Evening Exchange; Voter Registration Initiative for Women / Black Men Documentary / Travel Trends

Summer travel tips for you why Al Sharpton is trying to register new voters and a love letter to black men. Hey thanks. All next an evening exchange. Hi. I'm Cojo on the Welcome to evening exchange. Here's what we know or think we do. Reverend Al Sharpton is considering a run for president. He's the founder of the National Action Network the National Action Network is launching the truth hammer of voter registration campaign. All that's left will connect the dots but we're not here to connect dots. We're here to ask questions. And here to answer them is Marjorie Harris Michael executive director of the

National Action Network. Welcome. Thank you. And Reverend Al Sharpton welcome to you here. First the name of this voter registration campaign needs to be explained. It's the truth namer campaign. Why those names. The losers who could explain the bill to the list he defers. Absolutely. I decided to name it. The truth Hammerer initiative after Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer because of their roles and advocating the rights of women and particularly women of color. And we decided to use it. But I always say that it could be named anything be named after he was Barnette it could be named after Shirley Chisholm. But these two women were so instrumental we decided that that would be you know good inspiration for the voters drives have you phone with the name of the campaign constitutes constitutes an education in itself. In other words have a lot of people are going to ask you the same question that I just heard most of them do especially with Fannie Lou Hamer some of them I

understand Sojourner Truth but Fannie Lou Hamer. You know I've read so much about her story and and just you know what she did to really inspire the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was indeed her role in the Democratic convention in 1964. And when she brought the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to Atlantic City. That really inspired you know a really set forth the motion for President Johnson in 1965 to sign the Voting Rights Act. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of Fannie Lou Hamer. Reverend Al Sharpton what's the purpose of this voter registration. Well I think when women say that they want to mobilize First of all the consistent outpour of voter participation from women has exceeded that myth. But I think there is a desire to hold elected officials and candidates accountable. All issues that are of particular concern with is an increase of breast cancer and a disproportionate level of community. A lot of other people are

talking about public education. Women particularly single mothers have to deal with the abuse to women. So I think that it will. Ms Harris who came forward and said she wanted to deal with this. Many of us felt that it was the right thing to do to support all evil that was not part of the no way lawyer if you will register Democrat Republican really doesn't matter to engage people in the process particularly women because of the that we all should rally around and we're fully committed to it. I'll get back to the alleged nonpartisanship of the vote of women in the second. But first talk about how many women you want to register and where we will be registering. Over a million women to vote nationwide. And our goal is to register them before the 2004 national election. We are looking at regions right now. I've actually visited several states since our launch on April 5th and we've garnered support from the state of Mississippi from the state of Connecticut around the country women are beginning to mobilize and really discuss the issue and the need for women's issues to be out

front particularly in the 2004 election. Who tends to be unregistered women into what social category classes or demographic groups do they tend to fall. It's across the board because as of November 2001 there were 36 million women not registered to vote in this country. And that cuts across the net ages 18 and over limit of voting. Exactly. So that cuts across all socioeconomic classes and races. But we're going to focus on the women that are not traditionally targeted with your Get Out The Vote effort. We're going to go into the battered women shelters into the high schools and areas in the community. You know the communities that we serve and those can be the areas that we focus on to register women. Which brings me to the aforementioned alleged nonpartisanship. All statistics indicate that women vote in greater numbers for Democratic candidates than they do for Republican candidates. And in the categories that Ms. Harris Michael just mentioned that they're looking to women who have not traditionally been registered. I

suspect most Republican office holders would see that as potential Democratic votes don't you. Well I think that when you see a nonpartisan voter registration drive you're not trying to influence them to beat them. It's their choice. If I was a Republican holder I'd compete for that vote. I would just write it off. I think that people like J.C. Watts and others that have said they want to bring the Republican Party and broaden it and bring it to urban areas bring it to people of color. They have a challenge with this initiative to make the argument that those women who are nontraditional which means some of them may be turned off by the Democrats which is why they haven't registered. Maybe they can make the argument. I think that the fact that there is an initiative by women means that people should seriously and less on me that the public marketplace and argue on behalf of our party they have an opportunity to do so with this initiative. Mr. Smike are theoretically if more people more women are registered. It

expands democracy. Is that the only purpose of this registration right. Right now that is our focus our focus is to register women and to bring forth the issues that are important to women. You know it's important for as Sharpton said that we bring you know hold each party accountable for the issues that are important to us. And I think that once we are able to mobilize over a million women then everyone you know each party or every party is going to hear. But what we're trying to say Reverend Sharpton it's well known that you have formed an exploratory committee to look into the issue of running for president. Is there a relationship between whether this registration drive or voter registration in general and what your exploratory committee is looking at. In other words is the level of voter registration among certain demographic groups going to influence your decision as to whether or not you're going to get this drive wouldn't have an influence because well if I were to run I would

