And the ready to read program and some are read. Me will soon be announcing a winter read we will try to get the Community Reading just like we do in the summer we owe a debt of gratitude to our media sponsors and and our community sponsors. I hope you will join us later this month wrapping up the 2019 series we have kevin wilson in the meeting room downstairs. Also authors will be presenting the joy of cooking. Tickets are 50 but include a copy of the newest addition and a small sampling of the most loved recipes and cocktails. And now for the reason you are here today the moderator is a pulitzer prizewinning columnist the author of two nonfiction books and then to bring back here next year for that. Please do me too welcome to the stage miss connie schultz. [applause] elected to the seat with the Democratic Party beginning the political career 1975 and from secretary of state and has taught at ohio state university. With progressive senators who changed america. And with the eight men that were there before them. And in mansfield ohio he is married to a moderator they have three daughters and a son and a daughterinlaw seven grandchildren and those named franklin and Walter Sharon brown. [cheers and applause] sherrod brown. We are ready. I have never gone that reception. Hello husband. Interviewing my husband on stage is nothing i have done before but the more i thought about it coming close second in terms of how hard you have worked on it and more than a decade people are asking the same question over and over that you wrote this book yourself. [laughter] [applause] like i have nothing else to do so talk about how the book came about and what you learned over the course. First i want to Say Something nice about the library. Its great to do this in the library and in this library a number of you saw connie interview earlier this year. And then to watch the strong smart women and with those number of volunteers and those that make this happen. We dont necessarily have the best state government. [laughter] but it is the best state in the country, pop. [applause] so freshman everything in the senate is done by seniority. Your committees request, your office, where you set you are more or less placed by seniority so as a freshman there were ten desks left so i walked around and i realized there were no bad seats you dont sit behind a post. But some say they carved their names so i started to pull out the desk drawers and then the lawyers will like this hugo black south a quarter and gore of tennessee and then it just said kennedy. Which is this he said it has to be bobbys i have jacks. He did get first choice so that they started to think about the senators many of them i knew some of them i didnt at least one senator here or to that you would know little about one of them i have never heard of before. But then connie around the same time that you do your job Better Weather Practice Medicine or practice law. And then you learn the history and then you do a better. So with the senators or the senate all inexpensive because nobody was reading them. [laughter] and then to say first of all i interviewed 100 people so the book was laid out to talk about these eight senators and the commentary and i wrote it for the same season one the same reason even we talk about it when the workers took the canary down into the mine if the canary died he was on his own he didnt have a union to make them safe. So this book is about the role of government and to build peoples lives. And mythology and blooms and workers and civil rights and womens rights and all of that. So when you thought it was ready quick. And the colleagues wanted to know about this. One person i came into office with so i wrote what i thought was a good first draft and i showed it to connie and she said not even close prickle first of all the writing it wasnt good enough at that point i had not done enough rewriting she said any historian could write a book but you have to being yourself into perspective i didnt start over but i did a much deeper dive. I didnt have a deadline because obviously i have a day job but to make it wide it should be and im very grateful for that because it wouldve been a shadow and the payoff in some sense was the first big review of the book it was posted friday night and then historian from toledo and Doug Brinkley grew up in perry. I so appreciate the story and did the review and not a political writer. We do like political writers. [laughter] i was not insulting her but i went deep enough into this for historical accuracy but i think i can write and they put a lot of seriousness into it. Add that critique that i did at the time is because you are a senator writing it so to bring yourself into it. And i love being right about all of this. [laughter] but when you tell more about yourself. And some of that story involves the mother. My monger up at a time in mansfield georgia at ten of 500 and went to washington during the war and lady became the cia years later my father was from mansfield ohio and then my dad had just come back from overseas and moved to mansfield. And to talk about segregation and she founded as a little gore girl in georgia in the thirties and then repulsive in much of the way i was boarded 52 because all the sixties and seventies where people were bussed for integration for much of the country and said yes i remember investing in georgia where they sent to the inferior black schools and head of the ywca that she would say where the best advocates for race and womens rights of any Ongoing Group in the country. Than the first africanamerican woman to run for president. So in 2000 for my mom is 84 my dad had passed away four years earlier she thought the John Kerry Campaign was not being well run well enough. So she took the card table and put it in her trunk and drove to a Grocery Store in another town and she did this every friday for six weeks and registered 900 