14th amendment. Through lincoln. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. [inaudible conversations] i get to take your speech to see if you really know what is going on. Good afternoon, welcome to the Heritage Foundation. In our douglas and sarah auditorium. Those of us joining us on the website and those of us viewing on cspan booktv in the future. Also welcome a group called the liberty bells with us today. Very shy and retiring. For those also watching online we remind you youre welcome to send questions or comments at any time. Simply email speaker heritage. Org and we will post it following for everyone. You also have todds book available for signing and purchase afterwards. Leading our discussion and opening up is becky norton dunlop. She is chairman of the conservative action project, advocates teaches american conservative ethics and energy into Natural Resources policy in general. She is also an active board member of numerous Public Policy organizations and associations. Here at heritage she previously served as Vice President for external relations. And most recently led our restore america project. Our she served as secretary of Natural Resources for the commonwealth of virginia and she also served numerous positions in the Reagan White House and at the department of justice and interior. Please run me in welcoming becky norton dunlop. [applause] let me add my words of welcome to each one of you who have braved this very cold day in washington d. C. Im sure that this program will be replaying many times and sometime in the dog days of august was being run, no one will believe it was 15 degrees with a wind chill factor of nine when we all came together today to visit with todd. We are delighted to have him here at the Heritage Foundation. It is not his first visit here but some people have might ask why would you have a book event on the deplorables guide to making America Great again when you are research and Education Foundation . Well, the main reason is because todd talks about in his book, the importance of having people be involved. He is going to go into a lot more detail about all of this. But let me just say an educated consumer is the best citizen. And because we are the research and Education Foundation we do research on a lot of the issues that are going to come before congress and the president and state legislatures in upcoming years. And in order to be a truly effective deplorable, you have to be knowledgeable. About the issues that we are going to be dealing with in our country. In the next upcoming days and months and even years. As you all know heritage is based on key principles, individual freedom is a key principle. The Free Enterprise system. What solves the problem, the needs, the wishes of the american citizens, not just americans but people around the world . Free enterprise. Constitutional governments. Want to be nice to get back to constitutional governance . Laws . Traditional values. You know it is very important when you think about Economic Freedom. That you think about what goes into making Economic Freedom work. Well, things that happen within a family. Values that learn about in a family. Integrity, hard work, respect. And the traditional values like religious freedom, the freedom to live life according to what you believe. These kinds of Cultural Values are enormously important. In order to have Economic Freedom, prosper in our country and our world. And then of course Strong National defense. I mention this because when you hear from todd today, youre going to hear a lot about things that american citizens should do. And why they need to engage in these battles. And my point to you is a Heritage Foundation agrees with this and believes that we can be helpful to you and to all of us watching this and reading todds book. Become informed. Be knowledgeable. So that you know you believe and why you believe it. Why are you the desk and then you can go out and make your voice heard in a way that will command respect and hopefully the elected leaders that we have in the country will follow the advice and counsel of the deferrables. So, todd starnes is here, he is with fox news radio. Most everyone and america has heard of todd starnes. Hes often on fox news and foxbusiness. The fair and balanced channels. He is the author of four books. His latest book, the deplorables guide to making America Great again is what brings him to the podium today. Please welcome todd starnes. Thank you. Thank you very much and it is an honor to be here at the Heritage Foundation. And i just have to say Heritage Foundation, you have indeed stayed the course and been a beacon of light to the conservative movement and in our great nation. I do to want to thank you for coming out and this very cold day. It is actually colder in washington d. C. Than in new york today. Before i get into the heart of my remarks encourage you to followbook and also we can make beautiful tweets to get on twitter. I want to show you a little bit about my background before we get into the text of my comments this afternoon. Im originally from memphis tennessee. I am also a christian man and my everything that i do in life. Im one of those people that president obama was sucking back in 2007. One of the folks who clings to his guns and clings to his religion. Im one of those folks at Heller Clinton called a deplorable. And i am proud to call myself a gun toting, bible clinging, god loving son of a baptist. And i am not bitter, i am blessed. I live in brooklyn among the indigenous population not too far from Hillary Clintons headquarters. I thought in order to understand people i needed to live there. Of