the next year and was an incredible mentor to me. i needed some stability in my life, and i had to work all through my high school. that is why i started boxing. my senior year, i got an academic scholarship, went to the university of southern california before it went to the naval academy. i went out track, and i ran the 880. the first heat i was in i came in second, and i was very proud of myself. i would buy to see harley, and he asked what i was doing. i got this scholarship and i ran in this race, and i came in second. he asked if i was bragging? i said yes, because i have never done this before, and i came in second. he said do not ever come bragging if you come in second. he asked who ran the first four-minute mile. he said who came in second?

i never forgot that. it was terrific to see him yesterday. we are happy to be here in iowa. we are going to come back to iowa. we're going to go over the whole state, and we're going to come back as many times as we can. you'll be seeing more of us. i would like to take a few minutes tonight to talk to you about three things that i care deeply about. what are the challenges that are facing us as a nation? where do i see the need for us to really focus in the next several years? the first is restoring fairness, economic fairness. social justice in our system. i talked about this when i ran for the senate. it was the principal issue i was talking about when i ran for the senate.

we have had an economic recovery since the great recession that has only helped a partial element in our society. we have to be honest about that. particularly as democrats we have to be honest about that. if you go to april 2009, and look at the recovery. if you own stocks and capital assets, you're probably doing pretty well. the stock market bottomed out as -- out at a little over 6000 and has been up to 18,000, almost tripling since april of 2009. working people's wages have gone down since 2009. assets of working people have actually decreased. we have to fix this problem. we have to put our leadership efforts into fixing this challenge. we have to reshape our national security.

i proud that i was able to serve as a marine during a very tough time in our country's history. i was also able to spend five years in the pentagon. i sat on the armed services committee the foreign relations , committee when i was in the senate. i'm privileged to be a journalist in the time that i am not been in public service. i was in beirut when the marines were in beirut in 1983, covering it for pbs. i was in afghanistan in 2004 as an embedded journalist. i can tell you, from these years of observation and involvement that we need to have a new doctrine that articulates for us the national security policy of the united states. and from that doctrine, we can reshape the united states military. you cannot reshape the military without a strategy, clearly understood. the third area we really need to

focus on is basic governance. we need to be working toward a governing style that will allow the congress and the presidency to work together, and also people of different parties to work together. what should you be looking for in terms of leadership? first of all, when i go around the country and i talk to people, i hear over and over again that we need leaders that we can trust. we need leaders that will tell us what the problems are, with -- tell us what their beliefs are about the problems, and how they want to fix it. there is a consistency in that. this kind of leadership course the willingness to take a risk to take the hits. to stand up for what you believe, not from a poll that helps you to ship an issue politically, but what you need to do is put out these issues in a way that is not simply smart or safe, but from your heart.

and i have to say, the one comment that i have been the proudest of in the leadership positions i've had is when people tell me i do not agree with you all the time, but i know what you say is what you mean. that is not always easy to do. when i look at the issue of the iraq war, it was not easy to say early that this was going to be a strategic error. i wrote the first piece in the -- in a major national newspaper, "the washington post," that this is going to be a strategic problem. there are ways to address our national security without being an occupying force in that part of the world. you do not take a hornets nest out by sitting on it. [laughter]

it was not an easy thing to do to take on criminal justice reform. when i started talking about our broken criminal justice system i had advisers tell me you are committing suicide. virginia second only to texas in terms of capital punishment. but it is clear that it is broken from the point of apprehension to help people are arrested, to prison administration to the reentry , process. i held two and a half years of hearings on it, and we'd brought this issues out of the shadows into the national debate. the great irony is this is in issue that the democratic party should own. criminal justice reform, social justice. know who is making the most mileage out of it right now? rand paul. rand paul. when you look at the american conservative political action

conference, it was the number three issue to be focusing on. we need to get the issue back. the comprehensive issue of criminal justice reform, not one little piece of it or another. when i introduced the g.i. bill, my first day in office, i had written it with counsel. and the comment i was making even before i ran for the senate, is give them the same educational opportunities of the greatest generation. pay their tuition, by their books. and i had people saying that you're a freshman, you've only been here two weeks, there are bills from others first. but this was a comprehensive piece of legislation. we developed a partisan consensus.

