For more information about this weekends 48hour television schedule, visit us online at booktv. Org. Coming up next on booktv, Sister Simone campbell, author of a talking nun on a bus. She talks about the bus tour she and a group of Roman Catholic nuns launched to talk about the budget proposal. This is a little under ab hour. An hour. [inaudible conversations] good morning, everybody. I want to go ahead and ask us to find a seat. So we can get started. While the 2014 Community Action Partnership Annual convention actually technically starts this afternoon with our general opening Plenary Session at one, we have, actually, a very special guest and a great opportunity for those of us who are here and able to make it here early. Its a great pleasure for me to be a part of introducing a friend of Community Action to you to engage in an interview of sorts. Well first hear some of the thoughts and the heart of our guest, and then afterwards well have an opportunity for some question and answer. There is a microphone right here, and so as youre listening if there is something that you particularly are interested in following up on, then youll have that opportunity. I want to introduce myself, tom tenorio, chair of the board of directors of the Community Action partnership, current president and acting ceo and privileged to be a part of this network here as were celebrating our 50th anniversary. This is a great way to get things started, and so let me, without further ado, get into my introduction of our guest. Known simply as Sister Simone, Sister Simone campbell has served as executive director of network, a National Catholic social justice lobby, since 2004. Shes a religious leader, attorney and poet with extensive experience in Public Policy and advocacy for systemic change. In washington she lobbies on issues of peace building, Immigration Reform, health care and economic justice. Shes a noted speaker and educator on these Public Policy issues, and since the 70s, shes founded or served as lead attorney or just plain leader for organizations serving or protecting family law needs or Public Policy needs of the working poor. Shes traveled to the middle east to study the situation confronting refugees in lebanon, syria and iraq. And during the 2010 congressional debate about health care reform, she authored the famous nuns letter that supported the reform bill and persuaded 59 ore leaders to sign other leaders to sign on. It was considered critically important to the bills passage, and as a result, president obama invited Sister Simone to the signing ceremony as a result. Then in 2012 she helped organize the nuns on the bus tour of nine states to oppose the Budget Approved by the house of representatives as harmful to programs serving those in need. The tour received an avalanche of attention across the nation from the religious communities, elected officials and the media. And since then she has recently led, in 2013, a new nuns on the bus crosscountry trip focused on comprehensive Immigration Reform. Finally, in april of this year she authored aup in on the bus a nun on the bus how all of us can create hope, change and community. She joined us at our winter Management Training event recently and was very well received there, so we thought it appropriate to ask her to come help us as we observe our 30 our 50th anniversary, excuse me, and to look forward at the need for our ongoing mission. So, please, join me in giving a warm Community Action welcome to Sister Simone. [applause] thanks so much, tom. Its really a treasure to be here. I was just in indiana more their state meeting a for their state meeting a couple weeks ago. We had such great conversation, and i came to realize that while you all are celebrating 50 years of commitment to engaging the challenging and pesky issues of low income communities, i came to realize that i am celebrating 50 years in my religious community. And i think some of the very energy that fueled my commitment as a young person is what fueled this commitment to make Community Action the heart of making change in our nation. So its a delight to be with you. We can celebrate together anniversaries. And the Amazing Things that happened when you least expect it. I tease and say, you know, if you want to lead a quiet life, i advise joining the convent. It really is [laughter] you know, just kind of a lot of space and time. [laughter] which, actually, has not been the case for me at all the last few years. But many people ask me how in heavens name did that bus ever get going . And what i point to is that what really got us started was the fact that the vatican named our Little Organization network as being a Bad Influence on catholic sisters in the united states. [laughter] and it was that notoriety in this document we refer to as the censure where the vatican said that the Leadership Conference of women religious wasnt you know, they were promoting radical feminist theme incompatible with the gospel, and the leaders were really nervous. Well, and they said one of the causes was us. So i knew my sisters at the Leadership Conference couldnt engage the press because they had to work with rome, but we at network, we could talk to the press because we dont have a direct connection to rome. So i very quickly started Answering Press calls. But what i realized was is that were not about having the focus on ourselves. Were all about