of the first standing committees established by the senate. it is also one of the most powerful committees, and one of the largest. we are so grateful to the generous donors who helped make this evening possible. , independentca community bankers of america, , leonardoor america l , and mr. terry ehrman. thank you all so much for making tonight possible. we will begin the evening with the presentation of the colors and the pledge of allegiance. please rise. > i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. .> please be seated several distinguished guests have joined us this evening. senator that cochran, chairman of the cochran, chairman appropriations committee, senator patrick leahy, vice chairman of the committee, several current community in committee members, including barbara mikulski, former chairwoman of the comm ittee. and i saw suzanne c
good evening, everyone. i am a trustee of the u.s. capital historical society. welcome to our celebration of the 150th anniversary of the senate committee on appropriations. this committee traces its origins to 1816, making it one of the first standing committees established by the senate. it is also one of the most powerful committees, and one of the largest. we are so grateful to the generous donors who helped make this evening possible. bank of america, independent community bankers of america, airlines for america, leonardo drs, and mr. terry lehrman. thank you all so much for making tonight possible. we will begin the evening with the presentation of the colors by the capitol police ceremonial unit and the pledge of allegiance. please rise. present. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. please be seated. several distinguished gu
find offensive. [applause] thanks. go ahead. you start. figure out what to do. so much of this book is based on the interview, interviewing people. i am going to be up front. i am really intimidated by this guy. i thought i was intimidated by you. i want to give a little bit of background. i never really met john. i heard of jon else. he is this ghost. my first job was with chinese american filmmaker, legendary filmmaker and i came on the tail end of a series called bean sprouts. the crew a crewmember they would talk about jon else as the white guy that passed the asian litmus test and so i never met him but heard of him. i was working with wayne weighing in monaco and john was her, wayne congratulated him, winning the macarthur fellowship. i had no idea what it was at the time. wayne said it is called a genius grant. and then i was actually in started working on a film that was actually because what we did is we gave don a camera to just film his everyday life