Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On Gloria Steinem 20151206

The but the most wonderful thing was following that, she asked me to join the board of her foundation, and i did. And i was a member of the California State Assembly at that time, and all of the ideas i had are trying to create opportunities for women, becoming a feminist. I took those ideas to the California State Legislature and was able to get many of them signed into law, and one that ill just share with you was, at the time that i was in the California State Assembly, Insurance Companies would not pay for the buildup after a mastectomy. They said it was cosmetic surgery. I was a feminist. I wasnt going for that. And so because of my being able to serve on the board and witness all of these proposals, it came in up solicited, i learned, to move on things like that, and of course i had it signed into law, but my life changed because of Gloria Steinem and ended up in new york every month or so, and let so many different people met so many different people, and gloria was i had not met such a woman before in my life, and here was this woman who was young, who i thought should have been a model, and here she was organizing, and working, and she was way outside of the box. She was dating a black man, and so [laughter] and so we had the wonderful, wonderful time together, and we reminisced a lot about what we were going to do later on in life, and here we are later on in life, and we have not organized where were going to stay, butting this book, this book that gloria has written, really does tell you who she is, what she cares about, and the experience she has had. Its wonderful reading. I wont tell you anymore or say much more bit except gloria doesnt know what impact she has on my life in so many ways, and the story she told, i remember them all. And when i read about her mother in this book, it was just like talking to gloria all over again, and she explained to me what had happened in her life with her mom. So, thank you, gloria. No, thank you. And you know, maxine has always been in the forefront. We havent planned this conversation, right . But just now i was thinking about your struggle in california to keep the cops from doing internal searches of women they stopped for traffic reasons. Right . And there was just such another story in the press from another state, but what we have discovered about the mistreatment of women, what black lives matter is saying, what maxine has always said, and if any other woman win this presidency, it will be because maxine and barbara lee and Barbara Mikulski and all the people who have been out there proving that women can be respected in authority in public life, it will be because all of those women and maxine especially in so many ways, have demonstrated that womens authority in public life is okay, is normal, is good, is positive, because otherwise i think were so used to seeing women only in childrearing. Women, too. We associate female authority with nurturing and emotion and things inside the home. We see male authority as rational and appropriate to affairs outside the home. And i think thats part of the reason that its hard for some women to, especially for men i think bit when i see the some of the grownup guys on television saying ridiculous things about well, im thinking about 2008 now when Hillary Clinton took all this the big grownup news guys were saying i crossed my legs when i see her she reminds me of my first wife waiting outside the al hello . And i think in a way they felt regressed to childhood because that was the last time they thought they saw a woman in authority. So, maxine has so helped to change that to open up a space for female talent of all kinds in public life, and im just so grateful for that. Now, the problem is we dont get to see each other enough so were really here to as i said, i started my trip to new york because of you. And met wonderful women and i could recall i could but i wont all of many of the meetings we had. How about Marlowe Thomas in the meetings. Free to be . Remember all of that . Gloria supported and we had some very, very talented women who were true feminists, and i want to tell you, you might belt bit surprised, but for me to identify myself as a feminist back in the day, black women would say, what are you talking about you cant be a film nist. That a white womans thing. That so wrong. To me, black women invented dim system grief portion natalie. Host i know but all of that gets distorted i think people would like to hear about the trips. I had an opportunity to read part of the presses here, and i think the story that you told about being in this place where the bikers were oh, okay, all right. And its so wonderfully written, and it is so absolutely educational about how you must not think about people based on what you think you see, but if you just stop and talk with folks, you can learn an awful lot. Could you share that . I think the road is my substitute for medication. Meditation. All my friend tell me i should meditate, midnightfulness, take courses, never do it. I think thats partly because the road is my form of it. It forces you to live in the present. It forces you to be alive with all your senses and to question all your suppositions. So i will read this, which is the prelude to the book, and then i have another section which is supposed to lead us into organizing. So we can wait for that. I board a plane for rapid