Cspan, created by americas Cable Television companies and brought to you as a Public Service by your cable or satellite provider. [inaudible conversations] okay. Good afternoon. On Bradley Graham, coowner ofcs politics and prose along with my wife, and our behalf of everybody here at the gaithersburg book festival, thank you so much for coming. This is of course the seventh annual festival here in gaithersburg. This is the fifth Consecutive Year the politics and prose has been your as the official bookseller. We really want to commend the gaithersburg staff and all of festival sponsors and volunteers for working so hard, especiallyy hard this year given the weather to make today possible. And thank you all really for coming out. You are all a very hardy bunch. A few quick administrative notes. Qu that would be a good time to turn off your cell phones or anything else that might go beep. Second, if you are tweeting today, please use hashtag gdf come and third would really wan your feedback. So please at the end fill out a survey. They are available at the back of the tent. Or on the gbf website. And if you complete a survey, you have a chance, a chance to win 100 visa gift card. Finally, Juan Williams will be signing books after this presentation. There is a signing line on the other end here of the festival grounds. And copies of his book we the people are on sale in the politics and prose tent which is just out here over there. Now, a quick word about buying books, even though this is a free event, theres no charge for the festival, it does helpfe the book festival if you do buy a book. The more books you purchase at todays festival, the more publishers will want to send their officer to speak in the future, and the authors themselves will want to speak. Plus, purchasing books from politics and prose or other local bookstores benefits the local economy and supports local jobs. Were very delighted to have juan with us today. Im sure he is familiar to many of you since hes been part of the journalistic establishment of this town for several decades now. Ped fo juan and i overlapped for a number of years that a Washington Post, previousin incarnation. Before i became a bookseller i was a journalist at the Washington Post. And juan worked there for 23 years as a National Correspondent and medical columnist. He then spent over 10 years with npr before leaving and concentrating on ox news where he now frequently appears on various shows fox news sharing his perspective on many issues of the day. In his new book we the people, juan has a compelling premise. It makes a point at the outset that because of the United States has changed much since its birth, they should have another more modern set of leading historical figures to inspire and to serve as examples. Much in the way the original Founding Fathers have done for previous generations and still do to some extent. So juan offers his list of moret than two dozen, 20th century ace visionaries and model achievers provide each of them and describing how, in their ownn significant ways, theyve helped reshape america. And hes about to tell you exactly may discount. L be i juan will be in conversation with Craig Shirley was also an author and has written, among other works, several books on Ronald Reagan. So please join me in welcoming Juan Williams and Craig Shirley. [applause] juan, thank you for being here today. Oi i think were going to takee questions an audience at some point. I always like to start at the beginning. Tell us about yourself, where you were born, went to college, high school, the sport you played. Spink thanks, craig and the thank you all for coming out on a rainy day. Its a pleasure to be here. One of the great pleasures i think about being an author is learning things. E the writing process, getting involved with new information and then being able to share that information. But, of course, you needraig somebody, whether it is great or all of you to share with, to get into conversation with, and part of the joint of a book festival is learning what people think about what youve written answer taking you to a new height in terms of your own capacity topa experience life and the written word. So thank you all for being here. In answer to your question, i am 62. Ea i had a birthday april 10. The book was published april 5 so it was kind of a Birthday Gift. To yourself spent exactlyachd right. But i hope each and every one of you because, craig was told me earlier, tell them the three principles of being an author speak theres no such thing as writers block. You have to become the book and then get yourself to devise yourself that the entire world is waiting for your book last night. On the third principle i think its a Birthday Gift to all of you as well. [laughter] so i was born in animal in 1954. And then my mom got three kids to brooklyn when i was just four years old. I went to Public School in brooklyn, new york, and i won a scholarship to a quicker prep school in poughkeepsie. Or that i want another scholarship when i went to college at harvard haverford college. J i was editor of my Junior High School paper, my high school paper. Er after my freshman year at haverford from which work at the philadelphia evening bulletin. But i dont think theres an evening paper in america but they are all gone. I really begin adding thepaper newspaper, and went from there. I got a dow jones, dow jones used to own the wall street own journal. They had a Newspaper Fund internship for young people and they went to work for the Providence Journal one summer. Went back to the bulletin. Very much want to stay in t philadelphia and be a journalist for any bulletin but this was the era of woodward andbe bernstein and they were not hiring young journalist. They wanted people in midcareer who are experienced and b dedicated everybody my age want to be a journalist at that