Gonzalez. Mr. Gonzalez is senior fellow in our katherine and shelby Davis Institute for foreign policy. He previously served her teenage as Vice President for heritage as Vice President for communications. He spent close to 20 years as a journalist, 15 of them reporting from europe and asia serving as a Foreign Correspondent for afp, a columnist for the wall street journal, Deputy Editor of the editorial pages of the journals asia editions as well as later the european edition, and he even returned then to hong kong in 2004 as editor of the journals asian editorial pages. He was also privileged to serve in the george w. Bush administration at the securities and Exchange Commission and then at the department of state. Born in cuba and coming to the United States at 12, he has lived and reported from ten different nations around the globe in his journalism career. Please join me in welcoming mike gonzalez. Mike . [applause] thank you. Welcome to heritage. Im often, well, always asked to introduce people who are far more famous than i am. Youve all seen the movie, coach. Here, the talking points i wrote say bill courtney, but i cant call the coach anything other than coach. He rose from a lumber mill in memphis. One of the important things you need to know about this is he started the company just a few days after 9 11 when it was very rough in this world as we all remember, and yet the company has become a huge success. Then he was asked to take over this high school in memphis that had won again games out of the last 99 seven games out of the last 99. He turned the program armed. Hollywood got ahold of this and thought there would be a good movie in it, and the movie, obviously, is undefeated. But undefeated is not about the record of the team, undefeated is about what he did with those young men whom he coached. The book, which i highly recommend, and he will take questions and answers, question and answer period afterward, and he will sign the book for whoever wants to buy a copy. Its about how he teaches civil, character, commitment and service. And i say as somebody who played football in high school in the south, that is exactly what i got out of it, and i really have to thank all my coaches this high school for teaching me that. Its sad, i told the coach, that neither one of my sons is going to play football, and i think this is a problem for the sport. My wife just wont let it. I know, ive seen that look in her eyes, i wont be able to win that argument, so im not even going to try. [laughter] but, coach, without further ado, id like to ask you to come and join us here for your talk. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. [applause] thanks for having me sure. A lot. I appreciate you, and i appreciate the foundation. You know, since winning the Academy Award, since being part of that whole process, i speak all over the country, and its all kinds of venues from pepsico to frito lay to nike win forever, to the paralympics in colorado springs, venues all over the place. And i think the thing i like the very most about undefeated is the platform it has given me to say some things that i think need to be said. At the end of the day, yall, im a football coach. And i own a lumber company. And im a guy from memphis. And really the only difference between me and thousands of other americans is that my story got told. But as a visual chew of my virtue of my story getting told, ive been given this platform. We can use that to do some extra stuff and make some money and be all neat and hollywood, or we could use this platform to maybe have some conversations about things that were maybe not necessarily too comfortable having conversations about. Thats why against the grain exists. Because after all these speeches, people come up and say, hey, you know, i want to hear more about this, you know . I love what you said about this or what you said about that. Do you have a book . And i didnt. And so now i have a book, and people can read more about it. It kind of starts like this when i graduated from ole miss, i taught school and coached football for a living. Its all i ever really wanted to do. And all that changed because there was this lady named susan who ran the lunchroom, and she cooked hot chocolate chip cookies and, oh, my gosh, theyre so good. You know, the hot ones, the gooey ones, the big ones . [laughter] and because i was a young, struggling, starving coach and i was in shape and tried to flirt a lot, i would get cookie and a little thing of milk for a quarter. And so what changed was one really nondescript afternoon, this person walks in the back door to see her aunt, susan, the lunchroom lady, and shes wearing a lime green shirt and shorts and has this long, dark, silky hair, and her name is lisa, and she is now the woman ive been married to for 22 and a half years who has given me my 19yearold, my 18yearold, my 17yearold and my 16yearold. [laughter] we got on city water, and it cleared up. [laughter] so we got those, and what happened was i married her, started having kids, and a coachs football salary didnt get it anymore. And i had to get into the private world. And when i got into the private world, i bounced around and ended up starting this Company Called classic american hardwoods in 2001 literally off my couch. Now, my father left the home when i was 4, and i hat very little relationship with him i had very little relationship with him. My