and in 16 months, we were able to pass the most comprehensive piece of veterans legislation since world war ii. one of the great prides of my life is that more than a million post-9/11 veterans have been able to take it vantage of our g.i. bill. [applause] how can we make america a better place? let's look into the future. i want to say something that troubles me a lot and i think there are a lot of people in this room who would agree. money is ruining our political process. [applause] particularly since the citizens united case of 2012. i hear jeb bush say he made

$100 million in three months. he is meeting with the super pac's, he is not alone. this cannot continue. the only way we're going to do anything about it is to make sure that our people, by the numbers, can outnumber the kind of money that is coming in here, and we get the policies we believe in to place. when i ran for the senate we had , 14,000 volunteers that came up and helped us when we ran against an incumbent senator who just gotten highest number of votes for president. we need to remember, the american dream is a unique thing in this world. when people say you should not talk about american exceptionalism. excuse me. i think the american dream is unique and that is why people are trying to come here from all over the world. i was able to get scholarships

to go to school, as able to serve my country. i've had a great experience in my life. but my wife has really lived the american dream. she was born in vietnam. her family escaped vietnam when the communists took over. there is something we need to remember. april 30, it is good to be the 40's anniversary of the fall of saigon. those of you who can remember what that was like, what the chaos was like in that country. hundreds of thousands of vietnamese were jumping into the sea, rather than face what was happening when the communists took over. her extended family got on a fishing boat, and they went out to sea. they did not know they're going to live or die. after three days, the united states navy scooped them out of the sea. brought them to a refugee camp in guam, from there she went to

a refugee camp in arkansas, and her family eventually settled in new orleans. her parents never spoke english. she started working when she was 11. she got a scholarship to the university of michigan. she ended up going to cornell law school. that is the american dream. [applause] we are going to preserve this, it is only going to come from the democratic party. we have to remember that. we are never going to find an answer in the republican party on issues like economic fairness and giving people who have no voice in the corridors of power, the voice of the democratic party. and we should say, we should agree, that we are not going to be marginalized by special interests. we're not be silenced in the face of overwhelming pressures that this kind of money can buy.

we will not acquiesce to a future that marginalizes this whole beauty of the american dream. we will not allow them to ignore us after the election is over. everyone in this room, i think shares these type of feelings, or you would not be committing yourself to the type of service that you are giving right now. if enough of you believe that we can restore and preserve the american dream for everyone, then we will not become what some people are calling the moderate wing of the republican party. we will return to the party of roosevelt and of truman, the party that truly looks after everyone who lacks a voice. [applause]

harley cooper will be proud of me, because we're not going to come in second. we are the guarantor of stability in the world, and that is going to continue. thank you very much. [applause] [applause] a host: let me tell you a little bit about governor martin o'malley. his father was the national leader of the democratic party. he came here in 1983 to work on gary hart's campaign as one of his staff organizers and had a

chance to work on that great campaign in which he finished second. after graduating from law school he settled in baltimore. he ran for the city council and got elected. the mayor spot became open, and there was a crowded field running for that, and he was successful getting elected mayor. by the time he took over, it was suffering through some really tough times regarding high crime rates and a struggling economy. as a role -- as a result of the innovative policies he enacted baltimore was able to turn , around, and became a city that was recognized nationally for some fine achievements. it was elected governor in 2006. he took on a republican incumbent and beat him in 2006 for governor. he was rewarded with a bad economy in 2007 and 2008 that he had to deal with. he enacted some innovative policies. he was reelected in 2010, and a bad year for democrats by a

landslide. after he left office, he looked to these as these most successful accomplishments. first of all, he raised the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. [applause] he signed into law the marriage equality act. [applause] he signed into law legislation abolishing the death penalty. [applause] and he also was instrumental in passing the dream act to provide in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. [applause] when he left office, they had recovered 100% of the jobs they lost during the recession. [applause]

under his leadership, maryland public schools were ranked number one in the nation or five years in a row. [applause] and finally, the u.s. chamber of commerce, which is not always kind to democrats, recognized him because maryland was number one for entrepreneurship and innovation three years in a row. [applause] please give my strong applause for governor o'malley. [applause] o'malley: thank you very much. thank you. thank you. let's give it up for senator webb. thank you for your message tonight. [applause] senator webb, thank you for your message of economic fairness for your message of national security, for your message of basic governance. i want you to turn to one

