies dont want the same thing. So that is a different pillow and different bits and ba that d that drives the chinese crazy. [laughter] we are used to it because we grew up with you but we dont make a fuss. If you ask me what is going to happen and you accept the very high end ethan allen co. Of new york, we are the only, literally the only we ha hade homage that have some but they were quite expensive and i will tell you a story about that at f we have time but my point is is we are the only ones left. I counted 125 factories the other day that i know have closed. In virginia and North Carolina and tennessee and we are the only ones left. Tell the Desert Island a story. About four or five years ago they said what are we going to . We are not going to make it. And we fight the same battle. Dont misunderstand, its not over with. So, you know, you talk about figures and things end of the accountants and office talking about business meetings. And i could just see the eyes glass over. He didnt know what he was talking about. This isnt going t to happen ani always try to tell the story. Ive written about abraham lincoln. He was grateful in a story because people remember the stories but they dont necessarily remember the figures were what else so i was sitting there trying to think of something and i said okay i want you guys to think about a Desert Island. They said okay. There are 12 men on this island and there is one woman. There is one female and 12 men. I said ive got news for you. She doesnt have to be beautiful. I can guarantee you somebody is going to fall in love with that girl before this is over. And i said we intend to be that girl on a Desert Island. [laughter] [applause] thank you beth and john for being here tonight and all of you for coming. A tremendous thank you to the staff and volunteers of st. Johns, especially in terms store manager and Kindergarten Teacher extraordinaire. [applause] a special thanks to the audio came and the ladies in the kitchen who put on a beautiful spread that i hope you all will enjoy and to cspan thank you to cspan for being here tonight. Finally beth and john have agreed to stay and find some books and you will be lining up down the hall toward the stairs. But he is driving home tonight he tells me two and a half hours so lets not keep them for too long shall we