An hour with Delano Lewis - Encore

former ambassador to south africa before that director of national public radio graduate of the university of kansas and washburn university i'm kay mcintyre today on k pr presents the way you know louis and the power of education to transform lives louis was born in our kansas city and grew up in kansas city where he attended summer academy he's the author of the autobiographical motivational book it all begins with selfie he returned to kansas city to speak at the kauffman foundation conference center on april twenty seven two thousand sixteen where he was introduced by a new chancellor bernadette wray little ambassador louis served as ambassador to south africa from nineteen ninety nine to two thousand one having been employed by president clinton and he received pay us' highest are the distinguished service citations in nineteen ninety four in addition to his service as ambassador he has worked in a number of positions and global corporate and public affairs he has worked in the

us department of justice and in the peace corps in nigeria and uganda he has served on many corporate boards including apple black entertainment television and colgate palmolive and just add a little bit more to the range of service and work it just heard from a doctor manager this evening that while he was in law school he supported himself by working at the manager climate working with children and a way in which he'd learned which he provided service the ambassador's career lends itself very well to tonight's topic the transformational power of education is something that i believe in an absolutely and then dedicated to and i look for very much to hearing your thoughts please welcome ambassador louis having a real pleasure thank you to

chancellor for their beautiful wonderful introduction it's quite an honor to have the chance or mama mater to introduce me cause we have such have such great memories of the university and i could say to you a chance for a little that my book isn't title it all begins with self that i can probably change that by saying to you that it all began at you because that's one that they'll close and she's here tonight and we will be celebrating weed we have some fun memories of the universe to kansans we made right after graduation i went on the washburn as you noted and we've been there were married fifty six years this come in june so and we are proud to say we have for adult sons and eleven

grandchildren so we are very blessed but i was like kauffman foundation for this gracious invitation to share some thoughts with you tonight on education i must say some knowledge to saran duchin he's a senior fellow here kaufman and he was the one who had the idea that we are bringing the leno back hole kaufman will be involved and so he started the whole row again this invitation happened and a lot of scientists around that we met on a plane not too long ago and gill says always i'll talk to anybody not that you're a bison ranch but we weren't first class together and we just hit it off and spent a great time traveling now from san diego to new york and so he's a dear friend a great business person in that we become very good friends from that conversation and it's been very active recall but before i get my remarks i have to say this front row is a very distinguished front row and their awesome summer classmates here

and i will start tell and aids goes on this but classmates but it's always great to see my class nineteen fifty six and that for them to come to support me but this front row here is made up recent report relatives and i'm just pleased to hear you mentioned documented or how walt minnick are we have become friends better friends i was a childcare worker at the medical clinic when i was in law school and i work forty hours week and we have a lot the fragmented are about because that paid the rent and kept us together and provided us a great understanding of people and i was also very honored when members asked me half of it move from topeka to houston and dr waller asked me if i would be the keynote speaker for the opening of their facilities in houston so i was quite honored to go from a childcare worker to work to being a keynote speaker at

the opening of the facilities and used but i have to go down the line to talk about the new sheriff in in the shawnee county probably isn't so new herman jones is my cousin and he was elected sheriff of shawnee county i'm very proud of him and that i know is doing a fine job of law enforcement in shawnee county and i'm always unlike these issues when i'm going to the area but also plays that my family's here are high water share with you some thoughts about education about my background and leave some thoughts you think oh i grew up born are kansas city kansas but grew up in kansas city kansas by my dad came here to find a job and he found a job on the santa fe where and he spent thirty seven years on the senator and i grew up on the trains and out of trace this day my mother was a domestic and i she ended up she's a high school graduate and she and they're becoming a cosmopolitan a cosmetologist before she passed all