voters. Shes an organizer and she kept all the names and voters and phone numbers and kept calling them to make sure they voted at the election. So the first time that i met her i dated a member of congress and i have known her 20 minutes and we are looking in the mirror and she said would you like a necklace because it may be drawing attention to my cleavag cleavage. [laughter] but your mom was the first in the family to support barack obama. I was not endorsing anybody and when my mom was dying 2009 both my parents died in hospice. Maybe you never understand that but and then to show up at my moms wake when she died because she had helped so many people. Saw my brothers and i and connie were staying there and on january 19 she said i really want you to go to the inauguration. So it turned out that was the last day she got out of bed and sat up and watched the inauguration it was her really good last lose a day on earth. She passed away two weeks later we are with her when she died. She just thought it was the greatest thing this southern white girl but that we had a black president. Its all good. And the response to the biographies they are flawed human beings and with them talking about it so why include that about them quick. If you are writing history you cannot paper over parts of their lives. And to and integrity. One thing connie has taught me and dad had real issues about race and began to change in his last years. And then say of you are like this so in those elected officials there are three people of those eight senators of their Early Careers and early lives. And then Robert Kennedy and albert gore senior he worked for mccarthy he was a difficult man and kennedy probably got the job to his father and he also wiretapped as attorney general and two things happened one more tragedy for the Kennedy Family and that changed him to be sure and was much more introspective. But the other thing as lincoln use to say his staff wanted him to stay in the white house but lincoln said no i have to go. My study that bobby really did go out and listen and get Public Opinion but it came out of a dinner i had with Peter Adelman who started off as a canidae staffer. And then running the Head Start Program and those that refuse to do it for head start so kennedy came to the delta and just saw awful poverty she did not like kennedys because John Kennedys judges went through the Eastland Committee he would not allow kennedy to appoint anybody that were mostly segregationist eisenhower appointed better judges and those that were done right or not kennedy so he had no use with kennedy but then bobby showed up and then married him several years later. [laughter] all the media and tv cameras and then picked up this baby child and said i did not want to hold him but she saw that the she had never seen in a hard and senator and then when he became that empathetic but those two things and then he became the Bobby Kennedy we all know. And that was before his assassination. But hugo black was the furthest. But gore went from and even career to doing the right thing probably lost the reelection because of the antiwar and because with pretty racist judges and then nixon went after and defeated him and hugo black with the kkk member and then the most important and then after that time ended up at his law firm. And in the chapter the value of public hearing. And through watergate but with the Washington Post coverage and in the current climate that we are in and with that encouragement in a different country with public hearings and whether they want that public or not. They all want everything to be public because they want a light shone on government on what we do. Thats part of the idea of representative government. And in 1966 the hearings that gore participated into the point johnson tried to stop cbs from covering the hearings live he actually convinced them to take the hearings off and do reruns of i love lucy that then there was a resignation over that and then the hearings continued and then canidae said those hearings change the American Public that and Walter Cronkite so they had a great impact. So having taylor or the colonel speak where people can see these hearings will educate one way or another. I think the house will likely impeach i know Richard Nixon didnt do some things and tromp of asking for an government to help with the election but i dont know what i would do with a trial in the senate because it is a jury and we should weigh the evidence and at that point not listen to Public Opinion. But the hearings are important and history shows to have a huge impact. But those were the same hearings and the titanic hearings and i was in the room writing the Affordable Care act so that hearings have a gravitas. And senators know how to do tha that. So since we are talking about impeachment people are asking what would it take for the republicans right now to stand up so the impeachment hearings will happen but that they are changing their mind for the support for the president so what would it take is there any possibility of that quicks and to think this president is not informed many people think he lies a lot and is a racist. They are not for fundamental reasons they like what he does and very young judges. They like his attacks on voter rights and womens rights and the environment and the other reason they dont there is a palpable fear that if they Say Something negative and followup at all they bring a primary on themselves and part of that reason is if you are a trump supporter in one of the 40 percent that is locked in then typically you watch fox you typically listen to conservative talk radio you never hear your republican officials criticize him. And i was critical of trade with obama think they were dead wrong that most of the time i wasnt afraid to say it. So where are you to do what you would have done. And then in the cabinet room and first of all that the two big