be leaving actually that works. I have no direct or indirect involvement in all of the drive because I couldn't run for president and run National Action Network. Or whether or not we would do voter registration at a later time. World tour 2004 would be something I'd have to determine then but there a drive to register voters now clearly couldn't have anything directly to do with 2004 race. Even registered people now in November they could vote for me in 2000 for anyone else. So clearly that's not to do with the presidential race because they starting to move ahead of them. And if I were to do registration I wouldn't do it until 2004 so those I register would register to vote for me and I'll be registering early in the party that I'm running because it will help me if they were registered in another part of the way to make sure that it is not going to be beneficial to any candidate. Is everybody running for president all the support the truth or initiative and they are going to join. Last week appeared at the DNC

rally with former President Bill Clinton Terry McAuliffe. Every candidate including George Bush ought to support the job and make sure that none of us have an advantage. That's why you keep eating. There's a difference between our two and it's supporting. He mentioned one prominent Democrat former president who is supporting the drive can you mention Similarly any prominent Republicans supporting the right. Not yet but I'm quite sure that they will. You know so far we've had Geraldine Ferraro the former vice presidential candidate. Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. We have strong support in the Latino community the publisher and CEO of LTE audio and New York is one of our our very strong supporters in the effort. So as the word gets out I'm quite sure that Republican candidates will come forward as well. One of you impressed me at the launch she was low in office holders when she mentioned Geraldine Ferraro who's no longer in office. What is it from the Democrats to see from the Republican woman Evelyn Cunningham who is probably

considered the leading female senior adviser in the Republican Party was there and with very much support. So I think that it is good. I think that we should not underestimate a lot of people's feelings of disenfranchisement after the 2000 election. A lot of people feel that their vote was was less than regarded and in fact all was disenfranchised. And unless you have initiatives and drives like this that really goes in and gives people a reason to engage in the process. I think we're going to see we or selling off. We were really seen in some of the elections last year. Voter turnout went down. Unless you have these types of drives I think you're going to see the erosion rather than increase and I think we cannot afford for that to happen regardless of what party and regardless of what politics we may scratch one of the reasons that I was implying that prominent Republicans may not support this trial is because they have been opposed to for instance motor voter registration in the past because they feel that the demographic groups that

will be encouraged to register to vote as a result of such strategies are going to end up voting Democratic and you're going to be running if you do run initially probably as a Democrat and the Democratic Party and one of the things you want to do is to put together a coalition in the Democratic Party that will not be as influenced by the Democratic Leadership Council as the Democratic Party. Now is it just seems to me that a lot of the voters that we're talking about here are likely to be able to buttress a coalition such as the one you could would be based on increase. But then again you have other options. There are a lot of women that don't like either party like Ralph Nader did. There's no way of knowing where people will go typically to be non-traditional. But my challenge as someone who is clearly outside of the tribe is that. But I am but I'm not involved in the drive I'm just simply my challenges when I hear people make the argument whether it be George Bush or

J.C. Watts that they only come to the marketplace unless Let's get it. I would love to get to 2000. Armstrong Williams and eating black Republicans sounds Charles really couldn't get the Republican convention. I went with him. I think there's nothing wrong. What are seeing what everybody has to say and you may find out that you agree with some of it. I choose not to agree with that. But let women make their own choice. You don't want to register American voters before November 2002 2004 2004. I thought this was for the mid-term elections. Now this week for the national election in 2004. When does the campaign get underway and how do you assess and evaluate its success. Long the way we are meeting with people now wherever we travel I've met with community leaders I've met with a lot of people in the churches. A lot of pastors have come forth. I was in St. Louis and I met with about seven or eight pastors in St. Louis and ministers who said that they want to get their communities and their churches involved. So we will probably

officially launched sometime on the beginning of the summer. But right now we are mobilizing so much support nationally in that that I really don't see a problem in terms of getting things off the ground. Al Sharpton why do you want to run for president why are you thinking about it. I think that there needs to be an expansion of the debate. I think that in many ways we've seen in the last decade and a half a move by the Democratic Party to the right of the whole Democratic Leadership Council that was set up to try and move the party back away from progressive ideas I think has to be challenged and I think that if we can come up with a winning viable strategy and I think we can then that race has to be run for the Democratic Party to no longer represent working class people who no longer represent people that are not pro-business anti-death penalty people looking for an alternative to military buildup as our foreign policy for. It did not represent those interests and not be that party to me is something that is not