my dad just passed not too long ago at age eighty seven after thirty seven years on the santa fe but that doesn't only chow my family gave me everything they cook i must tell you that i didn't walk for much as an only child my parents paid for my tuition at the university of kansas there they paid for my last intuition metal bed if he would do that even after i was married i would take everything else thanks to mentors we were able to do that so you get the story out because education doesn't happen in a vacuum education happens when you get the support of people who love and care for you at a point you in those directions when i spoke to students of the charter school today are talking about keeping college on their mind but also talked about ways of having people supporting together so i mean i was growing up in a segregated kansas city i was saying that the streetcar that you're gonna have going down main street and my day the streetcar was a mode of transportation to get from kansas side missouri side i went to the only black high school in

the state of kansas that was somewhere high school and my classmates will testify that it was one of the best schools in the state because we had teachers who were are african american and working on a master's in their ph days who couldn't find jobs elsewhere because of racial discrimination and they taught at some we had some of the best teachers can ever fights of the educational foundation of summer was absolutely superior to most ah i always remember that in it then it's true today i became an academy in the prince will the summer academies here tonight became an academy in nineteen seventy eight and is still turn on that tradition of excellence and he told me the washing posters named him one of the best schools in the nation i'll for academic achievement so that that is still going on today but it was a black school in those days very elementary schools were segregated the high schools were integrated around cancers my cousins and southern kansas or an integrated school i work in kansas city went to the only black high school you know linda brown

try to get into the elementary school in topeka and that was the brown v board of education to take a nineteen fifty four and is one of my classmates would tell you a graduate of fifty six we had one white student with us who graduate with us in nineteen fifty six so it was a segregated and romney was a very limiting environment we couldn't go to the shows amish or ave ave the grand those shows the electric theater on the minnesota could not go to the issue of those theaters or after a while we ignore those fears we had a sit in certain sections there was the regal theater on sunscreen mau into the regal theater and then there was the princess theatre of history those of the themes for blocks so this was the environment and lived it and it was a nurturing environment in many ways because we had a strong neighborhood component you knew people in that neighborhood by their churches they attended by the schools that they attended weather was elementary school a douglas are breadwinners northeast junior high school which is the middle school was at sumner high school you all the people who lived and worked and worship

and those few blocks radius from fifth street a third street to twelfth or thirteenth street and quintero to minnesota all in one square area but it was a nurturing neighborhood not only did you have teachers that would help and support you you would see them in church on sunday and they were also be telling you what you should be thinking about for the future so you had that kind of environment in the kansas city kansas i remember getting on the streetcar i did go to the maple william school of dance in kansas city missouri and it was a dance school when i was a tap dancer and i would get on the streetcar to go to mabel williams to take my dancing lessons because my mother thought that i should have some cultural kind of an impending so i play violin and elementary school play trumpet in the high school band drum major the band so i had that kind of environment of excelling and also having ski culture and those kinds of things that i was exposed to

fly so what's new is that it was not an easy place but it had a lot of positives in terms of growing up but one last story about that growing up i was appointed by my principal saw thompson along with a classmate bed baths used to be represented is from summer to boys state in nineteen fifty five and the ft boy state was in wichita kansas and it's still going on today it's american legion program of government in action and they have a girl states as well and boys' state to set up local governments to set up state government county government you run for office or five hundred boys from all over the state and there are very few african americans or other minority at that time in nineteen fifty five and i remember going there and i'm going to be competing with these kids and i had not had that kind of interaction before as an african american with people of other races or other parts of kansas novelist and i had this feeling that could i you know to put a measure

on that was sort of nagging feeling but once i hit boy state i hit my stride self confidence began to develop i ran for office i became one of the seven supreme court justices i was lee drum major the boy stayed than it did more for my confidence as a junior i went back to boise state is a counselor i was back in boy state just a few years ago after being that fifty years ago when i spoke to the boy stay true and that's that session was in manhattan because it had such a tremendous impact on me so when you read the book and all begins with self it talks about having self confidence so the stillness of an audience today those were moving forward thinking about their careers at all begins with you and your ability and feelings about good about yourself and that's all started for me from boys tick so i came back i knew i was going to college and i was just reminiscing the other day thinking