issues of taxes and trade his depth of knowledge is 50 if he even on the issues he cares about. But to think the tariffs i supported tariffs in the past i advocated for them that they are a temporary tool for a longterm policy trump thinks they are the longterm policy and they never work that way. Second, he didnt work with our allies. So to name them indiscriminately and with those countries around the world so which are the serial cheaters syria and turkey and there are others but then you build allies and support to help reinforce those tariffs that achieved the most and that was lost on the president so clearly it has hurt the economy could have been done differentl differently. It centers around the word hope. So first of all is there a message of hope . Lets start there talk about the progressive history of the Senate Progressive movements are not longterm but is there a message of hope in the book . Yes. What connie said that i document directly and indirectly without talking much of the 20th century, wilson by any measure was a racist human being but there were progressive things for women getting the right to vote even though he didnt always support all of this. That was the time and the elections of the public sentiment then in the authorities in the sixties the greatest progressive era. But they are only shortlived the last two or three or four years with great accomplishment with longterm consequences and then there is a furious reaction from conservatives which is a fight between conservatives and progressives they just want to hold onto wealth and power and privilege and do whatever it takes. Look at tobacco and now ecigarettes when the smoking rate had dropped by almost two thirds me very well could be on the verge of another 2020 it takes elections to do that but the sentiment is there. Tromp is the worst president of my lifetime maybe an mightiest line in history i dont know much about james buchanan. [laughter] think back to slavery. We had slavery for the first 75 years of our existence. Think about world war i, the mccarthy days. I spoke to 100 clergy on immigration and probably didnt have this meeting. So thats why i am very hopeful people come together in a way i havent seen for a long time. What direction or strategy should they take for that advantage. I hope we get a chance to we have to. A lot of it starts at the local level in people running for office in toledo but also in oregon and it starts with that. And property a library so whoever said that the first time and it starts with hate speech but also the government doing way better than it has done. How did you decide quex and why is it so big . [laughter] a lot of senators sign their desks some never do truman signed ten different desks i have had the same distance i came to the senate some move every two or three years and dont sign it until they leave that my swearingin day it was the second oldest grandchild six birthday we brought six of the seven grandchildren to washington we thought it would be a good day to sign understanding the grand kids were more excited about the train ride over then about grandpa carty one carving his name and an old piece of furniture. It with family and friends and then we write one walk into the cloakroom as part of the senate floor and the Senate Archive was in there and you say it was sacred in the sense that only the senator gets to touch it and then she laid next to it so she takes the cutting tool and a sharpie. C suggested i write it where i did and start a new row because more people would want to sign it and said make it big and bold enough and take the time to do it barack obama and Hillary Clinton with a sharpie and they did it really quickly and didnt pay much attention because they were both ready to leave. He was becoming president i have more time on my hands. [laughter] so i filled it in and the grandchildren all ran their fingers over it. Is what we have been telling them their entire life dont carve the furniture. [laughter] exactly what theyre not allowed to do. Then jackie said this feels great. But you tell the story waited for the grandchildren to be around and then dedicated the book is my mother. But so talk about that. You get more serious about your job and what you see i am rarely fearful or discouraged i cant help of the direction we go for four more years. I dont want my kids and grandkids to have to deal with that so that makes us more serious of our task at hand. I turn 67 yesterday. [applause] i just feel lucky to be relevant at the age i met. In this book grounded me more because i realized it made me more serious the gravitas of the job. Not to sound more important that i am but. That is the evolution. How can you ensure Climate Change is recognized around the globe so the Younger Generation such as myself safe and habitable to occupy in the future. With the human rights its the most important there is no question about that and then to be closer to the fossil fuel industry than those democrats in a recognized Climate Change if its not connected to lake erie they recognized two of the human beings contributed may be not as much as western democrats but then it was the Koch Brothers taking over their party essentially and all the dark money every republican knows if they step too far on climate issues they are endangering their future and the Republican Party primary because the dark money is not like me calling you for a thousand dollars and i have done that too many of you in this crowd. [laughter] but its somebody coming here ive had more money spent against me it has been broken since a lot of it was outside money we dont know where it came from we have to disclose a lot of it but we figured it was the oil companies. E negotiations and the Federal Reserve plays a major role in that so i have my place in the committee and my part of the senate in that way will be aggressive in 2021 if we want i will still be aggressive