another and say it is to be a democrat in polk county. now turn to your other neighbor and say it. now that we've established that, let us establish one very important thing that i was taught by maryland senior senator pulsar veins --paul s arbenes. we are great believers in the truth of program should end on the same day they start. [laughter] i'm way to get right into it. [laughter] tom henderson, i want to thank , camaro, i want to thank you as well. i want to thank all of you for being here today. my 17 year old son william. [applause]

sharon, i know that families give up a lot in order to support their parents in public service, and i would also like to tell your dad one other thing. and that is, my mom, barbara o'malley, who is 87 years old, when she found out i was coming to iowa, she said to say hello to my friend neil smith. she was in the young democrats from fort wayne indiana, where she got her pilot's license during the second world war. join the civil air patrol. protective the indiana coastline against german u-boat incursions. at the time, after that, she was in washington dc. she remembers your father very fondly. she would see your father in washington. i promised my mom i would do that. my parents were part of that generation that tom brokaw and

others have called the greatest generation. but it was not a title they would readily embrace themselves. as americans they believe that every generation had an obligation to be a great generation. that is my message for you tonight. we still have time, all of us, to be a great generation of americans. and our children, and their future is depending upon it great and yes, the future is watching. tonight i want to talk to you about the story of us. about the story of des moines and baltimore. about the story maryland and iowa, and the story of america. 200 years ago, in the war of 1812, true story, the british had just burned our nation's capital to the ground. they had taken washington.

the capital and the white house were burning and the people of my home city, the people of baltimore, could actually see the glow from those fires to our south. and now we knew that they were coming for us. amidst the ashes of our nations capital, the commanding british general at the time declared "i'm going to march on baltimore, i'm going to dine there." because even then we had great restaurants. [laughter] " and then i am going to burn baltimore to the ground. " our nation was not yet 40 years old. the american dream at that moment was facing extinction. imagine what we felt at that time. anger, fear, disbelief confidence shattered, trust totally gone.

there are moments in the life of our country, and they are defining moments, when it seems the american dream itself is hanging by a thread. and yet for america, there is always a yet. that final thread that holds us could just be the strongest. 50% of the defenders at the time were actually immigrants. one out of five of us were black citizens of an imperfect country, and one out of five of the black defenders were free. but somehow, together, we transformed our despair. instead of digging graves, we dug trenches. and against the shock and off force of its day, the people of

baltimore stood firm. all of this in our own day, we now sing the star-spangled banner. let us remember as we sing the anthem today, that the colors of that star-spangled banner were themselves stitched together by black and white hands. by men's hands and women's hands. hands of freedom, hands of bondage, and i would submit to you, the thread that held that flag together then is the same thread that holds us together here tonight. [applause] and what is that thread? the thread of human dignity, the the dignity of home the dignity , of place, the dignity of

country, the dignity of neighbor helping neighbor, so that all of us can succeed. in other words, with our country's future hanging in the balance, we stood as one of the -- as one and the american dream lived on. now fast-forward, when i ran for mayor, there was a different sort of battle going on in the streets of baltimore. this time we were losing. baltimore had become the most violent, addicted, and abandoned city in america. and the biggest enemy that we faced was not the drug dealers or crack cocaine, it was a lack of belief. a culture of failure. countless excuses for why it was the nothing we would try would ever work, and why none of us, if we had an ounce of sense, should even bother to try. so we set out to make our city work again, to make the dream true again. we started setting goals and deadlines, and instead of simply

counting out inputs, we started measuring outputs. we saw trash in our streets and alleys, and we picked it up every day. we saw open-air drug markets and we began to relentlessly close them down. and guess what? when the people of baltimore saw that their government was working again, they rallied too. [applause] together, in other words, we put into action that powerful belief, that in our city there is no such as a spare american. then we are all in this together. and over the next 10 years baltimore went on to achieve the biggest reduction in part one crime of any major city in america. [applause] we americans sometimes have short memories, don't we? none of us will ever forget

seven years ago when our country was facing the worst recession since the great depression. a meltdown on wall street led our entire economy hanging by a thread. we refused to give up. we elected a new president to move our country forward, and that is exactly what our -- exactly what barack obama has done. [applause] at that moment, all of us had a decision to make. would we be a part of bringing our country back, or would we sit back on our haunches and say , let's see if he actually can? in our state, we started supporting our president, doing the things that worked. we tossed aside the failed trickle-down economics, and we embraced and returned to the

