Transcripts For CSPAN2 Heather Lende Of Bears And Ballots 20240712

Out for that. You can purchase copies of of bears and ballots from our link in the chat and we provided a link on our website and jessica and heather are talking, please your questions to jessica or heather. We had a q a feature in the bottom of your screen. You will get to as many of those as time allows. Heather lende as contributed as a and pr and National Geographic outlets among other newspapers andmagazines. Shes the author of the bestselling book find the good, take good care of the garden and the dog and if you lived here i know your name you and i shall be discussing herlatest book , of bears and ballots an alaskan adventure into smalltown politics. Heather will be interviewed by jessica hammer, jessica is the author of the novel magnetic girl, author of the southern book, also a nominee for the crisis section, from invisible sisters was named one of the all georgians should read and her craft guide breathing fire, a guide to writing about it was praised by vanity fair and others. She teaches creative writing and directs writing a report university. She lectures internationally in writing and we are so delighted she is joining us tonight heather and jessica, welcome and i will let jessica takeit from your area. Thank you kate and heather, im so glad to talk to you and i feel like your friend although weve only met on the internet inthe past few weeks. I love this book so much and while i personally dont have the temperament to run for office, and you do apparently, you and i share a deep belief in the importance of community and the importance of democracy and its just a real honor that to spend sometime with you. I want to know if you would read for us just a very beginning of the book, if you would read from the beginning, election day through my life as an open book, the first three paragraphs. Sure. Election day. There are two polling places in haines. One is above the harbor on a dock and the other is a fire molten mosquito lake, a rural settlement 20 miles out of town. I voted at the art center and said hi to everyone as i walked in but i didnt say wish me luck or anything close to it. The public radio satan and signs on the street corners reminded resident no campaigning was allowed at or near polling places. One neighbor who lived in an old house with a wide porch was asked by the Borough Court to remove Campaign Signs from his yard since his home was too close to the polls. I did notice who was there voting go friends and foes and wondered which side of the haines right left divide would be victorious. Either way a more than half of us would be happy and a little less than half would be disappointed. Haines predicted both. I assumed it would be close area and it looked as though more conservative voters than my supporters were at the rec center and i hope to my years in town, my Community Service on the library board, hospice board and planningcommission, my volunteer hosting of the Country Music show , Coaching High School runners for 17 years , raising the children and five grandchildren and now theres 11 because of the tobias family, raising my business in lumber plus all those obituaries i be writing for the valley news since 1997 would give me crossover support and did you want me to keep going . You could stop there. Sorry, i was a little nervous being in your presence. Dont say that. We can stop there because what i wanted to do was the voice in this book which is your voice obviously is so present and so warm and i also was really shocked by the fact that theres a street in your town called Silicon Valley and the map, there is a map in this but give the reader a sense of the charm and the smallness of haines and your love and commitment to this place for a long time. My first book was a map and people have asked me so i asked my friend who was also on the Borough Assembly to draw it. Its just fantastic andit reminds me of a Childrens Book in a way. So you write in the book that you ran for local office in haines to help set an example and im curious in what ways, did you set an example . Whats the example today . I was running thinking my grandchildren would talk about their grandmother that was involved in local government and i was thinking how influential my mothers and grandmothers were and the things that they did that i didnt even realize at the time that had become part of the way i live and the things i expecting people so i thought i want to show them that they need to be involved in their community and in their government and i want them to remember me typing my notes for meetings and it didnt work out that way. I didnt become like a local star of the assembly or anything but what i did do is because i was thinking about all thetime , i realize about halfway in or maybe even sooner than that that what i was going to bring to it was a kind of sounds hokey but its civility, kindness that i wasnt going to do anything that i wouldnt want them to be proud of me for. Even if i might not be winning particular battles or being revered by certain people for my politics. It was different than that. Im going to show them how to behave in the public eye when the chips are down a little. The chips were down for you. And also how you talk to your neighbors, even theones that you disagree with , especially publicly. Im not a saint or anything. Im not a rant or rave or yellow with in talks with my friends but publicly i always try that old adage if i couldnt Say Something nice, dont say anything at all and try to find some thing in either my fellow Assembly Members, mayor, staff or the people who were kind of giving us a hard time to appreciate in them. And that helps. I want to ask you about the hard times that you referred to as the recall was then i also want to talk about at some point i was reading in the book and started circling how many times the word pregnant, oversexed showed up in the