Invented the most precise and beautiful watch ever created and snapped it to the tail of a wild jackal. Im talking about the fact that most americans dont appreciate the fact that the book means a lot, and their opinion means a lot. So they have the ability to have their voices heard and acted upon in a great democracy but they dont take advantage of it. So we have this reallydont incredible democracy that gives the average person power and the average person does not vote. I think its a shame that of all the developed democracies in the world, the United States is last in voter participation. That really bothers me because if we dont keep our eyes on the prize and if we dont understand how we have to constantly be monitoring whats going on and taking the steps to rectify any problem, these problems are going to multiply and we end up like we are not, very divided and at each others throats. That should not be the case. But it must the people to participate in this democracy, thats whats going to happen. Host youre going for new arguments, new ways to look at old arguments. How . Guest im calling for new arguments because the Founding Fathers understood that their own idiosyncrasies that maybe didnt get it all right. They gave us the document, the constitution that allows it to be amended. So that it can deal withwi problems as they arise. That was i think the genius of what the Founding Fathers did. At this point in the life of our democracy, the average person is not engaged, not involve. If that happens we conduct with ms like we have right now. Host in your view is the cream not rising to the top when it comes to politicians . Guest i think people are asleep at the wheel with regard to using their vote. They need to use of the vote to the politicians who ignore their needs. So many politicians are more interested in getting reelected than they are in dealing with the needs of their constituents. They get elected, they start asking for money, from of the people to reelected. D. They forget about the people that theyre supposed to be representing. Thats the real problem. Unless the people who are suffering from the lack of attention, unless they do something about it by using their vote, this is going to continue. Host one of the issues youos address in a night is the education system. What would you like to see changed . Wh guest i would like to see the money that is spent on education actually go to employing competent teachers and making a good education accessible to all americans. That has changed dramatically. Our Public Education system did work for everybody and now it doesnt. Now we have exclusive schools who are able to produce elitest students, and then we have other schools like in the inner cities where its just a joke. The kids dont get educated and they suffer for it. We have to change that. We had to get everybody involved. We had to get parents involved and how to participate in the decisions that are made in our School Boards and everything. Tht again requires being involved and caring and using their vote using their vote for City Councils and people who are going to be elected to the school board. All of these things are very crucial to getting the results that you want, which is an excellent education for all of our students. Host you right there is much inequality in america but the most destructive inequality is economics just make absolutely. I think people who do not have the opportunity to support their families end up dealing withp dl Desperate Measures to support their families, to support themselves. We have so many people who cant afford to raise their children the way that their children need to be raised, and to give up. We have a whole lot of abandonment of young people because the system does not accommodate their needs and we have to change that. Mo host one of the new arguments that you put in your book is an argument over the r. Word. Weve all heard about the and word but you talk about race as the artwork. Why . Guest race is really an artificial construct from what we can understand from what anthropologists and sociologistn tell us. People look differently because they evolved in different physical circumstances. People who evolve under the bright sun at the equator got darker skin, and people who evolve away from the equator. We are all homo sapiens. We are all the same species, but the nonessential visible differences we have seen to putt people in a situation where they think they are different from other people. T we are all the same, and in america we see what that meansye because everyone countries to our democracy with our intelligence and our hard work to equal degrees. So we have to forget about the whole idea of race and understand its all about who you lived with, the people in your community. Thats so much more important than what you look like insurance of your physiology. Host your book is semiautobiographical as well. You right that youve been writing for 40, 50 years. Guest yes, i have. Host whats changed . Guest i think the wholethe l idea that people are starting to see, even people who dont look like them, they are starting to understand that these our fellow americans. So in that sense we are part of the same crew. Our ancestors came from very this different places but we are all here now and this is our country and weve got to do everything we can to make it the greatest place in the world. Host from your book, i was called an n and i was called an n last week by someone who