[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] connected afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. How is everyone doing . I am sitting next to wes moore. Can you believe that . [applause]. Thank you. Im sitting next to mohammed. Can you believe that . [applause]. First and foremost we want to thank everyone for coming on out to our special session as we have another great conversation with a native baltimore in, and one of the big things about the baltimore book fast that always is beautiful is the highlight of authors from baltimore. So, today is not any different and we will continue to follow that tradition, but i have to say when the opportunity arose they said, well, who do you want to talk to and they gave me the list and mr. Westmore. So, on the half first and foremost i am an onair personality for wda a 88. [applause]. A little shameless selfpromotion my show is called listen up, friday nights at 7 00 p. M. On the half of us, the wonderful folks here, the staff and all of the wonderful folks here at the baltimore book festival we welcome you to the 20th wow, 20th annual baltimore book festival. Baltimores celebration of the literary arts. We hope everyone enjoying themselves up our . [applause]. We want to invite you all this weekend. Make sure you check us out on our Facebook Page at baltimore book festival and like as an of course, share it. Follow us on twitter. We want to say special thank you to all their partners because we have so many wonderful partners and sponsors of this years festival and we want to thank, of course, the city of baltimore, maryland state bar council, blue cross blue shield, intimate easy him, midatlantic forward dealers in marylands favorite. The baltimore book festival is certainly presented by the Mayors Office of Stephanie Rawlings blake and produced by the baltimore arts. The Nonprofit Agency that serves as our counsel, Film Commission and special agency. Please note after your presentation today volunteers will be on hand at the festivals Guest Services and that they are happy to accept your donations. Again, thank you for your help and support to keeping the baltimore book festival free for everyone. [applause]. We are going to have a very spirited conversation. This is a conversation that i think is really critical considering all that are great city has gone through over the past six months. In this day and age when we are wondering or questioning what does it mean to rebuild . What does it mean to be involved in your community . What does it mean to be socially conscious . Its always good to give us to hear folks that can give us a little guidance on how to do the work and so a special guest or the baltimore book festival today is native baltimore in who has a very very busy like history herein baltimore and abroad and we will get a little bit more into that he might be the poorest gone of baltimore. [laughter] but, we are certainly happy and we welcome to the stage and to the baltimore book festival to talk about his latest book the work my search for a life that matters. Let us welcome with a warm round of applause, wes moore. [applause]. Thank you. Good afternoon first i want to start and say how humbled i am to sit next to him right here. Im not only an avid listener, and supportive follower im a grateful beneficiary of the work you have consistently done for the city, so thank you so much for your commitment to the city and to all our lives. [applause]. Also, i would be remiss if i didnt give a special shout out to the person who didnt just who not just gave birth, but gave me life in every definition of the word and that is my mom who is here in the front row. [applause]. And to all of you for coming out here. This is a very important time and its a very powerful point in the history of not just our city, for all of us in baltimore, but even for all of us who come from a mound the country and around the world to where we all are as a society. About the conversations we are trying to have. About the impact we are trying to make, about the differences we are trying to see in the world we live in. When to Say Something quick and then read a bit of the book. I run a platform a social enterprise and i know you might see a couple of our scholars running around, but they secrete hopes to address the College Completion crisis by reinventing the freshman year of college because that is the chokepoint for most. When we lose them its not necessarily in their junior year , but when they first the chokepoints freshman year than why do we reinvent the freshman year and i can talk a bit about that later on, but there is a point i want to make to all of our scholars that i went to share quickly today as well. That is that when you first walk on College Campus the first thing people will ask you always is what is your major. What are you studying . What classes are you taking and then they ask you those questions as if its the most important question you will ever be asked in your life. I remember when i first got the college they affect questions of a times that i just started making things up so people would stop asking. Until i realized the question of what is your major, actually starts losing impact quickly. What you studied, how you did, what was your gpa all of that stuff is important, but the most important question to that people will ever ask you is not necessarily what you are studying. The most important question people ever ask you is who did you choose to fight for. Who did you tissues to stand up or when it was easy . Who did you choose to advocate for what it wasnt convenient . Who did you stand