The business, im concerned about boys as victims of a pernicious feminism. And that it had carried out into the rise in suicide statistics from white men of a certain social class. And i wondered how, its, how do we take this religious anthropology, the people are hungry for something and that they dont know what they are hungry for. Anytime we are eating each other alive and mothers of young sons, i look at them and they really dont know what they are supposed to do with these little boys in the future that these little boys are facing. Its a question that comes up in. Conferences in a bleak way. Where is that discussion . We have feminism but there seems to me that mean that a certain social class, im talking about middleclass and uppermiddleclass are sort of like forced into quietude. Where does that fit in . Kind of a crisis, a crisis for young boys as they mature into a cultural environment that doesnt provide them with any kind of pattern of life that make sense. Im not trying to dog it. I dont know what to say to specific case of children in school at that age who are boys. I think the general point is that there is a lot of confusion out there. That is another reason why religious people, especially who believe themselves to be in possession of good answer to it need to be not an decent, need be able to make the case forthrightly in order to get the gears of people like those parents. In order to get their we have to make a safe space in the Public Square to use two metaphors, in the same sentence. And in order to do that we have to get the attention of the other side and respectful attention of the other side. We really appreciate the boldest of your voice, and i certainly appreciate your commitment to try to hold together a public conversation among various people from different perspectives on how to bring sanity to our public life. And for that we are very grateful so thank you very much for your talk. Thank you. [applause] please stay, but before you go you really must get a copy of the book. Its a wonderful book, and its a must read. So stay. Shes happy to sign. Have another glass of wine, and thanks for coming. Thanks a lot. [inaudible conversations] this is booktv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Heres our primetime lineup. That all happens tonight on cspan2s booktv. [inaudible conversations] ththank you all for being so patient. Im bradley graham, coowner of politics and prose along with my wife. On behalf of the entire staff thank you so much for coming out on this afternoon. A few quick administrative notes. Now would be a good time to drop any cell phones or something that might go beep. When we get to the q a part of the session, because we are recording this for our Youtube Channel and cspan booktv is here, we appreciate it if you have a question if you would step up to the microphone so it can be recorded and also heard by everybody else in the audience. And that the in norway for those who didnt to our events before we like to ask you to fold cochairs. Well, dont do that today because we have another event coming up. Its not often that we have a head of state here at politics and prose. In fact, its pretty rare. And at the moment its still pretty rare because she is not with us yet. [laughter] but shes on her way with an escort, so she should be here shortly and we thought we should just get under way. But we will see a very privileged when shes here to welcome president Ellen Johnson sirleaf of liberia. It was just over a decade ago in 2005 at president sirleaf became the first woman in modern african history to be elected head of state. Shes widely credited with ushering her country into a stable peace after years of brutal civil war. Educated in the United States, including a masters degree from harvard, president sirleaf was in and out of her native country several times early in her career as a result of the political upheavals. She was minister of finance when samuel seized power in 1980. Within a few months she went into exile, into what turned out to be over the years a series of International Banking or development positions with the world bank, citibank, hsbc, and the united nations. Returning to liberia in 1985 she ran for a senate seat but after speaking out against the military regime, she landed in jail and again fled the country. Back once more a decade later she ran unsuccessfully for president against the warlord, charles taylor. Then again went into exile with the transition to democracy and the german elections in 2005, she ran a second time for president and one in a runoff. Taking charge of a nation shattered by years of civil strife and grappling with burdens of widespread poverty. She was reelected in 2011, the senior she shared a Nobel Peace Prize with two of the courageous women, all recognized for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for womens rights to full participation in peace building work. Her story is told in a new book, choosing the hero by Riva Levinson was also a featured guest to this afternoon. Im happy to say its actually here at the moment. As head of a communications and Government Relations firm, she represents library interest and to serve as a longtime adviser to president sirleaf. Her career as a strategist on International Issues began three decades ago after she talked her way into a job at a political Public Relations firm founded by among others paul manafort. Yes, that paul manafort. Ash she recounts in her