i must tell you we have had sir and this is going to be another special session. i'm delighted to be here at the history and biography stage. have to admit that i'm a pretty history geek and personally this is meaning so much to me. first i want to sing and i'm not a singer but i have to sing for helene cooper as a reporter. join "the new york times" in 2004 as an assistant editorol page editor and has been a diplomatics comedy for the time as well as a white house correspondent and now the pentagon reporter for the paper, and in 2015, she was part of the team that won the pulitzer prize for international reporting, specifically for her work in liberia during the ebola epidemic and that same-year-old she received the prestigious george polk award and the overseas press club award. prior to joining the "times" she spent 12 years with "the wall street journal," where she was an assistant bureau he could of the journal's washington bureau. and i know that many of you are fans like i am of seeing her on sunday mornings, giving insightful, thoughtful, words for us all to think about. now, long before her life working high profile jobs in the country's top papers she experienced first hand what it means to be swept up in the larger forces that make front page news. her best selling memoir, the house that sugar beach, in search of a lost african childhood, published -- [applause] >> published in 2008, poignantly describes a world upended. the book begins with cooper's happy, secure upbringing a part of, quote, what passed for the landed gentry upper class of africa's first independent country. the overthrow of the liberian government in the 1980s, brought chaos, violence and tragedy to her own family, who were forced to plea to america. and move with unsparing prose she recounts the past and her ultimate return to liberia more than two decades after a near death experience in iraq. her newest book, madam president, the extraordinary journey of ellen johnson sirleaf extended her work to biography who becamed the leader thereof women's movement and the first democratic include elected female president in african history, and in 2011, you can give a hand for that. and in 201 received the nobel peace prize. we're all thankful that miss cooper has returned to her birth place to write this book, and her book is impressive for both the detail and insight in providing something that we can all look to. he is reserved in her personal life and presidency is examined in this book. we are all thankful that miss cooper is extending her writing career to biography and history and we look so forward to having her talk and be with us today. at the close of her talk you'll have a chance to ask her questions at microphone you see set up on the aisle. you should know that this is being live streamed and you are on camera and you will be archived at the library of congress. so, make these questions good. so, please, join me in giving a warm welcome to miss helene cooper. [applause] >> hello. thank you for the introduction, i woke up this american to rain and i thought nobody would come so i'm happy to see you managed to make it. youer like myself, book lovers. for me, this book began 12 years ago while i was on a reporting trip in eastern congo. i didn't know it at the time next realized in the moment when significant things are happening, at least i don't. i'd been on assignment for "the new york times" in eastern congo as part of a series of stories i was writing about development in africa. i went to ghana, to ethiopia, to kenya, and i remembered at each place i kept thinking despite the poverty and challenges none of them seemed as bad off as my own home country of liberia which just came out of two decade of civil war, until i got to the congo. oh, finally, now i'm home; i thought, is a crawled out of the small single engine plane. after the semi desert of ethiopia and the savannahs of kenya. conga was other worldly wash. just like my home country of like beera. leaf good green mountains, the same landscape in liberia and the same sense of abandonment that comes from having a population ravaged by years of opinion i pointless lazy. hundreds of boys trolled the streets where nowhere to go. downtown building were marked with holes from rockets and grenade. the only car's are the white u.n. suv vans. what struck my most in bukabu were the women. as i drove into the city, i passed women i had known all my life they were old will with huge bundle offed bamboo sticks on the back. market women in colorful dresses, huddled at the side of the remarked selling oranges, eggs, not -- they were young girls sitting in from of huts, bathing their little brothers and sisters in rubber buckets. no electricity was anywhere around. but one ten-year-old girl dragged a bucket of dirty creek water up the hill to her husband so-so she could wash her four-year-old sister. this their women i had green up with in liberia. the women all across africa, the worst place there is to be a woman, who somehow managed to carry that entire continent on their back. i remember one woman in particular who stood out to me in bukabu. it was twilight and she was trudging up the hill. her husband was walking in front of her and carried nothing. nothing on his back, nothing in his hands, nothing. he kept turning around and telling her to hurry up. that image has stayed with me for 12 years. other a few months after my trip is i was back in the united states when the women of liberia, my home country, staged an incredible power play. defying centuries of history in the most patriarchal of places they went to polls and statemented a democratic coup. upsending years of male rule and voted for ellen johnson sirleaf to be president of africa. the first democratically elected woman in africa. knew