Media feet, nonprivate industry, americans Cable Television company is a Public Service and brought to you by your television provider. Please welcome executive director of chicago ideas, Megan Mcdonald. [applause] good evening, happy wednesday. How is everyone feeling . Rate. Happy friday. Just making sure you are paying attention. Welcome, my name is Megan Mcdonald im the new director of chicago ideas. Born and raised in this amazing city that now, raising my own family, just on the street, i feel incredibly proud to call myself a true blue chicagoan. Anybody else feel that way . [applause] it makes me even powder to be part of this fantastic chicago ideas team, who works each and every day to challenge our city and the world beyond, to share ideas and inspire action and ignite change. Chicago ideas is all about curiosity and pursuing conductivity. In the spirit, who doesnt love a good friday night icebreaker . I like to ask you to take a moment to turn to a person you dont know and introduce yourself and share why you are here tonight and share what your most trusted source of political news might be. [laughter] this might be a run so i will give you 60 seconds. [inaudible conversations] okay. Its going to be tough for me to get this, guys. If i can, everyone, if i can get everybody, i love that you are all getting to know each other, theres plenty of time after the program is over. This is probably also a good time, as i mentioned conductivity, i dont necessarily mean the cell phone variety, this is a great time for me to ask everybody to please take a quick check of your cell phone and make sure they are silent. While you are doing that, i would like to mention that chicago ideas is not profitable without the support of our fantastic members, we would like to take a moment to recognize and thank all of our members of the audience to raise your hand away from of members. Thank you. Those of you who are not members might be thinking to yourself, why am i not a member . What does it look like . What i get for my membership . Im glad you asked. Numbers enjoy yearround benefits like comfort mentoring tickets, ticketing resales and member only expenses throughout the city. We have an event coming up in april that the members who enjoy the presale benefit might be interested in hearing about and while i cant go into the specific details because the announcement is on wednesday, i can tell you we have 815 time grammy awardwinning performer who has written a book, who plays the piano as a hobby, you might say the girl is on fire. Maybe. Thats about as far as i can go but the Member Benefits will make the presale opportunity something really spectacular. That is in april. With that great stuff coming up. Consider the membership. You can learn more about becoming a member if you go to our website, chicago ideas. Com. Now onto the main program. Tonights conversation is going to be one you will not soon forget. One that will keep you thinking for a long time. If you hear something that resonates during the program with you, we encourage you to share your thoughts with your Digital Community using our chicago ideas. I would like to thank our partners at cbre for making tonight possible. I would like to welcome the vice chairman, brad. [applause] of micro. How are we doing tonight . Its friday night, we are doing great . I love the energy. My name is brad, on behalf of cbre, or to thank you all for being here. Id like to recognize megan and her team, lets give them a round of applause. [applause] i cant tell you how excited i am to be here tonight, kicking off the tenth anniversary chicago ideas. Over the past decade, its amazing to see the impact of chicago ideas on our city and curious minds all over the country and the globe. They brought us words of politicians, poets and entrepreneurs, philosophers and the list goes on. All of them challenging us to think a little different. Tonight, tonight is no different. Tonight we are joined by two chicago leaders who are going to discuss the role of the cities and mayors who lead them and continue to be the engine for change in our countries and the world. Its my honor to introduce melanie and emmanuel. [applause] [applause] this is going to be fun. We have so much to cover. You have a great idea of what fun is. [laughter] i feel fine. [laughter] looks like the medication kicked in. [laughter] i thought it would be fun. So i would start with what you have a notebook and we are here to talk about it, i will start with how the book opens, which is the beginning is about family and its about your grandparents and their parents and it pulls you in immediately, the story is growing, the story of them came at a very young age from eastern europe. He said there was photos in your relatives houses in black and white with messages to you and brought it down, he said the message they conveyed, we sacrificed and struggled in a family we never saw again, that sacrifice will not be distant. Youre going to work hard to get an education, you are going to make something of yourself. Its one thing to see that visually, how is it that born and shaping you not in theory but in practice . Theres nothing subtle in a jewish home. [laughter] was, down in the tv room or family room in our house, grandmas purse, grandma sophie on my mother side, her purse, her passport, her two sisters, all three of them i think are a whopping 4. 