The Commonwealth August-September 2010

Victor D. Hanson: WHY STUDY WAR? pg 22

James A. Baker III: AMERICA’S ROLE pg 31

Nancy Pelosi’s BIG AGENDA IN D.C. pg 60

Dr. Gloria Duffy on CARRYING COSTS pg 68

Commonwealth The

THE MAGAZINE OF THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB OF CALIFORNIA

August/September 2010

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Promise of the West $2.00; free for members commonwealthclub.org

Contents

Vo lu m e 104, N O . 05

Au g u s t / s e p t e m b e r 2010

12 Limiting Economic Power “Our governments are failing us at the very moment when we need to be very smart to build what we have all come to call the innovation economy, where we can at least keep that engine of innovation moving forward so we can compete on the global stage.” –Eliot Spitzer

Photo by Beth Byrne

Features

Departments

Events

10 A Matter of Values

5

35 Program Information 36 Eight Weeks Calendar

Business Model

Muhammad Yunus explains

19 Electric Vehicles Are we there yet?

22 War and Its Detractors Victor Hanson on war’s lessons

28 Guns in Public

Irenic Disputes

7

Events from August 1 to October 14, 2010

The Commons Getting into Iran, and more

9

Genius on display

64 Inside the Annual Dinner Bay Area luminaries shine

68 InSight

James A. Baker III on ethical power

56 Saving California’s Schools

Programs by Region Language Classes Program Listings Late-breaking Events

About Our Cover: Ayaan Hirsi Ali spoke to a Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley audience about her embrace of the West. Photo by Tess Steinkolk, Nomad, Free Press.

Dr. Gloria C. Duffy Carrying Costs

Panel discussion on open-carry

31 American Power Abroad

38 38 39 55

The Big Picture

16

31

California education panel

60 Congress’ New Agenda Nancy Pelosi lays down the laws au g u st/septem b e r 2010

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Photo by Beth Byrne

16 Power of the Social

Editor’s Note

Photo by Amanda Leung

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on her path from Islam to the Western Enlightenment

Commonwealth Club Travel Informed Travel for the Discerning Mind

Commonwealth Club Travel Commonwealth Club Travel From international journeys to South America or Asia, to an intensive intellectual forum Informed Travel for the Discerning Mind

in our nation’s capital, or a weekend getaway to explore our own state of California...

Discover the world with The Commonwealth Club.

FALL 2010

Commonwealth Space is still available on these fall departures!

Club Travel The Roses of Pasadena A Bay Gourmet Getaway September 17-19 $1,175

Peru: Land of the Andes, Incas and Machu Picchu October 2-11 $3,995

Inside Washington, D.C. Exploring Our Nation’s Capital October 17-22 $3,495

Vietnam and Cambodia with Ambassador James Rosenthal November 4-20

$5,595 optional extension to Laos CST# 2096889-40 Prices above are per person, based on double occupancy

SPRING 2011 South Africa & Namibia by Sea Aboard the Corinthian II February 14-28 from $10,995

Red Sea, Nile Valley & the Holy Land Petra, Luxor, the Pyramids & Jerusalem March 23-April 4 from $4,795

Legendary Turkey, Istanbul to the Turquoise Coast April 23-May 7 $4,295 includes air from SFO!

Eastern Mediterranean to the Adriatic Aboard the Corinthian II April 22 - May 4 from $8,395

Alaska’s Wild Lands Denali & the Kenai Fjords June 21-28 $4,595

Stay tuned for more details about our 2011 journeys, including India, the Silk Road, and a Bay Gourmet trip to the Burgundy region of France.

For complete details, including terms and conditions, contact Commonwealth Club Travel Telephone: (415) 597-6720 – Email: travel@commonwealthclub.org – Web: commonwealthclub.org/travel

Commonwealth The

VP, MEDIA & EDITORIAL John Zipperer jzipperer@commonwealthclub.org

SENIOR Editor

Sonya Abrams sabrams@commonwealthclub.org

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR

Steven Fromtling sfromtling@commonwealthclub.org

Editorial Interns Heather Mack

Allison Vale

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

William F. Adams Beth Byrne Camille Koué

follow us online commonwealthclub.org/facebook twitter.com/cwclub commonwealthclub.blogspot.com commonwealthclub.org

The Commonwealth (ISSN 0010-3349) is published bimonthly (6 times a year) by The Commonwealth Club of California, 595 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-2805.

PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID at San Francisco, CA. Subscription rate $34 per year included in annual membership dues.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Commonwealth, The Commonwealth Club of California, 595 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-2805.

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Copyright © 2010 The Commonwealth Club of California.

Tel: (415) 597-6700 Fax: (415) 597-6729 E-mail: feedback@commonwealthclub.org EDITORIAL POLICY FOR PROGRAM TRANSCRIPTS: The Commonwealth magazine seeks to cover a range of programs in each issue. Program transcripts and question and answer sessions are routinely condensed due to space limitations. Hear full-length recordings of events online at

Editor’s Note Irenic Disputes John Zipperer Vice President, Media & Editorial

A

s I read the cover story this issue, I found myself thinking from time to time: Oh, that’s going to upset someone.

Who will be offended? It will depend on the topic being discussed in any particular paragraph of the article. Not only does human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali take issue with tribal culture and Islam, as she has done for years, but she also directly challenges accepted liberal interpretations of the causes of anti-Western feelings in the Muslim world, and she stands up for the Enlightenment – something that is increasingly unknown even in this country that was founded by Enlightenment thinkers.

The offense I’m thinking some people will take is different from simply disagreeing with a speaker’s comments, or even getting angry about them. No, there are some folks who simply think some subjects should not be allowed to be criticized. Religion is one of those subjects, but it is by no means the only one. (I can still remember in high school a fellow student being reduced to tears because someone had criticized his hero, Ted Turner.)

Hirsi Ali doesn’t fear intellectual rigor; instead, she appears to rather enjoy questioning ideas, philosophies, religions, politics and policies. No longer a member of the Dutch parliament, she now is a professional thinker, an American Enterprise Institute scholar.

There can be good offense and bad offense. Bad offense, as all reasonable people probably can agree, is when one is simply being nasty and attacking someone for their beliefs, background, appearance or similar targets. But a good offense can be the questioning of ideas on which we base our opinions and actions. If I’m wrong about something, I’d rather be convinced – in an irenic conversation – so I can be right about it.

But how to deal with the people who simply want to make many topics off-limits to public criticism? When I was in college, there was a strong campaign by campus leaders to outlaw offensive speech. I charitably think they meant to outlaw what I call the bad offensive language, but they drew their disciplinary definitions so broadly that it included the potentially good offenses.

What can be more offensive to most people than being told that they are wrong in their beliefs? And yet, what learning can take place without changing beliefs? That unsettling experience is what many people try to prevent by proscribing contrary opinions. When I began pointing this out in my campus newspaper columns, the university’s chancellor went from praising my columns to complaining about them. But I wasn’t offended.

commonwealthclub.org/archive or contact Club offices to order a compact disc.

ADVERtising information

Mary Beth Cerjan

we recently published our annual report for the previous fiscal year. It included all kinds of information on The Club’s performance, highlights, budget, supporters and more. What it didn’t include was the correct name of the chair of our Board of Governors, Dr. Mary G.F. Bitterman. It’s a mistake that embarrasses me as an editor, but it also hides the leadership of someone who has given many years of service to The Club’s board, as well as organizations ranging from KQED to her current home, The Bernard Osher Foundation.

No offense intended, naturally.

Development Manager (415) 869-5919 mbcerjan@commonwealthclub.org Au g u s t/Septem b e r 2010

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The Roses of Pasadena: Art, Food and Entrepreneurial Women September 17-19, 2010

Sitting at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, Pasadena has played a key role in California’s history. In 1886, it became the second incorporated city in Southern California after Los Angeles. Today, it is an upscale community with a thriving arts, cultural and entertainment scene, best known for the Tournament of Roses Parade that takes place every New Year’s Day. Join Bay Gourmet Chair Cathy Curtis for a weekend getaway to the “City of Roses” and explore the culinary and cultural highlights of Pasadena, with a particular focus on women entrepreneurs in the food industry.

Friday - September 17

Arrive independently on a morning flight to Burbank. Meet with Julie Campoy, owner of Julienne, a French-inspired bistro and gourmet market that has been a neighborhood mainstay for more than two decades. Following lunch, take a private tour of the Norton Simon Museum of Art. Located along the Tournament of Roses route and renovated under architect Frank Gehry, the Norton Simon houses an internationally respected collection of European and Asian art, as well as an extensive collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, with seminal works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Diego Rivera. Transfer to the centrally located Marriott Hotel in Old Pasadena. Tonight we dine at Gale’s, a local favorite, offering northern Italian cuisine. Hear from Gale Kohl, our host for the evening and a 20-year veteran of the food industry. (L,D)

Saturday - September 18

Explore the Pasadena Farmers’ Market with local insiders, including Peggy Dark, top L.A. caterer and owner of “The Kitchen.” Peggy has received the Zagat Award of Distinction, and has been featured in The New York Times and on NBC’s “Today Show.” Then discover the renowned Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens during our private estate tour. The library contains an extensive collection of rare books and manuscripts, including a Gutenberg Bible. The art collection consists of 18th- and 19th-century British, French and American art and early 20th century American art. Plus, the extensive gardens cover over 120 acres! Enjoy a tea luncheon at the museum’s Tea Room, which overlooks three acres of roses. Continue to the Gamble House, an outstanding example of American Arts and Crafts-style architecture. The house and furnishings were designed in 1908 for David and Mary Gamble of the Procter and

Gamble Company, and is a National Historic Landmark. Tonight enjoy a panel discussion with women entrepreneurs and an exquisite catered dinner in the private home of Peggy Dark.(B,L,D)

Sunday - September 19

Los Angeles is home to people from 140 countries who speak at least 224 different languages, all of whom give rise to one of the most diverse culinary marketplaces in the world.

This morning we take a culinary and tasting tour that covers both the food and history of Old Pasadena. Colorful alleys and secret thru-ways spice up our path as we seek out spectacular ethnic eateries and sweet havens for tastings! The owners of Melting Pot Tours, Lisa & Diane Scalia, are L.A. natives and lifelong residents. Take some free time to enjoy the galleries, shops and bookstores of Pasadena’s Playhouse district, before heading to the airport for flights Commonwealth home. (B,L)

Club Travel

Informed Travel for the Discerning Mind

$1,175 per person, double occupancy, $1,299 for single occupancy, exclusive of airfare

Commonwealth Club Travel

Includes: Transportation for 3 days in Pasadena including transfers to and from Burbank airport at designated times (if you extend your stay, airport shuttles to Burbank and Los Angeles airports are easily arranged ) * Two nights at the Courtyard Marriott in Old Pasadena * All meals (2 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 2 dinners with wine) * All private tours, entrances, special visits, panels and tastings * Gratuities for group events * Professional tour staff

CST# 2096889-40 Huntington’s Japanese Garden and The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough photos © The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Pasadena City Hall by DisneyKrayzie / Flickr, Rose by SLRPride / Flickr

Commonwealth Club Travel

This trip is limited to 18 participants, so call to reserve your space today!

Informed Travel for the Discerning Mind

For more details including terms and conditions visit www.commonwealthclub.org/travel or call (415) 597-6720 or e-mail travel@commonwealthclub.org

Commonwealth Club Travel

Commons The

Talk of the Club

Not so Fast, Steve

Banking with Grameen – in the Bay Area

Getting into Iran

Muhammad Yunus’ microfinance idea takes root in the U.S.

I

ran scholar Stephen Kinzer had reason to wonder about the Iranian religious regime’s paranoia when he recently was refused entry into that country.

Kinzer was set to lead a May 2010 study tour of Commonwealth Club travelers to Iran. When the plane landed in Iran, however, all of the travelers were allowed in except Kinzer.

He was refused entry and had to take a flight to Germany and cool his heels while trying to figure out what went wrong with his permision to enter Iran.

Was he rejected for anything he’s written about the ultra-conservative Iranian leaders? Were his books (including All the Shah’s Men) required reading in Iranian secret services offices?

Luckily, he didn’t have to spend too much time worrying. A day later, the paperwork was approved – just a mixup at the airport, he was told. Or maybe they were just busy reading his books.

Kinzer talked to The Club June 21 about his trip; watch for Kinzer’s speech in a future issue of this magazine.

The Global Club Time for an Italian MLF?

W

e’re becoming used to finding Club friends in unexpected places.

Now add Italy to the list of unlikely meeting places.

The occasion was a well-earned vacation by

Marshal Jim Leading the parade

I

n addition to the Backstreet Boys, there was a local hero in the 2010 San Francisco Pride parade in June: James Hormel, the former U.S. ambas-

a Club employee, who found several people in her hotel who listened regularly to Commonwealth Club programs – on the radio in their New Jersey homes.

Then at the airport, the same employee met a Silicon Valley couple who followed The Club.

Not bad for an organization founded by a handful of locals in a San Francisco restaurant.

sador to Luxembourg. A well-known philanthropist, Hormel – also a member of The Club’s Board of Governors – was honored for his longtime advocacy of LGBT equal rights by being named the Lifetime Achievement Grand Marshal at the parade.

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Illustrations by Steven Fromtling

B

angladeshi scholar Muhammad Yunus regularly gets feted for his accomplishments in his home country, where he started the microfinance revolution. His innovative Grameen Bank arguably has the poorest customers of any financial institution, and it’s such a success he’s exporting the concept to other countries.` Yunus’ lending principles clearly know no border.

Grameen is expanding its U.S. presence, and the newest location will be right here in the Bay Area, the Nobel Prize laureate told the inaugural audience of The Club’s new Social Entrepreneurship in America series.

Grameen America already is working in New York City and Omaha, Nebraska. Wells Fargo is backing the Bay Area expansion with a $1 million investment.

Club Leadership First Word Jay Xu Director, Asian Art Museum “Understanding Shanghai’s Art and Material Culture,” May 19, 2010 Photo courtesy of Jay Xu

BOARD OF GOVERNORS

8

Massey J. Bambara Ralph Baxter Hon. Shirley Temple Black* John L. Boland J. Dennis Bonney* Helen A. Burt John Busterud* Michael Carr Hon. Ming Chin* Jack Cortis Mary B. Cranston** Dr. Kerry P. Curtis Dr. Jaleh Daie Evelyn S. Dilsaver Timothy C. Draper Joseph I. Epstein* Rolando Esteverena Jeffrey A. Farber Dr. Joseph R. Fink* Dr. Carol A. Fleming, Ph.D. Karen C. Francis Lisa Frazier William German* Dr. Charles Geschke Rose Guilbault** Jacquelyn Hadley Edie G. Heilman Eugene Herson* Hon. James C. Hormel Mary Huss Claude B. Hutchison Jr.* Dr. Julius Krevans* Lata Krishnan

Hon. L. W. Lane, Jr. Don J. McGrath Marcela C. Medina Jill Nash Richard Otter* Joseph Perrelli* Hon. Barbara Pivnicka Hon. Richard Pivnicka Fr. Stephen A. Privett, S.J. Dan C. Quigley Toni Rembe* Victor A. Revenko* Skip Rhodes* Dr. Condoleezza Rice Fred A. Rodriguez Renée Rubin* Robert Saldich** Joseph W. Saunders Connie Shapiro* Charlotte Mailliard Shultz Valari D. Staab James Strother Hon. Tad Taube L. Jay Tenenbaum Charles Travers Thomas Vertin Robert Walker Nelson Weller* Judith Wilbur* Dr. Colleen B. Wilcox Dennis Wu* Russell M. Yarrow * Past President ** Past Chair

ADVISORY BOARD Karin Helene Bauer Hon. William Bradley Dennise M. Carter Steven Falk Amy Gershoni Richard N. Goldman

Heather M. Kitchen Amy McCombs Hon. William J. Perry Ray Taliaferro Nancy Thompson

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S

hanghai had a very tramatic beginning as an urban center. Throughout much of the Ming Dynasty in China, which ended in the 17th century, there was actually an embargo of overseas trade. The Chinese seaboard was closed for a long time.

But that policy was reversed in the late 17th century, when the Manchu conquered China and established the last dynasty, which we call the Qing Dynasty. Shanghai was one of the major seaports to engage in trade. But that trade was different from what we think of today. That was more about how the government could control the trade very selectively with overseas [trading partners].

But once you started to open doors and make trade, all kinds of people came upon you.

One of them was the British Empire; they wanted to trade with China. China had silk, tea and porcelain. The British had relatively little to offer in return. They had one thing, and they thought it could have a very lucrative market: opium. The Chinese did not want to trade that, and eventually that led to a war, called the First Opium War. China suffered a very humiliating defeat in the first Opium War and the second Opium War. As a consequence of the First Opium War, which was fought in 1840, Shanghai was one of the five cities in China opened up for free trade – no restrictions – with the world, particularly with the British in charge. So Shanghai started out with a very traumatic beginning. But less than 20 years later, China involved itself in a major civil war called the Taiping Rebellion. This civil war was bloodier, with more human beings killed than in World War I. It was one of the most bloody human conflicts in the world, and was fought right there in southern China, with Nanking being established as the capital of the Taiping kingdom [which excluded Shanghai]. Shanghai literally became sort of an isolated island; it became the primary destination of refugees from the surrounding regions.

These two really tramatic events in large measure defined Shanghai’s beginning, and made Shanghai the place with the largest concentration of not only domestic wealth, but also of foreign traders and immigrants. This is the beginning of Shanghai. Ω

au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

Photo © Shing Wong, www.shingwongphotography.com

OFFICERS of The Commonwealth Club of California Board Chair Dr. Mary G. F. Bitterman Vice Chair Maryles Casto Secretary William F. Adams Treasurer Anna W. M. Mok President and CEO Dr. Gloria C. Duffy

The Big Picture

DIY at Inforum The Club hosted a mini-fair of devices, games and more made by Bay Area folks. The June 14 Inforum event was a huge success – another tribute to the ingenuity of individuals. au g u st/septem b e r 2010

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a matter of values

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au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

In a provocative talk about family, religion, extremists and science, Hirsi Ali gives the background on her conversion to the values of the Western Enlightenment. Excerpt from “Ayaan Hirsi Ali: From Islam to America,” May 25, 2010.

Ayaan hirsi ali Human Rights Activist; Author, Infidel and Nomad: From Islam to America in conversation with susanne pari Author, The Fortune Catcher

Illustration by Steven Fromtling, roof photo by Celie / Flickr, cityscape by Ed Yourdon / Flickr

Pari: Since everyone has read the first memoir, Infidel, that you wrote, I would like to talk mostly about Nomad, which is more of a furtherance of what you were going through in Infidel and what happened to you after Van Gogh was stabbed. You were in parliament, you had to leave [the Netherlands].

You had a great security problem; your Dutch citizenship was [revoked] and then reinstated. You talk about that in Nomad, but what you talk about first is your family and what’s happened to them since you finished Infidel. Family is the microcosm of society and so we learned very much in Infidel about Muslim society in Somalia and in other countries like Saudi Arabia through your eyes and your family’s eyes.

You’ve seemed a little softer toward your father this time. I imagine that’s because you visited him on his deathbed and you felt regret, you said, for not seeing him more often. However, he wasn’t very open to your life, was he?

Ali: Wow! I’m sorry – that covers the whole book. It’s audiences like you who inspire and in a way ask for a follow-up, because the number of questions I got after publishing Infidel was so many that I couldn’t answer them in e-mails or in just one article or just say to one person that I am going to answer that question. The questions were many and I brought them down to, OK, what is your relationship right now with your family?

So many people were interested in that and the first part of the book is devoted to reconciling, or at least attempting to reconcile with, my father, with my mother and then trying to use not just my life story as an illustration. In Infidel, I don’t just talk about Muslim families. I just talk about my own experience.

My relationship with my father is reignited in June of 2008. I’m on book tour; I’m on my way to Brazil. I’m on my way to JFK airport; I have to catch a flight. The telephone rings – it’s my father. My father

goes on and on about, Oh my goodness, it’s good to hear your voice. But then he starts reading passages from the Quran; he has a mission to get me back, before he dies, to become a believer. My father, at that time, is 78. It could mean anything. All of these emotions are going through me: How are you? I don’t get a word in. He just says, Think about your lord. Think about the hereafter, think about not being burned. You still have a chance. There was somebody in his lifetime who was once an atheist and went back to Islam, [and he says] I think you could do that too. He starts reading passages from the Quran. I don’t get a word in, and I just want to know, Dad, what have you got? What’s wrong with you? So that’s the first chapter of Nomad, and I explain that in depth.

Then, I’m filled with regret and I think I’ve wasted time. Why did I not talk to him all these years? Why didn’t we call one another? What was between us? Then I start to think maybe I shouldn’t have run away in July 1992. Maybe I should have stayed; maybe I should have done what he did. I’m in touch with two people in my family: One cousin who is helping and is telling me all about everything that is going on, and my younger half-sister. The more I get to talk to her, the more I think if I had stayed in 1992, if I hadn’t taken that train from Germany to Holland, if I had gone to Canada, my life would have looked like hers.

Pari: A lot of Muslim women, especially many who wear the veil, will say, But I’m happy; this is my choice. Of course, choice is important, but there is the factor of the collusion of women and the patriarchy. This is a sensitive subject, but your own grandmother was the person who had you excised. So she was collusive, entirely. How do you think we can change this collusion that we Muslim women have in the patriarchy, especially here in the United States now?

Ali: We need to think and review what

we mean by patriarchy. This is something I’ve learned over and over again, watching women, starting with my grandmother, who was not just someone who believed in female genital mutilation but who actually practiced it and imposed it on us. I’m growing up in the context of misogyny justified in the name of Islam, in the name of Islamic tribal culture, and I don’t know if I could just dismiss that as patriarchy, as so many women not only participate in it, but impose [it on] other women.

You may all be familiar with the concept of honor killings. When I was a member of parliament in the Netherlands, when I was a translator, what we saw in these, it wasn’t just the men. In fact, the brothers, the cousins, the nephews, the husbands, the fathers – they got involved at a later stage.

The first stages, one woman – a sister or a mother or mother-in-law – reporting to another woman, another relative, saying, I saw her, she dropped her headscarf, she was wearing makeup, she was seeing so and so; your honor is going to be trumped, so you should do something about it.

There is a great deal of participation from women, and it is a whole framework of ideas.

It’s a culture where one gender has been taught to dominate, the other gender has learned how to survive within those circumstances, and those women who learn to manipulate the system – because that’s a system of its own – are actually much harder to change and to convince to accept change and progress, to empathize with the victims of that system, even though they themselves are victims.

Pari: You have a chapter in Nomad about your brother and the way he was raised, how your father treated him harshly. I’ve seen this in my own family: Perpetuating how you have to be a prince, you have to be perfect, you have to be domineering, a hero. So you almost fail before you begin. How can we change that in this country?

(Continued on page 25)

au g u s t/s eptem b e r 2010

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Illustration by Steven Fromtling

Limiting Economic Power The former governor of New York rejects market selfregulation and argues for an active and smart policy of government intervention in the economy to limit crises and abuse. Excerpt from “The Cataclysm of 2008-2009: Lessons Learned, or Lessons Ignored,” January 26, 2010.

Eliot Spitzer Former Governor and Attorney General of New York

O

ne of the realities of the moment is that our position in the world is fundamentally different than it was two years ago, and certainly 45 years ago. As we try desperately to maintain our place in the world of primacy, the sole superpower that we so proudly saw ourselves as after the fall of the Soviet Union, we need to realize that the fundamental comparative advantages that we have had vis-à-vis the rest of the world have changed dramatically.

Francis Fukuyama argued that the United States had won the grand ideological debate of history, and that ideological debate had taken us to a point where democracy and tolerance and capitalism and the merger of those ideologies was accepted by everybody as the dominant and winning ideology and hence, history, in the sense of evolving

12

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ideologies, had come to an end.

The irony for Fukuyama is that now most people think he was wrong, wrong in the sense that we have not won; we are battling something which is in fact quite dangerous now, and that’s fundamentalism, of many stripes and shapes. Put that aside; to a great extent he was right. We had won the economic battle. Communist China, Communist Soviet Union were now capitalist nations. The rest of the world had embraced our economic and political ideology and, hence, because we had won, we now needed to compete with them.

When we moved into the ’90s, we were facing a world where if you go back to that list of comparative advantages that we began with in 1945, like skilled labor, virtually all of these nations now have skilled and certainly cheaper labor. In terms of capital,

Au gu s t/Septembe r 2010

we are now the largest debtor nation in the world. In terms of innovation, we know that the creativity and the number of engineers being generated in India and China are beginning to match ours. In terms of the middle-class market – and what drove our economy for so many years is that we had the market, the U.S. consumer pulled the economy forward – today, we have flipped that on its head. It is the Asian consumer who is beginning to pull this economy out of the recession. We are now at a point in time where the rest of the world, on each of these critical issues, has caught up to us.

For many decades, we believed in the United States that we were building a society that looked like a bell curve, with most people congregated in the middle. Because today we have seen that middle class being pushed down, we look more and more like a barbell, where we have a big bump in the bottom, a middle class that has been pushed, and then a smaller bulge at the top end. That is the reality of U.S. income distribution, and the reason for it is the convergence of all these macroeconomic factors that give capital a distinct advantage and have disadvantaged labor, have made it easier to get returns that are historical for capital that can invest in various parts of the world.

What does all of that mean? Fareed Zakaria basically said things aren’t so bad, that there’s probably going to be a period of 30 or 40 years during which time we will not be the unchallenged superpower, but we’ll be doing OK. We will be the largest economy. We will be the most powerful military force. We will be the voice of tolerance and ideology that we all embrace.

We’ll be OK. I think what has happened is that this cataclysm of the last two years has compressed that 30-year span into two years or less, and this switch – we are now revolving around China in a much more fundamental way than we’d expected. You see that in foreign-policy discussions. The Japanese government: Who are they getting closer to? China. Where is capital being invested, and by whom? China is buying up the natural resources around the world, something we used to do, while we’re paying for soldiers in Afghanistan. China now sells and buys more cars every month than the United States. They’re beginning to make inroads in what had been the last remaining sector where we had substantial export op-

portunities: aerospace. These are all terribly difficult challenges.

We need a government at this moment that is nimble, quick, can respond and make smart investment decisions. Unfortunately, this is the very moment where our government is failing us. And I stand here as somebody who has been part of that governmental process for the past 20 years. When you’re in New York, you write all the time about how Albany is the most dysfunctional state government in America.

When you’re New Jersey, you talk about Trenton. When you’re California, you talk about Sacramento. This is not something that is unique to any one state.

Being governor might be the most difficult job in America right now, because you have revenues that are declining by 15 or 20 percent. Everybody still wants their local schools to be funded at the same level they were the year before. You still have to invest in roads, pay for health care. So when you’re dealing with a negative-sum game in terms of budgeting, it’s almost impossible.

Even the federal government, which has the distinct advantage of being able to print money, is finding it incapable to deal with these significant issues. Our governments are failing us at the very moment when we need to be very smart to build what we have all come to call the “innovation economy,” where we can at least keep that engine of innovation moving forward so we can compete on the global stage.