mom was married a number of times. My moms fourth husband shot at me down a hallway, and i had to dive out a window to save myself. My reality was youre never going to be the owner of a 45 million company, youre never going to be a guy whos got 120 employees, and youre unlikely to be the guy whos been married to the same woman for 22 years with this amazing family, and youre sure as heck not the guy whos the subject of a movie that wins the Academy Award and walking down the red carpet with p. Diddy and george clooney. But it did happen, and im going to tell you why it happened in a minute. So by virtue of marrying this unbelievable woman and needing to do better for my family, i started this business off my couch. And throughout the whole process of transitioning from being a coach for a living and a teacher to a businessman, i still in nonfaculty situations coached football throughout my life. And this opportunity in 2003 came up in manassas do coach football while still operating my business, and i took it because it was still a passion. What we found was 17 kids on a Varsity Football Team and a previous ten years record of seven wins and 92 losses. Six years later what we. [laughter] was 75 kids suited up and a record of 18 wins and two losses. In an area where an 18yearold male is three times more likely to be incarcerated than he is to be in college by his 20th birthday, we graduated 36 seniors, and 35 went to college. And im here to tell you that the same thing that built that Football Team and the same thing that built my family that im extremely proud about and the same thing that built my business are what is outlined in my book, against the grain. It is about character, it is about commitment, it is about integrity, it is about the cliche of getting out of your comfort zone, it is about understanding the dignity of hard work, it is understanding it is about understanding what the paramount, the strength of a commitment, it is about understanding forgiveness, it is about understanding your legacy. And whats amazing about those fundamentals and tenets, yall, is that it doesnt matter if its your family, it doesnt matter if its business, it doesnt matter if its society, and it doesnt matter if its politics. Whatever walk of life youre involved in, they work. And for all walks of life. And thats what the conversation is, that the platform that undefeated gave me that i want to have. And thats what im trying to have in against the grain. So, briefly, if you get anything from our 25 minutes here together before we do a q a, i hope you remember this a vacuum is forgetting for getting dirt off of carpet, its not for living in, dontbe a turkey person dont be a turkey person and understand that 5 cannot be the value of your legacy on a spring day in the front yard. Okay, so that was weird, so ill explain it. [laughter] a vacuum is for picking dirt up off a carpet, it is not for living in. If you surround yourself with people who look just like you and think just like you and act just like you and whose reality is just like you, youre never going to understand whats going on in the rest of the world. We have to get out of our comfort zones. Now, i know thats cliche, but let me explain this to you. I dont have much in common with archie bunker except this rchltd my kids and my kids friends and my wife and all of our friends know that this wornout leather chair thats in our tv room is mine. [laughter] its mine. Im telling you, im a large guy. The indention in the cushion matches perfectly [laughter] all right . Its mine. And the arms on it are even worn out a little bit where these mutton joints rest, and theres actually, im not kidding, theres actually a little patch of it thats discolored from where the Remote Control sits, because the sun does it differently. That is my comfort zone, and im going to tell you something, theres nothing wrong with it. With 120 employees and a Football Team and traveling all over the place doing speeches, i get exhausted, and the world hits me in the mouth, and i like to go to my comfort zone to charge my batteries and regenerate. We all have to have that. For some its a group of friends, maybe its a church or a synagogue, maybe its a cafe thats got a Little Corner table on the patio out of the way or maybe where you have a glass of wine with your best friend and recharge, maybe its a garden in their home. We all have comfort zones, and we need em. Weve got to recharge our batteries. There is nothing wrong with having a comfort zone. But heres what ive noticed about that chair, my comfort zone. Nothing profound or amazing has ever happened in my life when i was sitting in it. [laughter] and i tell you this if you wont get out of your comfort zone, if you exist in that vacuum, nothing amazing or phenomenal will ever happen in your life. When you surround yourself with people who look just like you and think just like you and act just like you and believe just like you, and youre unwilling to get out of the thought set that you find yourself in and you wont get out of that comfort zone and you remain in that vacuum just like sitting in that leather chair, nothing amazing will ever happen in your life. It just wont. But when you get out of your comfort zone and you seek to explore the other thoughts and the other people and the other lifestyles and the other realities that are out there and you do it in a civil, nonthreatening way, you