instant ily i wanted to write about this. the book loafed at the what happened. a book at ellen johnson sirleaf and what it took 0 upend the years of mail rule in liberia. also a book about what drive the women who put her in power. and it is a book that looks at how they did it, how these women got so fed up with being exploited and raped and assaulted, that they decided the only way forward was to turn the tables on the men any way they could in 1985, a young ellen johnson sirleaf was thrown into jail by samuel dole, then the president of liberia. she was put in a shell next to men who were sevens ted sentenced to die. her sat in the cell, her lips moving violently as the prayed, wondering if the soldiers would rape her before they killed her. hours passed. he soldiers drank and became even rowdier. then just past midnight, one soldier walked tough her cell, stood at the bars and stared at her. several minutes passed in silence. then the said, i'm going to fuck you. he openedded the cell deer and she rows to her feet, he heart pounding, bust just that's soldier was entered her cell, voice behind him said, as you were. the soldier dropped his hands. retreat, said the voice. the soldier closed the cell doan door, locked and it moved away. her savior stepped forward into the light. he was slightly older than the others in his mid-20s, with beautiful dark skin and a serious face. looking at him, ellen wanted to cry. he asked her, she replied. say something. he said,. >> her rescuer stared at for and finally said, okay, i will stay here tonight. nobody will come. on that night ellen johnson sirleaf was not raped. but someone else was. a young girl who also had been captured and brought to the jail was gang-rained by soldiered in early hours of the morning as ellen huddled in her cell. whether ellen would be raped took part as well she would never know. after brutalizing the girl the soldiers brought her naked and crying hysterically into ellens cell she was 19 or 20 she was bleed something and her eyes were wild with fear. jumping up, ellen put her averages around her lowered her to floor. in corn theirte rocked back and forth, clutching each other. slowly the girl residents cry softened. her naked body started to tremble. leaving her new cell mate for a moment, ellen went occupy the bars. there were a few soldiers milling around alongside the one who rescued her. she spoke, her voice shaking. this soldiers looked at her. she tried again. still nothing. i beg you, at least bring some something for the child to wear remember finally a man left and came back with a piece closet and el lend helped the girl cover herself. for the roast of the night they huddled. did not sleep, just sat and rocked back and forth until dawn when the soldiers came for ellen. as she walked to jeep, ellen look at her young cell mate-the two women spent less than 12 hours together. one was now going to face the man she was certain would be her executioner, the other was staying with the men who were certain to rape her again. the jeep pulled away and ellen town to stare bark the young girl. she would never see her again but in many ways that young girl would change the court of history in west africa. the girl would become another stick of fuel in the fire of the women's movement in liberia. little girls don't come out they ever woman viewing to become activist for female power. don't spend their childhood publicking how to repair the dignity, large and small, that bleed women daily. it's a series of things that multiply and turn ordinary women into moms of female determination. you're living your life, sweeping floors in a drug store in monday disson, wisconsin whenopen husband storms in to yell in at you in front of your bowls lady. you're stunned by the violent shock of a hand slapping your facer delivered by the machine whom whoridge hissed love oh, you. you feel the warm wet skin of a brutalized naked historical young woman as as she crouches in corner, bleeding, a being savaged by the men who swore an oath to protect liberia and her people. i wanted to be a school teacher like my hour, ellen said, looking back 30 years later. describing that night at the barrack to me she would use the mental sleight of hand that its common mon survivors of horror. she would rely event with no emotion. the joy ride on the beach which the solder told her would be her execution sight. the useless pleas from condemn men she offend a way to en them be spared. the overwhelming terror of men who know they're about to die. the overwhelming terror of knowing you're about to be raped. the gut clutching anger of holding a young woman after she has been raped by soldier after soldier after soldier after soldier. that's what i wanted to do when i was young, ellen said. to teach. the young ellen, the may have started off wanting to teach but this was not a woman who is disstenned for the granular. her is a different destiny, one launched in a jeep by a young girl who had been her cellmate. the president didn't real it but in locking her up in jail, he created both an international cause célèbre and ignited the women's move in liberia. all across liberia young women were rift evidence by the story of the jailed female political dissident who is standing up to the men running the country. eventually, after a year and under pressure from women's groups in the international community, he released ellen. but he created a monster. the stage was now set for the revolution that would overturn gender politics in west africa. but the men still had one more act to play and it was a doozie. i could stand up here for hours going on about what charles taylor did to liberia but that needs to be the subject of his own book. the tribal war he started, the child soldiers this hundreds of thousands