Ayn Rand capitalism

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ssue two is an effort to answer the question “What should government do?”

Here’s the reason I keep coming back to this question. We have gone in the past two years from an avowed allegiance to Ayn Rand libertarianism. If you read Alan Greenspan’s autobiography – and I read it with shock – this guy is singing the praises of Ayn Rand left, right and center. That was the accepted dogma. It began with the election of President Reagan and it dominated the intellectual discourse of the country from that moment until a year ago. We’ve gone from Ayn Rand libertarianism to having Ken Feinberg appointed to set the salaries of senior executives at companies across the board. How did we span that spectrum so quickly? How do you go from one intellectual extreme to the other so quickly? Does

that mean that there are no real intellectual moorings? Can we construct some sort of meaningful set of principles that will permit us to understand what government should do, and why? If we can’t do that, then we’ll come up with ad hoc decisions without coherent argument. We need to try to do it.

Thinking about these issues when I was [New York state] attorney general, I said, “What are the parameters? What are the principles that should guide government intervention?” I’ve come up with a set of rules.

Rule number one is that only government can ensure integrity in the marketplace.

That sounds like such an obvious, blasé statement, but nobody believed it three, four years ago. There was this canard, this oxymoron that we called self-regulation. That was the governing ideology for a long, long time.

“We need a government at this moment that is

nimble, quick, can respond and make smart investment decisions.”

When I would go down to Washington and we would bring our cases and I would say that self-regulation doesn’t work, people would say I was some leftover from the ’60s.

This was a very difficult fight. The reality was [that] the marketplace drove behavior down to a standard that was simply unacceptable, and the only entity that could come in and say, “Stop, that’s not acceptable,” was government. This is clear as day, and we should now accept it. Only government can stop the exercise of monopoly power and create competition. And competition is what makes the world around.

The second argument is a little turgid.

If you haven’t taken an economics course, I apologize, but it relates to externalities. If we don’t let government intervene to measure externalities and adjust the marketplace accordingly, all sorts of bad things will happen.

The example I use for this is environmental litigation. We brought a case when I was AG against a bunch of Midwestern utilities that were sending fumes up in the air. I

went down to Washington to testify about this. Senator Voinovich, a very decent guy, looked down at me from the dais, said, “I was governor of Ohio. I cleaned up the air in Ohio. Why are you suing my companies?”

I said, “Do you remember how you did it?

You did it by building smokestacks that were a thousand feet tall at your power plants.

You didn’t do that cause it was cheap or pretty. You did it because when you build a smokestack 1,000 feet tall, the emissions go up into the jet stream and don’t come down in Ohio. It doesn’t even come down in Pennsylvania. Those emissions come down in New York, and therefore I’m going to sue you.” This is an externality. When they generate power and price that power for the residents of Ohio, what they don’t measure is the negative cost to the people who aren’t party to that private transaction. That’s what an externality is: a cost or a benefit that is not measured in the pricing between two private parties to a transaction. So government needs to measure it.

The third argument [for government interaction] – and I acknowledge it’s the most elastic – is core values. There are simply certain core values that define us as a society, as a community, which the marketplace will not accomplish. I’ll give you two examples.

One of them is discrimination. The social mores that drive people to discriminate override rational economic behavior. That’s why we have the rise of behavioral economics. Behavioral economics, finally, is the awakening of economists to the fact that we aren’t these purely rational individuals who think only in numbers. We make all sorts of other value judgments. One of them is discrimination. Only when we passed a law that said discriminating based on race, gender, whatever, is illegal, and gave people a remedy, did we begin to confront that problem. Another core value I’d give you an example of is minimum wage. There would not be a wage for low-wage workers that would be acceptable in most of our minds if we had not passed a minimum wage, even though it is an intervention in the marketplace that defies intersection of supply and demand.

I think we need to begin to understand where we intervene, and why, and leave to private actors that which private actors can properly do, but understand that government intervention in other areas is

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Photo by Beth Byrne

“Those who benefited from it should have been

forced to give

back something more. We have not done well in allocating the burden of the bailout.”

important. Take infrastructure. Why do we invest in infrastructure? The enormous positive externality of building a mass-transit system. Or a public good such as defense.

Certain things that can only be accomplished through government. This is how we should think about it, and I think if we do this we can come up with an intellectual argument that creates a new foundation for what government can and should do.

Third topic: How have we dealt with the crisis of the last two years? I would give us about a C- or a D, based on how we have reacted to the crisis. We knew we were going to invest a lot of money and bail out the banks. We knew that had to be done.

We needed to go and give them all these guarantees, we needed to give them TARP money, we needed to guarantee their issuance of commercial paper – all that stuff had to be done. The three critical questions that follow, though – who paid for it? Obviously, taxpayers were going to pay for some of it, but did we exact enough of a price from CEOs and those who had benefited from prior years of improper behavior? There the answer is clearly no.

The profits that they claimed generated those bonuses were illusory. That daisy chain of origination to securitization to credit agency ratings slapping a AAA[-rating] on everything to the banks selling it off into the marketplace when we knew these loans weren’t going to be repaid was a scam.

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Those who benefited from it should have been forced to contribute and give back something more, even if only so that the moral statement could be made that those who benefit should not escape scot-free. We have not done well in allocating the burden of the bailout.

Aversion to regulation

A

re we putting in place the meaningful reforms that are helping us and will prevent this from happening again? There, I think, we are failing in a very fundamental way. Until very recently, what we had been seeing in terms of restructuring the financial services was essentially meaningless. What we were doing was what I would call the regulatory charade.

What do I mean by that? After a crisis of this sort – it doesn’t matter if it’s the Enron crisis, which generated Sarbanes-Oxley, or others – there’s always the rush to pass a law. The virtue to passing a new law is that the malefactors in the private sector get to say, “Go pay attention to passing a new law; don’t worry about prosecuting us.” The regulators who should have done something can stand up and say, “We would have stopped it, but we didn’t have the power, so pass a new law to give us the power and then it won’t happen next time.” This is all a charade; the reality is the regulators had the power; they just chose not to use it. The people who were doing bad things should

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have been prosecuted.

What we should have been doing is actually using the power that we had. Over the past year and a half, the Fed, Treasury, OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Administrator of National Banks], others have done an amazing number of things.

They haven’t been granted a new power to do it. They’ve been using the power they always had but never called upon. Why didn’t they call upon it? Ideologically, they didn’t want to. Does that make them bad people? No, but the worldview at that time was simply not to intervene in the marketplace. I’ll give you an example of personal experience. We tried to investigate subprime lending back when I was AG. We went and served subpoenas. The OCC and the banks went to court to stop us from serving the subpoenas and getting the information.

They said, “You’re pre-emptive.” We had to litigate this all the way to the United States Supreme Court to get the power to actually ask the questions to get the information. But worst of all, it’s not as though the OCC and the other federal agencies said, “You stop, we are doing it.” They just said, “You stop.”

Nobody was doing it. So the agencies who had the power simply didn’t use it, and this cataclysm grew and grew and grew.

There has been absolutely no accountability in terms of regulatory survival, in terms of who is there and who is not there.

The people who were fully invested in the Ayn Rand world are still sitting at the top of the regulatory pyramid, and that worries me enormously.

The third issue which we must confront in terms of the economic cataclysm is jobs.

This, at the end of the day, is the bottom-line issue that will define success or failure for us as an economy. As we all know, we’re not making any real success there. This is where, to a certain extent, the issue cycles back to the very first issue that I raised, which is the capacity of capital, because it’s so mobile, is flowing elsewhere. The top tier here is doing well, but the other 95 percent of our country – what we used to call the blue-collar jobs – is suffering. If you look at the number of manufacturing jobs in our country, it has declined every month for the last decade, through good times and bad.

This is a very difficult trend line to counteract, and we cannot all be lawyers and investment bankers, we cannot all work

for hospitals and schools. At the end of the day, that economy doesn’t add up. And so that is the conundrum that is incredibly difficult that we have to confront. Is it going to require currency revaluations which we’re not any longer in a position to demand of China? Perhaps they’ll say, “Fine, we won’t buy your T-bills, see you next year.” Things are difficult. We need more Silicon Valleys, we need more creativity, we need more engineers, we need fewer lawyers, we need more people who actually create things of value so that those things of value can be produced here.

Question & answer session with Mary B. Cranston, senior partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP Cranston: I was wondering, in hindsight, what your views would be about what companies are too big to fail. What rules of the road would you have going forward in a similar situation?

Spitzer: I’m not going to pretend that I can define what “too big to fail” is, but it’s a theory we have to get rid of. In other words, “too big to fail” is we permit them to grow so they get a federal guarantee. That’s what led to the whole asymmetry. If you essentially socialize risk and privatize gain, you will get distorted investment strategies, and that’s what we did.

We have to somehow scale back these companies. The Volcker rule is the first step. At least take away the federal guarantee for proprietary trading, the riskier type of equity investments that are not core to what bankers should be doing. How do you then begin to whittle them down? That is a more complicated regulatory process, but it can be done.

Some of the mergers that we permitted over the past 5, 10 years simply should not have been permitted. We now have greater concentration of assets, greater concentration of deposits. Those things should go the other way, both because competition works and we can reduce the risk to the entire economy.

Cranston: One point you made was that the government needs to step in because there are certain things that the self-interest of the

capital market will not attend to, but you’ve also made a number of comments about the Peter Principle [the theory that in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence] and how it applies to the people in the government today. I wondered if you could talk about that tension.

Spitzer: Self-interest is good. You just need to understand it. The fallacy was believing that self-interest was equated with the public interest. The fallacy behind so much of Ayn Rand and what Alan Greenspan did was believing that, left alone, this convergance of private interests would necessarily create a publicly optimal outcome. You need to understand what private interest is, and when it will drive behavior to be either improper ethically, as in the example of Merrill and the analysts, or improper from an economic perspective with the externalities, or just creating too much debt. So that is where you need to surround an understanding of private behavior with a more subtle, nuanced view of how they intersect. That’s what was missing with Greenspan and his entire ideological world.

Cranston: There are a couple questions here about how much of the situation was created by actual and direct fraud, and how much is a lack of accountability on the part of corporate CEOs. Spitzer: I’m not sure that’s the dichotomy.

The way I would frame the question is, How much was fraud and how much was simply being wrong?

Being wrong is not a crime. Lying is a crime. When analysts knowingly misled an investor and said, “Buy this, it’s a great investment,” and they knew it was going to go to zero the next day, that’s a crime. If they recommended it and they simply were wrong, that’s life.

So how much of this was simply everybody buying into an ideology of leverage and a euphoria that was misplaced, and how much of it was outright fraud?

There’s some element of fraud, and those cases will and should be prosecuted. But frankly, I think that was the minority position. I think there was just this unbelievable acceptance of leverage and certain principles of economics – [such as that] self-regulation will work – where people

were just fundamentally wrong. And if you want to read a brilliant book, read Galbraith’s A Short History of Financial Euphoria. It was written after the ’87 crash, you will think it was written after this crash. He diagnoses it perfectly. It’s just eerie, because if everybody had read that back in 2001, 2002, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.

History repeats itself. We delude ourselves into the alchemy of the moment, believing that we have figured out how to over-leverage, and overborrow, and it never works. But that is where the role of regulators comes in. And that’s why Tim Geithner, who utterly, utterly, utterly failed when he was president of the New York Fed, should have stepped in and said, Stop, this doesn’t work.

Cranston: With the huge power of specialinterest groups in Washington and the actions of the government, which you have been somewhat critical of, do you think there is any hope we can get this right in the next five years?

Spitzer: There’s always hope. We are an overwhelmingly optimistic nation. We are going to somehow muddle through. Has our government process gotten to the point where it gets harder and harder to believe we’ll get there? Yes.

“We delude ourselves into ... believing that we have figured out how to over-

leverage and over-borrow, and it never works.”

Remember the saying, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste? We are wasting this crisis, because we haven’t managed to overcome the latent opposition to the fundamental change we need to get things moving in the right way. So yes, we’ll get it right. But it’s going to require a lot more leadership than we’ve seen. Ω This program was made possible by the generous support of Robert W. Baird.

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Photo by Michael Foley / Flickr

the Power of the

Social Business Model Grameen Bank began by meeting a very simple need that wasn’t being met by traditional companies or governments. Yunus explains the power and allure of the social business concept. Excerpt from “Muhammad Yunus: Social Entrepreneurship Series,” May 24, 2010.

Muhammad Yunus Founder, Grameen Bank; 2006 Nobel Laureate; Author, Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs

W

e have started a program in New York City called Grameen America. Grameen America started out in 2008, in January, in Jackson Heights, Queens.

The second branch opened in Brooklyn and became equally successful and about 10 days back we opened up a third branch in Harlem. Seeing the exciting impact, someone invited us to do it in Omaha, Nebraska. This year we are hoping to start one in San Francisco and another in Washington, D.C. [When] we started the program in Jackson Heights, we had no idea that something big would happen in New York City in the financial sector. When it happened, it created a strange situation: Here, in New York City, Grameen is flourishing, people are taking money, paying back 100 percent

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without collateral, without guarantee, without any lawyers. On the other side of the road, the big banks with lots of collateral, lots of powerful lawyers, were just melting away. So it tells you something. We began in 1976 with [a loan of ] $27. I was trying to persuade the bank located in the campus to give the loan to poor women in the village – and it’s a very small amount of money, they wouldn’t really feel a lot of strain about it – and the bank told me in a very harsh way that it could not be done, because poor people are not credit worthy.

In the latter part of 2008, I was asking a journalist what I wished somebody would ask now: Who is credit worthy? Is it these people, without collateral, paying back, or the other side, with lots of collateral, not paying back? This crisis brings out much more powerfully the inner weakness of

au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

the banking system. No matter what you talk about, with all your might and power with collateral-based banking, you cannot just walk away saying that others without collateral are not creditworthy. Globally, it has been shown during this crisis that microcredit programs have remained robust.

In Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, we don’t even know that there is a crisis going on, because our work goes on so smoothly. One reason [is that] microcredit and Grameen Bank as a whole are very close to the real economy. When we give a loan of $100 or $200, against that $100 or $200 there are some chickens, baskets, some cattle or something. It’s a one-on-one relationship.

As long as that relationship remains with the real economy, you can’t go wrong, because you come back to the real economy.

That’s why the impact on us is not felt, be-

Photo by Amanda Leung

cause we are based on solid ground. Other types of banking went wrong because they moved away from the real economy. They started building castles in the air, chasing papers in a kind of artificial economy of speculation. Once one piece fell apart, the whole thing fell apart.

All these problems raise issues very fundamentally. The structure that we have, the architecture we have of the financial system and the entire economic system, [has] something grossly flawed in it. We must not just gloss over and move on as if nothing happened. We have to look at it very carefully and redesign the system, because if we leave things untouched, even if you create a “normal” situation, that normalcy will not last long. You are following the same track and it will go to the same disaster again, maybe even a bigger one than we have right now.

Now, going back to Grameen Bank, we have been expanding in Bangladesh and in many countries like the United States.

Within Bangladesh, we have over 8 million borrowers, 97 percent [of whom] are women. The bank is owned by the borrowers. The bank makes a profit; the profit goes back to the borrowers as a dividend, so it’s a complete circle; nothing goes outside.

Also, it’s a complete circle in another sense: We don’t take any money from outside. We lend out over $100 million a month in tiny loans, averaging less than $200, to over 8 million borrowers. All this – $100 million per month, over $1 billion per year – all of this money, where does it come from? It’s a very simple system: We take the deposits from people and we lend the money to the poor people. And it works out very well.

We have more than 2,600 branches with 27,000-plus staff. Each branch is responsible for finding its own money. Every branch has to be self-sustainable. It’s your money, it’s your poor people around your neighborhood, and your task is to mobilize this deposit, lend the money to the poor women and become self-sustainable yourself so that you won’t be losing money in the branch. Although the word microcredit has become popular around the world, this concept that we created in the Grameen Bank, that didn’t take off, because people are not creating new laws to create a microfinance bank so that they can take deposits and lend money to the poor people.

Now, in the middle of it, investment firms became interested and they started investing money. I got very worried when investment firms started coming to lend money to the microfinance organization. I kept repeating that we don’t want to excite people; that here is a great opportunity to

“Owners of the company can take back investment

money, but they will never take any profit out, because this is dedicated to the cause.” lend money to the poor people to make money for the rich people. Poor people should not be presented as an opportunity for the rich people to make money. When we created microcredit, we didn’t do it to make money for ourselves. We created it to fight the loan sharks so that you can give the loans to the poor women so that they can then change their lives.

Someday, hopefully we’ll do all of New York City. Everybody will have access to this because it’s open to everybody. Our success will be measured [in that] there will be no payday loans in New York City.

These are the scars on the faces of a nation, to see payday loans, to see pawnshops, to

see check-cashing companies. Why should people have to be forced to pay 500 percent interest rates, 1,500 percent interest rates, to borrow small amounts of money? It doesn’t make sense.

The distinction between philanthropy and social business is that in philanthropy, you give money and achieve the goal – which is an important goal – but the money never comes back, because that was not the intention of it. I said, if I can design a business to address the same issue in a business way, then money comes back. The same money will recycle again and again and again and achieve so much. We learn from each other, looking at each other, an enormous opportunity opens up.

In the beginning, people didn’t pay much attention to it. People started noticing us suddenly when we did a joint venture with a big company, Danone [Dannon in the U.S.]. Then they started to say, What are you doing? Why should Danone be doing this? Are they crazy?

Danone came in to see us. We created a social business in Bangladesh by creating a company called Grameen-Danone Company. We produce a very special kind of yogurt. This whole company is dedicated to addressing malnutrition among children.

In Bangladesh, 50 percent [of children] are malnourished. Malnourishment means your physical growth becomes stunted and your mental growth becomes stunted. That’s not good news for a nation who is to build young minds and create the whole future on the basis of creativity. We put all the micronutrients into the yogurt – vitamins, iron, zinc – and started selling this yogurt very cheap. The children love it. If a child eats two cups of this yogurt within a week and continues to do so for eight or nine months, the child gets back all the micronutrients.

The child becomes a healthy, playful child.

The owners of the company can take back that investment money, but they will never take any profit out because this is dedicated to the cause. I said, Why don’t we create those cause-driven companies? We started doing that and many other companies came forward. In many universities, they are creating institutes of social business and chairs of social business. Many are trying to put up centers of social business in Europe and in the USA. In the state university in California in the Channel Islands, [California State

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Photo by John Zipperer

Former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz (left) was a surprise attendee at Muhammad Yunus’ program.

University, Channel Islands] they created an institute of social business. And in many universities in Japan they are doing that. I see a good response both from the business area and also from the young people’s area.

This can mix together.

That’s a challenge that we all have and that’s what we’re looking for: how to bring out the creativity in each individual, rather than wait for the government to solve everything, rather than wait for the international agencies to solve the problems of the world.

We are much better as individuals. We can create much more dynamic and much more creative things to solve problems. That’s what social business empowers us to do.

Question & answer session with Ruth Shapiro, Commonwealth Club social entrepreneur in residence Shapiro: What is it that governments can do to facilitate more people getting involved with business and getting access to credit?

Also, what should government be doing in terms of its development assistance to help those in emerging markets? So, domestic policy and international foreign policy.

Yunus: If it is related to what the government can do to promote social business, then yes, there are a lot of things that government can do. Create a social business fund. Government money can come as co-investment money, because you are solving a problem. For example, I create a business to take people out of welfare and I need X amount of money to do that as an investment, which, gradually, I will pay you back (because that’s our business, we

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pay back), but in the meantime, I will take these 10 people out of welfare completely.

Government should support it because, after all, government is paying these people from its own budget all the time.

Foreign aid money goes to the government and goes to the agencies and so on. I said, Why don’t you create a social business fund out of this foreign aid in each country where they are giving the money? If you take 10 percent of that money, separate out what you are giving as foreign assistance to create a social business fund so that people in the country and outside the country can come and create social businesses. Each year, you are putting more money in and it becomes bigger. The money that you give comes back again.

Foreign aid that goes and then never comes back at the end of the day becomes zero. A state government or a city government can do the same and create social business funds and encourage their citizens to participate in solving the problem. To take drug addicts off of drugs could be done as a social business. Taking care of the disabled could be a social business. We can help and invest and do that. Foundations can do that.

These are the kind of ways one can come forward and support that.

Shapiro: Let’s go back to your early days.

Discuss some of the challenges you faced and how you overcame those.

Yunus: My way of doing things always is not about talking. I am all about the doing; I do it, and that’s why people find it instructive. If I talk about social business and I had never done a social business in

au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

my life, nobody would care what I did. But when I talk about social business, I say, this is what I’ve done. I tried it and it worked.

People said, He can do it in one village, but it will never work in two villages, because it’s too big and it will collapse. I said, Let me try again. So we did it in two villages and it worked. So that’s how it came to be big. Even when it happened in Arkansas, Chicago, South Dakota, had spread from Arkansas to many other places, still, people would say, It will not work here because these are not sustainable. So that debate went on. We started doing it in New York.

It’s working beautifully.

The oppositions come from mindset.

People love to believe what they believe.

Our mindsets are created in our educational institutions. Creating students with a rigid mindset is a damaging thing to do because then you are sealing it off; it cannot take any other fresh ideas. We live in a world today [where] continuously new ideas are generated. Even if these ideas are challenging and throwing out all other ideas, we have to absorb them. Otherwise, we will be damaging ourselves and our society.

Shapiro: You have spent your career trying to make credit available. Many people would argue in this country there has been too much credit available and we don’t know how to save. Is that something you can address?

Yunus: I was just giving examples. The existence of payday loans doesn’t give the impression that there is too much credit going on. If there is too much credit going on, they should be closed down. Pawnshops and all these are an indication you may see too much credit going on in one direction with some people, but then others are credit-starved.

I’m talking about the credit-starved people; I’m not talking about the people who have lots of credit. When I’m talking about credit, I’m not talking about consumer credit, which is, again, a way to make money for somebody else. I’m talking about investment money, money to generate income for themselves. That money is not there; it doesn’t exist. Ω This program was made possible by the generous support of the Kellogg Foundation and the Skoll Foundation.

Electric Vehicles:

Are We There Yet?

Electric cars are in the showrooms and on the streets. But what is the status of the infrastructure needed for wide-scale adoption? Excerpt from “Turning Over a New LEAF: The Start of an Electric Vehicle Revolution?,” May 18, 2010.

Tony Posawatz Vehicle Line Director, Chevy Volt, General Motors Mark Duvall Director of Electric Transportation, Electric Power Research Institute Jit Bhattacharya CEO, Mission Motors Richard Lowenthal CEO, Coulomb Technologies Inc. Kerry Curtis Chair, The Commonwealth Club’s Environment & Natural

Resources Member-Led Forum – Moderator

Illustration by Steven Fromtling

Curtis: Mark Duvall, looking ahead for 10 or 15 or 20 years, as electric cars become much more common, will the demands that they make on the electrical grid be something that we can cope with?

Duvall: The quick answer is yes. Electric vehicles do place stress on the grid. A typical home in San Francisco in the summertime draws about three kilowatts, and in Arizona, it could be seven or eight kilowatts. That’s right around the range at which electric vehicles can charge. However, the industry and the electric utilities have an obligation to serve reliable, safe electricity to homes and businesses and it’s their job to overcome that; it’s their job to deal with it.

On the positive side, almost complete electrification of the light-duty, passenger car fleet in the United States, however long it might take, would really amount to maybe less than 10 percent of the electricity that we use in the United States. So on a system level, it’s really a very small amount. There are a number of things that you can do

about charging vehicles off-peak, [such as] timing when they charge and giving utilities the option to work with vehicle owners to turn vehicles off during times of really high stress in the afternoon on really hot summer days that can dramatically reduce that.

So the overall effect is really not something that anyone who wants to buy an electric vehicle should be concerned about. The utilities have coped with residential airconditioning, plasma screen TVs, computers in every home.

ing test vehicle, probably a vehicle that was developed at the end of last year that was something that we used to make sure that we can validate this product, to bring this electrified car to the market. Your real question is, Are electric vehicles coming?

The answer is that the Chevy Volt will be in California before the end of this calendar year in a retail environment for sale. We are finishing the final testing and preparation to build said cars in quantities of thousands of vehicles the first model year, beginning in 2011, in November, and by the middle of calendar year 2011 for the 2012 model year.

We’d like to be in a position to build tens of thousands of electrically driven vehicles, and really introduce the first mass-market electrically driven vehicle to the United States and hopefully export this leadingedge technology abroad, as well.

Curtis: Jit, when I think about electric vehicles, I just think about cars. Your company is developing an electric motorcycle. What’s the potential for electric motorcycles compared to the potential for electric cars?

Bhattacharya: What’s really compelling about an electric motorcycle is that there are a number of benefits to electric drive beyond the fact that it doesn’t produce any emissions at the tailpipe. These are benefits such as instantaneous torque, the ability to drive to incredible speeds and accelerate so quickly without needing to shift. These are tangible benefits that a motorcycle rider understands in a very visceral way. What we’re doing

Curtis: I’ve been hearing about the Chevy Volt for a long time.

Does it really exist, and when will it be available for sale?

Posawatz: I do see some familiar faces in the audience, because this morning a few people in your audience actually drove the Chevy Volt. It was an engineerau g u s t/s eptem b e r 2010

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Photo by Sonya Abrams

(Left to right) Mineta Transportation Institute Executive Director Rod Diridon pauses for a moment in The Club’s Library before the program with panelists Tony Posawatz, Mark Duvall, Richard Lowenthal, Jit Bhattacharya, and Kerry Curtis.

here at Mission Motors in trying to create the fastest production electric motorcycle in the world is take those benefits, package it into a vehicle that riders can get on, that they can actually buy, that is reliable, that they can take to the track and enjoy – because a motorcycle, especially here in America, is really a recreational vehicle. You have to connect to the riding experience in order to justify the purchase.

Curtis: Richard, you’re the charging-station guy. Tell us how that works and why you need a network of charging stations.

Lowenthal: You’re going to need a new way to fuel your vehicle when you buy one of Tony’s or maybe one of Jit’s vehicles, and that’s our role. We want to be sure that when you’re in the showroom and you’re considering buying electric or gas, you don’t worry about the need to charge your car; we’ll take care of that for you.

These vehicles are a little different. The first ones coming out will take hours to charge, and the way that works is that you park them 23 hours a day. Generally speaking, when you’re sleeping and when you’re working, the car is sitting for long periods of time and you need one of our stations there. We provide charging stations for those environments.

Our company is a little different from what you might expect. Most of our engineers are software engineers, because we spend our time doing business software for our charging station infrastructure. These are things to replace what is familiar at a gas station but, for example, some of the owners

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of our stations want the drivers to pay for charging their vehicles, so we have a billing system that our station owners can use and we have applications. For example, when I came up here today, I used an application on my Blackberry – also available on the iPhone – where you put in an address and it will navigate you to the closest station to your destination that is not currently in use, so you have a place to charge your vehicle when you’re visiting here at The Commonwealth Club. Mostly what we do is try to provide you the tools so that you’re comfortable buying electric vehicles.

