Of the United States, the greatest document created by mankind. The fight of our lifetimes. This is a fight we must win because you and i know one thing for sure. Reedom isnt free its up to you and me. Thank you. Thank you. We can do this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. On asoon, we are coming up , half a milestone century since the signing of the , bitterly struggled for, bipartisan lien acted Civil Rights Act of 1964. After, longdelayed steps for realizing our nations stated ideal in the declaration that has been cited often at this conference that all are created equal. We can spend half a day and not do justice to the subject but can america be postracial . Since its a yes or no question, i will be pushing our presenters to tell us why they take the position that they do. And what should we do about it . Who can help lead us in that direction. I want to start with pastor buster, our guest from new jersey. How are we doing in realizing we are all created equal 50 years after the historic Civil Rights Act . Thanks to colorado christian for hosting this event. Think we canat i go into details but open, i have to confess, i did not know i was conservative until i met bob woodson. Wasought i was a guy who sadly helping people get out of poverty, decreasing dependency, increasing selfsufficiency. I thought i was someone simply promoting programs that would empower people and revitalized neighborhoods, adopting children, recruiting foster parents. And i realized what i was doing was her sewage principles that the culture deems conservative. Well in there doing years later if people like those who are gathered here can find guys like me. Without the labels, many of us are just doing the work in our own neighborhoods. What i think we should focus on is what the potential is. I am a preacher. I would be amiss if i did not remind you that david did kill goliath. And some of the challenges i have been hearing about all day seem insurmountable. Thatact is, the bible says the greatness and ask can defeat the evil thats in the world. We can do three things. It we need to build relationships to ensure that the right people know the right people and we are not just waiting for election cycles to elect the right candidates. We need to bring resources to each other and not see each other as aliens but rather as partners in rebuilding america. And we need to make sure that our principles of righteousness are the guiding principles. I am an old Civil Rights Activist and was raised to teach people that they should fight to demand their rights and it wasnt long before i had to begin reminding people to deserve your rights, you have to live right. That at forearms like include expanding our existing relationships. Jesus said we would be judged by the way we treat the least of gods children and we can transform america and the goliath of ignorance and racism. Can be defeated with [indiscernible] a great beginning that comes from someone who has walked in those shoes. Chavezo zone linda attended colorado user university. She lives in boulder now. You are a brave woman. When i heard of your familys ancestry going back to the 1500 in the new world. There was no difference between old mexico and new mexico. The border was drawn in a different lace and a lot of it was north of there. Assumet be too quick to that those of us with english surnames have the longest pedigree. Linda, your ancestors, were yawning because it had been generations in the new our generations in the new world when the mayflower landed on the totern seaboard. All that say that the latino population in america becomes more and more significant demographic culturally and politically how are we doing 50 years after the Civil Rights Act that was not written with the Hispanic Group in mind. It was not written with anyone in mind in particular. I think were doing pretty well. As i listen to sarah palin speak and other speakers today, talking about winning back the white house. If we want ever to be in the white house again, we had better learn how to talk to some of the newcomers that are here. Those hispanics. Without them, we will not win the white house. To the pastor, i became a conservative because of affirmative action. I was a little bit too old to be one of the in a fishy or ease. Beneficiaries. By the time i went to apply to graduate school, i had finished as top student in my class at the university of colorado and i was going to go on and get a phd. I saw an advertisement on the. Ulletin board graduate school look awfully darn good to me. I had a child by the time i graduated so i went to apply for one of the fellowships for mexicanamerican students. Me in anfoundation for airplane, the first time i had ever been in an air rain. For me all the way to new york airplane. An flew me all the way to new york city. I was asked to describe myself and my background. I did. I talked about my daddy was a house painter. I grew up a few blocks from here at the time where there were boarding houses where we lived in basement and addicts attics. One of the foundation interviewers looked at me and said, you speak english so well. A phd inut to get english literature, so i hope ice oak english well. I hope i spoke english well. They started talking to be about my graduate exam scores and i said, my son was up all night and i was giving all these apologies because ive only scored in the 93rd or centile on my exam and it was low for me. He said no. The problem is your scores are too high. Youre clearly not disadvantaged. Again, tell that to my father who had a ninth grade education. Tell that to me who had to pay for my tuition and borrow money and work even though i was a mom and a wife at the time. Started sudden, i inking, this idea of affirmative action isnt quite what i thought it was all about. The rest is sort of history. I went into the regular administration. I was part of the movement to get rid of racial quotas and get rid of programs that treated people by the color of their skin. Favory, it does no one a when you look at them and because you know their name ends a certain way or their skin is darker than