focusing on our mission. And four days before the vaticans censure, we had celebrated our 40th anniversary where the big question was how do we let people know what were doing . How do we let people know weve been lobbying on capitol hill for 40 years . How do we invite people to join us . And we had very little ideas. Well, you have to be careful what you pray for, you know . Im a person of faith. [laughter] we were praying that we would get a bit more, a few more members. Well, four days later the vatican answered our prayer [laughter] and the rest, as we say, is history because what happened for me in prayer was, what came to me was to ask for help. And we asked for help, and it included folks from the Community Action partnership that came together in d. C. Here. And at the end of an hour and a half meeting, we were going on the road. But no one remembers who first said road trip in that meeting, and for me as a christian and a perp of faith, its person of faith, its a sign of the holy spirit. Because what we know is that whole group had this idea. And by the end of the meeting, we were going on the road. I had a map in my head, i knew where paul ryans district was [laughter] and i knew, and i knew where the mother houses of catholic sisters were so we could stay overnight for free. [laughter] so it is a very low budget operation, but the thing that we could never have predicted was that it became like lightning. Lightning struck in a way that brought hope to people that had been hopeless for a very long time. Lightning struck in giving us opportunities to speak about poverty when that had slipped off of our national agenda. We did so well we even had paul ryan now talking about poverty [laughter] and i believe its because of your consistent work and the maamic of a bus magic of a bus and our engagement on challenging, challenging issue. At least hes talking about it. But what i want to raise up for us today are some of wrestling that we must do in order to create the next 50 years of engagement. Because things are different than they were 50 years ago in 1964 when we started this work. Things are better. Some want to say, oh, yes, we had a war on poverty, and poverty won. No. Weve made huge strides and thats what we need to lift up. Weve got trouble still, thats true. Weve got things that are not working well many our nation. But in our nation. But we have made a difference. You need to celebrate, i need to celebrate, we together need to celebrate the accomplishments that we have achieved and commit ourselves to the hard road ahead. One of the things that we make a mistake doing is saying that its just about our Community Action project, just about us, just about what were doing. Were the only way forward. Thats a mistake. Congressman ryan also makes a mistake when he says, you know, its all about Government Spending. If we did away with Government Spending and we just focused on business, we could make a difference. As long as were in our either or thinking, neither one of us is going to be successful. Where the new challenge is, is for us to come together in both and conversation about how do we, the people, make a more perfect union. Because too many of our people are being left out of our conversation. Too many people are being. [laughter] out of Economic Development left out of Economic Development. Too many people are being left out at the margin, struggling just to survive. Now, i must say occasionally i do like pointing fingers at people and saying its their fault. Isnt that refreshing . [laughter] but the challenge when i do that is that i make them separate, and we cant move forward. The challenge that were facing, and one of the reasons i wrote the book, was to say its all about us coming together. Im urging those wealthy, wealthy folks at the top of our economic reality, please, leave your bags of money at the door and come to the table. Come talk with all of us. We need to have a conversation with 100 . Because too many people are left out. So what do we do to find the way toward . Hmm. Well, in this conversation with the 100 ive been practicing, actually, if you must know, and ive been practicing talk to folks who are really different. And a couple of months ago i met jason whos one of these really young entrepreneurs. At 35 hes built and sold three different businesses. I got, whoa, thats pretty amazing. But he told me, he was about to sell his third business, and he told me that he pays a living wage to all of his employees, that he thinks that taking care of his employees is a good bids plan. He a Good Business plan. He hires folks who maybe dont have much business experience and brings them in to know the work world. And he has found that a good way forward. But what was beginning to upset him was that he came to realize that his taxes were going to fund his competitors. I said, what . Your taxes are funding your competitors . Talk to me about that. And what he told me was he realized that his competitors are paying lower wages. And because theyre playing low wages, his competitors employees go and use the safety net, go and use food stamps, go and use medicaid, go and use housing vouchers, go and use other services. Hmm. So the employer has a lower cost and, therefore, bid submit lower bids for projects. And jason realized that his tax dollars were funding the social invest social Service Programs that his competitors