Then there are others who just want to talk and dont want to do nothing. Okay . So we have to have conversations, walk in one anothers shoes and take the responsibility of doing something. [ applause ] i recognize that that table has Shaw High School students. And welcome. Were glad youre here. And im a big fan of Morgan Freeman but i cant completely agree with him. Maybe he meant you cant just talk about it. But i think thats where we start. And i said i was hopeful. But we do need to take more action. And folks, the system thats leading them to prison. This mass incarceration and get out of prison and cant get jobs and cant vote in some states. They cant participate in our society. Going back to school, they are under funded. We need to be devoting resources to that. We can talk about it but we also have to make those policy decisions and choices. Money will speak. And were concerned about police brutality. The police department. I mean we could be spending millions on investigations. We need to be spending money on resources on training or good hiring practices. On proper investigations with accountability. All that takes resources and a rededication of our effort. So we do need to talk about but we as i said before need to take action too. Right. And some of those actions can include things like body cameras. The president spoke about that. Things like that that cost money. But they can make a difference. Im excited by the fact that we have these videos out there. People cant deny today that these incidents happen. We have them on video. They still get free. That didnt help eric garner unfortunately. Well, you know, there are still. Civil actions may bring some remedy to that situation. I dont think its over. But we dont know what is going to happen here in cleveland. And its terrible watching those videos over and over again. We know what happened now. It cant be denied. We cant pretend this doesnt happen anymore. Thats true. So bringing together the community i think we can make a difference now and make the necessary changes going forward. I have hope about that. Next question . As a young person in my experience, from people of different ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses i hear a lot of i dont sea color. Can you explain why to people who may want to understand that is something that moves us back in this fight to understand and combat racism . Ill keep it simple. I think thats a lie. I mean if you can see, you see color. And seeing color doesnt mean that you are proactively racist. It means that you are acknowledging. We can acknowledge differences. What we shouldnt do and cannot do is deny human dignity. Thats plain and simple right there. Next question. I know someone mentioned that cleveland is the fourth most segregated city in this country. And i know that with the rebranding of cleveland with uptown which is 10 minutes away from some of the worst parts of our city. And im just asking how can we as youth combat the segregation in this city in the future . Clearly having a black mayor has not helped. Clearly having a democratic mayoral cabinet has not helped. So what can we do in the future to combat the segregation that contributes to the racism in cleveland . First we have to combat the segregation even amongst ourselves. You know you have young people who what school do you go to little sister. [inaudible]. You go to Hathaway Brown. So you have a young lady from hatway Hathaway Brown who may not spend time with a young lady from laurel. Or let me go deep right no i if you dont mind. Watch it now. Even within the African American community there is a segregation. So a young lady from Hathaway Brown. She must think she this that and the third. And im from east tech. I think like this. And this that. So there is a we help create a program at laurel i believe it was called guiding star. I forget the name. But they go and they make a connection between that school and a school within the quote unquote inner city. So there have to be more dialogue with Martin LutherKing High School and Shaw High School and solon and so on. There has to be that. But i want to go even deeper and say when we talk about racism the worst passionatert about racism is it creates self hatred. Where you look in the mirror and you dont like what you see. Youve been told too long you are too this or too that and it has begun to effect you. And some people play into the perceptions that people have about us. Like like yall generation are some chumps man, like scared man. I mean you not afraid to fight from what streets you come from. But you afraid to fight to better your school. You afraid to fight and stand up for your community when they shot down tamir rice. Where were you . Well i didnt want to march . You could have wrote a letter. What are you not you im talking about your cousins and them. See some of yall getting angry. Some of yall like trippin. Some your cousins. Like what are crow doing . What are you doing . You can talk about who hates you all day but what are you doing ipg. Some of you are afraid to be different. You go back to your schools and you just following the crowd. You just going through our school dressing how everybody dress, talking how everybody talk. Not some of you but too many of us. And what happens to the school . Think about whats happening in our community. There are some people who need to go to jail. I understand what youre saying but some people need to go to jail. We got some cousins and stuff who they need to be locked up for sure. If not when they get out they are going to cause a problem. For sure. So what im saying to you and i is and i my mr. Gordon said this. Or someone said this. But what are you doing . What can you do better in your life . Do your little brother know more wok kah flock kah lyrics than ab abcs. Do your little cousin know ushers dont mind you know what im talking about. Do they know those lyrics better than their multiplication tables. There are things you can change within your house and your community that just because the teacher think im stupid does