so i thought i would discuss in a book to raise awareness through a letter to an elected official. it s not to respect it and try to answer, it s not that people are under some dark hole. it s a major issue i think. most young people don t realize that there is far more impact. there are lots of letters, i think think a half a million a week. here s how it breaks down. a lot of people don t know that relatives go to the white house every morning. everyone expects the president to answer these letters but he has staff and departments and they should all be acknowledged at least. they have robo letters for bailout that often goes like this. or they write letters to contributors. presidents do right personal letters to a governor or mayor who supports the president so anybody who says the president doesn t sign particular letters to people doesn t know what they are talking about. you said dear mr. president i want you to attend my high school daughters graduation. they have t
is the most democratic media is when a person writes a letter to an elected official like a mayor, governor can t be censored or destroyed command not to try to answer it or technology so that people know that it s not going to some dark hole is a major issue i think and most people don t realize realize in a written letter to a politician has far more impact than an e-mail. you certainly don t expect him to answer every letter. and we speak about that in the book. guest: a lot of people don t know the teams of volunteers go to the white house every morning and separate all these letters. no one expects the president to answer these letters. but he has a staff and departments and agencies throughout the executive branch and they should all be acknowledged and that s my complaint. we have letters for high-profile issues like the bailout people are writing a book of letters, yes. now they will send a call like this which doesn t even answer the letter or they will write let
nader talks about letters he is sent to george w. bush and barack obama regarding our domestic and foreign policy. it s great to have you here ralph on c-span thank you. i m honored to interview you on this new book. yeah the reference point those days. it s a message that 103 letters i sent to president bush and president obama in 2001 and 2015 that were not acknowledged or not answered. so i thought i would embarrass myself by putting them all in a book to raise a bigger issue which is the most democratic media is when a person writes a letter to anil elected official can t be censored, can t be distorted, and not to respect it or even acknowledge it so people don t know it s going to some dark hole. it s a major issue i think. most young people don t realize that a young a written letter to an official has more impact. they get like a half 1 million letters a week, you don t expect them to answer every letter. yes teams of volunteers go to the white house every m
president bush s experience after katrina. was that racial? i don t think president bush was being racist with his handling of katrina. this was the hurricane that of course affected so many of minorities and lower income people who were hurt by the storm in louisiana mississippi. particularly in the ninth ward of new orleans. we saw people people on rooftops waiting for help. i think, and even president bill clinton in this book, he says i don t think it was an issue of racism, his policies just did not help elevate people in poverty. now we talk about katrina. president bush got in a lot of trouble for the fact that he was caught up in the state right issue. the state had to deal with it and that was what bogged him down. because people felt disenfranchised from their government, they felt left alone. because people died, people died, he did get in trouble. barack obama is the first, probably not the last african-american president that you will cover but his grade
school and university, i want to all of you to what i think is an extraordinary and special event, especially for me personally. tonight we have the honor of here who h rosenfelt is an alumn of the journalism as well as the daily cow a long went on to enjoy career as an investigative reporter of the san francisco chronicle.d all those times i stayed in touch with seth all those years, 30 known him for at least years, going on 40 years. time, almost, at seth was involved in his own quest for the question going on hereally in berkeley in if 1960s when all place.events were taking and the result is this book, subversives. the fbi s war on student radicals and reagan s rise to power. it s an extraordinary book and when i read it, finally, by the ay, i was waiting for years to read it and hearing about it. it s an extraordinary book because it s written primarily the perspective of the fbi. rarely hear in public and one that when we hear it, we re not sure what to think their docu