tolerable. I think that when we think of the Democratic Party we used to think of everyone from Franklin Delano Roosevelt New Deal to Lyndon Johnson's Great Society to Adam Clayton Powell legislative agenda. We no longer see that as that party. We see a lot of people who are just Republican lite. I'd like to say Elephas with democratic or dunky jackets. I think it's time to go back to the real Democratic Party if we're going to be that we'll have a challenge and a fight to see what their party is going to be. Given the approval ratings of the last president even when he was besieged. Bill Clinton had very high approval ratings. It would suggest to some people that the American people like where the Clinton presidency placed itself in the center of the political spectrum and not to the left. If you you know you like one pair of sneakers until another pair comes out there's nothing to compare it. They like Bill Clinton as opposed to George Bush. But the question is if there was something even more progressive than Clinton would they have

gone for that. And I think that what we're doing is we're comparing whether you like someone more conservative or less conservative. And that's the choice that we had. Yes compared to all to get for me to all the former speaker or Newt Gingrich Gingrich and Bush Clinton look like a fresh glass of water. But until you bring in a fresh wave of water you might say I want the spring so I can keep drinking and not just have one cup. What evidence can you present to our viewers that there is a yearning for a left for the Democratic Party as it now exists. When you look at what is going on in the country when you look at the fact that there still is to single discrimination from mortgage lending to health care. The fact is that these policies have not serviced all American and again you don't just do the polls you do that by lead. If we would buy a poll we'd have never fought against slavery because the polls we're told is that most people in America was for

slavery and segregation. Martin Luther King Jr. said there are two types of leaders. They are the monitors that judge the temperature the thermostats the change the temperature. I come out of the thermostat tradition of leadership. I'm not testing the temperature. I want to change the temperature. And I think if you have that type of atmosphere you can buy a national election change the climate to which you think is popular will become unpopular if it's properly checked. How do you prevent that from being stigmatized as a black candidacy in an effort to get together the black voters and the Democratic Party and use that as a bargaining chip at the convention or after. Well to answer that one you're going to be addressing much more broad issues than just for black Americans. And we've already begun to do that would go over the last several years with many issues from the environment to the military to to the vehicles and other issues. Secondly though I think that we've got to ask people if they're going to put us in a box. Then why don't we put other people in that box. How come all we can ask Mr Dashwood who

comes from South Dakota is he run a white campaign because very few blacks in the state and very few that vote this year. Is he running a white campaign. Or Edwards or me. So why would we allow them to put on me. I certainly have a broader base of support than anybody talking about run and maybe other than to go rug's because I've demonstrated a larger percentage of white voters that have supported me in New York. Well most of the people that run and have demonstrated black voters in their home state. So let's come to the table with one measurements did you're seeking to expand the coalition that the Reverend Jesse Jackson started to build in 1984 and 1988 in those campaigns and a lot of media I think of the Village Voice in particular have run articles either comparing you to the Reverend Jesse Jackson indicating that you want to replace him in some way or the other when you have made it clear that you like to build on his legacy. What's the personal relationship between you two. Reverend Jackson was one of my mentors is no one's will replace Jesse

Jackson nor should it. But many of us can continue to work in our generation. I was reading a New Yorker magazine cover story the next. Bill Clinton is a John Edwards. Why can't they say that people like me are going to be the next Jesse Jackson or the next. People aspire to be Dr. King. Why is it when it's blacks we have to be fighting each other. But what is white is a logical extension. I don't accept that premise. I think that if we can continue and brushes the work of people like Reverend Jackson brothers that were ahead of us then that's what we're supposed to do and I will not have people trivialize us as some brothers out in the yard in a brawl while whites are having a natural expansion of of what their upper city generation did. And I believe that we see the generation it was about five or six years apart. So I think that's a lot of racial linguistics that the media wants to use a lot of the Cojo is because they can't tolerate what one black guy at a time. We've got to have Jackson not for me. SHARPTON No we can't get them all at one time. We can never allow them to say that. We

always had more than one black leader out of the time we had Malcolm And Dr. King and Thurgood Marshall and they were all at the same time. How did we get in an era with technology and have to have less blacks talking. All right. Dickie are you looking for Reverend Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition support and I choose to run. I'll look for everybody support but I'm not asking for support yet because I have not decided to run yet when I decide what I'll be asking everybody to support. And between you and me I'll be asking for your support. Well you know the name of the new baby gorilla at the National Zoo. Make sure you say coach or not they support when you're asked. I want to the. And if she raises you call Joe the gorilla I to Marjorie Harris might come back to you that has pointed out that this campaign this voter registration campaign was your idea. Why did you want to do it. Every week I volunteer in a shelter in New York City. And it's a place where women between ages of 18 and 24 reside there on public assistance and they're all single mothers who are trying to basically transition

into another part of their lives and going in each week I realize that these women really don't have a voice in that community. A lot of the issues they talk to me about in terms of health care education opportunities I mean a lot of these women don't even know how to open a checking account. And so I said well what is it that we can do to really put their issues out there and it would have to be bringing their voices and their issues to the friend the community and to the front of political platforms and that would be to register them to vote. And so that was kind of the inspiration for me to get out there and decide to register more open and like them. Marjorie Harris like well good luck to you in the campaign. Thank you very much. Rather than Al Sharpton Good luck to you in your future pondering activities. Thank you. We'll be following you. When we come back. That love letter to black men in a unique form. It.

