Welcome to City Arts and that choose a season of talks and onstage conversations recorded before a theater audience in San Francisco I'm in the front join me now in hearing some of the most celebrated writers artists and thinkers of our day. Hello I'm judging true and for Linda Hunt this week our guest is United States senator Al Franken now in his 2nd term representing Minnesota Franken has emerged as one of the most visible and effective critics of the current administration a prominent voice on some of today's biggest issues including health care education and climate change Senator Franken had a somewhat different career before entering politics he was a professional comedian satirist and part of the original writing team behind Saturday Night Live after 15 Emmy award winning years at s n l he went on to write 7 books including his most recent Al Franken giant of the Senate a political memoir unlike any other from a politician unlike any other. On August 15th 2017 Senator Al Franken came to San Francisco where I interviewed him on stage at the Norse theater join me now for a conversation with Senator Al Franken beef . You might have a few minutes out of voters here. Tonight. Nice big crowd but . I think we're we as a country and certainly here on the left coast are still trying to understand what happened I know there's a new book coming out for Secretary Clinton with that title but. You've been in Washington since President Obama took office you know a little after he took office and then saw the Republicans retake Congress and now this is the last. Set of results last year there's been a lot of discussion about whether it's a class issue or race and culture what is your take on how President from one of the at least Electoral College verily not the popular vote but in how the Republicans have tighten their grip on the nation's politics I don't want to preempt her book. How do you read it now I read I mean I think it should be retitled they should be what happened question but. There still. Are and. I think we know why would I think this has been discussed a lot and I think most of the discussion is what I agree with and there's Got any way. America and was when I grew up. And the fifty's. My dad had graduated college my mom he didn't graduate high school my mom didn't go to college and my dad was a printing salesman and we grew up pretty modestly to bedroom one bath house and say it was a park and so suburb of Minneapolis and I felt like the luckiest kid in the world because I was going to middle class at the height of the middle class in America in Minnesota and say it was part and I and I felt like I could do anything I could come to do anything I wanted to do and I think that's how. People felt police white people felt in those days and I think that what we've seen is in the last 40 years we've seen a squeeze on the middle class and I think working class white. White working class and middle class Americans feel like they're their birthright was that their kids would do better than they would and as and they did and it hasn't happened for 40 years by a large and I think you know member that he's. From the psychologist from Princeton came out with this data a couple years ago or so that white Americans are living shorter time in their dying depths of despair and of drug addiction alcoholism and you know diabetes and suicide. And I think it's you know it's symptomatic of that I think a lot of anger about that and there's a lot of anger that there should be anger about that because we've seen all this wealth go to the people at the very top I think that they have a different. View of this than. Than I do the people voted for it from but I think they blame a leads they are going professionals a blame. So there was an aspect to trump which was you know I don't care what he said you know don't take them literally take them seriously which is yeah he'll say weird offensive things every once while but at least he is speaking to the central thing which is we're pissed off and we're pissed off at the elites and Hillary. Probably represented that as much as and there are cultural things going on and part of it is race and part of it's immigration and he spoke to those things and part of is cultural things like l g b t rights and marriage and all these things that people some people feel very comfortable with and the so I think there was an accumulation of that and no small part of this you know everyone says the that the intelligence community as knowledge is that the you know I've come to the conclusion the Russians hacked us and and this use the the the fact that they hacked not what they hacked but the fact that they hacked. To send in all this fake news had a 1000 trolls had you know. All this fake stuff coming and they knew where to target it and so they were you know there was no one read all of John Podesta those e-mails but if you wrote out that you sent out a story to people Facebook pages or to people who would send it on their Facebook that John Podesta and Hillary Clinton had a pedophile rain under a pizza shop in Washington there's there be some people going like that is terrible That's why I'm going to put it on my