employees were using. Isnt that interesting . I was sort of shocked by that, surprised by that. I hadnt thought of it in that way. But that these very programs which keep families somewhat stable become a business subsidy. And many our nation in our nation where many talk about, you know, business and robust business paying its own costs, dont you think they ought to really pay their own costs . [applause] and have [applause] so we need to talk to business. We need to talk to business about what do their businesses really cost and make sure that pricing and their bidding reflect that. Now, heres where i realized was really the challenge, is that the 100 of us someplace have gotten the idea that we should pay the lowest possible price. Well, ive realized i think we need to renegotiate that agreement among us. We cant just claim the lowest possible price at the expense of folks who are getting left out. We have to say, well, i want to pay a fair price, a just price, a price that insures everyone is able to support their families. That everyone is in, engaged in making this a better union and that the money i pay extra im willing to pay extra if all the employees are getting good wages, but we have to make sure it isnt just a way to further subsidize those at the top. Those at the top have got to share all the way down. Those that are creating the wealth for those at the top need to participate many it. And in it. And that is our social contract that the 100 of us need to make. Now, its beginning to happen. Its pretty exciting. There was a news report i think its about two months ago now where a Health System in texas had decided not to give all of the top management their big bonuses and their big salary increases. They took, i bereave, it was twothirds i believe, it was twothirds of it and spread it among all the employees because they realized their Hospital System was doing well because the employees were doing well. That is a huge step forward that we need to support, and in our conversations say isnt that Community Development . That is developing our communities when everyone shares in the benefit of their labor. So we, the people, need to make sure that wages, hours are fair and just. Another one that you all work on is public transportation. Theres a recent study that indicates theres more social mobility when there is good public transportation. I was recently in madison, wisconsin actually, it was still in the winter time. It was much better to be in your gathering down in ft. Lauderdale in january than in madison, wisconsin, ill tell you. But it was an adventure for me. In madison i went to the Salvation Army homeless shell there, and most of the folks in the homeless shelter, it was the family shelter, they were employed. But they werent making enough must be to be able to afford rent in the high cost madison area. And then many told me that they had work out in the suburbs, and they worked like a swing shift, an evening shift. But when the bus schedule got cut back so the last bus left to come back to the city left at 8 p. M. , they had to cut down on their hours. Because they couldnt get back to the shelter to be with their families. Now, we need to rethink this. We need to rethink Public Transit and how do we help people get to jobs and get home . We need to be engaged in these issues of Public Transit because we know our earth needs it to cut down on our carbon footprint, but we also know our people need it so that they can earn a living. In prescott, arizona i dont know if anybodys here from arizona, but i was really impressed in prescott because the snowbirds from the north, you know, fly south for the winter, and they discovered that their inhome help was having to walk five and six miles each way to get to their jobs in these various residential areas. So the people in prescott went together to form a Transportation System so that at least people could get to work. And you know what . The snowbirds said tax us. Tax us, and well help pay for it because we need the service. Its about the common good. People need work, and we need help. Lets make this happen. Isnt that a good news story . We can make a difference when we see that its for the 100 . And then we need to make sure that we know that some folks have just been chewing up chewed up in our economy and spit out. And some folks need help. Some is folks arent going to be able to make it in this economy, and we need to be real about that. But its not everybody. We also know that some folks just need the opportunity to get an education. A year ago i met britney, who was so excited to be the first woman in her family, the first person in her family, to go to college. But britney told me that it was only because of pell grants. Pell grants were making it possible for her to go to college, and she was terrified, terrified that in all the budget fights they were going to be cut. She told me that before college started she had, her mom had been picked up with her, her moms boyfriend, the two of them had gotten picked up by the police for something, i dont know what. But think had no money they had no money to get her mom out of pretrial detention, so her mom was still in pretrial detention when i saw her. And britmy told me britney told me because of that she had lost the only apartment. She did the best she could at 17 just before entering college. And she told me she only had to sleep