It's called Brother and you'll be seeing it soon here on Howard University television co-producer Dimitri Arroyo's calls her a love letter to black. Which means it's your love little brother the word even though it's specifically about five black men. Who are these lucky man. Well frankly their accomplishments required a lot more than luck. But really the producers of this documentary tell you about that with Louise diamond and Demetria roils. Royals. Welcome. Why did you call this your love letter to blackmail. Well I thought about it I've been thinking. I teach on. And on a college level. And I think one of things that really profoundly bothered me over a series of time was the messages that I saw young black men getting about themselves and internalizing it

and also realizing too that you know I live in New York and watching the Abner Louima situation happen and watching the prison industrial complex keep growing and something just didn't add up for me didn't add up in terms of the black men I knew who in the words of my grandmother brought me safely across them so I decided that I wanted to talk about a black man that I knew that loved me and love black women like me. And since my media missed film I decided to make a film about those black men I knew. Maya Angelou talks about her. She rose and I wanted to talk about our heroes. How did you lose Louisa Dimond decide on the five black list you decided to feature in this documentary. Well we went through a process together we had done a prior film called conjure women which we'll talk about that later in this. As always we came second. I

saved the best for last. But we were really looking at particularly how artists can use their work to talk about things that are hard to talk about and also transform things that are hard to talk about and transmit culture. And in a sense. Show people away and we were very interested in looking at a particular group of African-American artists who we had profiled for women and we were looking at the next piece and originally looking at it from a music. Really looking at message music and found a group of men that we really wanted to focus on including Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. And we built on it from there because we realized that in many mediums and photography and dance and music there was people there were black men who were giving this message and also that it was very accessible it was very universal and yet at the same time you

could transmit both historic and cultural realities that are in the normal course of your life. You may not talk about with the person you know in a public discourse. We wanted to use the arts to generate that discourse about things that are universal but also very specific to that cultural and historical perspective. Did you write that these five artists by process of elimination. Well no I think what I would not be interested in will get knocked out because that one person didn't get knocked out. Unfortunately he left us too early. One of the people I wanted to do was Curtis Mayfield but he was in the process of dying. But he said he wanted to he wanted to do that and the other person I wanted to do was the four tops because there's a family story that I've grown up with all my life where my brothers and sisters said they came in a room when I was about four years old and they found me trying to open the television because I saw leave

Levi Stubbs on the Ed Sullivan Show and I was determined I had something to tell him. So I figured he was in the TV so they found me trying to open it to talk to him in terms of how you will be happy to know that we featured Four Tops in one edition evening. Well you come back if he comes back I'll do anything really I mean anything. And and in terms of the staple singers I knew I was very much moved by that music because specifically at that time I was in a boarding school in New England and felt pretty lonely. You know in terms of when in Vermont. And so that music really kept me sane. And in terms of Chester Higgins when I was in film school when they were teaching lighting there was no one like me. And so I literally learned lighting by watching Chester he can see photographs. So each one of those people really resonated for me in terms of

at a particular point in my life when I needed that they were there in some ways getting 500 here an evening exchange so far because we've also had Chester like you've never seen a Higdon's quite like you will see him in this documentary brother men and so we'd like to give you that opportunity right now to take a look at a segment of the documentary that features just to show that there was a world community. And that you don't have to stop just hear. Me think about our work and what we are. We. All know that. And we do so many different things that are similar and different. But they all. Kind of like a quote you know down south I make clothes. We African people are quote. One piece of all quarters over here one piece of our US over there so why don't. But when you put this quote together and you get on the road. And a cold day and warm you up because course the whole quote. All those patches

work to warm you up and all those patches keep you safe in the winter. And take you forward to the spring and summer. They protect you from pneumonia protect you from bad cold as it gets over the hard times. So I hope that by embracing this quote of a diaspora that whatever pain we have. Whatever we have this lacking. We can find that there are places in a world of which we can go and we can hold them up from here hold them over from there and reconstitute ourselves. That's empower them empowerment to have the ability to reconstitute ourselves in spite of the best efforts to annihilate. Here is very interesting in trying to affect how people look at aging and trying to change how we see aging and to see me as opposed to a negative way. And we live in a society where everything is

