This afternoon, we are very pleased to welcome legendary actor, ed asner, with his new book, the grouch historian. Mr. Ed asner is a television legend. Nominated total of 20 times for an emmy award. The winner seven emmys and five golden globe awards. For his portrayal of hugh grant on the beloved, the Mary Tyler Moore show. At a espinoff series, lou grant. He is the only actor to win emmys proclaim the same character in a comedy and a drama and has won more emmys than any other male performer. In addition to his acclaimed acting career, he served two terms as president as the screen actors guild. Also celebrated voice actor. Most notably as the voice of Paul Fredrickson in the Academy Award winning film up. He talks about autism and unions and is active in Many Organizations including Autism Speaks and with wally. He never shied away from criticizing policies he disagrees with. Even when it got him into trouble. In recent years, he has been active on twitter. Calling a social injustice advocating guncontrol, criticizing the current president. In the crouching historian, he defends our constitution against rightwing and is unapologetic about his views on the urgent need to improve the state of our deteriorating democracy. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to ed asner. [applause] thank you thank you, thank you, thank you [applause] i want that printed in guilt i am honored to be here. This is quite a turnout. I think this is bigger than the audiences that i draw. Not that you are not not an audience but, youre here to take part in the grouchy historian. Ed comes in and out like a tinker bell. But just know that anything i say, certainly, he has input as well as mine. Im here with my daughter and my grandkids. And we love this neck of the woods. It is a pretty neck. Sometimes i want to strangle it back most of the times i would like to caress it. Now, i guess to be open up to questions now or i will take any questions you may have right now. Yes . Front row. [inaudible question] hello from kansas city, kansas you know how to get my heart. I know that you are in town and you are a fellow kansan. It turned into a terd i agree when did you start your homework on this . Before i was born . For a long time. We worked on this last year. And came in with guns blazing this year. [inaudible] i hope you entertained as well. Because yeah . Walk all of that way, my god [inaudible] thank you. Is developing new microphones [laughter] it is an honor to meet you mr. Ed asner. Im curious, seems a politics of the country is always cyclical. We go through eight years of rightwing despair with george w. Bush. We have eight years of relative hope with obama wouldnt you say, that the election of donald trump, has been hthe best thing that coul happen in the wide world of george w. Bush . [laughter] yes, yes [applause] talked about the mass crusaders coming in time my god, did he make him look good i absolutely agree with that. And actually, that leads to my question. What we are going through now just seems like something totally different than the normal ebb and flow. Totally through the rulebook out the window. Im curious, do you feel optimistic about where we can ultimately end up from this . Would you like maybe we are in a skid we cannot steer out of . I think with the governors victories last week along with the other offices, i think we were revealed a trend. I think we will reveal because it is not just donald trump. I think in a way, we have to thank donald trump. Because he pushed the cart over the edge and the cart has been teetering on the edge with the Republican Congress for a long time i mean, we have got three houses stacked against us. The supreme court, executives, and congress so, if we can reverse congress, and affect future supreme courts, will come out looking good thank you. An yeah. You come on, speak up [laughter] i am tired of waiting for you to talk. [laughter] do not grumble, i am the grouch as much as trump concerns me in the us, i am concerned also by what he represents in the us seems to be worldwide phenomenon. It is happening in france and germany, the arab, the middle east. It seems to be affecting the whole planet poland has gone right, the Czech Republic has gone right. Brexit brexit, yeah. Well i think the brits are biting their tongue right now or their nails i think a lot of that is because donald, the donald, opened the door. Let this run its course and you know, people get tired of systems. I still want to see the day when the party can run in this country and be accepted as the norm. [applause] this country has been so brainwashed. And it is being pushed in against communism. But you see at least a year being in jail under wilson. And nobody has the brains or the patients to give it a fair hearing. Even though we are confronted with majority of european states who are socialists. And here, where most of our progress certainly under roosevelt, was socialistic when the American People pull their heads out of the sand, if you want to call that the sand, [laughter] that remains to be seen. I certainly hope that would be progress for us if we could see socialism on fair, more equal terms then we have until now. Thank you. Come on back there. Leaving so soon . Hi, i was wondering what words of wisdom you could offer to someone such as myself who wants to resist, who wants to fight. But it is hard to carton pardon the expression, deal with crazy. They are incredibly misogynistic. Supported pedophilia, that sort of thing. How can we stand when they will not listen to reason . Can you repeat the last part . How can we take a stand related when not listen to reason . In preaching the constitution, some of my first words are, dont look for the man on the white horse. Not the man or the woman on the right has been you are that person for you are the groundbreaker. You are the glass shattered. And it is up to us individually. Not to back off. To come forward, to be our own leader. And be amazed when you look around and there is a follow. But do not let that seduce you. Keep fighting until the end of your fight. Using our constitution as your weapon. Without