about sixty years ago when we graduated from somewhere i was one of the three commencement speakers joint featherston then matthews and i were the three students because at our commencement more of all the intensity of a sudden those things keep coming back with all the opportunities that i got i'll buy that school and by those mentors that gave me this vision that i could have i could succeed so in my yearbook you will see a picture that didn't look like me now work a picture that says i was a part of the national honor society i was drum major the band as a part of an international club and had ambitions lawyer so i knew i wanted to be a lawyer and i knew i wanted to work on civil rights but to lots of different turns in my career but i had that underpinning that strong underpinning at some to discuss this with you i'm reminded of the vision of the staccato ewing marion kauffman because as i was thinking about my career and thinking about the background that i'd

shared with you just some of it i was reminded of his vision and i've read a lot about him in preparation for being here today and i was very clear in his mind he said education would assist those who find themselves facing economic inequalities find them facing racial issues education is unanswered so is vision was to begin to right that ship and giving people the educational opportunities to deal with many inequities of our society and what you're seeing around this beautiful building what i saw at the charter school day what i've seen in the campaign scholars that i've read about and i once got caught and scholar were going to be talking to later you see this legacy of mr kaufman that he's still speaking to us today through the students in over the charter school you could feel it but they're on their way to college the fact that their routines of learning and middle school and they're starring in ninth grade

that in the schools the rooms are based around politics there's a classroom so the student going there to study the math there going into the k u classroom so i'm sure many other classrooms or name for universal so you get that in your mindset that you were going to college many of us are graduated from somewhere in my years knew that the education was away out of poverty a way out of the situations that we felt were discriminatory education was the way and so mr kaufman vision was they're also reminded his i thought about my life and his vision was his project called project choice and it's a fascinating story to not reading it was a program that he started in nineteen eighty eight an analysis of the meeting of mostly african american kids and their parents and he said i want you to think about going to college and if you think about the pull a new prince sign up

and i will pay your way to college and so was it was a catch the staccato he's only catch is you have to sign a contract and your parents had to sign a contract and the contract will be that you'll stay in school and high school that you will have passing grades that you will stay out of difficulty with the law that you will avoid parenthood and that you will graduate from college from alcohol and drugs that's the contract that you saw and your parents will sign a contract but i will say that they will support you in your efforts to fill more than a high school and support you with activities at the school so the parents on the contract that they would be involved in support he also found in this prop project that he's going to need to how these kits so they start a remedial programs restoring

tutoring programs all to give those kids the kind of support they needed to graduate mr kaufman appointed an african american to lead this program and this person mr thomas rome took over as director project choice thomas ronan was a teacher and coach at sumner high school he was there as a teacher coach when i was there he went on to become principal of wind got high school he went on to work for mr kaufman and marin laboratories and you can see very clearly that mr kaufman was a mentor to thomas robb and thomas rome became the director in nineteen eighty eight a project shortz and i wanna say to you that he started his program in westport little school is great community was from after american low income truck problems with balance

problems with drugs that's where he started this program and these people signed up and eventually he had some people suggested inside from kansas just a brief notes about the problem and one from nineteen eighty eight to two thousand while the program completed in two thousand won one thousand three hundred and ninety four who signed agreements without a cost of six hundred and twenty eight one on graduating high school went on to college at seven went to vocational technical or business schools pretty good record over fifty percent of those he started and signed up over fifty percent one on after finishing high school went on to college and then after that problem's complete it laid the foundation for kaufmann scallops and caucus goers is an exciting program going on today but what the jet was the lessons learned from project shortz