Facebook and send it to my friends and they act and they did that very expertly and I don't know where they got all the analytics that if you had even pitched it yeah if you didn't pitch to get s n l. On the Soviets then or are the Russians hacking a u.s. Election what would you even get on the air that was so implausible implausible. No I mean why would would you write a sketch about that I mean you were going to I mean now I mean. There and you mention the analytics and I think. Your question or was in charge of that for the Trump campaign and I think you might have been in a meeting I heard about with some Russians do you think if you've gotten about value for your fair to him you know. If he had to have somebody e-mail him to get him out of the meeting supposedly right he just has. He just had so many meetings during that period that he forgot about the ones that the whole lot of the time people have amnesia when it comes to meeting with Russians you might have asked the tourney general nominee about that I didn't I asked him whether he had met with Russia and he just volunteered that I had asked him. If it turns out that members of the campaign met with Russians during. During the campaign what would you do mean would you recuse yourself and he answered. Well I've been called a surrogate and I'm I had no communication with Russians during a campaign I do think he did what he did that what when thinking that in giving. I think he I think he I think he didn't want to answer my question which was I think is prepared I think you know if someone asked me if I had recused myself I'm going to say that I didn't have I'm going to just not answer that question I was just another question and so I was you know you know a lot of people credit me with because then he when he came out 7 weeks later and he didn't say anything 1st I mean weeks and then it came out of the Washing Post segment with Kislyak Russian ambassador a couple times at least and then they were then he said he did and he is themself and a lot of people. You know thought that I had deliberately asked the question the way I asked it in order to do that so that he would have to recuse himself when it came out that he and they why disabuse people of that notion . Oh I don't I. Know I have I'm constantly playing 3 dimensional chess and I. For moves ahead of everyone. Else All right Chris thanks thanks thank goodness for that now. So before that particular encounter you and Senator Sessions had a fairly friendly relationship as you have very friendly relationship with a lot of the Republican your Republican colleagues as the book describes Yeah his will is based on the fact that he was when I got to the Senate he was the ranking member of Judiciary Committee panel a he was chairman and I went in with I was going to be a work or so show horse and drew him and my 1st chief of staff had me meet with Tamra Lozano who had been Hillary's sheaf staff and I asked her for some of advice thinking that I had some of the same parallel challenges that Hillary had which was I was a bit of a celebrity so what did that mean for my. Democratic colleagues you know were they going to worry that I was going to take their camera time which I had no intention of doing and. And then my Republican colleagues she had been the 1st lady I had spent years using my comedy Diskeeper heap scorn and ridicule on my Republicans so they were going to be old but so she said be a workhorse not a show horse and and she said go to all your hearings and show up early be prepared and stay late and answer good questions so I I was on I was but I judiciary because Harry that's all I was last and Harry had Harry Reid was Harry Reid was the majority leader and when I got my assignments he said you'd be great on judiciary and I went. You know there's a lot of lawyers here and. In the Senate and I'm not one of them Harry does that's that's why you'd be great that's we need that perspective and I bought it but he he was come in with. It and that's all he had so I mean I. Had not played Had you played a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that I certainly signed all signed them and that's and I Supreme Court confirmation hearing and then I was my 5th day in the Senate I was in the side of my or confirmation and you're the only person who fits that particular bill that you both played a supreme senator and that hearing for Supreme Court justice and then after he got to be one yeah I'm also the only state senator was in a sketch. But systemically Yes the confirmation hearings got anyway so. I'm not sure that I don't know them but then you never know what they did in college they might have been in some school I mean a Oh Ok on t.v. So there you go all right you're difficult. So. Where was I going to keep you honest you know like yeah you're talking so back to sessions and you were in the French and so I would show up early for every hearing and stay late not ask questions and most of these hearings at that point in the administration were just confirmation were nomination hearings confirmation hearings for mainly. Non-controversial judge nominees I should just record and so no one would show up but me and