Curtis: The big thing that I hear about the concern about electric vehicles is what you touched on, Richard: the anxiety about running out of electricity. You can run out of gas, obviously, but there are gas stations are all over the place. What do you do when your Tesla is out of electricity in Buttonwillow, [California]? What is the outlook for actually being able to address that anxiety?

Lowenthal: There are two different kinds of situations. One is the commute. I commute in a BMW Mini electric vehicle, and my commute is about 15 miles, and the car has a range of about 100 miles; so I charge in my home garage or at work and I never have any issue.

But there is that time when you want to go farther than the battery will carry you, and then there are a number of solutions.

There’s one that Chevy has, with the Chevy Volt, which is called an extended-range electric vehicle; once the battery is depleted, it has a generator that keeps the car going

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for hundreds of miles. So [it’s] something familiar to all of you, and basically what happens is you switch from my infrastructure to the gasoline infrastructure for the extended road trip. The Tesla Roadster is another model; their model is [to] put in a battery big enough so the car will go farther than you want to go in a day, and have one of our stations where you sleep at night, and have one of our stations at hotels and you’re done, because you only need to charge that vehicle when you’re sleeping.

So there are a few different answers for that problem, but rest assured, we work on it all the time. One of the situations that we have that’s a little different is the one here in San Francisco, where there are six times as many cars as garages, so most of the residents in San Francisco won’t have the ability to charge in the home garage, so you’ll see our stations for instance down at City Hall, at the Civic Plaza, so you can charge while you’re working. Primarily, people living in this urban environment will charge in an apartment lot, or a condominium lot, or while they’re working.

We have answers for all the situations you may encounter with your EV. Posawatz: Just to add a little bit, when you can get a second charge in, for example, Richard’s spot-on relative to the data that exists how often you really are driving your car and how often the car is sitting. So typically we’d like to charge the car or any electric vehicle overnight when you’re sleeping, take advantage of that, when the grid capacity [usage] is low. As a matter of fact, the utilities love us to use that capacity; the rates are usually very low. The interesting opportunity, rather than necessarily putting in more and more battery in the car – which is expensive, increases charge time, increases mass, increases associated packaging issues with the car – is to provide a secondary opportunity when one is at work and for some of us it’s 12 hours and for others it’s less than that. So that’s another one of the challenges we collectively can work on together when we think about Mark representing the utilities, Richard with the charging stations, and Jit and I as the vehicle providers. I think that’s a very, very elegant solution and then with appropriate grid management, it’s something that could again take this technology and begin to usher in this new era

of electrified transportation.

Curtis: Jit, can you speak to the recyclability and the toxicity of the batteries, as they get more and more powerful?

Bhattacharya: This is a really important question, because it’s speaking to the issue of sustainability, and when we talk about renewable energy, when we talk about vehicle electrification, we need to start thinking about the entire cycle, the full system.

What’s going to happen to these batteries at their end of life? There’s going to be a lot of batteries if the electric vehicle revolution takes off the way that all of us are talking about. The one thing about lithium-ion that is a benefit, compared to the incumbent technology which is really nickel-metalhydride – that’s the style of battery that you see in the Toyota Prius – [is that] lithium-ion is less toxic. It is easier to recycle. That being said, large-scale recycling of lithium-ion batteries is still in development.

There is a lot of research going on [about], Can we take these batteries at the end of their life and potentially use them in other applications? Can we use them as ancillary services for the grid, and what are the possibilities around that? There’s a lot of hurdles, there’s a lot of challenges, but it’s an interesting opportunity for how we can actually take the lithium-ion batteries at the end of their life when they’re no longer useful for the car, and still get a lot more value for them down the road.

Posawatz: General Motors also is manufacturing and assembling battery packs, so we too have pondered this important topic.

One of the things that we have done with the Chevy Volt is the [expectation that the battery will be in the] Chevy Volt 10-plus years in the car, 150,000-plus miles in the car. What that indicates is you want, in order to have a sustainable system for this new technology, to make its life in its primary application as long as possible and then take care of that product, that battery, so that it does have a secondary use as Jit indicated.

The end-of-life for a battery in a vehicular application is when it reaches 70 percent of its capacity. That’s kind of interesting; there are very few things that I throw away when I still have 70 percent of its use available.

In the case of the Chevy Volt, I’ve liquid

cooled it to temperatures that people like, I condition it to the degree that we condition people in a passenger compartment if you will, so I think that [supports] the point that Jit raised; it’s something that we have to collaborate on, look at those secondary uses, work with Mark and the team at EPRI, and then obviously as the costs and the weight come down and the applications come down, the basic fundamental science and physics around the way the battery packs are comprised make them quite good candidates for recycling for recapturing the lithium. Lithium is quite easy to recapture, it’s generally in the form of a lithium carbonate, so it can be separated and the like.

But to Jit’s point also, there aren’t a lot of commercial applications, because there are not a lot of batteries that are at the point that they need to be recycled. We are working on it, along with Jit and others, and the battery manufacturers; I think you’ll see more on that in the future.

“Can we take these

batteries at the end of their life and use them in other applications?”

– Bhattacharya Curtis: I have three inter-related questions from the audience, all for Richard, having to do with charging. How do people pay to charge at one of your stations? Do some vehicles need a different kind of charging than others and how do you handle that? If you’re in a public charging place, how long does it take to charge the car and does that make sense if you’re shopping or something?

Lowenthal: First of all, How do you pay?

Our stations have the ability for you to pay with a credit card, and you can either use a loyalty card, like FastTrak works, where it takes money periodically out of your credit card, or you can use a credit card by calling a toll-free number, or you can use the wireless credit cards. Most of the owners of the stations won’t ask us to collect money,

so most of the stations you’re going to encounter will actually be free. These are people incentivizing you to use their parking lot or maybe it’s your employer or maybe it’s your local grocery store who wants you to come and stay for a long time while you charge your vehicle.

The U.S. has standardized on a connector for the vehicles, and so the vehicles from the major manufacturers will have the same connector on it, which allows you to use a public infrastructure. We’re not quite there in the rest of the world. Our shipments are only 50 percent in the U.S. and, for example, in Italy, as you might expect, they have six different connectors, which are all quite elegant, but they haven’t quite licked that problem, but it’s good in the U.S. With regards to charge time, the cars – on average, if you put them in a pool – they take about four hours to charge from completely depleted to completely full, but you tend not to do that. In an average day you drive 29 miles, and so that takes much less time. You’re talking now more about an hour of charging a day that you’ll do.

You won’t even notice because it will be where you park anyway. And will it help to charge while you’re at Costco? Well, it’ll help Costco because you’ll linger longer, but it does help the car, too. These batteries have no memory, so everything you can do to keep the batteries up is good. I always leave my car plugged in when I’m at work, that way I’ve got the full range of the vehicle any time I want to go somewhere during the day, so we tend to think of now charging as part of the parking experience. If you’re going to park, you charge, and that way, you’ve given up the pleasure of going to the gas station.

Duvall: We did a survey several years ago about how people would view charging, because at that time, the common wisdom in the auto industry was that it was seen as an inconvenience – Oh, I’ve got to plug this car in every day. Out of that survey, 7 out of 10 people said that they would strongly prefer to charge at home rather than go to the gas station. One in 10 people did say they would prefer to go to the gas station, so it takes all kinds. Ω This program was made possible by the generous support of the Mineta Transportation Institute.

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Too many people, argues Hanson, want to ignore the realities of human nature that lead to conflict. Excerpt from “War and Its Impact on Society,” May 3, 2010.

A

recent study showed that of all the historians at 25 major universities, only 1 percent were classified as military historians.

Peace studies and conflict resolution programs number almost 200, and yet there [are] only five or six military history programs. This is quite odd, especially given the public’s interest. If you look at Barnes and Noble or Borders, you’ll see massive collections on military history, but that has not translated into formal study of war.

Why is that?

I could [adduce] three or four reasons.

One of course is that in the nuclear age, there’s almost a collective despair of, Why would we want to learn about war when it could all be over in a matter of seconds? So there is a note of pessimism in the nuclear age since 1945 that suggests that military history is superfluous.

Another is that Vietnam had a lot to do with it. Whatever side of that war they

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were on, they translated that angst or that anger from criticism of a particular war to criticism of war in general. That had happened in World War I when the folly of the Somme [and] Verdun had created such an understandable loathing of all violence that a whole generation, many of them classicists like Gilbert Murray and Alfred Zimmern, had tried to outlaw war. That led, unfortunately, to the appeasement in the late ’30s and another war. After World War II, we saw that there maybe had been some tragic utility in war after all – [defeating] chattel slavery, Italian fascism, German Nazism, Japanese imperialism, and deterrence against Soviet totalitarianism had either involved war directly or the threat of war.

But now again particular anger at a particular war has translated into war in general. That also explains why we don’t study military history.

It’s the ultimate manifestation of the 18th century European Enlightenment. In

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France, Rousseau, Voltaire; John Locke in England. This suggested that ratio or logos or reason could explain natural phenomenon in a way that religion or superstition had failed to do and that war, being legalized murder in some sense, was illogical and that if people were erudite enough, calm enough, they could adjudicate these decisions without something so Neanderthal. This is especially true in our own time; the wealthier, the more technologically advanced, the healthier that we are, the promise of the Enlightenment is closer in our grasp than ever before, so we think that if we can have 500 channels, or talk on a cell phone tonight to Kenya, then we can outlaw or get rid of something as barbaric and retrograde as war.

All of that has conspired to suggest that we don’t study military history.

Is there any reason we should? There’s a lot. History, the Greeks’ idea of inquiry, began as one discipline only: military history. It began around 440 B.C. with Hero-

Photo collage by Steven Fromtling, photos by Ben Oh, Dave Wilson, Fibonacci Blue, Mateus 272425, Pandabear, Skenmy, SouthRiverSwanson / Flickr

victor davis hanson Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; Author, The Father of Us All

Photo by Pauline Hanson Steinback, courtesy of Victor Davis Hanson

dotus’ The Persian Wars. It was continued

by Thucydides and The Peloponnesian Wars.

Then Xenophon, a continuation of the wars of the fourth century. And Polybius, The Persian Wars, and on into Livy and Tacitus.

There was no such thing as history apart from war. What was the reasoning behind the ancients’ view?

They were not relativists as we are. The ancients said things are not equal, people are not equal, governments are not equal, cultures are not equal, and time and space is not equal. If I could translate that feeling or that theme to the modern world, they’d say something that is very hard for us to accept. They would say that 1946 was not as important as 1945. That 1911 was not as important as 1918; 1852 was not as important as 1864. In other words, that when young people, with their entire lives ahead of them, en masse commit violence, time and space is compressed.

Technology, military revolutions, radical change in culture explode in these moments in a way that they often do not otherwise, and therefore they more justifiably warrant the historians’ attention. We don’t quite accept that today.

Another is the idea of commemoration.

When I was on the American Battlefields Commission that’s in charge of the 52 cemeteries overseas, and walking in a place like [Hotton] in Belgium and seeing 12,000 crosses, you wonder, Why did these young people die? What did they die for? Do we appreciate it? We have a collective amnesia, this generation. It seems almost amoral that we have done so.

I once gave a talk at UC Santa Barbara, and I told the audience I lamented the fact that there were 62 courses in Chicano studies and not one in the Civil War. Somebody got up and very angrily said there is one, its called Reconstruction and Gender. I said, That has nothing to do with General Sherman. I am in great admiration of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, but believe me, Sojourner Truth did not do as much to affect the status of slavery as William Tecumseh Sherman did in six weeks, but we don’t know any of these things anymore.

That’s somewhat a moral tragedy.

And finally, of course, military history is didactic. There is some utility in learning how wars begin, how they proceed, and how they end, especially in this generation that

believes that war is sort of archaic or repugnant and we don’t want to study it.

Military historians don’t like war. Most of them that I’ve known approach it didactically. They want to understand it with some idea of utility for the present generation, how to avoid them, or at least contain them, or mitigate their effects. Because they are a dour lot that don’t quite believe that they can be, unfortunately, ended.

Why do wars start and why do people

“Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War says that people go

to war for

honor, fear and self-interest.

It’s irrational.”

get angry? Nations are just collections of individuals, and so people have disagreements. When I was writing this book. I tried to collate all of the human-interest stories of suburbanites fighting, and I found 10 or 12 of them. People hitting each other over leaves, painting a fence, parking too close to a neighbor’s driveway. All of these involve territory, but they were superfluous territory. They were of no value. It reminds me of the Greeks. Every single war that took place in Greece, you could argue, started over borderland, number one, and number two, the borderland was worthless.

So why do people do this? We’re told that people go to war and are logical, rational,

Enlightenment-age, they’ve got to go to war over oil or boxite or something. When I was a student at UC Santa Cruz, they all said there were vast amounts of oil off the coast of Vietnam, and I would say, I don’t think there’s anything there worth it. But the answer to that question comes from Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War when he says that people go to war for honor, fear and self-interest. It’s irrational.

Think for a minute. Germany today has more population and about a third less land than it did in 1939. Do you hear any Germans say that we have to have lebensraum?

Why did Hitler say that he had to have room when he had a smaller population and more land than Germans do today? I haven’t heard any Japanese figure say that he needs a co-prosperity sphere. You just don’t talk like that. And yet, there was one time when the collective Japanese nation just was sure that they had to have an Asian sphere of influence throughout the Pacific.

So there are irrational reasons why people go to war. But that doesn’t mean they have to go to war; it means they’d like to go to war. Your suburbanite who is mad that his neighbor’s leaves, are on his property may want to shoot him, but he usually won’t shoot him, or he won’t hit him. And why is that? Is it because he’s logical, because another neighbor adjudicates? Because there’s a suburban homeowner’s association that tries to adjudicate? No, it’s usually because of deterrence. One of two things: he thinks the other neighbor may shoot him if he tries something, or more likely, he will suffer a loss of reputation. It might affect his children, his job, the rumor will get out that he’s crazy – all of those deter him.

Now, when these wars break out, there are two or three things that are interesting about them. In the last 2,500 years, if they’re conventional wars – between nationstates with amassed armies – the degree to which an army is so-called “Western” – it’s not a racial or a geographical term, it’s an ideal. It’s something that Greeks and the Romans taught us about the organization of society.

To the degree that a society has some sort of consensuality, they judge natural phenomenon by reason, they have a scientific tradition, they separate religion from the government, they have a notion of individual freedom, they define discipline

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with group discipline, rather than the cult of the individual warrior – I could go on and on, but there are a number of protocols that explain why, let’s be honest, if we’re politically incorrect, nevertheless, there’s a reason why Montezuma is not in Barcelona and Cortez can take down an empire of 4 million people. There’s a reason why the Zulu, the most war-like and heroic people in Africa, lose in nine weeks to the British.

Remember, the British lost more soldiers in two weeks in the Boer War than they did in the entire Zulu war. More Americans were killed the first day in Antietam than were lost in the frontier fighting for almost a century. The British lost more men in six hours at the Somme than they had in the hundred years of colonial fighting. In other words, this Western tradition is absolutely ferocious. When it’s turned on itself, it’s almost suicidal.

Some people understand that and they have ways of checking it. There are things and people, other traditions who are wise enough not to engage in a conventional war with a Western power [and instead]

can check it. They do it in three or four ways. We learned that from history. The Greeks learned that in Anatolia, the Romans learned that sometimes in Gaul, sometimes against Jugurtha in Numidia.

So you have a Western power, and it’s got this overwhelming capital, it’s got superior logistics, it’s got superior discipline, it can transport an army almost anywhere. How are you going to defeat it if you don’t want to play along those rules?

One of them is asymmetry. It tends to be that when you marry capitalism to consensual government, life is pretty good, and that means it’s scarcer, and it’s rarer, and its harder to give up. If you read the fourth book of Thucydides, he laments that very wealthy Athenian hoplites that were well-equipped with sophisticated bronze armor were trapped in the wilds of Aetolia and butchered by tribesmen behind trees.

They didn’t fight fairly, and he said this was a great tragedy; the best men of Athens could produce and they were lost in this skirmish, and it just bothered the historian. He says this in three or four occasions. Tacitus does,

Q&A

Joe Epstein, president of Sierra Steel Trading, moderator: Does war have an overall positive or an overall negative impact, would you say, on the development of our society?

Hanson: I don’t like the idea of war. I would rephrase that as wars. Particular wars had utility. I don’t know how we would have stopped Hitler without a war. I know Pat Buchanan and others believe we could have talked him out of it or something, but I don’t think there’s any evidence for that. The moment he got into Poland, this idea that he was radicalized by the war and only [then] went to the Final Solution, that’s not true. He was targeting Jews on September 2nd, the moment he got into Poland. I don’t know how you would’ve stopped him without force.

World War I is more problematic, but there was a difference between the Kaiser’s society and what he envisioned for Europe and what the democracies in France and Britain did. So there are wars that eliminate things like slavery and Nazism. The answer to that question depends on the circumstance of the particular war. War can be legalized murder, or it can be a last desperate act to stop somebody who wants to kill all the [other] people.

One last thought: The 20th century saw the greatest amount of corpses in wars in the history of conflict; more people were killed in violence in World War II, World War I, and these horrible things after than any other century. And yet, you could probably make the argument that more people died off the battlefield in

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too, about the Roman army.

Another one is that the West is a construct. There is no monolithic West. The Ottomans had 20 million people at one time in the sixth century, the Muslim world was united, but the Battle of Lepanto?

There were only three little Western states: Spain, the Papal states and Venice, and the Ottoman fleet routinely harbored in the Bay at Toulan, France. Europe was trisected

by Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Catholicism, so the West has always been fighting with each other.

Third, these are consensual societies. I don’t mean that they’re all out of the head of Zeus, full-fledged democracies, but there’s a level of consensuality. Even Cortez, when he was fighting Montezuma, was sued in the process at Veracruz by a rival Spanish commander and had to address that lawsuit – this under autocratic Spain.

So Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan have precedents. Ω This program was made possible by the generous support of The Koret Foundation.

the 20th century than on, if you look at the 30 million that Stalin killed, 6 million that Hitler [killed]; we could add in Pol Pot and all of those things. I think you could have saved a million people in Rwanda had we acted very quickly and smartly. For all the problems in the Serbian war, Milosevic was stopped and he would have killed a lot more than the 150,000 that he did.

Epstein: I was struck by your comments in The Father of Us All, in discussing the evolution of modern weapons, that the U.S. and Western allies have not really found a means of producing cheaper weapons. You talk about how terrorists sacrifice lives for death, whereas we spend a lot of money on weaponry to accomplish the same thing.

Hanson: A Western laboratory would say, How can we create the perfect robot and program it to go into a hostile neighborhood undetected and then at the appropriate microsecond, blow up, and that would cost us about a billion dollars in R&D and then probably $1 million per unit. Al-Qaida says, I get somebody whose life is not very optimistic anyway and his brain is far more sophisticated than any computer the West can make, and I can put a bomb on him and he can pass through a sentry and he can blow up a lot of people. So we’re seeing that the non-Western world is able to trump, or at least nullify, the Western technological advantage, based on one premise, that we are dying to live, they’re living to die – “they” meaning the small cadre of suicide bombers. Ω

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Continued from page 11)

Ali: You are the sister, you’re the sibling, and you find your brother – even though my brother and I fought a lot, I just see him being treated badly by my father and I feel pain, it hurts me. But I can’t stand up to my father. I can’t tell him, Dad, stop that, that’s wrong. Even if I can say, Stop it, it’s wrong, I don’t know why it’s wrong.

After Infidel was published, audiences like you said, Oh my goodness gracious, God almighty, women are treated so badly within Islam. I was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, but how about boys? Little boys. They are brought up with a split identity: On the one hand, there is their context, which is increasingly modern. Even if it’s not in the U.S. and Europe, I grew up in large cities: Mogadishu, Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Nairobi in Kenya. These are cities; they are not as hip and modern as San Francisco and New York, but they are cities in their own rights. You don’t ride camels; you don’t go in hordes and attack other tribes, but the moral language that my brother was getting was, You are a hero, you are going to fight lions, you are going to conquer tribes. I’m talking about a six-year-old boy, a sevenyear-old boy, a ten-year-old boy. He wants to come home and say, Ok, here is my report form. He’s done a math test, he’s got 93 percent of those questions right, and my mom is only worried about the 7 percent that he didn’t get right.

I have seen the boys being treated that way enough. It’s not just us girls; it’s also the boys, it’s the men. We don’t learn what it is to empathize with another individual, because the male individual is taught not to be soft but to be hard. He is going to be a hero of some sort, he should die for something bigger than himself. His honor is between my legs. That goes on and on – discipline her.

My brother would watch my father cuddle me, call me all kinds of wonderful names and say, She’s my only son, she looks at me in the eye, etcetera. He would be called a woman: Go, hide behind the skirts of your mom. What becomes of that boy? I tell that story for two reasons. One, because women who are denied education, like my mother, or who deny themselves education – it’s not just that they are actively denied; some of

them choose not to go to school. Some of them pull their daughters out of school.

In a modern world, women who have no education have no idea what parenting is like. The young men, sometimes older men that they are married off to, have a history themselves of being abused by their fathers.

By abused I mean not actively abused, not in the sense that someone knows they are doing something wrong, but they are brought up by two individuals who also don’t know how to parent, and that perpetuates itself.

“In a modern

world, women who have no education have no idea what parenting is like. ... That

perpetuates itself.”

I am revealing this not to be mean, but just to say that once we understand that dynamic, maybe women like you and me can persuade other women to say, First of all, don’t take children unless you are really ready for them because it is quite a headache.

If you take one or two, please don’t embark on taking 5 or 10 of them, because you have a whole boarding school or prison if most of them are boys. Most Muslim families, let’s be honest, want boys because the mentality has stayed on, [that] We are tribes fighting against other tribes, so the more sons we have the better. But we are not tribes fighting against other tribes. We live in small places where you have neighbors upstairs, neighbors downstairs, neighbors on either side. You don’t want your family making a lot of noise, because the police are going to be called. This is the situation, and what a life. You have to learn to adapt to that situation, parent toward that situation, teach your children to adapt to that.

Pari: When I was a little girl, there was one mosque in the entire country and that was the one in Washington, D.C. Now there are 1,150. How do you account for this?

Ali: Perhaps there is something else going on. You all put up your hands when asked if you read Infidel. Do you remember Sister Aziza? [I’m a] Muslim girl, secondary school, 15 years old and I’m in form two [or] form three. We have a class called Islamic Religious Education and our teacher does a number of things that are, in hindsight, very interesting. She’s not Mrs. Yusef. She says, I’m Sister Aziza. She comes in, completely covered, she had a heart-shaped face, pale and everything else is in black, very mysterious and, I have to say, very beguiling in a way because, wow, she looked very different from all of our other teachers. She talked to us differently. She was one of us; she was Swahili, born on the coast of Kenya.

Instead of teaching the history of Islam – which was the curriculum, where you get to know Islam is 1,400 years old and the conquests and the Abbasids and Umayyads and blah, blah blah – the first question she asks is, Are you a Muslim? So for the Muslim students who chose that class – that class was voluntary – you just think, Yeah, of course I’m Muslim. I mean, Hey, I’m in the Islamic religion class, I’m not in the Christian religion class, I’m a Muslim. But then she says, But how do I know you are a Muslim? She’s soft-spoken and sweet and honest, and from there she carries on the logic: But how do I know you are a Muslim? You are not separating yourself from the infidels, you are not covering yourself up, you’re not praying five times a day, etcetera. That woman did not represent American foreign policy. At the time, America didn’t even live for us. She wasn’t representing Israeli foreign policy; she wasn’t representing any foreign policy.

Now, was that a movement that was only present in Africa and the Middle East?

No, it was also here in the United States, it was in Europe. If you go from one mosque in your time to 1,150 for a population of maybe 8- to 10-million people, then you start to wonder. It did make me wonder, and I looked into it: Who is building these mosques? What is the message that they are conveying? Who is in charge of these Muslim centers, etcetera? Islam – submission to the will of Allah – that brings together millions if not billions of people, is used by a foreign power. That is foreign policy to target specifically vulnerable communities.

You know why Muslims come to America? They come like all other immigrants

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– in search of a better life. It starts with an attempt to improve your economic life.

Once you come here, it’s probably natural that you start to seek out people who look like you, your cousins. If you’re Iranian, with Iranians; if you’re Somali, with Somalians; if you’re Pakistani, with the Pakistanis. Then you already have communities that exist that can be targeted. There is one movement financed by Saudi Arabians, first the government and after 2001, 2002, after the 9/11 Commission, they were clamped [down] on. Saudi Arabia was forced not to finance them, so now it’s done and they say it’s individuals. What is it that motivates a young man like [attempted Times Square bomber] Faisal Shahzad, who was living the American dream, who found a visa to this country?

Pari: I say if he still had a job, he wouldn’t have done that. When economic times get more difficult, young people tend to be drawn more easily [to violence].

Ali: I have a problem with that. If we find it acceptable – if we even remotely entertain the idea that if you lose your job, that there is one way to express your misery and that is by killing other people – we are really going down.

Major Nidal gets to be a major in a voluntary military. He volunteered and he goes and kills his fellow military men. He doesn’t say it’s because he was called racist. He calls for Allahu Akbar. Any of the original e-mail exchanges that he has had with [al-Qaida cleric] Anwar al-awlaki was, I want to join you in the hereafter. He wasn’t talking about how his colleagues were racist and so on.

The guy who killed Theo van Gogh, for a long time the entire Dutch nation was speculating about how Theo van Gogh might have offended him by calling Muslims “goat f---ers.” When that man got a chance to talk, he said, Oh no, I wasn’t insulted at all by that; I was doing it for God. I just think, why don’t we take these people at their word? Why don’t we just examine their convictions?

Pari: I’m totally with you on the idea of cultural relativism and the issues of multiculturalism. There are many facets in Islam that I just find abhorrent and I don’t think they should be excused in any way.

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Then, of course, there is Canada and some other countries who are considering instituting Shariah law for family issues. I know you feel very strongly against this, but what is the answer?

Ali: It starts with saying there is no excuse and then understanding.

Now, if we understand that, if we were able to convince all the men who believe in this to give that up – the notion of virginity: That a woman owns her sexuality, that men can organize in their own societies and say, We don’t want mutilated women. We want a fellow human being with whom we have

“If we even remotely entertain the idea that if you lose

your job,

there is one way to

express your

misery and that is by killing

other people – we are really

going down.”

a relationship, with whom we can relate, we can raise children, we can be partners.

If Arab Muslim men were to take that initiative, female genital mutilation in the Muslim world would come to a halt, but as long as the conviction exists on the one hand – my daughter is never ever going to be married unless you can prove she’s a virgin – and men, on the other hand, say I’m not going to marry a woman for whom I’m not 100 percent sure she’s a virgin, not only that practice but all other kinds of abominable practices against women will continue. I prefer to go to the root of the matter.

Pari: This is a very complex situation – trying to understand what’s going through the minds of people who are fundamentalists and radicals, and how to somehow curtail their activities and their influence. I felt very strongly that toward the end of the book you felt that you had to offer some solutions because, of course, even as I am

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doing, everyone is asking you, What should we do? How can we stop this? One of your solutions was very surprising to me. That was your advocating that the Catholic and the Christian churches get together and convert all the Muslims, basically.

