Friends with Valerie Jarrett and who is a behindthescenes adviser to her husband in a way that is quite different because in many respects, michelle behaves toward her husband as though she knows better. He said in public that shes the boss. He often sounds like a henpecked guy i must say. I know thats very you know radical to say that but i think theres a lot of truth to that. These women, both michelle and valerie, have enormous influence over his policy decisions. Another concrete example bill daly was the chief of staff of the obama white house, he said after he resigned that he and obama would come to an agreement and then Valerie Jarrett would go upstairs to the residents that night, spend the evening up there talking to barack and michelle and the next morning the president would come down and contravene and throw out the agreement that he and daley had an daley resigned because he said he couldnt function without kind of white house. Host we talk about a variety of topics and the topics are explored in the book blood feud the clintons versus the obama than the author edward klein who joins us for this discussion. Mr. Klein, thank you. Guest its been a great pleasure. Thank you very much for having me on. Marion barry served four terms as mayor of washington d. C. His fourth term after serving six months in federal prison on drug charges. He recently visited the National Press club to promote his new autobiography, mayor for life. This is an hour. The order of events for this press rap is as follows. Im going to introduce our guest and then im going to have a conversation with him and after that you can ask them questions. Just raise your hand and our Committee Members will come around with a mic for you. When we have run out of time for questions because i imagine there will be quite a few, he will be signing yearbooks. I have also been told by the management that once you are done with that we are having just night in the bar upstairs with a live band so you might want to go up and check that out. Marion barry junior was born in 1936 and a tiny town in mississippi and picked cotton as a child in the segregated south. When marion would save his mother left his father whom he never saw again and moved to memphis. He was inducted into the National Honor society in high school, received a degree in chemistry from lemoyne owing college of memphis and his masters degree in chemistry from Fisk University in nashville in 1960. He completed completed all courses required for a doctoral degree at the university of kansas where he studied quantitative and qualitative organic compounds. Thats a surprise, isnt it . He was cofounder of the civil rights group, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee which was active in Voter Registration and desegregation in the deep south at a time when it was a very dangerous thing to do. In 1964 the organization sent him to d. C. Where he won a seat on the school board in 1971 and became a councilmember in 1974. He served as the second elected mayor of the District Of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and again as the fourth mayor from 1995 to 1999 and he has been a member of the d. C. Council representing ward eight since 2005. That despite a life of many accomplishments and we have just heard a few of them mr. Barry is known for a few minutes on a videotape of the vista hotel in 1990 and while we will get to that later i would like to use this time tonight to explore the other aspects of your life that i didnt know about until i read your book. Im sure that many people here tonight would also like to know. For instance, one thing that really surprised me was he were one of the first black eagle scouts in memphis and as a mother of two eagle scouts i would like to ask you, ill bet youve never gotten this question before mr. Mayor, what was your favorite merit badge and what did you learn from scouting . Good evening. Good evening. Let me just get that out of the way. [laughter] i think it was lifesaving in swimming. Lifesaving in swimming. And camping and watching. Was that girl watching her birdwatching . Bird birdwatching. Did you feel that you learn some things from the boy scouts that helped propel you to the university and into your life . I learned quite a bit. One, i Learned Leadership skills. I learned tenacity and resilience and courage and all of those kinds of things as well as getting along with other people from different backgrounds. I went to jamboree in mexico on all those kinds of things that helped shape my life a lot quite frankly that the person who was most important in my life was my mother. My mother finished the third or fourth grade. My father the third or fourth grade and they were sharecroppers. That is where you worked all year chopping cotton, you dont know anything about chopping cotton but picking cotton. When it was all said and done we met with about 3000 or 4000 in cash. All that work because a man had his story and he sold the seeds to my family at a price higher than he paid for them and bought the cotton back at a price lower that he could get for it and i think its important that in america you find there are very few opportunities at that time for a black boy born in mississippi living in a house without any Running Water or electricity using kerosene lamps and without the amenities that we now have. But back to my mother. My mother was a domestic. Worked for a white white woman in a family kitchen, bathroom and kids and all that kind of stuff. My mother told me and i didnt understand it at that time she was telling me this. She said, when