being. I come from a small town in Alabama 600 people call Brockton village and this town is in Alabama and Georgia and Alabama come together and grow up. Some of my greatest lines were people who were much older than me. Chester Higgins Jr. from the documentary brought men when you're talking to artists people who probably express themselves best through their art form. Do you have any trepidation as to whether or not they'll actually be great conversationalist or just a Higgens Jr. obviously turned out to be. I think it was Suneel and that he said that after the utter specif sympathy of the artist's experience they create something universal. And I think these particular men that we chose really embody that both in their work and also in their

essence and that in the way that they move through the world. I'm sorry that the way they move through the world television professionals always notice our film professionals always notice had you not pointed it out nobody would have known. And I think it's their experience is it becomes like a mirror to us it shows us something about ourselves. Both Cester as well as David you said the dancer who is also a writer and choreographer. Gamble and Huff. Even Mr. Hough who is more is a musician extraordinaire and expresses himself first and foremost through his music. We had some great conversations one on one talking to him as well as Mr. Gamble and of course the staples. I mean what can you say that just incredible people who've traveled all over this country. And so what it is is that it's not just that the artists they create in terms of a community and their

consciousness their level of self-awareness about their role as artists in popular medium. And. Well this runs the gamut from popular and commercial music to avant garde dance and of course Chesters photographs that are exhibited all over the world including at museums like the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Center. They are coming from a place where their work is set in the context of their community their families and and that I think was really a big piece for for how we were able to work together with them. I think they were something different and they do. And I really enjoyed it personally. I think there is really by my grandmother that the the most wonderful compliment she could give you was that person was a race woman race man.

That's true. And. I just basically realized that with every one of those artists they really dealt with me as a race woman. And you know and so was hysterical. I mean you know it's a Kenny Leon Huff is very shy. And we had him before about Lacey this little finger. You know his favorite Negev to black girl smile and. It was funny. He would do everything I wanted and I think that's what I mean our cultural markings in terms of knowing that I could ask them to take that walk with me and watching them in every way in terms of make themselves available and saying yes you must do this. And what can we do to help. You know like go on with your bad selves and I it was more than I did I did the film because I thought it was important. It really reground me again in terms of my cultural markings and I have to think every one of them in case you're just joining us we're

talking about the film brother men that will be seen here on Howard University television June 26 at 9:00 p.m. The only artist that you did that I was not very familiar with was David Rusev three who I saw listed as a dancer and choreographer but then I saw the documentary. He's a heck of an actor. He has a heck of a performance art. Yes he likes to say yes it does. Yes he does. Well I think it is very funny to me because one of the things that David and I share is and we've had long talks about that is how do we I look upon us and it was part of conjure women to look upon us as that generation of African-American students and I caught people that I call this post Brown versus the Board of Education. And so that we got to in record numbers not enough but we've got to go to graduate school film schools and to really horn our disciplines. But we made a deliberate choice to use those

skills to remember what our parents were told to forget if they were going to assimilate in this culture. And so with David because he teaches at you UCLA. And because I am the I. I am the director of the film and new media program at Sarah Lawrence. We were fascinated how we negotiate that world. But at the same time tell our own stories. So that was a very interesting conversation for us. And he told his story we talked about how. We're going to see a kind of gamble and Leon before we do tell some of our maybe younger viewers who they have to defer to the media. I know I know. Gamble and Huff from growing up in the suburbs of Long Island and not realizing that about I think during one year in 1972 they had on the top

20. They had I think 20 top 10 hits in one year. There were remarkable songwriters throughout their careers. Part of their career was during the time in the form of the record company Philadelphia International which unfortunately was associated with that thing called the school in some ways. However they are remarkable because even in that medium they brought a certain message to their music that you can find in many other places. I think for my generation and that was the I was an ABC student a better chance student you know so we I I. No disrespect to the experience but you know it was a time when people thought that it was important to remove quote unquote gifted kids from their environments and send them to the top prep schools in the country. And to me going from Harlem to a 300 acre estate in Vermont was a state of shock. And I was absolutely I was literally traumatized. And I remember listening

to what really got me through was this music you know these guys Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and I I am fast forward. Some years later and I was standing in a I was standing in a post office and you know it was overwhelming. Overwhelmingly you know African-Americans and there were few Caucasians standing in there and we're all minding our own business. And then what comes on is done dun dun dun that. And I think every white person thought we were having a seizure because every black person without looking at it was I will always love my mom and it was really culturally to us. We knew that was what we were about. So I really loved those guys just one of the songs written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. But enough talk about them. Let's take a look. At the Great

Spirit. What you see is a message and I've always. Tried to write. A. Whole song about dance. And. Everything and. You look at gambling. Not. Only. Did. We write a song. But we also. Got other writers like. Inspired so sweet and you know 20 years is. No way possible. To use any. Expression.