Leahy and sessions and Leahy and so sessions would see like I show up on at the big you know there and ask good questions and he was just like you know I'm you know impressed it's because I was the only one showing up and then wonder why a month in late he had to do an appropriations thing and asked me to chair so I get there early and I'm sitting in the chairman's saying I got the gavel and he walks in and goes away oh meteoric rock. And I said and well deserved. And he laughed and. If you're a comedian you like anyone who laughs at anything you say so I go I like him. I've had some problems with them of late and. And also Mary sessions and Franny my wife Franni got along and when we had our 1st grandchild Mary needed a baby blanket for my grandma so how do you hate a guy. Whose wife. What is what is that one of those relationships of your colleagues and on the other side of the Republican side why is it important in the Senate and it's hard to believe that it is this given how dysfunctional the body's been there and it's time to salute the crucial because. Anything to get anything done you have to do in a bipartisan way really you just do and so. You have to have really this is why I wrote this chapter about Cruz who is the exception. Because he has. Done nothing and spent old man he started off so bad you know in 80 everyone just right off the bat and he was just the toxic coworker he was the guy microwaves fish or and he I I. And so I write a chapter on it and I say at the beginning the chapter that this is what you should know about Ted Cruz I did which is I would probably like Ted Cruz more than most of my colleagues like Ted Cruz and I hate Ted if. He had. Really alienated people right off the bat and this is he gets there in 2013 and my senior center and the club chars very funny and she won't let me write any jokes for her because she she when she has to do a funny speech and because she People always ask her did our jobs and she was say no but she will run them by me so she was doing the gridiron with you know the great hired this big press formal press thing black tie and stuff but democratic. Something gives a funny speech and probably does and so she was chosen to be the Democrat that year and this is and I think March of 2013 it's right after that Carnival cruise they had want to ground and. Failed and it was called the poop cruise because everything failed and you don't want to go it basically they were loading dock at sea for about 10 days and finally hauled back and it was just a lot of poop flying around so. It's not you know you save all your life for that. Really improves and then you get this thing so. Out of that reef so it really caught people's imagination anyway so. Yeah. So Amy tell me are jobs and she has one about Cruise and this is her Jo this is about 10 days before that she says Ok when most people think of a bad cruise they think of carnival but we think of today. And I think that's a good job I got a rewrite that's better and the rewrite will come at the end of the story so. But a week later it's a Thursday right before the Saturday of the speech and I'm we're on the floor for last votes of the week and I see Amy had over Ted to have that to Chuck Schumer and then she has someone else and I go like oh I see she's she's getting the Ok from these centers that she wrote jokes about and then I see you're heading over to Ted and I go I want to be a part of it. So I go out and make myself serve. Part of a conversation triangle and but she's this space in between to them and she just says up Ted I've written a joke about you for them doing the gridiron on Saturday having the job I guess I'd like to get your permission it was a good well what's your what's your job she said when most people think of a difficult groups I see in say badge is a difficult she softened it. When most people think of a difficult cruise they think of carnival but we Democrats in the Senate said of we we Democrats in the Senate think of Tad and he goes. Up say what what if you change difficult to challenging. And I see Amy go I. Ok now it's just not funny. And he can see that to Ted smart he's very smart and he goes like I'll tell you what I believe in the 1st Amendment. You go ahead and tell your joke. As well Konstam going Iowa so I said Tad. I've actually done a rewrite. On Amy's joke which I think is a lot better if you want to hear I see Amy going like only my. Book. But I also see her say I want to be here for good. So he says sure I go Ok here it is when most people think of a cruise it's full of if you were here before he behaved they they think of Carnival. But we think of Ted. And. He just was like. I want to have an Iowa Walker and I want to way before 5 before. When did you 1st start writing comedy. I guess I started writing comedy. I know just as early as you can before I could write I mean I was my. My mom was a stay at home mom and so when I was before I went to kindergarten I was home with my mom. So I made her laugh and I was at the sec. And I know there's some something tragic about all this but already know my mom thought I was really funny and she did and then the 1st show I wrote was a day. In 2nd grade. The