Could be ahead. I really do. We have the infrastructure and the Education System and the people and the entrepreneurial spirit is still out there. People want to be able to create a better life. All washington needs to do is create that environment. Washington does not create jobs but a can create the environment for success and the environment for failure. Right now theyre heading down the wrong track. There is an opportunity to take a new direction. Lets embrace it. Do not throw in the towel and say this is the new normal. What say we can do it, we always have. We will figure it out. It will require leadership and finding that common ground. Thank you. [applause] i would like to acknowledge the [inaudible] a fellow dartmouth alum. The best seven years of my life. I enjoyed every year. The state senator from district 20 is also here. I also wanted to thank him for being here. It is often said that lou would go to the opening of an ampulla. He would go to the opening of an envelope. A great public servant. He is a very serious lawmaker and we do not have enough serious lawmakers who think an awful lot about the problems we have an goes a step further to say i think i have some ideas. Some of them outside the box as he alluded to. That may cause some witticism criticism and arrows being directed at him but he is willing to do that in order to move the country forward. To grow the economy so we can have 4 , 5 growth. We need people like the senator in the u. S. Senate so we are fortunate to have him here today. I would ask before we leave if we could have a moment of silence, a thought for james foley and his family, that they find strength in the next coming days and months and years ahead. He is a neighbor in rochester and a friend to many people. With that, a moment of silence for james foley and his family. Thank you very much. We look forward to seeing the senator in washington and new england. We want to thank him for being here today and we thank our sponsors for making this a Great Success and thank our leader here. We wish you a happy labor day coming up. Thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] next at town hall meeting looking at ferguson, missouri. Live at 7 00 a. M. , your calls and comments on washington journal. Busboys aannd poets held a town hall meeting on the ferguson shooting. Danny glover made remarks. This is about two hours and 20 minutes. This is about two hours 20 minutes. Good evening. Sisters and brothers. I am the director of communications. I will be the moderator for this evening. This is ferguson and beyond. It is an open discussion on the crisis of Race Relations in america today. , andhalf of the institute our cosponsors, a continuing talk on race series, the institute of policy studies based in washington, d. C. , it is my pleasure and honor to extend to you all a warm welcome to this famous d. C. Landmark. [applause] a unique place that combines good food for the pallet with great food for thought. I want to extend a special welcome to all those in the audience who joined us after the protests today. Justice toarched for be with us today. [applause] to thosereetings across the country and around the world watching this event live on cspan and on the internet. To those across the d. C. Ropolitan region lazing listening. Also to Cable Television viewers in cambridge, massachusetts. The institute has invited a Stellar Group of human rights leaders and legal experts and youth activists and religious leaders to be among the panelists and respondents at this town hall meeting. I want to welcome them all and thank him for accepting the invitation. We will move into the discussion and dialogue. I want to bring on a righteous brother and a dear friend. He will personally welcome you to his house. He is an artist and an activist and a prominent civic leader in the d. C. Area. He is a very successful entrepreneur who is built a franchise of three thriving busboys establishments. He is about to open two more. I am talking about the owner of busboys and poets. Lets give it up for brother andy. [applause] good evening. I know you have friends he havent seen in a while. This is an important time and a joyful time in many ways. If you could take a moment to just say im not going to talk to you until the end of the program to your friend sitting next to. Let them know that. Youll have plenty of time to reconnect afterwards. We are here until past midnight offended past midnight. Give us your undivided attention for the next few moments. On behalf of the front of the house staff and the back of the house staff, i would like to welcome you to this moment this evening. A ferguson townhall. When we opened we had the intention of creating a place where racial and cultural connections are consciously uplifted. If you have wondered what that looks like, this is what it looks like. I want you to turn to the person next to you and give them a hug. All right. We are also a place for art and culture and politics come together intentionally to collide. Part of this art in culture, i want to open up the program none other than ayanna gregory. Give her a welcome please. [applause] [singing] we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. Oh freedom. Oh freedom. Oh freedom. Before ill be a slave i will be , buried in my grave. And go home to my lord and be free. This is a freedom song meant to go around the world. Critical time everywhere in the world. Wake up as we stand at war. Ask yourself what youre living for. We are living in some troublesome times. The truth has been hidden. The values we have to, live. Oppression so deep, we are desensitized. As we stand in the final hour. You cant afford to give away your power. They think youre going to fall but they dont know you well. Earth is going to tremble. You just stand your ground. You have to realize the battle is hard. We go to war with the honor guard. Let your fire burned down on hypocrisy. Finally become what you were meant to be. I see the fire in your eyes. Take back your life. Take back your life. I see the fire in your eyes. Take back your