of people killed. the wars he launched in sierra leon and the ivory coast. he kidnapped children from terrified mothers, his forces win on a raping and killing spree that spared almost no one. once again, as they had so many times before, it was the liberian women that carried the country. while the men were waging war, the women in liberia all became market women, traveling by foot to the border to get food to bring back to starving population. they had the babies of their rapists in the forests, strapped those babies thousand backs and went back into their market stalls, or sat on the side of the road selling oranges. and they bided their time. when the war finally ended, they made their power play. in 2005, 12 years before the nation became a secret facebook group and i'm with her buttons and bumper stickers proud sprouted on lapels and suvs here in america their women of liberia held a matter class in how to get a female elected president. [applause] they had a perfect vehicle for this guerrilla campaign. ellen johnson sirleaf, woman who was supremely qualified, who by for a outqualified the men who were running but also had no qualms whatsoever at playing dirty politics. and fighting any dirt the men would fling with smellier dirt. the election came down to a choice between the 67-year-old harvard educated global bureaucrat and the professional football player. george was a world renowned football player, star in europe where he was a striker for the italian team, ac milan, in 1995, he won the -- named fifa world player of the year and african player of the century. two goal inside particular stood up. one was against bayern in 1994 when he embarred three bayern defenders with his quick've pivots. the other goal, known around the world as the goal, was in 1996 when we had destroyed the veronica midfield as the single handed flaunted down the pitch, twisting, turning, bucking and weaving to the verona goal in a legendary performance that liberians who watched itself using their makeshift tiger baitry because there no electricity, still talked about it a decade later. george had no college education didn't bother it it in youthful supporters who counter the goal shot its own education. at other end of the spectrum was ellen johnson sirleaf. finance minister under former presidents, dissident, united nations, world bark, imf ped de, allied, she morph from an abused wife, power and hunched in front seat of heir husband's car while he beat her to an intern national bureaucrat and iconic political dissent who was attempting to do something no woman had ever done before, win by popular vote the right to lead an african country. the men all fell in lined behind george and then complained the women supporting ellen were sexist. it was a remarkable display. given the choice between a football player with no credible college education, but two fantastic goals against bayern and verona, and a hard vatter educate development expert, the top male presidential candidates who fell short in the runoff with one exception, ebb doored the football player. we have mean while honing his message for why he and not the old lady should run liberia, set on an educated failed was his theme. and that theme was endorsed by the failed male presidential candidates who endorsed him. liberia had one of the lowe's literaciy rates in the world so an illiterate population would identify with a president who dropped out of schooling are right? wrong. what the men who endorsed that strategy failed to realize is how much the very idea was angering the market women. those women may not have been educate themselves but they worked day and night in the fields and in the markets stalls to send their children to school. now the men were telling them that education wasn't important? just as the men fell in behind gorge, the women fill in behind ellen. it didn't happen all at once. female political candidates had appeared all over the ballot in elects running for senate and the house, on the same ticket as gorge and tubman and other male candidate. once the time came for campaigning for the oneover, those allegiances field away as even the women who were stan members of parties halt othosed ellen lazy unity party aan been donned their men and took up the in the mantra, vote for a woman. door-to-door the market women passed out t-shirts and handed out fliers. they slept on the side of the road at night on their mats. walking from village to village, exhorting women to vote for a woman. we has supporters responded by predict that it if he lost the country would go back to war. no george no peace they chaned. thus huh runoff start resembling past rae lexes like the onen in 1958 in which dough supporters signatured the same thing. vote for dough or the country goes back to war. in liberia this tactic was how men managed to get their way. they simply threatened the people. except that in november 2005, they appeared to have met their match. because the women had their own tricks. tricks that would make george's tactics look like boys play. you want -- give me a voter i.d. card. will buy you beer i. say we buy what i have d. with ten liberty dollars for one. we looking for money. bring your voter i.d. card. this group of women were stationed at a bar near a major interject in mon recovery ya. the women set to work luring the young men in a time honored fashion. except this time it wasn't sex on the table. this time the women were the ones with the cash and the young men were the ones with the commodity for sale. some of those boys were finish stupid, one market woman recalled with a smirk. she went into detail what about she called the women's crafty techniques women were crafty, she said. one silver tooth glinting in the sunshine as she laughed. many of the young men