one lesson was intercity say kids could succeed that the caring adults around them with even more important than the incentive to go to school that support services to support them to succeed were absolutely critical when gale chaired the foundation schools and in the washington dc area it was a very different kind of alternative schools kids who had difficulties went to this school she cheered its board had a similar idea what they called a wraparound services the same thing that dr kaufman had in project choice the same thing that they have today and the coffin scholars they have to bring problems to have remedial programs they have that kind of support to say if you need now we're gonna make you get from bread step a step be absolutely critical so i'm reminded of the similarities of mike herring neighborhood in kansas my strong

support from my family and relatives my strong support from the church that i attended my strong support for my high school those kinds of things a good my success there was no doubt it was going to college there was no doubt it was going to university of kansas there was no doubt i was not a pledge alpha phi alpha and the reason was i had those role models at sumner high school my band teacher want to play you my science teacher want to play you my chemistry teacher what to pay you and most of them pledged and became members of alpha phi alpha fraternity there was no doubt where i was going and there was no doubt what fraternity i was going to follow because those men gave me the path extraordinary men from the principal dow and not just men teachers but when the teachers and you aim is there if you remember this is blood were taught

us english and we learned english <unk> penman is a scaly who taught me a speech allah not forget this was for fortenberry that taught me spanish i will not forget that mr clark was a real mental so i'm reminded of the similarities in my life and the similarities are what dr kaufman put together a project choice and woody put together with the caucus goers so as we celebrate the one hundred year you in merion kaufman's birth from nineteen sixteen to twenty sixteen we know that his mission is relevant today we know unfortunately that we still have issues of race we know unfortunately we still have gender issues we still know we had discrimination with three people were gay and our society we still know that

we have these issues but we also know that education and information and collaboration and understanding we do the way to deal with those issues so his message today is quite relevant his mission today is quite relevant that not only do you have schools that cater in support these children but you have to get services that give the movie the support they need in order to succeed that neighborhood support that tutoring support that focus that they can succeed so when you read my book i talk a lot about beginning with self i talk about self confidence i talk about doing a self assessment of who you will have a sense of what you'd like to be and having a focus and a game plan on getting a dime and you get it done by getting the skills training i was fortunate to get it from somewhere from k u from washburn and i got it from thirty five years of work

ten years in the federal government's budget for twenty one years and private business five years a not for profit national public radio at almost two years or so in the diplomatic world and after coming back into mexico and went into academia and and just we need to talk about that i had not seen politics so fierce than the politics of academe so i helped to start a measure relations is due to the new mexico state but that was quite an interesting experience at new mexico state but by speaking directly to students community leaders business leaders you've heard about the african proverb that it takes a village to raise a trial and it does that hauber talks about all the things necessary to raise that

you it is the wraparound services that are needed that it's just not the parents or the grandparents of the grandmother of the aisle they'll go on the guardian but it's the pastor the community it's the relatives and the community it's the business leaders in the community it's all those people who believe that if we don't invest in our community we will not get the returns necessary for our communities to grow and prosper and that growth is within humans and human capital so i speak to all of you in terms of being a citizen of a community a business in the community not for profit in the community foundation in the community dr coplen athens department understood his role and his staff talks about what they do with their grants and how they leverage it but the focus is making life better for this community and other communities in the region and

not like to conclude by some message directly to students because we're blessed with four adult sons eleven grandchildren six grandsons and fire granddaughters and the way we communicate within hours through text and email was even passe if you want to talk with the text we're on twitter with those grandchildren but we're learning from them were learning a great deal from that and i talked about and listen to that one of things adults don't do too well that's to listen but to listen to them but we have a responsibility to listen and to learn all of us in this community and less directly to the students because what mr kaufman has gone from project choice to the cotton scholars to the school to the dress that he makes

across the board it's all about making life better for those and the studios had to respond and i'm saying to us dunes and those of you think you needed to start with self start getting a sense of who the war and identity and a self confidence that you too can achieve and with that comes the belief in one's self you can't pass that math exam or or that college exam if you feel you gonna fail you've got to have this confidence that you gonna succeed yesterday the apostles in a way which you go so among those obstacles because you have to believe in yourself along with that comes hard work and perseverance there's no question about it you work hard and you develop the skills necessary so when those doors open to you able to walk in and take advantage those things that you