but less effective i assume to really shine a light on what we need to do across the board whether its transportation, with a great alternative energy, banking and finance, any one of those. Lets open the floor. These eight senators you notice they are all men and all white and thats not a surprise looking back. The next state 100 years from now people will look a lot more like toledo and america and we will be much more progressive as a result. [applause] could i make a comment instead of a question when i was in college i took a course in constitutional law my senior year and i became fascinated and had the chance to meet him before i got out of college so i want to thank you for putting him in the book. He was an incredible human being who has been greatly overlooked in history, so thank you very much. First person i met pat leahy, senator leahy of vermont was a law student not that many people talked to him so thank you for that. Lets have a question. You and i are a generation of a certain age and when weaver in high school and junior high we talked about people with a generation like they were the evil things and now we are hearing okay do we need to work with our young adults in a way thats different . Start by paying attention and listening to them and encouraging them to vote. There was such a generational difference in politics. There always has been it seems more pronounced now especially in the issue of Climate Change but they dont address and understand diversity better who are supportive of Marriage Equality have rights, its a different generation. I think the difference is more marked. I dont know enough to be sure of this but its more when those of us were growing up. Let me ask a question of the car and we will go back and forth. Please repeat what you said to anderson cooper. They interviewed onstage and then this morning meet the press wanted me on it and we have to get uhad toget up at 7 a. M. Chi. I dont have this genetic disposition democrats tended to have to anguish over everything in the party especially with a lot of candidates in the race. I know most of them, not all of them, i know some better than others. Some of you dont know who you are for, i dont either. I think bloomberg getting in the race but i dont think that there is any one. When we make the contrast between who we are and what trump has done a. They fight over medicare for all or build on obamacare. What i want them to say and what ive asked them to say everybody on the democratic side wants universal coverage. They have different speeds and different paths to get there to be sure, bu but contrasted that with trump remember mccain tried to get the Affordable Care act to appeal. I mentioned thats all canceled out if they win the case in the district of texas so we want to get to the universal coverage to contrast between that and where trump is trying to take us that is how democrats want to talk because i think all this is just a way to lose a. Im a senior in high school right now and i want my name car in a desk like yours. I was just wondering what is the numberone piece of advice he would have for someone merging in the political world its pretty hostile right now what advice would you have for someone like me . Are you in high school . Hes about four years older than me when he ran for the state. If you have the ability, not the ability but the financial ability to enter into volunteering campaigns, almost counter intuitively as important as that is i would volunteer in the state legislative race and then you learn more and have the chance to advance in the organization and find yourself gaining a lot of skills you might not have when youre working for the president ial candidatyou areworking for the l candidate that i would put your effort but if she is not financially able to do the unpaid internship . Its still going to volunteer. The problem with that issue you still have to have a job to pay into two jobs sometimes, eight or 10 an hour. Which is a great part of your biography when you start running because he would be like most americans. You have to work really hard like everything else. If you were to go back, are you a senior . You vote next year but not this year if you were to organize and get 50 people to register to vote, you and two or three friends, you would make an impact and get peoples attention. As we were saying earlier there is such a generational divide its going to be determined. So thank you for that. To first rescue franklin was beginning to age and wanted some entertainmena got a rescue tn accident three years ago he survived and of course he was protected by all the airplanes and he was tethered by a harness to his seatbelt. I got hit 35 miles an hour and the plastic curtain comes down, keeps the glass from exploding into the passenger of the driv driver. And i talked about the dog after they posted that. I dont care as long as the dog lives. I had a very alarming statistic a poll that was taken there was a large percentage of americans who would be totally comfortable with. I was wondering how you felt about this and do you think its because congress over time has seatedso much power to the executives that a lot of people think the only branch that matters is the executive. Its all over the place and i generally wouldnt. I dont remember the numbers but they are alarmingly high. He clearly has more to and as he was with Angela Merkel or all that but hes always had a screen in history of those that are antiimmigrant issues of race. They came from a place they speak a weird language to talk about the german catholics in this city and the diversity from all over the world, but theres always been an antiimmigrant strain in this party that articulates it and has a compliant media that does the same its just a question always talking to people about it but its a big concern. Speak you as many as possible and all my years as a journalist almost 40 