one day the girls came or the boys came back and he says and this is Morris in our 2nd grade teachers you know manner said that the girls have a surprise for you and we went down to the a.v. Room the audiovisual room and they put on a show for us and it was included literally I'm a little teapot and stuff like that so I am it was incredibly corny and bad and so I got the other kids together boys I got a few the boys together I said let's let's write a show let's do a show to make fun of their show now. And so if you know one down it might raise my hand treated them like you later treat Rush Limbaugh and his and his ilk Well it wasn't quite that frontal while yes I guess it was so we. Like a few days later when he said Mrs Morrison we have a surprise for you and the girls and we went down the order of vision room and we did this scathing parody of there. And then that some of the girls cry. And Mrs Morrison who was a great teacher I still remember Mrs Morris and she said. Why don't we have the boys and girls do a show together and Alan can write it and we'll have the parents come and so. You know worked on this for a while and we did a show and I don't remember anything from except one thing I remember which was a sketch a civil war sketch actually and the girls played nurses and we played the boys played wounded soldiers and the only joke I remember was that we it was an anachronism which is that we hear about Lincoln's assassination. On the radio. I was 7 years old Ok. And not on the radio but that was that's a long time member so I just kept doing I was writing all through and the thing is is that of course age you know Dana Carvey once said you know no one should be a comedian unless they absolutely have to be and that when a man was if you just like a jazz musician as I like you have to be and so. So that I thought I was going to be a scientist and. That's because I was a Sputnik kid and so when Sputnik went up 157. Americans were terrified because. Of something that's had and nuclear weapons and now they're ahead of us in space and everyone is terrified and my parents Marge me and my brother into our living room sat us down said You boys are going to study math and science so we can beat the Soviets. And I thought that was a lot of pressure to put on a record. To put on a 6 year old. But. My brother and I Rivera obedient kids and we studied math and science and we were good at it my brother was 1st in our family go to college and went to mit and he graduated with a degree in physics and he became a photographer or with me. And I tested very well in math and science I mean I was good at it and I got in the Harvard and I graduated from Harvard and became a comedian. But but we beat the Soviets so. You're well you're well. We when you when you had time this were part of satellite especially in this 1st 5 years that you did have that feeling of something that we would still be talking about more than 4 decades later in terms of the impact it had on the culture and what and what what it did for comedy what was interesting because Tom Davis and I started in high school as a comedy team and. Once and we actually got up on we had a show on a place called Dudley Riggs brave new workshop while when I school and got paid to be comedians and I still live that didn't connect with me that you could actually do that for a career but we did that and. We when I finally figured out that it was freshman year I finally figured out I wasn't cut out to be a scientist. We. I graduated college we went to the 1st time I went to the l.a. To California I hitchhiked with Tom to do the Comedy Store in l.a. From Mr. And. Then we started working out there after I graduated and. We got we. An agent came to us and said seen as the Comedy Store and said you I like your writing you guys want to. Ever think about getting jobs writer and we said we want a job in show business so he said why don't you write up a writing sample of what you'd like to you know a writing sample and so the only. Comedy variety shows on have a time were the and I Joe Johnny Carson the great show not right for us. We don't write jokes like that and it wasn't much beyond the monologues and a couple sketches and a Carol Burnett Show was on at the time and there was also really good show but just not generationally right for us Sonny and Cher was on at that time and I was that was dreck and. So we just wrote. We wrote a packet of material and I had a newscast there even there's cast and commercial Perry It had a sketch which as I remember was a parody of the Sonny and Cher Show. And then a conceptual film and that's all was it was 14 pages long and it was the perfect writing sample for us now and we were the only writers warn hire that he hadn't met . And I got there and and we seized the becoming like Michael Donny who in Chevy and. Ackroyd and killed the 1st 2 people pass them blue she comes in and does for an audition does Samurai and and all these and I I'm like we're a month in the pre-production and I just say that town is going to be a giant hit now I've been in show business for 5 minutes. And I'm just supreme Lee confident guy and then oh no this is the 1st time our generation