city, south dakota, and see a lot of people in black leather chains and tattoos. Airline passengers usually look like where theyre going. Business suits to washington, dc, jeans to l. A. , but i cant imagine a convention of such unconventional visitors in rapid city. Its the kind of town where people still anglepark their cars in front of the movie palace. My bearded seat mate is asleep in his studded jacket and nose ring, so i just accept one more mystery of the road. At the airport i meet five female friends from different parts of the country. Were a Diverse Group of women, a cherokee activist and her grownup daughter, who is here, rebecca adamson, the cherokee activist. Okay. Two africanamerican writers and one musician and me. We have been invited to a lakota sioux powwow celebrating the painful place women held before patriarch trackry patriarchy from europe, and was we drive toward the badland we see motorcycles around each diner and motel. This solves the midof the leather and the chains but creates another. When we stop for coffee or wait this cant believe we dont know, every august since 1938, bikers from all over the world have come here for a rally named after sturgis, a town that is just a wide place in the road. They are drawn by in the sparsely populated space of forests, mountains, and a grid of highway sod straight its rest recognize able from outer space. Right now, about 250,000 bikers are filling every motel and camp ground within 500miles. Our band of six strong women takes note. The truth is, we are little afraid of so many bikers in one place. How could be not be. We have learned from movies that the bikers travel in packs, treat women like possessions, and they see other women as sexual fair game. But we dont run into the bikers because we spend our days traveling down unmarked roads, past the last stand of trees in Indian Country. We eat homecooked food brought in trucks, sit on blankets around powwow grounds where dancers follow the heartbeat of drums and watch indian ponies as decorated as the dancers. When it rains, rainbow stretches from camps and wet grass becomes fragrant. Only we we return each night to our cabin do we see motorcycles in the parking lot. While walking in rapid city, i hear a biker say, to his tattooed woman partner, honey, shop as long as you want, ill meet you at the capuccino place. I assume this is an aberration. On our last morning, i enter the lodge alone for an early breakfast, trying to remain both inconspicuous and opened minded. Still im hyper conscious of a roomful of night sheaves, jack boots and very few women. And the booth next to me man with chains around his muscles and a woman in leather pants and an improbable hairdo are taking note of my presence. Finally the woman comes over to talk. I just want to tell you, she says cheerly, much ms. Magazine has meant to me over the years. [applause] and my husband, too. He reads some, now that hes retired. But what i wanted to ask, isnt one of the women youre traving with alice walker . I love her poetry. It turns out that she and her husband have been coming to this motorcycle rally every year since they were first married. She loves the freedom of the road, and also the mysterious moonscape of the badlands. She urges me to walk there but to follow the paths marked by ropes. During the war over the sacred black hills, she explains, lakota warriors found refuge there because of the cavalry got lost every time. Her husband says stops by on his way to the cashier and suggests i see the huge statue of crazy horse that is being dynamited out of the black hills. Crazy horse riding his pony already, he says, is going to make all these indian killing president s on mt. Rushmore look like nothing. He walked away, a gentle lumbering man, tattoos, chains and all. Before she leaves, my any friend tells me to look out the big picture window at the parking lot. See that purple harley out there . The big gorgeous one . Thats mine. I used to ride behind my husband. And never took the road on my own. Then after the kids were grown, i put my foot down. It was hard, but we finally got to be partners. Now he says he likes it better this way. He doesnt have to worry about his bike breaking down or getting a heart attack and totally both. I even put ms. On my lance plate and you should see my grandkidses faces when grandma ride up on her harley. On my own again i look out at the barren sand and tortured rocks of the badlands stretching for miles. Im walked there and i know close up the bare sand reveals layers of pale beige and rose and creams and the he rocks have intricate opening. Even in the distant cliffs, caves of rescue appear. What seems to be one thing from a distance is very different close up. I tell you this story because its the kind of lesson that can be learned only on the road, and also because ive come to believe that inside, each of us has a purple motorcycle. We have only to discover itself and ride. [applause] i love that. I love that. I love that. I thought you would enjoy that also. I loved it. But even more than the actual story, the way gloria writes is so wonderful the descriptive nature of her writing, as she describes the landscape and all of those things can just so wonderful, and easy reading. Its like youre talking to her, and so i know she had some other things she wanted to read but i wanted you to hear that. Shall i read my organizing thing and then we can Start Talking to each other . All right. All the years of campaigning have given me one clear message. Voting isnt the most we can do but it is the least. To have a democracy, you have to want one. Still, i realize this fully only by looking back at the beginning of the 1980s, i went to missouri to campaign for harriet woods in her u. S. Senate race. I bet there are people here who remember harriet woods. She was a great candidate, and her path into politics was so improbable that no one could have made it up. As a mother of two young children, she complained about a noisy manhole covered they awakened them every time car rolled 0 over. When she got nowhere with the city council she circulated a neighborhood petition to close the street to cars. It worked. This success left to run for the let her to run for the city council shift won, served eight years, appointed to the state help commission, ran a successful race for the state legislature and reelected there, too. All this made her a viable candidate statewide. Still, this was not enough for the state democratic party. Going to sound familiar. When it came time to choose a primary candidate in the u. S. Senate race, it backed a well to do banker who had never run for anything but who has written checks. But she turned out to have something more important than her partys blessing. Community support and volunteers. She beat the rich guy two to one. Suddenly, harriet was within a race with republican senator john den forth. He was not only the incumbent but a former attorney general of missouri and ordained episcopal pleas and the rich grandsen of the found over ralston purina. Its as if she were rung against the entire patriarch can patriarchy, when i went to work for iralready i could see the groups were working their hearts out and volunteering in her statewide campaign. So missouri was often counted at an antichoice statement woods refuse today budge from her work for freedom. She won in rural republican areas anyway, including one so consecutive conservative that it was known as little dixie. In the final week she had run out of money and couldnt answer the last minute storm of virulent attacks she lost by less than two percent of the vote. It was so clear that she could have won with money to answer those last minute attacks that her race inspired the founding of emilys list. Bush veto or president ial election wh an actual results hanging by a thread of a few thousand disputed votes in florida. I just happened to be speaking at the Palm Beach County Community College that morning. Its campus just happened to be in the area and therefore a democratic area coming and i could see that nobody wanted to talk about anything but the election that was hanging by a thread that morning. They have had been challenged by the polling place because caucasian had been printed next to me in and she never did get the vote. An older African American man was denied the right to vote because he was told he had a felony conviction yet hes never been charged with a crime. Someone said yes you have, voting while black. Another study to explain people with felonies have been merged with the role without checking more than one person shared the same name. Then an older white woman said the bus had been sent to the wrong polling place. Others testified at the polling places were fewer and lines were longer and in more democratic areas. Had to think people co people have given up because they had lost pay if they were not at their jobs. Then a white man of 50 or so said he had seen the illustration of the ballot box only on the way out and realized he had accidentally voted for an extreme rightwing candidate when he thought he was voting for al gore. That caused a dozen more people to ground and shout that this had also happened to them. Out of approximately 700 people in the one auditorium at least 100 have been unable to vote for their chosen candidate were to vote at all. I wonder if there are this many in one auditorium, how many in all of Palm Beach County, how many of the state in florida . Finally a white man of 30 or so ran to face me in the name of his military service to his country he said and also in the name of his young daughter i want this in a democracy he asked will you stay and help us organize a protest tomorrow and the next day and the next. Before going for a candidate they didnt know they were voting for and give them to lawyers as well as nonpartisan watchdogs outside the state. I got the list as promised. When the lead was down to near 5,037 votes out of 6 million cast come in the reexamination of the ballot for the florida secretary of state Katherine Harris also the cochair from the florida campaign. Call seven recount and supported by the Florida State court. There was no standard to meet the equal protection clause and no time to create one. It was a decision that could be compared with the dred scott decision that no black person, slave or free could ever become a citizen of the United States for its impact. Now remember the horseshoe was lost for one of the horse course of the battle was lost and so on. Despicable should be the mantra of anyone who thinks that he is or her vote doesnt count. If Harry Edwards hadnt been defeated by less than 2 of the votes it wouldnt have been a u. S. Senator. If danforth had been a senator, Clarence Thomas wouldnt have gone with him to washington as a staff member. If f. Thomas hadnt been visible in washington as a rare African American who