7 therefore foot seven, 448 from about that. Their passports and on either side across the wall of the black and white photos of relatives both on my mothers and fathers side who never made it to america. That was the holocaust or my uncle on my father side, they never made it. That was the message, basically thought, the is are staring at you, its an image from a reminder of our response ability. I was a very important part of our life. The other part, this is true about our relatives also, my mothers father banger . Bangka. I got treated on the dna four. 6foot four, 300 pounds, Eastern European, steelworker, meat cutter, truck driver. I do not have any of that dna. [laughter] i got all the stuff that went to israel, i got none of the Eastern European side. He meets my grandmother on the right side, if you know the history of chicago, all the Jewish Community that was non german on the west side, thats why we have a standard club, german jewish, everybody else. They needed to dance and they happen to grow up and colby, they dont know. They get married, mother is raised in north, they moved to albany park. Every sunday without any changes, went about, everybody went over to the house to grandma and grandpas. This was your whole life . Every sunday. Third floor. Kids are running around, people are screaming and yelling, which is a conversation. [laughter] theyre all arguing about politics and everybody is yelling and screaming and the reason is called big bang up because he would bank on the table when he wanted to get hurt. What about this piece that you would make summing of yourself . You would look at your brothers, on the family. You got but doctor, famous doctor i would not recommend his bedside manners to anybody. I want to get too close month my dad just died from my parents to their credit, they raised us with a sense that we have this response ability to do something for their life and youre not going to just pass through. Were they saying this to your . Nothing no inflicted, was explicit. I was a total soccer because when you walked into our house, he walked in, your distance is the refrigerator side. Whats on the outside . Everybody comes in the house right there. Your report card. [laughter] it stayed up until the next report card. That one comes on and the other goes up. He would seek in a and then it was my report card. My parents at the dinner table, you could not miss dinner. You participate in sports and had to be home for dinner 6 00 friday night. We have guests, family members, ill get to grandpa in a second on back, dinner was, we discovered ust you have see fighting at the dinner table. Grandpa, when he lived with us and grandma, he retired, grandma is very sick and even though hes in chicago, he wants to die in israel. We had to wait to get his papers so hes living with us in burma for two years. He would get up every morning at 4 30 a. M. , make us breakfast, boxer underwear, pink top and slippers. And the newspaper. Had a fourth grade education and he would just hate you. I was his way of saying i love you. [laughter] he would yell at you, in this weird thing, the hitting and the yelling was an expression of affection. What i dont understand, this is a big missing piece. I guess the chaos is is covered by blue cross and blue shield . [laughter] i get the grandfather, the short, you paint a vivid visual but then you say it would surprise us all by you are a quiet, attentive child. Were you just observing this going on . I cant believe that. [laughter] well, im not making it up. As a very quiet like up until 54 . [laughter] they took me to therapy, i was not talking. As a very quiet child. The change in my life occurs later when i was 17. So you lose a finger i lost my finger or half of it. Yes. I lost my finger, i didnt go to the hospital. I had gangrene spot, to bone in the arm. Understood save my life, i lost three roommate, they all died. Its not like the clouds open, the sun comes through beethoven starts playing but in those seven weeks, i walked out about 20 pounds lighter and im a change person. My mom and dad noticed im a changed person. You came out fighting or i determined to make every day count and i was going to do something with my life. So that night her voice was louder . [laughter] i think i found a purpose for my life. Originally, i was going to do ballet, i thought about child psychology and Child Education from i worked on a campaign and decided this is what i want to do. Its 1980, your political director of Democratic Congressional ready, he joined the clinton campaign, we know the rest is history, a lot happens, he went from there daily. [laughter] i love the city of chicago. [laughter] s. [laughter] thats so scary. Stop. [laughter] you get eldon yelled at for eight years straight, he imitated pretty good. What did you learn from him . Get your backpack, i could be here for like eight days. Bill clinton is one of the most incredible talent. He had a capacity like ive never seen to look at something and drill politics policy, communication, ill give you a funny story. He sitting across the cabinet room, the president back is to the window part of the cabinet room, the tiny chinese premier is there, we have our cabin there. They are trying to work something out. If you go with the chinese and ministers, they read your response, they respond to your, everything is literally typed out for the entire hour. Theres like zero creativity, zero . They are having trouble, he doesnt know the chinese premi premier, how they will handle themselves. Clinton goes, let me tell you how to do this. He sits there and walks the chinese premier