i think the attention span of people is reduced to -- it becomes too short if you just have bum bum bum bum bum. you're probably thinking i'm being clever and i want to be nice to c-span who had me for an hour. >> here's the cover of the book. it >> next, an interview with the president of the charlotte writers club, david rad slip. >> give me a little bit of the history of the charlotte's writers club. >> it was founded in 1932, so that makes it one of the largest -- the oldest arts organizations in north carolina. i don't know if we're the oldest, but one of the oldest. and it started off a little bit more of a reading club, a social club for lovers of literature, and then it's just evolved over time. so it's going to be 90 years old -- or, no, is that right? 90 years old next year. >> what is the focus of the club? >> well, we have a variety of focuses. we want to be a support group for writers, so we offer workshops, contests. we meet once a month during the academic year and listen to presentations by established writers, and we want to offer resource and networking for writers, but we also have members who are publishers, editors, people who love reading or literacy. we're advocates for literacy as well. we have people who have published a number of novels, poets, playrights who have sedu- who have been seduced, but we also have a number of young people that are just starting out. it's very eclectic. we have journalists, we have must ri writers, i have a friend who writes zombie and vampire novels, and you have academic poets, historians, a little bit of everything. and i think that's wonderful. it's not an academic group particularly, although we have, certainly, academic people in it. but we have people who write bestsellers and so on. and then charlotte's an interesting place because it's, um, a large city, but it also has different kinds of communities, ethnic communities and, um, different kinds of groups. so that makes it fascinating. we have a lot of critique groups, and that's one of the things we offer to writers. i would guess maybe as many as half of our writers belong to critique groups, and these are typically 4-6 writers in a group, and it might be a novel group or a science fiction group or poetry, short stories, children's literature, young adults, and you get together with these people, and you read each other's work. and writing is a very lonely kind of endeavor. you do that by yourself. but then you want to go out and interact with other writers and get feedback before you send it to the publisher. so we offer a lot of that. we offer opportunities for new writers to connect with people, get a mentor, join a critique group and listen to these presenters come in. we have a number of great writers who come in to talk about their writing. they read from it, and then they talk about how they wrote, they answer questions about publishing. we have the man coming in at our september meeting, kevin morgan watson s the founding editor of press 53 which is one of the leading independent publishers in north carolina. and he's going to talk about getting published with an independent press which is a little bit different than some of the mainstream. the novelist, susan hassler, who's coming in october has published with a mainstream publisher, so she can talk about that. and, um, so we try to offer a lot for our members. >> next on booktv, in his book "black and tired," anthony bradley applies christian teachings to the summits of race -- subjects of race, politics, contemporary culture, globalization and education. this is about an hour. >> good morning, thank you for joining us here an the heritage foundation. as director of lectures and seminars, it's my privilege to welcome you to our louis lairman ud tore yum and, of course, to welcome all those who join us on our web site. we would ask everyone in house that you'll make that last courtesy check that cell phones have been turned off. we, of course, will allow questions from our internet viewers if they'd like to e-mail us simply addressing those e-mails to speaker@heritage.org, speaker@heritage.org, and we will post the program within 24 hours for your future reference. hosting our discussion and introducing our special guest this morning is jennifer marshall. ms. marshall is director of domestic policy studies and our richard and helen devos center for religion and civil society. she also manages family facts.org, our online catalog of social science research related to family and religious practice. prior to joining us here, she was -- worked on cultural policy issues at empower america, and before that she was a senior director of family studies at the family research council. please join me in welcoming jennifer marshall. jennifer? [applause] >> thank you, john, and thanks, all of you, for being here for our book event on "black and tired. essays on race, politics and international development by dr. anthony bradley. a few days ago here in washington, d.c. hurricane irene pushed back the official dedication of the new memorial to dr. martin luther king. but the silver line anything that hurricane -- lining in that hurricane is that the delay appropriately extends our focus on dr. king's civil rights legacy and the work of those who since him have strived to make all god's children truly free at last. well, dr. anthony bradley is one of those freedom seekers. as the title of his new book conveys, "black and tired," he's not satisfied with the progress to date. although for reasons you may not often hear about. as the essays in this book show with titles like devaluing the family, hip-hop's delusional god talk and green booze led, anthony bradley is a scholar with wide-ranging interests. his academic pedigree shows that as well. his undergraduate degree from clemson is in science, and his master's and doctorate from westminster seminary are in theology. today he teaches at the king's college, a christian liberal arts school in new york city. anthony's first book was "liberating black theology: the bible and the black experience in america." his latest book, "black and tired," looks at the experience of one race to teach us truths about all humanity. our views of human nature, he argues, will shape our public policy. so it's worth pausing to consider what it means to be fully human. please join me in welcoming dr. anthony bradley as he helps us do that today. [applause] >> thank you, jennifer marshall, for the invitation. i am honored and delighted to be at the heritage foundation for this event. for years i often say because i'm a nerd, you know, growing up i would