years. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. during the past two years, i have found that campaigning can be a lonely business.

[ applause ] i announced i would seek the presidency, some only a few. but in the past two years, i have touched many different americans. i have traveled countless thousands of miles to look them in the eye, to know their voices, to learn what no man can ever understand from behind his desk in washington. >> we only have 5.5% laid off in this country -- >> it's way higher -- >> how many and how little time. >> eggs are 35 cents a dozen. >> if you don't like the way you work, you can quit or we'll move our plant. >> the taxes i pay come back to me. i want to see schools and roads. i want to see social security

increases. >> the country was disturbed and people spoke to me openly. not just of their frustrations with government, but of their hopes. >> we're all americans, we're not afro americans, if you're an american, you're an american. >> americans like david hunter, a young vietnam veteran from long beach, california. >> we're systems people. >> and murray lavine, an engineer from lexington, massachusetts. and out in sun prairie, wisconsin, a family farmer named john crebs. >> we do need a doctor in our building. >> and a cleveland clinic, a war widow, s widow. >> on a baltimore street corner,

art price, who like the others, spoke to me not only of his concern for this country, but of his belief in its future. >> that's my freedom out there. that's what that flag stands for. that's a union of 50 individual countries drawn together into one united states. that's what that means to me. >> americans do believe in their country and their flag. but among some today, it has become popular to deride the symbols of patriotism, to find fault with the many individual ways people celebrate their america. but perhaps those who ridicule these beliefs have not come from where these have come.

those who think patriotism is overdone and out of style might ask, how did it used to be? >> the united states itself has gone to war to keep our country free. they've kept us free. to do what i want. that's what it's given me. ♪ >> i give it to my children. i'm giving my country a fair share and i expect to get my fair share back from the country. >> the truth is that men like art price have given more than their fair share. in the last four years, they have borne the real costs of our economic unfairness. 2 million more are jobless today than in 1969. 17,000 were dropped from art's

plan alone and he wonders if he is next or whether it makes any difference. >> it seems like every time industry gets a pay increase, clothing, automobiles, you name it, it goes up in price. i would like to buy a new refrigerator and can't afford it right now. the one that i want a year ago is $100 cheaper than this year. it's gone up. it seems like people today are just working to pay for their food and taxes and that's it. not much of anything else to do. >> art price grew up in a neighborhood built by those who came over in search of a better life and an opportunity for their children that they had never had for themselves. success meant, good education, hard work, a decent home. that pride is still reflected in

their neighborhood. art's wife was born in this house and she tends it daily, like her mother and grandmother before. like most americans, art and jean live for their children, their two daughters katie and marcy. >> you want to see if daddy wants to get up and eat lunch. >> artworks hard at his job. sometimes putting in two or three extra shifts a week in order to make ends meet. but he thinks it's worth it if his children can get a good education and a chance in life that he never had. like his father before him, he prides himself on being a good father and a good provider. he feels working hard and paying taxes is his duty. but he wonders if his government

shares the same obligation. >> were you a good girl today? >> yeah. >> did you play out in the yard? >> yeah. >> i don't think the people of america are getting back with their -- what they're paying for taxes. tax money is being wasted every day. spend it on education and the things that people do need. too many loopholes in the tax forms for the millionaires. the poor man is paying for the nation. a lot of people want to be millionaires and i think they want to be millionaires because they don't have to pay taxes. >> do you have reading every day? >> sometimes the unfairness affects his family in a way that hurts the most. because it touches his children's future. >> the grade school is overcrowded. it's very old and they probably think, well, let's wait and see. it's been a lot of wait and see with the schools in this area. >> the price family's problem is

faced by 80% of the families in america, the schools aren't better today than four years ago and though it gets most of their taxes, washington only pays for 7% of their children's education. they already pay twice the local taxes of the suburbs and still their schools need money. >> i come from a family of five children and i got left out of a lot of things because my family couldn't afford it. so i do it myself. i'm working around the house, but sundays, i devote to my family, because i want them to have what i didn't have coming up through the world. >> today my husband makes double what my father made and i just can't make it. it's nothing left at the end of the week. it comes down to the nickel.