I thought to myself, Why is she doing this? Why is this suddenly here? I thought to myself, Oh, this is her rebellious streak.

She needs to be a little more rebellious or outlandish, but it was disturbing to me, frankly, because when I was growing up in this country, as I said, there was only one mosque.

Ali: The superficial answer is that if every Muslim were to become a Christian, then I would [be able] to live without bodyguards.

Pari: That’s a good reason.

Ali: After Infidel was published, I got a number of letters – I am going to ask permission to have those e-mails and letters published – by fellow Muslims. People with a background like mine, saying, I relate to this, I relate to that. Some of them have become atheists and are really very comfortable with it, with the Enlightenment. E-mails about Thomas Hobbes. People come here and they think, Oh my goodness, the founding fathers are great, I’m a Jeffersonian. I think, Oh, wonderful. So I’m not alone.

Pari: So be an agnostic!

Ali: Or a Buddhist or a Hindu or whatever, but many of them have become Christian.

Christians – and I’m not talking about Christianity even 50 years ago – but Christianity now in the modern cities in Europe and here. Moderate Christians, who just reduced their concept of God to someone who’s loving and cherishing and is in no way in disagreement with whatever they do on a daily basis and definitely not hostile to science and the Enlightenment. I think, Well, that’s a great creation, cuddly, loving and they’ve abolished hell, which means there’s an exit option.

Pari: Really? Can you introduce me to those Christians?

Ali: Oh, yeah! There are lots of them. I al-

ways ask every believer, How about hell?

Then there is the concept of God in Islam, which is fashionable and many, many Muslims throw at me, Why is it the fastest growing religion? The fact that people say that is not just a defensive argument, it’s true. It’s actually the fastest growing religion right now.

That means the concept of a created figure who demands submission – complete submission of will, complete submission of responsibility. Kill the infidels. Beat your wife. My god tells me to do that. You submit your own individual responsibility. That is appalling, that is frightening. If you look at the demography of people who are taking that on – my job is to start experimenting with ideas of, How do we combat that? I like to seek answers, especially when it comes to ideas outside of military means and what the police could do. Humanists can do it, atheists can do it, I would love nothing more than for feminists to get their acts together and start telling Muslim women what it is like to be free, how cool that is.

Think about all the strategic alliances that people who have different opinions have formed. Think of a time when Winston Churchill and Roosevelt and Stalin formed an alliance to defeat Hitler. They didn’t agree on anything, but that strategic alliance at that time was necessary. I think that the differences between the Christians and atheists and feminists today are less profound than the three of us against radical jihadists. Sorry.

Pari: Can you tell us about other Muslim women who successfully integrated into secular European society? How did they do it?

Ali: I know a number and unfortunately all of them, for some reason, are threatened, live in hiding or have aliases. Many of them were women who were able at a critical point in their lives to extricate themselves from the social control of their families. In 1993, I consciously decided, I don’t want to be in the Somali community. Not because I hated Somalis and I was participating in self-hatred, but because just the constant, Put on your headscarf. Just being told what to do, what not to do. So I decided, I’m not going to do this.

I know two women in Germany, three

women in Holland, a few in Denmark and Norway – there are more, but these are women who were prominent in their own countries. We all shared: Yeah, I stopped going to Somali parties, Pakistani parties, Turkish parties, Moroccan parties, these ethnic parties. I [got] absorbed into my new world and to absorb what they had to offer. As a strong woman, on my own terms, I went back and started to re-establish relationships with them. That’s what happened.

By the time Bin Laden had blown up the Twin Towers, I was able to articulate what I felt and what I thought. Not what the community told me to feel and what to think.

The more ghetto-ized these communities get, the more they just get swallowed up in the old world that they left behind.

Pari: Some people criticize you because you say, Muslims in general.

Ali: I never say Muslims in general; I say “Islam,” and it’s important in trying to think about it. Separate Muslims from Islam, which you obviously can do in theory even though in practice that’s a little more difficult. In theory, a Muslim is an individual.

There are 1.5- to 1.7-billion Muslims; 1.5to 1.7-billion different minds.

When you take Islamic theology, the Hadith [narrations of Muhammad] is left behind. That’s the theology. Something has to be fixed, and what needs to be fixed in my view is to have all the revelation that comes after Medina to be deleted, and the Hadith.

In fact, most of the Hadith, because the problem with the Hadith is that it also goes

into detail. It starts to spell out how much of the female skin should be covered. Now, that’s not religion, that’s totalitarianism.

Pari: In Nomad, you have a chapter that is a letter to your unborn child, You talk about how you want her to live and to think and to grow up. It’s fascinating and very sweet.

What would you do if your daughter or your son came to you as a teenager and said they wanted to be a Muslim?

Ali: I would be devastated. I write that letter as an answer to a question, and actually often an attack from people I’ve come to call cultural and moral relativists, who are very complacent and say, Don’t worry, it’s going to take Muslims 600 years to adapt to modernity because it took Christians that long. Christianity is about 600 years older than Islam so it is going to take that long.

My grandmother moved from water hole to water hole and led a fully nomadic life with camels and the whole thing, and had never seen modernity until much, much later in her life. My mother is partly in her head that split personality. She is immersed in the values of the nomadic tribal life, becomes a very, very devout Muslim but goes from city to city and rejects modern values.

As her daughter, the third female in that line, I fully come to accept modern values but I’m rejected by my family. Imagining a child of mine, that child hopefully will not have that identity crisis. Ω This program was made possible by the generous support of Bank of America.

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Guns in Public Californians are voting on whether to restrict gun possession or to confirm open-carry as the law of the land. An expert panel considers what’s at stake. Excerpt from “Guns in Public: Exploring California’s Open-Carry Policy,” May 26, 2010.

Ken James Police Chief, Emeryville, California Sam Paredes Executive Director, Gun Owners of California Franklin E. Zimring William G. Simon Professor of Law and Wolfen Distinguished Scholar, UC Berkeley John Diaz Editorial Page Editor, San Francisco Chronicle – Moderator Diaz: Let’s start with Sam Paredes, who is an advocate of open-carry, and the question is: Is society safer, or less safe, when we have citizens who are going around carrying firearms openly?

Paredes: It is our considered opinion, and our very definite opinion, that society is much safer when law-abiding citizens are exercising their rights to carry firearms in a legal fashion. In 43 states where open-carry is the law of the land, the vast majority of them allow loaded open-carry. California seems to be the one bucking the main movement, and they seem to think that people are different in California.

Well, I think that Americans are Americans across the country, and the laws that apply to all of us should be the same. There’s no question that even Janet Reno at one time, as attorney general, produced a report reluctantly pointing out that, in essence, in California somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 times a year, law-abiding citizens use firearms to successfully defend themselves, the vast majority of the times never firing a shot. Yes, society is safer when lawabiding citizens carry guns legally.

Diaz: Ken James, you are a police chief in [a] suburban Bay Area town. What’s your sense?

James: My sense is that the public is not safer with guns in a public setting. I don’t think that the statistics bear out that they are safer. You can just look to the frequency of gun deaths around the country, and you will find that the 10 states that regulate

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firearms in a greater degree have as much as half of the gun deaths in the country as the states that don’t.

For example, Alaska, which has no regulations at all on the ability to carry a gun, has an index of 20 deaths, whereas California has 9.8. So I don’t believe it’s safer, and I don’t believe that the statistics show that it’s safer. I know as a police officer, I don’t feel safer with people carrying guns. I have no idea who they are. I have no idea nor have the ability to determine whether they are a law-abiding citizen or somebody that is ready to rob a bank. For that reason, we have to respond to that possible threat in the manner that we are trained to do.

Diaz: Professor Zimring?

Zimring: As I understand it, this is a bill to either permit, if it’s passed, the carrying of an unloaded handgun, and you’re asking me whether California’s going to be safer with or without the law.

The answer is, this law has nothing to do with personal safety in the state of California. If this kind of carriage is allowed, it will be terribly important to people who want to show off unloaded weapons to other people. It’s symbolically important as some sort of imprimatur of gun rights. If it’s prohibited, I think the police feel a little bit more comfortable because they don’t have to play the game of does-he or doesn’t-he have that loaded when people walk around.

But the people whose conduct is going to be affected are in the suburbs. They’re 30 years beyond the time they were a high-

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crime risk. They don’t get involved in the kinds of arguments that when they escalate into gun battles produce homicides, and that’s why I’m complaining. Because, oh I guess, if I had to vote on this bill, I’d probably vote with the police chief for the reasons of just I don’t want to manufacture misunderstandings with armed police officers, whose guns are loaded.

On the other hand, what really troubles me – as [someone] very interested in the relationship between firearms and the death rate from violence over the last 40 years – is that this bill is a sideshow. There are very important things going on with guns and violence in this country. The Supreme Court is making new law every time it meets. The state of California is in a kind of a deadlock, in which the legislature passes a lot of trivial laws but has preempted the rights of the city to make their own policy. And the people who support gun-control laws here seem to want to count the number of laws that the legislature passes instead of the number of lives saved or cost, and that just strikes me as a symbolic and almost idiotic use of the public welfare.

Diaz: Let me ask Sam Paredes a question that has struck me as I’d been reading a lot of the coverage of the open-carry movement, and the question is, why now? This has been the law of the state for more than 40 years, where you could carry an unloaded handgun, and then suddenly we have this open-carry movement that has really been pushing the issue. In fact, Lori Saldana, the legislator from San Diego who introduced

Illustration by Steven Fromtling

the bill that we are talking about in the assembly, she said basically her introduction to that bill was in response to seeing a group of about 60 people packing weapons in Pacific Beach, and until then, it had not been a major issue of hers. What has brought this to the fore at this point?

Paredes: We have a lot of law-abiding citizens who are doing things that have been done forever in this state. Open-carry has been the law, it has been conducted, in probably every county in the state of California since the state was made a state, and there has never been an issue of a problem that’s come down the pike on that thing.

First of all, all respects go to law enforcement. Our organization is dedicated to crime control, not gun control. We stand with law enforcement and honor what they do. We love the fact that they stand between us to defend the good from the evil; to be a barrier, a shield. But understand, and they’re the first to tell you, they’re not going to be there when the manure hits the ventilator, when an issue comes up. They’re going to be there to take a report. That’s what they do. They cannot be everywhere.

The Supreme Court in the Warren vs. the People decision said [that] the right for self-defense is one that is inherent in each of us. It is not the responsibility, you cannot sue government, you cannot sue law enforcement, for not being able to protect you, to defend you, against a criminal act.

That responsibility is yours.

Now, when you have government and law enforcement agencies and mainly police chiefs, because they are politically appointed officers who usually represent the political inclinations of the appointing authority, whether it be the city manager, the police commission, or the city council, who really appoints them and gives them their job.

Typically in the state of California, chiefs of police represent by nature urban areas and they tend to be far more liberal. As a matter of fact, very few of them ever come to the State of California to lobby on behalf of gun rights.

But when you take a right, like the right to keep and bear arms that has been deemed an individual right in the recent Heller decision, and as discussed by Justice Scalia, you squeeze one side and you say, You cannot have concealed-carry. And then on the other

side here in California, you say, You cannot have open-carry, what are you doing to the right? You’re crushing the right. And it is a right. Justice Scalia was careful to point out that the Second Amendment says the right to keep and bear arms. That is a very important issue. Citizens of California, we’ve always been in the forefront of civil rights, and this is a civil right. The answer to this question [is that] in the mid-’60s, when the

right, an individual, an American civil right, because somebody is intimidated or afraid.

So Californians, we’re out on the forefront, we are expressing a right. We are fighting for a right that is a part of these documents that we call the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. If you don’t like it, don’t ignore it, don’t twist it: change it.

Civil Rights Act, the United States was being sued constantly by different folks, some small businesses sued. They went all the way to the Supreme Court and they were saying that we don’t want to hire, you can’t make us hire people of color, because our customers tell us that they are intimidated and they are afraid. The Supreme Court held, the justices held, that you cannot deprive a civil

Diaz: Let’s get an on-the-streets perspective from Chief Ken James. Your officers are out there: How often do they encounter people who are carrying unloaded weapons in an open manner, and what is the result of it?

What do they usually find?

Zimring: What you have going on in California and a lot of other states is what sociologists call a status conflict. This isn’t about loaded guns. This is about people who are deeply attached to what they consider to be their right to bear arms who are showing off in Starbucks, and people who are deeply attached to Starbucks who don’t like guns in it. So what you have are two sides, nobody is shooting each other, what they’re having is a status conflict in which each side is saying, I’m right. We’re wearing these unloaded handguns, not because it’s going to save me from a robber or a cop, it’s unloaded, remember? It’s not going to save you from anything, all you can do is throw it. So why is it being worn? They’re being worn [to show] gun owners are right, and the people who are introducing the bill, what we’re going to prove is, we’re right, and they’re wrong, and they shouldn’t wear it.

So that’s the tug of war, but it isn’t about lives, and it isn’t about the use of handguns, and that’s what really worries me. The Commonwealth Club is finally going to discuss guns, that’s the good news. The bad news is that the bill that they’re discussing has got nothing to do with costing or saving lives.

We’re down now to 1,500 or 2,000 deaths a year in California. That’s good news. We have lower crime rates than lots of other developed countries, but we have death rates that are three and four times higher than other developed countries. That’s an interesting issue, but that wasn’t what the folks are debating out on Starbucks.

James: In all deference to Mr. Paredes, in 35 years, we’ve had one open-carry incident

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29

Photos by Beth Byrne

“The Second

Amendment is the pre-emption law of the country.” – Sam Paredes

in Emeryville. It wasn’t prevalent until the last two or three years. Though the ability to do that [has been ] on the books, it wasn’t being exercised in the manner that it is being today.

That being said, on the street, our officers have to treat that weapon as the potential threat that it is, and it places them in the precarious situation of dealing with somebody that has a gun. Again, with deference to Professor Zimring, the open-carry people have said with a little bit of practice and 1.3 seconds, that useless piece of metal becomes a deadly weapon. So we have to deal with these things in a real situation. People with guns, the way we deal with it, the tactics that we use, are highly charged situations.

They put the officers in a bad position that threatens their safety and threatens the safety of the public around which they are carrying the gun.

Diaz: Just to clarify, Chief James, what the law is now: It is not only legal to have the unloaded weapons on [you], you can also be carrying ammunition – I believe in the legislature, they had some demonstration [of loading the guns] in less than two seconds.

“Local legislation would be the preference,

rather than statewide.”

– Ken James

James: Assemblywoman Saldana had a video of a weapon being loaded, charged and ready to fire within 1.3 seconds.

Zimring: Has there been a homicide in California associated with an open-carry incident in the recorded history of your police career?

James: Not that I know of.

“The bill .. has got

nothing to do with costing or saving lives.”

– Franklin E. Zimring 30

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

Zimring: If you had to choose, Chief James, between a local option law that would give large cities in the state of California the right to create, as they can’t now under pre-emption doctrine, their own handgun policies and enforce them and have dealers throughout the rest of California have to respect them – if you had to chose between that and the open-carry bill that has provoked this debate, which law would you want the legislature to pass?

James: I think that local legislation would be the preference, rather than statewide, but that doesn’t exist in our state at this time.

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Zimring: Only because the Supreme Court of California has ruled that the state statutes pre-empt the cities. The legislature could change that the day after tomorrow.

Paredes: Only because my boss, Senator H.L. Richardson, the founder and chairman of Gun Owners of California and Gun Owners of America, 22-year member of the state’s legislature, wrote the pre-emption law and had it passed in a Democrat[ic] legislature, with Jerry Brown as the governor, signed into law, to pre-empt patchwork laws throughout the state where law-abiding citizens would be confused, they’d go from one jurisdiction to the next and they don’t know what the laws are, they get arrested.

In actuality, we do believe that the Second Amendment is the pre-emption law of the country, and there is no need for a pre-emption law. But we have done that because cities and communities chose or city councils, political organizations, chose to step on law-abiding citizens’ rights and infringe upon those rights.

Diaz: Mr. Paredes, an audience member wants to know, are you carrying a gun tonight?

Paredes: Yes, I am.

Diaz: Then I feel compelled to ask the follow up question: Is it loaded?

Paredes: Yes, it is.

Diaz: Chief James, when you are not on duty – certainly, as a police chief, you have a concealed weapons permit – do you carry a gun off-duty, as well? And does that make you feel safer?

James: No, I don’t, and no, I don’t feel safer.

I choose not to carry a gun because of the pitfalls that a weapon can do.

Over 35 years, I’ve seen more officers getting in trouble with misuse of a weapon off-duty than they have gotten in going into their police powers and saving somebody’s life, so to speak. I don’t carry a gun off-duty, no. Ω This program was made possible by the generous support of the Charles Geschke Family.

Baker photo by Beth Byrne, flag by Mr. Throk / Flickr

American Power Abroad In a time of heightened partisanship in Washington and major economic and geopolitical challenges to American power, a political veteran prescribes pragmatism. Excerpt from “Ethical Imperative of America’s Involvement in the World,” March 16, 2010.

James baker Former U.S. Secretary of State

G

eorge [Shultz in his introduction] mentioned the title of my second book, Work Hard, Study and Keep out of Politics. That title is facetious; I gave it that title because that’s what my grandfather used to say to the young lawyers who came to work for our law firm in Houston. Texans, he said, if you want to be a good lawyer, work hard, study and keep out of politics. Well, that was the mantra in our family, and I followed that advice for the first 40 years of my life.

It was only after I lost a wife to cancer when she was only 38 years of age that I had a life-changing experience. I had a good friend in Houston at the time – as a matter of fact, my tennis doubles partner – who came to me and said, You know, Bake, you’ve got to take your mind off your grief, how about helping me run for the Senate? I said, Well, George, that’s a great idea except for two things: Number one, I don’t know anything about politics; I’ve been following

my grandfather’s advice. Number two, I’m a Democrat. He said, Well, we can take care of that latter problem. And we did. One thing led to another. I ended up getting into politics in a big way. As a matter of fact, just seven years after converting to the Republican Party, I found myself running an incumbent Republican president’s campaign for President Jerry Ford.

I’ve been asked to speak to you tonight on the ethical imperative of America’s involvement on the world stage. It’s an easy topic to answer – so simple, I think, that sometimes we in fact overlook it. This imperative derives from the duty of our government to advance our security and the prosperity. If you look at the Preamble of the Constitution, it pretty much sums it up when it says that the United States will provide for the common defense and will promote the general welfare. So achieving these goals is, after all, a constitutional obligation of our government, and it is

therefore an ethical imperative for democratically elected leaders.

That was true when the Constitution was drafted, it was true during the 20th century when three great expansionist powers – Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union – threatened world peace, and it is true today as American security is challenged by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the rise of rogue states and the spread of transnational threats like terrorism. Quite simply, responding to these challenges is impossible without international engagement. So it is an imperative, and I think an ethical one, that America remains engaged in the world as a matter of security.

So, too, is the obligation to enhance the prosperity of the American people. We Americans have gained a lot since World War II by the liberalization of trade and investment that’s taken place over that period, but economic globalization didn’t just happen; it was aided every step of the way, it was aided

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31

Photo by Beth Byrne

George P. Shultz, James A. Baker’s predecessor as U.S. secretary of state, gave the introduction at the beginning of Baker’s March 16 Commonwealth Club talk.

Above (left to right) Shultz, Dr. Gloria C. Duffy, Baker and Robert Rosenthal, who served as moderator for the event.

by international institutions, by formal agreements and by some informal agreements.

Surely, if you look at the recent financial crisis and the economic downturn that’s resulted, that provides conclusive evidence of, first, the inextricably linked nature of the global economy and, second, the imperative of that international engagement.

In short, ladies and gentlemen, the security and prosperity of our citizens are dependent upon factors that are outside the borders of the United States, and advancing these interests demands that our government engage on the international stage.

What I’m really saying is that we need the world, and I would submit that the world also needs us.

“If the United

States is to maintain the trust and confidence of other countries, ... we’re

going to have

to get our economic house in order.”

Now, we’re not omnipotent. But if you compare us to earlier great powers – to ancient Rome, to Napoleanic France, to Britain at her peak just prior to World War II – we possess immense advantages over potential rivals. Does this mean we should be a policeman to the world, or its nanny?

No, of course not. We should be neither,

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and even our power has its limits, and we’ve seen some of that in recent years.

American power is perhaps most obvious in the military arena: Our services represent the best-armed, the best-trained and the best-led military in the world, and no other countries today can even begin to approach that capability, nor will they be able to for decades to come.

Meanwhile, despite the economic tsunami that swept the world last year, the United States remains an economic powerhouse.

Our output represents almost a quarter today of total world GDP. In addition, we wield immense diplomatic influence in the global arena. The United States enjoys strong and durable bilateral relationships with a host of friendly countries, and we also play a leadership role in many international institutions, such as the United Nations, NATO, WTO and the IMF. Last but certainly not least, we represent a paradigm – an ideology if you will – that I call free-market democracy, that is without a serious global rival.

In short, ladies and gentlemen, there is no country or group of countries that can challenge our international pre-eminence today. Will that share of global influence decline in future decades? Almost certainly it will. But in my view, this is really less a matter of us falling behind than of other countries catching up, and they are catching up largely because decades-long American efforts to liberalize trade and investment have been working. Countries like India and China are modernizing their economies and they’re opening them up to foreign trade and investment. This really should be received as good news by us and not as bad news. Neither China nor India nor any other country

au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

comes close to the United States today in its total amount of either hard power or soft power and they can’t be expected to in the near to mid future.

Now, having said that, here comes the however, and it’s a big however. Our preeminence faces possible decline, perhaps a very fast and abrupt decline, if we don’t find a way to correct our financial and economic imbalances. Our economic strength not only permits us to project force and exert influence around the world, it also serves as an example to the world of the advantages of free-market democracy. But if the United States is to maintain the trust and confidence of other countries, sooner or later, we’re going to have to get our economic house in order.

First and foremost, that means diffusing that big ticking debt bomb that’s out there.

The United States currently has a debt that totals 93 percent of its gross domestic product. For the next three years, that level will hover at around 100 percent of gross domestic product. Our gross domestic product today is somewhere between $14 and $15 trillion. One hundred percent of debt-to-GDP is a ratio that has not existed in this country since the end of World War II. We built it up in order to fight and win World War II, so this is clearly not sustainable. Unless we diffuse that debt bomb, our entire economy will suffer and so will our standing around the world and so, by the way, will the standard of living of you, the American people.

There’s another related issue that could undermine our global leadership, and when I mention that I’m talking now about the political dysfunction in Washington, D.C., and I might say the same thing is true with

respect to many of the states. Sadly, I think, California is among them. This political dysfunction is making it very hard for our leaders to build consensus for pragmatic solutions. This paralysis at home really does risk undermining U.S. leadership abroad, and that leadership will be required if we are to address the many challenges confronting us in the international arena.

The first is the world’s economic meltdown; last year marked the first year since World War II that global economic output declined. It shrank 1 percent in 2009, compared with average annual increases of 3.5 percent since 1946. Meanwhile, global trade plummeted nearly 25 percent in 2009.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a historic 60year decline. Today, we appear to be on a rebound, though I think that rebound may be quite fragile. The world economy still faces major challenges if we are to continue recovery and prevent future financial problems from swamping that economy.

Lending institutions, in my view, must be required to keep some percentage of debt obligations they create. In other words, lending institutions should have to keep some skin in the game. They must maintain more conservative capital requirements. Esoteric and opaque derivative products like credit default swaps need better oversight. Transparency here is going to be essential. In short, we’ve got to do these things. I’m a conservative Republican, as is George [P. Shultz], and I would submit to you – as we’re former Republican treasury secretaries – that we both see a need here to re-regulate in order to avoid a repeat of what has just occurred. In so doing, I would also suggest that we’re careful to not cross the fine line between regulation and strangulation; too much regulation can strangle the economy. We must address the too-big-to-fail problem.

The second global challenge I want to mention is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear devastation remains a distinct possibility, despite all the efforts we’ve been making over the past 30, 40, 50 years to prevent it. Though the total number of nuclear weapons in the world is about one-third of the peak number in the 1980s, there were more nuclear states than ever before, with Israel, India and Pakistan each having an arsenal of 50 to 100 weapons, and evidence that other states such as

North Korea and Iran are working actively to join the nuclear club.

Secretary Shultz and three other highly respected figures in U.S. foreign policy – Bill Perry, Henry Kissinger and Sam Nunn – have been urging that we adopt the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. They propose a sharp reduction and eventual elimination of current nuclear forces, and it’s a great proposal. They also call for a much-strengthened global anti-proliferation regime that would include both suspending the production of fissile material and phasing out the commercial use of highly enriched uranium.

Second, any reductions toward disarmament have to be taken proportionately. Everybody has got to come down at the same rate, percentage-wise, or you won’t be able to negotiate the agreements you need.

Third, because trust is paramount in arms reductions, there has to be an agreed, intrusive inspection and verification regime. Just as Ronald Reagan, in my view, was right to envision a world free of nuclear weapons, he was also correct when he warned: Trust but verify.

There are other challenges that will require global responses ranging from international terrorism to environmental challenges to the management of regional conflicts that could erupt into global ones. I believe the United States has an ethical imperative to engage in all of these global challenges and other issues in the international arena, but I also believe that our nation’s ability to meet that challenge is being threatened.

Ironically, it’s being threatened more domestically than it is internationally. Our failure to address our fiscal and economic problems, and our political dysfunction, generally threaten both our inability to exert influence abroad and to sustain support for engagement at home.

In the last century alone, we won three great global conflicts. We created an economy of affluence unparalleled in human history, and we successfully navigated the vast social transformations that began in the 1960s. It would simply be astonishing if such a country could not muster the political fortitude to put its fiscal house in order.

As I mentioned at the outset of these remarks, the origins of engagements’ ethical

imperative lie in the duty of our government to its citizens. But as citizens, I would suggest to you that we also have to do our part.

Polls show broad public disenchantment with the paralysis of our political system.

Americans today expect more, deserve more and therefore they should demand more. As citizens, we also have an ethical imperative.

We have an imperative to understand more about issues, foreign and domestic, through civic-minded forums such as this one right here at The Commonwealth Club.

“You have to have a proper mix of principles

and values on the one hand and national

interest on the other.”

Question & answer session with Robert Rosenthal, executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting Rosenthal: What is the ethical imperative when the interests of the U.S. are not the best interests of another nation?

Baker: In my view, it is an ethical foreign policy because it’s the only policy that you can follow that will bring along the American people. In a democracy such as ours, the will of the American people [is] the final arbiter of our foreign policy.

When you lose the American people, you’ve lost the policy.

This is a tough statement I’m about to make, and many of you will disagree with it. But I happen to believe it’s true. You can’t practice foreign policy solely according to the principles of Mother Theresa.

Yes, you have to have principles and values in the formulation and implementation of your foreign policy, but if you don’t have a significant national interest involved as well, sooner or later, particularly when the body bags start coming home, you will lose the American people.

The American people will not send their children or their sons and daughters and husbands and wives over to a foreign

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land to bleed and die just for a principle.

There needs to be some nexus or connection or interest of the United States in that policy that you can talk about.