text and its really a theme in there so and you tell us a little bit about the attempt at the recall and how kindness and respect and listening even to people you dont disagree with contributes to democracy. At first the recall which you know, as you so clearly put it i wish id read your book on grief. Theres a lot of stuffabout the recall. And it was really three, it was agreed for the town that i thought ilived in. During that time i sort of felt that my town had cheated onme. What happened was right after myself and my friend editor of the chilcote valley news were arrested , on basically a fairly, we were more progressive perhaps then the other people running, there were six people running and tom and i were the top two vote getters and we joined an assembly that was already leaning more progressive , if thats the right word. Its hard in a small town and it doesnt line up the way it does, doesnt necessarily mean the same thing but it was an issue about the harbor and the expansion there and we had run on the idea that the community should have a record referendum on the design of it and we thought just before we got in, after we got in with better get that happening. And that created a lot of anger from the people who had supported that particular design so right away it didnt happen and the rest of the assembly was a make or break in the time. That was 3 and 4 oh there was going to be noreferendum. Similar to National Politics in a way they won and they were so mad that it was very much the next day we were going to recall you and then it just became something that hung over us though that at every meeting how that works is theres no assembly and they can get their signature on the petition and its snowball like that through pretty much the first, what was the first nine months i was on office and my second election was in august and my first one had been the previous october. And you came out the other side, the recall was stopped. It was myself and two other Assembly Members and then a local artist was also the third one. And the really good news about it was there that the town didnt go for it. They recognize, my community recognized it was pretty squarely so it was a 6040 the other nice thing was it wasnt personal. They didnt choose which one of the three that were targeted a rather have read it was straight across, we all pretty much got the same number of votes and it was a resounding no to that kind of politics. And that was good. Which goes to the next part of the question which is you emphasize in this book kindness and respect and listening to people regardless of if they agree with you or dont agree with you so how much did that contributeto a functional community in your mind, the ability to listen and be kind . I think its the only way youre going to have a functional community. Its just human nature. If somebody is standing there calling you names, saying youre stupid, aim bad things about your family youre probably not going to want to listen to them the next time they stand up and they Start Talking about why they need a sewer line extensionto their neighborhood. Its human nature that you backup from people that are communicating with you well and if you can at least find some way to for lack of a better word be polite, it helps. It helps a lot. And i noticed that watching people when they came to the Assembly Meetings. I should listen a long time to somebody i disagree with if they spoke to make to me in a calm way, but if they just are going like this and yelling, i had a friend who was a mayor in another small town and she told me think of Public Service this way. Every time if you shove somebody , they shove you back if you just are kind of leaning against them eventually they might lean this way or come towards you. Its an easier way to meet somebody than a slam inthe shoulder. And its a hard lesson to learn. Theres a section in the book , i love the whole book, i dont want to say theres a section i love because it implies there were other ones. When you say there was a community bath, can you talk about that section . I love reading that section and you make it a metaphor for the common good. It was at the very beginning of the book. I needed a Campaign Manager and it was all small but it was big, i had a campaign and my friend teresa said ill be your Campaign Manager and teresa is a gogetter, retired Elementary School teacher, Everybody Loves her and she has a cabin in a tiny town and the town as a public bath. Its a warm springs with bathhouse on top and thats where you go to bay. And i have always wanted to go to kennedy traveling in alaska is challenging and even insoutheast alaska , even though teresa the place for years and im a close friend ive never been out there and it involves every rides to get there. And we went just before i had to clarify candidacy as she had a book club there that i was going to talk to. I thought maybe that the bath was not as public and we get down there and its time to go baby and theres womens hours and mens hours and its a little oldfashioned bathhouse and it smells like sulfur and then theres this sign that says no bathing suits. Nude bathing only and you, im thinking maybe it will be dark in there. And it goes down into this grotto and its concrete and theres this big oldfashioned skylight and there you are in your birthday suit and there are other women and the town there and who are all ages, sizes, shapes and your bathing together and i did talk there on a book about obituary writing and it was completely different having been in the bath with people because you just realize how the stars, the things our bodies ourselves, what we put on top of each other is so different and that made me think that if we all had to base together it would probably be a lot nicer to each other. Thats lovely and its a metaphor for the common good and against maybe not listening looking as a version of listening. Seeing people as