yours, that you know something fundamental about them. That you think you know if they can succeed or whether or not we ought to lower the standards so that one or pose a or johnny is able to make it. I actually think were doing great. I think this is a country where if you come here and work hard, you live by the rules, you can still make it. None of us need to hand out. I have admired you as a radio have been grateful to keep you as part of the summit. We have a significant sponsorship position with the summit this week and have you as one of the stalwarts on the editorial page. Tammy and john are a peer. Really, that is the subject of ae panel dont we want place were we are judged by the content of our character and not by the color of our skin . Hass in america that realized the color of our skin matters no more than the fact that they have a different accent color, but how do you think we are doing, tammy . I have great admiration for linda. We cant really see you appear because of the lights. I am scotch irish so i am actually pink. I know there are other scottish out here in the room as well. All, when we hear you and for the people watching, there is no complexion, is there . You are individuals, your conservative. And of your people of faith you want what is best for this country. It transcends gender, complexion, race. Im not even republican. It is a Common Thread that we have, the love for this nation. I identify as an independent conservative and i know who else would love this and admire you. And weve had some terrific success. When eric cantor lost his job, he was grinning a little bit. And when it comes to the issue of being a Colorblind Society or at least postracial, the fact of the matter is that this unity that we have as Americans First is key. About being scottish and irish. I have done some ancestry work and i find that there is a heck of a lot of french in their. I am slightly embarrassed but also a little interested. Do have unique Life Experiences and life stories. In america, lives are different for young black men. Lives are different for hispanic women. Us, the powerfor of being united as Americans First and the remarkable as arence in each of us minority, the power of christianity. The christian judaic ethic in this country. You know what it means to be a minority . Under attack. Church in thisc instance was burned down today. You know what it is like and your experience matters. And also as a minority as a gay woman and as a conservative is the fact of the matter that those are slivers of our identity. We come together because we understand each other and this ,ation allows all of us especially minorities, to live the life that best suits us. That is the christian ethic that allows us to be free. That allows us to compete. That it is the opportunity afforded us. It also requires a level of tolerance. The understanding that even though we may be different from each other and live different lives, the goal that we have for all of our families and friends in the future is the same. And the only nations that give us that at this point is the jewish nation in the middle east and the christian nation certainly has represented best by the United States of america. Whether you identify through your faith or through issues of race or other issues of identity , being an american first is how we started. It really is what the milieuvative mail you do yo represents. Communityffectively organizers. Organized and what we is that the racial divisions on politics is false. It is a false divide. I see conservatives all the time struggling with what do we do, how do we speed to them . How do we act . It is a false framework and what i recommend , my first book Still Available in paperback on amazon what i tell people in my listenership how many in this room have been called a racist in the midst of your work and politics . It transcends. I suggest you behave as though you were just call the cocker spaniel. Because it is as relevant in that framework. These are words that are meant to stop the conversation. They are words meant to have them retreat. To appeal to the best of you i cant encourage you enough because it will work. The accusations of racism or that this is a Racial Society or the divisions that we have experienced politically are somehow real. Those are false. The humanl is relationships which you spoke about earlier. Your human relationship discussing things with the panel. The individualism that makes this country great. For those left and those watching worldwide on the stream, what i beg you to do is not allow them to control the narrative. Do not allow them to define you as something you are not. Right . That is the key. Ultimately, moving here and knowing you. There will be differences. There will be tensions between races andmen, between gay and straight. Are strugglinge to get onto that road of Financial Success and for our families is looking first at the fact that you have an american that wants the same things for their families as you want for years. The left knows that the moment you recognize that connection. For the liberals, libertarians, and everyone else watching, they wont listen to christian groups or people of faith standing around out there. Pastis about looking ourselves for something larger than ourselves, isnt it . Nation, its about family, and its about god. Its about what it is we are going to leave behind. About beingt postracial, we already are. This nation exist because we are. This nation exists because of immigration. This nation exists because of people of all faith and of no faith or they can live wonderfully and peacefully. This nation lives because i can be invited here by this gentleman and be embraced by this crowd as well. It is because we get it as conservatives. The difference is, dont let yourself dont western yourself about who you are, what your goals are, and what it means because the left points a finger at you. T is meant to make you doubt there are a lot of people that want you to doubt and there are grassroots anglican do. That we can do. Reject that notion that there is something for you to