Not call back. We were introduced by a media writer local here years ago and hes been very encouraging and has helped me quite a bit with this book in terms of background and research and so forth. The vietnam most of the book i wrote is about world war ii veterans and i want to give you a little background before we start speaking. Before world war ii, if you were paralyzed, you will much of that and told. The average lifespan was 18 months and work will too. It was a game changer. The penicillin, Surgical Unit battlefield right behind the front lines and they had evacuation to the mainland. The end of world war ii, you have a cohort of about 2500 u. S. Veterans who were paralyzed returned home they had a chance. This is the first cohort that would have this unit presented a dilemma and bit of an issue with the da, and the government. In other words, how do we take care of these men . Before, basically they were in full flight passes. Institutions will basically, if they were a family, they were in the family home no mobility. The term confined to a wheelchair was true because he couldnt move around. They will unwieldy wheelchairs, living room nature to, wheelchairs for mobility and they were a game changer because hold them into the car and then drive away at the start of family and so forth. These 2500 paralyzed veterans were pioneered and one of the Key Attributes of rehabilitation medicine in the va hospital was recreation and see one of the first realtor basketball games ever played at Madison Square garden in 1948 and you will see they are using the everest and jennings chairs which in todays world, we think of as incredibly oldfashioned and not very maneuverable but back then, those were stateoftheart. This is a game featuring paralyzed veterans from massachusetts, they came down to new york city to play against a team from Staten Island and you see the game is very rude, theres not a lot of offense of plays like that but this is the first time that paralyzed veterans are displayed in front of huge crowds. 15000 people admiring the pioneers, these veterans have managed to start one of the teams, and we will see these in the next clip one of the key and was sort of the results immediate coverage. This was one of the players in that name, ehrhardt, wounded at normandy and here he is on the cover, every media outlet covers these guys from the communist daily worker to the popular crash. Out here in socal, there was wheelchair basketball and this was the birmingham va hospital and were nice in san fernando valley. Hes in his first home and he plays a paralyzed veteran is in rehab and these are some of the exercises. Its one of the reasons why basketball game so popular, the veterans, it did help with the chest, arms and shoulder muscles which are so important for paraplegics because, helping them move around and have the strength to be able to do this. Heres where i was mentioning everest and jennings, he has his coast guard there, right into the second seat and he and drive away. These are specially adapted cars for paraplegics and you will see the house hes walking in, these paralyzed veterans formed a pda which still exists, paralyzed veterans of america. When this came from birmingham, they would stop in washington d. C. And Lobby Congress for disability rights including adapted cars and stipend to build a house. Here we see randall playing wheelchair basketball and playing sports. This was water polo at the pool there. One of the veterans why write extensively about in the book was in this film as an expert, they used a bunch of experts who were paralyzed veterans as background actors. Again, this role that was very attractive to him, his first roll out, becoming a star. Played by tom cruise i just wanted to say, first of all, participating here with you today, my very first wheelchair, you made me feel very old. My very first chair was a jennings and it was the first chair i had and it worked for me back then. It was 1968 i was shot january 20, 1968. Second new years, United States marine in vietnam. I was shot in the right shoulder and went through my right lung and paralyzed me. From my mid chest down, ive been paralyzed close down 52, 53 heres. I remember reading even after world war ii, and flutter political were not the past 18 months, as you said. Im so grateful to be still alive and have lost many friends along the way. This is not an easy physical challenge to deal with. Psychologically, emotionally, is a great challenge. Maybe you can tell us about that, when you came back, the bronx va. They were later investigated by life magazine, they did a front page, front cover, it shook up the colby a. Coming back from vietnam with the most catastrophic injuries you could imagine. Paraplegics, quadriplegics, and men from the neck down. Im sure many of you watching right now might have seen born on the fourth of july, all of that was true. Thats how i began my life at the age of 21. Im in this place, not only was i dealing with paralysis, the shock of having lost three quarters of my body, everything from my chest down. Never having children. I must say, from the moment i left the field of battle and received last rites of the catholic church, they didnt know