shoulder to shoulder with what might have just been u2 standing there . But, you did it because it was the right thing to do. Everything else will happen in our lives and i realized quickly that will fade and people will forget it. The question that will never fade is, who did you fight for. Because that is a question even long after you are gone people always say about you. Who is important and who did you advocate for . I think at times like now in our city and our state and our country and our world that question is more pertinent than ever. When i thought he would do is read a small part of the book and then we can turn to a conversation. A bit of context, i wrote this i wrote this part of the book from the work. This is when i just came back from afghanistan to read, paratrooper and i thought in afghanistan with the 82nd airborne and this time i just come back from afghanistan, and i was working at the state department as a white house fellow. For those that dont know a white house fellow is a nonpolitical nonpartisan fellowship where you work as a Senior Advisor just because they want you to have it sent to be engaged in where you are. And to see what its like at that level in government. I had the blessings of working at the state department and this section is talk to bit about when people are talking about foreign aid and foreign assistance and what it means to reach out and help people around the world with our resources and such a misses the point and what you briefly make. It says this is a tricky point navigates. Why should we care about whats going on thousands of miles away . Afghanistan was a conceptual issue, he might think youre here is a country whose instability and takeover of radicals has led almost directly to attacks on our own soil and get, before long americans became fatigued by stories from afghanistan and evergrowing number of american casualties. We became frustrated by the slow progress of the countrys development towards democracy and stability. Afghanistan, despite its importance to our responsibility for its pretty great quickly started to seem like a sinkhole. If we are impatient about unexceptional case such as afghanistan, then how much more impatient will we be when our efforts are driven by more communitarianism and compassion that self interest and security . Even when you talk to aid workers are workers of nonprofits, whose work take some overseas they will tell you that american asked them what are you just spoke a year work on america . I go to africa or asia or south america to help kids or help with disasters . Why not do it right here . There are conflict pitted answers to these questions and working in the state department only began to understand them. I am not a warmonger by any stretch of the imagination carried on like many who are have worn the uniform im particularly averse to war. I am also not someone who believes in an empire building or in an imperialistic attitude about the world outside of america or within america. But, our passion, influence and responsibility as humans can never end at our borders. Of course, the United States has eight Important Role to play around the world. Our resources has given us the job upfront, funder, enforcer, patroller, peacemaker, peacekeeper, supporter, healer allinone and this applies both to our government into our nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations. This work me justified from pure selfinterest to simplest foundation of which is this the read we live in an interconnected world. We cannot hide in our own country while the world around us implodes. Everything from terrorism to epidemics to environment of crises affects us all even if it happens on the other side of the world. Its the crudes case for american engagement internationally and further urge of many individuals and nonprofit steel to commit to work overseas. But, there is a more moral case. It goes beyond the actions of governments, humanity is borderless. Compassion is universal. In a brilliant letter from a birmingham jail doctor Martin Luther king junior expressed similar sentiment after he and other civil rights leaders were in prison for leading a peaceful march about segregation in birmingham, alabama, they received a newspaper with an oped entitled a call for unity. The oped was penned by a group of alabama at clergy who deplored the action of the jailed civil rights leaders as untimely and unwise. Doctor king and his team are called outside agitators and told that their actions were actually detrimental to the progress of the movement. Doctor king decided to respond to the clergys opinion piece taking on each of their points with a poignancy and clarity that made his letter one of the most important doctrines in american history. Responding to accusations of being an outsider by virtue of being from montgomery, and not birmingham, he wrote but more basically i am in birmingham because of injustice. Just as the profits of eight century bc let left their villages and carried there thus save the lord barbie other batters of the hometown and just as the apostle paul left his village to read the gospel of jesus christ to the far corners of the world, so i my compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my hometown. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in and in Scalable Network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, texas all indirectly indirectly. The huge challenges the globe faces can be met only if we are all willing to pull together and if we make use of all the worlds Human Resources and for people driven by religious secular ethics its hard to argue that the needs of americans are somehow more important than the needs of people elsewhere around the world. The question is, what these can i help best address . For some of us we can do our best work in our homes, communities and others of us are called to do works in other parts of the world. The opportunity to help is not limited by borders and the beautiful part is that we when we reach our hands across the globe to serve others, we dont return emptyhanded. The reason i wanted to briefly start with a piece is because whether we are talking about work that is happening in afghanistan, or work happening in sudan or work happening in argentina or work thats happening in thailand, the work is ours. What happening on one side of the globe affects us directly to read what happening in east and west baltimore, impacts as record. So, if we are not willing to both acknowledge it and do something about it, we are complicit in its. What affects one of us directly affects all of us indirectly. So, as we think about the work that we do, im compelled to live by and urge others to live by the same standards that i wanted to set up for our scholars. Remember the most important question you are going to be asked is not what you study or where you live or where you work or what you drive or anything like that. But, the most important question we will ever be asked now and always is, who did you choose to fight for. Because that is the question that will actually last. [applause]. Lets hear it for mr. Wes moore. [applause]. In that passage come its loaded with so much, but for those who may not truly see your understand what is the work, because if you are working in community development, social entre nous ship justice, we get into this kind of a vocabulary of im doing the work and its interesting. And i love the title of the book , but it can be very generic, ambiguous and very abstract for a lot of people, so how would you define the work . So, one thing i say about writing and i will show how that leads back to the title is im not really a writer like that. I am more of a quantitative mind and a qualitative my. Like i like numbers and data and all that kind of stuff and a quick twostory my mom when i was first writing my first book, the other westmore, my mom called me up and she is like hey, hows the writing going and im like its going well and she was like a lot of writers use ghost writers. [laughter] im like mom, what you saying and shes like im not saying anything just a lot of writers use ghost writers. And i think my mother cant think i can do this and i said why you say that she said that she says because she keeps on saying i need a ghost writer. I said do i and they said right the first chapter and send it to us and if you need some help we will get you help. I was like, cool, fire at the first chapter and i sent it to them and i waited like a week. Finally, i get an email back and it just says this is exactly what we are looking for, keep writing. I sent it to my mom, forwarded it to her. The part of the reason why let the idea of writing and hot translates into the work is that i feel like writing is the best way to heaven undirected conversation with someone. Were often times you have a conversation and theres time restrictions or television and radio is the worst because you have a producer in your ear the whole time screamingly got to go to commercial. If the best way of having an undirected conversation with someone and when i think about the idea of the work i actually dont believe that there is a single thing that we need to pull people to. I often feel like service is never going to be a onesizefitsall proposition because as you know, this work is hard. This is hard work and if it wasnt hard that it would have been figured out already. So, the thing that i urge peoples i always want to tell people im not trying to tell you what to think. I am asking you to think. Think about that thing that breaks your hearts. Think about that thing that breaks the worlds hearts and do anything in every thing you can do to try to solve it, so if that thing happens to be veterans issues, juvenile justice reform, it happens the economic inequality, if it happens to be seniors were young people or chert Early Childhood ed, what it is is almost less important than the fact that you are willing to give yourself up for it and give to fix it. That becomes the most important thing, so when i think about the work its when your greatest passions and your greatest gifts begin to start overlapping with the worlds greatest needs, and you actually choose to do something about its and that is everyones work. [applause]. You might be getting the holy ghost up there because it is a very spiritual journey. You mentioned and you talk about this level of self discovery and i think that sometimes when we have when we get involved in any endeavor, we seem to think that it doesnt require a level of south africa rise sacrifice that you speak of. Can you shed some light on this because in your book you are chronicling your professional history. The first book was about your origin and your background and this is like your professional life. But, there is still level of selfsacrifice that is required in selfdiscovery. Selfdiscovery and its a journey that each and every one of us have to go on at some point to understand what does what is that he met gets us going. I feel like i have been blessed beyond belief. I mean, i have had people who first by my mother. I think my younger sister said it best when she said, our mother were a sweater so we could wear a coat to read my mother sacrifice everything