know what you find . You find some differences. But you also find a on the of commonality. A ton of commonality. And it is that commonality that weve lost in our families with a 50 divorce rate in this cub, in our in this country, in our politics with a 40 Approval Rating of the white house. We dont find commonality anymore. We dont have civility. We dont have nonthreatening conversations. Yall, a conversation is not about winning. A conversations about exploring. And when we dont have a conversation thats an exploration of thought, that is civil and open where we can explore one anothers thoughts not to argue and win on our points, but to find a commonality from which we can base a foundation and then grow, weve lost our way. And im telling you, with a 50 president divorce can rate 50 divorce rate in this country, weve lost our way. And with our Approval Rating weve got, weve lost our way. And with businesses failing, weve lost our way. And we have to go against the grain of where weve been headed to change this stuff. And it is so easy. Be civil. Get out of your comfort zone. Have nonthreatening conversations about the stuff that matters. I was at fox news, i dont know, two or three weeks ago, and the guy looks at me i cant remember, if hes listening, im sorry, i cant remember his name, but i cant remember his name. [laughter] anyway, he says, you know, bill, the things youre not supposed to get into are faith and politics and race and religion and entitlements, and your book pretty much talks about faith and race and religion and business and politics and entitlements, and the truth is, it does. But you know what . Political correctness and fear has kept us from being willing to talk about those subjects outside of our own vacuum. And that right there is the fundamental problem we have in so many of the things that weve got going on. I once asked robert gates, i was fortunate enough to sit down with him, i said, you know, whats wrong up there . He said, we dont have lunch anymore. We can do the political stuff, but we just, we dont even sit down and have lunch anymore. We dont have a civil conversation. We dont work things out. Its a war. Were americans. Its got to stop. So you have to understand a vacuum is for getting the dirt off the carpet, its not for living in. When i was about seven weeks into my first year at manassas high school, we got, we were 33. Okay, let me say it again, yall arent responding to me. Previous ten years record was 7 wins and 92 losses. Six weeks in we were 33. Wow. [laughter] wow. Right . I mean, yeah. Thats, you know, 33s average, but, you know, against what we had it was pretty good. And more importantly, the kids were riding up and down the road on nice buses, not broken buses anymore. They had new equipment, nice uniforms and feeling pretty good about football. And the kids had bought in to the xs and os. Yes or no, sir on the field, unbelievably respectful, and we were making a few things happen. But it was obvious early on that this was going to be more than just about football. Character of commitment and, you know, when youre working in a place where theres second and Third Generation of abject poverty and loss, some of the fundamentals that are against the grain were not inherently ingrained in the walk of peoples lives. And so we were teaching that. Now, half the team remember, the whole team had bought into the xs and os. Half the team had bought into the important stuff. They were being more respectful in the classroom, they were pulling their pants up, you know, show your mind, not your behind. They were doing that. They were, they were doing their homework, they werent hanging out on the corners at night. Now, the other half of the team while they bought into the football stuff, the minute they left practice and us, they were back out to the same stuff. And it was driving me nuts. And so every coach has this guy. I know your coach in high school had a guy or two, right . Every coach has this guy. So i went to my guy. This is the guy that along my acclimation period of my first year at manassas, you know, when there was things that happened that i didnt understand, he was the one that was candid with me and taught me and said, coach, all right, shh, dont say that anymore, man, thats how you say that. Id try to be cool and say some word wrong [laughter] that was my guy. So i said, hey, man, how come i cant get those guys to buy in like you guys have . Its driving me nuts. And this guy said, oh, just keep doing what youre doing, coach. Dismissively. The one guy i had, and he dismissed me. And i said, no, man, straight up. He said i dont want to hurt your feelings, coach. I said, boy, i grew up fat and redheaded, you cannot hurt my feelings. [laughter] and he said, okay, coach, Straight Talk . He said, coach, theyre trying to figure out if youre a turkey person or not. He said, coach, theyre trying to figure out if youre a turkey person or not. I said, help me. He said, coach, every thanksgiving and christmas folks roll into our neighborhoods carrying hams and gifts and turkeys and we take em, cuz we aint got none, and then they turn around and leave, and we never see them again. Makes you wonder if they really care about us or theyre just trying to make themselves feel good. Hmm, is right. I tell you the truth is, it really made me angry that he said that to me. We were winning ball games, they were wearing new