through how to handle selling this back to china and heres how you would handle it. The chinese premier, everything is choreographed out, no moment, he starts labs laughing hysterically. I need you come in with me. [laughter] clinton had a capacity to walk through anybody elses shoes politically, understand difficulty, think about the policy. How did you then if he was gifted, what did you take away from back that you could apply in a way that made you better . Up until him, i was always doing politics. Bill clinton i think its relevant to this, bill clinton always said the biggest thing thats always depreciated in politics is ids. If you understood ideas, you could make politics. I used to say this to my kids, this is true about everybody but is very true for mayors, governors and president. You have this idea you need own idea big enough to know what you are doing and ruthless enough to get it done. [applause] i added the ruthless part. [laughter] if you go back and think of our great president what you write about. S. Kennedy, lincoln, roosevelt, etc. Lincoln does not start as an abolitionist. They think is to moderate, always comprising, he always knew how far he could get ahead but not outrun public opinion. Hes constantly doing policies but at the end of the day, he moves slavery and withdraws. He doesnt deal with that. He doesnt have any weight to hold so the battle because hes going to be seen as a loser who has to go and slavery as a way to end war. You have to be knowing why you do what you do and thank you got to be tough enough to see it through. Clinton, and i think all chief executives are capable, clinton taught me that to have this immersed myself in policy, which is why this book and the other book i wrote are all about policy, you have to have ideas to eliminate what you are going to do and then youve got to be really tough enough to seek the ideas all the way through. There are things i talk about as we go on about chicago that were very influential, the mentor he was. Its interesting because you say as mayor, you have to have ideas. You have to get things done theres nowhere to hide. People are there every minute. They will come to your home and find you. [laughter] and they did. They know where you are. You think the future of society right now, around the world, this was the city. Explain to everyone how important this is. The basic premise of the book is why also iran but i believe my whole career until this moment is about president Clinton Congress and president obama and the national government. When the mayor ship opened and not seek reelection, i wanted, if you grew up in chicago, the mayor is the office. I was on one trajectory in congress, wanted to come home and run for mayor, i thought i was the time to do something. Did you think it was odd . You know david, he called me and thanked me, why would you leave the most powerful position in pop progress . I would you become mayor . David, very involved in the city, hes like, mayor of chicago . You dont get it then. There is a premonition that there was a shift, a third of the book is about the center of gravity of our politics moving out of washington, out of london to local. Because of the upton . Part of it is dysfunction, all of the weaknesses you see. Dysfunction, disinterest. They match up against all the strength you see local. Intimate, immediate and impactful. We have been here before. Whats interesting about this moment is not only things returning locally but then local governments now are taking up more and more the real estate you see. Is a real estate or slack . Local government are leading the charge on climate change. Local governments are leading the charge on immigration. When i say its not just talking about the city to vibrate to having immigration owners to deal with citizenship from local governments are taking on the leadership on inclusive growth or income inequality, ill give you one example, research. It always used to be the federal government. This brilliant idea of putting the Cornell University and ten years later, new york is now rivaling the west coast. We are now doing it with the discovery center. Research centers was never the mayor would come up with an idea so while local government had always existed and played their important role, is taking on more and more things of the federal government stepping back. I like to answer your first third questions and then ill answer. [laughter] one quick thing, a third of this science, a third is politics and a third of it is you know the famous winston churchill, when he lost his election towards the end of the war, how do you think history will treat you . Is it how do you know . He said i plan on fighting it. Thats a third period thats what it is. Two things i would say, is it good or bad . It is both simultaneously. When you think about where you work, where you live, where you play, how to get from home to work . What other amenities in your Community Ask all of is your local government. None of it comes from the national government. It is disneyland on it right now, its not part of the light. So thats number one. [laughter] number two, ive been to thousands of conferences about high school is no longer enough. So we came up with a number of staff, we came up with the chicago star scholarship. [applause] Community College is free. 8000 kids have done it. Boston, denver, louisville, oakland, just to name a few and there are other cities all replicating. We have 8000 kids in growing in chicago that have already used it. You think betsy devos called . [laughter] using betsy devos is forget chicago. Its all the mayors and seven governors. They come up to washington. Do here. I think that is horrible. Im not saying its the most important education but i think its in the top three dynamic United States of america. If you do think three quarters is from high school in seven cities in the United States starting something equivalent to this era with a High School Education was so the 20th century, either congress attended or the secretary of education. You have not one city, give multiple cities. I did the research for this book and i was really shocked at this fact. I think this doesnt tell you anything, going into world war two, which country has the highest education . The United States of america. 