for us. She raised us on her own, but the thing that i think my mother always says in her beautiful humility is she was a single mother by every definition, but we had hundreds of parents. People who saw something in me before i was ready to see it in myself. People who understood that Second Chance it should actually mean something and people who were there and people people often say to me is the problem we are having right now the breakdown of the family and i am like listen, we can have a very technical conversation about the breakdown of the family and gas, gas on the to do with whats going on, that i think the brig or problem is that we have the breakdown of the definition of a family. Because we somehow think because someone was blood is that that is all they are responsible for. We need to read read the great and redefine what families are supposed to mean. If by definition we are all gods children then that means by definition we are all brothers and sisters, but we dont act like that. So, when i think about the process that i have gone through to try to find what it was i was supposed to do, a lot of that was led by the influence of others. People that you should do this or do that or explore this were in many ways it became about what their hopes and dreams were and not necessarily what my destiny was. Most of the people were coming out of pure love and respect and admiration and they werent telling me something to beat nefarious or evil. They were telling me what they thought was the best opinion, but i also have some point realized in my own life that i can take other peoples thoughts and i can take other peoples suggestions and i can respect them and i can process them, but it the end of the day the final decision must be mine. It must be something that i know its not just true to me, but something that god honors and i had a mentor when i was leaving i came back from afghanistan, and i was getting ready to head and finance in new york and i remember talking with them and he said it we going to do next and he was excited here women explants were. I said i think im going to work in finance and he was like really. Like thats not the answer that you would give me. I thought he would be excited. Im going to work in finance in these big deals and he said why are you going to do that. I spent at the next minutes telling him why. I would get to work with really smart people and i knew i would help take care my family to make some money and he said, that sounds interesting. He said you just spent the past five minutes tony why you you are going to do it and not one that i once did the words because im passionate about it out of your mouth right he said i want you to do it because you want to. The only thing i ask is this, the second you feel like you can leave there, leave. Because every day you stay doing something that you are not passionate about, you become extraordinarily ordinary. When i think about the evolution of the work and how i went about finding the thing that makes my heart go, i realized that a once more than anything is a want to be useful and i want to be great at what i do. If im doing not, there is no title. There is no job. There is no nothing i seek because then i feel like the people who are no who are really great with a do, its because they found that thing and they have not let the noise block everything out. So, this book really in many ways was kind of like a its almost like a realtime journey that i was on and i still remain onto this day, which is saying in the time we have got here being useful and being great at what we do has got to be our north star. It sounds like its an evolution. But, lets talk about some of the challenges. You said in your book, the bureaucracy of lifelong civil sorbents was more likes jeering a tanker than a speedboat. To. You used the terminology work to route the book had is a worker navigate through the personal salt that selfdoubt and shortcomings and theyd get involved in a cause and now they have to navigate and i think this is where a lot of folks. Like this is overwhelming, leadership and trying to become a trend center in this cause because you have got your personal shortcomings and uncertainty, but then you also had this systematic causes brought to the table in terms of trying to create real change. So, how does a person navigate through all that to get the other side . You ask some good questions. Going to break it up and it two different questions. One is how we deal with our own personal shortcomings and the reason why im almost reluctant to answer is because i think is something i dealt with a lot when i was coming up because and you have spoken about this as well. Is this idea that i almost have this thing called the imposter syndrome and i dont know if there are any psychologists in the room. We have one . Okay. , if im off to read my understanding of the imposter syndrome and its actually true psychological term that no matter where the person as they can like imposter. No matter where they go they feel like they dont belong there like they are just waiting on someone to type them on the shoulder and say what you doing here and i felt like there were sony components and times of my life where had this imposter syndrome where it was like i was seeing things that my family had never seen before. I was in a room with president s and prime ministers and im like you know where im from. Do you know my background . Its almost like waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and say what you doing here. I had a real apprehension because i felt like my deficiencies were the things that would