if i would make it or not in the intensive care ward, i am so, ive never not felt grateful to be alive every single day no matter how hard its gotten over the years. The present moment, i drink too much, close to giving up and leaving this world way too ear early, theres always a part of me that i knew i have made it out of the just barely. I was shot in my right foot, the bullet went through my foot in the back of my heel, could no longer walk. Then i took around to my right shoulder and severed my spine from the mid chest down, i couldnt move. I was jammed and the first came from behind, was shot in the heart right behind me. Killed instantly. A few moments later, came up from behind and ran me back under and save my life. Ive never forgotten that day. Ive never forgotten how lucky i am to have survived. Even during the most difficult times, those early years were very difficult for many of the young men severely wounded, paralyzed veterans, quadriplegics. Those first few years were too much for them but some of us decided to go on. I remember sitting in my room in my wheelchair all alone and i remember having this feeling, thinking how am i going to make it through another day . Would have some of the veterans world war ii and korea come into our room at the bronx va and they were inspiring. Just to see these guys in realtors and five, ten years and even longer. I couldnt believe it because i was just trying to make it to every day, psychologically and emotionally overwhelming for me. I had no idea how i would live with this thing or how i would deal with this. I could never have imagined i would have the future i eventually had, i was able to adjust the Democratic National committee and in new york and able to write a book became a bestseller around the world and i was able to have a movie made of my life so i feel very blessed. Athleticism. I got out of the hospital, i decided to the g. I. Bill, i had the opportunity, i wasnt a great student, believe me. I had to go to Summer School just to get a general diploma mailed to me so i wasnt going to college. I ended up coming home paralyzed but i remember it was just. How did you get started in terms of after you came out of the va hospital. Festival, i was able to go to college even with might academic standing was not the best at the time so i was still able to go. The university had a possible team, the railing dutchman. I grew up wanting to play for the new york yankees investable in football and wiffleball, heavily into sports. The yankees in madison, all these dreams of being a hero and i was very strong and even before, the wheelchair basketball, i used to shoot baskets and i would have time. There is a court of the va down the hill, theres a little basketball court. Two or three hours, i loved it. I did that by myself until i found out they had this organized Wheelchair Basketball Team at the university and i decided to join. I had my First Political organization i decided to join. Interestingly enough, it was called push. People united to support the handicap. My First Political organization, i used to be involved in a lot of politics, this organization was made of exclusively paraplegics and quadriplegics. Not just veterans but terribly falsely, blind, site. , you name it. Had it. Back then, you have to understand, it was a tumultuous time. People in the streets, demonstrations, revolution is him and even this group that met once a week at the university which eventually led me to basketball if this group, i was filled with passion and a certain sense of rebellion. The country was extremely polarized. Anyone during that time had good fortune of living through the extraordinary time in history where the vietnam war and the country was split very similar in many ways whats going on right now but i have to say this organization, push, that was the First Organization that gave me a certain confidence. A particular woman i met who ironically she had been in my high school, she eventually became an author later in life but she said reno, who are dedicated it to, i remember leaving the va one day, i had the day off and they allowed me to go there so they could meet the dean would allow me to go to the school. I can still remember his name, dean cedar. I went to the office there was this girl in the office in wheelchair, connie, a severe disability that occurred at birth she said to me, you look familiar, i think. Did you go to Massapequa High School . I said yes. She said i used to watch you with your varsity sweater walking past in the house go. I said i remember you, were the only in a wheelchair in our entire school back then. She said yes. She said that it to drive her home because she needed a drive home, or she said she did i would drive her home and she was not far from my town, i would drop her off. One thing led to another and she asked me to join this group. You must know the university really of the forefront back then. They prided himself in the fact that it was catering, it was welcoming. This was a big change in the early 70s. It eventually led to the american with disabilities act but she was the one who led me to this First Political organization, physically challenged people and from there, she said