out a couple of days, but she was a tough kid. And she was going to make it in college. She told me her delight was when the college dorm opened and she could move in and have a place again. But then she told me and this was september last year she told me she had just gotten her first paper back in college, and she had only gotten a b . And with that she burst into tears. And i realized, oh, my glory, she had i was in tears hearing about her homelessness, about her struggle, about her commitment, and heres this young woman who feels fears that a b indicates shes not going the to be able to make it in college because shed always gotten as in high school. And i threw my arms around her and held her and realized young people going to college for the first time need folks to hug em and tell them they can do it and, dont worry, you are capable. [applause] it is at heart of who we are. [applause] weve got to have yes, we need pell grants, its essential. But we also need our arms to hold these young people, to encourage them. And when we look at whats happening in pirgson right now ferguson right now this missouri, we know, we know that anguish, the anguish of violence and discrimination and racism and rejection. How do we hold, wrap our arms around individuals in communities so that we can hold them dear . Where we can cry together and be angry the together but to know we can Work Together to make a change. Racism is alive and well. Were working hard to dismantle it [applause] but weve got a lot more work to do. Im benefited by white privilege. I know that. But im trying to use this privilege in a way that opens up so that all are privileged. There is a way forward for the 100 . [applause] so while we work on specifics like transportation, like just wages, like how we pull together, weve got to work at the shadow side of our culture which is our history of racism, of discrimination. And we, the people, can make a difference. Weve made strides. Weve made huge strides. Weve got a long way to go. And sometimes we get tired. Do you get tired of this . I really thought if i dedicated my life 50 years ago to working for justice, wed be in a lot better position than we are now. [laughter] anybody relate to that . [laughter] [applause] amen amen. But when i was lamenting that the other day, somebody came up to me afterwards and said to me, well, just think of what a state wed be in you hadnt dedicated your life to this. [applause] so hi of that too. Think of that too. Weve made progress, things to celebrate. Things like the earned income tax credit, the child tax credit, the various entrepreneurial activities that you all are engaged in, creating opportunity for communities. The conversations that exist, the organizing that exists, the real data on real peoples lives and the real stories. You put those two together, and you all are a powerhouse, a powerhouse of news that we need to make sure is shared around the country. Because too off in our either or thinking well just call each other names, talk to people who think like us and not talk to them. Right . [applause] the challenge is we have missionary work to do. Now, i do this from faith, so im sort of used to missionaries. But you all need to be missionaries of Community Action. And what im advocating is what i call Grocery Store missionary work. Grocery store missionary work means wherever you stand in line and i hardly ever stand in line anymore because i always do everything on the internet but at the Grocery Store, i still have to go buy my groceries. Though theyre creating systems around that. But what ive discovered is, is that i can say to the person in front of me or the person behind me, hey, are you worried about wages . Or are you worried that so many people are struggling at low incomes and not being able to support their families . Another one of my favorites is what do you think about Immigration Reform . Hmm . [laughter] now, what ive discovered is, is just about everybody has some idea. Theyve got some thoughts. But we do not talk to people about these critical issues. In d. C. Here wed rather talk about the nationals or the redskins or the wizards or wed rather talk frivolous things and have the illusion of connection. But with our illusion of connection, were losing our democracy, i think. And where we need to go is serious conversation with folks we dont know, because we, the people of the united states, need to form more perfect union. Now, what that means is you got to risk hearing some stuff youd rather not hear. But at least youll know what some people are thinking. And the benefit of doing this in a Grocery Store line is it doesnt last nearly as long as your thanksgiving dinner table might. [laughter] so if we do this with folks who are just around us, we can create a community conversation. And you all are the folks who know how to get your community going. By conversation. By engagement. By hearing whats on peoples minds. Thats the way forward. Then we can have conversations with congressman ryan about, well, he has a point. He has a point, Business Needs to be included, but its not the only point. Its both and its the 100 . We can talk to folks who believe that we, the Koch Brothers. Im dying to talk to the Koch Brothers [laughter] say, okay, lets just have a conversation. Leave you money out of this. Lets you be one person, one vote. Lets go for it that way. Be at the table, but