course among other things the people there do not serve too much sweet tea in that neck of the woods as they say. I want to tell you about the book before we get any further. A lot of people say todd, when did you start writing this book because it came out just a few months ago . And we actually started working on this project immediately after the election. And i really probably in hindsight should have acknowledged mrs. Clinton in my book for giving me the title, the deplorables guide to making America Great again. Its interesting because we had another title that she had actually won it was called we are doing to america, your guide to the apocalypse. Fortunately we did not have to worry about that particular book. Back to living in brooklyn, it is an amazing place. We are populated, my neighborhood is populated with a life vegetarian restaurants, yogurt shops and farm to table restaurants. I do know if you guys have that here in washington. The ones in brooklyn only serve organic eggs harvested by amish midwives. I mean it really is farm to table. [laughter] my mail messes im the only member of the National Rifle association in the zip code. And if you are a member you know you get a count of mail a month from those good people. You also get a really great looking ball. It is a black ball cap with the letters nra. And on the weekends right outside of the market all of our advocacy groups lineup and theyre asking for money. And you have the planned parenthood, greenpeace, human rights, so on and so forth. And you have the people from peta who are the worst. So anyway, i was going to the market one day and i grabbed my nra ball. Something interesting happened. When all of the local groups saw the nra ball it was like moses parting the red sea. They just let me right through. Except for the peta woman. She called me as i was coming up. I was getting ready to smoke a pork butt. Im from the south and thats what we do. Even though i live in brooklyn. She stopped me and i had my pork butt under my shoulder like this. And she said sir, do you love animals . And i said only if they are deepfried and kept right on going. They never bothered me after that. [laughter] but you know i do believe that faith and freedom go hand in hand. And that concept, that idea goes back to the very founding of our great nation. I tell a story in the book about a man named oliver part is a member of the American Baptist denomination. Im a southern baptist. He was the pastor of a church in south carolina. For the founding of our nation. The First Baptist church of charleston. And supported in charleston, they are very particular about things. It is not First BaptistChurch Charleston committed the First Baptist church. Sort of like the ohio state university. Pastor hart was an incredibly effective communicator. He was preaching about freedom and liberty from the pulpit. If you can believe that. He was such a powerful communicator that word reached our Founding Fathers and those that were organizing the army to fight the british. They had an idea. Theyre having trouble and those trying to round up enough farmers and citizens to fight the british. So they dispatch the pastor into the upstate of the carolinas. His along with several other ministers. Their job was to recruit an army to fight for our freedom. And i thought it was interesting when it came to fighting for the freedom our Founding Fathers came to the church house for help. And i believe that the lesson that we draw from today in these very difficult days in our nation. Do you know for the past eight years americans have been told that we are the problem, that we are not a christian nation. We are not an exceptional nation. Our traditions and our values have been ridiculed and marginalized. We have been mocked by hollywood and dismissed by the academics. We have been bullied and belittled by the gender and sex. But all that change on election day. With a man who promised to defendant religious freedom and a man that promised to make americans great again. And i say he was my first second or third choice in the republican primaries. But on election day, he was the only choice. And i do believe that Hillary Clintons comments about that basket deplorables, i believe that was the turning point in the election. And it was not necessarily lord deplorable. And you may remember that moment that she was speaking to a gathering there in new york city. And she talked about the homophobic xena phobic and she went on and on and on. Talking about how half of donald Trump Supporters were in a basket of deplorables. But it was not that word that i think cost for the election. I believe it was the word irredeemable. She said we were irredeemable. She was telling us that people who believe in traditional American Values, people who believe in american sovereignty, people who believe in securing our border, our belief system is so egregious that we are beyond redemption. And i think a lot of people woke up and said wait a second. Something is not right here. And i believe that was the moment, the turning point that put donald trump in the white house. Many conservatives understood what was at stake on election day. The Supreme Court and lower courts were in danger of being lost for generations. I am willing to take the president at his word when he says he is going to defendant religious liberties, he is going to put conservatives on the ports. Im going to take him at his word. And i believe that he is taking steps in the right direction in these early days of his administration. And i am encouraged by people like neil gorsuch. But i have a. Questions about judge gorsuch and interested