That’s not to say that principles and values aren’t really important in formulating and implementing our policy. They are, but you have to have the proper mix of principles and values on the one hand and national interest on the other.

Rosenthal: When you were secretary of state, you had issues with the Israelis over their foreign policy and issues with settlements. What has changed on the ground today, if anything, and what advice would you have for the current administration?

Baker: The difficulty of negotiating peace between Arabs and Israelis is perhaps even more difficult today than it was maybe in our day, though it was plenty difficult then.

Part of that difficulty arises from the fact that there are facts that have been created on the ground by way of settlements. As a matter of background, you should know that every U.S. administration since the formation of the state of Israel – Republican or Democratic – has been opposed to the building of settlements.

The reason they’re opposed to it is because the only real basis for finding a way to peace between Arabs and Israelis are UN resolutions 242 and 338, which call for the exchange of land for peace. If you go out and settle a peace of land and build settlements and buildings, you foreclose the possibility of exchanging that land for peace, creating facts on the ground.

Let me mention a couple of axioms about this conflict: I’ve already told you that the only solution is land for peace, 242 and 338. You have to have a political process underway or there will be violence on the ground. That’s been proven in the Arab-Israeli conflict. There’s a catch-22 here, too. Israel will really never enjoy security until she negotiates a secure peace with her Arab neighbors. The Palestinians will never enjoy an independent state living alongside Israel in peace until Israel enjoys security, so it’s a catch-22.

No American administration will ever, ever not be there for Israel. Israel is our strong ally; we will always be there for her, particularly from the standpoint of her security.

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Rosenthal: What kind of role or policy should we be following toward Iran?

Baker: I think President Obama has it right; I really support what he’s doing with respect to Iran. You ought to have a number of elements to your policy and they’re not mutually exclusive. It gets tiresome to me to hear people say, We shouldn’t be talking to them because if you do that, you’re not supporting reformers in the streets. That’s not right. George [Shultz] and I both talked to the Soviets for many years. In fact, as a nation, we talked to them for 40 years, and we still supported the reformers in the streets. Every time we would go to the Soviet Union, we would

“I have no illusions. I think Iran is an extraordinarily

large force for instability in that part of the world and in the world generally.” agitate for and were successful in achieving the release of the Soviet jewry to come to Israel or the United States.

You talk to your friends, sure, but it’s your enemies that you ought to worry about talking to. You make peace with your enemies; you don’t negotiate peace with your friends. I support the idea of talking to Iran. He hasn’t done any good with it; that just shows you the hard-line nature of that regime, but I think the president’s doing the right thing. We need to support the reformers in the streets, even to the extent of maybe getting some Farsi broadcasts going in there.

Having said all that, I have no illusions.

I think Iran is an extraordinarily large force for instability in that part of the world and in the world generally.

Lastly, I would argue that we ought not to give up on deterrents. Some people say the minute you talk about deterring Iran you are acknowledging the fact that they are going to get the bomb. Maybe, but look: we deterred the Soviet Union for 40 years

au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

and they had a hell of a nuclear capability, enough to blow everybody off the face of the earth anytime they wanted to.

Rosenthal: [Regarding] your report [The Iraq Study Group Report] written in the end of 2007, in hindsight, what do you think of the situation in Iraq now? The surge seems to have worked on one level. Based on what’s happened on the ground, have you changed any of your opinions on that?

Baker: I think that, to some extent, the jury is still out on Iraq. The surge certainly did improve things significantly and now we see the Iraqis participating in the exercise of democracy.

The key is going to be whether or not they can negotiate a government. The ethnic tensions and differences are still there, but at least now we have hope that we’re going to be able to bring our troops home. The key is whether or not they’re going to be able to create a government.

Rosenthal: You’ve been involved in some of the most historic events of the last 30 to 40 years. What are the key values the best leaders have, and what have you employed yourself?

Baker: The best thing on leadership is to understand that it’s not the private preserve of just a few very talented individuals. I was apolitical for the first 40 years of my life and I ended up running five presidential campaigns, so it’s not a case of anything special. It’s just working hard, getting up a little earlier in the morning and staying up a little later at night.

Rosenthal: As a leader, what factor or value did you really hold in how you made decisions personally?

Baker: I’m one that thinks that pragmatism is not a dirty word. Now, sometimes in my party, people are called pragmatists, but I think one of my great mentors, Ronald Reagan, was a great pragmatist. I think pragmatism is a trait that leads to success and therefore is something to be admired. Ω This program was made possible by the generous support of the Travers Family Foundation.

Programs

For up-to-date information on programs, and to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, go to commonwealthclub.org

OVERVIEW

TICKETs

The Commonwealth Club organizes more than 450 events every year – on politics, the arts, media, literature, business and sports.

Programs are held throughout the Bay Area.

Prepayment is required. Unless otherwise indicated, all Club programs – including “Members Free” events – require tickets.

Programs often sell out, so we strongly encourage you to purchase tickets in advance. Tickets are available at will call. Due to heavy call volume, we urge you to purchase tickets online at commonwealthclub.org; or call (415) 597-6705. Please note: All ticket sales are final. Please arrive at least 10 minutes prior to any program. If a program is sold out and your tickets are not claimed at our box office by the program start time, they will be released to our stand-by list. Select events include premium seating; premium refers to the first several rows of seating.

STANDARD PROGRAMS Typically one hour long, these speeches cover a variety of topics and are followed by a question and answer session. Most evening programs include a wine and cheese reception.

PROGRAM SERIES FOOD LIT showcases pre-eminent chefs and cookbook authors and often includes a mouth-watering meal or tasting.

GOOD LIT features both established literary luminaries and upand-coming writers in conversation.

RADIO, Video and podcasts

INFORUM is for and by people in their 20s and 30s, although events are open to people of all ages.

Hear Club programs on about 200 public and commercial radio stations throughout the United States. For the latest schedule, visit commonwealthclub.org/broadcast.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, tune in to:

MEMBER–LED FORUMS (MLF) Volunteer-driven programs focus on particular fields. Most evening programs include a wine reception.

KQED (88.5 FM) Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 a.m.

Member-Led Forums Chair

KALW (91.7 FM) Inforum programs on select Tuesdays at 7 p.m.

Dr. Carol Fleming carol.fleming@speechtraining com

KLIV (1590 AM) Thursdays at 7 p.m.

FORUM CHAIRS 2009 ARTS Anne W. Smith asmith@ggu.edu Lynn Curtis lynnwcurtis@comcast.net ASIA–PACIFIC AFFAIRS Cynthia Miyashita cmiyashita@hotmail.com BAY GOURMET Cathy Curtis cathy_curtis2@pacbell.net SF BOOK DISCUSSION Howard Crane cranehow@aol.com BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP Kevin O’Malley kevin@techtalkstudio.com ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL RESOURCES Kerry Curtis kcurtis@ggu.edu Marcia Sitcoske msitcosk@yahoo.com GROWNUPS John Milford jmilford@ehf.org

KOIT (96.5 FM and 1260 AM) Sundays at 6 a.m.

KSAN (107.7 FM) Sundays at 5 a.m.

Health & Medicine William B. Grant wbgrant@infionline.net HUMANITIES George C. Hammond george@pythpress.com INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Norma Walden norwalden@aol.com LGBT Stephen Seewer stephenseewer@gmail.com Julian Chang julianclchang@gmail.com MIDDLE EAST Celia Menczel celiamenczel@sbcglobal.net PERSONAL GROWTH Dr. David K Olkkola david@thedreammasters.com PSYCHOLOGY Patrick O’Reilly oreillyphd@hotmail.com science & technology Chisako Ress chisakoress@gmail.com

KNBR (680 and 1050 AM) Sundays at 5 a.m.

KFOG (104.5 and 97.7 FM) Sundays at 5 a.m.

Watch Club programs on KGO-DT Plus channel 7.2 or Comcast 194 from 4 – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Visit abclocal.go.com/kgo for the latest schedule.

View streaming video of Club programs at fora.tv. and youtube.com/commonwealthclub

Subscribe to our free podcasting service to automatically download a new program recording to your personal computer each week: commonwealthclub.org/podcast.

HARD OF HEARING? To request an assistive listening device, please e-mail Ricardo Esway at resway@commonwealthclub.org or call (415) 869-5911 seven working days before the event. au g u s t/s eptem b e r 2010

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Eight Weeks Calendar August 02 – September 26 M on

Special August Series: The Ascent of Woman The Commonwealth Club thanks our generous sponsors:

GOLD SPONSOR: Wells Fargo & Co. SILVER SPONSOR: Ernst & Young

Tue

Wed

August 02

03

04

5:45 p.m. Population Aging as Feminist Issue FM 6:00 p.m. Education of Women FM 7:00 p.m. Cynthia Kenyon

6:00 p.m. Girls Gotta Do Business

6:00 p.m. A Life in Science 6:00 p.m. Creating Power in Style

09

10

11

Noon Saudi Arabia FM 7:00 p.m. Mary Roach

6:00 p.m. Women and Climate Activism 6:00 p.m. Women, Power and the Media

6:00 p.m. The Leading Edge for Corporate Social Responsibilty

16

17

18

5:15 p.m. Women’s Psych. in Workplace FM 6:00 p.m. Women Change the Way We Eat FM 7:00 p.m. Rick Bayless

Noon Rick Bayless 6:00 p.m. Beyond Dualities 7:00 p.m. Building a Future for Technological Innovation

Noon Aneesh Chopra FE 6:00 p.m. Importance of Vitamin D

23

24

25

Noon Beyond Resilience FM 6:00 p.m. Remembering Afghan Women FM

Noon Stop Stessing About Stress 6:00 p.m. Jackie Speier 6:00 p.m. Roelof van Ark

6:00 p.m. Status of Women in Tech 7:00 p.m. Making the Case for a Renewed Energy Economy

30

31

September 01

6:00 p.m. Success with the Help of a Mentor FM

Noon Senator Barbara Boxer 6:00 p.m. The Taste for Civilization 6:00 p.m. Symphony of the Soil

6:00 p.m. FEMA: Political Football

06

07

08

6:00 p.m. Angel Island 6:30 p.m. Cradle to California

6:00 p.m. Running Out of Water

Labor Day Club offices closed

13

14

15

6:00 p.m. Mis-Mapping the Mind FM

6:00 p.m. Christopher Gergen 6:00 p.m. Russell Jaffe

6:00 p.m. Data Security Threats

20

21

22

5:15 p.m. It’s the Way You Say It FM 6:00 p.m. What the Best Bosses Do FM

6:00 p.m. James Ellroy 7:00 p.m. Jonathan Safran Foer

6:00 p.m. The Power of Pull 7:00 p.m. Building Brands in a Digital World

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au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

Legend

San Francisco

FM

Free program for members

East Bay

FE

Free program for everyone

Silicon Valley

MO

Members–only program

Thu

Fri

S at

Sun

05

06

07

08

12

13

14

15

6:00 p.m. A Thousand Sisters 6:00 p.m. Abraham Verghese

Noon Rosalynn Carter

21

22

28

29

6:00 p.m. Changing Law and Making History 6:00 p.m. Kate Kendall

19

20

6:00 p.m. Spin It Green 6:30 p.m. Mary Roach

Noon Midori FM

26

27

6:00 p.m. Scenes from “Becoming Julia Morgan”

Noon The Women of Israel FM Noon Somali Women Promote Peace FM

02

03

04

05

09

10

11

12

17

18

19

24

25

26

6:00 p.m. Steven Hill

16 6:00 p.m. Max Seybold 6:00 p.m. The Magic of ODC

23 6:00 p.m. National Debt 6:00 p.m. All Over Coffee 7:00 p.m. Video Stars Tell All

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Index By Region

FM FE MO

July 30 – September 30

Free program for members Free program for everyone Members–only program

San Francisco July Fri 30 Noon

FM Outliers and Outperformers

August Mon 02 5:45 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

FM Aging as a Feminist Issue FM Patricia Lundberg

Tue 03 6:00 p.m. Girls Gotta Do Business

Fri 20 Noon

FM Midori in Conversation

wed 15 6:00 p.m.

Data Security Threats

Mon 23 Noon 6:00 p.m.

FM Beyond Resilience FM Remembering Afghan Women

THU 16 6:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

Max Seybold The Magic of ODC

mon 20 6:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

It’s the Way You Say It FM Robert Sutton

tue 21 6:00 p.m.

James Ellroy

wed 22 6:00 p.m.

The Power of Pull

THU 23 6:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

National Debt All Over Coffee

tue 28 Noon 6:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

6:30 p.m.

Carbon Warriors Climate Change and Animals America’s Economy The New New Math

Thu 30 6:00 p.m.

Piracy and the Maritime Commons

TUE 24 Noon Stop Stressing About Stress 6:00 p.m. Roelof van Ark 6:00 p.m. What’s a Woman Worth?

Wed 25 6:00 p.m. Status of Women in Tech

Wed 04 6:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

A Life in Science Yves Saint Laurent

tHu 26 6:00 p.m.

“Becoming Julia Morgan”

THU 05 6:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

David Boies Kate Kendell

Fri 27 Noon Noon

FM Somali Women Promote Peace FM The Women of Israel

MON 09 Noon

FM Saudi Arabia: Past and Present

Mon 30 6:00 p.m.

Women Advising Women

Tue 10 6:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

Women and Climate Activism Women, Power and Media

WEd 11 6:00 p.m.

Tue 31 Noon Senator Barbara Boxer 6:00 p.m. The Taste of Civilization 6:00 p.m. Symphony of the Soil

Corporate Social Responsibility

September

THU 12 6:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

A Thousand Sisters Abraham Verghese

wed 01 6:00 p.m.

FEMA: Political Football

Fri 13 Noon Rosalynn Carter

TUE 07 6:00 p.m.

6:30 p.m.

Angel Island Cradle to California

Mon 16 5:15 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

WED 08 6:00 p.m. Running Out of Water

FM Dena Anthony FM Changing the Way We Eat

Tue 17 Noon Rick Bayless 6:00 p.m. Beyond Dualities: Power and Love Wed 18 Noon 6:00 p.m.

FE Aneesh Chopra Importance of Vitamin D

Thu 19 6:00 p.m. Spin It Green: Marissa Muller

THU 09 6:00 p.m. Steven Hill mon 13 6:00 p.m.

FM Mis-Mapping the Mind

tue 14 6:00 p.m. Christopher Gergen 6:00 p.m. Russell Jaffe

Foreign Language Groups Free for members. Location: San Francisco Club Office

Silicon Valley August Mon 02 7:00 p.m.

Cynthia Kenyon

MON 09 7:00 p.m.

Mary Roach

MON 16 7:00 p.m. Rick Bayless tue 17 7:00 p.m.

Aneesh Chpra

Wed 25 7:00 p.m. Making the Case for a Renewed Energy Economy

September Tue 21 7:00 p.m.

Jonathan Safran Foer

FRENCH, Intermediate Class Thursdays, noon Pierrette Spetz, Graziella Danieli, danieli@sfsu.edu FRENCH, Advanced Conversation Tuesdays, noon Gary Lawrence, (925) 932-2458 GERMAN, Int./Advanced Conversation Wednesdays, noon Uta Wagner, (650) 697-3004 ITALIAN, Intermediate Class Mondays, noon Ebe Sapone, (415) 564-6789 RUSSIAN, Int./Advanced Conversation Mondays, 2 p.m. Rita Sobolev, (925) 376-7889 SPANISH, Intermediate Conversation Tuesdays, noon Isabel Heredia, isabelth@comcast.net SPANISH, Advanced (fluent only) Thursdays, noon Luis Salvago-Toledo (925) 376-7830

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East Bay August THU 19 6:30 p.m.

Mary Roach

July 30 – August 02 F ri 3 0 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

M on 0 2 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Outliers and Outperformers: Women in Fund Management

Under My Skin by Doris Lessing

Mellody Hobson, President, Ariel Investments Ivka Kalus-Bysticky, Portfolio Manager, The Pax World International Fund Luz Padilla, Head of Emerging Markets Fixed Income, Doubleline Mary Ellen Stanek, Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer, Robert W. Baird & Co. Cathy Curtis, Investment Advisor, Curtis Financial Planning – Moderator

The position of portfolio manager occupies the apex of the career hierarchy in the world of investment management. Yet the gender gap remains inordinately wide in this industry. Though women own half of the investment wealth in the U.S., one recent study found that only 10 percent of mutual fund managers and 3 percent of hedge fund managers are women. What barriers confront female analysts and traders who aspire to take their place at the helm of professionally managed portfolios? And how did those exceptional women who have joined this elite circle achieve their breakthrough success? What are their lives like – inside and outside of work? How can more women join the small but distinguished ranks of female money managers? Panelists will explore these issues and more.

MLF: Business & Leadership Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Cathy Curtis

As part of the Club’s series of programs on The Ascent of Woman, we will discuss Under My Skin,

by Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing. The book, volume one of her autobiography, begins with her traditional childhood in southern Africa and ends with her arrival in London in 1949 – an avowed feminist, Communist and anti-apartheid activist – with the manuscript of her first novel in her suitcase. As a reminder, this is a book discussion group; the author will not be present.

MLF: SF Book Discussion Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Howard Crane

M on 0 2 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

M on 0 2 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

M on 0 2 | S i l i c o n V a l l e y

The Origins of the Education of Women

Population Aging as a Feminist Issue

Exploring Genes that Can Extend Life Span

Patricia Lundberg, Professor Emerita of English Language and Literature and Women’s Studies, Indiana University Northwest

Adele M. Hayutin, Senior Research Scholar and Director of the Global Aging Program, Stanford Center on Longevity

Cynthia Kenyon, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Director, Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging, UCSF

Monday Night Philosophy peers back in history, where few men were educated, and almost no women. How was that stifling cultural ideal challenged and changed, so that the ascent of woman could get started? The history of breaking this taboo, and who did it, is bound to surprise you.

Older women face particular challenges due to gender differences in life expectancy, labor force participation and income levels. Hayutin will provide a global demographic framework for understanding historical changes in the status of women as well as future challenges and opportunities that older women face. She will highlight women’s living arrangements, care-giving responsibilities and potential social isolation.

Could it be possible for people to reset their internal clocks and live to 110?

Scientists like Kenyon think so. Through groundbreaking research with roundworms, she discovered disabling a single gene doubled the life span of the worm.

This led to the realization that the rate of aging is subject to genetic control and not just “wear and tear,” as previously thought.

Kenyon makes her compelling case.

MLF: Humanities Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: George Hammond

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:15 p.m. networking, 5:45 p.m. program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: John Milford

Location: Historic Hoover Theatre, 1635 Park Ave., San Jose Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program Cost: $10 members, $15 non-members

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August 03–11 T ue 0 3 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

W E D 04 | San Francisco

Girls Gotta Do Business: The Rising Force of Women Entrepreneurs

A Life in Science

Alison Covarrubias, Co-founder, The Hatch Network, SF Baat Enosh, Entrepreneur Alliance Program Director, NCWIT; VP of Operations, Women 2.0 Ayesha Mathews-Wadhwa, Director, Savor the Success, SF Bay Area Julie Abrams, CEO, Women’s Initiative for Self Employment Cathy Curtis, Financial Advisor, Curtis Financial Planning – Moderator

The exponential growth of women-owned businesses has been in the news for more than 20 years. More than a quarter of a million women in the U.S. own businesses with revenue exceeding $1 million. Demographics have played a role: Female empty nesters, corporate escapees and the newly laid off are flexing their entrepreneurial muscle. However, there are some studies that indicate that women-owned businesses, on average,\ generate less revenue than businesses owned by men. Panelists will explore this issue and give insight on how women entrepreneurs can get to the next level of success.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, UCSF In conversation with Susan DesmondHellmann, M.D., M.P.H., Chancellor, UCSF

On October 5, Blackburn, a molecular biologist at UCSF, learned that she had been named to receive the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her co-discovery of an enzyme that plays a key role in aging and cancer. Her reflections will inspire scientists and non-scientists alike.

MLF: Business & Leadership Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Cathy Curtis

MLF: Health & Medicine/ Science & Technology Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Chisako Ress

W E D 04 | San Francisco

T hu 0 5 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T H U 05 | San Francisco

Yves Saint Laurent: Creating Power in Style for the Modern Woman

David Boies: Challenging Law and Making History

Kate Kendell

Attorney; Chairman, Boies, Schiller, and Flexner LLP

Julia Geist, Docent Lecturer, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

In the 1960s, master couturier and fashion pioneer Saint Laurent radically changed the way women dressed. His pantsuits and tuxedos – traditional symbols of male power – conveyed elegance and chic. This illustrated lecture is a retrospective of his imaginative and sexy designs through 40 years.

MLF: International Relations Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Norma Walden Also know: In association with Alliance Française de SF and the French American Cultural Society.

Part of The Club’s Ascent of Woman series.

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Exec. Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)

From serving as special counsel to the Justice Department in the United States v.

Microsoft trial to representing Al Gore in the Bush v. Gore case following the 2000 election, Boies’ legal experience is extensive.

Currently, Boies and former Solicitor General Theodore Olson are working to overturn California’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage. Boies will provide a behind-thescenes look at his most well-known cases, including Prop. 8, and provide insight into what it takes to make legal history.

The NCLR’s precedent-setting case victories have literally re-written the law, changing the legal landscape for LGBT individuals and families. Kendall stands at center stage in our nation’s discussion of civil rights and social justice. She will explore topics including the role of women in securing economic parity, marriage equality and parenting rights.

Kendall will also share her views on domestic and international issues such as female circumcision, homophobia and bullying in our nation’s schools.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members Also know: Part of the Geschke Family Series on the U.S. Constitution in the 21st Century

MLF: LGBT Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Julian Chang

au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

M on 0 9 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

M O N 0 9 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

T ue 1 0 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Saudi Arabia: Past and Present

Mary Roach

Hugh Renfro, Consultant; Retired Oil Executive

Author, Stiff and Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Women and Climate Activism: From the Courtroom to the Arctic Tundra

Former head of the Arabian Chevron Oil Company and a producer of Arabia, a 2010 IMAX film, Renfro spent more than 20 years in Saudi Arabia. He will discuss the fascinating Saudi culture, monarchy, the role of women in Saudi society, and Saudi Arabia’s leap into the 21st century. Renfo will be showing a DVD of Arabia, narrated by Helen Mirren.

MLF: Middle East Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Celia Menczel

She took us into the world of cadavers and examined the anatomy, physiology and psychology behind sex. Now, Roach discovers the surreality and weirdness of space. For example, what happens when you’ve been in space for a year? And is it possible for a human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour?

From the space shuttle training toilet to NASA’s crash simulation tests, Roach explores the strange universe.

Location: Historic Hoover Theatre, 1635 Park Ave., San Jose Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing Cost: $10 members, $15 non-members

Kassie Siegel, Director, Climate Law Institute; Sr. Counsel, Ctr. for Biological Diversity

Siegel has helped the Center for Biological Diversity evolve from a tiny nonprofit founded by men to a national organization with 60-plus staffers, more than half women, involved in saving the polar bear, climate change and much more. Siegel shares her journey and offers perspectives for other female activists.

MLF: Environment & Natural Resources Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Floyd Earl Smith

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W ed 1 1 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

W E D 11 | San Francisco

Women, Power and the Media: Joan Walsh

Humanities West Book Discussion: Venice

The Leading Edge for Corporate Social Responsibility

Joan Walsh, Editor-in-Chief, Salon.com In conversation with Ysabel Duron

With the news still dominated at the top by men, Salon’s Walsh will discuss the ascent of women and obstacles they face.

Walsh went up against Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly in decrying the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a doctor who performed abortions. She will talk about that showdown and its harrowing ramifications and will discuss the advancement of women in American politics as well as the obstacles still facing women’s political leadership.

Join us for a discussion of Venice: The Hinge of Europe, 1081-1797. In this magisterial history, National Book Award winner William H. McNeill chronicles the interactions and disputes between Latin Christians and the Orthodox communities of Eastern Europe between 1081 and 1797. Concentrating on Venice as the hinge of European history in the late medieval and early modern period, McNeill explores the technological, economic and political bases of Venetian power and wealth, and the city’s unique status at the frontier between the papal and Orthodox Christian worlds. Lynn Harris will moderate the discussion.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Carol Edgar

MLF: Humanities Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: George Hammond

Pamela Hawley, Founder and CEO, UniversalGiving

Winner of the Jefferson Award for Public Service, Hawley works to assist companies with their global corporate social responsibility and social entrepreneurism programs in more than 30 countries. Her web-based marketplace for volunteers, donors and companies has been profiled in news outlets. This is a must-attend program for all who believe in social responsibility and corporate engagement.

MLF: business & Leadership Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Ann Clark

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August 12–18 T hu 1 2 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T hu 1 2 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

F ri 1 3 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

A Thousand Sisters

Abraham Verghese: Cutting for Stone

Rosalynn Carter: Ending the Mental Health Crisis

Lisa Shannon, Journalist; Founder, Run for Congo Women

M.D.; Author, Cutting for Stone Former First Lady; Author

Shannon shares her transformation from lapsed idealist to leader of a mass movement for Congolese women. Moving from her first lone run in Portland to the warshattered Congo, she tells us the harrowing but hopeful stories of the women she helped and the relationships she formed.

Anchored by bonds that terror can’t touch, Shannon explores the world’s deadliest war through the lens of friendship.

MLF: International Relations Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizers: Linda Calhoun and Gina Baleria Also know: In association with the Northern California Peace Corps Association

National best-selling author, renowned physician and Stanford Medical professor Verghese will discuss Cutting for Stone, one of the most acclaimed novels of the past two years. His absorbing family saga traces the journey of twin brothers linked together by a shared passion for medicine.

Verghese will reveal how he uses literature to advocate for the importance of the doctor-patient relationship and to reflect on the meaning of his occupation.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members Also know: Underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation. In association with the Health & Medicine Member-Led Forum

Former First Lady Carter is an icon and an advocate for mental health, early childhood immunization, human rights and conflict resolution through her work at The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter will discuss her decades working in the mental health field.

Following the program, she will also sign copies of her new book, Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis.

Location: Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave. Time: 11 a.m. box office opens, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing Cost: $15 members, $30 non-members. Premium (preferred seating) $45 members, $65 non-members. Must register through City Box Office at (415) 392-4400 or cityboxoffice.com.

Club members must use code CWC810.

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Women Changing the Way We Eat

Understanding Women’s Psychology in the Workplace and Harnessing It for Optimal Results

Temra Costa, Author, Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat Nina Simons, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Bioneers, Collective Heritage Institution Jesse Ziff Cool, Restaurateur; Cookbook Author, Simply Organic Kira Gould, Co-author, Women in Green; Director of Communication, William McDonough & Partners – Moderator

Women (including First Lady Michelle Obama) are using their unique leadership skills to play a critical role in the sustainable food movement. Come learn how women are working diligently and effectively to change the way Americans eat and farm. From bringing organic fruits and veggies into schools to helping gain fair treatment for farm workers to pioneering new methods of sustainable farming, women are fighting to ensure that we and the planet thrive well into the future.

MLF: Bay Gourmet Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Cathy Curtis

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Dena Anthony, Ph.D., Psychotherapist; Researcher

No matter how gender-neutral companies try to make their hiring process and everyday environment, there can be distinct differences in how men and women approach and solve workplace problems. Anthony will suggest how a company might use the inherent variations in approach between the genders to contribute to workplace effectiveness.