heard about about my resume did happen because i'm so smart it didn't happen because it was b it happened because of family a loving spouse or partner and above all mentors who believed in me because they saw that i believed in myself so you too can succeed as to which you have to set your sights ha i say these things why do you model yourself after people you allow yourself after people who succeed and you find out how they did it and that's why i wrote the book the book is a seventy seven page quite how to book if tell you with my life experiences how i did it and i didn't do it the low you say in the book that their mentors along the way i didn't become president of the company operating company cb doleful if it had not been for the mentor ralph ray who sent me

by his office for six years and we learned telecommunications and when he retired i took his job so normal won a sense of self to a belief in self a sense that you too can succeed strong focused on perseverance and i must tell you this thing beyond your horizons think we are in your community felt globally to take that trip abroad do study abroad travel learn about people in other lands other cultures other languages other religions because that's going to expand your horizons because ladies and gentleman we live in a global society so if you want learn languages spanish french german portuguese how but mandarin

think about what the future holds and take advantage of it because were all full service you're listening to delay no lewis former ambassador to south africa and former director of national public radio lewis on that transformational power of education at the kauffman foundation conference center in kansas city on april twenty seven two thousand sixteen he now takes questions from kauffman scholar maya tillman and from the audience when was the first time he started to really think globally about leadership when was the first time i felt globally about leadership but i think it was our peace corps experience i talk about in the book about sometimes you have to move outside your comfort zone and i wanted to be a warrior and i did that and i wanted to work on civil rights and the second job i had in government was the equal employment opportunity commission dealing with employment discrimination

so i was in the civil rights arena and this opportunity came about that we could go to the peace corps and i thought this would be for people are not married and no children or whatever and i could follow it goes peace corps staff and this month it my family and so we went to nigeria with my wife and i own three boys five three and two ended up in uganda and we have fourth child born in uganda and that's why got the chances see a part of the world we traveled around africa we travel some in your analysis it was i got to think and understand a little bit about her global supply and since that time i've been in the corporate world of rochester trouble again to china and to other places in asia and also america as well and so i've seen a lot

global supply side does it all start of the peace corps no peace corps still going on the death star nineteen sixty two it is still very strong there looking now more for those years and looking for journalist sylvia eighty degree no way taking a minute now looking to have people that have more specialized skills but it's still a very strong viable group those volunteer it's amazing to your stand and peace corps staff his sister was great for us ambassador could you talk about your time at national public radio yes it was a very interesting time just quickly this was nineteen ninety four and the npr board was looking for a president a new president and they went out on a national search and the heart of executive search firm and the executive search basically said they were looking for a non journalist i've had several

presidents had been just the one of a person that had business experience only one person has a not for profit experience so it really was interesting but i didn't know anything about what they were looking for until i got a call from the head writer and we existed first and said i'm working for this firm and i'm looking for president of national public radio that's my client i'd like to take you to lunch as it why he wanted me was he said well i've been in this washington ginny for a long time i work for the carter white house at one point i watched your career an hour talking about npr again a couple lessons here you never know who's watching you never know who knows you and what you're doing and so that's how i got the call so i did go into npr there were some two hundred applicants ended up

with two of us and i never getting the nod my time was interesting because it was it's a fabulous organizations with various spirits talented journalist who didn't want to manage and they were very very suspicious of a businessperson and so i came from a different culture and that's also in my book how do you survive when you're in a different culture or culture that does you don't think you really fit cause all organizations have culture so i had to realize that this was a very different culture that i had been most recently the business world and i had to step back after talking to the german born and gets an advice from gaza wasn't sure this job for me so the chairman kevin was a station manager and they came into washington we spend time together and he talked to me about the history of npr and the organization so long answer your question is that i began to understand the