to see how these hearings will proceed. And you say todd, why are you concerned . Well, republicans have a really bad track record when it comes to putting judges on the bench. Dont they . I do not know what it is for democrats to have this problem. They put a liberal out there and they stay liberal. But republicans, i am not sure what happens but there gavels tend to go wobbly. You might remember this. President eisenhower was asked about some of his worst decisions. In his presidency. And hes of the two worst decisions he made were sitting on the cream court. So i just, i am cautiously optimistic. But we all have to play a part in holding our president and our elected leaders accountable when it comes to these kinds of decisions. But even the donald trump is president and even if he is doing things early in his administration that are pleasing conservatives, we still face a very grim landscape across the plain folks. And over the next few moments i want to share with you some of the concerns that i have regarding the state of American Values and religious liberty. The first is the military. Under the obama administration, the greatest fighting force on the planet was turned into a social engineering treatise. Just the other day i received an email from an officer at Lackland Air Force base in san antonio. You might have seen my column on this story. The email told herman to start using offensive words. And phrases. And among the words and phrases the military officers were told to avoid saying things like boy and girl and colonial. And the list goes on and on. There was a training briefing a few years ago that i reported on. Officers were told that the biggest threats of domestic terrorism were not coming from al qaeda but coming from roman catholics and evangelical christians. Just think about that for a moment. What is it that they would teaching these young and impressionable men and women at and other military email labeled organizations Like Family Research Council and the American Family association as domestic hate groups. So i have high hopes that general bad dogmatics was going to get this infestation out of the pentagon. And i believe he will do that quickly. And i certainly hope so. We have also seen issues involving radical islam in this country. And we have seen in the Public School system where islam has been giving consideration where other religions have been marginalized. Quite frankly Public Schools have been turned into indoctrination centers. And i believe in a document this in the book that all Public Schools are being used against us. Not all of them and not all teachers are bed. Hear me when i say that. We have enough bad teachers. We have enough bad schools that is causing a big problem in the country. And i believe the reason we have seen such a massive shift on cultural issues in such a short amount of time, is because of what is happening in our Public School system. What is happening in our university campuses. And those safe spaces. Among the perpetually offended generation. The interest of religious liberty is a key component of my book. You see, religious liberty is the first freedom. And i contend that if you are able to chip away, if youre able to marginalized and diminished religious liberty, the first freedom than every other freedom we have is in jeopardy. Just look at the evidence. A study outlet strip shows that 40 percent of millennials believes there should be limitations placed on free speech. 40 percent. Look at the attacks. On those of us who claim to our god and the attempt to take our guns away. Again, i believe that want to go after religious liberty Everything Else is up for grabs. I wrote a story and i have been following the story for quite some time involving a sweet grandmother in Washington State. Her name is i know we have covered her fox news. I write about her extensively in my book. She could be a member of the liberty bell literary society. She is a sweet, precious grandma. She inherited her flower shop from her mother. One day some longtime customers came in and asked if she would provide flowers for their upcoming same sex marriage. And she pulled them aside as gentle and as graceful as a whitehaired grandmother could do. She clasped her hands and she told these two young men why she could not do that. She said that it would violate her religious beliefs. And then she provided his young men with several other florists around town who would do a wonderful job with their marriage ceremony. But as we know that was not good enough. Because you see, in Washington State they expect full and complete compliance. She was brought up on civil charges of discrimination. To set an example they decided to instead of going after her business they would go after her personally. So this woman if she loses the court battle, she will not only lose her business, she will also lose her home and her life savings. Every single thing she had, she will lose. This case is the petitions to the Supreme Court. Again, it explains why it is so important that we put conservative justices on the bench. Because of her. I had a chance to talk hannah said why didnt you just provide the flowers . Nobody would have known. And she told me over the telephone there in Washington State, i think she was wagging her finger at me. Shes a young man, who would you rather obey . God or the government . You know that is a question that many people around this great country have been having to ask themselves. The list of people like her goes on and on. Im reminded of a story just a few months ago from grand rapids michigan. This family on the meatpacking company. And one day the meat inspectors came by for a visit. They were in the break room and the socioreligious materials on the counter. One of the usda inspectors became offended by the materials. And they summoned the man to his office. Can you imagine not . Government agents summoning so much of their own office in their own business . And they told him, you either remove the materials because they are offensive to us or we will remove our meat inspectors. Now if any of you know anything about the meatpacking business which i did not but i had not been educated on it. If you remove the meat inspectors, the usda inspectors, they have to shut down the business. 