uniforms, pregame meals. I was doing everything it wasnt parttime thing for me, i was all in, and so were the assistant coaches who were volunteers too. We were trying to kill ourselves, win some football games, have a good time. So i thought about it a lot, and i thought about how angry it made me, and heres the way my life worked back in those days. I went to work at about 5 30, worked til 3 because, remember, my business is still only two years old, and were growing it. Then id practice at manassas from 3 30 to 5 30, then id drive to my kids practices, 6 30 to 8, go home, get something to eat, lay down, do it again. That was six and a half years. Between manassas and going to my kids practice, i didnt have time to change out of my own gear. So i would get to my kids practice out in my vacuum, out in any comfort zone where i lived wearing my ma manassas st. And at the same time they were doing stories on the manassas miracles, theyre winning games, and my big mugs on the front page just grinning like a cheshire cat. Then people are coming up and saying, hey, bill, whats going on at manassas . Yeah, man, i got em to 33. Tell me about this article in the newspaper. I said, well, its called the manassas miracle, you know . Theyre like, man, that is awesome, back slap. Tell me what else. Well, we got em doing their homework. What else . Well, i got em in new uniforms. What else . Well, i got em to be respectful. What else . Well, i got em getting off the street corner. Well, what else . Well, i, i, i. And my 6yearold son will looks up at me and says, hey, dad . I said, yeah. Ive heard all about everything thats happening, but what are some of your players names . Those kids saw right through me. I was digging it. I was digging the back slaps. While i was serving, and i was leading, and i was out of my comfort zone, i was a fraud. Because i was a turkey person. Because it was making me feel good. And i was digging the press, and i was digging the back slaps. And my own child didnt even know a single kid on my teams name. Because i was talking about me. It was a reversal, an immediate reversal. I quit taking credit for those kids efforts. The truth is, i got to get in my car and drive home at night. I could live with my windows up and my door unlocked. Many of these kids slept in tubs so driveby bullets didnt kill them at night. They were ones that were having to change an entire paradigm of thought to change the way they approached their education and the walk through life to do Something Better with themselves. They were the ones making all the effort. I was along for the ride. But i was perfectly willing to take the credit for it because everybody was slapping me on my back. So heres the thing, getting out of your comfort zone and getting out of your vacuum is important, but its also important, its actually paramount that you do it for the right reasons. Because if you dont, those who are serving you or under you or walking alongside you will be patting on the back and smiling at you, but the minute you turn and walk away, theyll know theyre looking at the back of a fraud. And if youre fraudulent, youll make nothing happen. We have to understand being a turkey person is destructive, and were surrounded by em. So we have to go against the grain of that if we want to lead. We have to go against the grain of that if we want to really serve in our families, in the organizations were part of, if we really want to serve our communities, if we really want to serve our families, if we really want to serve our political structure. Weve got to go against the grain of this stuff. It matters, and it changes the world. The last thing is this 5 and a spring front yard. So i will be dead at least within im 45. If i live to be 95, itd be a miracle. In fact, they ought to write a newspaper article about that, and i will take a back slapping for it. [laughter] sometime between now and 50 years, my body will lay in a wood box, and the dirt wont even be splattering the top of that box before everybody starts arguing over who gets what. Its true. Its fact of life. Thats the way its going to work. So leading up to that because it is a universal truth, i will spend a lot of time with an attorney drawing out a will, making sure everybody gets my legacy, everything i have to leave behind, all this stuff ive worked real hard to accumplait. Accumulate. Ill work hard on it. And heres whats going to happen. So im going to die, and everybodys going to cry, and three days later everybodys going back to work. And then about a week later, the people that are in my will lets call em four because ive got four kids. Lets just say four. Theyll show up about a week later at the Attorneys Office because its time to go over the will, and they will take my legacy, my house, my cars, jewelry, all that weve accumulated in our life, and we will have spent an enormous amount of time being very fair with all of this stuff, and well give it to these four kids that the lawyer will plot it out allot it out. By then more than likely each of them will be married. So they go home with their pile of stuff which is my legacy, but now its separated in four, well just say its four subsets of bills legacy, okay . So now theyve got four subsets of the leg city, and the spownlt legacy, and the spouse is going to say, my god, some of that stuff is hideous. Okay, so were going to keep this stuff, and this stuff were going to