you know we got wheelchair basketball time here and she said i know you were an athlete in high school and a wrestler, varsity wrestling and you like sports. Why dont you go see . I went down and they accepted me and my level of injury was pretty high, i have no balance but it was thrilling. It really was. It was exciting to be with other young men like myself with similar disabilities and to be competing, actually competing. There was a feeling of transcending, the moment, for a moment you are thinking of being paralyzed, you are shooting a basket trying to make a hook shot. It was exciting, great and wonderful. You feel great inside physically. Whatever depression you might have had or doubts or feelings. I was feeling not just physical but because of what i have gone through during my second tour of duty, i was dealing with psychological trauma what i had gone through. I was struggling i was struggling but whether i had a right to stay alive or give up, i felt a tremendous amount of survivors guilt and wondered if i deserved to be alive because other died, people i lead into battle were killed and get, i was still alive even though i was paralyzed, i felt terrible guilt. I lived with that for a long time. It was a long bernie. I had to forgive myself forget those who might have hurt me or even those who sent me to that were. Thats quite all right. I wanted to go back on something you mentioned previously about in the va, you have the support of world war ii and korea, what is it like for you and the veterans who have gone through all of this . Im laying there in my bed and you have these guys come in with this cocky positive attitude, how are you doing . Call us rodriguez, you know . One of the real inspirations, one of the founders paralyzed veterans of america, a real character to have. Had that big new york accent, how are you doing . Whats going on . How can we help you . How long have you been in a wheelchair . I had a difficult day he said been in a wheelchair 12 years, wounded in korea. These guys were an inspiration. They would come into our rooms, they were very important to us back then. I was across from where we were, paralyzed so severely from the neck down, if you can imagine there was a hole in his throat with a little work on it. I wrote about in the book. Once a day, there was pull the cork out and put a tube in and i would have to listen this and the rest of the guys in my room, they would suction the flame out of his lungs so he wouldnt get pneumonia. It was just, i try to live with that, all we had was that. How could these people cannot inspire you . People like world war ii vets and korean fence thats coming into your room and saying you could do something with your life. For a long time with him and, he was recruiting paraplegics to work for the watch company. He wanted me to make watches and work on watches and thats where a lot of the guys were sent, the watchmaking company i used to say to myself, that is not me. I always have big dreams as a kid. Maybe not a good thing to dream so big but i always thought my life could have much greater meaning. Im not talking people for having a job but i just wanted to do more. I wanted my life to really count and stand for something. Even before i was paralyzed, i was inspired, i wanted to be like john f. Kennedy john wayne. [laughter] maybe that was unhealthy, but thats who i was. I was an american. Having grown up in american boy in this country, having dreams beyond all dreams and leaving you could be anything you wanted to be a matter what happened to you and that sustained. Even back then after being paralyzed, i said i want to do something great with my life. I did say those things. I just want to interrupt for second, that was a program started for the world war ii vets. She built a watchmaking tool in queens. When youre going to john f. Kennedy airport, you by the buildings there and eventually they had a watchmaker. They had a wheelchair people, i had no idea. Think about it, the First Corporate sponsor and put that away, there was another company team called the pan am jets, mostly polio. Anyway, part of the story of the and as you mentioned, that was part of rehabilitation was that, the va administrators, lets get these guys in a wheelchair, it connected and that results. Many of the veterans that about and i admire the watch company to do that. I love the name of the team, by the way. That name is very catchy. I probably took the wrong turn, i was grumpy and had an attitude and i dont know how my mom and dad ever put up with me. I used to come home drunk. You might have seen the scene fourth of july and i was just on the mend, i was terrible. I was a juvenile delinquent at 21 in a wheelchair. Watching the experience in the sense of hope, they started playing wheelchair basketball and everything is okay. Right. The recovery took a while there are psychological elements. Both physical and psychological things. Can you imagine . Losing most of your body, telling people not only that you killed people taking the life, not to mention that someone almost killed you. You somehow have only a quarter of your body left. You got to make something out of it you have to find a way to keep living. Before