oppose his community majority views he wouldnt have been appointed by the first president bush to to the ahead and to disempower the equal Employment Opportunity commission and then to sit on the dc court of appeals. He couldnt be nominated they couldnt be nominated by the same president bush to succeed the advocate Justice Thurgood marshall. If there had any recount, al gore, not george w. Bush would have been president as was concluded by the post election examination of all the counter ballots that were commissioned by 12 major news organizations. If george bush hadnt been president , the United States would have been less likely to lose the worlds sympathy after 9 11 by launching the longest war in u. S. History with more bombs dropped on afghanistan during 14 years and then all of world war ii. If al gore and not george w. Bush had been president , Global Warming would have been taken more seriously. Over the United States wouldnt have falsified evidence to justify invading the iraq by starting an eight year war, and together with afghanistan, convincing some in islamic countries that the United States was waging war on islam. There wouldnt be the transfer of wealth to private hands in the history of the nation. The pay ratio in which the average ceo earns 470 times more than the average worker. And in canada it is 20 times more. And giving an estimated 40 billion in tax dollars to catholic evangelical and other religious groups without congressional approval often with the appearance of turning churches into a booth delivery system. The one vote majority in the Supreme Court. And in order to continue all of the above. You get the idea. The list goes on. We must not only vote we must fight to vote. The voting booth is the one place on earth where the least powerful and the most powerful are equal. I still dream about veteran and his daughter. Whether we in the room could have made a difference. We dont know which of our acts or president s will shape the future but we have to behave as if everything we do matters. [applause] we have two microphones here. You dont have to ask a question, you could get an answer. We could make organizing announcements of any troublemaking meeting to know about the. Hi had an abortion. I tell a lot of people about it. I was wondering what your thoughts are on the movement and things like shout your abortion into the womens precampaign. To those that are thinking about whether or not they can speak about it and give their choice about its. Its not my decision, its their decision and it seems to me that one of the goals for social Justice Movement has come out as telling the truth as much as we possibly can. It was the issue that made me understand. Because the Supreme Court ruling and women were standing up and telling the stories. Ive never told a story of mine. Its the Marriage Equality movement. Its respecting each others choices and telling the truth discovering youre not alone. About the same age from 16 to 17, 18. Is across was across the bridge in illinois and became known. Of course all of those girls would end up in the hospital infected and near death but ive always wondered. It really began to help women understand that they have a right to make choices and that they have a right to Good Health Care and all of that who died or were near death and we just considered that thats just the way that life is. We didnt talk about it, we didnt do anything. And so, let the feminist Movement Began to really make this discussion takes place in this country. I always felt a little bit guilty that i had understood for so many years why women had the right to get health care, why didnt we have the right to Good Health Care and why didnt we know that that was something awfully wrong with the way that women were sneaking young girls to have a portion of eco abortion. I dont want to keep people standing but it occurs to me i cant could ask other people to do what i cant do. In 1957 a decade before the physicians in england could legally perform an abortion for any reason other than the health of the woman with a risk of conserving for an abortion a 22yearold american on their way to india knowing only that she had broken an engagement at home to seek an unknown state. You must promise me two things. First you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want to do with your life. I believe you who knew the law was unjust wouldnt mind if i say this so long after your death. Ive done the best i could with my life. This book is for you. [applause] im reading you that just because its true. I cant anybody ask anybody else to tell the truth. I had known gloria for 61 years. [laughter] i want to ask you if you had met my cousin the founder of the Womens Equality Party movement. What i . Have i met her, no biology as we showed. I actually just bought super recently that recently finished and i had to leave out what you said. They totally were into it. It was great. So not just a onetime thing. Okay, that is what organizing is. But my real question is you here about all of the stuff going around right now. What is the one thing that you are most frustrated about and what is your most proud achievement . The thats hard to pick one thing. Collectively the thing for me is violence against females in all different forms whether it is a preference or killing for Domestic Violence in this country or forced pregnancies or violence against women in war zones, altogether it adds up to