90 of the men and women, many men with a High School Education, higher than any other army in world war ii. Before the war is over, 44, roosevelt announces the g. I. Bill. I know a lot happened at the High School Education the beginning of the center, the g. I. Bill at the middle of the century, the rest of the american center. We havent done anything from now im proud, we have the chicagos star scholarship, if you keep be average while at Community College, every college and university and city of chicago gives you 20 to 50 off tuition. I would like the federal government, if the federal government does i dont think they will ever do it but if they said, any city or state that adopts this, well double the problem, then you can take an idea and make it universal but to me, i knew this was happening in chicago, you cant wait so you have to move. How do you compare that with, obviously it is political season bernie says wipe out all the debt. How do you swear that . This is not to attack bernie but since you asked [laughter] i dont think taxpayers should pay for three kids to go to college. Thats crazy. We can afford it. Income inequality, i write in the book, its masquerading divide. That is whats happening. If you have a diploma divide in the country, this is one of the things im proud of, of the 8000 kids that have done this scholarship, 81 are the first one in the family to go to college. Their retention rate and a Completion Rate about double and triple the normal Community College population. Tennessee, he went to high school and you get it. Chicago, you get a be average. I dont if im right or wrong but i think it counts. You talked about how you debated it. We debated it and came down to money and other issues into the one thing we do thats different, not only do we do tuition, we do all transportation and all books. It makes a real difference in a students life. I highlight some of the kids that have gone on to cornell, you have i and etc. When you were mayor its why iran. You wouldnt invite 400 people outside your house was it wasnt. Lets get back to one of the things, idealistic enough to know why you are doing what youre doing and tough enough to get it done. One anecdote in there, we all flipped through it, i made a pledge how long was it . Seven days. Seven days we had an agreement, two days to get the boat done, so nine days. Think about it this way, your mayor, but yourself in the chair, my life would be easier if i had a, a shorter school day in a shorter school year. I could say, this is tougher than i thought, my life would be a hell of a lot easier. My familys life and it would be less stress from the city. I saw it was a mistake he wanted to break the cycle of poverty to throw in the towel on that. 83 of the kids are poor. If you want to break the cycle, dont come up with the shortest school they of the shortest school year. The question, zero three and zero seven contract, tried to get this out. You decide to endorse strike to me, i thought it was not only from what i pledged but i thought it was not something that should be highlighted. Out so thought it was more important, as we would change our education and the trajectory of these children that you had to have a full school day. To go back to 2011, the children abused it. That in my interest in education, i knew i had achieved what i achieved in life because of it and then i thought it was important. That to me was an example of something, it was a lot of pressure without naming names of people who were dear and close to me in politics and stuff like that who should probably not take that. Did you ever waiver. It was a pledge i made, it was not e entered a pledge it was the pledge. Number three i did not want to have to strike, i was willing the difference i was willing to have a strike to get it done. Not what i wanted but i was willing to have that. In the area of another church all quote, nothing ive achieved ive never done without having a mistake. The mistake i made was sixmonth before hand, we had no money in the mayor has the authority or had that you could unilaterally cancel pay increases. Not an exercise but it exist on paper. We were in 2011, the last year of the last contract. It was 4 , 4 , 4 , 4 . And the finances were in such a position they did not do a budget before we walked in a c. P. S. I know they had a corporate account at c. P. S. And i was a punk, unilaterally, that was not a name then. You dont have to do that. I unilaterally canceled it. I put karen and it back to the wall. And i own that, that is my mistake. If you had a do over, you would not do it. I wouldve i own this, this is my mistake, i shouldve called karen and said we dont have the money, work with me, she