45 people would have been put out. 45 people. So he did as he was ordered to do and remove the materials. And he has filed a formal complaint. This is why groups Like Alliance defending freedom and the American Family association urging President Trump to sign an executive order protecting religious liberty. Protecting people like this and protect the people like this. My favorite president , reagan. I was in high school he was president. He said freedom is one generation away. Last year we came close, very close. Franklin grant told me for the book that we are at a moral tipping point. But i believe we get a second chance. And i believe one of the reasons why is because of this next generation that is coming up behind us. Generation of young men and women who are unashamed to stand up for freedom. And for liberty. I want to tell you about some of the stories that i write about in this book. I have hope in america because of a young man named connor 10 for he is a Football Player at university. His teammates decided to protest the National Anthem by remaining inside the locker room. But connor chose to stand alone on the sidelines. And he did so. As his teammates were cowered in the safe space inside the locker room. I have hope in america because of a young man named alex dunn. It was in class and his liberal teacher wanted to explain to them about freedom of expression. So the teacher tried to set an American Flag on fire in the classroom. But the teacher could not get the later to work. And and discussed the teacher through old glory onto the floor. And then commenced to stomp on old glory. Young alex, a 16yearold patriot rushed to the front of the classroom and snatched the flag off of the ground and ran out of the classroom. So that the flag would no longer desecrated by the schoolteacher. You see, he refused to stand by and do nothing. As the flag was desecrated. I hope in our nation because of a young cheerleader in madison mississippi. It was not long ago that a federal judge appointed to the bench by president obama told the School District that if they engage in anything remotely religious, they would be fined 10,000 per violation. It just so happens at the High School Marching band was doing a performance of how great thou art. Im originally from the south end of it is a popular hymn in the church that i attend. And im sure that the principal was counting up the number of people in the marching band and he was afraid that he was going to have to multiply that number by 10,000. That is a lot of cookie sales. So he called the kids the front office and said kids, i am sorry but youre not going to play that song. You will not be able to perform your halftime routine. And i want to pause for a moment and say this. Once again, it illustrates the importance of not just the Supreme Court but the lower courts as well. This is a lower court room. Friday night Football Game came and it was a hot humid night in mississippi. As the players walk of the field and halftime, a very strange and unsettled hush fell over the stadium. No one quite knew what to do. There were no marching bands. Suddenly a young lady started singing a familiar song. And one by one people in the stands began to sing along with her and before too long the entire stadium rose to their feet and in defiance of the government saying how great thou art. The question i pose in the book is this, who among us will stand with the sussmans of the world . Who among us will stand with the alex dunn s of the world and the good people of madison mississippi . The liberals may try to silence our voices. They may try to bully us into submission. But we cannot be silenced. We must not be silenced. They took a stand for religious liberty and the great state of mississippi. And i believe it is spreading like wildfire across the fruited plain. This is a quote that is often been attributed to silenced in evil is the face of evil itself. God will not hold us guiltless not to speak, i believe this is a moment for every freedom loving patriot in america. And the time has come for all of us to stand together and with one voice declare that we are one nation under god. In closing, there is a scene in a wonderful film called we were soldiers. That tells the story of the battle you can take pictures from down there signing. That old reporter looked up at the guy and the Sergeant Major looked back down to him. The reporter ejected the weapon. The Sergeant Major said these words, there aint no such thing today sonny. So, my fellow countrymen we are surrounded with the cultural bullets that are flying the enemies of freedom are advancing and the time has come for all of us to stand resolute. Theres just no such thing today because we are freedoms last line of defense. I say dont hold hide liberties light under a bushel. Its time for every gun toting bible clinging deplorable american to take a stand for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Because we have something worth the defending we have a heritage built on a Firm Foundation