the fact that for the first time that we know of there are fewer females now in whatever form it takes in our lives i think that we are all becoming much more aware of that. If you ask me what is the thing im the most most proud of that part because i live in the future so when people ask me that i say i havent done it yet. [laughter] im the president of my colleges chapter for the association for women in mathematics. [applause] the cannot close one thing without somebody saying if this is the association for mathematics why is is there association for men in mathematics . Would you respond . The association for men in mathematics is called men in mathematics. [laughter] i have to admit that i am so nervous right now. Dont be. We are so glad you are here. Of all of your work and accomplishments you have been able to push through and were there moments that are close were close to quitting or thought about it or somehow close to quitting, every day. And what kept you going . If there is one thing that bothers me or motivates me to work it is unfairness. I dont like people to be treated unfairly. I believe in the quality and respect for every human being and i am motivated to fight some of those evil spirits you see on tv. Every day of my life. [applause] what keeps me going is the only thing worse than trying is not trying and then you walk around wondering what if. So its better to try. [applause] spinnaker i was nervous i wouldnt even have the courage to ask this question. Im curious for the liberation of the palestinian people. You have spoken out and i would love to learn from you your role was allegedly community is complicit. [applause] i havent played a big role in the longterm difficulties on heartache and oppression. Mostly what ive tried to do is come this come together with women on all three sides and help there to be communication along the communication among the women and what has always struck me is that the palestinian and a piece women and american feminists thought we worked me worked up we worked out the two state solution down to the last agreement on water rights like 25 years ago. And the Great Sadness is where christian and muslim women came together and managed to get rid of the warlord regime and at least have a wreck collection and unlike tiger land where women on both sides came together when the government couldnt. It hasnt happened. Talk of little but about what the advertising was like. The advertising is such a huge problem in many ways but especially the womens magazine because the womens magazines are regarded in the industry as cash cows as they are called and the advertisers have traditionally controlled most of the pages and thats why you see the the coffee that isnt supposed to be in the ad is about the product or the category product. So my number but it was fiction and poetry in womens magazines and more articles. The editors of the magazine first writing their best to sneak in some independent editorial that its very, very difficult. I think that im told we are willing to pay subscribers. You know that Educational Service online called ask linda. Com you can learn anything for i dont know what, 25 a month. [laughter] it is no way at all, totally subscriber supported. And its been successful for 20 years and Linda Weinman who started it, who has a representative employee and you could possibly want, she wants to be helpful with the u. S. Education problems so she sold the business for 2 billion. Okay. Its possible that we can support what we want to support and therefore get what we want instead of being subject to the ads that control what we see that control so much of what we see. Let me just take a moment to tell you about a recent analysis playboy Just Announced there would be no more naked women. [laughter] and who knows what brought them to this point. But what is interesting is the daughter of hugh hefner who weve known for many years who took over some part of the management of that magazine some years ago. I always thought even though she kind of inherited that she wanted to do Something Better with the magazine and i dont know if years later this is her decision to try to change the magazine. I dont believe it can be changed but i thought it was interesting that they decided no more naked women. [laughter] i hope that you are right. What they said is that they were stopping this because there was so much biography available going on anywhere they just were not doing it with economic reasons. Some of the emails me about it and i said its like the mra saying we are not selling handguns anymore because assault weapons are still available. [laughter] i hope shes right. So much of what you are talking about is the importance and you also brought up the reelection. Looking back to 2008, i think that hillary supporters have trouble talking about race and we could have another situation where hillary is in a general election so what lessons can we take from 2008 and apply to this possibility looking forward . If we could never answer a question from the News Reporter saying which is more important, most people in the world are affected by both. It is impossible to uproot racism without uprooting sexism because to maintain difference difference you have to control reproduction or its like the same thing. I hope that no matter what happens, we will be 100 clear that race and sex are intertwined and you can only uproot them together and absolutely refuse to ask stupid