put in a basket or box and put in the attic. And then about four years later, now we have eight southbound sets of legacy subsets of legacy, each set was kept, the other in the attic. And about four years later, my own children are going to start creating their own legacy, and its going to be in the attic. And the attics going to be overrun, and theyre going to be sick of it, and one of thems going to call the other and say, my gosh, our attics messed up, our basements got all this crud from when mom and dad died, and, you know, what are we going to do with it . You know what the answer is, yard sale. So what happens is each of em get together, they figure out who has the nicest yard with maybe the best traffic, and all of your legacy that you have spent your whole life accumulating and on the dying day spent times with an attorney putting together wills and making sure it was fairly given up is now sitting in somebodys front yard on a Pretty Spring afternoon with a 20 tag on it, and then here she comes, the one driving the ca preels classic who shows up at six because she wants to be first in line of youve seen her, right . Here she comes, she jumps out of her car like shes attacking normandy. Rolls up and says, ill give you five. Ill give you five. Ill give you 5 for that. And then your heir, who you spent your entire life building your legacy for, who youve spent the dying days with an attorney, who you have now subsetted it out is now faced with an amazing dilemma do i take 5 for this piece of legacy on this grassy front yard on this day from this woman or do i put it in a box and take it back upstairs . You know what she does . Takes it. And then the girl rolls as fast as she can to the next dead guys stuff in somebodys front yard. What you do for yourself in this life dies with you, people. What you do for another, now that lives forever. Your legacy cannot be price tagged. Your legacy cannot be left in the front yard. Ifif its, you need to look at what youve got in the mirror going on. One day not too long from now theres going to be a 7 or 8yearold kid that walks up to his dad and says, dad, i got picked on at school today. How do i handle it . Or maybe theres going to be a 15yearold girl that comes up and says, dad, my boyfriend broke up with me, and its breaking my heart. Or a guy that comes up and says, dad, im 23 years old, and, you know, i want a promotion, and what do i need to do to get that promotion . Or maybe a 30yearold that says, dad, my husband just cheated on me, and i dont know how to deal with it or a 40yearold that says, dad, my son is sick and has cancer. How do i handle it . And the information and the advice that they get from that dad will be something that dad heard from me on a football field one day about character and commitment and the dig any the city of hard work and grace and forgiveness and perseverance. And if thats my legacy, ill take it. Whats yours . Whats your legacy . What you do for yourself in this world will die with you, and it will end up in a yard sale, and some woman driving a caprice classic will give 5 for it and drive away, and that will be the end of it. But what you do for others, what you serve, how you get out of your comfort zone, how you serve and how you lead others and your family and your business and, yes, in your politics, that does not have to be separated. It can be left in its entirety to everyone you know, and it cannot be sold, and it cannot be negotiated on. It can be left in 100 full trust to 100 of everybody you know. And youve got to look at yourself in the mirror and make sure you know what youre doing. Your life gets as full filmed as any life you fulfill as a result of it. And, ladies and gentlemen, that is what it means to go against the grain of todays societal preconceived notion of pop culture. That is the challenge of against the grain. I thank you for having me. [applause] that was really terrific. That was fantastic. I know i was inspired. Heritages a policy institution, we produce policy that we hope will fix the nation. It has to be informed by the messages you gave us here today. Coach has very gracefully accepted to take questions from people in the audience. Does anybody have any questions . For coach . Right there. [inaudible] as i walk over here, im more mad at the woman in the caprice classic will sell it for ten. [laughter] thank you for coming, coach. Happy to be here. You talk about having conversations about things that sometimes the world doesnt want to talk about. And your book talks a lot about marriage and commitment. Yesterday this was the march for manger here in d. C. , thousands of marriage here in d. C. Can, thousands of people came out from a number of different states. Ive just been married in the haas year and a half here. Congratulations. Thank you. What is your view on the debates around marriage right now, the definition of marriage . How should, you know, people be kind of saving for that . How should people how should people stand for it or how should you talk about having commonality with people who think differently. How can we address it with our neighbors who might think differently than us . Im a little different in this regard. Two points real quick. First, first point is a lot of people dont get that you can be a leader without ever leaving the bedroom. You can be a leader to the kids down the hallway. You can get out of your comfort zone and serve