dont control the conversation. Police departments. [applause] thats what weve got to do. So what i urge you to do is to be missionaries for the good news that we, the people of the united states, the can stay at this. Its about the 100 . Its about business and government acting together. Its about making a difference for all of us. Because if those who are struggling at the margins do better, we all do better. If those who are at the top learn to share a little bit of what theyve got, we all do better. And, do you know what . They will also to better because their quality of life is being eroded. Theres this fabulous book called spirit level that lays out how the 100 suffer when we have this huge million and wealth dis huge income and wealth disparity. So we need to invite everyone into the center. That is the myth of the middle class, but its also the truth of democracy. All of us need to be engaged in the middle. Now, pope francis has said some really good things about this. But what i want you to know is that all faith traditions speak about the need for the common good, the need to be connected. But pope francis has some exceptional lines. I have a friend that just wants to create billboards with this stuff, but here is one of them. And he says, the knead to resolve the structural causes the need to resolve the structural causes of poverty cannot be delayed. That we are trying to write. We are trying to change the ending for is that story because we know that community can right that wrong. Some days i feel exhausted. Anybody exhausted . I feel like oh my gosh, what are we . This tiny person in the midst of those. I close this with one of my poems in the back of my book which was kind of fun. I had to talk a publisher in to doing it. Those of you in the christian tradition know that story of jesus and the loaves and fish. For those that dont, it is in culture too, to let the gospels this is a story where jesus is out in the wilderness and they are getting nervous because people havent eaten all day and are going to get grumpy pretty soon so the apostles say to jesus send them back to town please, so they can get something to eat. What jesus says to the apostles is feed them yourself and the apostles being men they are go i just got five loaves of two stinky fish. I dont know what we are going to do. Jesus blesses it and says that is enough. To their surprise it gets leftover. At the end of matthews story in the gospel of matthew he writes 5,000 men were fed to say nothing of the women and children. That made me mad. I said what are we . Chopped liver . So when i get mad like that i sort of pray about it. What does it mean . Here is what i think it means. They just counted the people that thought it was a miracle. The women knew they had brought food from home. [applause] dont you hear it all the time . Women pull out food and here are crackers and cheese and this and that and in neil, what a miracle. Anyway, that is the scripture. It is also about us because sometimes we can feel so small and so few and so little but we are making a difference for the 100 . I always joked the miracle of loaves and fish was sharing, the women always knew this but in this moment of need and notoriety i ache, trumbull, almost weep about non malnourished, faced with spiritual fan of epic proportions. My heart aches with their neat, apostle like, and i wind. What are we among so many . The consistent 2,000yearold ever knew response is this, blessed and broken and you are enough. I favor the blast, power at the broken and pray to be enough. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you so much, Sister Simone campbell. Now it is time to have a conversation. I mentioned earlier on she would be sharing from her heart and obviously we got a really good dose of that. Now it is time for you to pose some things that may be on your mind directly to Sister Simone campbell. We are welcoming cspan so we will be on cspan. There is some microphone here in the middle if you would like, please make your way to the mic and Sister Simone campbell is gracious enough to respond to questions and she will be here afterwards signing books. Now the time for a conversation. Some of the things i can get things started while folks are trying to make their way to and not be shy. What i was picking up in some of the comments about how we might approach our work, it almost seemed a like our reiteration or offsetting values needed to be discovered, discussed, because that discussion or focus on values seems to be a door that helps bring folks together as opposed to the separation. Talk more about that. That is a really important point because values, when you go to values, you can get over the rhetoric. Let me give you an example. I met with paul ryan after the 2012 bus trip and at the end of the meeting a set i know i will be asked about this meeting, what do we say . And he said i think we could say we had a cordial conversation and agreed to disagree. That was sweet. It left us on opposite sides. It left us polarized again. What i said to him was could we also say that we both care passionately about the future of our nation . That is a values that we would share to build a bridge and he said oh yes, yes. I dont know if he remembered to say that part but i certainly have. Where do we share, what do we value . How can we move forward together, gets us out of our polarized thoughts