watch c-span quite a bit and see people at these think tanks, heritage foundation, i would sit this and wonder, i wonder if one day i'll be standing in front of this backdrop? [laughter] with a foundation? so i'm honored to actually, actually be here, so thank you for the invitation. my connection to this foundation goes back quite some years. i have, with great honor and boasting, used a lot of the work of robert rector in my own research and writing. his work has been particularly helpful for me in terms of my own, um, attempts to think differently about both political and economic liberation for african-americans. the united states is an incredible place. it stands out among other nations and in the world, and i recently had an opportunity to be reminded of how great this place is at my family reunion in escambia county, alabama, actually in the city of atmore, alabama. escambia county is the county that my family's plantation was, and so i stand here before you as a descendant of slaves from the bradley plantation in escambia county, alabama. a -- slavery, reconstruction, civil rights movement, this is my family's story of struggling and fighting for humanity and freedom in a context and a culture that was saturated with injustice and dehumanization. now, what's so amazing about this narrative, this story is that not only does my family know where the plantation is in escambia county, we now own it. and there are members of my family currently living on it as free people who have property rights to it codified and protected by the rule of lawment lawment -- law. now, how many countries in the world is it possible to have a group of people who were once slaves on a piece of property, a few generations actually own the property that they were living on? is -- they were being enslaved on. so this makes this place absolutely amazing. yes, of course, we notice the progress in our country by having a black family in the oval office. there are not too many countries around the world where you would see subdominant cultures rise to that, that level, that status. and just a few generations after movements like the civil rights movement. be so it's amazing to me, and i personally am delighted to think about what is it about this country, what is it about our founding principles that allows someone like myself to be a descendant of slaves, to be standing in front of a group of people having earned a ph.d., standing in front of this heritage foundation backdrop speaking to you about my second book? to me, it's just an amazing narrative about the potential of freedom and liberty and be economic empowerment this country actually offers to those who have the opportunity to take advantage of it. so i named my book "black and tired" on purpose. one, because i am black, if you can tell -- [laughter] and so i want to remain connected to the history of my own family, the story of rising to success in spite of incredibly traumatic and wounding and painful experiences in this country. because the hopes and dreams and aspirations, virtues, institutions, values, principles that created the conditions that put me here today are being sabotaged and eroded by those who have good intentions but often do not think of the consequences of public policy decisions because they have different views on the human person and human dignity. then those who actually structured our government in the first place. and while the effects of this anthropology are not immediately seen, the long-term effects have been uniquely and harshly experienced among the black underclass. and this makes me tired, tired of those who think that putting decisions in the hands of a few people is best in the long run when it has been demonstrated repeatedly in history that concentrating power in the hands of a few people leads to more oppression, not less. and, in fact, this concentration of power, those making decisions, a few making decisions for the masses, this has been much of the black experience in america. and so, in fact, "black and tired" because it seems there is this movement, this energy to reposition african-americans in such a way that a few people are making decisions about those masses. it's been exhausting to see the national campaign for the dignity of blackness under the visionary leadership of folks like dr. martin luther king and ralph abernathy and rosa parks, andrew young. and so be hijacked by the organizational narcissism that we find in government agencies operating under the delusion that they have the expertise and capacity to solve all of society's problems. it's been exhausting to see the politics of envy undermine this campaign for dignity which seeks to redefine what people deserve by pitting those of varying degrees of wealth against others. as if life was some sort of race, as if there's some competition. it's been exhausting to see zero sum economics which poises the imagination of -- poisons the imagination of those who do not understand the social implications of wealth creation enough to believe the myth that the only way to wealth is to exploit others. so i sit, then, on the same political island with thomas sew well and walter williams, friendless -- [laughter] with the understanding the key catalyst of the economic liberation of african-americans is inseparable from honoring the dignity of blackness by guaranteeing opportunities under the law for blacks to be treated no differently than anyone else. this equality of treatment is sabotaged today in a culture drowning in narcissism and entitlement. it is a narcissism that blames others for one's shortcomings and justifies breaking the law and moral norms out of a sense of entitlement. you owe us, say the entitled. but how do we get here? you see, today the consequences of a few converging trends, one is the decrease in american religious life. secondly, the erosion of an understanding of human dignity. and third, a focus on the equality of results instead of the equality of process. this cocktail has been poisonous to the black underclass because, one, the black church is more and more being ignored as an agent of public virtue which has been and had been a black -- excuse me, one of the black church's historic functions. the less religion you have in society, the more and more people turn to government to make sense of their lives and to mediate human action. i mean, this was precisely the intention of the communists and the socialists wishing to purge religion from society. human dignity has been perverted in ways that force us all to embrace the visions of a few to, essentially, plan and impose their will