she went to interview for the job and got through all of the duties and responsibilities, she would tell that white woman who was doing the hiring, im not not going through the backdoor. If im good enough to take care of your kids and clean your house and cook your food im going to go to the front door and she lost a lot of jobs that way. She also said, because back in those days and even now they were called by their first names. They didnt have a last name. She lost a lot of jobs for that. I think that kind of tenacity and courage rubbed off on me somewhere as i remember when she would tell me that story. I didnt understand. I was too young to understand it but that was a defining moment in my life. She lived to 92 years is old. She past six or seven years ago. Come on, 92, 92 . [applause] a long time. 92. So speaking of your mother when you are a young man you were very busy in addition to school and being in the Honor Society you have a lot of odd jobs. You were collecting merit badges but even so you were a little bit of a rabblerouser even in your youth. Youre right that he likes to drink whitewater from white water fountains but what did your mother have to say about doing that . She slapped the hell out of me. [laughter] it was the custom in the south. Boy if you dont know better than that, bam. I thought that was an interesting point in your book that back then the older people in segregation were used to living like that and it was the young ones, 14, 15 that said thats crazy why are you living like this . Thats true. Let me do this. Let me back up a little bit and put this book in context. A lot has been written about marion barry. A lot of photographs have been taken but those interviews and those stories were about the what of my life, not the who of my life, not the two of my life. Its about me being a four term mayor. What . I decided to tell the story of who marion barry really is, what it is that i am made of. [applause] and this book is brutal and frank. I tell it all, the good, the bad and the because life is no rose bed. There are no imperfections in your life and you dont make any mistakes and for those who read the book its great. You will see that there are very detailed situations. This book took me almost a year to do. Omar tyree is a heck of a writer. He has Fiction Books and im up until 1 00 or 2 00 in the morning. Going to work on my counseling job working saturday, sunday late into the night working on holidays to make sure that i was accurate in what i was trying to put together. I talked to a number of tape recorders to try to put this together and it was a labor of love, a labor of love. It didnt start with the vista and it didnt and with the vista. The vista was this much of a sliver in my 78 years, just a sliver. Thats what it was. It was important. Im going to get that out of the way right now. Regardless of what happened with this and that and said this and said that it happened 24 years ago. I say again, 24 years ago. 24 years ago. And i have asked forgiveness from rosita and her mother mary moore because she was a victim as i was you understand. Notwithstanding that, i apologize to this community. I apologize to my wife, my son christopher and they accepted my apology. This country is a country of second, third, fourth and fifth chances. [applause] what i hoped this book would do is inspire someone who is struggling to stand up as much as you can. I hope this book will educate some people as to the truth because dr. King said truth covers ground to rise again. And so i put it in that context. Another context that i go back to his washington d. C. Washington d. C. Is our nations capital. Its our local government where all the foreign embassies are and all the National Government and cabinet agencies, 435 members of the house of representatives and theres an interNational Press here, and National Press here which means there are more eyes on me than any other person in america, and america. I survived that and i have overcome that. Im not letting it get me down. I want to thank the people in washington d. C. Who were beautiful for having the sense to understand and cut through all the bs. And also the major press here. We have a few barry here. Probably half a dozen. Some are here tonight and what the barry haters do they cant find anything good. Theres always good at something, isnt there . One columnist hadnt even read the book. Hadnt even read the book and wrote on the book. That is not right to do. I think in some instances people werent doing it. Anyway back to you. I was really fascinated to read about your education in the field of science and in the book you say that you moved from science towards Community Activism because in teaching students when you were getting your graduate degree the white ones their parents did not want a black teacher to teach them in the black ones were not prepared and it started to upset you that the black community wasnt as welleducated in the segregated schools and you moved into Community Activism. I had four sisters and three of them have passed but i have one living sister in memphis tennessee. She is 10 years younger than me. I talked to her this morning, gloria. When i was in high school i went to a sports oriented high scho school. Booker t. Washington was the champion, statewide champion for black schools and everything, football, basketball, track, everything. I was too small to play footba football, not good enough to play basketball. I went out to the band and after two weeks the bandmaster said we have to go buy you a trumpet. We cant let you keep taking