didnt like an article i wrote. Guest i put that sentence in your to let people know that racism is still an issue. Its still a problem. The election president obama did not eliminate the racism and the systemic racism that we have to deal with here in america. Stemic a lot of our institutions are racially fragmented, and there is bias at the heart of a lot of different institutions in america. We have to understand that and try to eliminate those problems when we can. Host kareem abduljabbar, w are you a role model . Guest by the i like it or not i am a role model. The fact that i was able to achieve what i was able to achieve as an athlete, and hopefully as the author, it makes me a role model. I am a parent so i have to be a role model. P all parents are role models. I dont think that any of this escapes that burden. For some its a burden. For others its a joy but we all end up in a position to. Host are you a National Role model . Guest well, i guess so. Host is that he could think . Guest they can be a good thing. I have to make a good thing. Its up to be passionate its up to me decide what to do with it and how to do it. Host you right i have a comfortable relationship with the media. I have used my celebrity to take political positions. Guest i think that i use my celebrity in a way to say things that need to be said. Im glad to see there are other athletes that getting in line with that. Win tamir rice was killed so unnecessarily in cleveland, lebron james came out and said something about it. That was very important to me, the fact that lebron, despite his incredible celebrity and achievement as an athlete, he was concerned about the killing of young person in his community that should not have been killed. That was awesome. I was happy to see. Im glad that whole position of activism has not died in our community. Steal a couple members of the Cleveland Browns also who came out and said something. Some of the guys on the police force seem to have an issue with that. N these guys were parents and they could see easily how their kids could have been tamir rice under the same circumstances. Ances. So their concerns were valid and they voiced their concerns, and im happy they did that. Host is it controversial and harmful to a professional athlete to take a political stand . Guest they can be harmful to a professional athlete, but i think you have to take that risk if the issue is that important and that meaningful to you, its worth taking the risk of stomach when did you start writing . Guest i started writing when i was in grade school, really. I am still in touch with a nun who taught me in eighth grade. She wrote me and said she remembered entering into an essay contest winners in the eighth grade because i was the best writer in my class. Its something ive enjoyed my whole life. Host but books and looking and research, when did you start into that . Guest research, i enjoy research. I enjoy being a historian, just finding out what happened and understanding how that affects whats going to happen. If we dont learn from the mistakes we have made, we are condemned to repeat them. Said knowing what happened is w crucial for anybody who wants to understand whats going to happen. Going host you talk in writings on the wall about your conversion to islam and what its meant to you and what its meant to other people just like well, guest well, my convergence was something that was personal to me, was a religious event in my life. People have tried to make it political but really it was a spiritual thing for me. I think islam has given me a long anchor that enabled me to differentiate between right and wrong and understand life in those terms. So my conversion to islam was something that was very personal. It ended up becoming political but i didnt want to be like that. I probably would have done it different if id had a chance to go back. I would do a little bit d differently because i didnt necessarily have to be so public with it, but it was important to me and it was a way for me to fosert my own identity as a black american and not have toas be portrayed as somebody who was sitting, a stereotype that was not actually me. It enabled me to define myself, and as such it was very important to me. Host where did you grow up . I grew up in manhattan, new york city. I was born and raised in harlem. Had a great time growing up in manhattan. I wouldnt have traded it for anything else but what did your parents do transferring my dad was a police officer. My mom was a teacher. Seamstress. Host you mention a catholic nun as a teacher. You went to Catholic Schoolss transferred i went to Catholic School up to high school and then went to ucla. Host in your book you talk about rules. Following the rules of the nuns, following the rules of the coaches, following the rules of your dad. Guest ive had a lot of coaching. Hing a ive had to understand this one from a lot of other peoplestheo vantage point. Unhappy at this point in my life that im following my own path. Host what are you doing these days . Guest these days im writing. I am spending time with myth granddaughter. I am a new grandparent. I have a beautiful granddaughter, and just, so i just take in whats happening in the world. Host what about your charity transferred i have a foundation. My foundation tries to get kids from the inner city to understand what s. T. E. M. Education is all about, science, technology, engineering and math. We sent into camp for five days and four nights and give them