truth that our parents and grandpa's understood. that the more person learns, the more of person earns. a stronger middle class -- [applause] that a stronger middle class is not the consequence of economic growth, a stronger middle class is the cause of economic growth. [applause] i'm not even sure our parents and grandparents even had a word for that type of economics. they called it common sense. the more that workers earned the , better businesses have, and the better our economy grows. together, we actually we passed , the living wage. we raised the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. [applause] we made college more affordable

for more people, and we made our public schools the best in the country for five years in a row. we made it easier for people to vote, and not harder. [applause] and because we understood that renewable energy creates strong jobs and good communities we made sure we seized the economic opportunities inherent in climate change. if only we could rise as americans to meet that challenge. [applause] together we brought back the health of the waters of the chesapeake area. together we made maryland the -- maryland one of the top states for upward mobility. together we made maryland the top state were women-owned businesses in the united states. [applause]

and through all be very -- all the very difficult years, we made sure that our state had the highest median income in the country for all eight of those years. since the depth of the recession, maryland has created jobs faster than our neighbors to the north or south of us. it's not about left, it's not about right, it is not about center, it is doing things that work. that is what is about. [applause] when a family can actually send their sons and daughters to good schools, the american dream is alive and true. when a family can work hard, and through that work claim a seat at the table american prosperity, but american dream

-- is alive. the american dream none of these things happen by chance. they happen by choice. the choice that we have to make to believe in one another, to believe in our country, and to believe in our ability to make that dream real. as a nation, here is the good news. as a nation, we have now created jobs for 60 months in a row. positive job creation for 60 months in a row. [applause] we are recovering jobs faster than most other countries coming out of this recession. that is absolutely the good news. the bad news is this --how many of you firmly believe that you have enjoyed a better quality of life than your parents and grandparents have enjoyed?

raise your hand. second question. how many of you believe just as firmly that your children and grandchildren will enjoy a better quality of life than you have? raise your hands. that is the great question at the center of this table of democracy. people are more pessimistic now, for all of the good work we have done together to bring our country back, people are more pessimistic now about their children's future than they were four years ago. the vast majority of us are working harder, only to watch her own families fall further behind. for too many of us, the dreams of things that could be, that once were, seem to be slipping from our grasp. you have seen this look in your neighbor's eyes, and i have seen it too. americans are worried, and it is for good reason. 80% of us are earning less today

than we were 12 years ago. that is not the way our country it is supposed to work. and until we solve this problem we cannot rest. 50 years ago the nation's largest employer was gm, general motors. and the average employee could send a child to college on two weeks wages. two weeks. recently, the washington times ran a story with this headline and i quote the american dream is dead. well, let me say here from hope

county to those who would write those premature obituaries of the american dream, the american dream is not dead. the american dream will not die because he you and i are going to fight for it and make it true again. [applause] our a economy is the product of the choices we make and the choices we failed to make. do you mean to tell me when he can concentrate wealth at the top as it never has been before but we cannot create good jobs good wages to support a family? do you mean to tell me we can pay record bonuses on wall street but we cannot eradicate childhood hunger? i do not buy it and neither should you. we are better at than this. [applause] we are better than this.

we are americans. we make our own destiny. it is up to the democratic party to finish the work we have begun together. that work is to make our economy work for all of us again. [applause] to restore the american dream. [applause] do me a favor here. close your eyes if it is helpful. what i want you to think of your parents and your grandparents. they understood the essence of the american dream that we share. india does this. the stronger we make our country, the more our country can give back to us into our children and to our grandchildren. the poet laureate of the american dream, bruce springsteen, asked once [applause] is the dream alive that don't come true, or is it something

worse? when the american dream is denied, our lives shrink. our hopes fade. and our lives unfeigned not in the light of possibility but in the darkness of fear. to make the dream come true again, we must fight for better work for all workers so americans can support their families on what they earn. [applause] in what does that mean? that means raising the minimum wage, raising the income threshold for overtime pay and making it easier rather than the harder for people to join unions and bargain for collective bargaining rights to make greater wages. [applause] that is what it means to me, the dream come true.