MLF: Psychology Location: SF Club Office Time: 4:45 p.m. networking, 5:15 p.m. program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Patrick O’Reilly

M on 1 6 | S i l i c o n V a l l e y

T ue 1 7 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T ue 1 7 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Rick Bayless

Rick Bayless

Chef-Restaurateur; Cofounder, Frontera Farmer Foundation; Author, Fiesta at Rick’s

Chef-Restaurateur; Cofounder, Frontera Farmer Foundation; Author, Fiesta at Rick’s

Beyond Dualities: Power and Love for Women and Men

Award-winning chef and TV personality Bayless has spent the last 30 years putting his own delicious twist on gourmet Mexican cuisine. Now, the first-season winner of Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters” shares his culinary philosophy and why supporting local sustainable farms is so important.

In conversation with Chef Joey Altman

Location: Reposado Restaurant, 236 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7-8:30 p.m. reception and q&a with Chef Bayless Cost: $95 per person (one copy of book), $160 per couple (one copy of book) Also know: Seating limited; advance reservations required.

Award-winning chef and TV personality Bayless puts his own delicious twist on gourmet Mexican cuisine. With successful restaurants around the country, he has cooked for everyone from Oprah Winfrey to President Obama. Now, the first-season winner of Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters” shares his unique culinary philosophy and why supporting local sustainable farms is so important to him.

Miki Kashtan, Co-founder, BayNVC

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) asserts that women and men share the same needs. Advocates believe that all people can live more fully through empathic connection, empowered speech, and a commitment to the needs of all. Kashtan co-founded BayNVC, an organization staffed almost entirely by women. Her teaching style builds on the real-life experiences of her audience.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members

MLF: Environment & Natural Resources/ Psychology Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Floyd Earl Smith

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W ed 1 8 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Building a Future for Technological Innovation

Will Health-Care IT and Telemedicine Lead to Better Treatment, a Healthier Population and Reduced Medical Costs?

The Importance of Vitamin D for Women

Aneesh Chopra, United States CTO

Chopra, the nation’s first ever chief technology officer, has made it a priority to advance the nation’s health-care reform goals through the use of technology in health care and telemedicine. He will discuss using technology to drive new care models for prevention, early detection, disease management, independent living and appropriate virtual care for people in their own homes.

Health benefits of vitamin D include reduced risk of 20 types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, 75 other types of disease, and improved pregnancy outcomes. Optimal vitamin D intake or production levels are estimated to be 10 times recommended values. Baggerly gives examples of the science that impacts health as well as her own role in leading a public health movement to change the medical establishment.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: FREE Also know: Underwritten by the California HealthCare Foundation

MLF: Health & Medicine Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Bill Grant

Aneesh Chopra, United States CTO

Chopra was sworn in by President Obama in May 2009 as the nation’s first chief technology officer. Chopra has sought to use information technology to raise public awareness about the president’s policies on health care, energy and the environment.

Chopra will discuss how investing in technological innovation is a crucial aspect of job creation, reducing health-care costs and protecting the country.

Location: Computer History Museum, 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program Cost: $15 members, $25 non-members, $10 students (with valid ID). Premium (first few rows) $30 members, $45 non-members Also know: Underwriter: Orrick, part of A-Ha!

Carole Baggerly, Director, GrassrootsHealth.net

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August 19–25 T hu 1 9 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T hu 1 9 | E a s t B a y

T hu 1 9 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Environment & Natural Resources Planning Meeting

Mary Roach: Journey Through Outer Space Without Leaving Earth

Spin It Green: The Story of Marissa Muller

Are you passionate about environmental issues? Would you like to plan events to educate the public? If you are, please join us at our next planning meeting, where we’ll discuss opportunities for the next three to six months.

MLF: Environment & Natural Resources Location: Club Office Time: 6 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Marcia Sitcoske

Solar-Powered Bike Pioneer Author, Stiff and Packing for Mars

She took us into the world of cadavers and examined the anatomy, physiology and psychology behind sex. Now, Roach discovers the surreality and weirdness of space. What happens when you’ve been in space for a year? And is it possible for a human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 mph? Roach explores the strange universe.

Location: Lafayette Library and Learning Center Community Hall Building (BART accessible), 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Lafayette Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing Cost: $12 members, $22 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID)

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M on 2 3 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Midori in Conversation

Remembering Afghan Women

Renowned violinist Midori has captured the world’s heart with her brilliant performances. In this conversation with her long-time presenter, San Francisco Performances President Felt, Midori will reflect on her community engagement programs that bring music closer to the lives of people who may not otherwise have involvement with the arts. She will also speak about her role as a United Nations messenger of peace.

MLF: The Arts Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Anne W. Smith

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MLF: Environment & Natural Resources Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Kerry Curtis

Katherine Brown, Truman National Security Project Fellow; Former Communications and Public Events Advisor, U.S. Embassy, Kabul; NGO Worker; Former White House Staffer Kate Francis, Assistant Director, Women’s Empowerment Program, the Asia Foundation Olga Oliker, Senior International Policy Analyst, the RAND Corporation

Midori, Violinist Ruth Felt, President, SF Performances

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After finishing business school, Muller returned home to California and built her vision: a solar powered electric bike. During a 1,000-mile solo adventure on California roads, she visited 14 high schools, offering a seminar on solar and electric vehicles and sparking a dialogue with the students to start brainstorming ways to combat energy and environmental challenges. Meet this amazing young woman and hear her message of clean power.

Following the overthrow of the misogynistic Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the situation for women seemed to enter a promising era. A Ministry of Women was established, and a new constitution guaranteed women 25 percent representation in the legislature.

But progress has been stymied in Afghanistan and regionally. More than 80 percent of Afghan women are illiterate and many remain victims of violence. Our experts will address the key challenges that hamper progress in both Afghanistan and South Asia and present possible solutions. The panel will argue that improving the situation of women is the most effective way to ensure sustainable development in the region.

MLF: Asia-Pacific Affairs Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6-7:30 p.m. program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Paul Clarke Also know: In association with the Truman National Security Project Educational Institute, The Asia Foundation and the Asia Society of Northern California

au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

M on 2 3 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T ue 2 4 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T ue 2 4 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Beyond Resilience: The Confidence Factor

Stop Stressing About Stress

What’s a Woman Worth?

Karen Walker-Tunoa, Resiliency Catalyst; Author, Getting Past Go When Life Says Stop

Carol Scott, ER Physician; Corporate Coach; Author, Optimal Stress

Jackie Speier, Congresswoman (D-CA)

The path to resilience offers joy and satisfaction, but it can be riddled with obstacles and challenges. Walker-Tunoa will share her own personal journey as well as “ascension” stories from personal interviews with other extraordinary women. She will discuss her research on resilience and its relationship to performance management to offer ways to develop, strengthen and maximize the use of resilience and confidence.

The economy, relationships, job issues, kids, technology – everyone is stressed about something. You can’t afford the cost of letting stress sabotage your energy, health or work performance. Learn how embracing positive or “optimal” stress might help you be more productive.

Scott introduces practical steps for reducing and better managing stress in your life and helping achieve your goals.

With more than 20 years in politics, Speier has set precedents for women and what they are worth in creating state and national politics and policies.

Join in this important discussion about the power of women’s voices and actions during the unprecedented storm of turmoil, change, energy crisis, money and job uncertainty in the second decade of the 21st century.

MLF: Personal Growth Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: David Olkkola

MLF: Business & Leadership Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Kevin O’Malley

MLF: Business & Leadership/Environment & Natural Resources Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Ann Clark

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W ed 2 5 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Roelof van Ark: Increasing California’s Connectivity with High-Speed Rail

The Status of Women in Tech: Challenges of Retention and Advancement

LGBT Planning Meeting

CEO, California High-Speed Rail Authority

Everyone aboard for high-speed rail in California? Or might this project have a hard time getting out of the station?

Hear from the recently named CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority about the transportation system that could radically change the way we travel.

Van Ark will discuss how the project will be moving forward and the benefits that the state can expect as the project rolls out.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID)

Caroline Simard, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Executive Programs, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology

While the ascent of women has been a reality in many spheres of society, change has been uncharacteristically slow in the realm of high technology. Simard explores the remaining cultural, organizational and individual barriers to women’s retention and advancement in high-tech fields.

The Commonwealth Club is a great place to discuss topics of importance to the LGBT community. Come discuss ideas for programming and meet other people who are engaged in everything from marriage equality to queer spirituality.

We want to hear from you!

MLF: LGBT Location: Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Stephen Seewer

MLF: Science & Technology Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Also know: In association with the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology Program Organizer: Chisako Ress

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August 25 – September 07 W ed 2 5 | S i l i c o n V a l l e y

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F ri 2 7 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Making the Case for a Renewed Energy Economy

Scenes from “Becoming Julia Morgan”

Women of Israel: A Remarkable Diversity

Belinda Taylor, Playwright

Donna Rosenthal, Author; Journalist; Television Producer Rita Semel, Founder, SF Interfaith Council – Moderator

L. Hunter Lovins, President and Founder, Natural Capitalism Solutions

Lovins makes the economic case for moving aggressively to solve such challenges as global warming, peak oil and the vulnerability of our energy infrastructure. She argues that climate protection, energy efficiency, renewable energy and other sustainable approaches will give us a stronger economy and a higher quality of life.

Lovins shows how towns and companies are implementing these and other strategies to cut their costs and drive innovation.

Julia Morgan has been described as California’s most famous architect and the United States’ most famous female architect. She pursued ambitious career goals when architecture was exclusively a man’s profession. Scenes from the awardwinning “Becoming Julia Morgan” will be performed by actors and narrated with commentary by playwright Taylor. The entire play will be performed in December at the Berkeley City Club.

Rosenthal describes the ethnic, religious and cultural diversity of Israeli women – Christians, Jews, Muslims, Druze – who range from the modern to staunchly traditional.

Some work in high tech, government or the military, while others practice polygamy, march in gay pride parades, or share the religious fervor of their husbands.

Location: Cubberley Community Theatre, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program Cost: $12 members, $18 non-members

MLF: The Arts Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Anne Smith

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M on 3 0 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Somali Women Promote Peace and Political Participation Amid Armed Conflict

Achieving Success with the Help of a Mentor: Women Advising Women on Power, Progress and Priorities

Asha Hagi, Co-founder and Chairperson, Save Somali Women and Children

Despite the suffering and marginalization experienced in a patriarchal, patrilineal society, some Somali women have challenged the cultural paradigms. Hagi will describe the innovative creation of a women’s network, The Sixth Clan, to facilitate full participation in national politics and the peace process.

MLF: International Relations Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Norma Walden Also know: In association with World Affairs Council of Northern California

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MLF: Middle East Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Celia Menczel Also know: In assn. with SF Interfaith Council

Mary Stutts, Author, The Missing Mentor; Senior Vice President, Elan Corporation Evelyn Dilsaver, Former President and CEO, Charles Schwab Investment Management Mary Cranston, Senior Partner and Immediate Past Chair, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

What is my next career move? How can I achieve balance between career and family?

How can a mentor help? This expert panel of powerful women will help answer these questions, based on their own experience and successful business careers, and they will explore top tips and major pitfalls to avoid. Stutts and fellow panelists will discuss how to increase your confidence, create a life plan, maintain your well-being and define and achieve your own success in life.

MLF: Business & Leadership Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Kevin O’Malley

au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

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T ue 3 1 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T ue 3 1 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Middle East Discussion Group

Senator Barbara Boxer

The Taste for Civilization

U.S. Senator (D-CA)

Janet A. Flammang, Professor and Chair of Political Science, Santa Clara U.; Author, The Taste for Civilization

Make your voice heard in an enriching, provocative and fun discussion with fellow Club members as you weigh in on events shaping the face of the Middle East. Each month, the Middle East Member-Led Forum hosts an informal roundtable discussion on a topic frequently suggested by recent headlines.

After a brief introduction, the floor will be open for discussion. All interested members are encouraged to attend. There will also be a brief planning session.

MLF: Middle East Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Celia Menczel

Incumbant Senator Boxer is now engaged in a tough battle against Republican challenger Carly Fiorina, with current polls indicating the race is neck and neck.

Boxer was a strong supporter of President Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus plan, co-authored the bipartisan Invest in the U.S.A. Act, encouraging companies to bring overseas profits back to the U.S. to create jobs, and wrote the first-ever law to authorize federal funding for after-school programs. Hear her thoughts on jobs, the economy and California’s future.

The recent deterioration of family mealtime traditions raises questions about the concomitant lack of civility in America’s political and civil discourse. Are our dining rooms the fundamental education foundation of our civility? Could they be the source of our awareness of the importance of the common good and what it means to be a good citizen? Flammang explores the familiar world of our dinnertime rituals and the civilizing function of food.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:15 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID). Premium (seating in first few rows) $30 members, $45 non-members.

MLF: Humanities Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: George Hammond

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Symphony of the Soil: Women in Film

FEMA: Political Football

Everyman

Deborah Koons Garcia, Filmmaker, Lily Films, Mill Valley

Karen Keefer, Retired Senior Program Officer, FEMA

Filmed on four continents, Symphony of the Soil is a multi-part documentary film series that examines soil in all of its complexity. By gaining an understanding of the mutuality between soil, water, the atmosphere, plants and animals, we can come to appreciate the complex nature of this precious resource, says Garcia. Come enjoy a special work-in-progress screening of select clips from the film series.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Cathy Curtis

Inside FEMA, decisions are made on how our government will respond to a disaster. What influences those decisions? How does the president decide to declare a disaster? How timely was FEMA’s response on 9/11? And what really happened during Hurricane Katrina five years ago? Hear Keefer’s insider’s view on how politics influences disaster declarations, responses and recoveries, and its impact on the victims of disasters.

MLF: Humanities Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: George Hammond

Come discuss Philip Roth’s meditation on aging and death. His novel’s protagonist is a 70-something who spends his last days lamenting his lost prowess and refusing to apologize for a lifetime of bad behavior. Some will see him as Portnoy all grown up, a synthesis of the womanizing, sex- and death-obsessed characters that have been Roth’s fictional trademarks. As a reminder, this is a book discussion group; the author will not be present.

MLF: SF Book Discussion Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Howard Crane

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September 07–20 M on 0 7 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

M on 0 7 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T ue 0 8 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America

Cradle to California

Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource

Erika Lee, Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies, University of Minnesota; Co-author, Angel Island Judy Yung, Professor Emerita of American Studies, UC Santa Cruz; Co-author, Angel Island

Drawing on new research, Lee and Yung examine the diversity of immigration through Angel Island: Chinese “paper sons,” Japanese picture brides, Korean refugee students, South Asian political activists, Russian and Jewish refugees, Mexican families, Filipino workers, and immigrants from more than 70 countries.

William McDonough, Architect; Author, Cradle to Cradle

McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart started the Cradle to Cradle revolution in manufacturing and design.

Now they want to drive that integrated thinking deeper into the heart of capitalism. A startup in Silicon Valley, the Green Products Innovation Institute aims to transform the “making and consumption of things into a regenerative force for the planet.” Hear from one of the leading lights of the sustainability movement.

Susan Leal, Fellow, Advanced Leadership Initiative, Harvard University; Former Head, SF Public Utilities Commission

Thirsty now? Just wait. The world is well on its way to running out of fresh water, says Leal, but there are ways to fix this problem. Since leaving her position at San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission, Leal has focused on water issues, coauthoring a new book with Peter Rogers that weaves together science, politics and economics to address the situation.

MLF: Asia-Pacific Affairs Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Cynthia Miyashita

Location: SF Club Office Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. networking reception Cost: $15 members, $25 non-members, students free (with valid ID). Premium (seating in first few rows) $35 members, $45 non-members.

Also know: Sponsored by PG&E

T hu 0 9 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

S ept 1 3 – N ov 0 4

M on 1 3 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Europe’s Social Capitalism vs.

Wall Street Capitalism: Which Has the Better Development Model for the 21st Century?

All Over Coffee: The Artwork of Paul Madonna

Mis-Mapping the Mind

Steven Hill, Political Writer; Author, Europe’s Promise

Hill contends that a quiet revolution has been occurring in post-World War II Europe: A world power emerging across the Atlantic is rewriting the rules for how a modern society should provide economic security, environmental sustainability and global stability. Hill traveled widely to understand this uniquely European way of life, including its response to the current economic crisis.

MLF: International Relations Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Norma Walden

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Madonna combines art, comics and literature for his unclassifiable series “All Over Coffee,” published weekly in the San Francisco Chronicle, in book form by City Lights Press, and exhibited in galleries and museums. Traveling internationally to draw on location, he addresses the relationship of stories through city and landscape.

Large format giclee prints of “All Over Coffee” will be on display in the San Francisco Club Office.

MLF: The Arts Location: SF Club Office Time: Regular Club business hours Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Lynn Curtis

au gu s t/s eptem be r 2010

MLF: Environment & Natural Resources Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Kerry Curtis

Kent Grelling, Ph.D., Psychologist

Monday Night Philosophy explores the issues caused by the shift from a highly subjective to a purely descriptive, categorical approach for defining mental illness.

Past diagnostic systems relied heavily on unsubstantiated notions about causes, but during the 1970s, developments in the field resulted in favoring new diagnostic systems based upon a checklist of observable symptoms, regardless of cause.

Grelling will discuss current and future diagnostic systems.

MLF: Humanities Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: George Hammond

T ue 1 4 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T ue 1 4 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

W ed 1 5 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Christopher Gergen

Understanding Human Healing Responses from Preconception Through Youthful Longevity

How the Nature of Data Security Threats Is Changing

Director, Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute, Duke University

“Entrepreneurs find a way to make things work, no matter the obstacles. That’s a great lesson for us all, especially now,” says Gergen, who brings a variety of perspectives to the field of social innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition to holding a professorship at Duke, he serves as the executive director of Bull City Forward and also co-authored Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives. Listen to Gergen in a discussion of how being an entrepreneur is about proving that the impossible is plausible.

Russell Jaffee, M.D., Ph.D., FASCP, FACN, FACAAI, FAMLI; Health Company Founder

Jaffee is an internist and biochemist with a lifetime interest in evoking human healing responses. His successful outcome studies in diabetes, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndromes are examples of his integrative, evidence-based approach, and he is an advocate for catalyzing healing responses. Humorous and content-rich, Jaffee will compress his wisdom into an evening of inspiration and information.

Eva Chen, CEO and Co-founder, Trend Micro, Inc.

Cybercrime against businesses has shifted from acts of vandalism to larceny. Given the proliferation of cyber attacks on businesses, executives must understand how to protect their businesses from potentially crippling damage. Chen will explain why enterprise businesses today are facing data-stealing threats and organized crime rings of unprecedented scale and sophistication, and she will share best practices of companies that recognize their top priority is security.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID)

MLF: Health & Medicine Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Bill Grant

MLF: Science & Technology Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Chisako Ress

T hu 1 6 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T hu 1 6 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

M on 2 0 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

How Africa’s Entry into the Information Age Is Changing Its Economic and Political Perspective

The Magic of ODC, Transforming San Francisco Arts and the Environment

It’s the Way You Say It

Max Seybold, CEO, CherryPal

Seybold has been successful where others failed in providing laptop computers that cost less than $100 to millions of Africans. He believes it’s crucial to bridge the digital divide and make computers affordable for everyone. That’s why he’s developed the most energy-efficient, user-friendly and green laptop ever created – at the world’s lowest price point.

MLF: International Relations Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Shehu Hassan Also know: Northern California Peace Corps Association

Brenda Way, Founder, Executive and Artistic Director, Oberlin Dance Collective Lori Laqua, Managing Director, ODC Kary Schulman, Director, Grants for the Arts, City and County of San Francisco

Join ODC in celebrating the completion of its $20 million arts complex in San Francisco’s Mission. ODC is known for its famous dance company, healthy dancers’ clinic, theater, school and video production company. It has transformed the city’s art scene and rejuvenated the environment of a neighborhood.

MLF: Environment & Nat. Resources/ARTS Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Ann Clark

Carol Fleming, Speech Consultant; Author, It’s the Way You Say It

We all know that communication is ohso-much more than a stream of words.

Exactly how you say those words, and how you look when you say them, makes all the difference in what message is actually received. Hear stories from Dr. Fleming that will show you just how tricky human speech can be.

MLF: PSYCHOLOGY Location: SF Club Office Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Patrick O’Reilly

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September 20–27 M O N 20 | San Francisco

T U E 21 | San Francisco

T ue 2 1 | S i l i c o n V a l l e y

Robert Sutton: What the Best Bosses Do

James Ellroy

Jonathan Safran Foer

Author, The Hilliker Curse, L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia

Author, Everything Is Illuminated and Eating Animals

Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Author, Good Boss, Bad Boss: and The No A—hole Rule

A leading critic of behavior in the workplace unleashes his wrath on bosses and explains the impact both good and bad ones can have on employee morale and the bottom line. Sutton will weave together evidence and case studies to identify the mindset and actions of the most successful bosses.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Also know: Part of the series on Ethics and Accountability, underwritten by the Charles and Louise Travers Family Foundation

As a novelist, screenwriter, essayist and memoirist, Ellroy is more closely identified with Los Angeles than any writer since Raymond Chandler. Now, in his most recent book, the legendary crime writer reveals the brutal personal life that has shaped his art: The unsolved murder of his mother when he was a child. Her killer was never apprehended, which unleashed a force that has propelled his work.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID) Also know: Underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation

Foer looks at our dining habits, insatiable appetites and the cultural meaning of food. He explores the ethical, environmental and health risks behind commercial fishing and factory farming and discusses his journey from carnivore to vegetarian. Hear from the man that Natalie Portman claims changed her from a “20-year vegetarian to a vegan activist.”

Location: Schultz Cultural Hall, Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing Cost: $12 members; $18 non-members Also know: In association with Oshman Family JCC and INFORUM

W E D 2 2 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

T H U 23 | San Francisco

Building Brands in a Digital World

National Debt: The Threat and Potential Solutions

Michael Kroll, Director of Brand Strategy for Online Services, Microsoft Stuart Tenzer, Founder, Coast Road Media LLC Hal Milstein, Partner, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hamilton Ted Max, Partner, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hamilton Martine Paris, Head of Content Acquisition, PlaySpan Marketplace – Moderator

Building a better mousetrap, widget, or search engine isn’t enough. Hear from leading branding professionals and trademark counsel for an in-depth discussion of how to build a compelling brand and online brand development strategies as well as best practices regarding brand protection and enforcement in both the actual and virtual worlds.

Location: Silicon Valley Bank, 3005 Tasman Dr., Santa Clara Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members Also know: In association with Sheppard Mullin Digital Media Law Forum

David Walker, Former U.S. Comptroller General; Former Head, U.S. Government Accountability Office Robert L. Bixby, Executive Director, The Concord Coalition See web site for additional panelists

We are inundated with facts and figures that support the argument that the U.S. government is headed toward fiscal crisis, yet we rarely read or hear a discussion of how such a crisis can be avoided. Experts with years of front-line experience in the fiscal jungle of Washington share their ideas on what steps should be taken now to place the nation on a sustainable course of fiscal responsibility.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members

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W ed 2 2 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T hu 2 3 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion

All Over Coffee: Paul Madonna and His Creative Practice

John Seely Brown, Co-chairman, Deloitte Center for the Edge; Author, The Social Life of Information; Former Chief Scientist, Xerox Corp.; Director, Palo Alto Research Center John Hagel, Co-chairman, Deloitte Center for the Edge; Author, The Only Sustainable Edge In conversation with Michael Meyer, CEO, Adaptive Path

Legendary thought leaders dive below the surface events that compete daily for our attention and highlight the role of digital infrastructures and public policy shifts in transforming how we live, work and play. Using compelling research ranging from corporate board rooms to World of Warcraft online gaming, they show that by making our passions our professions and moving out to the periphery, we can finally achieve our true potential.

MLF: Business & Leadership Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Kevin O’Malley

Paul Madonna, Artist

Madonna combines art, comics and literature for his unclassifiable series “All Over Coffee,” published weekly in the San Francisco Chronicle, in book form by City Lights Press, and exhibited in galleries and museums. Traveling internationally to draw on location, Madonna addresses the relationship of stories through city and landscape. He will discuss his process and theories of creative practice and present a slideshow of his work.

MLF: The Arts Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Lynn Curtis

T H U 2 3 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

M on 2 7 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Video Stars Tell All: Pathways to Fame and Fortune

Middle East Discussion Group

Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3 Frank Chindamo, CEO, Fun Little Movies Jack Conte, Artist, Pomplamoose Nataly Dawn, Artist, Pomplamoose Martine Paris, Head of Content Monetization, PlaySpan Marketplace

Make your voice heard in an enriching, provocative and fun discussion with fellow Club members as you weigh in on events shaping the face of the Middle East. Each month, the Middle East Member-Led Forum hosts an informal roundtable discussion on a topic frequently suggested by recent headlines.

After a brief introduction, the floor will be open for discussion. All interested members are encouraged to attend. There will also be a brief planning session.

The revolution in web video distribution has opened the doors for those seeking fame and fortune online. Big Hollywood talents are going directly to fans, and the rising stars of digital have production values that rival big media. Learn more about the economics of web celebrity status, see how video stars are being born, and discover how brands are leveraged to make money in what promises to become a golden era of opportunity.

Location: Silicon Valley Bank, 3005 Tasman Dr., Santa Clara Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in and networking reception, 7 p.m. program Price: $12 members, $20 non-members In association with: PlaySpan Monetization Forum

MLF: Middle East Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Celia Menczel

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September 28 – October 07 T ue 2 8 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T ue 2 8 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T ue 2 8 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

Carbon Warriors: Roz Savage and David Kroodsma

Climate Change Effects on Animal and Plant Species: Conservation Corridors

The New New Math: Calories and Carbon

Roz Savage, Ocean Rower; Author David Kroodsma, Cyclist; Author

Savage rowed 8,000 miles across the Pacific, alone – a radical career change for a woman who was a management consultant. Kroodsma rode his bike from San Francisco to Tierra del Fuego, leading clean energy discussions along the way.

He then won a contest on the Huffington Post that earned him a trip to Copenhagen’s UN climate conference. What drives them? What are they accomplishing? Join a conversation at the intersection of climate consciousness and gonzo eco-activism.

Healy Hamilton, Ph.D., Director, Center for Biodiversity Research and Information, California Academy of Sciences

Hamilton’s recently published study in Nature discusses the network of habitats such as forests, deserts, reefs and tundra, lakes, and oceans. She worries the magic carpet ride is unraveling before our eyes as the effects of climate change are seen in temperature and rainfall, causing shifts in the locations where species can survive.

Ken Cook, Founder and President, Environmental Working Group Other panelists TBA

With increased awareness about food miles and energy embedded in our food, shopping for groceries is more complicated than ever. It was much easier when we didn’t know Chilean blueberries are figuratively slathered in petroleum thanks to the dieselpowered ships and trucks that haul them to us in winter. Yet scientists say reforming our diets is one of the best ways to reduce our carbon footprint, and our waistlines.