years i never thought i had to defend it at the rate i was doing right now encouraging a people that were important to distinguish and i wasnt dismissive about the question if it came off that way and im glad you immediately told me it was pbs because we do have to be careful about how they are presented to the suspicious right away to decide whether or not they are going to participate. You are right that congress has too much power. Its just sort o of have been slowly but its also an erosion of what it should be but its also accelerated in the protection play the leadership in the senate. We have a question. We very much enjoyed reading the biographies of the readers that have changed the country for the good. And i should say that in our time, a good summer job would almost pay for one year of college education. In that time, the cost of Higher Education has gone up twice the rate of inflation which means we are looking at about 1. 4 trillion in college debt. 90 of which is held by the u. S. Government and in the Interest Rate on average it is 5. 8 strangling this Younger Generation coming and in a way this is an arbitrage by the government because right now the treasury is about 1. 8. So what is your question . What do we need to do to get the interes Interest Rates downt isnt such a stranglehold on this generation because they cant swing this coming down 6 . Great question. We need a congress that pays more attention to that. I hear it from pairings and recent graduates on 50 or 60,000 if they went to boston or a private school they may be at 150,000. I think we are going to see the way that bernie has talke talk t free college as it sounds too far in the future. It sounds unreachable. I was talking to kathy at the library. Hes in his 80s but he has talked about a group of senators that talked about we didnt have free Public Education until the 18 80s schools started to do that, and i think we need to think about expanding which we will in some point, but the question is what we do about now and then. Weve got to deal with it means more, regulating the forprofit schools that have been terrible to so many graduates and dropouts. Figuring out and putting more intel grants with the state universities their tuition continues to grow up. Im going to ask a question from the audience because ive seen variations. How does it differ from what looks like four years ago. They are productive in many ways but there are a lot of southern democrats that were segregationists in northern republicans there is a guy in the senate named roy blunt. Weve known each other for 30 years and only agreed on fighting. He kind of laughed and said all five are federal law. Thats what you do in the senate coming you can do it on the big tax bills. I find a guy from indiana who cares a lot about International Help and we worked together on some issues and i worked some on Veterans Issues and Johnny Isakson [inaudible] when the next person sits down at your desk and seize your name, how did you want them to remember you . Where is the question from, i cant see. I have to think about that. [laughter] i will answer with a bit of an anecdote. Nancy pelosi and i failed to get in 2014 we failed to get a provision of the tax code fortysomething in Child Tax Credit and we set out to do this she and the hous in the house ae senate. It was an expansion and making permanent the earned income tax credit. It would put about two or 3,000 in the pockets of people making 20, 30, 40,000 a year coupled with the world but i pushed obama to on the overtime i if yu were to making 35 or 40,000 york more than 40 hours and if they call you and get overtime. We fixed that so you would get time and a half if you are at that income level. People making 80 or 100,000. In those two things together she brought two pages of the quotations that he typed up himself and i asked him to read them aloud over a small candle so its closed but we have the same favorite quote and its the one line i will use now. Im interviewing you so im going to add to that. This is very apolitical. First you have a very unusual first name. How did you come by it and as a kikid did you have a nickname . My fathers name, he grow up in georgia and my mothers brothers name and great grandfather and my mom and dad, great grandfather and great uncle fought each other in the mountains in tennessee [inaudible] [laughter] i didnt like my name at all, i thought it was a girls name and i remembered that in school there was lots of space so they added the first five letters and the teacher would go to town on that and every time i wanted to play baseball for the Cleveland Indians as a kid. I always blamed the man and some people think im prolabor because i was blamed my dad when i just want to fire the manager that was never the season players fault it was the manager and they were really bad in those days. Im lefthanded and some people call me a lefty. Can i tell the Rush Limbaugh story . In 2006 [inaudible] so youve gone even more liberal then you thought. Weve had fun over the years. We have another question from the audience. I m. A lefty also so i love you even more. My question is this is the first time ive had the chance to ask a senator. Ive called so many times and on his recording he says we will get back to you and they never have, but my question is is it to no avail when you call the office is there a better use of my time and energy to let them know what im thinking and what i once . I think its important anyway. Ive always thought the more effort put in, the more it counts. If you sign a petition that is a little too easy but if you write a note that shows a little more strength and belief i just think you keep doing that and if somebody continues you work to defeat them or work to help th them. I just think its really important he showed responded to you. He runs a good office most of the time. Im sure some of you have written once or twice