point. Im not sure they want to be woodward and bernstein but they want to be more like hoffman, the guys in the movie. Jo i really want to be a journalist. I love journalism. Its a passion for me. Anyway, i couldnt get a job as eating both an icon in the internship. One was at the Philadelphia Inquirer which still exists and is a great newspaper and other was at the Washington Post. Sh i thought if its an internship im going to a job in three was complete i will take the Washington Post because it was a hot newspaper at that time. So i stayed there, has proudly said. D not only did i meet a bradley but i met carla cohen who ran politics and prose for a long time. One of the people i met during the reagan years was this gentleman, Craig Shirley. Twentythree years at the poster sorry it didnt work out. How many books have you written . It depends, if you count things like there are books, a book about black farmers and i i wrote the preface to it which i lengthy. The heart and soul, the reason anyone in this audience wouldul buy the book, these incredible pictures of black farmers through the south. But other than that i think it is a books spend what are you working on now speak was i just finished this. I am perpetually working on nenew books. Are you the same way . No. I think i need to sort of killed also one more time and find my direction. It is for me such, you talked about your three principles. Es but i think the thing that strikes me is that people say that for a band the closest thing we can come to childbirth is writing a book. I think thats true for me. It takes my body and brain a while to say weve gottenoh through it. Because books consume me. I work in newspapers or magazines, tv, radio. They are very immediate platforms but they are ephemeral to some extent or do you know the joke about, you say to your dad or your mom, i had an article in the newspaper today. Did you see mr. They say, yes, there will line the bird cage the next day. Then you say i had a piece inay the magazine. They said it will be out of the Doctors Office in a month. But if you buy the book it hasif lasting value. Know . Its always amazing to me that you go in a library and theres a book youve written. I always think what kind of labor does this it would have a book by me . That to me is the lasting thing. When i do a book it consumes me just as you said. I wake up and think why im not working on the book with i go to sleep and think i do another hour . Its me. How long did it take you to write a non . We the people took five t years but the idea has been in my mind for more than five years. You talk about where books star trek im not sure i can tell you when the gate opens. I know exactly what yourew h talking about. At i know that was terminated in my time bashing mmi fund long time. Because baptism time. Because practice on the us to infer in the art and it goes back to the 2008 campaign. An right around the time i was looking at changes going on in American Society for npr for a series called changing face of america and looking at huge points of difference that have been at the start of the century, if you will. 21st century. That were defining American Life. Everything, things like people going from no gambling, no legal gambling canal gambling being everywhere. Thats a huge change. In my lifetime, things like people not smoking, people smokg everywhere to not being able to smoke everywhere. You use to smoke in movie theaters. Ballgame. At nlf it event. To people were smoking up a storm. Also what occurred in the midst of the 08 campaign was how radically things have changed. With president obama elected and thinking look at this coalition and the the idea of an africanamerican as president ,t, this is pretty incredible. Magazines with headlines not in my lifetime. Getting would think Something Like that could happen . I knew there was a radical amount of change and that i didnt go into this book. Whats your favorite part of the book . There are two things. One is, the book is been out for a month now, and one thing that surprises me is number of people come up to me and say bill bratton speaks i was going to ask you about bill bratton. Ronald reagan and Eleanor Roosevelt. How can a policeman be part of a new founders of america in the 21st century . We will come to it. But the second thing is that people ask a version of the question just asked, which is what your favorite thing . I say to people, to me the biggest change thats taken place in American Life has to do with american women. I dont think people appreciaten it. I think i didnt appreciate it. If you about i will tell you a quick story. The quick story is this, that when i was doing the npr series i mentioned earlier, i was very intrigued by the 2010 census that said, guess what . Right now we are a nation more than 300 million people, but a quarter, a quarter of those are under the age of 18. Under 18. I had no idea where such a young nation. Under 18. People like craig, me, we have kids, but 18 came to the tail end of the baby boom are right in thehe middle of the baby boom spent by people under 18 dont vote. People at 18 dont have money to get a politician. People under 18 typical are not involved in political organizing say theyre not the people ofon color on the like im callingal craig when he was in the reagan administration. Thats just other people and touch with. When we were 18 we could devote. Thats correct. I thought i would go and talk to people who are under 18 and get a better sense of this veryge, r large, larger cohort than the baby boomers. Thats a big under 18 population is in the country. I was out of high school in minnesota right in the middle of the country and not trying to figure out in talking decent people whats on their minds politically, socially. Given the huge demographic shift taking place in the country, higher number of out of