not mean that is the way i have to act. The question is how are you going to change yourself. And when i was young i wanted to change the world but when i got older i wanted to change the galaxy within myself. When you change you, the world around you with change, without a doubt. [ applause ] we have time for one more question. Hi everyone. My name is daniele. I have a comment but you can just respond back to it. The question you asked before was how was like, how do we lose our race or how do we embrace our race now. But i think the question more should be how was it lost . It was lost more when we came over on the Middle Passage with all the males laying next to us. The dead people the vomit are laying right next it. We could do for it. The thats when it was lost. You know, like in class, history for instance they teach us were stuck on industrialization. That is all they teach us in class. Slavery is the last topic in the book. They dont want to get that far you know, because they have to deal with discipline. We dont get that far in the back of the book. The only thing we know about slavery is there were sharecrop sharecroppers sharecroppers, emancipation proclamation. You know, just the basic. Last year i gave a speech on the willie lynch letter. Most people dont have a clue what that is. He was a slave master and he tried to trade he wanted to turn the black race against each other with age, race, gender. He turned them against each other and he wrote a letter about it. And other slave owners started to use that method, the willie lynch letter. I spoke on that and many people dont know about that because were stuck on the industrialization and the Progressive Movement and all of that. And one comment about what you said, sir, you said that some bad apples. Honestly i think that there arent any bad apples. The whole system is bad. This whole system a bad apple. There are systemic problems. Yeah we reflect the system that oppresses us. Thank you. [ applause ] you got to take that niche ti like you just did and take it outside of school. Initiative. I want to give you reality. When we were marching in ferguson i was withmarching with a 90yearold jewish women. And all kind of people. So the march was diverse. I dont want you to think that this mission to up lyft humanity is not a mission to taken up by everyone. There are all people who understand whats going on and standing up and fighting for you. And there are people in your community who look just like who are helping with the destruction of it. So we have to keep our minds open and work with those who want to work withous. And day say way from those who want to work with with us. I want to astart with there is a systemic problem. But we also need to study history. And we also need to recognize all the progress that has happened since slavery. We have a long way to go to recognize well let me ask you all, do you know what happened on january 15 1929 . Martin luther kings birthday. And we should acknowledge that. And his actual birthday is tomorrow. And im honored to be here celebrating his birthday as well. But i hope you are studying the civil rights movement. That was 50 years ago and my students think that was ancient history like slavery the civil war. But that wasnt. That was my lifetime. I grew up in that period. I remember april 4, 1968 too when he was killed. But its been 50 years over 50 years now since. We have come a long way. We still have a long way to go. Do people see color or claim they dont see color anymore. That is ridiculous. We all see differences but we need to embrace our differences. Whether we are ablebodied. Whether were lgbtq members of the community, different religions, ethnicities. Go back to what i said before about black lives matter. People are offended by that movement. Does that mean other lives dont matter . Of course not. All lives matter and all lives should matter. But historically black lives cant didnt matter as much. They were considerable disposable, ungrievable for the loss o of our black americans. Who recently and we cant tolerate that any longer. So think we should leave think aggregate dr. King and his vision and dream that we can all be treated with the dignity and justice. Were all part of humanity but we do have a lot of work to do to achieve that vision too still. And ill leave it to aumt lil autumnlily to close the forum. Today we have been having an intense discussion. Thank you to ms. Diaz chief gonzalez Jonathan Gordon and basheer jones. And thank you ladies and gentlemen for coming to this forum. And i hope that you guys learned a lot about your roles in this community and this forum is now adjourned. [ applause ] in the old days people went to work in factories. They were paid for their labor and worked nine to five and went home and kid what they want with that money. Today were all in these factoriesfactory s like google and facebook twitter. Were unpaid labor. Were working like crazy. And its not even acknowledged that were creating the value for them. And worse, we are the ones packaged up as the product. What these companies are doing is learning more and more about us from our behavior, from what we publish from our photographs and from our ideas and what we buy and say and dont say. They are learning about us. They create this bantem like pen onty con. And they are transforming us. They are repackaging us as the product. Were the ones being sold. Not only are we working for free but then were being sold. So it is the ultimate scam. The perfect hitchcock movie. Secretary of state kerry is in switzerland today. Here is a bit of what he said. I never imaged the number of simultaneous crises that we might possibly be able to face. Which we are by the way i believe managing far more effectively, ukraine other things, than people are prone to automatically see. But we cant shy away from this reality that Terror Networks are operating in some places with near impunity and imminent danger in others and a potential threat everywhere. And a few of these networks are attempting to govern land. That is a first