we go, i want to throw this out to the audience, if you have questions for either of us, feel free to type it in and one of us will get to you, we just want to make sure we get onto the. Can i just say one thing . Of course. I want to recommend this book this book is inspiring. One thing david touches upon beautifully and passionately, he touches upon the fact that these men who played in the loop you saw, these men of world war ii, okinawa, european theater who came back with these devastating injuries, they were the greatest generation as well in this book recognizes them probably for the first time we recognize in an honorable way, these men were very much part of that generation. By the mother and father both served in world war ii, my mother maybe a week after pearl harbor. My father in wisconsin at the time, planting trees under the roosevelt be a program, a dairy farm december 7, 1941, my father immediately as so many other americans did, went to sign up the monday after that sunday, my father was lined up joint service and support his country. I grew up with parents who served in the second world war. You of course were born fourth of july but in 1946. A little while ago and there was quite a different reaction and i wanted to ask you about this, a different reaction for when the world war ii veterans came home versus when Vietnam Veterans like yourself came ho home, maybe you could address that and talk to that a little bit. In other words, what was the reaction that you found when you return home finally and tried to start life anew . Growing up in the 50s, john wayne movies, machine guns, the culture that i dont know if you remember, a tv show on cbs called the big picture, i grew up watching this about world war ii, whether it was europe, our heroes coming back from world war ii. We were all aware of that and thats what we thought america was. When we came back from vietnam, as i said the other day, i remember silence, nobody wanted to talk about. Didnt want to talk about the work. Yet, our lives were profoundly affected dramatically by that experience and i remember feeling, i know a lot of veterans said they felt they were mistreated and abused and i felt people just shut off their feelings and didnt want to talk about. That was very difficult and i was doing the same thing, i think i was trying to numb myself of what happened and somehow, its overwhelming emotionally. I was having zaidi attacks, i was over the toilet bowl every morning. I wasnt sick to my stomach, i was just doing that to break the tear every morning. I would wake up from a nightma nightmare, i went to the bed with a nightmare every night. I couldnt go to sleep at night. It couldnt go to sleep at night because when i was wounded and shot that day, i fought to stay awake. They pulled me off the field as they went back across the river, i went to the first aid tatian you are correct what you said earlier how quickly, i was immediately taken care of. I was pulled off the field, once my life was saved by the marine who saved my life who by the way, later on in the afternoon was killed in an activity attack, he died the day he saved my life and went back across the river and immediately on the other side of the river at the command center, i was being attended to by doctors and being cared for. I was put on the helicopter immediately and then put on a plane. Immediately. I was in the intensive care. I was receiving and being operated on. This was very different. I was able to arrive and come home. Right. All you went through in terms of that chain of command and in terms of your treatment in world war ii and korea, they evacuate by helicopter, one of the veterans they saved our lives i wouldnt be here. This was a savage wound, it really was. I lived with the wound every day but i dont feel that way. I feel like i have transcended this. I know i am paralyzed, i know it is difficult. Its difficult every day but yet i feel ive moved beyond it. Its important that people realize. That there is life beyond. You can move beyond, anybody listening or watching right now, no matter how tragic you think your circumstances are, matter how much you are struggling emotionally and you have doubts whether your life has any, never give up or quit. You never know whats around the bend. Never know how your life can change. You never know what is waiting for you out there i never imagined when i was first wounded, famous movie star would play my life story and millions would see it around the world. How can i ever imagined that . I ended up page on sunday my mother somehow could you ever do that . [laughter] that is electric, obviously. One of the veterans i did write about in world war ii, he was paralyzed in okinawa, is name is jerry, i was able to meet with him and interview him and hang out with him before he passed away. Thankfully he knew that this book is on its way before he passed away but his life intersected with yours in a particular place and id like to ask you about it because its not that well known but jerry lived a very full life. He was in a wheelchair 75 years. Twenty years more than me. I can only hope i make it that long. For sure. He lived all over, hawaii, socal, he wanted to live life