wouldve said that your problem, you ran for the office governor, fix it. Im not doing anything to help you, but you gotta back it up six months, i go down to springfield and change the law and take the time of day out of the contract, she has her members and she cooperated. In her members are like what, then i take the 4 and a really cornered her, theres other things that she did, that violated trust that we had and agreements that we had, that said, there was always going to be ocea a strike over the lengtf things, i made it worse, i shouldve given her a chance to sit at the table, i did not do it so i own it. At the end of the day, no regrets on that issue, you got it done. I also think i got it done, no regrets getting it done because i think its foundational to the other progress. You said it was a level seven sitting. You have to remember everybody talks about the strike, in 2015 the teachers went an entire year without a contract. They did not want to strike anymore. They were done and it was over, karen and i and a talk about this, we had a working relationship, i can do this now that im out, we texted with each other and my joe is entered is probably freaking out right now we had a great relationship. And we tried to get the contribution to the full pension dating back to washington and she could not get it. But they worked in entire year from 2015 with no contract, we figured out a compromise and this also gets to something, president obama and president clinton working on this. So the teachers would get 2 towards their pension, and cbs would get all the other 18 or 16. And in the 83 deal washington had a budget problem so he settled give you one year if you only do 2 toward your pension, that one year started in 83 and never change. Karen and i tried to get all new teachers, all old teachers, 90 preach she could not pass it. The work, i reached out to her for no go statio entered negoti. But we come to the agreement, all new teachers will do the 9 , all legacy teachers will stay at the two. And we got a contract, and the other issues in healthcare and et cetera. That was the issue, we worked our way through very good working relationship, when i decided not to run actually the first communication i got when i came off the podium was from karen. Why did you decide not to run. So i sit here and do this interview. [laughter] there is a couple things. I love the job and i love more importantly the people et cetera and what you can do. If it was not for the fact i was exhausted but the headline is, i get elected to congress and o2, two years later in 0 four nancy says i want you to take over the Democratic National campaign. We take over the house, she says i want you to be chairman and caucus chair. We do all that going into 0 six into 0 eight, i take that, we get that president obama says i want you to be chief of staff, i thank you all know that was a slight turn around. It was like a financial crisis, Auto Industry about to fall apart, the economy is in the worst recession, two of the longest wars. And then iran for mayor. And we made a lot of changes, you all were a part of it and i said basically the last ten years of the 16 years, both the president and the city were two major turnarounds. And i was exhausted. And i know one thing of chicago is not phoenix or albuquerque or tucson, you dont do one year of work in cruise for two years. The other thing i also know, third terms are snake bit in terms. Mayor bloombergs was not a great term the mayors was not a good turn, governor cuomo, if you look at roosevelt all the mistakes he makes in the third term. One thing somebody asked me this earlier, if the end of the day besides politics, you never bring disrespect to the name, i spent 25 years in public life, the one thing i never done, never hired a lawyer. I dont think going to president clinton, i got close a couple times but i never hired a lawyer. That was delayed, that was a selfevident joke. I had realized kind new enough about political history and science and i knew enough about myself and my energy level in the truth in the third term, you are not as smart and as good as you think you are, your staff is as tired as you are and you will make a mistake. I got into place after ten years, i accomplished a lot of what i wanted to do and it was a hard conversation, amy and i had and the kids and i had to have our conversation with myself, i love the city and the people in the job but ten years was time to put the jersey up for a while. Did your family want you to stop or did they think you should keep going. It was a divided court. How did you manage the strap on the family, you mentioned more than once. 90 goes to amy, i get 5 the kids get 5 . Amy kept the house, the family is sense and the kids the sense that they were in a place of love and wanted. It is interesting [applause] we set up her role when i got elected to congress which was we had friday nights dinner into dinners and night during the week and we did travel times even though the press would criticize me being out during the holidays, we did the travel overseas with the kids so we could do things as a family. You continue to the tradition. Yes, mark twins quote, a 12 a new my father was a fool, my 18 hour shock but what he only doing 18 years. Everything i said i would not do as a parent i now replicate of my father mother. But it is interesting, when i look at the time from congress to mayor and a look at my kids today, i look at being mayor, chief of staff and congress and thing a