this trumpet home and i didnt have any money to buy a trumpet. My mother had no money. No one had money around me so i dropped out of the band. Then i decided to go into boxing and i was in about 15 fights at 112 pounds. Can you imagine 112 pounds . I move that the banter weight and the last two fights i had this guy hit me so hard i saw stars. I didnt get knocked out but i saw stars. I told the coach, im sorry ive got to go. Im not doing that. He said stick it out. The same thing happened two weeks later. I said coach, im going. Dont try to talk me back. Im glad he didnt succeed in talking me back. I wouldnt be here probably for being hit upside the head so many times. I was also smart academically and i love science at that time. Im trying not to give too many details because you want to read it if i tell you everything. I decided to major in chemistry with a minor in math. I came through an era when people were using the first letter of their name and their middle name like g. Washington cox or kay orlando cole. I didnt have a middle name and we used to do some specialty. Mine was Current Events and i named myself after the russian scientists because he had done some outstanding things in science. One final point on education, i went to kansas for a year. I couldnt stand that kind of lifestyle, drinking beer going to kansas city for entertainment because lawrence was not officially segregated. I went to tennessee and i was there for three years. The only black student in 3000 natural scientists and a black student which meant i made good enough grades stay there for three years. I was doing my dissertation. I was active in the Silver Rights Movement and i could help more people that way so that also was in overcoming, and overcoming, a struggle, tenacity, courage, a big vision. All those things are replete throughout the book. No matter what the situation is quite decided to give back to the community and i have given it to the community, every bit of it. Theres not one person who has lived here or visited here who is not affected directly or indirectly by the leadership of marion barry. [applause] so, lets skip over to several fascinating things and go to, when you won your first election for mayor there is so much that you did that i wasnt aware of. When he first took off as you have the first audit done on city finances and you found the city was 387 million deep in the hole and during your first three consecutive terms in office you balance the budget 11 out of 12 years. Thats something we should learn to do these days. He reduced the deficit by 200 million. You established a relationship with wall street and attained their highest Credit Rating for the city. [applause] you forced landlords to fix up their properties and make them clean and safe. He instituted programs to provide fair and affordable housing, reduce the high paternity rate an infant mortality rate of the story to one city to one of the lowest in the country and expanded the jobs program to more than 20,000 kids and were able to build 70 buildings downtown above pennsylvania creating revenue and jobs. I get the sense from your book that your favorite out of your many accomplishments as mayor is increasing minority hiring for d. C. Government contracts. Could you please tell us about back . Let me also say when i took office in 79 january 2 i was sworn in by Thurgood Marshall the associate justice of the Supreme Court who at one point had worked to get me out of jail with a defense fund. That was a big event for us. Washington d. C. Back in those days and washingtonians maybe dont like me to say this, it was a sleepy southern town, a sleepy southern town. This building was not here. This complex is not here. Only one building, the fbi building and f street in g street and the west and didnt have any major highrise buildings. But look at washington now. Look at it now. It didnt just happen overnight. It took a lot of work, a lot of vision, a lot of tenacity. For instance i pointed herb miller who was a white developer and committed 70 or 80 people. They made recommendations and also i reorganize the permit department and welcomes business in washington. We doubled the number of hotel rooms since i started. I think thats important that we see the big picture because i painted a large picture for her city. Again all this is replete, courage and tenacity and vision and understanding of the community and loving this community and they loved me back. Thats very very important. [applause] in terms of my programs, my most Favorite Program is my summer job program. [applause] because when i grew up i had to sell rags and pop bottles, carry the morning paper, the evening paper. I had to scuffle all during the year and the only thing that saved me was a friend of mine that live down the street, he grew much faster than me and in between my tenth, my 11th, tenth and 11th grade i grew 2. 