and often we share the same values. Let me give you one other example with my sisters social service and another community of sisters of social service in Central Europe. After the wall came down the sisters in Central Europe were so excited to where the uniform publicly and to do public pratt and do all of this and they bring scandalized by us because we didnt wear the uniform or do a lot of public prayer, we did social service, social work. It took us a couple years of conversation but we discovered we both value freedom. Their freedom was to be able to wear the uniform. Our freedom was to not. But see how there was the same values that we could build a relationship on . But the expression was different. It is those qualities of conversation the we have to have across party lines, across business, social services, a cross those lines to find out what are the values we bring to a community, what matters to us . Really important point. Oh brave one, thank you. You are very inspiring and i really appreciated all of your comments. You have addressed a little bit of my question a minute ago but i am curious about the heightening of the attitude toward the port, that across society, not just the policymakers, after 18 years in Community Actions sometimes it is tiring when people give you broad generalizations they dont want to work or they are just lazy, they are just wanting to stay on the system and on and on and it becomes very difficult and challenging to do your work when you are faced with that. I dont know if you have any more inspiring words on society as a whole, not just the policymakers. I think the key here is fear. The reason people are hardening their hearts is because they feel themselves trapped and as long as they can make up a reason, some buddies lazy. I am not lazy, i work hard, therefore it wont happen to me. Their fear that the economic constrictions theyre feeling with stagnant wages and how difficult it is to support their own family means then i can blame somebody else and i will feel better about myself so what i try to do when i get into those conversations is maybe i can get away with it because i and a sister, id go pastoral. What do you fear . What do you fear for your family . Can you talk about it and i ended up with folks in tears talking about how hard it is for their family, there have a brother or sister or wife or husband who lost their jobs and lost their benefits, had hours cutback, it happened to me up in new york, this woman was fearful landed turns out she and her husband with masters degrees had lost their jobs in the recession and the only thing they could find was working in a bookstore and he was working for a laborer and they were grateful for that but lost their home and they lost everything and they were working hard. As long as she could hold under the idea somebody was lazy, then it wasnt them. So we have to ease the fear in the nation and share the economic we are the richest nation on earth. We need to share the economic benefits we have got. We have to be bold enough to touch the fear. My question piggybacks on to that idea of fear. In new york we have been inspired by you and others and been on the road ourselves having this conversation and in some communities we have been having great conversations, we build this Great Foundation that can analyze some other stuff. Some communities are not ready for that conversation and if you use the idea of standing in the chris is for you turn to the person behind you and see what do you think of Immigration Reform . Sometimes when you get back is i think you are a lunatic because you are talking to a stranger in line at the Grocery Store and we get that sort of there are places where people say he is not ready for this conversation, we have to work toward being friends in line to have that conversation. How do you get to a point in the community and maybe ferguson is an example, there is so much else going on. How do you get to the point where people can sit at the table and feel comfortable, not afraid to say what they think . Good question. Good question. An important question. I am a person who leaps into the deep end. I just leap. I think the key is if you come with a warm heart, if you come with a warm heart and maybe it is because i am a sister so peoples guard is down. I dont know. In the Grocery Store they dont know i am a sister but i am curious. If i have curiosity and a warm heart to the person im asking i have never been turned away. But the hard part is to keep the warm heart. For me, that is the key, then i know i am not the measure of the whole answer and my personal work is that i need to be curious about otherss ways of thinking and if i am curious, then i am really in fighting the. Sometimes i ask questions because i want to give the other person my answer. That will shut people down. That is not progress. That ends up being more divisive. How do we nourish our curiosity with a heart for at the 100 , and if not everybody is at the table we dont have the whole answer and that is where i think the difference is. Right now some great work is being done by the Faith Community in ferguson with doortodoor activity is talking to people, listening to what they are experiencing, what their worries are and what happened. The Faith Community is starting that way. It is hard and long and takes forever. Is not about the community. It is about the community