[applause] and, to make the dream come true, we must not allow another wall street meltdown to rain down on hard working american families. it is not too much to ask, ended is not too much to expect for our government to rein in wall street to prevent the big banks from working over little thought into keep and banks from ever wrecking our national economy again. we must. [applause] and, to make the dream come true again, we have to embrace a clean energy future. we are americans. we do not back down from threats. we have to recognize that renewable, inexhaustible sources of energy represents the biggest business opportunity in a

century. look at your industry and what you are doing to get people back to work and give your children a cleaner, more secure future. to make the dream come true again we must increase social security benefits and not cut them. [applause] and, to make the dream come true again, we must invest in our children. it is absolutely appalling that you can refinance the mortgage on your home easier than kids can refinance a mountain of college debt. [applause] we have been talking a lot about the american dream. my father flew in a be 24 liberator over japan. he would not have gone to college if it had not been for a

far-seeing and generous country that had foreseen that the g.i. bill. he need to make education and the dream come true again. to make the entered come true, we have to be able to give our college graduates the ability to start their own dream. to buy a home without being on back a bill because of the amount they are on the college debt. the most fundamental error of our 30, and i would submit the most powerful fundamental strength of our country, is the power of our moral principles. the power of our moral principles. triangulation is not a strategy that will move america forward. history celebrates profiles in courage, and not profiles inconvenience. we must pay unashamed, unabashed defenders of the american dream we share. the dignity of every person tells is the right to marry is not a state right.

the right to marry is a human right. [applause] your traditions, as they can -- as a generous and compassionate people, as people in iowa tell us, as americans tell us when refugee children arrive on our doorstep from central america or any other country facing a starvation and death gangs we act like the generous, compassionate people we have always been because the enduring symbol of our nation is not the barbed wire fence. it is the statue of liberty. [applause] this is who we are. this is who we are. this is who we are.

and yes. in god we trust. yes, you and i are proud members of the democratic party. let the tea party measure their success by how many times they can shut our government down. but remeasured measured by liberty and justice for all. they spake for the tomorrows that can't be. the american dream is what makes america exceptional. fair and angered never built a great nation. our country was built by the compassionate choices we make together, guided by our better angels. we love our country. we love what our country is. we love what our country can still become. the next time someone asks you who you voted for, do not be shy. i want you to tell them. and i mean it. if a child asks you who you voted for, i want you to tell that child, i voted for you.

when you see someone with health insurance now who asks you who you voted for, i want you to tell them, i voted for you. when you see someone sweating through another long shift and they ask you who you voted for i want you to tell them, i voted for you. and when you see someone who wants nothing more than for their family to be treated with dignity and equal rights under the law, i want you to tell them, i voted for you. when you see someone who hungers for opportunity and a good job i want you to tell them, i voted for you. yes. we are for good reason. house's sleep -- ours is the party of opportunity opportunities, the better american dream ours is the party that will move america forward.

thank you all very much. [applause] >> on the next washington journal, clay aiken will discuss a his run for the presidential office. also economist talks about his new report on how much of americans will pay in federal and state taxes this year. and a look at the joint strike fighter program with defense one global business reporter. we will also take your calls and look for your comments on facebook in twitter. washington journal air's everyday live on c-span. congress returns from a two week like this week with several items on the agenda. the house is expected to consider bills on tax policy and irs oversight. meanwhile, the senate considers

a judicial nomination for the senate of texas. also then, a human trafficking bill but failed to advance last week after failed attempts. we talked to a capitol hill reporter. >> with congress is set to return after a two-week recess huffington post political reporter joining us to give us an overview of what to expect over the next few weeks. the senate for relation meetings plans to to mark up chairman bob corker's bill on the iran nuclear framework agreement. you write about it in your article, laura, gop steadfast on passing iran bill despite obama's plea to stand down. what would the senator's bill do and what kind of support does it have among senate republicans and democrats? >> well, thanks for having me. so what senator corker's bill does is it essentially gives

congress a chance to weigh in on the iran nuclear deal, the framework that the administration just announced last week. and so it either would let them vote on it. vote for the framework. vote against it. or do nothing on it. and so it kind of puts a halt on whatever final deal they have for 60 days. and there's a good amount of support within the republican conference for it. but republicans do need democrats to come over to get a veto-proof majority. >> also next week, the budget resolution that passed the house and senate before the break heads to conference committee. you tweeted yesterday that house budget chair price and senate budget chair enzi met today to chat 2016 budget plans and ready for conference next week. what are some of the main differences they need to work out?