book, she told him theres no place in the world she would not go. Shes been globetrotting ever since but shes been a fault in a number of complex and sensitive projects around the world but much of the work has focused on africa. In choosing the hero, she weaves her story together with president sirleaf and offers an instructive tale of International Friendship and achievement. By the way, i would like to note also here today is choice, the former president of malawi. [applause] and jeremiah, librarys ambassador to the United States. [applause] and now please join me in welcoming Riva Levinson. [applause] good afternoon. Great crowd. Thank you for being here. Madam president is about five10 minutes out so we will have to be a bit flexible. Im going to start and stop, and so we will move that way. I wanted to say that its an honor to be here today introduced by brad graham and eventually alongside madam president , with my American Family and my liberian family. And in the company of so many friends and colleagues who i worked with over nearly two decades in support of the people of liberia and Ellen Johnson sirleaf. Special thanks to my husband jeff and my daughter and my son. You guys are everything to me. And also to my work family, and to the remarkable team that brought my book to life. Are so many reasons i wanted to write this book, but here today for the sake of time as we are running 30 minutes late im going to focus on three. The first one is that i think as brad said, that ive spent nearly three decades traveling the world to some of its most inhospitable places, often in times of conflict, somalia, angola, iraq and liberia. These were the front lines of history and i bore witness. Many of the people who i have come to know and to befriend did not live to fight another day. I needed to make sense of it all. How would my work be judged and by whom . So this book helps make sense of it all. Second, i wanted the world to know Ellen Johnson sirleaf who, hopefully, you will know soon, not as madam president or as the first woman elected to lead an african nation, not as the president ial medal of freedom winner of the nobel laureate, but the person underneath all of those titles underneath all of those accolades. To know her humanity, to meet the grandmother, to meet the mom, m,com,com,comma sister, aunt, a friend, a woman who i can to work with in february of 1997 when everything was lined t up against her. Her own countrymen, the African Regional players, the International Community and yes, the u. S. Government was against her as well. Even her own family who will become and with her including her grandchildren had hoped she would relent because rightfully they feared for her safety. But she was seized with her mission in life. Are calling to bring peace to our country, liberia. She is willing to fight no matter the cost, no matter the consequence. I hope madame would be because im going to say that this woman is not perfect. She makes mistakes. She has regrets but she has been utterly consistent her whole life. It has always been the well being of the liberian people that she desired most, their future and their promise, that she sought to advance. I met Ellen Johnson sirleaf when she was determined to return home from exile to her native liberia to challenge the rule of warlords. She was looking for someone to fight for her in washington, d. C. I met her at a time when i doubted almost everything about my life choices. And to get i think brad shared with you i started with a Political Consulting firm back in 1985. So it was her faith in me that restored my belief in myself. By reason commonwealth final effort of going to sure, there are so many more could i want to demystify washington, d. C. To draw back the curtain to show how things really get done, to demonstrate the importance of American Leadership in the world and what happened when we get it right. And to shout out to those who i credit too much of liberias postconflict success which is select members of congress and their staff. So the timing, issued ongoing . Spent the ambassador went back. Okay. Her motorcade is here . You want me to do the reading or shall i wait . Shes here, okay. Im going to wait. No . Im going to wait . Who has read the book . Somebody say something. Im add living, sorry. Shes coming. [applause] you missed by introduction to the book. Anyone want to summarize it . Im going to do a reading now. I will share with you. I wanted to make you cry. So im going to do a reading from the book, the close of the Second Chapter and then ask madam president to come up. So the year is 1996, july. And i just met madam president for the first time. She was serving as the head of the undp for africa. She stepped over the entire program and budget for the african continent. And i just matter and this is my thoughts. So how did i get here . Trying to sell to Ellen Johnson sirleaf. On a summer afternoon in new york city in 1996, i had the overwhelming sense of being at a personal crossroads. Its time to stop and examine what im doing and why. I needed to put everything on the table and take a brutally honest look at my life. What difference had a really made. What lasting good had i done . What would she say if youre standing here before me. I wish with all my heart she was. What you think i was adrift, which he reassured me that all of this is lifes journey and i making leading experiences and lessons that will be applied with meaning one day. Which you think my trial for trivial given the decision she had to grapple with in her lifetime coming from berlin . I am sure of a few things. I know to be right, i know to be good. My husband jeff, my infant daughter, my unshakable belief that there are people in the world dedicated to doing others and i want to be one of them. And this come and you thought that is just beginning to take route and grow. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will make history. She would change the world. I dont know how she will do it. I dont know what it will entail but i know i want to help her. I want to come along in that journey. I want to work for Ellen Johnson sirleaf. [applause] [inaudible] wow. Good afternoon to all. When riva told me she was going to write a book, my first reaction was why do you want to do that . She said, theres so much to be told. And i want to be able to share some of these experiences with the world. All right, go to it. And then i got the first draft out of courtesy. And then i called riva and i say, are you sure you want to write a book . Are you sure you want to say the things you say . Are you sure you want to disclose confidences . But she said, you know, this is my story, and in a way this is your story. And we think and talk to be told. And besides, there are lots of things in this road that ive traveled that people ought to know that good sides, the bad sides, the thrills one gets from being, following development work, and also the agony that when faces from time to time when you run into obstacles. She did a little bit of tweaking here and there and a little bit of changes here and there. And the book, the book is a wonderful book. It tells a story of riva, some of the daring things that she did. It tells the story of courage, the courage to go into Uncharted Waters and to be able to come out of it and to succeed and to have your goal accomplished. Somewhere along the way of course because of her commitment to work with me, it tells the story, tells my story in a way. And that, too, has the hills and valleys, the good times and the bad times. So it has been a long road. Let me say that quite a few people in this room that could write similarly because they have been down that road with me. And i can see many of them in the room have shared those difficult days and those good days and leaving us to where we are. I think one has to give a lot of credit to riva for doing this book in the midst of all the many things she was doing. Although the difficult part was over and she could tell a story that ended in success, success with white election, success with my taking on the task of joining others in my country. But still she continued doing that, to be a part of what we are trying to do, trying to reconstruct our country, trying to build a new something that has been so badly destroyed. Shes always been there with us. I sometimes think that riva knows the country as well as i do, because shes always probing and finding out and questioning and talking and sharing with people some of her own ideas. Shes truly a part also of liberias own renewal and what shes contributed to the support that she is given to me for us to achieve what we have. So to all of you who are here, to be able to share in this, i think you ought to read the book. Thats the end again, right . The endgame is to walk up to that shop and buy a copy of the book and read it. [laughter] so i hope each and everyone in here will participate in that because thats, the effort is not only to write the book but also to share it and have some people read it. And maybe after reading it, you know, you might either want to write your own experiences, could be just as interesting, just as captivating, or you could be encouraged to start a journey other on, a journey of identifying someone along the road something that you want to achieve and again to pursue that, leading some day to be able to share your experiences after youve reached that goal that you set up to achieve your i could recognize quite a few people in this room. I think joyce comes first. I no choice is working on her own, arent you . We are waiting for that one, too. I know that there are so many of us here that have been part of that, and i want to say to all of you that has contributed to what we have achieved in liberia, that its because you have been there. Its because you have been able, if not directly, certainly indirectly through the organizations in which you are part of, through the support that comes through your own government, through so many ways, through the universities that weve had an opportunity to be able to speak to, to be able to work with them all of that has made our story a Success Story that it is. And so i want to thank all of you all for being here and for being a part of it. Im quite sure we are going to get to the second part of the show, and thats when we were really begin to have fun. [laughter] as we begin to the interaction and begin to listen to your side of the story, your comments, your views, your questions sharing with us some of the same kinds of experiences that each of you i am sure you that as you look forward to carrying on. Thank you for being here. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] i think were going to take questions, and everybody lines up at the microphone right there. But before i take the first question, because madam president was not here for my opening, i just want to take the liberty of reading a paragraph from the afterward of my book which helps people understand what the meaning of the title is. So if youll bear with me, its a single paragraph and im going to read it. So working with allen has taught me to follow my heart and do not fear of being misunderstood. I have come to see that certainty is a luxury and destiny, a journey that reveals itself with time. Its easy to stray off course, get out and to lose faith, to seek a compromise as surrender. To feel judged, they feel isolated, even abandoned. But theres always something to hold onto, the belief that things will get better. I have come to appreciate that we need people to guide us, those we admire, those we believe in, the heroes that we choose. [applause] thank you. First, let me be congratulate you for writing this book and, second, may i be allowed to say i was amazed at how two of you found one another and how you provided support to the president throughout her journey through thick and thin. I say this because ive been there, and i know how critical it is for you to have somebody that you can call anytime of the day and anytime of the night. And especially if youre in africa and that person is here, in america. I want to thank you on her behalf, and i want to thank madam president for allowing her to let us see through your journey. But the question i had was take us through iraq. I mean, what took you to iraq . I mean, you got there, and you were not well. And you ask yourself in here, what am i doing here . Uhhuh. Just take us through that. Thats the one chapter that i read again and again when i was trying to understand [laughter] how you left your dear husband behind and children and found yourself on the streets in iraq. Thank you. Thank you. I think ill take that question. [laughter] okay . So, madam president , thank you and also thank you for the inspiration that you provided. Madam president read my book, and she was in london, and she sends me a text. Somalia, i totally dont get it. I was, like, laughing the whole time, why is this relevant . [laughter] and then iraq. She didnt get that one either, but its part of my story, so its part of madam president s story through my eyes. But, and i think i have a couple of friends here from, you know, from iraq including Frances Burke who came through as well. The kind of long story short, i was a state Department Contractor to the Iraqi National congress. I was hired by Madeleine Albright in 1999, and i thought it would be a really easy assignment, id go back and forth. The iraqis were in exile in london, you know, writing press be releases, talking about saddams crimes, and then 9 11 happened, and then george bush happened, and then the inc went into baghdad, and i felt that was my place. They needed to go and needed to set up their communication operation. And so one of the most fun and ridiculous chapters of my book, just when you think were going to stay on the african continent, is my convoy into baghdad from kuwait city. And its pretty harrowing, and at one point our vehicle is stoned. Those of you who recall iraqi history, it was where private first class Jessica Lynch was kid mapped kidnapped and she was raped. N and at that time to president ban thats point bandas point, i was completely second guessing my life, and i was holding a card from my son, andrew, and it said, mom, i love you because you take such good care of me x. Im thinking, im not going to be able to do that anymore. But i went there because i felt it was my obligation to help the inc set up the communication operation. And despite all of the craziness, once i got there after 13 hours, it was a remarkable period in history x that chapter and that chapter defines that. And it closed with the meeting with Ahmed Chalabi and his famous quote that he says so many times, he quoted Winston Churchill he did, he passed last year. He says the americans gosh, i dont remember it. Americans will frances, what is it again . [laughter] its Something Like will eventually do the right thing after trying every other poor option, Something Like that. [laughter] anyway, that was iraq. Any liberia questions, please. Im a College Student here in the washington, d. C. Area, and she was a hero is one of the most meaningful books ive read, and i mean that with great sincerity. My question is, my question is as follows what do you think is particularly important for future generations to take to the heart and to understand and to believe regarding the main messages of the book and why . Okay. Do you want to take that . Ill take after go ahead. [laughter] you go ahead. You go ahead. Be what you want to be. Set your course. Stick with it. Do not be distracted by whatever you face. Stay on course. And i think thats the best message. It will take courage, it will take commitment, it will take stamina, but if you stay on course, youll get where you want to be. [applause] i wanted to remind people that one of madam president s most quotable quotes is that if your dreams dont scare you, they arent big enough. [laughter] and i think that thats probably one of the, you know, one of the quotes. And i think that i would just, i would just second that as just to persevere. And even when you think that everythings just as bad as it can get, just know that theres always an opportunity to reach out and to step back up. So there you go. Hi. Hello. My name is rachel, and ive spent the past nine years living in uganda and kenya working with journalists, helping