people. Theres a lot of stuff in this book about democracy and about community and also about your life, your parenting and grandparenting and to some extent your faith and yourupbringing. Can you talk about what drives you to think this way and why you decided to run for office. And why you understand something which is to listen to people who disagree with you. Ive always had a lot of empathy but i think a lot of it when i look back comes from my mother and the school. I ended up going to a place for school and so it was very much that quakers teach you that there is not in every man and thats why their pacifists or mormons but thats why theres a little spark in their that is holy in all of us and that run through a lot of traditions and then im a regular practicing attorney and i go to church on sunday and you hear all those lessons and it might sound baroque to people, my husband called it to fill in the black church but youre reminded every sunday , the things left undone. That you have to care for people. Even the idea of forgetting people, only god will forgive you as much as you forgive others. Has just been ingrained in me so its part of my value system and while again, i fall short a lot, especially when im in public, i feel like thats what you have to do, your best foot goes forwardand at all these lessons are for. In a leadership role in the community, thats when those come into my decisionmaking. Sure theres code and ensures theres the constitution and other things but its how you get there comes from that background i think. In terms of being an Assembly Person you have a section in the book about roberts rules of order i dont even understand roberts rules of order. I know what it is but its so procedural. Was it hard to learn that . It was such a hard job you were doing on a daytoday basis. Theres always you make a motion and a second and you vote but roberts rules can get very complicated and the people who are holding to them, if youre not sure what you do this to second and amendment or remove an amendment or how this all happens you can get stuck and at the beginning sometimes it felt as if people were using that lack of knowledge against you when they wanted to make sure you couldnt have something happen 80 know, theyd make this motion and youre like what, i didnt even get to talkabout. So then i said well, this isnt just a bunch of who you, id better learn how to do it and there is a certain builtin decorum to it. Madame mayor, you call each other assemblyman or Assembly Members and theres people in the small town that we all know about first name area alaska is a very informal place. My children all their schoolteachers by their first name outside the school and you call thedoctors , you know, are all on a first name basis so being in the assembly is just on and even when people seek to the assembly when they stand up they have to give their full name. This is on turner junior and im saying this now even though we all know who it is area and its part of the protocol. You wrote an obituary for the families, they shop at your lumberyard and its sort of like two aspects of the same community. Assembly, even the people on the dais, i wrote the mayors husbands obituary and i wrote her nephews, other members of her family. The gresham family, i wrote her parents and went around the room at any given time and theres four or five people in their that i have been involved with them in a very intimate time in their life. In the book you chat with people of other profession where youre chatting with a native author named Ernestine Hayes and shes bending your visiting your house and she comes over because of weather. It ends up being a conversation about politics having to do with racism and privilege and collective memory i guess and when this whole idea comes up later in the book when theres a Community Tragedy which is covered up i guess over a generation, you talk about collective sentiment and i dont know about out if politics is the right word but about how being a member of the community or a representative of the community as you are, out of that help guide community of collective silence and grow in a positive way . Im asking is how this talking about this these difficult subjects or confronting a difficult path in a community a Community Grow . I think what it does and this is what i have that conversation with my friend ernestine. I think a lot of times and i know i speak for myself, you dont want to bring up these things that might be issues of race and justice and abuse that happened unless someone brings it up to you first. You feel like thats not my place, am i being nosy and in a small town youre trying to keep privacy for Different Things to. We had this interesting balance where we might know what everybodys up to but we dont say so. Give them sort of a veil of privacy i guess. But in talking with ernestine and then shining a light on the, in the privacy of my living room she could talk about things that she had grownup with as an alaskan native woman and she had an incredible story, she was homeless at 50 and a College Professor by the time she was 70 and shes written a beautiful book called the tao of reagan and another one born indian. And in public ernestine and i, it might be awkward to have a conversation like you and i are having and interpreted the wrong way, theres so much of that involved and the same with the other situation in the community where theres this horrible past crime that was uncovered and it turned out that people kind of had an idea about that but nobody ever said anything. Now i think especially the leaders that this has come through loud and clear with the black lives matter, especially those of us that are so privileged and white, were supposed to say stuff. Were supposed to say hey i dont think this is right and were supposed to call people out on it publicly. You can do it politely. Ernestine, every time she speaks shes just wonderful, nice