always hold me back. A couldnt compete with this person because they come from a different background here and i couldnt compete with this person because of whatever. Until i kind of turned around and now i actually feel like my greatest strength over i used to, deficiencies. I feel like the greatest strengths i have is theres nothing i will ever again see in life and i will ever make me flinch. That is my armor. My armor is the fact that all of these things that i thought were holding me back were actually the things that were building me up because what it was doing was god preparing me for something else. I just know that one of the things we have in life is we will always have challenges and struggles the matter who we are what your background is, you will have challenges and struggles in hard days. Its eight into the life equation. When that happens i know i want to be surrounded by people that dont just curl up in the fetal position because they are not sure what to do. I want to be surrounded by people who say that day was tough, now lets mount up. I feel like the idea of taking these apprehensions and cheers and deficiencies and calling them what they are, which is our armory and then lets go to battle with that. Because then i feel like we will be in better shape than people even ourselves expect that we will be. How to go about kind of the biggest battles a bureaucracy and its interesting because i have now had the chance i have had a chance to intern with city governments, work within the federal government, work within the military, so i have kind of scene a lot and how big bureaucracy and stuff works and i think one of the biggest takeaways i took from my white house fellow year was that washington is incredibly potent, like the budgets that they play with our unreal. The kind of numbers that they are talking about in order to make big things happens is really a staggering and i dont care if youre telling the worlds biggest foundation or this or that, nothing compares with the budget the governments work with, nothing. So, there is a real potency that they bring to the conversation. The other thing i know is that there is a real impotency that they bring to the conversation as well because you have to be prepared for understanding the movement and its not quite be easy. And that movement is going to take compromise. You cant walk in and just say, okay this is the way its going to happen im a boom, done and think that is the way it works because its not the way it works, not at that level, not at that scale, not at that size. The thing i noticed that became the most effective way of being able to shift ideas and shift imagination of on people is making sure that people, even at that level do not forget who we are talking about. Because we at times can get very caught up and i say this, but we get caught up in time and numbers and i have a lovehate relationship with statistics because sometimes i think statistics can be used to numb like if you give me five minutes i can trust that back at him a completely contradicts his stat in the ironic thing is that most both might be right. That is statistics, truly. People will forget numbers. They will forget stats. But, they will not forget the humanity behind what we are talking about. Part of the reason i wanted to do this story and this book in telling stories to read part of the reason i went to do the other westmore my first idea about the other wes moore was like a 10 step guide for parents of my publisher said that sounds adjusting, but no one wants to read it. Teen book by a 30year old with no children. [laughter] i said thats a really good point. And then he said, tell us the stories. People will understand the point youre trying to make without feeling they are being beaten over the head and i think that is something people after remember as they go into these positions of authority and into these large constructs. Its inherently difficult to move things quickly. You have to be dogged about reminding people who are we talking about here. Lets not get caught up in all of the other stuff and all of the numbers games and shell games and this percentage because we can do that until were blue in the face and we can do that while people are suffering. We have to repeatedly remind people of who are we talking about and why is this works so important. That it brings to my mind, you and i we both work with people and with your scholars, with activists that i worked with and now, now were at a different and more critical point and i think one thing about what we sell back in april with the freddy gray situation is we were out there i was out there. It wasnt 40 yearolds. It wasnt even 30 yearolds. It was like 19, 17, 13. I saw a mother with her baby in one hand and a bottle of orange juice and the other ready to toss orange juice. It was a stark reality that, man, this thing is deep. The pain, the hurt is deep, so if we look at those things and if we look at the work now, for the next generation for black fives metter, that push, you know, talking about justice, that push. How does the young worker make sure that their work in those big causes stay meaningful . So, i think there is a couple things and one is, we as and it sounds so odd, first of all we have to be prepared to step out of the way and let them walk into their own greatness. You know, we cant sit there and say, well, when they are ready or when its time because who are we to determine when the time is . Who are we to determine what it is and what prerequisites are available for someone . For you to get involved in an issue, that does not require a certain