that it thaw were done with voting after the first round and didn't understand that they would need their i.d. carded if their man was to assume they presidency. others knew and didn't care. late in the evening of a muggy hot day, the lure of a crispy cold and multiclub beer far outshown benefit thieves vote ird. card. as for the wins who were too smart to sell voter cards, well, their mothers simply stole them. they stood at tearing their i.d. cards, looking sheepish and defiant at the same time. one market woman who agreed to be referred to as the oma said she number into their son's room while he was slipping, slipped this voter d. card out of his wallet and buried it in the lard. years later there was no shame among the women who stole their son's i.d. cart. yeah, took it so what? she said. that foolish and what he knew. cared him for nine months, tike care of him, fed him. they take the country give it away? [applause] >> after bear -- the women dug up an old video of a naked george. somehow a 14-year-old commercial for colon we had made in italy just happened to surface the liberian media. in the commercial gorgeous at the time a world famous striker with the football team ac milan, walked into a restaurant to greet his white dinner date. after dousing himself in cologne. he is fully clothed at the beginning but when he -- the woman sees him from across the room, she i is so overcombat he imagines him naked. the commercial then cuts to a naked george, strolling across the restaurant, while other white women in the restaurant drool and fan themselves. finally george arrive ted table, leans over its towards his date and smiles. when he sits down, he is clothed again, and he says, suavely, to get an idea of how this commercial played in liberia, you have to understand that this country's bible spouting puritanism and its deep racial scars. men man of the freed american slaves who founded liberia where are the micked wave children of white slave owners who set up the same kind of society from which hey had fled, except this time the lighter scene colonialist were the upper class, lording over the native liberians so matter offered race struck deep into the heart of the average liberian. that is why for many liberian it was bad enough that george wasspread strutting around nick it on italian tv but in front of white women? that was too much. he walked buck naked, scream the headline in the new dem crated newspaper which provided a hillaryous synopsis of the commercial. the video scene portrays white women in looks of sexual awe and ecstasy, glancing at the black man win with athletic build and musk which are features exposing this genitals, flipping and walking before them. we trade george's supporters trying to brazen their way out. we committed n crime, one party official hopefully told report. only constitutional deviants should not be elected but the body politic but u dusted off their holier than thou cloaks, adopting the sentence structure at which liberian men were department, joshan done dan told reported, if the congress for democratic change through its vocal -- can justify george's buck naked video on the international information super highway on some constitutional right then liberians must be prepared god fish bid under ac rule to give audience to the legality and normalness of murder and even cannibalism. the truth is, this cloak of religious indignation covered up what liberians over both sexes were mad about. that george was flash his ed, well chiseled body in front of white women. liberian women so saw it a rejection of black women. liberian men were jealous, either with a it was loser issue for georgeing a ellen supporters knew it would be. on tuesday, november 8 the people of liberia woke upwent to the polls for the second time in four weeks. there was a real and palpable sense in the air that something big was happening. helpful follow work were allowing pregnant women and nursing mothers to cut to to the front of the line so bernice, louise and other women were passing around babies and toddlers. you want baby, bernice was grinning at one woman, sneaking a furtive look over her shoulder? but a baby on your back. to another woman he advised, act pregnant. if they think you pregnant you can vote in front. it was unclear whether the poll workers noticessed how many different women were carrying the same baby. that night a bunch of women were listening to the election news when an informant came in with an update. the official results weren't in yet. some polls were still open. the final tally wouldn't be known for weeks but already there was a whisper in the air from ellen's spies as different polling places. people weren't supposed to expose voting trends for fear of swaying those who hadn't cast their votes yet but all across the country ellen's army of women were finding ways to skirt the regulation is. sloan, the work around came by reverting to an ol' nursery school chant. used to teach them the alphabet. every liberian kid knows the chanted. on runover night the chant took on a new meaning, hanging outside a polling booth she asked an inflame how the vote was going, the voting officials in attendance then grin, he sang, then he added, up up. unity party up. started can'ting and singing, up up. up up. when elected official glared at her she sassed them you can't stop me singing. went to bat that nighted sing. the old lady was in the lied. on wednesday morning el help woke up and walked into their living room to find it full of campaign aides excitinged about the preliminary rushes. she wasn't just in the lead. she was in lead by a lot. 60% of 40%. it was a lead she nerve gave up during the dies counting that followed. the old lady would be madam president. as the 25 years of carnage that was descent into