life. Take back your life. Thank you. [applause] when we first started thinking that this brainchild, it was don rojas who came up with this idea to have a town hall meeting. What we decided to do was have it on august 27. He told me this about eight days ago. Eight days is a long time. People will forget about this and move on. They wont remember this. I want to thank the people of ferguson. I want to thank all of you for being part of this and making sure that we will not forget. We will at the police know that it is not ok to be militarized. That our Police Departments about a dumping grounds for the pentagon. We are tired of institutionalized racism. We are tired of being eavesdropped on and spied on and marginalized throughout the world, not just in a ferguson but everywhere. Ferguson is the rallying cry that we have come around. I want to thank the people of ferguson. I want to thank mike brown, may he rest in peace, for making this possible and giving us this wake up call and saying were sick and tired of being sick and tired. You are in Great Company for that. Welcome to the club of being sick and tired of being sick and tired. We will not rest or stop. This will not go away like many things have gone away. We will continue in this struggle until we have peace and justice. If you dont have justice, there is no way to have peace. Even though mike brown was not the first brown person killed by the police, i want you to think about and say he will be the last one. He will be the last one to be shot by the police. That is it. I look forward to having this conversation with you. Thank you for being here. [applause] thank you. Tonightsd brothers, program we will not have time to recall what happened in ferguson, missouri. We will focus on the meaning and the implications of ferguson for the Africanamerican Community across the country and for the nation at large. Where we go from here . What needs to be done the week and months ahead . What recommendations and actions can we come up with tonight . What are the lessons to be learned from ferguson . Was this just another cliched teachable moment or was it a significant turning point . Will this moment evolve into a new movement for political change and for social and Economic Justice for black and brown people in this country . These are some of the questions that our, lest will address shortly. Panelists will address shortly. I would like for us to ask for a moment of silence for Michael Brown and for eric gardner and so many africanamerican men killed by White Police Officers in different parts of the country. A moment of silence. May they all rest in peace. On monday, thousands of people attended mike browns funeral. More mourned his loss across the country and around the world. The media tells us that in recent days everything is calm and ferguson. Life is back to normal. Kids are back in school. That implies the crisis is over. Is this the case . Many young activists say that mike browns dignified funeral was a time to press forward. Press the pause button on the protests. The resistance continues. For many of us aging activists, the resolve and the determination of courageous young people in ferguson and from around the country who have been leading the resistance is truly inspiring. They reflect the use of yesteryear who were involved with the panthers back in the 1960s and 1970s during the lack liberation struggle. They provided the energy and the passion. The hiphop generation is doing exactly the same thing. We are delighted to have a few of these young activists leaders with us tonight. Along with dozens of other youth from here in washington, d. C. Drove by bus all the way from washington to ferguson last week to participate in the protests. I would like to invite one of the activists to give a brief report on the trip to ferguson. Sister erika, please come forward. [applause] i just want to make a correction. I was not one of the ones who went on the bus. I went before there came to be some peace and ferguson. I wear this shirt because i want to be reminded of what happened to the people there. I have not brought myself to be able to wash this. I dont want to forget. This is not the first time that black people have been attacked. This is not the first time and it will not be the last. I went down it just tanned in solidarity with the people of ferguson. I know it easily could have been our city. It will be our city. It happened in brooklyn last year. There were tanks rolling in brooklyn. This is the response when black people rise up. Please understand that. This is the response from our country when black people rise up. Wake up. We are under attack. It has not stopped. We have been under attack for long time. Bombs, you dont have have to compare us to another country. For us, this is america. This is what is happening to us. I want to tell you, i stand with the people that you called looters. They were resisting. Because what happened was when i talked to them, they said you know what, you dont care about our lives. We dont care about your property. And i stand with them 100 because thats when people start waking up. In this capitalistic society, you got to start breaking stuff to be heard and that is what they did. I want to tell you, a lot of people dont want to talk about this but i will give you a story from us being in ferguson. One of the organizers that i was with, as we were running, it was like a cookout at the quick trip. It was a family reunion. People were passing out food. It was free. Children were cleaning up the trash, cleaning up the canisters of tear gas that were there. Children, babies cleaning this up. Nd about 8 30 we went to go to the mcdonalds, famous mcdonalds you all see, and it facetimedceful i even with my mother and let her know i was ok. Five minutes later, well before kerr few, we see a group of Police Officers run behind a building and come back with tear masks or gas masks on, excuse me, and sticks in their hands. So we know something is about to happen. One of our organizers asks why are you carrying sticks . And he said, to