grandmotherly person with dimples, sparkling eyes. She writes about very hard things in a way that its almost like angela bassett. And youve done in your book, the way sorrow and tragedy lift up our love for her family the way you have a love for yours and its challenging but she then ends all of her speeches where she puts her foot down and she says athe patriarchy and she does this in front of governors and you just want to stand up and cheer. To me thats the same as people go to church and hold their hands up. Im episcopalian so i cant do the way what you love it when peopledo. Im so moved and she got in such a way that its coming from love, not hate. That this is what im going to do and she said that at the end of every time shes piece so thats the way that a leader, he was the writer lori, native woman but she said im going to do this every time and she did and nobody got mad at her about it or maybe they did but they didnt say so. We all worry how those things times will play out in public and she did that. I love her for it. I think youre doing it in a balance as well in a way because youre talking about in the book youre writing about community disagreements or your writing about physical spots in a communitys history and how people in the Community View specifically because its a memoir, take a stand and speak up and encourage people to look at their community, look at themselves and make change. One of my favorite characters in the book is ray medicare who is a longtime newspaper editor who came to characters in the book in my life, the space that i lived in but ray came to pilecki 1955 haines french in alaska in 1955, a logging town and really in 1955 really in the middle ofnowhere. So thats preanything, not even a Radio Station or tv and ray brought this idea of culture and earnings and then he started a Student Newspaper that became our local paper thatsstill in existence. He and the students just started publishing the regular news. He helped found the public Radio Station. The local Conservation Group that is responsible for a lot of preserved land around here and he also served on the assembly for seven terms as a socialist and at one point, he was called red ray. A nickname can read ray, the powers that be and he went right to the source of that rumor and explain the difference betweensocialism and communism and assured them he wasnt a communist. I see the legacy that the left in one small town and thats still here and we still have the Radio Station and we still have the local Players Group and we still have a Conservation Group and we still have a newspaper and thats ray. One person in a small town is exactly what you think of as your stereotypical alaskan but very much so. Hes a great character, i love reading about him and i wish i could meet him somehow. Something about the people in this book they want to reach into the pages and say come back with me and tell me more about this. Tell us about some of the other characters in your book, i know theyre real people there also characters. One of my favorites is bethany who is a former mayor and retired special ed teacher and she has a flower farm now and she grows flowers and delivers them everywhere. Two motel rooms, wherever people want Fresh Flowers but stephanie is a diminutive person and with a great big dog. She is a buddhist, was raised as a quaker and she helped me when i was first on the assembly i would go out to see her and say what am i doing, their yelling and screaming and she gave me this book choosing civility. You like about that. Great book. Anybody thinking about running for office, who is thinking about living in the world a little better, this is a wonderful book. If the 25 rules inconsiderate conduct and is the cofounder of the Johns Hopkins ability project and it really helped me and stephanie and all this stuff in here underline and circle from when she was the mayor and then what happened was we ended up, people quit and there was all kinds of controversy and we ended up appointing stephanie to see during a serious illness so that was overshadowing us but i think the fact that she was there during that time made us all realize that whatwe were doing wasnt lifeanddeath. In our arguments were here and here we had somebody that is obviously just had got a headscarf in cancer and had a service dog with her and yet she wanted to be on the assembly and that change for me, i could just feel the room change and she came in because of that and of course we all know that were all terminal in a way to have that someone saying im here to do this for the community. And i know that i might not have as much time as therest of you , that was a real game changer. Shes setting an example in the way you intend to set an example in a different way but she also set an example for you. Sitting next to her helped me because she would just put her hand on my knee and say heather, dont say anything you just vote. You can vote. And that was just very hopeful. I said i cant do anymore and im going to quit and he said , she said dont be silly and dont be silly. She said just dont go to the next meeting and i said you can do that and she said sure you can, if you miss three they can kick you off. Just knowing that i have a back door, i never use it so i felt like then okay, it just looks like its going to be too much for me i can just not go and knowing that empowered me. In a way. Another great one and then tom with the chilkat valley news, tilting at windmills and he was a reporter for years and he had lots of issues , kind of the inertia of government and the wellness bureaucracy, all these things and he would just rail added. Theres so many and im sure they are everywhere i just happen to adore the ones im around all the time and even the ones i disagree with. It comes through so beautifully. Two or three more questions and then i want to go to the audience because i can see little red numbers coming up that