but we start one on one. We dont know that. One on one is community organizing. That is where you start but i have to be curious and care about you enoughs so that i make room in my talk, the have room for your thoughts. Effect e. It matters to me. If i get turned away, i have been turned away a couple times. My response is i am sorry. I didnt mean to disturb you. I am curious. I am worried about our nation. I want us to be better than we are. The two times it happened when i said i wanted our nation to be better if they said we do too, i do too. They agreed with that but they didnt want to too scary. I didnt lose anything. I got another story. Hy would like to introduce dr. Dorsey who joined the onstage, a colleague of ours on the board of directors and wanted to make sure i was extending an opportunity for questions. If you like. I just want to say as a minister i heard a great sermon today, would you all agree . [applause] probably more natural, do you get hate mail . Hardly ever. It is interesting. When we did the nunns letter for health care, we got a lot but now that we are doing the bus, last year and immigration bus for we went to the south, we were in alabama, georgia where we have oppressive laws, i thought we would have a lot of negative reaction. We had 12 people show up in different events, mostly church flights, wasnt so much but politics and finally when we got to phoenix we had 15 people show up on the politics of Immigration Reform. We dont get much but the key is everybody is welcome. There is room for everybody in this story, no one is left out. People often do the gates of when they feel there is a wall that is keeping them out. Died dont know. Or it is a miracle. You said something your remarks i wanted to expand on. You were talking about the young woman who is going to go to college and credited the Pell Grant Program for her being able to get there. What i have learned over its figures is that the most valuable things that we provide to the people we work with is usually not what they walk in the door looking for. A while in the door looking for pell grants or medicaid or Something Like that. It is the hand holding and the arms around them and the Case Management and without those services, very few will actually be successful. In virginia, we have a College Access program, Community Action agency, it makes a huge difference in the success rate of kids going to college, that they have the support that i got from my parents and they have gone to college and they knew the system and how to provide support, kids coming out of the background where they dont have that career family need it from someone. Same thing we do with health care Case Management program. Doctors will see people and accept medicaid where they wouldnt otherwise because they know the children will be there for 40 minutes and do what they prescribed. Too often we focus on direct financial assistance. That is where the big bucks go but if we leave out the emotional support, then we are wasting the other many many times. Good point. Case management is he. A bunch of you know that but the thing that i want to add is Case Management, the whole proposal is built around Case Management and we know what happens to block grants but we wont go there in this conversation. Hy recently testified in front of the state senate in california and the woman testified, she is a case manager, what she felt so insecure, and worthy, better about herself, she never candidly talked to the case manager until she got some other outside support which allowed her to feel better about herself as if she went into her case manager one day and decided to lay it on the table. She was released lazy. She laid it on the table, she had all this pentup desire to make a go of it but didnt feel worthy of making a go of it. She did not believe that person could care about her and she finally made a connection with her case managers it did just what you are talking about so the other piece is yes, those of us in Case Management have to have willing arms but we have to sort of like i feel, wait outside the rabbit hole, wait long enough for the person to poke their head out and encourage them to come out. Okay, i trust you, you can trust me, we are in this together. I practiced family law for 18 years in a lowincome community in oakland, california and so often my clients would sabotage good stuff because they couldnt bear being successful. They had no experience of success but as we developed a relationship, i will be with you through the success. That helped. That helped. It is two ways. One, we got to have the arms ready to hug them, we got to be willing to wait and invite them out knowing this is a new experience for many people who have always been on a losing end of some hot stuff. It is the combination. Good point, thank you. One more, the last one. In the absence of time this is going to be very short. Thank you for the work that you do and sternly being a catholic nun encourages you to be proactive with people in poverty. The challenges i have had over the years and continue to have is those of us who are in this business we sometimes become friends with people who are against what we do and oftentimes what happens is we are unafraid, dont have the courage to tell them that what they think is the problem with the people we serve we dont see anything so we kind of shut down. It is like we