to the fullest. Guadalajara, mexico which became known as kuala holla because of the vast numbers of paralyzed veterans, u. S. Paralyzed veterans to live and i understand you went down lived there and wanted to ask you what the accident was life. I wrote about it and its true, i went down there. Back then, there was a place called the village of the sun. That was the name of the compound and they were almost exclusively Vietnam Veterans. Paralyzed and quarter believe it. You probably saw this scene in the movie, it is quite a colorful scene. I wanted to get out of his face and i found out about mexico, guadalajara when i was on the paraplegic ward one day. A guy in a wheelchair who i kn knew, spent time with in one, he comes down with a sombrero on his head, a beautiful young woman he shouldnt have been going out with, she looked like she was 18, a young young woman. He was probably, we went that old. [laughter] anyway, he came up to me and said, we had a conversation. I want you to meet my wife, he said i said how are you doing . He said he got to go to mexico, guadalajara about the village of the sun. He said it will change your life. So i went to this place, i remember getting drunk one night again, i was drinking a lot back then. I dont know how i got home i could hardly see. I was blind drunk and drove back to my house in massapequa i got my wheelchair wheeled up the ramp to the house and i remember saying, crawling into the bed and looking up to my catheter, which i have used ever since and i said to myself, what am i doing . Where is my life going . I made a decision, i think it was the next day, i got a ticket the next day at the airport to mexico city. Direct flight. I changed planes and i was headed to guadalajara and i was going to do what he told me. I was going to try to find my wife and guadalajara. How is my main motivation. I couldnt find a girl, i couldnt meet anybody. Maybe it was my own insecurity, i dont know. I had a lot of insecurity back then. I wanted to have happened what happened to that guy with the sombrero and his wife. I wanted love, i wanted to meet somebody so i flew down there and i remember rick helio, he carried me to his truck. On the dark and countryside, the village of the sun. It was quite an experience. The next morning i got up, theres little girl who is humble, nothing fancy, it made motel six, it was very basic. There was a main area, a long table and all the guys were lined up on their wheelchairs on both sides and thats how we had breakfast every morning and dinner every night at a certain hour. I happened to fall in with some of the wrong people as you might have seen in the movie. Charlie was a wild man from chicago and whats your name . Charlie. How long you been here . One hundred years or something. I told him everybody here, massapequa, new york, i fell in with this wild man, really. He took me under his wing and i was just willing to run with anybody back then i just wanted to live, i wanted to meet young girls. He took me to the city. He said ill take you. So he took me two Different Court houses in the city so i could get a life. [laughter] so i went with charlie and i dont know if you saw the movie, i dont want this bookstore to go out of business if i tell the rest of the story. I had never had sex before and this was my first experience, i was paralyzed before i ever made love to anybody, i was so young, i was trying to be a good catholic, a good catholic boy. I didnt want to burn in the fires of hell. I had not made love or had sex with anyone in high school. I was 21 and all of a sudden boom, i was paralyzed. Everything from the chest down. I would never have that type of sex as we know it and i could never have children but here i was lining up in a courthouse in mexico trying to find love. I ended up under these mattresses guadalajara courthouse with these women. They were particularly young, idle how young critics i didnt even know what to do. As you saw that, i cant move this or that enhances this and that, it was very difficult and painful, frustrating and dramatic all these guys in world war ii, a loss of sexuality in that aspect of our lives, loss of the ability to make children and have children, have some type of normalcy in our life, almost afraid to tell people about that and guadalajara provided that for me. You could call it an experimentation where i could at least experience women for the first time wouldnt laugh at me or make fun of me because i couldnt move certain parts of my body or feel that anyone but they accepted me and allowed me to begin the journey for discovering what sexuality really was, there were other aspects of sexuality other than that one particular part that i could lost in the war. Maybe its hard for people to hear but its not just that i couldnt move my legs and could never walk again but it also they could not experience this experience that everyone said was so wonderful and accepting so it was the beginning of a journey for me to find meaning and purpose in my life. What a lot of provided that for me and charlie was dragging me from one courthouse to another. Were getting go to a lot of places, this man was dangerous. We got thrown out of one place and about first of