degree or certain occupation or certain financial level or certain credential or certain whatever, it just means you have stepped up and you have said this is a major, major issue. Its an issue of our time and i have a voice in it, so personal i think we have to be prepared to allow the conversation to broaden out and not simply box out when it comes time for these conversations and these actions to take place. I think for part of the reason why it was so beautiful seeing the level level of activism we saw. Its like because that even goes back to what i was saying before about, this is really about them so, its like when you see people out there marching. When you see is that theyre protesting, when you see is that the demand for justice and or accountability and or transparency or education or whatever it is, this isnt for me. Its not for you. You got yours. I got mine. We dont march for that. We march for our kids. For your beautiful son who is sleeping over there, for my 4year old and my one year old. For that kid who is growing up right now or the kid coming up anywhere around the globe who feels like they are not part of the conversation. Because we have to understand that if we are not going to do this to be selfish im sorry we are not going to do this to be selfless because we want to change the world and all this kind of stuff, then do it to be selfish. Do it because we will never have an honest conversation in any of our communities if only a sliver of the population is part of the conversation. Thats not an honest conversation and we will never have an honest conversation about the future if only a sliver of the population is even being thought about and so it becomes imperative amongst us that if we really want to address these issues, if we really want to move the needle on these challenges in these opportunities that we have here, it means they cannot be exclusive conversations at it means we cannot as elders or leaders or whatever you want to call ourselves, we cant think theres a default reaction to box out. But, the default reaction must be, this is our time to develop our leaders. This is our time to celebrate and because in essence, this is all about them, not about us. This is about them. Its about trying to forge the life and future that frankly, they can grow up in that we didnt see. Is just about making the future better so the type of things that we had to experience or go through or whatever, that the only time people ever have to see them again are in history books. Do you think baltimore, has the perfect storm of ingredients to cultivate the next generation of Young Leaders that are really going to take our struggles whether it black, white, asian, latino, whatever, take the struggles to the next level . I think we have had it for decades. We just havent acknowledged it. I think part of the challenge we have had is we have seen leadership because we have not had that ability to foster generation after generation after generation and is so we have people who are now kind of figuring out on their own. Now, i think both of us have seen we have had some remarkable leaders have stepped up. I mean, Young Leaders, senior, whatever, whoever, really stepped up over the past five months. Now, we have seen some that is like whether because they are moving on their own and some decisions have been good. Some decisions have not been so good, but at least they are stepping up and doing something about it, but that leadership training and the support and the mentorship becomes huge in all of this and thats the thing. One of the things i have been really inspired by also is take black lives matter, for example. I have actually been really amazed in how many people who are out there who both look like you and me and who dont look like me and you shot in black lives matter. Because black lives do matter and not just to black lives. There has to be a way of being able to understand and make sure that we understand that if we are going to move forward as a city and if we are again, i keep telling baltimore, but i know not everyone hears from baltimore. But, if we are going to move forward as a community that it means we mean absolutely all hands on deck and to understand that all voices must the on deck also. Absolutely. So, the movements, the Young Leadership, i think its always been there. But, i do think we have you do beautifully, a perfect storm in a Perfect Moment to let people know that while its always been there, we are now ready to unleash its. We its basic things, basic things of where you watch how we see young people involved like never before and we are watching and people starting nonprofit organizations and starting people things to help community. We are watching and this year will be one of the first years you will have Voter Registration and voting, so we have a chance to do something really special and unique and its going to be led by our young people. That is actually something that is incredibly exciting and uplifting. This is not about us calling them out. This is about as making space and letting them do what they do. Mr. Wes moore. Give him a round of applause. What we would like to do [applause]. What we would like to do is no conversation is complete without hearing from you in the audience so you can share your thoughts and ask questions. So we can accommodate you in getting the microphone over to you, but if you do have some questions for our special guest today, please, stand and you dont have to give us your resume of who you are, thats it im talking about. But, lets hear what you have to say. Just want to say your name, brother, and