may bring bankers to our board, some of the bankers are some of the most notorious people who provide high Interest Rates and wont even let our clients cash checks. That is a key piece where you have got to help people see how is the 100 who are affected by this. If bankers arent banking for low income folks, then that promotes payday lending, a whole bunch of stuff which will upset the bankers because it will run down Property Values and if you run down Property Values than their loans that they have given in this area will be less secure. Always go to bankers with security. That is their job. To help them see the connection, if you dont do it it runs down the whole neighborhood and the fact the we have so many people, areas that are not bank, the food desserts, we have banking debts that are huge, what i the options . Some places my sisters work developed their credit unions, and more engaged local community commitments. They have gone be of a in california to make commitments to providing services in the city areas that have been and banked. When we have these folks on our boards it is critical that we educator them to the reality, not stories, not height, dont sugar coat it, we have got to create reality. It is hard to do because they dont even know what they are looking at. What i think works best is getting individual stories about the connections. This story connects to this reality, connects to your bank. Your bank will benefit if we do this. Your business can benefit. We need them at the table and the best way is education over a longer period of time. You are doing great work to make that happen. That is a step forward. Step 2, the education peace. Thank you so much, have a great conference. [applause] before we close out this segment i want to extend in education to Sister Simone campbell to be the first among us to complete an act. One of the opportunities every single one of you will have here is to rededicate yourself to the problems of Community Action and as an expression of that we have a poster you will all be able to sign. That would be great. Is it on its way up . Where is it . There it is. I love it. Thank you. [applause] that will close out this segment. Lunch is on your own. Please be back here at 1 00. We will start as close to on time as possible to 1 15 and the books are on sale in the outside but Sister Simone campbell will be on the inside of this room in the back to sign them. Thanks, everybody. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] booktv is on twitter and facebook and we want to hear from you. Tweet us twitter. Com booktv or post a comment on our face book page, facebook. Com booktv. I was never going to stop driving my car except one day i was driving home, going down Georgia Avenue and i was a half mile from my apartment and my car just all of a sudden caught on fire. I didnt know what to do so i just quickly rolled my window down and unlocked my seat belts and just kept driving my car. Iman edged to get it home and whipped it into the parking lot behind my building and jumped out of the car and after that they my car never drove again. I felt terrible about it and just didnt have the heart to call a tow truck and have the come and drive my for car away so i just kept it out back where it rusted away and one day i was at home reading the Washington Post and they had this article about local eyesores and at the end of the article, there was a query, do you know of an eye sore . If you do this and send us a note and we will send a reporter to write about it. I thought yes, i know and i sort. It is parked out back. I thought i will not bother the Washington Post reporters so i will write it up myself. I wrote it up and when i sent it in to the posts i went out with some friends and when i got home that night there was a message on my machine from the editor and he said he loved my story and he said if i had anything else i ever wanted to send in just go ahead and send it in and then he added at the end especially if it was about metro. He figured here is a person who is definitely taking the bus. For the next three years whenever something funny would happen to me i would write it up and send it to the Washington Posts and i was really lucky. I was lucky for a couple reasons. One is i was lucky because it got my feet wet. Believe me, this book never would have happened. I never would have written this book if my car hadnt caught on fire on Georgia Avenue but mostly i was lucky because during those three years it really gave me an outlet because at that time things at walter reed started to get really hot. I worked as a physical therapist in the and duties section. We mostly saw a single leg and duties and patients who lost their legs below the knees but as the war went on the injury steadily got worse and worse. We went from seeing single lady and duties to mostly patients would double and triple and duties meaning they had lost two legs and an arm. We watched the amputations move up the body. He went from being below the knees and the elbow to above the knees at the skys, above the elbow. We saw a patients who started to lose their legs at the groin and we even began to see patients with partial public amputations. By the time walter reed closed in 2011 almost all of our new patients for double or triple and duties and we had rehabilitated three men who had lost all four of their limbs. I had a hobby