time event in this transition to these terror groups. And they are looking to expand. And greatly adding to the risk of the so called are the so called lone wolves and copy cats. And i seems that terrorists are now competing with each other for recruits and perpetrating every more macabre crimes. Need i remind you the 20th century was defined by the civilized worlds struggle to develop the rule of law as an alternative to chaos disorder and dictatorship. And today we are witnessing nothing more than a form of criminal andy. A nihilism which illegitimately games an ideological and religious foundation. Against this enemy we are organizing and fighting back. But in doing so we have to also keep our heads. Obviously the biggest error we could make is to blame muslims collectively for crimes not committed by muslims alone. Crimes that the overwhelming majority of muslims oppose. Crimes that their faith utterly rejects. And that Muslim Leaders themselves have the greatest ability to address. Religions dont require adherence to raze villages and blow up people. It is individuals with a distorted and even ignorant interpretation of religion who do that. Abetted by networks of individuals who have a different agenda and who incite and finance those actions. We will certainly not defeat our foes by vil fieing potential partners or by suppressing the very freedoms terrorists try to destroy. Unless we direct our energies in the right direction we may very well fuel the fire wes want tos we want to put out. You can see all the coverage from the World Economic forum including speeches from Francois Hollande and the angular merkel. At cspan. Org. Sorry for the delay. Sorry i didnt know any jokes to fill the low. Im very thrilled to welcome everyone to this important event five years after Citizens United, what are the costs or democracy. This is a important event again kicking off a week of activities. Were going to be here in d. C. And throughout the country this week recognizing the Citizens United anniversary, the terrible consequences this decision had for our country. Todays event an unprecedented number of organizations came together to release or share original research. As more and more americans have concluded that the issues they care about just wont be dealt with in a political system that values the money of the view over the voices of the many. More and more organization of different stripes have prioritized changing way our elections are financed. From environment and Climate Change to Worker Rights and Civil Liberties and reigning in the wall street excesses and risky behaviors, americans and Public Interest organizations that represent them understand that special interests are truly hijacking elections. And 12 the outrage is really fuelling a the movement and creating change and more collaborative efforts like today. This cooperative event can also be seen and this cooperative action in the release of a statement of unity that were putting out today. Over 120 organizations have signed on to this statement of unity which supports reforming our democratic processes and moving policy changes around disclosure, Public Financing and overturning the effects of Citizens United. You can find the statement of unity up front when owe came in. Also up front when you came in im sure you saw hard copies of new research we are putting out today. It can also be found electronically on a new shared web portal get money out action. Org action. Org. Without a doubt the biggest win ores of the 2014 midterm were the corporate entities, special interests and small number of billionaires who funded them. While the losers are the 300 million americans whos voiced are silenced by money and whos priority are different from the few who have if influence. Today event is about that. The highlights of this problem. And were going to be discussing Much Needed Solutions as well. And the well dig in on the numbers in the fist panel. And the second focuses on real world implications of our current moneyed system. And well close with a panel that looks at solutions discussing experiences with Public Financing in connecticut. P with that well turn it over to our first panel. With e videoa greatwe have a great lineup. Karen shanten enshanton. And than. Brend fisher if for center for media and democracy. And close with burt brandonwork president at justice at stake. Karen, over to you. Good morning. Im karen shanton. A policy analyst at dmos. We all van equal say in our democracy and equal chance in economy. Im here to talk to you about the first of those goals. To wrap ups of the congressional spending often focus on total amount of money raised and spend by candidates in these race. There is a good reason for that. And the reason is those numbers are really big. The median win ore avenue house race in 2014 reported contradictions of 1. 3 Million Dollars. On the senate side the median winner reported over 7 Million Dollars in contradictions. That works out to approximately 1800 dollars a day. And that is every single day of a two year house selection cycle and 3300 a day every day for six year on the senate side. So it is a lot of money. Even more important than the total funds raised in these races, in these competition, is where that money is coming from. Of the close to 1. 5 billion in total contributions that candidates reported receiving in 2014, more than two third came from individual contributors. And the vast majority of these individual contributions came from wealthy donors. Suppose you are a candidate faced with a prospect of having to raise thousands of dollars a day. If you focused exclusively on raising from small donors, giving 200 a piece or less, then you would have to secure at least nine unique donors each day if you were running for the house. Running for the senate you would need at least 17 unique donors a day. If you focused on donors giving at the current per election limit of 2600 by contrast you could get what you need from a donor or two aday. If you could convince that donor or donors to give at the current per cycle limit of