them to Tell Development stories. But the reason i wanted to come here today is the importance of female role models for and in particular for Young African women who through a nexus of culture and tradition and so many things that keep them from aspiring to reach this level, im breathless here because im feeling the history in the room. But i would love to have you speak to the need for perhaps more mentoring, networks, whatever out will take whatever it will take to have a Young African female in our lifetime and even childrens lifetime be able to see and aspire to be in the position of you two women. You know, i cant say enough more networking. Networking defined as reaching out, getting to know others, understanding their culture, their traditions. Identifying common causes and working together. And i can tell you in this room, you know, im going to dare point out a few people who have done this and done this so successfully in my own life story. Debbies one of them. Vivians one of them. Joyce is one of them. Betsys one of them as well. So many of them that have been a part of this and what theyve done is to be able to bring together particularly young people and to talk about a world of people having shared values, a world of being able to Work Together in unity. And so i would say to all the young black women, College Women dont just stay in the cocoon of where you are. Reach out. Maybe be a little bit courageous like riva. Go abroad. Do something in some other place. It may be sacrificial to do it. It may take a lot on your part, but go out. Im glad you talk about youre in uganda and kenya. Thats great experience that you had. I wish youd take that experience and share it with people in alabama [laughter] florida. You know . Places where, places where perhaps they will not even be be able to identify where uganda is, where kenya is. And i think if you can inspire other young, you know, Young Africanamericans to do some of the things youve done and share your experience, i think you find that that will be end riching for them. Enriching for them. Steve landy, manchester [inaudible] great honor to be here with this history. If both of you have a different view in terms of the future. If you had the opportunity to be with our new president , what advice would you give them . [laughter] we are passing mr. Bush, president bush, who did a great job with pepfar, with millenium challenge. I cannot go through the many programs that president obama had with power africa, the assistance during the Health Challenge in liberia. But what advice would you give the new president as far as he should [inaudible conversations] what should be his legacy. He. [laughter] what advice would you give my president ial choice when, in terms of what she will do . [laughter] thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] ive got a, ive got a twoword answer be president ial. [laughter] [applause] ive got nothing to add. [laughter] good evening, madam president and miss riva. My name is jermaine dunn, and i would like to ask a question about current politics in liberia. My question has to do with id like to ask madam president for her comments on recent bribery allegations with respect to senior people on the legislature and other officials, this, these allegations having been reported by a group who witnessed a well known International Nonprofit organization. Thank you. Theres nothing more to even what you said. Theres a report from an international ngo. That report makes certain allegations, as you rightly said. We have asked our ministry of justice to look into it. They have determined that there are some people that need to be indicted so that they can be able to defend themselves in keeping with the rule of law. Thats it. Its just a question of being able to show that we follow the rule of law, that they have an opportunity. Theyre innocent until Proven Guilty in a court of law. Thats what our law says, thats the law that were following. Theres no more to even that. So i think we have about time for one more, one more question and then, how appropriate, david smith of the guardian. 9. Hello. [laughter] actually, just going back a couple of questions, back to u. S. Politics. What were your own experiences trying to become the first female well, the challenge is trying to become the first female president in africa, and do you have any advice for Hillary Clinton trying to become the first female president in the u. S. . I think shes on the right road. I dont think anyone aspiring to be president to of the United States needs any particular advice, i think. I think they live in a different environment. Hethey have to respond to different constituency. There are commonalities in the objective of leadership, particularly as we live in a global, in a Global Village these days. And i think to any of them aspiring will need to know that. The United States not an island unto itself. Theyve got to be able to be a part of this changing global world thats very inclusive. So i will not be the one to give advice, itd be you. [laughter] so i, ive been asked that question before by someone else, and maybe since i think this is the last question, i just want to return back to my afterword and my comment when that was asked to me, madam, was the advice that you gave to me which is follow your heart and do not fear being misunderstood. So that was the way i answered that question. But i think were done. [laughter] [applause] up next on booktv, brad