has been allowed on television and this group is great and this is going to be a giant hit time. And time is just like yeah and and so I when I think back to the cockiness that I had then it is stupid they're never you never have heads and but you know I it was kind of true and warm and develop this format that was just great and the and. Yeah but I was kind of I was I had this weird. A cockiness at that age fortunately I don't have anymore but. You're listening to Senator Al Franken at the North Theater in San Francisco this is a city arts and lectures when you were inside it live you did a lot of political humor did you did it did you start to think about what it would be like to be more involved in politics and maybe even a run for office someday even back then I didn't think about running for office at all but we did I was always interested in politics always and and. Kind of I'm a bit of a policy wonk and I mean I've followed stuff and I was very proud of the political satire we did on the show I write in the book about this about Jim Downey and I did a awful lot of it and everybody you know contributed and but Jim and Jim is a conservative and a very very very brilliant guy and he and I felt that it wasn't the job of the show to have a bias of political bias and you know when I thought about it was like later Murphy Brown came along and that was a show created by one woman Diane English and starring Candice Bergen that show could be have a point of view we had so many cast members so many writers so many people that it just didn't feel right for the show to have a political bias and so we tried to do was really well observed comedy and that. Were rewarded you if you knew stuff but it was written in a way that didn't punish you for not knowing stuff and that is banned kind of way I've approached almost everything even my book sense which is I want I call it nutritional Candy. And that you can read it on different levels and if you're a political junkie I think you'll really love this but if you're not you'll be Ok to imagine most people here are our kind of political junkies but. You know I try to make these things accessible so if you were thinking about running for office back on and the s n l days when when did you when did it become a reality to you that you could actually do this that you could run for office the moment it happened was Paul Wellstone to I dedicate the book to Paul and Sheila Wellstone and Paul was a hero of mine and a friend and. Thank. Incredibly passionate guy and fought for the little guy. And you know he was the one to coin that I'm from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party really. And. He was he was a hero on mental health on veterans' homelessness so many issues and. About. Less than a month before the election he voted against going to war in Iraq. Very most people most of which go to war as most Americans did and he thought that was going to be end of his career and actually what happened was people Minnesota being Minnesotans said well I don't agree with them but I know what he I know he actually is authentic and actually have the courage of his convictions and I like that and so he went up to the polls when he was ahead by about 7 points in the polls the day he died and he and his wife and daughter and 3 staffers and 2 pilots died in a plane crash. Norm Coleman ended up winning that election the Republican and then about 3 months after he was in office roll call that its 1st profile roll calls Capitol Hill newspaper and then. Called me and said to be blunt I mean I had 9 percent improvement over Paul Wellstone. And that was the moment I went I wonder who's going to be this guy accept that's not exactly the words. And that was the 1st time it in my head that I went Well maybe I could. Run for office and beat him and that's not a reason to run for office by the way. And became less and less as late as this went on and that was and that was in 2003 I didn't run till 2008 but Fran and I are about to be empty nesters and so I have had the radio show to do their their America show to do and I had agreed to do that New York for a while but then when we could we moved to Minnesota and I started just exploring what it would be I didn't know if I'd like it so I started going around Minnesota doing bean feeds which is the d.f.l. Parys a Democrat former Labor Party Minnesota are organizing principle is being feeds and and ads in every county every. Day f.l. Senate district has been fees and they could be spaghetti dinners or burger bashes or whatever. But there are all called being paid and I went around Minnesota and I found that I really liked it and I really learned a lot I was doing the radio show at the time and I have Elizabeth Warren on who was always talking about the middle class squeeze and I learned from her that more than 50 percent of bankruptcies in America are at least in part caused by a healthcare crisis and I knew that but when I went to around the state I I it became personal because personal the people of Minnesota and you go into a v.f.w. Hall or you go into a cafe and you'd see a flyer up for. You know barbecue or a pig roast or being feed for. Of family they've