culture i begin to step back from my my my business hat i begin to listen more carefully to the managers there and i began to become much more involved in making my ideas have rich are and it began to work one of the main challenges ahead was trying to get them to see that we need to look beyond what we've been doing for the last few years we need to think about competition we need to think about new technology says ninety nine ford we need to think about our listenership if we go to survive this the ship was fifty five years plus all of those things i think there's what a president should be talking about but they were very much on this ivory tower of providing and they get very good journalist and they didn't really want to face these realities so it was not easy but i

began the maximum upfront stick it made some changes and i decided that maybe five years was about my limit we probably talked about it but i find it very interesting by being the ambassador's south africa digital slow to what your greatest takes from the mandela then the question is one of the joys of our life on many occasions i had i presented my credentials to the president country a troubling bakery in january two thousand and that was a momentous occasion to present my credentials to him and to take over the ambassadorship and then i had to pay a call on nelson mandela because he was the former president and it was just a great experience of the new field you feel you're the empress you are only in the presence of law royalty i mean he

he exudes a kind of elegance and humility he's a his leadership speaks for itself but it's such a humble man so i'll let you know it was just a wonderful time that i had many of the times to talk with him about various issues and one time i thought i'd give you two stories once was i thought i have a very sharp visit with with the president so we drove to his office which was as residents and deal was there in the car along with gil sister and two of my grandsons and they were about maybe nine and our eleven something that's so i thought i would go into my business with the with the president mr mandela and then we go away so as we were walking of his forty eight getting ready to go out after a session and he said is to master how is a family i said the family is fighting there in the car he said to the corps

he said what are they doing in the car so we all went and we had tea and he turned to my grandsons and he said do you know that your grandfather is an important man for me to have nelson mandela say that i was important and he said yes he is the united states ambassador to my country he is a very important thing that's one store this story was as we were leaving gail and i wondered if we could get <unk> mandela to sign his book for four sons and their families so that would be for books an autograph so we contacted his assistant and she you know it was heartening to see the press and she was tough but i was able to get her and i or do you think he would do this you think he would sign this for my sons and their families to sue said sure bring the books and so we had typed it up with all the names and so forth and what happened by sitting

there and he's riding it he said that the oldest son is still ok bill tell me about dough to me about what he's doing and so each one that he signed he wanted to know about the family he wanted to know about our kids and i it was just a mars experience and so if you go to any one of our houses and you've probably been to some of the houses you see on the coffee table the long walk to freedom as a book and sign the nelson mandela to each of their kids what advice would you give me a young black professional at transitioning into the working role where the majority of their coworkers and answer period well let's begin to change in a society a pretty clear longer hispanic community because i think the minority leader generally which would include hispanics afterwards and asians and some a native americans and our society's moving toward a majority minority city

but your question basically is in many situations you're in groups that their superiors and her colleagues don't look like you on the answer is just have a sense of direction and focus you there whatever it is there to do a job and each doing well you just got to figure out how to do that and you may find that some people are jealous of you or some people work or prejudice thats sort of a life fueled figure that out and you'll find ways you should find ways to handle that and one of the best ways to handle it is no one can criticize you for the job that you do that you are the best at what you do you show divided into the company showed a violent american surge your skills are there you're there on time you dressed well you behave sensibly soul who's going to criticize the person that

criticizes because they don't like the color skin that's their job huge huge your mobile do not use race as an excuse yes it's there you have to mean it sometimes get on and their waste into that piece of wood and sensible but what you do is you keep moving forward and you connect with people regardless of their color you connect learn how the system works and you connect and by doing that you do you will show that person that values what i'm doing a new value me you know we're going to get not to deny your identity know you certainly can be a strong minority strong african american woman or a man but at the same time understanding where you fit in this equation and edwards you in control so kind of going after that how did you