on the rest of us. and the pursuit of the equality of economic results for all has created new pathways for justified injustice. today it's called people doing their fair share. why then does the black underclass continue to struggle so many years after the civil rights movement? martin luther king dreamt about an america where women and men are evaluated on the basis of their character rather than skin color. the fight for equal dignity, however, was derailed by a quest for political clout and bling. the goal of equality measured by outcomes, sought by means of government-directed racial inclusion programs overshadowed the more challenging campaign for true solidarity based on widespread recognition of the inherent dignity of all people. beginning in the 198 l 0s, many civil rights leaders began to identify justice on the basis of social cosmetics, including how much stuff blacks did or did not have compared to whites. size of homes, number of college degrees, income disparities, law school admission rates, loan approvals and the like. instead of whether or not blacks are treated as equals in our social structures. equal treatment by our legal and social institutions may yield unexpected results. but it remains a better measurement of justice than creating results we want. one misstep in the movement beginning in the mid 1960s on into the 1970s was not recognizing that the most successful minority groups in america were those who pursued economic mobility through the marketplace instead of politics. so when you look at asian immigrants, when you look at the history of jews in america, you see other subdominant culture who chose the marketplace as a means of social and economic mobility as opposed to politics. now, much of this erosion has to do with our understanding of the role of religion in society. alexis de tocqueville cautioned in democracy in america that the pursuit of liberty without religion hurts society because it, quote, tends to isolate people from one another. to concentrate every man's intention, excuse me, every man's attention upon himself. and lays open the soul to an inordinate love of material gratification. end of quote. in fact, de tocqueville says, quote, the main business of religion is to purify, control and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well being which men acquire in times of equality. religion makes us other regarding. in fact, i've recently said that every black person apprehended for robbing stores in this a flash mob should have their court hearing not in front of a judge, but facing the 30-foot statue of martin luther king jr. at his washington memorial site. each thief should be asked, what do you think dr. king would say to you right now? i was that angry when i initially saw the news footage of young blacks robbing convenience stores across america, i was actually brought to tears. we may all need to take a closer look at king's chiseled stone face for the presence of his own tears, tears like the ones shed by native american actor "iron eyes" cody in a 1976 public service announcement about pollution. i'm actually old enough to remember those. the psa showed cody shedding tear afceeing pollution in america -- after seeing pollution in america that previously had none. it ended with the tag line, people start pollution, people can stop it. if king were alive today, he might proclaim with these flash mobs that people start them, and people can stop them. king's dream, of course, has been realized by many african-americans who have been able to take full advantage of the opportunities made available through this martyr's quest for justice. would king ever have imagined that a few decades after his "i have a dream" speech, a black family would be in the white house? not as maintenance or kitchen staff, but as the first family? yet years after the civil rights struggle affirmed black dignity, we have young black people ransacking stores in groups. every time a flash mob loots, it's robbing king of his dream. all over america from philadelphia to chicago to here in washington, d.c., young people could be contributing to the common good, but instead are trading off their dignity for the adrenaline rush of stealing from others. we will not tolerate such reprehensible behavior here, says district of columbia mayor vincent gray. he goes on to say some news coverage of this incident has reported residents questioning whether the robbery could have been morally justified. actually, says the mayor, both morality and law are quite clear. it is wrong to steal from others, and if people do not obey the law, they will be apprehended, arrested and prosecuted. what gray highlights is a troubling regression of public virtue and civil rights. king's dream was one that harmonized morality and law. however, king's dream will never be realized in america as long as this country continues the mythology that freedom does not require personal integrity and character. proponents of sociological and psychological theories of why these mobs loot stores, because minority feel disentreason chiezed and marginalized from mainstream society. and this, in fact, may be true, those may be legitimate feelings. what king taught us, however s that political and social frustration does not justify breaking the law. perhaps if these disenfranchised youth were more familiar with life under slavery is and jim crow or cared about the legacy of civil rights heros like thurgood marshall and rosa parks and john lewis and andy young and others that i mentioned earlier, they could tap into the imagination of an heroic generation. formed by the virtues of religion who pursued public justice by pursuing public virtue. an ailing american culture is responsible for this spectacle. a society that does not value forming young people in the ways of prudence and justice, courage, self-control and the like. why would we be surprised that convenience stores are being robbed by youthful mobs? in a society that does not value private property and fosters a spirit of envy and class warfare through wealth redistribution, why should we be surprised that young people don't value someone else's property? or to use a more technical term, stuff. [laughter] radical individualism and more relativism define the ethics of our era. in criminal flash mobs -- and criminal flash mobs expose our progressive failure. as we celebrate king's memorial, we must lament the fact that america's abandonment of virtue is destroying the lives of young black people and undermining the legal and economic catalyst that could end our recession for good. in solidarity wit