an opportunity to be exposed to s. T. E. M. Education, and that enables of them to get an idea for all the good jobs are going to be in the 21st century. So i think its a good thing to get kids to understand what the possibilities are. So many kids, especially in the inner city, they all want to be Denzel Washington or beyonce or lebron james. They dont understand that there are so many great jobs out of their that requires them to be well grounded in science, technology, engineering and math. So by giving them an insight as to where the jobs are, at the right time in our lives, i think that makes it possible for them to take a good path to achieving their goals. Host does writing comes easy to you . Guest writing, i think writing does come easy to me. In i enjoy it. Im able to organize my thought in a coherent way and get them out of there. So yeah, i think writing is something that is a natural to me. I seem to enjoy it. Host is easier than being out in the public . Guest at times it is easier than being in public because you have time to think things through and make sure everything is what it needs to be so that your message is coherent. If you cant have your thoughts organized and present something in an intelligent and organized way, people are not going to get what youre all about. Host you recently attended an oped in support of hillary clinton. Why . Guest i am supportingos mrs. Clinton because i think she has, her thoughts and concerns about the lower classes and middleclasses that have been ignored by so many politicians. And i think that a focus on trying to make the government t and make the political system work for the average person, i think thats very worthwhile. I support her in that post that if some resent to you the imi d trump support from the you come to an immediate, give an immediate picture in your head of who they are . Guest no, i dont. I have an idea of who they are. So many people now are being motivated by fear. So the whole idea about what mr. Trump says about immigrants and everything, trying to make us afraid of mexican immigrantst are muslims, i think is reprehensible and certainly notr an accurate portrait of immigrants are muslims or any of the other issues that he claims to be so knowledgeable about. I think hes really showing everybody how ignorant he is. Its unfortunate but thats whats happening. Host in writings on the wall to talk about reaction and reacting from fear. Whats your prescription . Guest i think knowing whether we can get over fear is through knowledge, becoming familiar with the issues that we seem to be afraid of. Once you get an idea of what iss actually happening, you can figure out a solution that does not involve building walls across the mexican border. We can fix a lot of these issues if we have an honest and rational approach to it. An i dont think we are going to solve anything by fear mongering and demonizing people. That doesnt work. Host is it time come in your view, we talked to bill ayres yesterday, and is it time in your view to fire up abrand brandnew system . Guest well, i mentioned earlier the Founding Fathers gave us the constitution and to make adjustments that need to be made as we move forward. Because they are new issues and problems that the Founding Fathers did not foresee. So they gave us the means to deal with it and we have to use the tools that we have. So many people are ignorant of the fact that we have these tools, and thats a shame. Once we get that idea across to people, i think a lot of people will calm down and do what they have to do to effect meaningful change. Host one more issue you brought up in writings on the wall, a medical practice. What does that term mean to you . Guest it just has to do with trying to be polite to people. Yo i dont see it as a big problem. Just trying to be respectful to other people and not offend them by the way to depict them and talk about them or its justus trying to be gracious. Thats all its about. I dont think its a big political issue. But some people want to make a big deal of it. I dont think its a realit is problem. Host if somebody says i am not politically correct, what does that mean to you . Guest i think to me means that maybe they have something similar to say about people,gs their kind of annoyed that have to watch what they say. Ch but being polite is a social grace that a lot of us refuse from instruction. Host where did this book come from . Guest this book came from just how i feel about whats going on in my country, and its my attempt at trying to talk about some solutions that might work. Thats all it is. Host and it is your, what,h fifth, sixth book . Guest 11th. Host kareem abduljabbar, writings on the wall searching for a new equality beyond black and white. You are watching the tv on cspan2. This weekend where in provo, utah, without of our local cable partner comcast. Next, we visit moons where books and see Brigham Youngs copy of the book of mormons as well as an original copy of Thomas Paines common sense. Ive been collecting rare books for the past 30 years. I decided to relocate to provo after selling my bookshop in dallas which also sold new books. The past 1015 years new books ever suffered with the advent of ebooks ended in going digital. But what i found is the interest in rare books has increased. In my shop there are about 1000 books but in my inventory to our about 5000 books do i rotate books and i specialize in four different areas. I specialize in rare bibles, older bibles, rivals