just go ahead. I am from rochester, new york, but i live in baltimore. As a young africanamerican male faced with the different statistics like you said that are against us and how people look down us and they label us as thugs, but in their mindset its not actually that we are thugs. Its that we need to find a way to voice their opinions. How do you and what what advice could you give to me to keep me motivated to live for the next day to achieve goals ive set for myself and that i wont let anyone else dictate how i make my own goals . Beautiful question. [applause]. So, the first thing i would say is on an internal basis in the second thing on it next to know basis, but great question. First on the internal basis is, i kind a come to the point in my life i probably have particularly thick skin and it is what it is, but i try to live by an motto and an idea of dont let things that dont matter too much matter too much. Im really not particularly moved if someone says why about me. Because they dont know you, so they can say what they want and they can be what they want make and let their whole day be consumed by you. I just dont have time to be consumed by other peoples consumption. You know what im saying . So, one thing we have to understand about where we are is you will never have 100 support or allies or people who are cheering you on, ever. I dont care what you are talking about. You can say i wish everyone had ice cream all day and there will be people say that will ruin your teeth, so i hate you for it. So, one is, for the ones who are for the ones you will never be able to show the value that you bring, dont let things that dont matter too much matter too much. Dont let that affect you or your direction or your. The second thing that i think becomes important in this comes back to this big thing about expectation, about who we are and what we expect from ourselves and what we expect from other people. I remember when i was talking with wes from my first book, the other with and i think at that time he was in year five of his life sentence and someone once said to me, its a real shame that you lived up to your expectations and west did not. And i said,i said, actually, the real shame is that we both didnt. We busted. As we go through our evolution and our progress and are elevation, and as you are leading the charge because understand this, whether you realize it or not, you are already a leader because you have people, some of whom you have never even met before or watching how you walk, how you talk, how you carry yourself, and they are modeling themselves after you. Whether you realize it or not. You are there model. As you think about the expectations that were placed on you and that you were both place and everybody else coming up behind you, understand that responsibility israel because we become essentially a nation of false prophecies. How you think about your future, your impact, who you are going to serve, that matters more to our society than what anyone says about you or thinks about you. That will fade. That will not matter. The expectation that you bring to the game, that is what will stick. And that is is what i see you focused on. [applause] yes. I listen to you every sunday. Yes. Okay. My question is, how do you both, as black men who have boys in this whole thing out black lab matters, social justice issues, and i think you both, how do you as black men take the responsibility of making sure that black women are not invisible or made more invisible or demonized at the expense of black boys. Blackmail wise matter. Matter. Matter. Thats what i heard. I heard the black power movement. An educator, teacher. I year girls seeing boys matter because thats what they get in the media and that is what they get in their families. But we consciously say to our children something is wrong with you, to go back to your comment about not seeing things differently, my concern is that both of them get what they need and not boys privileged over girls. While. I think 1st, thank you. [applause] my wife is the question, as were having this conversation about black lives matter where talking exclusively about black men and boys. Make sure that im hearing allowing clear. But along with not just her but in the sense of that my conversation, you really have to listen to what the women and personally for me i have really learned how to listen to what the women in my life said me. I tell people this all the time, that i would rather have aa team full of women in a team full of men. Because the woman will rise with the writer die regardless as long as your on the right path. The team full of dudes some time, they could be like you could be on the right path and i dont like you. The women are essential in the movement, and im not just saying that as we have this conversation. But i think that if for any woman that becomes part of any social justice effort, your value comes from how you see yourself more so than the man that is leading the charge. If you come into the room thinking, well, he has to validate my existence, then that is going to be an ongoing battle, a power battle, power struggle, but it starts with how you see yourself as a woman involved in this effort. If you come to the table and say, well, regardless of how you feel about women, this is the role and responsibility that i am going to play. In your light is going to shine regardless. I think that it is silly for any man to try to downgrade thinking, the talent, and just the overall contribution of women in this day and time command i think that is really the decline that we saw those movements whether its