minute exposed to, i have always believed in family. I have become a bigger zealot of the family. And i dont mean all the and harriet. And no i do, i think when i look at my kids in the love that we provided but i also look at their cousins, their grandparents that they have been fortunate to have both sets. In a look at dear friends who are also like family and i think the family is under assault in america. Not because people are against it but things pulling at it. And he came to the conclusion, im a big believer in the mentoring program bam, big believer in afterschool and summer jobs, et cetera. I fought hard to expand them to grow them to have them do different things. But i am a believer in government, a government progr program, it can help them provide for a child, it cannot love a child in my dad always said he never saw a child spoiled with too many kisses into many hugs. Never. [applause] and i look at all my time and i think i come away from public life thinking more and more about how do we support i want to be clear, im not talking about aussie and harriet and never existed its mythology, but how do you support family with the fuppercaseletter. And when you think about what i think, why i think mayors are running, you have a mayor of london who is the Prime Minister and three mayors running in all the governors have dropped out. I think one of the Biggest Challenges we have decides income inequality is alienation. What else leads to the death of despair. Alcohol, heroin, suicide at a president leve and jump him pret level. Only a mayor knows how to find faith, community groups, nonfor profits and create a self a place of belonging and believe in yourself. I think those are the hardest things and i think family plays a central role in giving a young adult the sense of belonging. When you define family you are not talking about blood relatives. You are talking about community. Yeah i think it is both family and the sense of family but when i say family i am including aunts uncles grandparents, dear dear family and friends et cetera, the network that can provide for the growth of a child. How do you put that back together in our Current Society because certainly we have lots of broken homes, lots of kids that do not grow up they are desperate for all of those that you talked about. What is interesting, we are asking just take schools and education, we are asking a place that is only about education to become a community school, and after school, and nutritional program, you are asking it to do a whole lot of things that used to do. But then you have to give it a whole lot more resources and i think its a right thing to do because children and families need that support. And not every child starts level set and only through places of worship but through our schools can you give all children which is why i think prek is a program is so essential because without it not every child will have the chance. But there is other things i would talk about. This is getting into president ial politics for Second Period our political system and our Economic System are written in conflict, within the political system and the Economic System is complex. We have had periods of times where those conflicts have erected and when you have a president that has advocated malice towards them. We killed 600,000 fellow citizens in the second inaugural and we talk about a malice towards none. In the worst depression, roosevelt talk about nothing to fear but fear itself. We have always had these divisions, this is only time in the last hundred years that weve had a president in a time of divisions who is trained to figure out how to stoke them. That is really different and that is why the opportunity of cities, when you think about it, that is a real problem and people are trying to create locally a place of community and a place of belonging which is only enhancing the role that mayors and cities are playing. Has that stoking changes forever and change your politics forever . Can we recover . Yes it will require all of us, not this the president. But yes. When you think about how hard is that for whoever that leader is to be the visionary and fight for the ideas in a way that restores the ability you are talking about how hard is that. It is very hard. President obamas a lot of people said he should not always reach out his hand, i actually thought his civility, whether the beer summit and other things was unbelievable strength in the coarseness of our politics as you can see starting then. That his graciousness was a real asset, not a liability, a lot of people thought it was an incredible political and cultural aspect, i do think to think about it from a policy standpoint, i have advocated this going back to 2006 and the other book i actually think what this country needs is National Service. Every person. [applause] how would that look. I dont know everybodys politics but we all go around saying diversity is our strength. Thats it all the time. You cannot have that be a strength if you dont have a Common Foundation. It becomes a liability if you dont agree on something. You can have here is chicago even though some people work for the cubs and some people root for the sox, you have 147 languages spoken schools, thats a lot of faith, cultures, background but guess what every parent has the same aspiration regardless of language. So you can weave this, one thing that we have lost is a common experience. I think creating a National Service where everybody serves alongside