>> so they need to work out the difference in defense spending. both the house gop and the senate gop budgets aim to boost military spending but they have different amounts in their budget and have to reconcile that. they also have to reconcile in how far they're going to go in repealing obamacare in their separate budget plans. >> turning to the senate, the anti-human-trafficking bill was at an impasse due to abortion language. what's the status of that and how does that impact moving ahead with the loretta lynch nomination for attorney general? >> it impacts loretta lynch a lot because senate majority leader mcconnell has said they aren't going to be moving forward on lynch's nomination unless the human trafficking bill is pushed forward. like you said, in order to to have the votes on that they need to figure out the abortion language on that bill. >> you wrote regarding the house

that the first 100 days has been a learning process for the republicans. tell us why that is and what we can expect key bill-wise over the next few weeks and into may. >> as you know, the senate is now controlled by a republican majority and so it's been a little bit of a rocky start for republicans in both the house and senate. in the senate they spent a month and a half on keystone knowing it was going to be vetoed. but senator john thune said there was a commitment they were going to vote on that. a matter of honor. in the house, there was the lockheed/dhs battle followed closely by a budget debated where the house gop leadership had to put two different budget plans on the floor in order to make sure that one passed.

they really had to work with their deficit and their defense talks ahead of time to make sure that one of the budgets pass. i spoke with congressman mulvaney who is pretty upset with leadership. he's a republican from south carolina and he was saying that he wants more republican voices to be heard more. we'll see how that plays out in the months ahead. when they get back next week, house majority leader kevin mccarthy, they're going to be focusing on some tax bills. there's also possibility that they may vote on reauthorization of the patriot act, but that's not for certain. >> laura barron-lopez of the huffington post. you can catch her on twitter, @lbarronlopez. laura barron-lopez, thanks very much for being with us today.

>> thank you. >> during this, a student camera is c-span's competition that encourages high school students to think about issues tt affect the nation. they were asked to create a documentary taste on the three branches and you. to tell a story that demonstrates how a policy, law or action has affected them. three students are one of our second prize winner. their entry focuses on japanese internment during world war ii. ♪ >> we interrupt this program to bring you a special news

bulletin. the japanese have attacked pearl harbor by air. >> the japanese have attacked pearl harbor by air. >> hostilities mean congress will ask the president for a declaration of war. ♪>> went those news reporter did not know was the united states would not just declare war on the hours spent on their own citizens. barbara was bombed to months previous and the united states decided how to appropriately respond. with the last two months japanese americans have already felt the immediate effects of animosity about a whole life. franklin delano roosevelt just issued a -- an executive order that authorizes deportation to

internment camps across united states. >> i think tha people that were raised in the united states, but they were american citizens then to be told, you know what? we cannot trust you. you have done nothing wrong, but just in case we are going to put you in these concentration camps. >> the idiots are the usually one who control it. so the album was, if we do not run them off they are going to send messages back to japan and we will be in trouble. no part of the civilian population except on the east coast were ambivalent about the whole thing. >> my friends, my usual friends were not talking to me. and, i went down the wrong

hallway and the people would not walk with me. they were called cap lovers that did. -- "jap lovers" that did. spaces are often cramped, unventilated, exposed to the elements. horribly unsanitary. >> i was five years old when my family was sent away from our homes. basically, put into concentration camps. >> this is where japanese-americans were y incarcerated for the remainder of world war ii. >> we had 14 barracks. it was all open on top.

they passed out bags we found out they were body bags. for our mattresses. they dumped straw in the middle of each camp, each block. we filled our own mattress. >> mostly young people and old people got very sick. the death rate in the camps were very high. >> these were military style foundations, so they had a room about half the size, what they called a latrine or the bathroom. there were 16 toilets and they were eight, back to back. 27 inches apart. so if you set like this you would touch the person next to

you. you had to set like that. no doors. no stalls. >> i happen to be roger's wife, mary. i have a personal experience. i had two brothers and sister -- two brothers in service. one brother was shut down and open our and never survived. but, my mother always blamed all of the japanese. she despise them because they took her son. and about, i don't know, 30 years later we were down at the beach and my mother was with us and i felt she was very cut -- uncomfortable and i asked her what was wrong. she said he might be washed up on the beach. i want to go back to sunnyvale. please right now.