5 maybe 3 inches. I have nothing to wear. My mother couldnt afford. He gave me all of his clothing, his khaki pants and his suits, his shirts etc. So to him i am eternally grateful but again its about overcoming. Not complaining about what you dont have but working hard to get what you want. So thats another example. But back to the city government. My second, really my first most Important Program was minority business. Thats hispanics, thats blacks, thats women. It was 3 when i came in, 3 . When i left it was 47 . Millions of dollars transferred through the hands of people who had been left out. One example of that was bob johnson with pet. The council awarded with my help bob johnson with d. C. Cable, the franchise, the franchise. He didnt have an operator. Went to tci and hooked up with him but he had a problem where to locate. The National Headquarters for bet. We had land on new york avenue where Washington Beef was supposed to go and some others. I let bob johnson we saw that land for 1 dollar a year. 1 dollar a year. He began here in d. C. He is a multimillionaire, billionaire and look at bet now. Another example not that i pointed to the tax commission. My staff said why are you doing that . Hes too young. Somebody gave you a break and he moved on to be a developer and he is one of the most prosperous developers and the country, white or black. Again it started right here because of my vision. I could name 100 more like that. The final part of this equation is black democrats. There were qualified members of the black middle class who had not been an opera gotten an opportunity to work. They have degrees, they had certificates but the d. C. Government was basically lily white at the top. So we opened the government of and had a residential requirement. Those black families move from here up to here and in fact im very proud of the fact that we built a strong black middle class. Also in the process what happened a number of the black middle class went to prince georges county. I understand it because they were getting these gunshots and all those kinds of things. In fact wade curry his second inauguration asked me to stand. I was his guest and he thanked me before washington and those places. I am proud of that too. We are not going to let these imaginary boundary stop us. If they are suffering over here, they are suffering over here. If there is success over here there is success over here. They are not prince georges county. They are one of the richest population wise majority wise in america. I am proud of that situation. [applause] ybody was pleased withok but not shifting from my communities into the black community and you felt that this played a role and in what happened. By the late 1980s the fbi started to look through your Bank Accounts telephone records credit card bills spending 10 billion a ride in an effort to nail you on something and you even reported there was this hurts rental truck following you around day and night. So why do you think they did this . Well i put in economics. I had a problem with the fbi, we all did that when i first came to washington i had no problem with the fbi. Or Law Enforcement of any kind that when i started the Minority Program and shifted millions and millions and millions of dollars to the Minority Community from 3 to 47 and also it seems strange. The fbi and everybody else welcomed me building a black middle class. I got 47 of the vote from white people. When i got into office i knew it but i have not understood it as well. All the problems, all the social problems. Particularly the low Income Community because the White Community doesnt need job training. They dont need job placement. They dont need an excellent Education System because they sent their kids to an excellent one and paid for it. Some of my barry haters, you wont believe it. I told him its going to be doing them a favor. I tipped him off. You do admit that you arent squeaky clean in the 80s and you admit to alcohol and some drug use and a couple of affai affairs. So you do admit that. It wasnt hard to admit. It was the truth. Im serious, thats the truth. What happened to me during those two years and that one night, i shouldnt have gone up there. I shouldnt have gone to that hotel. I shouldnt have gone upstairs. I shouldnt have done that. Im glad they found this way which was safer than another way. I said earlier i apologize for that. I apologize to the community. In fact, if you talk about christianity im a devout christian. He asked jesus how many times do you forget that he said 70 times 70. I am not perfect. I admit my faults and i admit my mistakes. Unless he do that as we called call it on the streets its just shocking and jibing. I want to find somebody who is perfect. Except jesus. Anybody who is not made a mistake hasnt done a damned thing. Im not trying to justify it. Im explaining it so people can begin to see this in the context of the total picture of marion barry. Im 78 years of age. I thank god for that because the majority of people who graduated with me went to reunions and we would light a candle for any oneweek knew had gone on. It got so bad that the white candles outnumbered those of us and it was too painful for us so we stopped having it. We knew all these people who had gone on and have a lot of interaction in our class. What i also want to do with that, those mistakes, those misjudgments, i want them to be a lesson to other people who are suffering the same kind of thing. Particularly situations. We have millions and millions of americans right now who are suffering from drug addiction. Thousands of d. C. Residents will suffer. In fact only talk to Java Development people they will tell you that one of the Biggest Barriers to employment is that so i want to be an instructor. If marion barry can do it you can do it. If marion barry can stand up you can do it and thats one reason i wrote the books i could put all that in there and help educate and inspire. A lot of black people and a lot of white people too are going through a lot. It may not be drugs or alcohol but its something. Maybe divorce her maybe divorce are kids who dont act right or financial problems. I want to be instructive that you can tackle that problem. Dont ignore it. My pastor reverend wilson is to preach. We would all just