gone bankrupt because someone got sick and I would meet people who were. It happened to them or their brother or and. That made me more that's what the campaign came about was and that's what Paul said Paul said politics isn't about winning it isn't about power or about money it's about proving people's lives and that's. Me. What was it like for you personally when the campaign got so nasty and when your when your career as a comedian got completely used against you yeah that was that was unpleasant. Basically what's happened well I expect that to happen did you know I was an idiot I am I went in the race really thinking my career in comedy what an asset. To my people love Saturday Night Live and made the satire done on it I'm just so proud of it and I like books and and what they did was is they put everything I had ever written or said as a writer or comedian and put it through this $15000000.00 machine called the Dehumanizer And you know this is a machine built with state of the art Israeli technology. To take anything out of a joke that made it funny and just left it being absolutely horrible and so it took the context out if I had irony and added the bad out it took the hyperbole and just left it as an example as I wrote. So article for Playboy and 2000 and it was a millennialist to January 1st 2000 William f. Buckley wrote next issue Isaac Asimov wrote science fiction I and I they asked me to write a funny article so I thought Ok well I'll do an article about. Virtual sex because Playboy would always do this articles about on the hip new thing that every new guy should know about so. And I started off by talking about like how technology is just changing everything and how great it is a great technology as I said for example my son last year. Did a great 6th grade report on beastie ality using the Internet. And he downloaded a lot of great visual aids and. The kids in the class just love them because you know at that age they're just sponges. Now. The point of that joke is a very conservative point which is parents you may want to check out. What your kid is looking at on the internet but they changed it into an ad where. Al Franken. Is so pretty. And he jokes about. The. Area and it would be like going from in vanity. Out to t.v. Through your eyeballs and rattle and and your skull and my my mother in law when she saw that she cried. And that's what it was like it was everything they just turned into. And and what happened was a guy at one point and I write about this Fanny save the campaign and she couldn't take it anymore and she. Had a period where she got in trouble with alcohol and she was in recovery and so she did an ad with Mandy Grunwald my mean here. Because all and she just sat down Mandi talker and she talked about. What who I am you know and she said she talked about her alcoholism and she said this one line we showed pictures of our kids and in the adage but she said this one line which was how can a mother of 2 such beautiful kids being out go and spoke to the shame. That every alcoholic or virtually every alcoholic feels and especially a mom or dad dies and. She shot this sad I was I was so beautiful I cried and Chuck Schumer when he saw he cried but it was because they way I was going to win. Oh God he's going to win anyway so. But 2 days after the the ad 1st aired we had a debate in the gymnasium and full of people and when she entered the room she got a standing ovation and it was very powerful and I think and it was an anchor who blogs that like who are far better than an ad in a global campaign could actually help people you know and because you know I think that probably some people saw that and said you know what I should just go. So Election Night 2008 I've seen country a lot of the country is celebrating like the election of the 1st after their president Yeah and you wake up the next day down less than a 1000 votes yeah did you think about Florida in 2000 right away. Well I think. I thought about a recount right away because I was down by 725 books out of almost have 2900000. And in Minnesota you automatically get a recount if it's with then have a person present. You don't have to the loser can say no but this was about 31 Hundreds of a percent or 2100 percent So 73 are my my campaign manager said to me in Frannie do you want to do it and we said yes and . Norm Coleman. That morning said if I were Franken I'd step back and let the healing begin. And then I could do that often you heard him say that something No I didn't laugh I actually wanted to say something very snarky answer casting back but my I learned something during the recount which is not to trust my instincts and because my my team said Don't say anything just don't saying we're just going to do this the right way and don't say anything and I won the recount. And we have a hand recount in Minnesota Every The ballots are cast by hand and there's a copy of each one and you go through every damn Ballen. And the judge said Sara you have someone from the Coleman campaign some of them frankly I mean you can challenge it and most you know. 99 percent or 0.9 percent of the time what the judge calls is right. There is the secretary say to put