persevere through that diversity of being one of the only minority is in that it is judiciary in the nineteen sixties in washington dc it's a question the only access is it you're right on one school or a wannabe very clear about the questions i was in the justice department and so ugly little civics lesson right what the justice department is in the executive branch and you do share is the judicial system which includes the courts and i don't i've never i've not been oppressing orso was not in the g t shirt per se but i was in the justice department and it was quite well first of all i was honored to be there was my first job after the nigger foundation i left law school i kept the job and niggers and thank goodness i had that job while and then the offer came from the park and justice and when i got there you know i not been the war to dc before

i went first in my family came later but i was in internal security division and others was a division that was looking out for espionage and people who were vying astronaut lawson answer was bursting burst in time but i did find out after being they're short with time that however thousands the warriors about ten african americans so there were not that many more years of justice at the time but you know when you see how they feel about it or how did i feel about it i knew that was a fact but i just felt that somewhere along the line if if i did my job well and other african americans do their job well and we worked at our society there is not a big change and they'll be more of us in the justice department so i didn't feel i needed to take it on i couldn't didn't have time to take

on life as a charge but i figured that if i did my job well i would be one of those that would limit itself to saying see we can hire these folks and they can they can do the job so that's how i approached it and over time you've seen change but i must say to you today i'm very worried because we seem to have reverse we've seen just slide back so on are bringing minorities in on many levels and that worries me a bit we were making great strides in this country in terms of diversity and in terms of equality but in the last two years i'm saying that we still have some issues most applaud at ambassador a lot of the plays that he talked about really hit home for me i'm a racket as an academy i'm a project waste scholar

i guess is the best term for it and i spent the last fifteen years or so as the university administrator in international education i'll do one thing like you that i'm very discouraged by is the rhetoric around on trade with other countries arm when i hear the candidates talk about that being an issue it hurts me because i spend my life encouraging people to step outside of themselves in the united states and trade as controversy either there's i see that as a way for us to an encounter people from places that we would never encounter and with the advent of the internet we have a lot of changes as a result of globalization says you hear this rhetoric how do you respond to people who are retreating more into an isolationist the world the world

i i think that's a dangerous trend and i'm certainly would be opposed to an isolationist philosophy personally believe that we are a global citizens and that we need to understand the economics of the world is not going to be left behind ah so i think it's very shortsighted having said that i think is still understand politics it's politics and that people have ever right to speak their minds and obviously we relate to politicians and relate to our leaders bristle at us to things that are affecting us and then if i'm an unemployed worker and i see a person who comes in it doesn't look like me and probably a lot of the jobs in this person is working then some politician says that we need to keep all all

immigrants out of the country at sporting because that immigrant quote at my job so there is some personal things here that you know we have to understand and keep in mind ah but as a philosophy i think it's a dangerous trend for trade agreements i think i am definitely pro trade agreements are i believe that of the business world the trading between countries make some sense for this country economically and talk about specifics but the thing that's lost among our politicians and above that discourse generally isn't one simple word a balance there's another to compromise that if you have some positions that makes sense which you hear views their different it seems to me we ought to be more dialogue with each other to figure out what the balance it's what's the compromise what is the when liane we'll do that it's evil or to me that's very dangerous to me we get nothing done there are no results ahsan definitely view of the philosophy of

knowing what the world is outside and if you don't know you know you talk to our grandchildren now you know they've already had experience as my where my grandson's has been to work into costa rica has been the dominican republic you it's just amazing that symbol was when he was in high school so you know it is a charter school and california so there's some sense here that there is a whole world out there the regional and understand inning going after what you're saying earlier about having a family like the great support system and i did have a question for your wife mrs lewis in your opinion why what makes a family successful in the wisest rpm important to assess what life and career first let me give a little definition my definition of family and family includes anyone and everyone around you to participate in your human growth and development and

wellbeing and you can make your family very very large region this week and the family of the world what makes it successful is being honest with ourselves and with each other and being honest you that everyone who cares about you know what you need and you stay open to listen to the needs of the other members of your family and your supported you learn that we've learned i learned after all these years that tastes very trite but the problems come in and you get over you get over a lot of things if you just make up your mind that it's worth getting over and it's worth going forward just continued to love and support