be getting out of the storm, were on our way to a storm or were in a storm and the question is how do you get out of the storm . First of all, if you find yourself in a hole, stop diggi digging. But more importantly its better to go above the storm than go through the storm and some of the storm rope soft on you. If you ignore the storm its idiocy and too many people ignore the storm. This book is about helping other people. Help financially, no question about that but its more about giving examples of how one man can overcome so many things. Im just an ordinary person who has done extraordinary things. The reason im taking the time to talk about this in detail and you can read the book, is that the barry haters dont want to tell you the truth. The truth of the story but you all understand that and thank you all so much for understanding where im coming from. And through the grace of god do i sit here and some other people. I just got over an amazing illness, a blood infection. It takes you out. A third of the people who get it dont come back but god blessed me to come back and serve this community. Im still not quite there yet but id rather walk that way than not to walk at all frankly. I give all the glory to god. Why are you talking about all this god stuff . I have been in some difficult times, emotionally and physically and otherwise. Only when i gave it to god did i begin to come back later on. That is why i say that. The naysayers will find some reason to criticize me anyway so i dont mind you criticizing me about god. I think the one thing that really shocked the world was when he ran again for mayor in 1994 and q1. Her slogan was great, he may not be perfect but is perfect for d. C. [applause] so firstly how did you have the nerve to run again at that point and why is it you think they put you back there . Several things. I have been a good mayor. Back when did our poll, only pulled 13 . I told him go back and do it again. An incumbent mayor who hadnt had any major scandals. Came back at 13 and she got 13 in the election. Then we had tom ray who i helped get on the council who supported me in 78, running and there were so many things that werent being done. My Minority Programs have gone downhill to less than 30 , if that much. Its down 20 now and also High School System was still a wreck. I would go to safely and i couldnt get out of there in less than two hours people talking about this and that. My guess had been turned off and all these other things. I knew i couldnt do it from the council so i decided to use my tenacity, my courage and my vision and my resilience to run for mayor. And it was my best campaign. I got 47 of the vote in 1994 because of the people of washington, those who were here saw all the good work that we had done. You judge a person not by the color of the book but whats in the book and what chapters are there. God had given me these visions. Washington is better off because i ran in 94. I won against all odds. Can you imagine . I was in 13 races and i only lost one . I know now around the country is one of the most skillful political persons in the country. [applause] so thats that. Hey where have you been . Wait a minute. Ken cummins is the original from that raggedy paper called the city paper. [laughter] but cann was very creative. He called me macbeth i think and called my wife lady macbeth or Something Like that. Mcnary. He also started man for life and i didnt like it. I didnt want to be dawned that way but the more he would talk to me he would say you are the man forever. Ignore what they say. You are the best we have ever had so that turned me for life. Muriel bowser who i am supporting for mayor who i talked to this morning she said how was the mayor for life . So thank you cann. Thank you. Thank you canon. You write in the book that you have been stopped by the police on several occasions for a dwp. What does that stand for . Driving while black and for driving too slowly. Thats a true story. Im going out on the avenue getting ready to go to the National Park service and i was driving probably 25, 30 miles an hour and i saw the red light he gave me a ticket for driving too slow. As it turned out d. C. Doesnt have such a law for driving too slow but the National Police i have had more trouble with them than anybody in this town. They have left me alone now. They dont pick up these little trivial things on me. Do you feel racism is still alive and well in america despite the fact that we have a black man in the white house . Will we ever get past, will we ever live in a postracial society . What do you think about back . You know, the last chapter of my book talks about where we go from here. I dont say racism but race is a factor in everything that happens in america. Its not the factor but its a factor. Washington d. C. Has become mostly haves and the third havenots. We have a divide that wide. Look at the income gap. Ward 8 is 26,000 a year and ward 3 and i was a person who works hard to get there, 200,000. Compare that, 200,000 over here and 26,000 over here. What it has done, the lowerIncome Community has run people into crime selling drugs and trying to get money. I dont condone that but i understand it. All these things about getting money. We have a video called grand theft auto. Grand theft auto. It had people and people were making money off of that were nonblack people. I went a long ways to talk about that but that bothers me. We have been low income communities, we have a black boy who has never ever in his life, and his young life seen a black man get up and go to work because 82 of