all, they flew out of his wheelchair onto the street and i wondered if we would survive. Back to the sun, start fighting with the cad driver and calling him all sorts of names and on the road and we were lucky enough to have gone back to the village that night. We were abandoned in the middle of the desert. Guadalajara was an experience and at the same time, i was happy to get back to the United States. Thank god i am finally back ho home. Thank you for the experience. Just to add to that, the world war ii veterans who were written about, many adopted children and that was part of their journey to a new normal. I am one person what i went through but i was witness to the fact that yes, many of them had very normal lives, many raised children and had normal famili families. I dont know why it took me, ive never been married and never adopted children but ive been able to find love, a very special woman in my life right now. Yes, she helped us connect with this internet thing thats crowd casting, we appreciate that. We have a question from your pal, tom hi, tom. Obviously you played wheelchair basketball, did you ever play wheelchair baseball . I never did but in massapeq massapequa, there was a street across my house where i grew up and we would play football and i was obviously quarterback, i loved football. Also, when i was at the bronx va, there was a workout not now used to challenge other paraplegics, i was a wrestler at the high school and i would challenge them to wrestle me everybody was paralyzed, i just had my upper body and i was still pretty small and i would wrestle these guys and it was amazing but even after being paralyzed and wounded, there was that desire to be physically involved in the sports i was left as a young man i never played wheelchair baseball but i did pick up a wiffleball that. I tried to do what i did as a kid, play football again in the backyard and i could still hit the ball with one hand with a wiffleball bat, there was something missing, something hurting inside. It was the same and would never be the same again but at the same time, i continued, and i know who tom is, i continued my love of sports. Tom was a great sportswriter. Its an honor know him. One of the things was interesting when i started doing the research on this book coming from someone who really didnt know about the origin of wheelchair sports, why did they take wheelchair basketball . A great team sport that was played, he would think it wasnt quite that because kareem abdul the jar jabbar on the other hand having said that, basketball is smooth, big enough to hold the players and their wheelchairs and when you think about, with a grass field anyway, wiffleball. It would take about three hours to get to first base. [laughter] is another question here but let me get to this one, we are getting toward the end of our time and im not quite you mentioned in the past, there was a lot of silence around the topic. When it ships the volume of the conversation, there was so much silence around the topic, what has shifted . Lets see, around this topic paraplegia. Well world war ii veterans, we know specifically happened at Madison Square garden on that one particular night, just before the New York Knicks beg began, the public address system, somebody announced they would be a special event and all of a sudden these guys in wheelchairs came to the court. Nobody had ever seen this befo before. Madison square garden. A sports arena they came out and people didnt know what to make of them they didnt know whether to feel sorry for them, there was just this silent and again began. One of the guys wheelchair fell out of the chair and there was gas throughout the garden but what happened was very important in the moment. He turned around and pulled himself back into the chair, sat down and started yelling at the referee from what i read, started yelling and all of a sudden everybody started cheering at Madison Square garden. These men were, they were regular guys wounded in the war and came back and still had a lot of fight and spirit so that was very important to me. Just to add to that, when you think about it before the war, the president of the United States and roosevelt was a polio patient and in a wheelchair. He refused basically to ever allow himself to be photographed while in his wheelchair. There was a stigma about disability and obviously there is still stigma and being out there at Madison Square garden, defeating ablebodied teams, the veterans of america, a group thats become a very powerful lobbyist in d. C. , that helps reduce the stigma and bring about change in our society. One of the things i found fascinating was the team out here from van nuys, whenever they make the trip back east, they would lobby them about disability. The word is pioneers, they were. They are the reason why i have the life i have today, why i have the acceptance and other disabled people like myself have that acceptance and understanding and it equals everyone else, we can rise to the heights. As a saying ive heard for many years and i dont particular believe it, roosevelt was elected president of the United States back then but no person in a wheelchair today to be elected president of the United