questions which is more important. [applause] i am old enough to love you both. [laughter] im very curious about what it takes to achieve acceptance and being a regular or ordinary. The word ms. Didnt exist and when i was growing up in a small town in pennsylvania in a white family house, we had better homes and gardens that we got from going to the big cities like cleveland ohio. My mom and i went to the Fashion Shows and she got this description to ebony and i got that. I thought that was normal. So i have kind of grown up with people of different races being ordinary i will admit until i was out of college. How much does it lead to what we can do about that in the general acceptance that sure thats the way life is. It becomes ordinary because its how we do it. Actually it was an old term that we didnt know that comment was from the 14th century or something we just founded in secretarial handbooks from the 50s where it is a disaster of not knowing whether somebody was married or not. [laughter] but its been an abbreviation that they once called little boys and girls so it just means mistress without a marital status and its actually on tombstones in the United States from centuries ago. Its become a ordinary just by use. We name the magazine that and they made a bill to require the government to supply it as a choice. So its the same thing. It comes from saying the same thing. It happens, it makes sense. That is a form of activism. I think that is a form of activism. It is totally a form of activism. Think about Marriage Equality. The phrase doesnt exist. [laughter] do you have that in your house . [inaudible] [laughter] i was just sad that it wasnt being published anymore because yes from the time i was 12 until i went to college i grew up with it. [laughter] in some ways this is a followup to a question. I like to think the most notable impact was as a woman of color and sometimes i far find especially when you think about it in a way that is presented like for example, Sexual Assault with the legislative push that is being put forth mostly impacting colleges and military. And so there are folks that issue that needs to be resolved by some ways it comes as a conflict as what i see as important because they are completely unprotected both in terms of Domestic Violence and rape by the non members of the tribe. So in some ways i see what is being put forth as the basis for a lot of conversations that excludes the issues on a dalia basis. So i guess that it is hard sometimes to get people who look to understand that the experiences are very broad. So my question is first come held we get people that adhere to the mainstream to understand that there are gaps between women of different racial and ethnic groups and can also to put that into action. But you are standing up and saying it. Thats great. And you are absolutely right that the focus is on colleges, not Indian Country where the race is waived. There is no competition of tears. Tears are tears. We just have to keep reminding each other to be inclusive. Its not easy. The same conversation is going on for instance because the rate of Sexual Assault has to also include the fact that judges actually say that the socalled untouchable women by definition cant be a rapist. So its always a task to be as inclusive as we possibly can and to be reminded of being inclusive. Do you have something that you want to have happen . Spinnakers, the department of justice in federal attorneys prosecute the members that commit the assault on the reservation in the second but wouldnt simply be about the known acquaintances but to include a whole plethora of crimes and i think also making sure the pipeline isnt ready or brought to reservations. [applause] and we all learned it is a published by one woman in the white house. So, if we all have to do it because it matters. We talked a lot about feminism and it seems that we are able to identify. [inaudible] why wouldnt you just push back . Some people dont say feminists because they dont do what it means if they go to dictionary the dictionary it means anybody, man or woman can and then some people dont save because they do know what it means and they are against it. [laughter] but the problem with the first group is that its still perceived as being antimale. Humanist actually has a different meaning historically because it means that you believe in Human Potential possibility so maybe people were adding but i find it very painful for anybody that believes in the content. Do you think we should be focusing on the labels . And its like everything else. The more we say it the more this is what a feminist books like. Well, we have come quite a distance. What i like about the possibility of a kind of revitalizing the discussion of eminence eminences that young women like yourself have the opportunity to not only create more discussion, more organized work and involvement and im convinced that is going to happen and you that you will be by your actions deciding feminism and you will be saying it loud and clear. [laughter] [applause] we have time for two more questions. Two more questions. Okay. Do you have any announcements come in the organizing announcements you want to make . I run a project called the mens story project. Michael is on the Advisory Council as well as others and i want to invite folks here to get involved as well as you and its a project where men are giving up on coach stages and campuses and communities