so i hope our prayer on this day and on every day moving forward will be that our great nation will once again be that shining city on a hill. Thank you all very much. [applause]. We do had time for questions and todd has agreed to take them. If you do have a question please raise your hand we have with microphones we would like for you to wait until the microphone arrives. I see one right over here. Thank you. I am from Eastern Europe and i think you very much for your talk. Ive come all the way from romania to hear. I wanted to say you had allies youre not alone. They do feel excited by the news of this transformation in washington dc and i have to say i was not necessarily High School Junior in those days when i was a very young child listening which is funded by the cia and Ronald Reagan. In those days in the 80s and i was waiting for that moment to see the americans smashing the wall lubricating the Eastern Europeans and youve done that i think the American People should know that we are grateful that america has done tremendous things for people who love freedom in that part of the world. Thank you very much for that message. One question, do you think that there is an element of moral era that is pride. That made her blind to the reality of the electoral process and that pride has been detrimental to her. Did she learn anything from barack obama because she is far more sure. That is a great question. Ive often wondered what hillary thinks about. I dont think she has. I think she generally truly in the heart of hearts believes what she said. And i think that a good many liberals who think like her to do as well. This is why we have seen such violence and hostility in the streets in the aftermath of the election. So, i dont believe she has anything to regret this on. One of the things i appreciate about Ronald Reagan and i was reading this on the heritage. Org website. Reagan did not believe that we should be the police one placement of the world. Lovers of freedom to stand alongside people of the world. And i completely agree with that. So thank you for that question. We have a question over here. We have a question over here. What opinion commentary do you have regarding that. And what mark may still happen with that. Thank you for asking that question. The washington Supreme Court ruled against her so the owner the only option was at the Supreme Court here at washington takes up her case. If they decline to do so that would mean she would have to pay those fines and quite frankly it would be a chilling message to people who again have a devout religious beliefs and dont want to violate those religious beliefs. We are to pay close attention to that story and see what happens. I think this well have ramifications for every person of faith in america. I have to tell you this because this is a fairly literary looking group. How did i come about writing books. And when i grew up as a kid in the deep south i grew up in a storytelling culture. We are prone to hyperbole. I grew up reading the works of Lewis Brassard who is a Great Southern human. If you read urban comeback irma bomb back i also loved to read. I love to read liberal humorous. And two of my favorite were marley ivins did not agree with the lick of what she have to say but she was funny when she wrote about things and she was also progun. You get your carry and conceal as soon as you come out in the hospital there. This is going old school. I was always amazed at how he could turn satire on its have here in washington. I pay omars to him in one of the chapters of the book. Another question. Yes back here. I confirm wyoming and is in december i attended the wyoming Supreme Court hearing for justice and judge ruth neely and then just last week among others judge nearly was publicly censored by the wyoming Supreme Court several months ago she had been asked a hypothetical question by reporter what she would do if asked to perform gay marriage ceremonies. She explained that why she have never been asked to do so that she have certain religious objections to doing so. And she would be something similar to that. Even though she have never been asked to perform marriage. The attorneys with the state Bar Association demanded that she be removed from the bench. This is just another example of a battle that hasnt lost at the local level. I think theyve done pretty well on the National Level and had one in states where they havent won. But have we ignored some of the states where we should be winning. Thats an excellent question you raise. She is a good lutheran lady. They do good potlucks. You raise an interesting point because there is a local component to this. A lot of folks thinks its real sexy when it talk about fighting for American Values. By that point it is too late. So you really had to and that is the thrust of the book. Its all about being active and engaged on the local level. One of the areas in particular that weve talked about is a Public School system. And we encourage folks to run for the school board and get involved in the local Textbook Committee and find out what they are teaching our kids from a very practical standpoint a lot of people say why should be concerned. You are a taxpayer. Your many as pain is paying for that nonsense in the Public School. Some people say with soccer, dance, in the country its great to have a soccer team but if you dont have a country what is the point of having a soccer team. You have to prioritize. Another thing that we really encourage folks to do is to take personal responsibility for teaching your child about american history. Dont rely on the schools to do that. There may be some great