Was what we felt about. The song. And. That song is pretty much said that. The rules. Constitution. Documents. A. Workable but make a great country song you say you got to make this right about social issues. Money money money of a different kind of songs. It was just focused and we were just sitting there all creative might just be free. Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff from the documentary brought them men I'd like to talk a little bit about pop staples. I've never had the opportunity the chance to meet papa. They forgot he was alive.

But two things impressed me obviously what you will be dealing with in the documentary is that what he conveyed to the music of the Staple Singers. The thing that strikes me most about him was his dignity. And I think the thing that really in the process of doing the documentary you know he was quite ill we got to start filming in the last year of his life and we had conducted a wonderful interview with his daughter Mavis Staples and his other daughters Yvonne and Cleo and one of the things that I just Hoppe's was raised as a sharecropper and he brought his family to Chicago and he worked up from there and he never forgot. And one of the last songs he did on his album which won an Emmy for him. I mean the Grammy award when he was 82 was the line. You know watch where you're going remember where you've been. And I think that's the essence of

his message he constantly gave the message to keep going to remember where you come from to build on it. And his message was it wasn't just intellectual when you saw him with his daughters. He was living every day what he was talking about. And I think people really sense that he was a very powerful presence in Pop Staples of course across several generation gaps when you did this is that one of the reasons you selected him mentally that reason was because I think one of the things that we always talk about is black men and their sons. And I think one of the stories that has yet to be told is black men and their daughters. And so I really wanted to show not only his message I mean I think one of the things that was so moving from me to the moment he died you could see a man still so grieved by Martin Luther the death of Martin Luther King because they were very close. He was in Memphis when

he died. I'm with him. And also this is a man that really I mean the dynamic between especially southern black men and their daughters and that we were teasing I was teasing Mavis that southern black girl was put down. Daddy one word my daddy. That's why I thought that was really marvelous. We don't see that very often indication of the relationship between pop staples and his daughters. Rather men will be aired on Howard University television on June 26 at 9:00 p.m.. Of course when they do episode two of the men you know it will feature. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you so much. Travel Industry insights as you make plans for the summer. When we come back. Americans are reportedly taking to the skies again. Hotel rooms are reportedly filling up gas prices

going up and would be travelers are scouring the Internet and looking for the best deal. Well we think we've got the best deal for you right here in the form of Eugene Lynnae director of information and Legislative Services at the National Business Travel Association. And Keith Alexander business class travel columnist for The Washington Post. Eugene Laney you conducted a survey. The NBA team did back in March. Tell us how travel today compares to say a year ago. Well right now post-9 11 where we're seeing people begin to get back on the road again slowly again security is a main concern for a lot of travelers. In addition the economy is starting to move again and that's going to really spur some businesses to get their people back on the road we're seeing on consumer. Consumer spending is back up. So that means that businesses are trying to really meet a lot of their products out there so we're really seeing people getting back on the road again. Your members of course which include airlines car rental companies hotels

and the like say that current travel spending is below normal levels. Most of them yeah what we're saying is that business travel is down about 10 percent. Leisure travel is down about 5 percent. Now what the airlines and the car rental companies and a lot of the travel suppliers are trying to do now is trying to reduce capacity to meet this new demand model where you're seeing a slowdown in leisure travel and then you're seeing a real slowdown in business travel. So what they're trying to do is send out a lot of discounts out there to try to get people back on the road. But at the same time they're trying to reduce some of that capacity they have out there. Indeed Keith Alexander the airlines started rolling out this summer discount packages a little earlier this year than they normally do but they're still rolling them out right now. Sometimes they never used to roll out till May this year they started rolling them out as early as March. Does that mean there are a lot of good deals out there both for business travelers and for the average leisure travel. That is correct. The airlines Southwest Airlines was actually the first airline to

begin some fares a similar discount fare back in April mid-April. As a matter of fact. And what we're going to see is that the airlines that are financially stronger Southwest Airlines again it was the only airline last year to make a profit $500 million. That's correct. And this year is going to be the only airline again to earn a profit. So Southwest was in a better position to discount fares. And we're seeing a lot of aggressive moves by Southwest and other airlines like Southwest trying to get those travelers on board those planes those as early as possible. We just saw here with here at BWI for instance southwest just this year nonstop service between its first nonstop service between BWI and Los Angeles International Airport. What that means is that's half off half of ticket price you're offering or $200 round. Where else the cost about $500 roundtrip with other airlines between BWI you know acts between September the other airlines are saying no fair. That's what they're saying is that you know we can compete on other ways we can compete with more room your plane so we can compete with