each other, im not saying arm service im sated to be americorps. Out of school six month minimum. To think that can ever happen. Yeah, you know americorps has done just americorps, first of all those like 6000 kids in the city of chicago. There goes americorps right over there. City are, absolutely. I actually think the country needs it, i think we once again have to create a generation that whether its our kids from all different backgrounds, all different races in all different parts of the country having one shared experience, let me translate that, why do libraries, parks, Public Transportation work. Regardless of background, race, where you are, you have a shared experience that only a city or Public Entity can create. I think that is very valuable. Especially in a time where we all migrate to her own news and our communities and migrate to race, education, income et cetera backgrounds. I think having that Common Foundation will aroun allow divy and the russians cannot use against us. That was a political job if you did not notice. [laughter] im going to switch years. What is th afterlife like. What is it like walking down the street, restaurants, you wake up every day with something that was super pressing. This is the first time im not even good at it now, starting from clinton forward obama forward, you would be waking up multiple times a night. Because of thoughts, cell phones. Lots of things, if you get above the age of 50, the bathroom, a lot of things. [laughter] im getting a hairy eyeball from amy. There is a whole lot of things. But as mayor, anything happens in the city of significance you have to be notified. What is that like if it does not exist. First of all you have a lot of glitches. There is funny incidents, peoplg to the airport, youre an actor arent you. [laughter] its like this. That fast they forget you. No im in new york. I know you, ill give you one funny story about adjustments. The kids and i especially alana we like to go to the final four. Weve been doing it for years. But as the mayor, you will go through the back or whatever alana, zach and i go to the final four in phoenix. And the doors have not open but you go through security et cetera in a big line because im doing a family trip i dont take any security. Massive lines, 85 degrees and theres like 25000 30000 people waiting and were waiting in line. And im like what the hell. [laughter] i didnt say what the hell but what are people doing in alana looks at me and says this is what people do, i think you should run for another term, you are not ready. [laughter] now you have to wait in line, theres a whole adjustment. The weird thing, heres the hardest part, you are mayor, it doesnt whether schools, Community College, your project is chicago. So i have banking stuff, column stuff, tv stuff, the book stuff, boards, speaking. I was down in st. Louis and meeting with the client and i get a text from the washington post, we need your edit in one hour, this is on impeachment, and your editing a piece on impeachment. Its a little left and right brain. Its a bit frantic in that sense. But i prefer frantic and chaos. When you look back and if you can do any due over. Give us three of the six. One i told you, i would not have done the 4 unilaterally. I would not have changed my commitment, car karen and i hadn agreement, i own the 4 and the other side she was not kept, i was still go through for the full school day because i thought it was foundational. Two, school closings. This to me is about Public Policy and stuff like that. I want to put you in the chair of being a mayor. You have the worst funding of education than any state in illinois for the state of poverty. We change that, the budget was so bad it was not done. You have kids, track and schools year in year out at level three which is feeling for a not one year, not two years but a decade. Youre about to upset peoples lives, you would not want to do that to anybody. And i did not run for office and schools, then you get a report that the sensors 110 the have to be close, finances are a mess, you will mess up peoples lives, kids are trapped in the school and you should shut 110 of them. And yet you have a responsibility to do one, you have to make sure these kids are safe and get from one place to another. How do you see through all of this. Some people advocated, they do like ten a year. But then ten over five years like extending the pain. Ill give one example, this is about learning, four years later when we consolidated three high schools and made into one. We built a New High School and screaming for three was no less on the volume and screaming for 49. And that to me all i do know is 95 of the children in inglewood leave inglewood to go to high school, they dont say what the highest in the city. Today Inglewood High School is oversubscribed and doing a new building, new facility even though the screening was the same level, in my view probably slightly better but i dont think you can change it. Ill give you one antidote. I used to pop into schools as i was running. And it was a receiving school. I was Walking Around saying hello and i like to go to see whats going on, otherwise its like the mayors coming clean it up but i would just pop in. I was in eighth grade class and a young kid said, i think it was swift, he said i went to swift and you move me, i was really upset. And i wanted you to know that, im really glad i came here and then he mentioned which high school hes going to go to, he said i really want to