Mr. Axelrod admiral, great to see you again. We are two days after veterans day and that was the occasion for this event. There are plenty of public issues right now that i want to ask you about, but i want to defer that for a moment and talk about service itself. And i want to start by talking about how you came by service, because you came by it naturally. You grew up in a family of service. Tell me about your dad, who was quite an interesting person. Adm. Mcraven first, thank you for the invitation to join you today, this is terrific. I certainly enjoy spending time with you and the students of the iop. You are right, i came by it naturally. My father was a world war ii Fighter Pilot. Flew spitfires, actually, which was a british airplane, because at the time when we entered the war, americans did not have planes to take on the german messersmith, so the british loaned us spitfires. Dad flew that for about two years during the war. But my grandfather also served in world war i and i
I want you to understand the deep connection that the issue of guns and gun violence has with the work of the Luskin School of Public Affairs. Among the other focuses is a focus on Mental Health. Guns are the single biggest killer of women. They are the single biggest cause of successful suicide. It turns out people may try to take their own life more often than we would like, and its a tragedy, but we are not very good at it unless there is a gun present. If there is a gun present, the possibility of fatalities skyrocket. Guns tear at the fabric of american society, but as you will hear in tonights lecture, you can argue that they are written into the fabric of american society, or at least so their advocates and manufacturers would tell us. We will talk a bit more about that. Its also important to understand that guns are a racial issue. Put succinctly, as the Second Amendment is for white people. When more than 100 armed men descend on the kentucky state capital, nothing happens. If
We are thrilled tonight to welcome back the distinguished george will, who will be in conversation with the awardwinning broadcaster i am sorry, i am sure you have won many awards, i cannot be sure which ones. I welcome you on behalf of our leadership, caroline kelly, david layer, the Leadership Team of jews united for democracy of justice, and Community Advocates inc. , the creators of this series. Thank you to our many wonderful sponsors. Temple isaiah, Stephen Weiss temple, leo beth temple, israel Hollywood Jewish center for justice, the Holocaust Museum l. A. , the forward, and the pico union project. As it is thanksgiving eve, just a word on that topic. On october 3, 1863, at the height of a bloody war dividing our country, Abraham Lincoln issued a thanksgiving proclamation which officially established thanksgiving as a national holiday. He proclaimed that though the nation was at war with itself, there were still blessings for which both sides could experts gratitude. He also pro
You sit across from your grandmother, you are in complete silence, it is a sacred space. Listen andtes you ask questions. It is just two microphones and you look each other in the eyes. As you know i microphone gives you the license to ask questions you do not normally get to ask. From the beginning of storycorps people thought if i had 40 bits left to live, what i say to this person . At the end of the 40 minutes you get a copy and another stays with us and goes to the American Folklife Center in the library of congress. Your great, great, Great Grandkids can know your grandmother through her voice and story. Because of the nature of what happens in these booths, it started in Grand Central then expanded across the country, we are collecting the wisdom of humanity. We have about 650,000 participate so far. It is the largest collection of human voices so far. We are a Public Service and nonprofit. We are here to serve people. One of the things we are encouraging a thanksgiving, and if
Leaders of philanthropy talking about their involvement in this unprecedented time. Al gholston and carol, welcome. Im really pleased to have a chance to chat with you. Before we begin, i just wanted say im sorry for the loss of bill gates, senior. I know you and everyone at the foundation is feeling the loss. He was a tremendous man and many of us got a chance to know him in various ways, but probably not as well as you. Remarkable human being and a remarkable humanitarian. Thank you. So we are here at this unprecedented moment. Is kind of hard to imagine that we could have as many crises facing us all now. Weve got obviously the health crisis. Weve got the economic crisis. We are going through a reckoning on social justice. Experiencinge climate change. Its only the tip of the iceberg. And of course education is central to what you all do. How do you weigh all of that in this time when there are so many problems to tackled . Foundationshow your have thought about this as it is all en