from the past 500. I specialize in early mormon books, classics in literature and early american history. One of the items i enjoy collecting our bibles or religious texts that belong to wellknown historical figures, and being from utah one of the more popular items that i like to show people is Brigham Youngs copy of the book of mormons. Its house in a nice protective clamshell but this is, according to family tradition, this is a copy of the book of mormons that was on Brigham Youngs nightstand when he died in 1877. If you open it up to the title page, you can see Brigham Youngs major. Another one of, i enjoyed early american history, and this is what of the most important books printed in america pre1800. Its an original copy of Thomas Paines commonsense which is printed in philadelphia. The printer was robert l. In philadelphia and if you go to do you see a brass plaque saying here is where commonsense was printed january 9, 1776. It was a little like a pamphlet. It is sewn together and its quite rare that it was printed three times in january 1776. It has an interesting story because thomas paine went to robert bell, wanted to have this printed and he wanted the proceeds to buy the soldiers means. Well, after it went through three puddings they had a falling out and so thomas paine allowed anybody to printed. He lowered the prices anyone can printed and thats one reason that book is so wellknown and put into the state has the designation of having ties saturate every book ever printed in america. My favorite find in the past year is a bible that belonged to the men who wrote lord of the rings. I have j. R. R. Tolkiens copy of the bible, and i have a nice protective case made for it buddy had a very simple bible. It was printed in 1947. This was in the middle of writing the lord of the rings. He was writing lord of the rings from 19371954, and you can see a beautiful, well known, recognizable signature in the front. But what most interesting about this book is the fact that the annotated this book and made comments in the margin. Here in the last page of john you can see his making comments, comparing it to different versions of the bible. He is making things as a better translation to the greek, of the original greek. And so to our health and survival, j. R. R. Tolkiens bible, the one hand while he was writing the lord of the rings. Just the thousand books in your are worth over 10 million. Actually theres a few books that are worth over 1 million a piece. Although i have books as low as 100 but thats kind of the starting level for the books that i have. What i enjoy so much about the rare books, its the hunt, a Treasure Hunt and find you can. And realizing that in these older books they are different. They have a different feel, a different look off in a different story, often depended on who owned the books. Thats an added story within a story. This is the Perfect Place to keep these books because its fireproof, its humidity controlled and theres no uv light. This little book has a big story, but if youre looking at it youll see its in latin. This is something that could be overlooked in the shoe understand what this symbol is. This little book has a great story, but you have to know history. You have to understand the history of this time period to understand who owned this book. You almost have to do detective work. To determine who owned this book, you look at this, and when you see this you see a crown. So that makes you think royalty. You go, okay, well, now you see the fleurdelis so you think thats french royalty, but why do you see the two sides asked this is because this person was married. So this would be a queens copy. The king at the time was louis xvi. This is the ceo of marie antoinette, and this, its in latin. You may not recognize the book and you may overlook that if you know what Marie Antoinettes seal looked like he would be able to identify this. There are very few of her books that survived because we just executed or libraries were absorbed into the French National library. This wouldve been a little book she carried with her and she wouldve had more than one. This is something that each year they were given new copies so she would have had if you and thats why she could have given this copy away and thats what it is currently not in the French National library. And, finally, another fun book i have is a shakespeare book. Its quite rare. Shakespeare died in 1616. And 1623 his complete works were first printed. Anthony kim in 1632 and 1664 in 1685. Only about 250 of each of these copies have survived. So that maybe a thousand copies in the world. And of those thousand, the vast majority of over 90 , are institutionally owned, but i think portfolio, 1685. And even before you open the book you know that book as a story to tell but its just a stunning binding with working class. But its the complete works of shakespeare that in 1685. And i have it open to r l the. I will continue to collect books for the rest of my life romeo and juliet. Ive had people ask me when i going to retire . What are you going to do . Im already doing it. I cant think of anything i would rather do than traveled around tracking down rare books. I enjoyed these books. April asked the region . Absolutely. I will go through. You never know if one of the earlier owners has made an inscription that could substantially increase the value of the book or added interest to the story behind the book. And so i will always do this. I never get tireof