thank you and would you please he said i was not happy with you and my parents were not happy with you. He says would you give our commencement so i said i only do high schools. But if you introduce me and tell everybody that story i will get all the cameras. [laughter] you know you have shut the schools, dont shut the schools, dont mess up our lives, kids are trapped in a horrible schools, we dont have the money and obviously we dont have that much time but you can go through this, heres the one thing i will say that all the mayors have that none of the centers have. Thats a president ial. You have mistakes and thats only way you will succeed. I always uses as an example but i know it is true. If you go through president ial history, just take the missile crisis, we are lucky candidate y failed, this is the joint chief, full of ships. And they do not know what theyre talking about, they wouldve bombed the hell out of havana and wanted to evade. He understands only he knows how to do it, what are the judgment and he took responsibility, he learned from the failure and applied, think god before the cuban missile crisis. You make failures all the time, the real judgment about a president , used to say to clinton if you know the first year in the first term what we knew by the second term, we would be geniuses. And if you feel and apply going forward, you will succeed, and no legislator has that like a mayor. It is not an accident, if you look at it like me, mayor bloomberg, mayor buttigieg, theres issues between Public Safety and committee, they owned those failures and theyve applied a going forward. That is not true of an experience of a legislator. I want to do a superfast speed round but i want to ask you a couple of questions. I just got out of a restaurant for a line im going to wait in. Dont worry about it. Do you have a hobby what is it. I have five, im crazy about exercise. Favor hobby. Reading books. Last great book you read. Two, can i get to. Yeah. In the shadow of hoffa, jack goldman was his legal counsel, he is the godson of Chuckie Obrien who was the irishman. Remember when he says im not signing that paper, its a legal document that Jack Goldsmith wrote. And then susan neiman wrote this book, what we can learn from the holocaust. Its a study of what the germans did that integrate the holocaust into their culture and what we can do and have them done as it relates to slavery. When it is good, it is phenomenal. It is a great book. Reader you most admire. In history. Anyone. My mother used to say, i hate you all equally. [laughter] i love president clinton and president obama, the greatest president we ever had is president lincoln without a doubt. But the greatest leader i will probably have to say Martin Luther king, when you think about it if you read all the biographies, he is 35 years old and is going monitor model with the president and against a culture and hes doing it with this ability and only the power of his mind and his words. Its an incredible accomplishment. He change the country. Best advice you ever received. The best advice was my fathers, i want to say you learned all the things youre never going to do and then you repeat them. He would say rabbi famous quote which is who are you if youre not for yourself, what are you if youre only for yourself, if not now than when. Andy said now that you become an adult, your quest in life is to answer that question. Worst device you ever received. Worst advice ive ever received . My father. [laughter] what are you doing going down to little rock, this guys ass, nobody knows. [laughter] that was good. I cant believe this what are you doing. A motto that you live by. A motto, this also comes from my family. It would be, you can believe in something, you cannot leave anything in the pocket. It all goes down. If you believe in something you are all in, not 90 . Certainly true of you. Ladies and gentlemen from rahm emanuel. [applause] we have a surprise, there is someone here that you know and his name is dar dark he is hy hi. It is somebody you meant toward. Where is he. Always coming out. [applause] have a great night. Thank you so much. [inaudible conversations] weeknights were featuring book tv programs showcasing whats available every weekend on cspan2. Tonight books on technology and innovation we will begin with john browns make, think and imagine, engineering civilization followed by lorien pratt, link, how decision in television for outcomes of a better world. And then gary marcus on his book rebooting a. I. The Artificial Intelligence we can trust. Book tv this week and every weekend on cspan2. If you miss any of our live coverage of the governments response to the coronavirus outbreak, watch anytime at cspan. Org coronavirus. From daily briefings by the president in the White House Task force to updates from governors of the hardest hit states, it is all there. Use the charts and maps to track the virus global spread income from cases in the u. S. , county by county. Our coronavirus webpage is your fast and easy way to watch cspan unfiltered coverage of this pandemic. Television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago. But our Mission Continues to provide an unfiltered view of government. Already we brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch the Public Affairs programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app and be part of the National Conversation through cspan daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feed. Cspan, created b p