and lack of harsh judgment and everyone in a part of the family and then recognize yourself as a member of the family and enjoy it and appreciate it and celebrated pay next question yes sir well i'm just looking at the book and it says all begins with self so one answer question minimalist yet come before you know dr no matter what situation put me in before the masses it you get on minorities how do you get bill to believe in myself and when the system is set up for them not to seoul more question i guess is how to wink he's dead to the masses to believe in you oh can i take issue with you just a bit like i never believe the system was built against the car ah i believe that the system had some good points events in their points

i believe strongly in our constitution i believe strongly in a form of garment it's got some frailties but i never had the sense that it was set up against me no i didn't know that we had a legacy of slavery and many of the signers of that document were slave owners so i have some questions there but the document to me but says freedoms and protections for freedoms and the system is one which i worked through i didn't have the mindset that was brought against him so i guess the mindset so going into a situation when she asked about going into situations justice department well when i was one of the few minorities there i'll it all depends upon how you handled the situation and how do you convince

people use and how to get them to have belief and trust in themselves first of all is an attitude here about who you are what you're about and how i can convey to convince my family that you know this attitude will work and that's a positive attitude that if i work hard yes we know the us and inequities in the system we're all the political candidates say it's alright ma be against this but i'm one believer that if i understand the system becomes one of i can make it work for me and so i always felt that i could be that other person at the game but a first have to learn how to play the game ah i'm not belittling the question of all i'm not belittling the fact is that it's not easy it is durable is difficult but there's an attitude thing here thousands of old

negatives all this life they're going to believe those negatives all their lives if they're told the system is against them and you will never make it gets worse they probably will make it or what if your toe and then the four you suppose you told that if you get to a solid education and the ex kill you too can go what if he told them hard work will pay off now sometimes it doesn't sometimes i lose a promotion sometimes some ideas promoted over make those realities of life but i don't lay down i get up and try so i don't know from listener question but we had we had dinner table conversations and with social media i don't know when that's happening today we had dinner table conversations galen i didn't sit at the front of the table i

suppose one side she said on another but there is a child who said it it's the young assistant at the front and we have their assigned seats but that there are you could bring up anything you wanted to talk about and we talked about you know very very straight questions but they also talked about issues and we talked about life and we talk about challenges we talk about neighbors we have some neighbors even sitting at our table for dinner so you know we think we think we are part of the ummah that there is a spirit here a family that we respect you what you have to say we're going to listen to you to come to some conclusions so how do you believe in themselves and the system is against them tell them that the system is not always against you so much of that is how do you deal with the system and

fewer just heard only know louis former ceo and president of national public radio former ambassador to south africa and other herbs it all begins with self lewis spoke on the transformational power of education on april twenty seven two thousand sixteen at the kauffman foundation conference center in kansas city louis is a graduate of the university of kansas and washburn university in nineteen ninety four he received qaeda's highest honor the distinguished service citation kansas public radio has a copy of delay no lewis's book to give away if you'd like a chance to win it all begins with self go to our web site k pr that kay you that ed you click on the extras and then available giveaways again that's k pr that k u that edu extras and then available giveaways if you missed last week's k

pr present political pundits and husband and wife team john avalon and margaret hoover speaking a kansas state university is landon lecture series it's now archived on our website in fact you can find at most previous keep your prisons programs archive to listen to whenever you want you can look through the keep your prisons are tied by clicking on news and then k pr prisons you can also find a complete program schedule for k pr and our sister station k pr too with news and information from npr and the bbc it all actually pr that kay you that edu and again don't forget to enter our book giveaway for delay know louis' it all begins with south if you've enjoyed today's cave your present or have comments or suggestions for future programs we'd love to hear from you my email address is kate mcintyre actually you

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