and i didnt answer but we always try. We put a high premium on responding and we all should. We are public servants. They are public servants. Thats our job, but i just keep trying, dont give up. [inaudible] same place at the same time, two hours apart what makes county a great journalist and then what makes senators in life partner . Thanks, mom. Youre welcome. She would have loved you im telling you that right now. The second part is what makes you i marvel at the ability to do some of these things. She loves her students and teachers two days a week and put real time and effort into that. Shshes writing a novel that has taken her years because at the beginning shes obviously a very accomplished journalist, wasnt sure the same skills would apply and i love calling her a novelist because she likes that so much, she does and shes earned it and she is going o sho do a number of things. What i said yesterday is the were worth the wait. Shes a great journalist because she has integrity and asks good questions of people. She has that talent but she also took it seriously. One of the reasons, ive always been pro union. Even though my mom never belonged to a union or understood the movement, she knew doctor king died supporting sanitation workers had always understood the older she got the importance of that and her dad hadnt been a union member she probably would have died because she had a terrible asthma attack and spent a week in the Cleveland Clinic so i get that and she does also. Who has the microphone . What do we do to take the money out of the election process for millions and billions that it takes to elect people it seems like it could be better used. In the last two years of my term, as her editor says, no whining on the yacht. Nobody should feel sorry for me. The only solution is to two things, getting the congress that understands about it, pelosi does what she can do it. Just in the house and its a Supreme Court that will actually weigh in on this. Its not just so much about information but with the right Supreme Court it would take about two years. Grass roots still win elections in good organizations. I have lost once. I lost about 1990 i outspend that race. Discipline the right organizations and ive seen many wash across the candidates and campaigns and its a terrible affliction in the country. I think we have time for a couple more. The politics have driven so much of where we e going as a country in terms of income equality and many other issues. I dont know if you have any thoughts on that but i would like to you see as most in the financial economy and energy and environmental Climate Change and Energy Production kind of issues and in the gun lobby. Trump got more money from the gun lobby than any other candidate in history in any race and in Miami Valley Hospital and was there in beijing with the mayor when i was three months, two months ago, he sai and he se are going to do even bigger. I asked him about it. I said we need you to call the, on background checks and banning assault weapons, 66 support. He said we are going to be the greatest thing and then he went back and met with william and its not even the nra or gun owners, it is the manufacturers and at the to the top of those organizations, but a whole lot of members need generally gun safety rules in place. Hello, senator brown. What is your advice for aspiring authors . A wonderful novelist and essayist said that there is no substitute. To encourage women and people of color to write more because those are the forces that are still missing in literature and opinion writing and coverage. I never had a contact. Im teaching these kind of kids still if you have talent and the attention it can happen and the way you have talent is if you keep working on it. Very few people are going to do anything well. You learn to do it over time of the most important thing that happened for me at a young age i told myself i was a writer they realized there was nothing to be afraid of. That is the negative voice in our head that tells us who are you to think that you have a story to tell. For me its on my desktop computer because the way that i look at it it gets to sit there as long as i dont hear a word. We are the biggest enemy are we not what they call you is one thing, but you answer to this something else. So you determine that you will be a writer and you start there. [applause] working summers part time in high school and one of the customers come up to her even though she couldnt afford it, it is the best week by a week writing thaweekwriting that youd to. One Sports Writer said writing is easy, sit down at a typewriter, and it took me a long time to do this. I write a lot of, journals, not a lot, its practice and you get better at it. I tell my students all the time when i was first starting to write at kent state and graduated, no matter who i was writing for i told myself i was writing for the New York Times because that was my goal at the time, and i think its important because again its what you tell your self. So i hope that your message is really strong. I wish you all the best. You talk about the cost of communication and all that and those are airwaves, so why cant the government fix it so that there are all kinds of freebies when you are running for the senate or the house of representatives and those kind of things . And in those kind of ideas. It makes it cleaner and fewer and an uphill fight. If you ask on dark money and where that takes us all together is a major in the posttrump years whenever they start i think they will start in 2021 but weve got to get really serious about restoring the democracy in a lot of levels from hate speech to communication between candidates and the public among all those issues. American history tv is on cspan three every day with primetime teachers each night at 8 p. M. Eastern. New years day wednesday
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