States. I dont agree with that or believe that. I believe our potential as disabled people, physically challenged people, we are all physically challenged. Its unlimited, everybody has talents and everybody deals with disability. The most medic disability is in your head. Give me a break. Everybody goes through disability, everybody feels disability. Not only living in it for ourselves but i think physically challenged people represent an inspiration and thats why i think the book is so important, it honors the greatest generation and an element of the greatest generation in eloquent and beautifully particularly. I recommend you read this book. I said to you, let me say it again, just be quiet there, it is beautifully written. The senator almost became the Vice President nominee for joe biden, certainly was considered for that and she is in a wheelchair. Right now, someday in the future in this great country of ours, a man or woman in a wheelchair will rise to the presidency of the United States, i am saying that right now we will hold you to that. What say theres any other questions, please let me know. You watch a lot of basketball . If so, who are your favorite players . Lebron james, the lakers of course. I have to say, i know tom. We met in the village here. He is a wonderful writer but anyway, tom, as i told you many times, my great sport is baseball and the dodgers. I love the dodgers. The yankee and, this is a big deal. This is almost sacrilegious. I think from new york coming to california and becoming a fan, in my neighborhood where i grew up, you either hated the yankees and left the dodgers were left the dodgers and between the two blocks. I was a yankee fan. I know the whole team, every position. If you really loved your sport, you know every one of them, everything about them and you live that sport. Basketball i am very aware of and football, i love to watch basketball, i am proud of the lakers this year and i hope they go all the way. But its baseball. Even in this limited season, i continue to be an avid fan. Baseball is my greatest love of all. On that note, we will send it back. Maybe we can get mookie betts to join us next time. Incredible, isnt he . You said the dodgers and i hopped back on because i love the dodgers. Im so glad you became a dodgers fan. And mookie betts and seeger. What a season. We are going all the way. I agree. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for everything. Thank you both of you. We really appreciate it, a great conversation and dont forget, you can buy davids book here. Click on the button at the bottom and it will take you to the website. If you want to scroll here on the side, spring forward. I linked this in their as well, the email. We have enjoyed what hes had to say tonight. Support independent bookstores and tune in, we need to ask for your help by buying a book from us. Weve got plenty of stuff to purchase there, a onestop shop. This is a great way to start this. So again, thank you so much, judgment. This is truly appreciative of your time. Thank you so much. Thank you for tuning in, visit us at moments bookstore. Com and we hope to see you again soon have a wonderful evening. You are watching tv on cspan2 every weekend with the latest nonfiction books and authors. The tv on cspan2. Created by americas cablevision company. Today we are brought to you by these Television Companies to provide the tv to be used as a public service. During a virtual author talk hosted by the atlanta history center, Pulitzer Prize winning author, isabel lucas and export what she called hidden system in the United States. There is a portion of the program. The respect and access to resources or lack there of, accomplishments and beauty, all these things that accrued through ones own and of course, nobody alive today is responsible for the ranking. The shadow of the originating one starting with the founding of the United States of america, the british colony and these divisions and categorizing of these. In this system, there could be any number of metrics. An inheritance and occupations and it could have been the explorations of the world by europeans where they came in Contact People who look different than them and they categorize the people they found. They bring in people from africa and in the process of doing th that, creating this system so thats what happened in this country. To put one group over another found it to even they brought them to the initial impulse to delineate and categorize started with religion and then it moved into what we now know as i construct, going all the way back four or 500 years. Color is a reality but race is a construct. It could have been the idea that you could have been used as a designated category is also equally dependent upon genetic inheritance and so these are with the infrastructure, the invisible phone and it is the signifier of where one is assigned. To watch the rest of this program, visit booktv. Org and search for Isabel Wilkerson for the title of her book, cast using the search box at the top of the page. Discussion these days, the stigma and fight for justice, this is the story of the colony in the continental state and thousands of american who were exiled hidden