the families in ward 8 household. I admire those women but we had one son, christopher who just turned 342 days ago. We had all the amenities. We had connections to get him in a School Called jefferson middle school. We had connections to get them him into Wilson Senior High School where he graduated in 98. And what about those parents that dont have those resources . Dont have those connections, dont have transportation. The basis of all this is very simple. The poverty. Its poverty. Its easy to say theres a poverty line but think about it, none of us decided where we were born and the conditions under which we were born and what color we were born and what nationality we were born. People in poverty in america were born into poverty. There are very few people who got into poverty. They may have lost their job or Something Like that but in terms of poverty, it is massive in america. We have to do all we can to get people to become selfsufficient. I took a longtime dancer that but i wanted you to at least understand what im saying. I have one quick question before them to audience questions and that is you are 78 year now and you have had some Health Issues over the past several years but looking ahead, what do you still want to do and what do you want your legacy to be . Whats the future for marion barry . I have two more years on the council, 216, thats a given. I learned long ago, i learned from boxing to telegraph your punches. One thing i can say is im on the council for two more years. In terms of my legacy there are so many things. I guess if i had to summarize them it would be a person who care deeply about every human being particularly those low income black people, particularly hispanics who do this and those women who undergo a lot of discrimination. The other thing i want to leave as a legacy, be instructive to people that they too can succeed in spite of it all. If they too and overcome if they believe in themselves. Believe an almighty god or whoever you call god and if you have the tenacity and courage and the strong feeling about yourself come up here, man. I want to use this as an example of my legacy. Hi him in 2004 at my Victory Party at ward 8 and after i started talking to her, i found out she had a high school diploma, a ged. She had four boys, raising them by herself. She had refused to go on welfare. She worked two and three jobs and i helped her get into Public Housing because she spent 1000 which was 60 of her income and she went to school, got a high school diploma, got a certificate as a nurses aide about four or five months ago. She passed the licensed Practical Nurse exam. [applause] and she is going to the school of nursing in august to get her r. N. In the fouryear bachelors program. That is what i want to leave you with. Thank you. Thank you so much. [applause] all right this gentlemen up here has a question. In the corner here. If you could speak into the mic please. We have known each other for a number of years. Thank you for coming, when you bought a book or not i thank you. I thank you. I thank you. You almost started preaching there for a moment. You are a preacher. You can take care of that. As the current president of the national businessweek i have looks back on what ted higgins is done for the city and all this because of marion barry so i commend you highly for their work you have done especially for the smallbusiness community. Thats something that would not have happened had not been for you. Of all the mayors we have had, the only mayor in the city that i have made any money from because if you marion and i thank you so much and i commend you for all you have done. Thank you. [applause] mayor if you are the emperor of the United States and you had limitless power what would you do about poverty in america . You know i dont answer those questions. No personal offense. I am not emperor and i never will be emperor. Im not being hostile or anything. Thats just my style. The reason i stay out of difficulty from time to time is answering whatever questions. I would rather you ask my opinion about something about the future but the poverty question, poverty is so evasive. Massive, im sorry. Poverty is so massive in this country. 42 Million People on food stamps both black and white. You have poor white people and places in virginia you have poor white people. Poverty will not be eradicated or reduced until everybody in the country, every legislator, every governor, every mayor, every everybody gets involved. Now we are going to make a dent here because we are going to be working hard and getting people temporary assistance for needy families and get them some jobs. But thats just a little dance. I appreciate the question but poverty is so massive. Somebody was quoting something the other day. Jim graham told me. He said helen keller said those who are welloff have an understanding, have a hard time understanding those persons who are not well off. This is a societal problem. Thank you very much. This gentleman over here. Mayor. One of this things that strikes me about what youve been doing is economic growth. If you look at economics, during the civil Rights Movement it didnt seem like i was a major focus and it was something that was more economic inequality in america and less black businesses now than in the 1880s. Now we have the new Silicon Valley and microsoft. Washington d. C. Is a leader in growth and despite everyone else taking the credit. Why is this not in the forefront in the civil rights or africanamerican leadership . New jobs are lowpaying jobs in private equity jobs in the good jobs