the Civil Rights Movement of the black power movement, there was this pushing of the black woman to the side. And that led to a lot of things happening that led to the decline. The movement for social justice today is now the forefront of the movement on black women, young black women. You saw young lady skill the. South carolina, the young black woman, or black lives matter command black women start of that. That is the movement. But i believe that if men come into a better understanding of the roles and the values, the importance of the woman and not have to constantly go at a power struggle but to understand the woman says i know my role in the mail says i know my role, we can come to the table with a balanced perspective and Work Together versus going at each others throats. So there has to be the inclusion of women at every level, and i hate when people say we get soandso and soandso. We need women. You are a natural part of the conversation. You just have to assert yourself. But if you have to assert yourself, you dontyourself, you dont have to assert yourself so much that you lose yourself. And those who you are. And i. And i am saying that particularly to any young women in this room. You dont have to try to appease no man. And if a joke or tells you you have to, and that is a joker for real. To get away from him. First, amen. The only thing that i would add to that is, i think part of the reason in my case where put this emphasis on men and boys and black men and boys is because what is happening with so many black men and boys. You know, it is actually interesting. If you look at the quantitative analysis of Baltimore City, if you take black men and boys out of that quantitative analysis, Baltimore City are many trajectories is actually doing pretty well. The challenge we have is a city is when you reintegrate black men and boys into that physical analysis. And so the reason that i put so much emphasis on black men and boys with what is happening here right now is, you cannot talk about how to improve the prospects of the future a Baltimore City without understanding how we put a distinct emphasis on what is happening with black men and boys within the city. As long as Baltimore City has a 32 percent Unemployment Rate for africanamerican men, as long as when you look at the cumulative gpa of an africanamerican man who graduates from Baltimore City, hovering around 1. 6, then we have an acute issue that we have to address because we have an acute opportunity that we are not filling. And so i am in full agreement that this is not an exclusionary conversation, but i think at times we have to be able to call things as we see them and say, if we do not put an emphasis on what is happening to our young men in the city, for all people who are from baltimore, the baltimore sign had something three weeks ago in the sunday son, 41 murders and 35 days. Remember how. Remember how they had the pictures of all of the homicide victims from all of these faces. What did all of them have in common . They were black men. And like voice. If we are not able to unleash increased access and opportunities, if we are not able to raise expectations, every are not able to ignite opportunity, then having a conversation about the future of her we are starts to feel hollow. And we cant do anything to the exclusion, but we also have to be honest about where we are with our black men. Any other questions . High. Okay. I am a social worker. That is going to be important. So i work a lot with the reentry program. [inaudible question] did not get it tested here, she wants to learn or explain the importance of having a huge connection. And as he is doing the work, the city doing social work, social justice work, okay. Yes maam. And it is for those who have been incarcerated. Yes. Thank you for your work as well. Martha is asking about the work that we do with bridget eu,eu, and part of what we do is for anybody who is a High School Graduate or ged recipient. [silence] 80 percent of jobs in Baltimore City in the year 2020 we will require some form of postsecondary training and some form of postsecondary credentialing. Twoyear school, for your school, something. 80 , something. 80 percent of jobs by the year 2020. So we are not going to emphasize and focus on that for so many of our young people and for many of our young people simply Walking Around with a high schoola high school degree, tried college and now have debt and no degree, you are not setting them up for success the 21st century or for anything else. Andand what does that then mean to the families Going Forward . We are not just talking about the 21st century but the 22nd century as well. Where comes into the work we do around criminal justice and reentry is that when we think about what is happening for so many people in Baltimore City but also statewide and nationally, when you look at the fact that 95 percent of people who are incarcerated are coming out, at some point at some time they are coming home. And so if we are not only 5 percent therefore longterm sentences. How we think about the way that we can unite them with families and the situations where they can and should be united with families, and i completely understand there are certain situation maria cover reunification is not a good thing. I understand that, but what we have on the books right now which makes it more challenging even in the situation where it is better for the family and that person,person, those type of things have to be thought about underdressed. We have to be able to do a better job of thinking about the ways we focus on education, you know, how many ppl