and lead your spouse. You can get out of your comfort zone and serve and lead your children. And so when we talk about marriage and family and children, i think often times we forget that our number one goal is at home. Our number one job to serve and to lead and to understand inhibitions, fears and goals are with that person you share a bed with and with those kids down the hallway. Its pretty easy to pick off the people sitting over here on capitol hill, but i dont think you have a right to pick off their lack of service and their lack of leadership when your house is in disarray and not in order as a result of your own willingness unwillingness to serve and lead. So thats one. Second of all, you know, theres political and faithbased issues regarding marriage right now, and im certainly not immune to it, and i understand it. You know, heres the thing. Im, im not sure how thats going to end up, but i do know this if miley cyrus had swung around butt naked on a wrecking ball in 1950, it would have been pornography. And today its main line art. Can everybody agree with that . Can we at least have commonality on that . In 1950 if miley cyrus had swung around on a wrecking ball butt naked, it would have been pornography. So heres the deal. If Elvis Presley did his thing today, it would be mundane. Back when he came out, parents were keeping kids away from it because he gyrated too much, and it was obscene. Can we agree on that . Its fact. Okay. Heres the thing, societys going to progress. It just does. It was about a hundred years ago women couldnt vote. It was about 50 years ago when Martin Luther king was killed in memphis just trying to get equality for africanamericans. Society progresses. Lots of it is great. Some of it tests our moral and ethical differences and schools of thought. But nonetheless, society will progress. It just does. So heres the deal, i fear that were going to be the first generation to leave this place worse for our kids than what we found it and if thats the case, we need to be taken out behind the wood shed. And heres how it really happens. If we fight inevitability, boulders roll downhill, and society progresses. And nothing stops that. But what you can do is you can embrace inevitability and understand that societys going to progress, and while you do it, make sure that it progresses with the tenets of character, integrity, honesty, commitment, a dignity found in hard work, the understanding of what into entitlements do to strip ones dignity, the understanding of what grace and forgiveness is, the understanding of what building a Proper Foundation is, of what a legacy is. And as long as we understand society is inevitably going to roll downhill not figuratively downhill, societys going to continue to progress, lets just do this lets make sure as long as we recognize there are going to be miley cyrus on wrecking balls and things 50 years from now that are, test our ethical and moral mettle but that the things were talking about today 50 years from now teenagers are going to look at and say why did they argue over that . Thats going to happen. Lets just make sure as we know that thats an inevitability that we take along these tenets, and lets make sure that our society progresses with these tenets. And then were going to be okay. So when it comes to marriage, when it comes to immigration, when it comes to all the things that youre talking about that are testing us right now on the social side, well work em out. If well get civil. Well work em out if we find our commonality. But most importantly, well work em out and handle em the best way as we progress as long as we remember the core tenets that got us here in the first place. The 30,000foot view is this we can be openminded, inclusive, forward thinking, we just cant abandon the Core Principles that got us here in the first place. Thats going against the grain. Coach, you must have been a hard act to follow at manassas. I was just curious about theres just not many fat, redheaded guys running around an inner city. [laughter] just wondering how that transition went and whether the values that you stood for are still part of the program. So before i left, it wasnt like i just said, okay, thats it, im gone, peace. The year leading up to my last year i told the athletic directer and the principal and all the coaches that thisll be my last year. If you saw the movie, the reasons are obvious. And that year but i didnt tell the kids. I said were not going to tell the kids, because its not going to be about my last year, its going to be about their senior year and this amazing year we have a chance to have. So there was a transition put in place, a succession plan, if you will, and all the coaches were doing jobs, and everything was great. And then when i left, it rolled right over. And then the administration changed about two months later, and new administrators want to bring in their own staffs and own things, and so things changed quickly after that, unfortunately. But, yeah, things were going well. There was money in the bank, there were things going the way they wanted to, but a new administration meant new Coaching Staff and new stuff and so, unfortunately, it changed. Anyone else . [inaudible conversations] wait for the microphone. I didnt have the benefit of the movie. Whats that . I didnt have the benefit of seeing the movie. Thats okay. You can go get it anywhere you want to. I will