Come discover what you can do.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID)

MLF: Environment & Natural Resources Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Nils-Michael Langenborg

Location: SF Club Office Time: 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. reception Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, students free (with valid ID)

T U E 28 | San Francisco

W ed 2 9 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

T H U 30 | San Francisco

America’s Economy and the Road Ahead

LGBT Planning Meeting

Piracy and the Maritime Commons

Robert Reich, Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley; Former U.S. Secretary of Labor; Author, Aftershock

When the nation’s economy foundered in 2008, blame was almost universally directed at Wall Street, but celebrated economic policymaker and political theorist Reich suggests a different reason for the meltdown and describes a potentially treacherous road ahead. Reich explores a blueprint for lastingly improving our economy.

The Commonwealth Club is a great place to discuss topics of importance to the LGBT community. Come discuss ideas for programming and meet other people who are engaged in everything from marriage equality to queer spirituality.

We want to hear from you!

MLF: LGBT Location: Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Stephen Seewer

Location: Fairmont Hotel, Gold Room, 950 Mason St. Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $15 members, $30 non-members. Premium $45 members, $65 non-members.

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Captain Jeff Kline, USN (ret.); Director, Maritime Defense and Security Programs, Naval Postgraduate School

Despite the international response in supplying war ships to patrol the Gulf of Aden and eastern Somali approaches, pirate attacks have increased. Ungoverned spaces in the maritime commons invite threats to free use of the seas in Nigeria, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Kline will describe the state of piracy, discuss conditions where piracy and other threats flourish, and offer a framework for better security.

MLF: International Relations Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Richard Temsch

T H U 3 0 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

F R I 0 1 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

M O N 04 | San Francisco

Robert Sutton: What the Best Bosses Do

Frank Spinelli

Plato’s Theaetetus

Associate Clinical Professor, New York Medical College; Health Care Columnist, The Advocate

James Mink, Litigation Attorney; Classics Aficionado

Internist and medical professor Spinelli is a leading expert on gay men’s health and wellness. He will discuss principles of gay men’s health, new paradigms for wellness and health promotion, and important insights for health-care providers.

Monday Night Philosophy delves deep into Plato’s dialogue on knowledge.

Mink will focus on the Platonic ideas that underlie the search for truth in a jury trial, which led to the development of the common law on hearsay. Mink’s analysis will be followed by a Socratic dialogue with Hammond and an open discussion with the audience.

Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Author, Good Boss, Bad Boss and The No A—hole Rule

A leading critic of behavior in the workplace unleashes his wrath on bosses and explains the impact both good and bad ones can have on employee morale and the bottom line. Sutton will weave together evidence and case studies to identify the mindset and actions of the most successful bosses.

Location: Bldg. E, National Semiconductor, 2900 Semiconductor Dr., Santa Clara Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in and boxed lunch, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing Cost: $15 members, $20 non-members

Location: Sobrato Cancer Center Conference Room, Valley Specialty Center, 751 S. Bascom Ave., San Jose Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in and boxed lunch, noon program Cost: FREE Also know: In association with The Health Trust & Valley Medical Foundation. Seating limited; advance reservations required

W E D 06 | San Francisco

T H U 07 | San Francisco

T H U 0 7 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

Humanities West Book Discussion: The City: A Global History by Joel Kotkin

A Bedouin Shepherd’s Journey

Michele Norris

Ishmael Khaldi, Diplomat; Author

Co-host, “All Things Considered,” NPR; Author, The Grace of Silence: A Memoir

Join us as we focus on the historical triumphs of “city-states,” with a special focus on Venice. Joel Kotkin’s book, The City: A Global History, highlights the effectiveness of powerful cities throughout history, particularly showcasing Venice’s achievements. The discussion will be moderated by Lynn Harris. Please note that this is a discussion only; the author will not be present. The author will be speaking at The Club on Thursday, October 21st.

Distinguished diplomat Khaldi grew from humble roots. Born poor into a traditional Muslim village, he was the first Bedouin to become deputy consul of the state of Israel and the nation’s first high-ranking Muslim in the Israeli foreign service. Recently the deputy consul general for Israel in San Francisco, Khaldi will explore his remarkable journey from shepherd to diplomat.

MLF: Humanities Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: George Hammond

MLF: Middle East Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Celia Menzel

MLF: Humanities Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: George Hammond

Despite electing Barack Obama as president, do we truly live in a post-racial world? Last year, NPR’s Norris set off to explore the “hidden conversation on race.”

What started as a report on our country’s evolving attitudes toward race turned into an intense personal journey through her own family history and racial identity.

Norris offers her thoughts and observations and shares what it was like to explore the “things left unsaid” by her own family.

Location: Student Union, San Jose State University, One Washington Sq., San Jose Time: 6:30 p.m. doors open, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing Cost: FREE Also know: Part of SJSU Don Edwards Lectures

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October 07–14 T H U 07 | San Francisco

T hu 0 7 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

F R I 08 | San Francisco

Michele Norris

Mary Houghton

Foreign Lands Bring Excitement to Your Life and Diversity to Your Portfolio: Pros and Cons of International Investing

Co-host, “All Things Considered,” NPR; Author, The Grace of Silence: A Memoir

Despite electing Barack Obama as president, do we truly live in a post-racial world? Last year, NPR’s Norris set off to explore the “hidden conversation on race.”

What started as a report on our country’s evolving attitudes toward race turned into an intense personal journey through her own family history and racial identity.

Norris offers her thoughts and observations and shares what it was like to explore the “things left unsaid” by her own family.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members

President and Co-founder, ShoreBank Corporation

Started on the South Side of Chicago in 1973, ShoreBank was the first community development bank in the United States and has expanded to localities around the country and in emerging markets. Houghton was a pioneer in utilizing private sector mechanisms to bring about social change before the term “social entrepreneur” was coined. Come hear from this inspirational leader.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID). Social Entrepreneurship in America Series subscription: $135 members, $265 non-members.

Cathy Curtis, CFP, Investment Advisor, Curtis Financial Planning

More than half the world’s investable assets are in countries outside the U.S., and some of these economies are growing much faster than ours. A portfolio’s risk and return trade-off can be improved by adding the right mix of international investments. But home-country bias is strong and many investors fear venturing beyond U.S. borders.

Discover how investors can build a diversified global portfolio and still sleep well.

MLF: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Norma Walden

T U E 12 | San Francisco

W ed 1 3 | S a n F r a n c i s c o

In the Balance: Energy, Economy and Environment

Ben Sherwood: The Secrets and Science of the World’s Most Effective Survivors and Thrivers

Rat Atluru, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Ralph Cavanagh, Energy Co-director, Natural Resources Defense Council Cathy Reheis-Boyd, President, Western States Petroleum Association Jack Stewart, President, California Manufacturers and Technology Association

With California projected to add another 15 million people in the next few decades, how can the state meet growing energy demand while protecting its natural environment? And how can it do all that while protecting an innovative business environment that creates jobs and drives economic growth? Will a transition to renewable electricity and transportation fuels hurt the economy, or spur startups and new industries? Can conservation be sexy? Join us for a conversation about California’s energy future with leaders who hold diverse points of view.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. networking reception Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, students free (with valid ID) Also know: Part of the Chevron California Innovation Series

Journalist; Author, The Survivors Club

How do we bounce back from extreme adversity? Best-selling author and journalist Sherwood has the answer. From a scientific perspective, he explores the differences between those who overcome difficulties and those who do not.

Sherwood is the founder and CEO of thesurvivorsclub.org, a resource web site for those struggling with everything from eating disorders to foreclosures.

Sherwood is also the author of The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, now a major feature film.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members

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WED 13 | East Bay

W E D 13 | San Francisco

T H U 14 | San Francisco

Uncovering the Secret Washington Family: Fundamentalism in Politics

The Viagra Diaries: Everything Is Possible After 60

Brazil on the Rise

Jeff Sharlet, Author, The Family and C Street

Sharlet has been at the forefront of uncovering the national and international political influence of Washington, D.C.’s, secret Christian fundamentalist group, the Family. Sharlet argues that the group, steeped in influence and corruption, fuels and funds political fundamentalism from within our government and he warns of what this power might lead to.

Location: Lafayette Library and Learning Center’s Community Hall Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing Cost: $12 members, $22 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID)

Barbara Rose Brooker, Author, The Viagra Diaries; Founder, Age March

Well over 60, Brooker is a talented writer, painter and teacher, among other things.

Her most recent project in her quest to empower men and women over 40 to discover their creativity is her novel The Viagra Diaries. Brooker will share selections from The Viagra Diaries, covering everything from romantic love to following your dreams at any age.

MLF: Grownups Location: SF Club Office Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: John Milford

Larry Rohter, Culture Reporter, The New York Times; Author, Brazil on the Rise

Rohter gives an account of the culture and politics of the country that’s hosting the 2016 Olympics. Brazil was once one of the world’s poorest countries ruled by dictatorship. Today, it has become both a democracy and a leading industrial and agricultural powerhouse, boasting the world’s eighth largest economy. Rohter will take you along Brazil’s upward journey.

MLF: environment & natural resources/ International Relations Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members Program Organizer: Alice McKeon Also know: In association with the Northern California Peace Corps Association

T H U 14 | San Francisco

T H U 14 | San Francisco

J ust A dded ! M o n O c t 1 1

Civility in a Fractured Society

Storms of My Grandchildren

Savoring the Flavors: How Place Affects the Taste of Your Food

Jim Leach, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

James Hansen, Climate Scientist; Author

Rowan Jacobsen, Author, American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields

A former Republican congressman from Iowa, Leach believes that civilization requires civility. Since being appointed by President Obama as chair of the NEH, Leah has launched a 50-state civility tour to call attention to the disturbing growth of inflammatory political speech and discuss improving the quality of public discourse in America.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members

A pioneer in climate science, Hansen testified at Al Gore’s seminal Congressional hearings on global warming in the late 1980s. Several years ago, when the federal government tried to muzzle climate scientists and computer models suggested tipping points were near, Hansen came out swinging. He was arrested at a demonstration against coal, and has become increasingly outspoken about the urgency of moving to cleaner fuels to run our economy.

Location: Mark Hopkins Hotel, 1 Nob Hill Circle Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, Cost: $15 members, $25 non-members, students free (with valid ID). Premium (first few rows) $35 members, $45 non-members

See Club web site for full details and to book a spot for this event.

J ust A dded ! M o n O c t 1 8

Condoleezza Rice: Former U.S. Secretary Of State Professor of Business and Political Science, Stanford University; Author, Extraordinary, Ordinary People

See Club web site for full details and to book a spot for this event.

Underwritten by The Koret Foundation

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(l to r) Barrett, Kopp, Kirst & Gunn - photos by Beth Byrne

Remaking California’s Schools An expert panel discusses what’s needed to put California’s education system on top again.

Excerpt from “Keeping California Schools Competitive,” March 31, 2010. craig Barrett Retired CEO and Chairman of the Board, Intel Corporation Wendy kopp Founder and CEO, Teach for America Michael Kirst Professor, Education and Business Administration, Stanford University; Former President, California State Board of Education

moira gunn Host, NPR’s “TechNation” and “Bio Tech Nation”; Professor, University of San Francisco School of Business and Professional Studies – Moderator Gunn: I’d like to start with what we promised, and [that] was the title of this panel, Keeping California Schools Competitive: Can Today’s Students Become Tomorrow’s Leaders? I’ll start with you, Craig. Competitive with whom? Competitive to what?

Barrett: I would’ve changed the topic to Getting California Schools to Be Competitive, and competitive on an international basis – not competitive with Arizona, Nevada, Washington and Texas, but competitive with young kids from around the world.

If you look at the data today, in the K-12 arena, whether you look at any of the internationally benchmarked results, California ranks in the bottom 10 or 20 percent of the U.S., and the U.S. ranks in the bottom quartile of the OECD countries. When you multiply two small numbers, you get a really small number – that’s California’s ranking in

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the international scale right now.

You have to differentiate between the K-12 education system and its average results, and then the postsecondary education system and its results. You still have state universities, Stanford and other private universities – so there is this great dichotomy that you have this captive public education system that does so poorly by its students, and then you have the higher education system that still ranks very high in the world. So we should be able to figure out what to do to get the bottom up, because we know how to treat kids when they get out of high school.

Gunn: Mike Kirst, what do you say?

What does either getting or keeping competitive mean?

Kirst: One definition now is some form of

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coherent and rigorous postsecondary education. I don’t mean necessarily a Bachelor’s degree, but it can be a technical program that’s a very high quality, and completing it.

I don’t think you can compete in this 21st century with just a high-school degree. If we look in a more nuanced way at our issues in California, yes, the University of California system is doing very well. California State Universities takes the next group of students. They have about 55 percent of their students in remediation when they enter, so they obviously have real problems, but they also graduate their students at a level that’s a little higher than the national average. The real problem in California is our largest system, called the Community Colleges; 65 to 70 percent of our students that attend postsecondary education attend the community colleges, 80 percent of the Latinos who attend postsecondary education

in California attend community colleges, and their remediation rates are between 70 and 80 percent, and their finish rate is the following: If you follow students who enter community college after high school, for six years, 24 percent receive anything – that means a certificate, transfer, an associate’s degree. So that rung of education, which students also transfer to higher education from, is really suffering, and if this keeps going, we predict about a 33 percent drop in the skills of California as the increasing Latino population, which is half of our K-12 population, moves forward.

Gunn: You’re concerned about the remediation. Does it mean that what we have in terms of standards at the university level are acceptable to you?

Kirst: Generally I would say the standards are acceptable to me, so if students cannot meet them when they come in and many of them are two to three levels below what is expected of them when they take their placement tests, then we have a problem.

The two systems don’t align and they haven’t historically aligned, and they’ve worked basically for the top 20 percent.

Gunn: Wendy, what’s competitive? Competitive with whom, competitive with what?

Kopp: When I think about that question, I think about the gaps in our society and about the kids of the people in this room.

I’m personally not so worried about their competitiveness or how the education system serves them. The kids Teach for America Corps members are working with, it’s not even a matter of competitiveness. It’s just a complete and total moral injustice that in our country, which thinks of itself as a land of opportunity, we in no way are giving kids who happen to be born in low-income communities a fair shot. Half of the kids in low-income communities won’t even graduate from high school. The half who do will have an eighth grade skill level compared to kids in high-income communities, and yet, the original question was something like can today’s students be tomorrow’s leaders?

The thing that makes all of this so very painful – and there’s been a lot of progress in the last few years on one level – we have so much more proof points about what it’s

possible for kids in low-income communities to achieve. When I think about our future leaders, honestly? I think our future leaders are going to be the kids who have faced real adversity, who have been given great educational opportunities. We do have some schools and growing numbers of schools in California, here in the Bay Area, in Southern California where we also do a lot, which are in fact putting kids growing up in poverty on a level playing field and are sending them to college and graduating them from college at a much higher level. It’s those kids who are going to be our real leaders, because they’ve got grit and fortitude, and they’ve overcome a lot to get there.

“I don’t think there’s any

data that shows that small classes are any better than big classes.

The data shows that good teachers are better than bad teachers.”

–Craig Barrett Gunn: Let’s reverse-engineer it. Who do we need? What kinds of quality, what kinds of skills, what mindset do we need for tomorrow’s leaders?

Barrett: I’m an engineer, so I think everybody ought to be educated as an engineer.

The most common educational background of a Fortune 500 CEO happens to be engineering, so they’re problem solving. But I think increasingly, if you look at the 21st century as the knowledge century or the innovation century or whatever it is, it’s the math and the science and the problem solving capability that you need to teach young people and also university graduates, and it’s not silo capabilities, but it’s cross-functional capability. A deep founding in the basic sciences and the basic mathematics capability going forward.

Gunn: How about you, Mike?

Kirst: The standards have been actually going up. Over the last 20 years and California’s test scores, on its standardized tests for the K-12 group, have increased significantly.

So we have been making progress. We’ve about played out that strategy of high-stakes testing and that sort of thing. What we need to do is to have a more nuanced and complex view of what these students need to know. For example, California’s K-12 tests are all multiple choice, except there’s one writing test. If you go abroad, like England, their tests are all written. There are no multiple choice. We need a much more sophisticated view of what kids need to know and be able to do, assessment, and since 80 percent of the parents and 85 percent of the students say they want to go to college in eighth grade – now, that can mean a technical program, not just four years – we also have to have a good idea of the synthesis and analysis and the skills you use at college that are different than memorizing things and filling out bubble multiple choice tests, which is essentially where we’re driving the system.

Gunn: To Wendy’s point, if our schools will produce the future leaders, why don’t we just take the guy or gal with the highest grade point average and make them the president?

Kopp: What differentiates the people who are really good is perseverance, the ability to influence and motivate others, [and] organizational ability – those are the top three differentiators. There’s just such little research around what those traits are. Some of the very high-performing schools serving low-income kids have started looking, because their kids can come out performing academically at pretty high levels, but then get to college and not make it, so what is it?

There’s something other than the academic skills, and we need a lot more in the way of research around what are those character traits that really differentiate people who do well and go on to become the great leaders.

And then what can we do in our schools to help cultivate that?

Gunn: We’re certainly seeing university education change; it’s gone from big lec-

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tures halls with people talking at you, to far more experiential. You ask any CEO in Silicon Valley of which one might be available, and they say, We like to hire you out of engineering school but how are you going to work on a team? How are you going to communicate? How are you going to interact with other people? They’re teaching that now in the undergraduate level in engineering. So if we take some of these skills and move them down into public education, will that foster some of what we’re looking for in leadership?

high-tech way out, the silver bullet way out, and folks, there ain’t one. It’s hard work. The systems that work do it by hard work.

Barrett: Let me put my pragmatic hat on for a while. If you look at great-performing education systems around the world, and whether you go to Korea or Singapore or Finland or wherever you go, but systems that really do well, they have four characteristics.

They have wonderful teachers, and this is what Wendy works on in terms of Teach for America, which is getting content experts and enthusiastic teachers, but the system can’t be any better than the quality of the teachers in it. They have very high expectations, and unfortunately when you look at the expectation levels of most of the states in the United States, we’ve dumbed down our expectation levels to have socially acceptable pass rates. They have feedback loops, and feedback loops are tension in the system, and feedback loops help either teachers or students who are struggling, and this is measuring results and being accountable for results. You also need great administrators in the system, not just great teachers.

But until you have those four things, when you talk about, Let’s go in and drop a silver bullet or drop this solution in you get nowhere. In California the silver bullet was make class sizes smaller. Turns out, I don’t think there’s any data that shows that small classes are any better than big classes.

The data shows that good teachers are better than bad teachers. Good teachers of big classes are better than bad teachers with small classes. So you really have to be fundamental in the principles in this and say, hey, it’s good teachers, high expectations, feedback loops, it’s good administrators, and once you get those you get good results you don’t need computers. You don’t need the latest in technology. You need those four fundamental principles.

We always look for the easy way out, the

“We’re not even remotely

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Gunn: It’s really interesting that the students of today, of course, all have cell phones and Twitter and Internet and the access to information – they’re changing dramatically. What does this mean for our teachers?

That we’re looking for different people to be teachers? Different kinds of people, or different things to teach?

beginning to leverage the power of

technology in our education system.”

–Wendy Kopp Kopp: We’re not even remotely beginning to leverage the power of technology in our education system. What business is still using technology or doing its work in the same way today as they did 10 years ago? I do think we could do a lot more.

I will say, though, that I happened to be in a classroom in Southern California less than a month ago, and this Teach for America Corps member’s name happens to be Jennifer Lopez. She went into a situation where 30 percent of the tenth graders in the school were historically passing the California geometry test, and she set a goal where she said 100 percent are going to pass the end of the year. She said, The first thing I did was just build relationships with them. She convinced the kids, You’re going to work harder than you’ve ever worked to get where you need to be and that’s going to change the trajectory you’re on. I mean these kids are all thinking they’re going to college. I had a kid in the class come up to me in the back of the room and say, “I heard you started Teach for America. I want to do Teach for America one day.” This is kids growing up in completely impoverished circumstances in Los Angeles, so when I think about what got them; it was no bells and

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whistles. It was a teacher saying, “You know what? Here’s where you need to be at the end of the year. Actually if we do that, you’ll be the highest performing kids of any school around here, let’s go after it, here’s what it’s going to take.” She gets her kids to come in the morning, she keeps them after school, she teaches at a really high level, I mean it was so fascinating to see what she was doing with her kids. The sense of urgency in her room, she’s maximizing every second. In her first year of teaching, 93 percent were advanced proficient, and she’s going after 100 percent this year. No bells and whistles, no technology.

So I do think that ultimately, great teachers are doing what great teachers are doing, and if we could give her the leverage of technology, think what would be possible. We’d be way more competitive than everyone. I honestly think we’re just not beginning to maximize the time of our kids in school, and once you have technology in the mix, too, we’d be at a totally different place.

Gunn: We have several questions here that all speak to the same issue, and that is, we can have all of these goals, and all of this experience, but the bottom line is, you’ve got to have the money to operate. Mike, I think you tapped into a lot of where California stands in terms of finances vis-à-vis education, right?

Kirst: Yes, it’s really difficult, and our infrastructure is just fading away. I was the president of the State Board of Education when Proposition 13 passed, and so I saw tough times, and we haven’t hit the bottom yet from the projections. We’re cutting school time and days and probably we’ll go down to five periods in lots of schools, and we’re not out of it yet. If you adjust for our costs, in California, and it costs more here to run a school [than] in Arkansas, for example; we’re somewhere around 44th in spending before we took all these hits. So we’re really suffering from a lack of financial base. The secret of these other states in most cases is that they can get their local citizens to raise the local property tax. California’s heavily reliant on the income tax for the state level.

I don’t see that [we] have any fundamental strategy to get out of the fiscal box we’re in, so we have this sort of odd debate: I read the clips from California every day, and at the

top level, there’s all this discussion of things like race to the top, which I just finished being a state reviewer for, and that’s talking about turn-around schools, and data, and new interventions, and all this sort of thing.

Then the bottom line is all these school districts are just cutting away at the core of their operations. Now, they’re beyond cutting the counselors, they’re finished, and the librarians are done, we’re finished with them, we got rid of music a long time ago, so we’re down to the core, and there seems to be no discussion across these two types of things.

On the one hand, let’s have major reform, I’m for that. On the other hand, we have no finance discussion as to what is our financial strategy going forward for California.

Gunn: Now, we really want to talk about science and technology, we have a lot of questions here. What’s the science and math that we need? Are the teachers really prepared to teach it? And people in science and technology – are they prepared to become the teachers?

Barrett: Let me start. If you look not just in California but nationwide at the teachers who teach math and science and K-12, you find the disturbing feature that only about two-thirds of them are certified or qualified in the topic that they’re teaching. I like to do a little thought exercise with people here that involves a little mathematics. Those of you who remember going to K-12, if you have one bad year of mathematics, you kind of drop out, you get left behind. So let’s assume that you need a good math teacher 12 years in a row, and there’s only a two-thirds chance of getting a good math teacher each year, what is the probability of getting a good math teacher 12 years in row? It’s basically zero. So we have a fundamental issue, and that is getting good, certified math teachers.

Programs like Teach for America and some alternative programs to get math and science experts into the system are very, very powerful. But you need to get them there. And to Michael’s comment, you probably need to pay them more money as well, because they can make more money on the outside than a history teacher or an English teacher [earns], so there’s a bit of a monetary issue. But until you get fundamentally capable teachers, the hope of getting students who are interested in the topic is relatively nil. And that’s what

we’ve seen, across the country, not just in California, but poor teachers are in fact I think turning kids off of majoring in the key topics of the 21st century, so we’re doing ourselves an immense disservice from that standpoint.

Gunn: In the United States, the average college graduate has a $22,000 debt so you’re starting out behind the line, that’s after-tax dollars. I don’t care how small it is, you’re starting out behind. So these are really difficult issues. There’s a question here that says “I’m a new teacher, first grade, and going into my third year.”

If I understand your question, you can certainly correct me, it’s just great and a challenge and you love it and it’s hard work and all the great things, but the pay scale’s 8 -percent of the median income in San Francisco, and there’s little support.

So how do we keep this teacher and all her colleagues on the job?

Kopp: We need to rethink the way we recruit and invest in our teachers. I mean, if you look at where our teacher compensation dollars go, we’re not spending them on our teachers in their first 10 years, and then we’re just wondering, why are all of our teachers leaving in the third and fourth and fifth year? Not that money is everything even remotely, and all you have to do is work in our school systems and you realize money is completely critical; I could not agree more, but even the money we have is not being well spent often. We need to think differently. There’s not a chance that we will build a first-class education system, a world-class, truly competitive education system if we don’t do what great organizations in any other sector do, which is invest hugely in recruiting and selecting people who have what it takes to be successful at every level of the system, investing in their training, investing in their ongoing development.

Barrett: The issue of paying for performance, of meritocracy, has been absent from the public K-12 system, but there are bits and pieces of it coming in today, and that’s a very critical part of it.

As far of cost of living, teacher salaries, just like all the other salaries, probably should scale according to that, but I think this whole concept of paying for perfor-

mance and meritocracy has to be integrated into that system if you want results out of it. There’s no other system in the U.S. that does not pay for performance.

Kirst: I would also think that we have to do something with the technology issue. The schools resisted radio, television, and have walled-off computers into labs where you go out of the classroom, so there’s a DNA of the classroom which we have never broken.

One of the theories is that, particularly in the high school, we could use much more online instruction. We could have online volunteers, and the parents could be at home working with the students. Ω This program was made possible by the generous support of Chevron.

Doing the Math on California’s Schools #1 – national rank of California’s K-12 schools in terms of the number of students #1 – national rank of California’s K-12 schools in terms of low staffper-pupil ratio 33.9% – state high school graduates who were eligible for University of California or California State University systems 25% – state K-12 students who are English learners 49% – state K-12 students classified as low-income 65-70% – California students who attend community college 55% – CSU students who are in remediation when they enter college $22,000 – average debt of U.S. college graduates –Research by Heather Mack and Allison Vale Sources: California Department of Education, Education Data Partnership, National Education Association, UC Davis

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Pelosi photo by William F. Adams, House by Lawrence Jackson, Wikimedia Commons

Congress’ New Agenda

Fresh from a major legislative victory on health care, the speaker of the House lays out congressional priorities for the months ahead. Excerpt from “Nancy Pelosi,” April 6, 2010.

Nancy pelosi Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives in conversation with Dr. gloria duffy President and CEO, Commonwealth Club of California Duffy: We meet on the heels of your success in getting the health-care reform bill passed, after over 20 years of effort. Among your lifetime accomplishments, where do you rank getting this health-care bill passed?

Pelosi: Where does this rank, passing health-care reform for all Americans?

Definitely first, by a long shot. I see this legislation that we passed as honoring the vows of our founders. They said as early as the Declaration of Independence that we’re all endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Imagine the pursuit of happiness as a priority of

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our founders. We see this emancipation, this liberation that health-care reform gives to people to have a healthier life, to have the liberty to pursue their aspirations and their happiness, as honoring that tradition.

The fact is that this is not only about health care, it’s about a healthier America.

It’s about innovation. It’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s about wellness and prevention.