a hoard having to be involved. The republicans have dominated and used the constitution as their pet policy for many years. Thlets show them that they do not own it. That we own it as much as they, if not more. Because it depends on the individual. We are here to make the individual a standout. A star. And we are going to do it. We are going to do it. Thank you. [applause] there is another hand back there. Imagined the constitution. It brings to mind the Second Amendment and some recent events with horrible mass it should is producing a path forward to some kind of a reasonable discussion . About gun violence in this country . Congress puts his tail between his legs. And is never heard from again. I never heard anything about bump stocks. I never heard about silencers. Where is the wellkept secret of congress . In terms of these weapons of mass destruction . That george bush is where they are i think the right has taken me Second Amendment and modernized it and modified it. I think we i wanted to take it home [laughter] dammit. We let them. We have two call that Second Amendment as we read it. As we interpret it. And on the fact that it signifies a militia. Not necessarily property. I mean, more guns are owned in this country than anywhere by far by far and, those guns take lives in mass murder by far. By far. We have to show that the Second Amendment was written was fine for a man to have a gun to kill a deer. But it was not fine to have a gun to wipe out his nextdoor neighbor. And the louder and the stronger that we make the noise, the Second Amendment was created when shays rebellion. She was marching with a force of about 4000 men. While the constitution was being written. And they were on their way to springfield massachusetts. To take over in armory. Which held a lot of weapons. George washington and his, i do not know if it was hamilton or not. Was made very agitated about it. Forcing men to stop them. And they did. In the Second Amendment was then written. Lets go back and demand clarification of the Second Amendment and until the nra, go to hell [applause] with their gross misinterpretations of what policy stands. The, the other thing we might do well going back to rewrite the constitution or amended it to look at the electoral college. Which gave us donald trump. [applause] he actually lost by almost 3 million votes. Lets bring back democracy to the United States of america. Thank you. [applause] yes . I am going to change the subject a little bit. I know that you are here to sell books but i would like you to talk about the Mary Tyler Moore show. Mary tyler moore in particular and the show and what it did for young women, young girls and how they grew up to be women. I remember watching it as a young girl. And thinking, i could not wait to graduate from college. Have a career and have my own apartment. And instead of getting married. So, i just want to know if you understood that, what was happening for young girls at the time. Just anything or any thoughts on that. I was always shocked and amazed when i heard what a choked on my own thoughts [laughter] what a pacesetter the Mary Tyler Moore show was. For women. I never thought that we were pacesetters. The show was originally written to have her be a divorcee. And they changed it to her breaking off her engagement. Which made the whole show. I was always amazed when womens rights became focused on our show. And i remember there was a part where mary, towards the end of our series, or she was out all night with a man. You may have missed it. And they mentioned it on maud. And tran said, said what . Not our mary that was a kind of image she created, and it worked the revolution is still going on. Look at the vigilantes now going out to demand for delivery slip assaults. Is not groping. And ive been guilty myself. You cannot pin a wrap on me but you can try. I think it is a flurry of emotion. That will finally, eventually cool down. And men are learning from this as well. I cannot go by one day without some female telling me, slow down buster. Slow down. Slow down. Okay. We have to get used to it just as the women have to get used to it. And i think that it will eventually bottom out perhaps. The deal, more sensibly with each other. Certainly than i have in the past. And certainly Harvey Weinstein in the past. But if you love women there was one over here. There you go. I am particularly disturbed by the rights attacks on separation of church and state. Separate what . Separation of church and state. And im wondering what your thoughts are on that. Thank you. Well, once again, go back to your constitution. The constitution was, and the country was founded by people who were not members of organized religion. John adams i think, was the only one. And he belonged to the unitarian church. I do not think that was organized religion. But, they were all deists. And as they certainly did not choose to follow the evangelical pursuit that occurred in this country. Particularly in the south and midwest. Which, grows and decreases, grows and decreases. I think it is a flame of the week. And, the more judicious are decisions and our rulings will be. We will see. We will see. Thank you. Yeah . Mr. Ed asner, welcome. That is i got my family good to see you again. I have a lot of frustration dealing with people who cannot understand the distinction between socialism and communism. They are so afraid that a little bit of socialist changes in this country, would interfere with freedom and also creativity. I spoke with a norwegian friend of mine is that he found more freedom in norway than he did here. I think that can be repeated a few times i want to know if you have any comments . First of all, communism came to be regarded as a dictatorship of the i do not think socialism has ever been regarded as that. Even though, hitlers own party was the National Socialist party. So lepeople become confused wit manipulation of terms and i think mostly his party was also employed in the use of socialist. But i i would hope some brilliant t. V. Entrepreneur would make a special. Explaining to people what socialism is. What the pluses are