so, it hit her in a different way that it hit a lot of people. >> i remember my mother saying she did not know why we as loyal americans were sent away from home. it was never any proof never any indication that a japanese-american or even a japanese immigrant like my grandparents had participated in any espionage. but my mother and father had to be very careful even with where they stopped to get gas, where they stepped the grocery stores, and in some cases they were not allowed in. >> the government is a great propaganda machine. when i was in high school, a small high school, three floors, as you go upstairs you turn right or left and there is a wall. you grew up and there is another well. on each of those walls was a japanese with a bayonet in the

baby. that was the kind of propaganda. one example. in today caricatured the japanese so that they appeared more like simians they and the humans. you have to remember that culturally they were pretty much the same. they came here as small children. so, for all intent and purposes they were american. >> even after they returned home, they felt the effects of the resonating order and they would feel it for generations to come. >> you know that precedent was there, deep down. how do we change things? >> to watch all of the winning videos and learn more about the competition, go to c-span.org and click on student cam. tell us what you think about

what these students wrote in their documentary on twitter. >> the generous los angeles times festival of books. we will be live on april 18 and 19 from the university of southern california campus. the deputy publisher of the l.a. times will be there. when did you start sponsoring this book fair? >> at about 20 years ago. it is the 20th anniversary of the festival of books. it was an important way they could engage and provide a space for all kinds of people from publishers authors, thinkers but also chefs and artists and actors in actresses to come together to celebrate los

angeles. one of the creative capitals of the world. >> what can we expect next week in los angeles? >> we will have over 500 authors, celebrities musicians artists and hundreds of booksellers, publishers, cultural organizations across nine stages. something for everyone. when your kids, grandparents. huge amount of stuff going on. candace bergen, tc boyle, sarah destin brian grazer, billy idol, joyce carol oates a science fiction writer, tavis smiley are -- tavis smiley. hipsters, spanish-language programming, more than 100 conversations on everything from california to digital privacy

rights to the future of the american identity. >> what kind of reaction do you get from the community to a book fest? >> you know, it has been an immediate success. when it started 20 years ago and immediately became a cornerstone event in culture in california. a signature event. the los angeles time invites all folks around the community to come celebrate the great city. it has grown into one of the largest festivals of its kind, there is nothing like it anywhere in the united states. it started very simply as bringing together people who create books and people who love to read them, but it has grown into this much broader celebration. among other things, we have a big book award we give out every year. the shareware adding something new, and ideas exchange where malcolm gladwell will be in conversation with the los angeles times film critic.

if you listen to npr, you are probably familiar with the film critic. >> as regular viewers know, book tv will also be there. the c-span bus will be there. we have partnered with the l.a. times festival of books to create a book bag. we'll be handing those out from the bus. just on the usc campus, we are about one half a block. is there a cost to attending the festival? >> the bulk of the event is free, some are ticketed due to limited space, but this is really a chance to invite the country and. to invite los angeles in. to partner with usc will stop to look at california as the gateway to both latin america and the pacific rim. to look at some of the future. to look at the challenges the

country faces in the future from drought and climate change to immigration and the multi-cultural diversity of this nation. across the board, all kinds of exciting opportunities. >> you can follow the book fest at lafob. los angeles festival of books. thank you for being here. book tv will be live on c-span to our weekend next weekend from the los angeles times festival of books. saturday and sunday, april 18 and 19. go to booktv to get the full schedule. all we can live on book tv. >> coming up next, q&a with senior editor andrew bergeson.

then, former secretary of state hillary clinton announcing her candidacy for president on a video posted online earlier today. and later, a look at the influence of political spouses. ♪ >> this week on "q&a," our guest is "the weekly standard" senior editor andrew ferguson. he talks about gop presidential candidates, his career, and his approach to writing. brian lamb: andrew ferguson of "the weekly standard." we call this our odds and ends with andrew. i want to go over some of the columns you have written and get your embellishment. let's start with showing an appearance of years,