it counting thing where a challenge vote became not a vote for you or for anybody so they were over challenging at 1st and the games are being played about that but the fact the matter was or the physical ballot and the when everything. Pushed down the sham I won the recount in time to get seated by the way with my colleagues. I want to buy $225.00 votes and that's when Norm took the anti healing position. To me that he sucked with it for another 6 months. But you know I just don't don't worry about him he was but he is now serving the people of Minnesota as a paid lobbyist for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia so. Don't worry about don't worry about Norm Coleman. So you joined the Senate in July 2009 and what about to almost use just by going to her saree in the Senate last month right yes my After 8 years now and at that time the Democrats had essentially 60 votes once you were there because of Arlen Specter and now we're in this other position what is it been like for you to go from you know a part of almost filibuster proof majority and at some point when Obamacare was passed it was to now being in the minority and how are you still trying to fight for the issues you care about you know is very different. And it's also we have not only are we in the minority but we have this president because we've been in the minority before I mean for the last since. Really. Since 14. For the Senate and we've been a minority sins can that 1011 I guess 15 so. You know it's I rather be in the majority of the you know that you are. But this president is also this is been a very very different experience because. These confirmation hearings are very different and we had some people coming up before us who were woefully on qualified Betsy device comes to mind. She. It was an amazing hearing. She got not in a good way bad amazing and then and there spectacularly bad way and I asked her a question I do you have these courtesy meetings before I am and she came in my office and I heard from my colleagues accuracy meetings were there before that she didn't know much about education so I'm there with my staff and I asked her a couple questions about what what about. You know No Child Left Behind did you think was bad and didn't work and when you're. Nothing and. I mean she just can't well I think it didn't provide parents with of choice and everything was so everything was put through that land is a vouchers or was it and after like 2 questions I put my staff and I looked at each other like holding more weight and we had combination of deer in the headlights and tumbleweeds but. I've never seen them both at the same time. We're doing this we're just in this incredible moment I think in our country's history and I think. How do you avoid cynicism and what do you tell other people who are despairing and just feel like all the calls only makes so much difference what do you how do you avoid cynicism and what do you tell people Well I'm in the book by saying I'm going to hand out an optimistic note which may seem odd. Now but. And it's a chapter called being as good as the people we serve what keeps me have to miss it because people in Minnesota and. So I tell. When Trump came to Minnesota as one public appearance he just tore into the Somali American smiling in a 2nd right before the election right before they are on the Sunday before the election and he did it in the most ignorant and dishonest awful way possible which is what he does and. So I. That June though I had gone to high school graduation and Wilmer Minnesota which is in south central Minnesota and that's about. 2 hours directly west of the Twin Cities and it's a county seat of can you know high County which is the largest Turkey producing county and in the state woods and Minnesota's largest Turkey producing state MacGyver So it has meat packing as Jenny. Turkey air so it has a diverse community and I invite myself to high school commencement because to introduce the class speaker and the class speaker munavvar a lot he is a Somali Minnesota girl and she had been. She had been a page. In the Senate you mean a Senate page and her principal at this great high school had recommended to our office and our office interviewed her and she had a great interview and. The day she arrived I was told about Muna and so I said well let's go down meter and so I go down there's a new class of pages 30 kids so we don't always have a minister pager and it's really easy to pick her out she's Molly and she's where he job over and the page in a form so I go up to her I said You look like a Minnesotan. Or are now met and she smiled and I got to know her and she was really really smart really mature really thoughtful and so she was chosen to be the class speaker because that you're junior when you're a page and so she was chosen to be the class speaker so I heard about this I'm by myself the introducer so I get there and. Before we have some coffee and donuts and I give her a hug and so I go out and sit on the stage and I open the program there are 246. Seniors graduating and I look at the program and I can see like 60 percent are your you know Norwegian or Scandinavian America German. White