in america are still being denied to those who serve their country who are educated and i think this is something that is has been on told story of washington d. C. In america. Well unfortunately when youre are oppressed like many people are oppressed your priorities are to survive. Growing up in a segregated society your Human Dignity is at stake and so if you notice the march was jobs and voting rights. The right to vote in this country is being eroded now that there are a number of us who have been working on the Economic Development situation. The last chapter of my book talks about civil rights. Something we ought to look at. Let me apologize to the young lady. My biological clock does not work right. In fact when i was in college i refused and an 8 00 class. I took a 9 00 class. We just got back from new york and had a great time in new yo york, a lot of shows including al sharpton show. They taped it a short sometime later and the train was late so i apologize deeply for that. We have a question over there. This is harold hunter. Hey herald how are you doing . Im doing pretty well. I want to congratulate you on your book and i wanted to also make sure that everyone knows that you helped to pioneer the free d. C. Movement in terms of what many to do. We have enough population and revenue and definitely we have a sense of urgency. What is your opinion about the free d. C. Movement . Well it happened in 1966, 67 because the board of trade had gone on record opposing the home rule. I think it must continue. We need statehood and statehood now. We are going to call on you and others to assist us in dealing with stated. Can you imagine, this budget is 11 billion. 7 billion of it comes from you all local taxpayers and the other comes from the state and the federal government. Yet we go hat in hand, we dont go hat in hand, we have to go through the congress for permission to spend their own money. They go around the country, around the world like joyce brooks and everybody else trying to bring democracy and an iraqi so whats happening there in afghanistan. You talk about democracy around the world, come right back here to your home and the white hou house. We dont have statehood here . Theres something wrong with that picture. Theres something wrong with that picture. [applause] s. You and he will be next. My name is evangelist mary clement. I want to thank you so kindly marion barry for your excellent leadership skills and vision and courage and tenacity. I want to ask you during the civil rights time were you ever injured at all while marching . Were you ever heard . Did someone hit you or with water or any of those things . I was spat upon and i was pushed at the lunch counter in those kinds of things. I was blessed not to have been shot like fannie goodman. In fact we celebrate a big anniversary in mississippi this weekend and i cant go because i have to stay here to work on this book. I was shocked in march of 1977. They took over bnai brith and islamic center. I got hit right in the chest and god was there. The bullet probably ricocheted. You can read more about in the book. [laughter] s. This back here has been waiting. Hello marjorie. How are you doing . Congratulations on the book. I would like to answer his legacy question for him. I have an idea. I think one of the colleges and astound howard udc georgetown or George Washington or maybe all of them should share a seat for marion barry and it should be about teaching kids in this town Political Science and how to run for office because you are the greatest campaigner. I dont think theres anybody in this room that didnt work at night and i can imagine one of the school should not do this. So im putting it out there. You can put it on the news. I think this is what should happen. Thank you marjorie. [applause] some people are talking about that. Hello marion barry. My name is donna wood and im a secondary washingtonian. When i read information about being here i was just like him i had to be here. Its important to me because i want to let you know you had a great impact on my life. Mainly some of the things i didnt hear about are about the defense of the demonstration project you had to put students in washington d. C. You let them know that kids in d. C. Want to go to college and i was the recipient of that. For my being a recipient of that i got paid and got through one of your programs and i graduated from howard university. [applause] i work for the d. C. Department of recreation. Every student in the top 10 . Were going to bring some of that back. We have term for one more question. He started to nine sing one of the reasons you wrote the book, question springs from that what you think is the biggest misconception that people have . The biggest misconception is that most of my life is taken up with junk and scandals and alleged corruption. Most of the no because i even in d. C. 152nd sound bite. And nationally the United States government. Beset that tape to every ambassador in the world cannot to every president of every country in the world, sent it to the other propaganda arm of the u. S. Government. It ran on television. But this so many have contributed to it, too. And that is all part of it. I am not fazed by it. Washington d. C. , as long as it gives them some hope that some help. I dont care. [applause] i dont care. The wanted thank you so much for coming here tonight. I also wanted to give you this is actually a very precious object. I dont know if you have gotten one of these before, the National Press club coffee mug
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