prove. There is nothing for you to prove, especially for christians. Young christians come up and say, how can we talk to gays or africanamericans or hispanics or liberals . What do we say to them . My answer is always yourself. Simply be yourself and be. Resent its like walking into a room where the light is off. Its the light as it comes into a room. Dont question what the rules would be. I was changed and became a conservative as i got to know conservative through talk radio. And realized i had been lied to about what you are all up to. Ok . [applause] nobody tried to convert me. There was none of that. It was simply the conversation. You are present. The other thing was, you are confident, happy, sure, and you did have a mission. You love the country and you had a focus on what it was that needed to happen here. If i can give you anything here with any kind of background, trust yourself and dont let someone else define you. When youre the racist word, and cocker spaniel. Laugh. And go on about your work changing the world. Thank you. A way with ae have microphone . I am starting the cocker spaniel caucus. The amazing bill will hypothetically walk us through someone calling us a racist until that person was just cowering with their tail between their legs. And he was doing it with logic and withering sarcasm. Can he just did it with the most buoyant good humor. Bob woodson, you get to be the cleanup hitter. Bases full with the three presentations. In i want to make all of you aware that the great paul ryan, the man with the courage to take on obama on fiscal and health care issues. He went to school with bob woodson to understand the inner city and understanding helping ofmselves regardless disability. You are helping him develop a wonderful conservative leader for the future. We are grateful to you for that. Can we be postracial . Like the highest form of maturity is to be selfcritical. I think it is safe to say that bill bennett says conservativism will never be a Popular Movement as long as it is perceived to be against the interests of minorities. In many ways, we have earned that perception. Whenll also said that liberals see blacks, they see a sea of it comes and conservatives see a sea of aliens. It is important to acknowledge that in the 1960s when conservatives talk about limited, small government, hostility to Central Government it was not for Central Government intervention in the states, we would not be sitting here. Just knowledge in the past doesnt mean we arent stuck there and it changes as our circumstances change. Back in the 1960s, it was important for Central Government intervene, but today Central Government interferes with ability. You cannot generalize about black community anymore any other. Theres a poster in my Office Written by bill raspberry when he was a reporter for the post. Its as poor negroes will not benefit from the gains of the civil rights movement. Middleclass blacks walk through but they did not. That divide still exists today. Areof my closest friends something. They came in an Old School Bus went into theer high crime black area and asked an 80yearold man what he he said tout the bring him down here so they would get rid of the drug dealers. Low income blacks have a different agenda on the issues of race than anyone else. If we want to get race off the in, andhen we must join community with the least of gods children who are struggling in the black community where we have a 9 11 every three months. When you go in and ask those people if race is the most important thing on their mind, they will tell you know. It seems to me the conservative Community Must join in, and community to adjust those problems. Going to those communities and go into those households where children are being raised where they are not dropping out of school and find out why those areas are able to achieve in the face of these barriers when others cannot. Conservatives should join in common cause with those remedies to address the needs of gods children and they should be the youngthe 20 homeless black men who graduated who went to college from homeless shelters studying by the light of their mothers cell phones yet they graduate valid taurean. They should be the face of the republican conservative movement. Our mission has to be to demonstrate to people, as im taking him into these communities and hes seeing them achieve against these jobs. Against these odds. You need to help build institutions in those low income neighborhoods so people can get. Ome reward conservatives want to know what agenda is just the needs of the least of these, joined in, and community and conferences like this, have a panel of low income people who have achieved against the odds, homeless kids, people who are working. We really need to promote the remedies among the least of gods children and that is how you become postracial. [applause] bob goodson thank you, eloquent. Bill armstrong challenged his friends and supporters across colorado to think about it. I love your idea of a panel of people who have exceeded against the odds. Lets audition that at the Centennial Program and lets have it on the 2015 western conservative summit agenda for sure. [applause] many hoped and i believe it had to do with a lot of the votes he garnered whether they would admit it or not but they hope that the election of the son of an african father and caucasian mother to the highest office in the land and the most powerful office on earth, the presidency 2009,ack obama that began that somehow you could just mark thedate and it would be ushering in of a postracial america. We see angry, poisonous rhetoric that seems to suggest race has become more instead of less salient under the presidency of mr. Obama. What do we just make of these . The election of barack obama does show a shift. It could not have happened in 1950. For that, we say, thank god. Underpinning of the it is not astration postracial philosophy but it exacerbates all of the ugly history of the country. It is limiting the very people it racial policies are supposed to help by making them more dependent and not less dependent. The democrats have