they have questions. Of women and politics and leadership, you write what is this expectation that as women we should make everything okay and everyone comfortable . What is this expectation and what do we do about it . I dont know. I wrestle with the fact and i dont know if its generational or my family. I hate to paint this broad brush and say women, this is who we all are and that in and of itself is diminishing though but the way i was raised, if theres a person in the room thats a good hostess, everybody has to eat, and is your chair warm enough, shall we open a window. Ill put the dog out. [laughter] golden retriever but i wondered about that but by the time i got done i felt like i had more courage to be okay if people were comfortable with it as wellas i was comfortable , and thats just an ongoing issue. Of how to be public and not bring your private expectations, how to separate that. One of the best pieces of advice i got was from one of the managers whosaid to me , sat me down and said heather, youve raised five children. And theyre pretty good, theyre all contributing citizens and good people. And she said did you give them everything they wanted all the time . Sometimes they get mad at you or not like your rules, didnt you have rules and i said you bet i did read she said come in here but your mother brain on, you can love them all just tell them youre not getting that pair of shoes and you have to go to bed now and yes you have to get up and were going to do the firewood today those kinds of things that helped me that i could build still like everybody that i could see instead of the hostess that i could be the mother whos as my kids say in the book boss of the place. And that helped me tremendously when i put that because i voted with people i didnt even like thats the hostess effect. Its a good way to put on a different rain or look at it through a different lens. I dont know if the word is more power but maybe a different way to navigate a challenge. I know that i can love someone and not trust them for instance which sometimes happens with teenagers. And i mean, i adore them careful, they might not tell you the truth about where they went last night so with all kinds of family members that happens so i just started picking up the family members as well as the audience more the residents who were in the room with them more as family. On the subject of love im going to ask you one last formal question and we willgo to the assembly. You have a great love for alaska. Its so clear and you write about a wilderness, specifically the National Wildlife refuge and your reading on this trip, your name is marty mary and you quote her asking him what, the 1920s what is the most precious thing in her life im curious where do you think as a person has contributed to the politics, democracy of their community and a person who writes obituaries, a person who contributes and thinks a lot about the health of their community and wellbeing of their community what makes a good life you know . For me i think its all about relationships and i think thats why politics is the most challenging and i think its about you you love well, have youbeen loved . How do you take care of the people around you. I once asked anthony county and he said i dont understand how to tell you how to take care of everybody by wearing a mask. I understand to explain why you should love your neighbor. And thats i think thats it. The place that youre in i think you should do everything you can to leave it at least as good as when you got there and hopefully a little better. Your little patch ofground that youre on , your community , your family, your friends. The way those relationships evolve are different with all kindsof people. It doesnt like have to be like mine but i have another friend, my dear friend that never has any children and has this whole family around her that shes created these relationships for years and years by caring for people, by doing good and being generous in your community and it doesnt mean sure, you can write checks but its more than that, its volunteering and being partof things. Ice so feel inspired, youve inspired me to do we go to questions, does kate do that or do ido that . I think what we do is we go to the q a. I think i do it and we got one person who says Many Americans are focused on National Politics, particularly the evidential election instead of how local officials have an impact on their lives, have you educated your community on those rules and participation in the process . And how can we convince more women to run for local office to doubleheader their. I dont think ive committed educated my community very well, if you educated me and in terms of i think haynes is a place where everybody is highly aware of local issues and not so much national. National, sure people might argue about that in the coffee shop or the bar but in general they would argue more about whats on the assembly agenda. They tend to lineup in camps could match the national but all the time i emphasized the local and more and more for people and were seeingthat now clearly. Issues of public health, issues of social justice, they come right down to the decisions that are made every single meeting with small groups of people in small medium towns, big towns but issues about hiring policies, issues about do the women work at the library get paid less and the men who work for public works, and anybodylook at . Im ashamed to say i didnt and i worked at the assembly and all of the news in the last few months has brought right across the center. Even to the idea that are Assembly Meetings and many Public Meetings in small towns require you to be present to see and now we are all doing zoom. Even in haines my kids have been attending Assembly Meetings and theyve never gone before because their home with little children. Theyre working, and are not going to sit down in a multiassembly chamber and wait to see