africanamericans that hispanics now, the second largest racial group in the country, and inlart minnesota you have some always come that whole somalia issue with the Terror Threat and alla the rest, all that going on. I thought you are going to clicks in the hallway and the classrooms, everybody is going to be separate. Minneapolis historically been very homogenous, whitete community. So i go there and to my surprise, its not racially or ethnically separate. People are very much a mixed, and the younger people play together, they become everything, eat together. In a cavity. You know how to talk to separate tables . Not really. Y. You do have separation in terms of here are the costs and the athletes, the jocks and here are the really smart kids. Is always been that way. What i thought the racially because we have high levels of racial segregation in american Public Schools, i thought at the school you will see it but no, into school it wasnt true. I started talking to the kids and got zero because they dont read the newspapers. Didnt listen to indie are. They dont watch fox news. They are just not plugged into news the way those of us in this audience our plugin. O so i said we women who haveom children who edited, chipped onto the school, her children attended the school. She is now working at accounts or. , i said whats the big difference in this school from when you attended back in the 70s tothis today . She said, trying one, it should be so obvious to you. Asked to meet with the very best students. What did you notice . I dont know. What do you think what she said hold on. You asked to meet with the top people involved with syrian government. Didnt jump out at you at that point . And im like, what are you talking about . She said wait, you asked to meet with the students who are getting scholarships to go play sports Government Official sport of the best schools in america. Spent president s of all the clubs. Ng corrected what did you notice . I am like, oh, boy. She said it should have been obvious to you that when you met with a student who have the highest sat scores, eight out of 10 of them were young women. Initiative and obvious when you met with a student editor and people leaving syrian government, seven out of 10 young women, and how could you not notice when you met with the best athlete that after title ix, five and 10 were young women ask and i was like wow, its raining. So now you forget there are i raindrops involved. Ou you dont see the pattern. Shes right. Young women are so strong, so influential, so much the achievers in modern society. Wait a minute, its not just young women. You stop and think its the case in the last few years america passed the Tipping Point where half the workforce is made up of women. We are now in the case what they gets 87 women in the congress, 20 of the senate. We are three women on the Supreme Court. The attorney general a woman. T. Women in the military spent in combat. Media, reporters. Meghan kelly is the star of stars but stop and think about whats going on spent all the networks and cable spent even in college, the majority of students in college today, young women. The majority of people in professional and graduate schools, young women. So in we the people i talk about how my wife has a graduate degree, masters degree. Her mother had a masters degree. My sister is a lawyer. My daughter is a lawyer. My sisterinlaw ran part of obamas campaign here in maryland. My niece is a doctor. Next weekend my son gets married he is marrying a doctor. The women in my life, the Founding Fathers would have no idea. Th remember, no women signed the declaration of independence. No women at the Constitutional Convention. Women could not own property. Women could not vote. So if the Founding Fathers came back to life, they would beo li like, what is going on . How did these women take control . Its a different world. But there are consequences. This just didnt happen organically. This happened because of cited recognized that women have been historically discriminatedcr against so needed to beaddresse addressed. There was an effort to done to push women forward. F have w reached the point where e need to say wait a minute, we dont need these, its all happening naturally . Theres one consequence i think of, i know a lot of, we know a lot of women who are in the 30s and 40s and unmarried. Invariably they say there are no good been. Is it because we are not manufacturing good men . Are only manufacturing goodwo women . Men . What was about . Ter] we are still there. Thats one. [laughter] that was a statement from bie sexy. [laughter]in all in all seriousness, as a black guy, i think this issue is very large in minority communities where you seeere yo minority women outperform a minority men. Er its even more distinct than whats going on in the white community. So your question about whats going on with the boys is a very series question to my mind. I do think that its a change in the economy. Its part of it. They just because you had at there are structural differences in society spent thats what im saying. Also in the attitude, the culture. You asked to stop helping themys along the athlete is quick, funny story. I was once talking to the head of the university. As i pointed out to you, women of the majority of undergraduate students right now in america. And i was saying to him, well, you know, why is that what he was saying we are making every effort with the young men. In essence he was saying we have affirmative action to bringg young men to campus. And i was like, why bother . If you have Better Qualified young women why dont you just take them . Ed and he said you have to understand, girls like boys. [laughter] so that what boys on campus. T when i thought about this, i thought, what an insultingemen. Statement. You ha you have the boys on campus to attract the girls. Ths,