beat people. This is at 8 30. Thats when the tear gas comes. So we start running, and im running ahead of them. The organizer behind me is running and a white man is running toward her and punches r in the face and says sit down. That happened and thats real. There are people there that want black people to get shot at, as for the national guard, we know the history of the national guard. I went to a. N. C. There are bullet holes in our walls from the national guard. We know what they did in newark, new jersey, ok . This is our history. So stand with the people in ferguson. They are resisting, theyre showing us what can happen in our city. And we know what the response is going to be. So this is a time we have to come together and honor the people of ferguson. Honor mike browns life. Were not going to go back to business as usual. We cant afford to do that anymore. We cannot afford to do that anymore. Thank you so much. Erica. For air ca thank you. Now its my pleasure to introduce dr. Ron daniels, president of institute of 21 century and istinguished lecturer out of new york cloth, city of new york, who will provide the town college for this evening. Ron . Thank you very much. Lets give it up for the sister with the eyewitness report from ferguson. Lets give it up for her. First of all, i want to quickly say because time is limited were an institute of the black world 21st century delighted to have as our director of communication someone as distinguish of don rojas, general manager of wpfw but more importantly the former press secretary for maurice bishop. Give it up for don rojas. We also quickly again want to thank andy and busboys and poets for sponsoring this event and open societys foundation, drug policy appliance for the support of the work of the institute of the black world 21st century. One wonders if one went back and read the accounts in the british newspapers of what they would have said about the boston tea party. And i say that because of what the sister talked about, the spirit of resistance. People calling it riots. People calling it all kinds of things. Never, ever have called any of newark, los angeles. They are rebellions. They reflect peoples resistance against the violence being committed against them. And we in the institute of the black world 21st century have been saying for years theres a state of emergency in black america, a state of emergency. Now for some people, there are two black americas quickly. Some people are doing quite well unless get stopped for driving while black. They live in the exof suburbs, whatever. In the urban inner city areas, what i call americas dark getters. As malcolm would say, people are catching more hell than ever before. That state of emergency is a created state of emergency. They took out the jobs. They disinvested in our communities. Industry left. Work has disappeared. They created what they call dangerous communities and the media helped create the image of the dangerous black man. And then they had to police it with the war on drugs. The war on drugs is a war on us, and we must end the war on drugs. And president obama could do it with a stroke of the pen. If nixon created it by executive order, it could be ended by executive order. The other thing is, as sisters said, we talk about looting. We have been looted of our jobs, looted of education. Theres been the ravishing of our communities. Then we have been violated by Police Violence and terror killings. We say in the institute of the black world 21st century, everyone doesnt have to agree with what we say. We say end the war on drugs. The attorney general can do that tomorrow, simply stop having the Justice Department pay for the tanks and all of this military equipment. We Say Community policing will speak to Community Policing ought to be the order of the day. It may not yield a lot but we want obama to have the opportunity to clearly say he has a priority and that priority is not the military model, it is Community Policing. And the next, we need a domestic marshal plan. Somebodys got to pay for all of the damage thats been done to our communities. We need a domestic marshal plan. We need our communities rebuilt so our people can breathe and have jobs and Economic Opportunity in a way that we dont have now because every community you go in all across this country, i read in the New York Times today, the Washington Post, how education is being deprived. How in missouri, theyre making money off the tickets. Theyre defining people. The brothers cant pay for the fines. They go to jail and they still owe fines. Because of the small government nonsense, theres not enough investment in our community. Lastly, we think there ought to also be a kearner commissiontype study. Some of you may not recall in 1968 after the insurrection, there was a kearner commission to study why does this keep happening . We have a black president , and yet we have a state of emergency in americas ghettos. We need the president of the United States to call a commission to study why do the Police Killings keep going on . Why do we have such violence in our community . Why do we have such economic underdevelopment . We need answers and president obama can take the lead in providing those answers. So those are some of the ideas were putting forth. We are sure the panel will share many, many others. But the main thing is we have to iftain this movement and say there isnt going to be no nuts, there certainly is not going to be no justice, there certainly is not going to be any peace. [applause] thank you very much, dr. Ron daniels. Sisters and brothers, moving right along, we now want to introduce to you our distinguished panel, seated up here next to me on my left and im going to introduce them from left to right, and im going to ask each of them to make a very brief, two minutes at the most, opening comment on the crisis in ferguson. You can focus on any aspect of the crisis and after which i will pose a few questions to each of you. Thank you so much. Om my left we have brother hillary shelton. Hillary shelton is the director of the Washingt