It’s about science and technology to take us to a different place, and it’s about a person no longer having to be job-blocked because he or she has a pre-existing condition, or a child or spouse does. Whether you want to be self-employed as an artist, a musician or a photographer – whatever creative spirit you

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have – or if you want to start your own business, you can do so. If you want to change jobs, you can do so without losing your health insurance. Think of what that does for people, their aspirations and the pursuit of happiness. Think of what that does for an economy and a society, to have that dynamism, that entrepreneurial spirit. We want people to take risks, be entrepreneurial. We have to mitigate for that risk by not having them sacrifice the health of their children, their families and themselves to do so.

I see this bill as ending discrimination.

My colleagues and I believe that this is the greatest official act that we will ever be involved in, and take great pride not

only in passing it, but also in making sure it is effectively implemented to the benefit of Americans.

We’re very, very proud of President Barack Obama, because without his leadership, this would not have happened.

When we passed the bill, he called me and he said, “I’m happier with the passage of this bill than I was the night I was elected president of the United States.” I said, “I’m pretty happy, too, but I’m not happier than when you were elected president of the United States, because if you weren’t elected president of the United States, we would not have this great progress being made for the American people.”

Duffy: You’ve mentioned some of the more important aspects of the bill in terms of the values that it supports within our society.

In your view, what are the most important provisions of it? If you could, just list two or three that really stand out to you, that you really fought for, or that you thought were important to fight for.

Pelosi: What the main debate was about in Washington, D.C., was whether you’re ready to regulate the insurance companies or not, because that is the decision. So reforming the health insurance industry, those health insurance reforms were very important. For example, never again will you be discriminated against on the basis of a pre-existing condition.

Being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition. Women pay up to 50 percent more than men for the same coverage. If you have children, you have a pre-existing condition. If you can’t have children, you have a pre-existing condition. If you are a victim of domestic violence, you have a preexisting condition. It’s just a stunning thing that exists. No longer will they be able to cut off your insurance if you become sick. Now, mind you, you pay into insurance, then you become sick and they say, Never mind, we’re not renewing your policy because you’re now sick. Or no longer, when you’re on your way to the operating room, can they rescind your policy because they said, You smoked as a teenager and you never told us that, or some excuse. So again, the insurance reforms are very important.

Three things were very important to us in the House, and that’s why we had to have

the two bills: because we didn’t think that the original bill in the Senate, whatever its merit, did enough in terms of affordability for the middle class, accountability for the insurance company, and accessibility for many more Americans.

Duffy: There was a very fractious debate in Congress over the bill over the past couple of years. What were the turning points in the debate in Congress in terms of finding the votes, getting the political mandate together for making this happen?

“Our businesses [were]

weighted down with the cost of health care when their

competitors in other countries [were] not.”

Pelosi: Let me put it in a little different perspective, and then go to that. When the president was elected, he had an agenda that was in his budget. This was a blueprint for economic stabilization going into the future. It was about lowering taxes for the middle class. It was about reducing the deficit, growing the economy and creating jobs, around three pillars: health care for all Americans, education and innovation, and third, energy and climate change to take us into new green, clean-energy technologies. These three pillars were to be the job creators, and also the deficit reducers, because nothing reduces the deficit or brings more money to the Treasury than investments in education. This legislation is about two very important pillars of our society, of our economy and of the president’s agenda.

As we went forward with that, people said, What does education have to do with health care? No, it’s a budget bill. This was a budget reconciliation bill, and it had to do with both of those.

As we went forward with the legislation, many of us were supportive of a public option that we wanted to have in the legislation, but not wedded to that particular

phrase. We were wedded to what a public option would do – to hold the insurance companies accountable, to improve competition, help the consumer, lower cost, improve quality and again, increase access.

It’s always hard. There’s no easy thing in Congress when you’re trying to make this kind of change, but everybody was excited about the prospect of freeing the American people from this anvil of the cost of health care, whether it was an individual in a family, whether it was a small business, whether it was a big business which was footing the bill for a lot of people – even people who aren’t their employees – or whether it was just the cost to our economy.

It affected the competitiveness of America that our businesses [were] weighted down with the cost of health care when their competitors in other countries [were] not. So we were pretty confident about the course we were on. We had a little different view than what the Senate had. They did not want a public option. In other words, as long as the goals were achieved, it didn’t have to be by any particular terminology or entity.

When the Massachusetts election took place, people thought, Oh, that’s the end of health care. We all just saw it as an opportunity. Now we’ll go with 51 votes, we’re sure we’ll get that, and we will do what we set out to do.

I never had a doubt that it would be passed. I had confidence that my members, that our colleagues, had this as a value, understood the difference it would make in people’s lives. We had hoped, and the president had hoped, that there could be bipartisan support, but the main difference was, What do you want to do about the insurance companies? If you want to regulate the insurance companies, we can find our common ground. If you don’t, we have to leave without you, unfortunately.

The president really tried. We thought this bill would be finished by early fall, but the president kept giving more time to get more bipartisan support. February 25th, the president called another bipartisan meeting, House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, to come together to hear what additional ideas Republicans might have that we could incorporate into the bill. It was, I think, at that time that the president realized that they were not going to do anything about the insurance

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Photo by Sonya Abrams

service in that way, being freed of some of the cost of the education. It also helps states that have been good about doing things for people, we call them the “do-gooder states.” By “our” bill, I mean the bill that the House passed.

Duffy: A slightly more pointed question has come up several times from the audience, Are members of Congress exempt from mandating participation? If so, why?

Pelosi: No, we are included. House and Senate are included in the bill.

Speaker Pelosi and Club President Dr. Gloria Duffy are long-time acquaintances. They undertook a fact-finding mission together to Central America during the 1980s.

companies, that he then just went forward, and you saw a difference in the last four or six weeks before the bill. He went forward and said, This is the bill, this is where we’re going. We wanted bipartisan support, but if we don’t have it, it doesn’t mean we’re not going to have a bill.

More needs to be done to make sure the public understands. The public is very wise; I have great confidence in the public.

Healthreform.gov: Go there and learn more about it. We had our debates – public op-

“We wanted bipartisan

support, but if we don’t have it, it

doesn’t mean we’re not

going to have

a bill.”

tion, no public option, I insist on a public option, that kind of thing – but at the end of the day, we came together to make not only history for this Congress, but progress for the American people.

Duffy: We see some concern at the state level here in California about the implementation of health-care reform. Our governor and our secretary of health and human services here in California have spoken out about how they feel it’s going to be difficult for the state, with the budget crisis here and so on, to handle certain aspects of health-care

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reform. Any comment on burdens placed on already burdened state budgets?

Pelosi: Well, I haven’t seen any recent comments since the bill was signed, so forgive me for not being aware of that. But I do know Governor Schwarzenegger came to Washington and talked about what had been in the Senate bill, which was very harmful to many states. That’s why we had to pass our bill alongside it, because it was unfair to states, and we changed that. There was what is called a Nebraska provision that was very positive for Nebraska, but it wasn’t very good for the rest of the country. It gave us an opportunity to say, This isn’t the way you do this. So in the legislation we invest considerable resources in helping the states not have to make any match on Medicaid – Medi-Cal in California – for a number of years, and then when they do, it [will be] years down the road. So that has all been changed.

Part of it is people being aware of the changes in the bill that the president signed last Tuesday, which was the budget reconciliation bill which had the House provisions, but that completely changed in many respects. First of all, equity for the states – much fairer for the states; many more resources [are] there to help states increase the number of people going onto Medicaid/Medi-Cal. Secondly, it had increased funding for community health centers, where many Medicaid people go. It had funding for primary-care doctors who treat Medicaid patients, to make them on a par with Medicare patients. There are many wonderful things about doctors who go into public

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Duffy: What else is on the agenda? I know the president will be going to Prague on Thursday to sign a new arms control treaty.

It does reduce arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons by about one third, from about 2,200 on the part of Russia and the U.S. each to about 1,500 each. It’s a step down the path toward major reductions of strategic nuclear weapons, and the first treaty we’ve really had in 10 years in this area.

Pelosi: We’re very proud of it, because it says, we are an example, too, in terms of not pursuing any more production of nuclear weapons, but also saying that we will not use nuclear power to attack a non-nuclear country, which is an important statement to be made.

The difference that it will make in terms of trying to speak to a country like Iran and saying, You really should not continue to pursue a weapon of mass destruction, a nuclear weapon – again, we are using our leadership as an example as to how we want to minimize this. If Iran gets a weapon, it’s a danger to the world, not just to the Middle East, but to the world. Then other countries will want to have weapons if Iran has a weapon, and this proliferation is – dangerous is so meager a word to describe it. So we’re very, very proud that the administration is not only taking these steps but has the agreement of Russia and the other countries on it.

Duffy: Madame Speaker, the agreement will come before Congress to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee first, but do you feel that the health-care reform victory will create a better environment for what should be a treaty with bipartisan support?

Pelosi: I don’t know what the impact of the health-care reform bill is. It changes.

Originally [opponents said], We’re going to repeal. Now they’re saying maybe not repeal, maybe [they’ll do] something else instead, and this is going to hold up everything else, and I don’t think it was working. But I don’t know, we’ll see when we go back to Washington next week. But I think that members of the United States Senate will see their constitutional responsibility to ratify a treaty in a quite different way than healthcare reform. I would certainly hope so.

On that score, this initiative on the part of President Obama continues. This is an ongoing conversation that is the most important one. Nothing is more of a danger and a threat to the security of the world than the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In some ways, when Dr. Duffy and I were [on a fact-finding mission] in Latin America a generation ago, we were in a bipolar situation. It was the Soviet Union and the U.S., by and large. In some ways, that had more security in deterrence than the rogue states getting weapons of mass destruction and the threat that could be.

Duffy: Somewhere in this audience is someone who identifies themselves as a Rockefeller Republican – fiscally conservative, a liberal on social issues – who says they are totally conflicted on current policy, TARP [Troubled Asset Relief Program], health care, etcetera. What are the fail-safe measures to ensure economic growth in spite of our debt? So, the deficit question.

Pelosi: To the Rockefeller Republican in the audience, may I just say this: Welcome, and take back your party. My Republican colleagues like it when I give advice to Republicans about their own party. But really, the Republican Party, this grand old party, that made such a great contribution, many of the positions taken in Washington, D.C., are just so off the charts that it’s hard to identify them with the grand old party that the Republican Party is. We really need a strong Republican Party to take it back.

Here’s what we’re doing, and this is fundamental to what we’re doing. When I became speaker, the first day, the rules of the House that were passed under which we would function said we will pay as we go. No deficit spending. Pay as you go. We

made that the rule of the House. It took us until December of ’09 to get it to be the law of the land, when the Senate finally passed it. But you have to have that discipline. It’s something that we progressives have been advocating for 30 years. George Miller had this at the 1982 mid-term convention in Philadelphia and it passed as part of the Democratic platform. Pay as you go. What is this building up deficits, heaping mountains of debt on the next generation? Not a good idea. The blue dogs in our caucus have had this as their mantra and as their organizing principle, and it became the principle for us when we took power, when we gained the majority. So we have that.

The president has an executive order on a fiscal commission [the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform], which will now begin to address how to reduce the deficit. He has called for a freeze or cuts in all discretionary spending. So there is an urgent need for us to contain the growth of the deficit. And certain things have contributed to it. Two wars, unpaid for. Never paid for, all of it – we’ll just go to war and not have a way to pay for that.

The tax cuts at the high end of the previous administration. That’s why it was also important for us to pass health-care reform, because the biggest increase in the entitlements in Medicare, Medicaid and [such], is the upward spiral of medical cost and prescription drug cost and the rest.

As the president has said, health-care reform is entitlement reform. The present situation is totally unsustainable: for individuals, for businesses, for the economy and

for the federal budget. So this health-care reform, if there were no other reason to do it except to contain the rising cost of health insurance and care in our country, that would have been the justification. This bill saves $1.3 trillion because of bending the curve and taking the cost down and getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse.

But we have to do more so that we can contain [the deficit. Our] essential responsibility to our children and not heaping mountains of debt onto them necessitates this. But also, sound fiscal budget policy is important to our economy, as well, so there are many reasons why we have to do it. Again, the unsustainability of the current system demands that we do it, so by health-care reform, by pay-as-you-go, by the health-care commission to come up with more ways, and by some of the discretionary spending cuts and freezes that the president is instituting, we’re going down that path, but it absolutely must be done.

Duffy: You point out deficit reduction as another important reason for health-care reform having been such a high priority.

There are questions about challenges to the health-care reform bill, the Supreme Court, repeal threats and so on. Are you concerned about any of those challenges?

Pelosi: No. We wrote the bill very carefully, and it is typical that when you pass anything of this consequence that those who oppose it come forth with the threat of a legal challenge, but we feel very comfortable about the fact that the bill can go forward. Ω

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au g u s t/s eptem b e r 2010

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

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The Commonwealth Club of

107th Anniversary and 22nd Annual Distinguish

The Spirit of Ca

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escending upon San Francisco’s historic Palace Hotel on Thursday, April 29th, hundreds of guests feted The Commonwealth Club’s 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award honorees.

Brad Bird, Jack O’Neill, the Honorable George P. Shultz and Charlotte Mailliard Shultz were honored with Distinguished Citizen Awards, and Dr. Bill Rutter was bestowed the William K. Bowes Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award.

Celebrating the Spirit of California, the evening sparkled with a performance of “California Here I

Honorees left to right

Come” by Stephanie Harwood of San Francisco’s famed Beach Blanket Babylon, a speech by California First Lady Maria Shriver, an entertaining film showcasing the honorees, and a rousing panel discussion addressing what California means to its people, the nation and world.

Enjoying a fun, festive, colorful and memorable evening, guests generously contributed to what has become The Club’s most successful fundraiser ever.

The Spirit of California was alive and well in April at The Commonwealth Club!

Brad Bird, Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, Jack O’Neill & Dr. Bill Rutter photos by Camille Koué and Lyra Frederick

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1. Greg Dalton, Michael Carr, Skip Rhodes 2. The Hon. Tad Taube, Dianne Taube 3. James C. Hormel, Michael P. Nguyen 4. Dinner Chairs Maryles Casto, Brian D. Riley 5. Condoleezza Rice, Maria Shriver, Dr. Gloria C. Duffy 6. Dr. Duffy welcomes the guests at the awards reception 7. The Palace Hotel bartender shakes up another round 8. Beach Blanket Babylon performer Stephanie Harwood 9. The generous bidders at our Fund a Need auction help The Club carry out its mission 10. Brian D. Riley, Russ Yarrow 11. Honoree Jack O’Neill traded black tie for black flip-flops 12. Last year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner, the Hon. William H. Draper, III, addresses the crowd 13. Charlotte Mailliard Shultz receives her award from ABC7 anchor Dan Ashley 14. Dr. Duffy moderates a discussion with Draper and honorees Brad Bird and Dr. Bill Rutter

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InSight Carrying Costs Dr. Gloria C. Duffy Photo courtesy of Gloria Duffy

President and C.E.O.

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merging from the deep recession of the past few years has been a more difficult, slower process than could have been expected. U.S. unemployment is still high, businesses and consumers are still overleveraged, home sales are slow, consumers are hesitant, and most people are experiencing reduced expectations about their financial future.

With China and the developing world now attaining higher growth rates than the United States and Europe, it is well to ask what will restore America’s competitive advantage. How will we regain growth rates that can sustain our standard of living, bring back jobs, and move our economy positively into the future?

We should certainly become more self-sufficient and more efficient in the use of energy and other resources. But the United States will not retain or regain its competitive advantage simply by becoming inwardly focused, or developing more sustainable industries. To retain our edge, we must maintain our leadership in creating products and services the world wants to buy.

The United States is still the world’s premier knowledge-based economy. That is, the growth in our economy is based importantly on innovations in science and technology and the resulting products that make work more efficient and society healthier and safer, including digital technologies, more sophisticated transportation systems, more productive agriculture and medical developments to treat debilitating diseases. Our ability to create breakthrough products that can be scaled up and sold in large numbers, in the United States and abroad, is the key to our prosperity.

There is a formula for making a knowledge-based economy work.

It includes superb higher education, especially major research universities. It includes an environment where innovation is encouraged and rewarded, both through financial rewards and respect – think Steve Jobs and Apple Computer; Andy Grove, Gordon Moore and Intel; Bill Gates and Microsoft; Michael DeBakey and heart surgeries, Carl Djerassi and birth control. It includes access to capital, and the willingness of investors to take risks on new ventures. It requires corporate and management structures and incentives that foster bringing products to market and marketing them in ways that facilitate their adoption for widespread use. And it requires a government structure that protects the consumer, the environment and other important values, while still fostering innovation and

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business development.

As we move through this recovery, there are some important dos and don’ts that will improve the chances for the United States to retain its competitive advantage as a leader in innovation. As we watch the public higher education system, particularly in California, struggle, we must be clear that adequately funding higher education is one of the key drivers of our prosperity. That is not to say that we can’t cut waste and improve the efficiency of our higher education systems, but their quality and ability to produce the best and the brightest graduates is at the core of our economic strength.

We also must not diminish the incentives for angel investors, venture capitalists and other funders to take risks to fund research and the start-up of new commercial ventures. The recent financial system reform was very much needed, to tighten oversight of institutions that took imprudent gambles on sub-prime mortgages and in other such areas. But early stage investors in new technologies and products take the risks they do because the potential rewards render the chances they are taking worthwhile.

As part of the financial reform efforts now underway, Congress has considered increasing taxes that private equity managers and early stage investors pay on their “carried interest” when they cash out their investments. This would reduce a crucial incentive investors receive for their long-shot investments. While excesses in compensation and in the financial system need to be addressed, such an approach could make investors more cautious and less willing to back the entrepreneur who will probably fall flat, but might just develop a breakthrough process or technology.

While we work to redress the destructive excesses of the past few years, let’s remember not to throw out the good along with the bad. Ensuring the availability of seed capital that funds a new American electric car industry is not the same as rolling the dice to finance ownership of over-priced homes for individuals without the financial stability to afford them. Let’s try to preserve what is good about the American willingness to take risks and pursue new ideas, while eliminating the imprudent schemes and scams.

The social and economic factors that create competitiveness are a complex ecosystem. If we undermine any of these elements – education, access to capital, incentives for innovation, and a government framework that maintains a healthy society while fostering economic development – we may destroy the system.

And that would be a tragedy, because the American capability to create game-changing new products is the one strength most likely to carry us through to a new era of prosperity. Ω

Inside Washington, D.C. Five days in the capital of the United States with The Commonwealth Club of California

October 17-22, 2010

Join us as we take The Commonwealth Club gavel on the road!

This program is limited to 18 participants. Call (415) 597-6720 to reserve your space today!

Our nation’s capital is the scene of many critical international and domestic pressures and ever-changing political realities. A history-making president and first family have stamped policy and personality on the city. This October, join The Commonwealth Club for five exciting days in Washington, D.C., as we explore the capital and meet face to face with leaders on the economy, foreign affairs, energy, the environment and media.

HIGHLIGHTS Four highly-informative, intimate Commonwealth Club forums, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, moderated by Washington, D.C., journalists Meet representatives from within the president’s administration, Congress, the media, think tanks and other prestigious organizations Guest speakers at private lunches and dinners Tours of the Capitol Building and the Supreme Court Special visits to unique sites such as President Lincoln’s Cottage, Dumbarton Oaks, the Newseum and the Phillips Collection 5 nights accommodations at the Hotel Palomar, a deluxe Commonwealth hotel near ClubDupont TravelCircle Informed Travel for the Discerning Mind

Commonwealth Club Travel

Sunday, October 17 Arrive on independent flights to Washington, D.C., and check in to the Hotel Palomar, a 4-star Kimpton Hotel property near the shops, restaurants and lively activity of Dupont Circle. Enjoy panoramic views during our welcome reception at the P.O.V. Roof & Terrace. Following our welcome dinner at a nearby restaurant, take a short driving tour to see the city’s monuments lit up in the night. (D)

Monday, October 18 Experience a private tour of the U.S. Capitol, one of the most architecturally impressive and symbolically important buildings in the world. The Senate and the House of Representatives have met here for more than two centuries. Begun in 1793, the Capitol has been built, burnt, rebuilt, extended and restored. Today, it stands as a monument not only to its builders but also to the American people and government.

Lunch is at a Washington’s Old Ebbitt Grill. Established in 1856, this restaurant was a favorite of Presidents Grant, Harding and Theodore Roosevelt and is still a popular meeting spot for political insiders, journalists, celebrities and theater-goers.

In the afternoon, NPR Senior Correspondent Linda Wertheimer moderates our first Commonwealth Club forum at the Carnegie Endowment Conference Center. Engage in a discussion with experts on the nation’s economy. Take the evening to enjoy dinner on your own or attend a cultural performance. (B,L)

Tuesday, October 19 This morning, participate in our second Commonwealth Club forum and

examine issues related to Energy and the Environment. After lunch on your own, explore President Lincoln’s Cottage.

Recently restored and refurbished, this was the president’s family residence and refuge for a quarter of his presidency, particularly during the Civil War. Our exclusive tour with the director is followed by a talk by Dr. Michael Frazier of Howard University, who will discuss the impact of the Obama presidency on race relations. Dinner tonight is at Farmers & Fishers, a restaurant on the Georgetown waterfront. (B,D)

Wednesday, October 20 The Supreme Court has undergone many changes over the past decade, and a new justice will have been inducted just prior to our visit. We spend the morning exploring this pillar of America’s government.

Continue to one of Washington’s most exciting new museums, the Newseum.

This 250,000-square-foot museum of news offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-thesecond technology and hands-on exhibits.

After lunch at The Source, Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant at the Newseum, we hear from a guest speaker.

Our third Commonwealth Club forum will focus on Afghanistan and is moderated

by E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution. After an actionpacked day, enjoy a free evening! (B,L)

Thursday, October 21 This morning our panelists discuss Security and Arms Control during the final Commonwealth Club forum. After lunch on your own, visit Dumbarton Oaks, which houses an important art and research center

For complete details, including terms and conditions, contact Commonwealth Club Travel Commonwealth Club(415) Travel Telephone: 597-6720 – Email: travel@commonwealthclub.org – Web: commonwealthclub.org/travel Informed Travel for the Discerning Mind

for Byzantine, Pre-Columbia, and Garden and Landscape studies, amid beautiful gardens. This was the scene of the famous Dumbarton Oaks Conversations in 1944, which led to the creation of the United Nations. Continue to tour The Phillips Collection, Washington’s answer to the Frick in New York and Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It was the private home of Duncan Phillips, built to house his great collection of impressionist and modern masterpieces, and opened in 1921 as the country’s first museum of modern art. Our farewell dinner is at Restaurant Nora, one of Washington’s finest restaurants, and where President Obama surprised the First Lady with a dinner party on her 46th birthday. (B,D)

Friday, October 22

After breakfast at our hotel, return home or explore more of Washington’s sites and museums on your own.

Additional hotel nights at the Hotel Palomar are available. (B) B=breakfast L=lunch D=dinner

Note:

This Club program is a highly educational and interactive learning experience. Each Commonwealth Club Forum will have 2-3 panelists and a moderator. We have invited and confirmed the intended participation of an impressive line-up of experts. Due to the demands of their positions and changing schedules, speaker names will be published closer to the dates of our trip. A detailed itinerary and a final list of speakers will be provided approximately one month prior to departure and will be up-to-date on our web site. Guest speakers and our itinerary are subject to change.

FORUM MODERATORS E.J. Dionne is a twice-weekly columnist for The Washington Post, writing on national policy and politics. Before joining The Post in 1990 as a political reporter, he spent 14 years at The New York Times, covering local, state and national politics, and also served as a foreign correspondent in Paris, Rome and Beirut. Dionne began his column for The Post in 1993.

He is a university professor at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. Dionne has been a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio, ABC’s “This Week,” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He is also author of several books including Stand Up Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politics of Revenge (2004). His book Why Americans Hate Politics (1991), won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award nominee.

Linda Wertheimer is a senior national correspondent with National Public Radio (NPR). Before this post, Wertheimer spent 13 years as a host of NPR’s news magazine, “All Things Considered.” The show grew from 6 million listeners in 1989 to nearly 10 million listeners by spring of 2001, making it one of the top five shows in U.S. radio. Wertheimer has provided award-winning coverage of national politics and regularly reported from Congress on the major events of the day – from the Watergate impeachment hearings to the Reagan revolution to historic tax reform legislation to the Iran-Contra affair. In 1976, Wertheimer became the first woman to anchor network coverage of a presidential nomination convention and of election night. Wertheimer is also the first person to broadcast live from inside the United States Senate chamber.

COMMONWEALTH CLUB HOST Edie G. Heilman is currently principal of Sequoia Leadership Consulting. She recently retired from her position as senior vice president for product strategy, development, and management for Charles Schwab Investment Management Services. Prior to joining Schwab in 1997, Edie was president of Share Commercial Services, a company formed from the customer relations department of Working Assets Funding Service. Edie is currently an active Board Member of The Commonwealth Club, Mercy Housing California and Westover School.

$3,495 per person, double occupancy, $3,925 per person, single occupancy, exclusive of air CST# 2096889-40 Photo Credits: (first page) Capitol dome by Bob Jagendorf / Flickr, Lincoln by Stuck in Customs / Flickr, Washington Monument by sang 1011 / Flickr, White House by Francisco Diaz / Flickr (above) Lincoln by Carol M. Highsmith, Monument by SirIanSirIanSirIan / Flickr, Bench by Christopher Chen / Flickr, Capitol by pjcarillet / iStockphoto.com

To request full travel itineraries, pricing, and terms and conditions,

The Commonwealth Club of California 595 Market Street, 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94105

PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID IN SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

call (415) 597-6720 or e-mail

Commonwealth Club Travel

travel@commonwealthclub.org

Informed Travel for the Discerning Mind

Purchase event tickets at commonwealthclub.org or call (415) 597-6705

Commonwealt Club Travel

or (800) 847-7730

Commonwealth Club Travel

Peru:

Informed Travel for the Discerning Mind

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Land of the Andes, Incas and Machu Picchu October 2-11, 2010

Explore the diversity of Peru’s culture, archeology and landscape during this journey to the incomparable “Lost City of the Incas.”

CST# 2096889-40 Machu Picchu © Danny Warren / iStockphoto.com, girl by ramonfrombcn / Flickr

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Admire cloud-covered Andean peaks during our scenic rail journey to the “Lost City of the Incas,” Machu Picchu, a breathtaking masterpiece of architecture and a testimony to the Inca civilization.

Commonwealt Club Travel

In Urubamba, the Sacred Valley, visit the temple-turned-fortress of Ollantaytambo. Discover Pisac citadel, with its magnificent stonework, and search for treasures in the town’s colorful textile market.

Explore Cusco, with its charming mix of Inca ruins and Spanish architecture. Wander amidst bustling plazas filled with craftspeople and musicians. Learn from guest speakers and take the opportunity to volunteer one day at an SOS Children’s Village.

In Lima, explore the Plaza de Armas (a UNESCO World Heritage site) and learn about Peruvian cuisine.

Optional extension to Puno, Lake Titicaca and Arequipa.

To make a reservation, or for a detailed itinerary, call (415) 597-6720 or e-mail travel@commonwealthclub.org $3,995 per person, based on double occupancy