hell emerged a gnaw leader and that person was a 67-year-old grandma. on november 23, everybody the officials results were announced ellen was head can back to her house juggling phone calls from all over the world. in the back seat of her suv her american friends turned to her grinning, the white house just called. he said. president bush warrants to talk to you. he recite read very secure encrypted phone number, call that number. a minute later, legal ellen was on then with he american president, accept his congratulations. then the phone went dead. liberia in 2005 had no land lines, thanks to the war so everyone used cell phones. they paid for the service from lone star cell company by purchasing scratch cards from boy's the side of the road. this president-elect of liberia ran out of credit on her scratch card. turning to cash, she smirk, this is a very presidential at all, is it? when word spread about ellen's victory the markets of monrovia emptied at the women who minded the stalls at rally time and nancy ran jubilant 0 into the streets. go to school, go to school. some of them yelled. don't play football. i still think about that woman i saw in bukab new the congo all those years ago. the one walking with her husband carrying the logs on her back. in so many ways i guess this book is for her. thank you. [applause] >> i'm happy to answer questions. [applause] >> thank you for your wonderful presentation. was expecting a lot but wasn't expect nudity so that as great. >> you need to google the video. >> i'm anamed now. >> i spent hundreds of time odd research hours watching it. >> research. i like research a lot. any question is actually there's a big part of johnson sirleaf's story to give her education and i met her ten years ago just as she was elected, very briefly. she wouldn't remember in me ande talked about how she want to do a lot around education. ten years later, progress has not been as fast as expected last year she made a controversial decision to bring in a public for profit education company. bridge academies. a collective gasp of education advocates and public education, i wonder dish understand she has a lot of competing priorities and she would be committed to that. do you have any insight why maybe an n a broader spectrum what she is up against in terms of bringing education to all for the kids of liberia. >> education is a huge deal and for the entirety of her presidency, test scores in liberia stayed the toilet. part of big part of that because of the civil war. for almost two decade everything stopped. nobody went to school. you don't have -- don't eve have teacher ins liberia today who are able -- not just a matter of building schools. you have to have people who know how to spread write to teach stunts. it's such a big challenge, a huge uphill battle. her decision to bring in bridge is definitely controversial but it is not as if the education system in liberia could get any worse than it already has been. it's been pretty bad. so i'm very curious to see how bridge does. i'm sort of a skeptic myself. but at this point people are throwing a lot of different ideas out there in an effort to get one thing that is a little bit hopeful, though, is now -- whenever i go back to liberia i do go into schools and talk to students and one thing i've noticed is that the young girls in the school systems in liberia you seem to all think theying be president which is a kind of cool thing to see. >> hello. >> hi. >> just want to say i enjoy your commentary on "meet the press" when you're on. thank you so much for that. >> thank you. >> my question has been toe do with an ensees -- ancestor, my great grandfather visited monrovia in 1920-'21. what i'd like to know is they did someone did an interview with him but we don't have the masthead to tells us where source was. since the civil war, does -- there are any records or archival information available? i don't know what at the stir talk to -- sounds like it's kind ers to up. do you know their up up ins or e source. >> yes and. no there's a history museum in monover ya but crippled during the civil bar and a lot of stuff was -- a lot of artifacts were destroyed. so there's something still there there is a national archive in lie berry sow county look there liberia has a very healthy newspaper competition and there's a healthy press there, so there are lot of newspapers i don't know i they'll have archives back to 1920. so sort of -- you might have to kind of put -- i think it would help if you know who did the interview and where -- did it appear in a newspaper? >> i believe it appeared in a newspaper because of the way it was written. >> they warrant doing microfiche in liberia back then. >> well, maybe i'll visit the country. thank you. >> yes. >> hi, thank you for your book. i'm continuing on a project with our -- and your book was just -- i didn't think anything could get better than her auto biographyy but a the way you were able to distract that, -- he can distract that, merge with your very intos and put your objective lens on it. it's a tour deforce for people who want to read on women and politics. my question to you is, now that president sirleaf's presidency is coming to an end and you have had the liberian education trust with the success that she has had at adding education in that arena, you have the rebuild offering the hospitals, some of the roads are back, you certainly have -- she's indictedded and bringing to trial some of the major leader inside the government for corruption, and of course ebola. what do you think her most long-lasting legacy is? >> i think it's got to be the women. there's no way, no matter -- she has had sort of this -- a lot of flaws and her 12 years have disappointed a lot of people who expected more, while at the same time