real service give or take if anyone the time of day you fly we can compete with flying internationally building a frequent flyer miles. But most travelers are saying look if I can fly nonstop between BWI and L.A. are five and a half hour flight mind you. Meals just snacks crackers that we're willing to take a sandwich or go to McDonald's and grab something and take it on a flight and just sit back and you know only pay into a dollar. So we're seeing a lot of aggressive move by Southwest Airlines. Well I've got to tell you in recent times I have heard many people saying I'm traveling because of those wonderful meals on the flight. It's usually a matter of economics when people invest with her or her. The founder one of the co-founders of Southwest Airlines says he said I don't know anyone who flies when you're flying for the view that you're not flying for the right reason. Indeed what are hotels doing to try to bring back business. Well hotels are doing. They have an aggressive program to start a war of words in six continents announced a program today where they would give you a 10 percent discount on any hotel room that you book on a Web site outside of their web site. Now what exactly

does this mean this means that if you if you go to let's say like Travelocity where you're book a hotel room that's maybe $100 if you go back to maybe a stall warning that's 10 percent off that's $90 on that on that fare. It saves the hotels cost as well as saving the traveler costs so they're really moving aggressively in instances like that. There are car rental companies what they're doing is they're asking people if you can pay before you come to the check in. We will give you a discount there. They're asking for prepaid. So there are a lot of aggressive movements out there to try to really provide some discounts to travelers. Hotels are doing the same thing for the first time. Hotels are there if you prepay. You can get discounts. So you know it's pre-existing with that as well. Let Eugene raise the issue of the Internet and booking on the Internet we're the ones going to Travelocity or one of the other popular Web sites. There has been some controversy over whether or not what you can get online is necessarily the best deal.

Talk about square Cojo what we've noticed is that several of these major online companies have lost Expedia or Expedia straightening these or marketing deals with airlines if they enter an exclusive arrangement with the airline for a promo on the website you say Delta Airlines have little promo little icon on Travelocity. Joe wants to these home page or your lines or something like that. What I suggest is those airlines that did not have a marquee agreement do they get the best treatment. Are there affairs or do they show up at the same time as those airlines that do have working agreements on all of their best fares shown even if they don't have a marquee agreement with the airline. Well we just noticed that it was last week. Northwest Airlines put out a fare to frame for it I believe and Travelocity and Expedia would not do not display the fare. They said it was a competition to one of their European carriers. So they didn't show up here Orbitz on site

travel site which is owned by five of the major airlines did show the fear. So many people always wonder which side you go to which I do recommend and always tell them Look there are numerous travel sites out there just like shopping for a car or anything else go shop around because one or two or three travel sites and that way between those three or four sites that are looking at you might find the best fare. So go to them all those are the many ways you can get them all. That's the advice here. It's very important to look around it. And more important to that point is that it really shows the importance of a travel agent. They come they become the impartial agent for the for the consumer because what happens is is that a lot of times on this on these sites as you noted they have agreements with a lot of the carriers. What this means is that sometimes a particular carry will appear at the top of the display. So what I would urge your viewers to do is to continue to go down to scroll to the next line and to really compare prices within a site so it's not only important to research

various sites but that site itself to look and dig deeper and try to find some some good deals there. To what extent are leisure travelers this summer going to be finding alternate alternative means to travel outside airlines. To what extent has the use of trains increased. I know you have written Keith Alexander about the cell between New York and Washington. Look overall and we'll get to that in a second. Overall to what extent are people choosing road and you can you can hear there's an interesting stat it shows that there were 90000 passengers on Amtrak in August and now they're pushing close to 200000 passengers. There's a huge increase and mainly it's competition between Boston New York and Washington that whole little corridor where Sayliyah is really competing against the Delta shadow and U.S. Airways So are you seeing more people traveling on to sell it. Sell myself. More importantly what a lot of analysts have looked at is that they're saying there's going to be more regional travel as opposed to people pulling putting out a lot of cash to go to places like

St. Lucia and places like that you're seeing more people you know traveling within their regions. And that's to car train and shuttles. Now back to what Arsala is doing on these corridors between New York Boston Washington D.C. It seems like they're really taking a whole lot of passengers away from the airlines and doing it fairly aggressively. However since September 11 Cojo you can imagine a lot of people have decided that flying today is just more inconvenient than they would rather rather do. So many people are opting who are going between Washington and New York or New York and Boston they are opting for the train opting for opting for this new high speed train called the Excello espresso Amtrak which owns the train. This is a great marketing opportunity. So what they've been doing is adding more of these high speed trains on this route system and Delta and US Airways have been responding by increasing their work. And you've seen the ads where the planes faster than the train. Now that's not news.