but now theycan do it on zoom. So maybe we need to change the process to get morepeople participating and that division can be made at a local level. So i think its critical , the police, local people hire Police Departments and they put the budgets, those things are how we live. Is that a way to, a kind of way to convince more women to run for localoffice . I think so and i think it might be and the other thing i would tell them is women are so busy and they have to do everything. We got to put the meals and not only run the place . Come on. We can maybe change out stunned, we can change the times of the meetings. I thought about that again when i was on the assembly, it was always obtained but i thought this is what i have to do, i have to leave before i have dinner with my husband so make the meeting later, put it on zoom, have an 89 instead of 5 to 730 or something which is the worst time in the world from a. Its impossible. Youre just getting home and you have all those things to do and then it politics . The economy is important for it and women certainly contribute to it in a big way and have a lot to say about it. But why is a daycare still such an issue . Get more women in there and make it like normal. Why do we have to go to work like six weeks after having a baby if youre lucky, if you have that kind of insurance. They need to give you seven time and they tell you the most important thing is to be with your kids. How are you supposed to do that if you cant take off work . Thats why women need to get there. Because those children are our children and they are going to be the leaders next. We need to get this right. I feel like ernestine, yeah. Theres another question do you think alaska might become more progressive . I do i think right now very interesting things are happening in alaska. We have a serious challenger to republican incumbent, dan sullivan and doctor al who is a really good dr. And operate on a lot of peoples knees and hips and stuff that we know of in alaska some small thing hes not super liberal but he is a democrat. And he has a different sense especially healthcare with all thats going on. He is right there. Also have a lease gallen who is not connected with don young. I think it is possible. Always a little more medium than alaskans tend to support her pretty well. So it could happen it very well could happen. Okay we have a question from gail oneill who says what does writing of the chewers have two she wants to know if those lessons informed how you approach politics. Guest may be. I guess my focus and writing obituaries what i do all the time is find the good. To look when someone dies and here we all know everybody the first thing we ask families tell me what you loved about them. Be as specific as you can. Because everybody has Different Things. When i start doing that the personalities come through. And so you do that. And then things like in terms of difficult topics. Say somebody died of alcohol or took their own life. You know, these things happen as you know. Im usually asked how would you like us to handle this . Do you want to mention it. Is it important to you as a family to Say Something in the obituary or not . Things like if theres been several marriages they dont want to necessarily acknowledge it and like how can we do that . Maybe theres children from them so well put their last names in. But we dont need to mention that if you dont want to. I mean i try. I also, think the other thing this helps in politics, certainly finding the best people, trying to find something a people thats okay. The other one is, when youre writing an obituary you really want to think about what needs to be said and what doesnt need to be said. And if there is say, we want to catch the personalities. Differences of their someone in a running feud with her neighbor, right, you dont quote the neighbor sang as used to shoot over my head every time i went to check on my chickens. Instead, you quote their best friend saying oh gosh she was just in that you should see your shed gotten fire that got her over guys head every day. And its a compliment when the friend says it. So much of it is the messenger. And thats truth politics. And i watched it. I dont often necessarily modeled it but when the basketball coach stands up and speaks up for clean water, the environmentalists in the room, everybodys been hearing from them from weeks when the coach says everybody got a keeper water clean, bingo them Development People will listen to him. Because its a different voice at someone they trust. Host so its how you deliver the message. Guest its how you deliver and who. Sometimes it comes down to who says it if it someone trust or someone they dont. Sue went you have been talking even touring digitally i know theres been stuff i havent hit on. What have and i asked you that you want us to know . Guest i dont know. The one thing the importance of my life when i learned to this book is your changing all the time. Ideas change towns change in the way the theme change. A lot of folks when i looked at it and a lot of what happened whats happening in the country right now has with people who want to go back to some good old days and people who want to go forward. And really they are the same thing. And everybody really wants the same thing. You know . They want Health Instability and enough to eat and to be safe. And to have a job. Go out in the park. I think finding that somehow in trying to govern ourselves with that moving forward. That might help especially as things roll into the fall in the election in the winter and understanding that i think were always going to have the good old days quote unquote. I think youre going to have change and understanding that its okay. One of the elders who is since passed away who came here to me was very romantic they all brought food and we said oh no are you kidding this is so hard. Theres all that snow we did have a car couldnt listen