history teachers out there but quite frankly some of them are teaching common core and concerns me greatly. The teacher kids and grandkids about the Founding Fathers. Take that responsibility personally in their home. Thank you for your comments. Im brian riley. I came all the way from the fifth floor to see you. I was reading a book over the weekend about post civil war. And after the civil war lacks and whites were hiring each other living together. And that was to prevent the State Government they have to pass drip jim crow laws isnt that kind of the same thing that you are describing in washington where the state is telling them how to do business and who they can do business with. That is a form of that. They are telling that. What struck me about the situation in michigan is they are telling a privately owned Business Owner what kind of reading material he can have. What is a church pamphlet had to do with whether or not the beef is good. I think in the obama ministration years we saw a gross overreach by the federal government into what is happening in local towns and communities. And another part of this it is important for folks to know their rights. To know their rights under the constitution. And sadly any folks dont especially in my generation we just dont know how far of the overreach they have. Yes maam. Going back to the case for a moment. Do you happen to know that thered had to pay the fine who does it go to. Does it go to government does a go to ago to this gay couple who benefits from this decision if it is the wrong decision. Thats a great question. I dont know what fines have been levied against her but if in fact they found that she have discriminated against a couple they would receive some of that money. Thats what happened in the aaron and Melissa Klein case. The christian mom and pop bakery wearing a very similar situation. They were forced to pay those fines. Heres the challenge. This is a challenge that i read a book. When you go through Something Like that their kids got death threats. It was ugly. They wanted to destroy these people. Just today i was reading a story about north carolinas former government he is unemployed. He cannot get a job because people dont want to hire him because he stood up and said men who identify as women dont need to use the bathroom with the little girls. Now he can get a job. There is a militant strain here. They want to destroy you. Militant strain here. They want to destroy you. What is the call to action for us. We to stand alongside his people. After they turn the cameras off and people go back to their newsrooms those people still had lives to lead. And we had disdain alongside them and let them know theyre not alone. It can get pretty scary out there for people that are taking a stand and one more thing. People like client and the vitamins in michigan you know what they did go looking for a fight. The fight came to them. And thats a scary thing because think about it. One day they could be knocking on your door think about that. We had time for a few more questions. Yes maam. Would you comment on the university situation. Some of it just seems like its beyond help. And what went on there. It seems like theres no end in sight for what we can do. Is a good point. Our universities are our most beyond help. Talk about your redeemable. Some of the stuff thats going on in this campus has with the micro aggressions i did not know such things existed. We go into that quite a bit in the book. And we have learned after there was a big controversy a lot of them just stopped giving. Even though a lot of people may not have an ideological or moral compass they do understand the bank statement. So one way to fight back against this nonsense is to just start withholding money. The other part of it is to encourage young people to consider going to schools that do believe in the constitution and do believe in free speech and do believe in this great nation. There are number of those schools a number of christian universities and colleges out there there are a lot of other opportunities in alternatives. But the sad reality of is this. Guess im guilty of sitting back and laughing and chuckling at the kids who are playing with tinker toys the code hard reality is that they are about to be kicked out we have to work with us people. As that is a scary thing to think about. With to figure out some way to get back into the to the basics on the university campus. Any school in any university we ought to yank their federal tax money. One more question back here. Do you think anything can be done about the popular hecklers veto. Fiftyfive people come in a year and speak or announcing i am stubborn enough to keep on talking is a sad part about this. The average american liberal is not very polite. I think we need to have a little bit of civility in our conversations. They can try to shut you down but you know what im in a still keep on talking. They have the big situation out at berkeley. They vandalized a building named after Martin Luther king junior for goodness sakes. These folks our blowhards. A lot of the much and be see msnbc. In your book you a chapter on the rise of radical islam. I know this is awesome discussed in the context of terrorism and so forth. And one of the points you made in marching orders is that americans should understand islam im wondering if you give any guidance in your book on how americans can better learn to understand islam or can they contact you and get some material from you about this. Thats can be a very important issue. And the problem is that when they are teaching islam in our Public Schools they are teaching a distorted view