So having one of the reasons that they were choosing the train over the plane is not only the fact that in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks they were concerned about flying. They were also concerned about the long waits in lines that had to have an airport that they don't necessarily have the training. And that's part of the airline's marketing campaign they're saying that you can get from the front door of the airport to the to the airline to a plane within 20 minutes. Delta has gone so far even saying that we will give you twenty thousand forty five miles if it takes you more than 20 minutes to board a flight. And they say they've only given away one 12000 mile package. What's interesting is that Delta itself admits that the accelerated rate has taken away about 20 percent of its passengers 20 percent of its revenue. So we're going to see more of this this competition to see the competition this battle if you will between big Excel and the. And what about gas prices. What are they looking like around the country.

Well what we're seeing an increase in gas prices. One of the things is that Iraq decided to pull back on their their move to try to you know affect the gas prices and within the nation as far as oil prices for the airlines. They're they're they're struggling with it represents 13 percent of their costs. More importantly for the airlines they're concerned about labor costs. So as you see you know as we get closer to the travel season of the summer season you're going to see those gas prices kind of inch up a little bit and that may have an impact on you know in the airlines car rental companies and of course the hotels which will try to use these energy surcharges that they add onto. Is this a good time to remind people that if you rent a car fill the tank before you take it back. Exactly I would recommend that not only that but I would recommend since there are so many fees associated with car rental I would recommend people to make sure that you're using an off airport facility because if you use an airport facility their facility charges as an addition to the Mr. miscible fees that go on to that car rental rate so I would advise you to try to use an offsite car rental for the theme of the thing.

Well the convenience is that the airport facilities often open much later in the evening than the other. I suppose at 6 o'clock the airport facility is open to 9:00 or 10:00 at night. Sometimes it's the only place you can get to people. People and paying for that convenience speaking of inconvenience. I booked a flight it's a round trip flight. The point at which I booked the flight. They tell me it's going to be a non-stop flight. And then when my ticket finally arrives and I check on it at some point I find that all of a sudden that is no longer a nonstop flight. What options do I have. We'll go to a lot of travelers are complaining about this. Airlines as you know as well because of the September 11th attacks a lot of the airlines have reduced the law that applies they've eliminated flights. So many people who are booked flights prior to September 11th are now being told you know that flight that you book with is summer that you thought was non-stop Well nonstop no longer exists. And now you have a connection through Chicago connection through Charlotte. Basically what the airlines are basically saying is that they promised to get you from point A to Point B. And yes you originally said that you went on a non-stop

but in their contract and that stipulation is that their job mainly is to get you from point A to Point B. That's what you're paying for. And so you can go you can go back to the airline and say look I didn't pay for this. I want to get a nonstarter. There's an app available. Especially these days where airlines need all the traveler they can get all the repeat business they can get. You can try to haggle back but the airlines are basically saying you know it's in the contract you know you pay for it if you're paying for it to get from A to B. And we can have the right to do whatever we need to do to get you from point A to Point B. According to the American Express business travel monitor since January 1996 the typical business fare has risen by some 78 percent while the average fare pay it is up only 16 percent. Does that mean at this point that the advantage is definitely with the leisure traveler you have the advantage is definitely with the leisure traveler. And that's some of the problems that corporations are having now is that when they provide all these discounts post-911 that ceiling fayer which is a full fare the fare that way it's refundable stay the same it increased it kept it kept going up and up. There were no declines in that while

leisure fares went down. So what the carriers are trying to do now is try to figure out a way to bring leisure fares up. You saw that several of the carriers increased fares and they were hoping that some of the other carriers would match it and that didn't occur. American West went as far as to really try to address this issue the disparity between business fares and leisure fares. And it didn't work out so you know they're going to keep trying throughout the summer until they can really get those leisure fares up to meet that corporate so they can try to get business travelers back on the road again. It's a very very interesting Taiwo tightrope they're walking because they're still dealing with passenger loads are still lower. And so how do you keep increasing your past of those without deterring them and upsetting people by raising the fear. So it was a very interesting balance that are trying to do here. And that all in all what does that mean for the average leisure travelers who was planning on flying someplace this summer. Is that individual likely to find lower fares than a year ago or higher.

It depends on where you're going international. There are a few things are going on abroad that is causing people not to want to fly internationally. And so now would be a good time to fly to to Europe or in certain places. No not Middle East right now might not be a good time to go. But the airlines are really trying to get more people on all these international routes. U.S. Airways is really trying to build up its Caribbean and South American system. So they're offering deals down there as well. So those are good areas to think about as well domestically hotels this year as opposed to last year you're flying better hotels lower right. Well it's starting to inch up now because what happens is if you have a lot of discounts within the airline industry that means that more of this increases demand for hotels and that means they're going to increase their rates because they know that that demand is out there. So what I would advise everyone to do is now to try to book your hotels at this point because at this point there are a lot of discounts out there. Bottom line get out there and do your research. Thank you very much gentlemen. Our thanks to all of our guests for being here most of all thanks to you for watching. Stay well. Goodnight