now. I dont make a dime royalty on it, so it dont matter to me with will you watch it, but i bet youll like it. So there were 17 on the team my movie was my sixth year, so six and a half years before the movie was shot so thats not in the movie. Well, it explains it. The movie is the final year. My question really is about the first day, first week. Uhhuh. When you had the 17 carryover players. Uhhuh. I want to know what the first meeting with the 17 was like and what you said and what their holy crap, theres no way we can win. Theres only 17 of you guys. Thats really what i was thinking. [laughter] heres the deal, i was [laughter] i mean, theres no, theres, youre wearing suspension helmets, and yall dont know what a threepoint stance is, and youre in high school. We should just fold this up and have band. I mean, thats really what i was thinking. The truth is the guy that got me over there, actually, his name is jim tipton, works for my company, and he was doing volunteer work over there. Id coached football and played football, and he asked the head coach at the time, do you want some help . This guy can help you. So i went over in spring fully intending on staying for two weeks during spring practice. That was it. And when i showed up and im not kidding you, i saw kids who could not do basics in much of anything i was, like, this is going to be the biggest waste of two weeks of my life. And about four days into it, i was in love. These kids, smoky, new chicago and greenlaw, the three neighborhoods that surround manassas where the kids come from. 7,885 dollar annual Median Income of. Of the family with children under 18 years old, 12. 5 consist of a married couple. Fewer than 50 of the families have an operating vehicle. I told you an 18yearold male was three times more lake Louis Vuitton likely to be incarcerated by his 8th birthday 18th birthday than to be in column. In college. It is as bad as it gets. And these kids showed up to practice every day with a smile on their face and a willingness to work because anything to be to part of something positive, they were there. And i fell in love with their reis sill yens. I fell in love with their respectfulness. Ill be honest with you, i went with a preconceived notion of what i was going to find in this inner city, allafricanamerican school, and i should have been slapped, because what i found was not what i expected. Just kids. Just wanting to have a level Playing Field and an opportunity to be part of anything positive. And their amazing commitment to it drew me in. And that two and a half weeks turned into six and a half years. So what i found was a bunch of ragtag kids that didnt know anything about football, but what i also found was the beauty of the enduring human spirit just given a chance that could do amazing things. And i wanted to be a parking lot of it. A part of it. One more. Given the, given the events of the last week here in washington youll know what i mean in a minute and the fact that your book is so politically incorrect in its themes, i have a subtitle for the second printing. Okay. What is it . Go, redskins. [laughter] yeah. [laughter] next . No comment. [laughter] theres my first time i ever said that in d. C. No comment. Laugh [laughter] any other questions at all . Any other questions . Happy to answer any. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Join me in thanking the coach. [applause] thank you very much. There are books out there for sale. I do want to say something. He did ask me to mention, this is the kind of guy he is, he asked to mention his wife, and i forgot. I apologize. And i said, well he was like my children are 19, 18, 17 and 16. Thats all you need to say about her. [laughter] thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] every weekend booktv offers programming focused on nonfiction authors and books. Keep watching for more here on cspan2, and watch any of our past programs online at booktv. Org. One of the first things i did when i was researching this book in 2012 was to go to the big hacker convention. Yes, hackers have conventions. In las vegas, of all places. Its called def con, and this was def con 20. And i met some really strange people. Super smart, but, you know, they have something a scroll when you walk in, they call it the wall of sheep which is scrolling in realtime all of the user names and passwords that have been cracked in that, you know, in that moment by their software from peoples computers. Its like, pow. And you just realize how vulnerable you are. For our intelligence agencies, its no secret did you see your name go across . Yeah. I had been told before i went by somebody who was very helpful to me in this book who i thank in the acknowledgments, matthew, dont bring any computers, dont bring your cell phones, dont bring anything. As soon as you come in, you know, a false Wifi Networks going to come up and try to capture you. So, you know, these have been recruiting grounds famously for our intelligence agencies for a long time. And if you were to go out to fort meade, go out to nsa tomorrow or six months ago or a year ago as i did researching the book, you would see something pretty interesting. Youd see fort meades a military base, youd see a lot of officers in uniform, youd see a lot of people with. Dorothy height appeared on booknotes in 2003 to talk about her memoir, open wide the gates of freedom. In the book ms. Hite