of islam. A book i wrote several years ago i rehashed an interview that a muslim scholar had done with the Orange County register. He said their goal was to basically infiltrate their Public School system so that they could become the academic advisors in textbooks that write about the lessons that they will learn about islam. That man is now one of those advisors. Someone called it a form stealth jihad is underway. I do recommend a couple of things. Number one is anything written by Joel Rosenberg many of you have read his novels also very astute and learned man. He has a brandnew as of today a new survey regarding how they view islam. There is also another amazing book that ive read written by a man named Erwin Blitzer he is just recently retired as a pastor of the moody church in chicago and he has written several books regarding islam. Those are two resources for you. To take a look at. But again its very important for us to understand islam and also the rise of radical islam across the globe. According to the survey that just came out an overwhelming majority of americans believe that there is can be gonna be some sort of attack on the homeland with a biological weapon is important to understand what we are facing and what we are dealing with. One final note if i could at the end of every chapter we provide you guys with what we call marching orders. These are things that you can do in your homes and communities and churches to really reclaim those wonderful values and traditions that our country was founded upon. In doing that i do believe that we are going to make America Great again for future generations. Understand this. This is something we have to do with every generation. Every generation has a responsibility to move that flame of freedom further. [applause]. I want to encourage you to get a copy of his book in for more research on some of the topics that he discussed the sure to go to heritage. Org. Have a great afternoon. Take you for joining us today. Thank you for joining us today. [inaudible] here is a look at some upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country. On april 8 look for us to be alive at the Annapolis Book festival. With author discussions on topics including politics income inequality and criminal injustice. Also that date will be taping author talks. Two weeks later book tv will be alive live from Los Angeles Times festival of books on the campus of the university of southern california. And on may 20 will be a life more information book tv will be covered covering in to watch previous festival coverage book tv. Org. One of the reasons i wanted to watch write this book was there so much attention paid to the opioid epidemic. The white aspect of that. Almost exclusively. The fact is we could go to baltimore right now we could go to East New York right now and find many people shooting up or using pills who are not lower middle class people. This is an epidemic that affects all income groups, epidemics. And something that is largely look past in the media i think in part because its easier for reporters to go and most reporters are white. Im speaking from experience. I think they feel more comfortable going to white neighborhoods to write about white drug addicts. I think if you saw more people of color in newsrooms you would see this aspect represented more fairly in the press. I wanted to cover that. I will talk to an area in baltimore which is actually a very small stretch on pennsylvania avenue there is a place where i spent a lot of time writing about the addicts there. They call it oxley alley. Proxy alley. On first glance it looks like any other bright street in west baltimore. The addicts stumbling out of the corner. A closer look at this rundown stretch more troubling. For nearly every one they are getting high to such users are holed up in one of those infected homes. The sixyearold son sits in the corner plane with his had truck. They talk about the quality of the drugs they are about to inject. Its can be real nice keisha says. The 40 milligrams. I just hope they are as good as the hollywood has recently learned shes six weeks pregnant with her first child. She has not seen the babys father and five. I got to make the most of it today because i cant be fully and run with pool pills anymore. Memorable names. The brands changed every few weeks. F16s hollywood. Yellow cakes. Mike tyson. They are were all the rage in april. In early may it was that blue angels. And now it is beyonce and black ivory. They havent let us down yet. They carry first began abusing pain pills earlier this month im sure theyve done right my by us with these two. There are addicts just like them. People snorted. Before they came along. Just to interject for a moment. I read about him is among the highest in the country. With little notice. A few outside of the game. The baltimore homicide detective. You come here for one of three reasons. To buy drugs, to sell drugs or because you just dont care anymore and dont mind dying. You can watch this and other programs online. The english language. We will also hear from that. Who provides christians with the blueprint for living their faith in a modern world. We will bring the National Book critics circle award and you will hear from fox news radio host. We will also examine what College Students in the u. S. In the uk pink about race in diversity programs. That all happens this weekend on book tv on cspan too. Its 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors television for serious readers. [inaudible] good evening and welcome i am the director of the Creative Writing Program at the new school and were so happy to welcome