i couldnt listen on my radio look at these well appointed homes you got to change. If you dont like change, you die. Its what cs lewis said. You cant go on being a good egg forever. [inaudible] [laughter] guest i think we can hatch we can keep going. Even as a grandma that i changed a lot. I would be better at now and i got a lot of courage from it. See when yes pretty talking the book about how her living in not the future right . Guest that was a really fine alaskan right if youre looking to look at rural alaska ordinary roles and he observed that in rural alaska were living in the past, present, future all at once because of Climate Change in the scope of development. The internet the world is coming in so fast in these places are so remote. No wonder we are stressed. Not have the whole country is right now. Seems like how the world is. Its literally going faster and faster we dont have any control. And a lot of this leadership even at a local level, statelevel National Level putting on the brakes and saying what do we all want and how do we get there . Thats what government does, right . Its sort of a collective agreement on the rules to live by. Its not some big bad thing, this is what we need to do to live together in communities in the country and these are the things we collectively, rr values. Host last question whats next few book wise or lifeways . [laughter] i need to do events. Im sure i will write another book i dont know. Right now, im kind of treading water like we all are with this pandemic. I have a granddaughter in juneau that it last saw on march 16 when i cut the umbilical cord. In the state went into lockdown and i went home. And i havent seen her. I love to somehow see my daughters and grandchildren of one living in australia i also got to see ahead of the pandemic i was there in january. And my dad, im worried about the same things everybody is. Ivan elderly data new york and i worry about him living with him alone my sisters and i are not there. So these are pretty much im taking it day by day. Im sure i will write about all want to get it sorted out. Host again its all about Community Family and community. Subsea we have questions im a look at the chat. I do say it. I want to thank you this has been wonderful in your voice is an important voice is a pleasure to talk to you. The link to purchasing of bears and ballots in my guests other books as well you can find in the chapter. So go there, by the book, i dont know if theyre signed a dont help her doing that. But please do i cant recommend this book enough, especially now. Heather, i just want to thank you so much it has been a delight. Guest thank you has been a delight to talk to you after reading your book im going to pass your book to my local hospice. It will really help people right now to great resource. Are you still writing obituaries for them . Okay. We too i dont write them all the staff does some. Thereto last week i didnt do because doing all this book stuff but im going to do one for the next paper. Is the thing its not a formal book talk is its like heathers book is that way as well pride thank you all so much i appreciate it. Thank you and thank its been nice to be in georgia. Recently ns nbc legal analyst focus on her career especially time possible special prosecutor for the watergate case heres a portion of her talk. In the first hearing what were trying to figure out who had scandals and tapes, who mightve been able to explain why they were missing, the white house was presenting witnesses. One was rosemary woods because she had handled the tape. And i felt a by that time there were three of us, jim neal had returned to nashville to tend his private practice with the promise he would come back if we succeeded in getting an indictment he would come back in time for the trial. So that left to 30 yearolds in charge of this whole thing against the white house. We were known as a childrens march against the wicked king. And rick is a very precarious, assertive, powerful, persuasive totally unlike me. I am organized and thoughtful, we were a great team. But i felt he was taking too many witnesses. I mean he only had a couple more Years Experience than me and i was an equal player here so i pulled him out of the courtroom and said i am taking the next witness and then we are sharing equally every other witness. The next witness called by rosemary words in the first hearing as a chain of company witness. Nothing significant was rosemary woods. So i questioned her and by amazing foresight, by accident really, asked her questions like what precautions she had taken not to erase any of the tapes. And she said i used my head which was on thing i had deas and she was hostile and nasty to me. Nobody white house announced theres an 18 and a half minute gap and there is no innocent explanation and that only rosemary woods could explain this, i assumed she would stay my witness because she had been my witness the first time. You dont change witnesses in the middle. Now in his book he claimed he was behind my questioning her the second time. If he was, i have no knowledge of it. I just prepared from the moment i heard that she was the guilty one. I skipped all thanksgiving and spent the weekend reading everything i could possibly read about her past testimony and being prepared for their no computers so i had to get transcripts, underline them and look at them. And so that when she was called as a criminal suspect, for the first time in my life give the miranda warnings because she was a suspect in a criminal case. Subject to watch the rest of this Program Visit our website booktv. Org. Search for jewel wine banks or the title of her book the watergate girl using the search box at the top of the page. Welcome to csi online for the way we bring events is changing. We still present live analysis and Award Winning Digital Media from our accomplished all on your time live or ondemand. This in csis online. Okay