and sharing personal stories that challenge the notions of their own Life Experience and it is the amateur feminist project to get im finding it is a very much intersectional feminist project. So can you talk to me on this coming and command the question that i have for you is im curious as to your sense of the role of women in bringing them into feminism and activism because one of the most interesting things ive been finding in this project is that they come to the project and then they come by here they go back to their dorms and they are reading about it in tears and telling them in their lives about it and calling their fathers on the way home and really taking it upon themselves to spread the word and i found that really interesting in the valuations. Im really curious for the role of advancing but then also the womens role of getting men into bed at the project also if i may. [applause] i think we need to empathize. We need to think okay, what would help me understand if i were on the other side. We would start there and use examples. I mean, when im talking to groups of men, i also i think we all decided that the restrictions of both roles and they are also deprived of developing the full circle of humanity. Okay they may be in a prison with walltowall carpeting and people that serve them coffee but nonetheless. The ability to the quality is precious to us wherever we are. And actually, if lengthens mens lives. What we find out is that they live about four years longer if they are no longer told by the masculine role that he is speeding and violent death and in violent death and so on. Whatever movement can offer you four more years . [applause] but i dont think that women are responsible for or not in charge of figuring this out just like i dont think that africanamerican people or latino people are in charge of trying to make white people shaped up. Its a larger human question and i dont always try to start out by saying what i wish someone would say to me and i escalate after that. But there are groups all over the country, brave, compassionate man who are against violence against women who were not there taking big risks and on parental leave where they work and jeopardizing their promotions by doing so and being told they dont have a fire the fire in the belly of its proper good enough to advance them. We have become reliable allies when we see our interest in the other persons liberation movement. Im going to tell you a little story about marlo thomas that she told her husband. Finally [inaudible] and i think about how these relate to men and women and often times without knowing or thinking about it and if we are ever in the position of servitude we keep asking others to depend on that. I started telling my husband dont ask me about where we are supposed to be, you think about that. [laughter] [applause] because i found it had become a burden. Its like what are we going to eat, i dont know what youre going to eat, i know what i am going to eat. So i started to relieve myself of the responsibility to always think about virtue and taking care of others because there are times when things would that happen in life with certainty without allowing yourself to be depended on in so many ways that keeps us less respectful of our independence. [applause] we do what we see not what youre told. So the families that we grow up and commit to our kids see democratic families in which people dont have those kind of rules and are we generally speaking its okay to imitate the powerful group but not the other way around . So the voter rolls may be raised more like little boys that are little boys being raised like little girls with the same freedom of expression and emotion. We can do this. That is a fantastic segue of what i was going at. [inaudible] the book on just this [inaudible] [applause] to understand i want to read the message as normal. I was just thinking when you were saying that cut got the old languages, the cultures of the cherokees language, and a lot of the old languages dont have gender. They dont have heat and she. So the question is who is that child and the unique individual because that child is the result of millennia of the environment combined in a way that never could have happened before and never could happen again. And if we try to see who each kid uniquely is. Sometimes the world is divided into two kinds of people. Its made up. You know. [laughter] that is the irony of where we are because im the one hand, gender doesnt exist, race doesnt exist in the class doesnt exist, in real terms the individual is bigger than the group difference. Its 80 of our brains or something develop afterbirth and this makes us incredibly influenced. The good news is we are adjustable and the bad news is we are adjustable but if we can just keep a grip on two things at the same time that the categories dont exist but they are very real to us because we have grown up with them and to find out who we uniquely are in support of the people who they uniquely are and we are seeing this much more. Its when i was growing up people are changing gender and the changing. You dont have to do anything but us to suggest. But if you you came here you Share Interests and values and who knows. So if you try introducing yourselves to three or four people you dont know before you leave, an essay which are doing and what you care about and whats coming up that needs help its with all of us being here tonight. Find out