kids you know and the president of the class the state hopeful and. He's half you know we just have German. And about 20 percent of kids are with you know and made to Meran Mer American. Girl Latino girl is was the valedictorian and she was born in Ecuador and then about 15 percent of the kids were. Somali. And moving it was just the middle class bigger . And they have them really good orchestra. And so they start with pomp and circumstance and they have a center aisle like this one right here and they start coming down and move. A b. D. She's 1st in the alphabet and so she's coming down holding hands. With Mary Carlson. And Mary Carlson. There's a my driver in Minnesota and I have a thing with Mary Carlson is one of the Carlson twins and actually was Michele coming out of there now I think about it because they went that way and Mary was next so. And they were identical twins and my driver and I have this thing called Couldn't be cast better and a Carlson twins couldn't be cast better they were just emanated joy and and intelligence and love and they were they had a number of asterisks about if you graduate honors one asterisk 2 I and 3 highest both of our highest honors and they came down holding hands and the Somali boy came down holding. Mary's hand. And it was just Kate gave a great young really good speech and I really big ovation. There on. Merit gave a great speech made to made to marry an American I can never get her name right. And she gave a beautiful speech and then I introduced. Moon And she got huge of Asian and then at the end got a standing ovation and then they played the Battle Hymn of the republic which they do every every year and sort of thing and it's just the most stunning they have the chorus and when I was in the chorus. And then at the end my job was. I'm sorry I was just posed with their diploma. And so the bad to get out the diplomas and they say Ok We're going to get $246.00 graduates so hold your applause. And so they announced moon and the whole place goes nuts. And they did that for every kid. Election day I go to the University of Minnesota Muna is at the u. There's 40000 kids of the University of Minnesota I'm going there to get up to vote I see me you know and I'm 40000 she tells me her sister and niece and he said I have been chosen to be homecoming queen week after the election back in d.c. I meet with the French ambassador I see them in my office I say in France. Who do the French consider a Frenchman he said Well usually the most frank considers someone a Frenchman if they can point back centuries to what village their ancestors grew up and I said and so immigrants and refugees aren't really considered French meaning not by most parents and. I thought of parents I thought of Belgium and I thought of they just don't. Assimilate they're there and here and we elect the moment coming clean. Thank you. Thank you very much thank you been listening to Alfredo at the nurse theater until this point this program was recorded on August 15th 2007. City Arts and actors in association with k.q. And public radio San Francisco founding directors. Executive producers. And truth Goldstein production assistant Alexandra Washington. Theater technical director Steve post production director. The recording engineers and engineering supervisor Monte Carlo. Director of Radio affiliate station news Eric Cline theme music composed and performed by pact police and. Wallace's vice president and general manager of k. Through public radio. City Arts and next years programs are supported by grants for the arts of the San Francisco hotel tax fund. Additional funding for vital. The wall or sonic Sandercoe pogi foundation the me me and Peter Haas fund the Bernardo sure foundation and the friends of City Arts and that. Support for recording and post production of City auction lectures is provided by Robert Naylor Anderson and Nicole. To attend a live program for a list of upcoming guests visit our website at City Art Stockton that city arts dot net. Pushing the arsenic choice and cake through public radio. Support for k.q.e.d. Comes from s.j. Dance Co San Jose's classic and contemporary modern dance company presenting its 15th season roots in Wings October 12th and 14 that the hammer theatre s.j. Dance co dot org And from Eric and Wendy Schmidt whose family foundation advances the wiser use of Energy and Natural Resources on a planet where everything is connected on the web at Schmidt dot org City Arts and lectures be on again tomorrow morning at 2 tomorrow night special is from the Computer History Museum it is a conversation about technology health and equality with Dr Anthony I couldn't tune in for the Computer History Museum presents Wednesday night at 8 here on k.q.e.d. F.m. 88.5 San Francisco and k.q.e.d. Fam 89.3 North Highlands Sacramento We are live online at k.q.e.d. Dot org My name is Michelle Han again in the Times 9 pm. Hello it's 4 hours g.m.t. I'm banned and welcome to the newsroom from the b.b.c. World Service Spain's cabinet will meet later as a Scots the cattle on question Catalonia as leader of once talks with Madrid on giving his region independence.
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