it s an honor to welcome everyone to the 71st national book awards. i m coming to you live from washington d.c.. this is our night. there s so much going on in the world that this is still her night and it s a big deal. it s so much of the big deal that i woke up this morning actions and nervous as usual. i called my mother because i ice my mother when i m anxious. 7:00 in the morning could she and the phone she said zero. i said i m just feeling anxious about tonight that i m hosting the national book awards and i m calling to see good advice her child and she said what she always says when i make this call. she fled but the ascii something son. what did i make you say every single night before you got into bed when you were little when i said i don t want to do this and she said no, what did i make you say every single night before you got into bed when you were a little boy and i said you made me say i can do anything. she said exactly. you can do anything. you told me thi
you ll move ultimately in a different direction. more prosaically it comes from a period in my career when i was a four star admiral, fish issuing the u.s. sorry command and charge of all military activities south of the out and i was very hopeful of going pacific next as a commander of u.s. pacific command. which is a very traditional position for a senior admiral. my boss, wonderful boss, secretary defense robert gates, bob gates, said, stavridis. we re going to send you to nato. i was the first and thus far the only admiral to be spree supreme am lied commander in nato and just an accident of timing and faith and secretary gate decision. so from the nato perspective i was at the dental admiral who became the supreme allied expired but the navy was an accident as well, one it, as a career? guest: somewhat. so, let s go way back. i grew up in a marine corps family. my father, george stavridis, proud colonel of marines, fought in korea and vietnam. i grew up in that envir
admiral james stavridis. why do you refer to yourself as the accidental admiral. guest: what a great question. first of all because at a certain level all of our lives are accidents. you can choose to steer a particular course, but the sea will come, the won t will come, you ll move ultimately in a different direction. more prosaically it comes from a period in my career when i was a four star admiral, fish issuing the u.s. sorry command and charge of all military activities south of the out and i was very hopeful of going pacific next as a commander of u.s. pacific command. which is a very traditional position for a senior admiral. my boss, wonderful boss, secretary defense robert gates, bob gates, said, stavridis. we re going to send you to nato. i was the first and thus far the only admiral to be spree supreme am lied commander in nato and just an accident of timing and faith and secretary gate decision. so from the nato perspective i was at the dental admiral who be
we are going to have a great night tonight. we are honoring literary liens, emma white will be honored, a big night for the massive national book foundation for literature, culture, a big night for all of us. when i have the ability to stand in front of people i mention my mother s name jean christian. she is the reason i like to say about my mother i am the man that i am because she is the woman sheis or was . my mother was my first teacher. my mother graduated from college at the age of 17, the first person in her family to go to college . for me to be a well-known literary advocate in this nation, a place where only a scant few generations ago it would have been illegal for me to read is no small thing. [applause] literature is the birthrightof every single one of us, no exception and if you can read in at least one language youare in my definition free . that is to say , no one can pull the wall over your eyes. no one can give you a set of what they want to call alternati
the 40th annual american book awards. i say it is very appropriate that we are holding this ceremony on the day of the dead. in san francisco. and in california, and at the end of the west. not just geographically mind you, you go any further west, you are in the east. far east. so just this last month, afghanistan turned 18. i say it s you say is going to vote? congressional budget for every 24 hours the war cost hundred and $74 million. so in a city named for st. francis, who city fathers and mothers now treated citizens as if they were merely detritus of capitalism, is trying these big two. and if state named for a black lesbian amazon clean of the islamic faith took up on that, but these are just the names that we know right now. because there are monday names for this place became long before any of us were here and there will be monday names to come. in fact the origin of those names came from a group of people who arrived from you re up are increasingly starting to up