how this was a huge point of change. [applause] minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar the senator nextdoor is a pretty personal about isnt it . It is. I wrote it myself, there was no ghost writer and i had to reasons. One was to show someone with a normal background who went from being a car off at the a w where they made her wear a tshirt could end up as a senator and the second one as i had some good stories of getting things done in washington working across the aisle and the reason i call this the senator nextdoor is i wanted to make the point that we are supposed to go to washington to represent our neighbors and you dont always like all your neighbors but you find a way to get along with them and so that is part of the story in the book as well. How do you stay in touch is it possible to get out of the bubble . I visit every year. Ive been to the county now ten times because i visited there before i was elected and i visit businesses and classrooms and started cafes. You really get a sense of that and i like a lot of my ideas minnesota has one of the highest voter turnouts, so people actually show up and believe even if they are in a Different Party they believe you are supposed to help them get things done. To get a taste of the book, two stories from the book number one the first time you wore pants coming up secondly, your fathers alcoholism. The story is i wore pants in fourth grade to a public elementary school. Bell bottom floured hands come into the principal actually kicked me out for wearing the pants in fourth grade and i had to go home and change in tears and i wanted to start a lawsuit but i never got in into any trouble before and the second part that was funny about the story when i first got the look out i got a call from a guy named ron and he said i read this book and im really upset at the way you treated my mom and i said it was true she kicked me out for wearing pants. Shes not even any longer with us. I said im sorry. He said i didnt like how you describe her hair and the beehive. I said well she did and then i heard laughing and he said this is al franken. The other senator from minnesota. Senator from minnesota. Thats correct. Of course some of the personal aspect of this i do tell my dads story come a tremendous journalist now 87yearsold for the journalist in space. Literally devoted to write a journalism but back when i was growing up at also involved a lot of drinking and with other journalists about the alcoholism problem. The senator from minnesota, thanks for being on booktv. What i worry about a little bit is that the pressure to pay the players even more significant sums of money, even to go to a competitive marketplace where you are bidding for a Great Quarterback in california or linebacker in western pennsylvania and the price theyre actually going to play, its not impossible that we will get to that model. Last year republican president ial candidate Rick Santorum discussed his book bluecollar conservatives on the Interview Program after words. Theres a group in america that is being ignored, left behind, not included in the discussion i think for either party, particularly the republican party. And that is i call it a bluecollar conservatives. The folks out there that are working people that dont have College Degrees from the folks that understand the value and importance of work and responsibility and understand the importance of family and faith. You dont see either party talking about the concerns they have and trying to create an opportunity for them to live the american dream. Whether it is Free Health Care or increasing the wages with government minimum wage increases, the whole lobbying list of things that the government benefits they are trying to help but of course as most of these folks dont want to be in a government program, they want to work. They want to have jobs that are wellpaying jobs that create an opportunity to support themselves and their families and that sounds like more of a republican voter but unfortunately the economic message commands you know, you have seen this over the years, we talk like a common tests. We are sort of wrapped up in the rightness of the position that we talk about balancing the budget. Then cutting back government. And if you are the average american listening to this economic plan you say where am i in a plan for the people that see the wages stagnating not getting increases were seeing inflation and that is who this book is written for. For the republicans to understand why they are not succeeding in getting these votes. Michelle malkin talks about contributions to american innovators have made it to the country. And the backlash they face for being successful. Michelle malkin come in your new book sold out, what happened . Disney workers were summoned into a meeting room a lot of them had just gotten off of a project where they performed with excellent skills and a lot of them assumed that they were going to be reworded somehow and it was a horror story that no hollywood writers could conjure up in this case and the reality was so much worse than anything else you could have imagined. They were informed that they were going to be laid off. But even worse, and this is something that had been repeated over and over again over the last couple of decades like a dirty little secret of the information technology, they were told that they were going to be forced to train their replacements from india