and what the drawbacks are. And let it stand on its own. And i think a lot of people in this country can benefit from the education. Thank you. Yeah. [applause] it is good that you have done a lot of homework to write the book. Especially in the past history. Im wondering if there any sources to contemporary whether it is bill moore, anyone else that from when you draw inspiration and so nyon. In 1923 or 26, wrote history of the American People. And was practically disenfranchised by the country and the brains. Never to rise for many many decades. But his sharp accurate perception of the founders and the framers and what constituted the beginnings of this country. It should be looked at, perus perused and digested. I find that the majority were lawyers. It is fairly common knowledge. There were large number of banquets in bankrupts in the founders. I think george washington, never saw one dollars that he disdained. He made good money. And he charged high interest. And i think washington d. C. Was eventually settled through terms with his potomac company. And i am sure he made a few bucks there. He was good on slaves. Madison was the best. Jefferson was the worst. Good old tom. And i am sure adams had a clean slate on slavery. But, it pays for us to examine these. There is a hit show on broadway and has been for a few years called hamilton. I think you read this material that we avail ourselves of. He was a brilliant input. He was a class act. And actually, when he got bumped up by aaron burr, he was plotting or planning to introduce a bill outlawing yeah. So, we will see. Now, they are fascinating people and that cannot stress enough, they were all children of the enlightenment. As they discovered were coined the phrase, that they all read montesquieu and i forget who else. But even more interesting is, that they read the framers. So, we have someone to be proud of in those creatures who created us. And we should investigate them and invest ourselves in them even more. Yeah . At the back. You have a sucker here, oh good you are preaching to the choir with this book. [laughter] im curious personally. Questions were converted people on the other side . No no, i do not enter lions dens. I think fear certainly plays a part of it. I never feel armed enough to verbally throw down the gauntlet and challenge in the i feel there is always something i need to know. In the larger scene of politics, we need to start engaging and testing the waters and sticking the big toe in and seeing if it gets scalded or not. And i think that, we can make progress slowly, bit by bit. If we can find the volunteers to do that. And volunteer in particular areas but i will not take on the whole right. Except impeachment. [laughter] [applause] back there someplace. You have been an activist yourself and as someone that is just starting to really get into politics, do you have any advice for the Younger Generation who is just getting and like what we can do and how we can get involved . Well this is a fact for you to chew on. We have been in existence 240 years. And those 240 years, there has only been 21 years where we have not been at war. 21 240 now, i think there has to be some breaks applied. And, the word passed on. This season, i noticed who did that . [laughter] he is a vet. There is tremendous emphasis on honoring the vet. And i am a vet, so what . I do not get shot at. I was in the korean war and france how about that . The right strikes again but i think that when we look closely, compare those years, we have been at peace in that war. Compare what the army does and sucking of the poor disadvantaged youth in his country. Promising them an education. On the cheap, if there is room to join. I think we have to go back to eisenhower and rid ourselves of this military Industrial Complex because all it does is create nation worship. We have become the war mongering the world. I think al qaeda and all of the others, i see them as monsters, yes. But we have done more to pass off the middle east than anybody. The british started it. At least in modern times. By their infestation of afghanistan. They finally led it. Then the russians tried it. Now we are trying it. And still, lacking success. When are we going to learn by example . Staying out who said you have to preach democracy in a religious dictatorship . It is ridiculous and who are we, as challenged as we are economically, and if you want to contest that look at the growing spread between the one presenters and the next class of learners. The one presenters and the next class of learners. If you want to challenge that, maybe we will not be funding as many poor kids, black kids, brown kids to go to school. And maybe we can bring me bluecollar economy back to the country so people can start making money again. And they can afford to send their kids to college, if that paid out to the Defense Department is sideways into scholastic benefits. Into collegiate assistance peered into welfare assistance in college. We have the money. Lets learn how to spend it. [applause] there she is jeremy . How long are we going to keep going . [inaudible] as long as they are questioning i am willing to try and answer. First of all, it is a pleasure mr. Ed asner. I am an educator of young people. This past election created so many conversations of anger and fear within children that i teach. I wanted to know what advice you have for me, to inspire the kids that i teach to want to trust and make changes within our society . I hate to tell you, i am hard of hearing. I had a hard time understanding. I am sorry. I teach children. This past election created so many conversations of anger within the kids. What advice can you give me to continue to inspire change within our kids . To be passionate about moving forward in this country . I think just by this group here. Just by the results of the elections. Just by the fact that he was defeated by almost 3 million votes in the general total. You do not need any more encouragement. You can march and march proudly and know that you are in the majority you are in the majority [applause] and dont take no for an answer being in the m