she still been the best we have had ever. i think that when you look at the legacy that she leaves behind, i can't say enough how big a deal that gender barrier she busted through is. the idea that all over liberia you have women who now carried -- for years carried this country on their books economically, realizes they can turn that into political power and you don't have a viable female candidate running to replace her but that doesn't matter because i think that in the future the women now have -- understand the market women now understand just how powerful they can be when they want to. >> thank you very minute. >> thank you. >> hi. i was education volunteer in liberia, i thick around the time when your first book came out, and before -- in preparation for my trip i tried to find and read as much as possible about liberia and most of the books were out of print at that time. i ended up going to liberia, loving my experience and lived there for three years, and now i'm actually getting a ph.d and my topic is around liberia. my question to you is, want to know if you can talk about where you see or what your intent is in terms of historyogy on liberia and the material out there is inaccurate. and there are gaps and i wonder if you could speak about literature that may be coming out. >> you're right, there's not a lot out there. realize that when i was working on my first book. but there's more than people think. there's a growing cadre of liberian write irwhos purring -- some of them are here now who are putting their own stories to paper. so i think you're going to see more coming out but you're absolutely right, there is a lot of things were destroyed during the war. this is a culture that has much more offer an oral tradition than a written one, and the writing is starting -- is picking up now but, no, we don't have a lot of -- there are history book ons liberia but you're again right that not all of them are accurate. >> yes, i too want to thank you for "madam president." i'm a returned peace corps volunteer and taught hit triand english at the high school. and there was in the '60s and only one woman in my classes. there weren't all that many mental either because the high school was fairly new and so the students were like in their 30s who were graduating from high school. but there was only the one woman and i always felt for her. but i wonder -- it's my understanding there's another election around the corner liberia and there are bunch of candidates. i believe running again -- >> he could win. >> that's what was going to ask you. your perspective on that election? >> it's going to be great election to cover. as a reporter i'm drooling. you have all these characters running. no just we gorge it be charles taylor's wife is running former allies are running, george's baby march madness was running but just -- mama was running but just put out. it's like shooting fish in a barrel. the stories pile up. it's going to be interesting. you have this pepsi-cola heir. former board of directors, alex cummings, and then the vice president. the establishment candidate, but liberians can be very perverse and i don't at this point know who they're going to go with. don't think anybody can call it right now. it's completely a free-for-all itch can't wait to go home to cover it. >> are the women coalesced behind any candidate? no back in 2005 they hadn't. at this point in the election cycle they had not coalesced behind ellen either. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> i want to thank you for writing this book. it's very impressive and history is coming to light. my question is, in 38 days from now we're going to have the eflex liberia, on october 10th -- october 8th. it's most likely that's naked soccer player will be the next president. what are your thoughts about what this mean ford the future of liberia? the economy is a's, health care is a mess, education is a mess. and citizens are hungry for much more because they've been disappointed. a lot of things improved as far at security and other parts of the economy, but going forward, what do you think this is going to mean as far that one of these people either baby mama or someone else becoming president, and also what to you think ellen is going to do going forward to remain part of liberia's fabric, political fabric as well as sow sital faint brick. >> thank -- fabric. >> first of all i assume -- don't think it's a forgone contribution that george is going to win. think it's as i said earlier a flee for -- free for all. anybody at this point could win. and i think that maybe people grow into roles. i do think that one of the reasons i find -- one of the places where i find optimism is that a the 12 years that ellen johnson sirleaf has been president she has opened up freedom of speech and freedom of the press in liberia to levels we have never had before. someso the liberian people are far less tolerant of the thing they'd accepted decades ago. that's one of the reasons why with ebola, liberia was hate hard but came out of it much faster than either of those other two countries and i think that's in large part because lie beerian people would not tolerate the kind of ineptitude that would cause this to linger and linger. so i think that the sort of free-for-all atmosphere that we have in liberia and the freedom of speech and the freedom to criminal size is something they won't be willing to let go of and i think that's something that caused me to feel at bit more optimistic about our future. i'm being shown a wrap it up sign, so i think this is all the time that we have today itch really appreciate all you coming in on this rainy saturday. thank you very much. [applause] >> here's a look at the becomes been published this week: >> book tv is on the campus of