this august they get a raise and i'm looking at the paycheck and i said, did you get a raise? and he said, yeah, i think got a raise. i guess they did get a raise. but the paycheck didn't show it. and this is because the taxes must just eat it up. >> we could use some chicken. >> this is 28. >> we'll look at those. >> we have been deceived, all of us, like this family. the truth is, that in the last four years food prices have risen twice as fast as wages. >> it was going to get better, it would get better when the president has the wage freeze and price freeze and whatever it was that didn't work. because nothing that i can think of has been controlled. i've been to five stores in one week for specials. and when i come back from food shopping, we never plan anything

for that night because i'm adjusted. you pay and you pay and you don't get any place. >> they should struggle just to see things get worse isn't only unfair, it's the surest sign that somebody, somewhere has forgotten the real needs of our people. >> the wage control program under nixon is a very lopsided operation which they've been fairly effective in holding down the income of working people and freezing the wages. but the price control part of it has been a disastrous failure and you're reminded about that every time you go to a supermarket. >> if what has happened to the price family is unfair, what's happened to people like sadie is a tragedy. >> i get $73.30 from the veterans. then i get $89 from social

security. you want to know the truth, i can't afford to buy groceries and i can't afford to get sick. and believe me, i can't afford to die. >> there are 25 million americans over 65. they are mothers and wives, they are people who once belonged to somebody. and now they belong to nobody. not even the nation their husbands and sons died for. >> have a seat until the doctor calls you. >> no country in the world treats its old as cruelly as america. and there's never been a crueller policy towards old people than in the last four years. they are the victims of a policy of official neglect. >> you start at 8:00 in the morning and you don't come home until 5:00 at night. they take you there, you're

ready to blow your top. you get so nervous and so sick and hungry, oh, my god. when you get through there, you know what's wrong with you, but then the going back and waiting and going back and waiting for this. you can't do this when you're old. >> hello. can i help you? >> yes, i want my refill. >> okay. it will be just a minute. >> all right. thank you. >> old people are not inclined to complain. sadie has worked hard all of her life and she isn't giving up now, but her struggle has been especially difficult these last four years. even with the social security increases, older americans are fighting a losing battle to survive. they spend $300 a year for

medical care not covered by insurance. old people are dying of malnutrition, they're dying for lack of proper medical care. they have been cast aside by a government that has chosen to protect profits instead of people. >> in case you get up at a reasonable time -- >> my heart is aching for america because i can see us backsliding. we have been abandoned as americans. we really have. but we still love our america. we're real americans. you better believe it. >> someday, somebody is going to right the history of these times and i think it's going to be a pretty sad chapter when they write the story on the way we've treated our older people. and there isn't thing we ought to want anymore than those later

years can be years of confidence and security and decency and i'm going to do everything i can to see that older people are treated decently. >> you will. >> out on the midwestern plains in sun prairie, wisconsin, i found another proud chapter in our history being threatened by this administration's neglect here on the family farm of john. >> my dad started that farm in 1932. he cleared the farm of brush and trees and we grew up there and worked together and that was the way of life. >> the younger generation ain't going to follow the footsteps of their parents. after my generation gets out of here, i don't know who is going to take their place. >> it will be more than just one family's misfortune if john can't pass that way of life along. we will all be losing something precious in america. in the last four years, over 1

million americans like john have been forced off their land forever. >> my taxes here in the last four years doubled. there's no way i should pay on the land that i own here $8,000 every year and no guarantee in my price and the taxes are guaranteed every year. every year, they go up. that's the only sure thing we got. >> in the last four years, small formers have been forced to pay up to 40% more for labor and equipment. you and i and john have been left by this administration to pick up an ever-increasing tab for everything we need to fashion a decent life. >> just figure out what this is going to cost me with my trade-in. >> if you went with this, it

would make a suggested list of 3,579 dollars is the suggested list price. >> this is chemicals and fertilizer. you got the weather to fight, the disease of the crop to fight. the only thing that is keeping us going, working longer hours and putting more out. >> his real enemy is not as uncertain as disease and drought, it's the relentness power of bigness. giant corporations have been allowed to drive the small farmer to the wall. john and his fore bearers have fought against it for generations. >> i have 90,000 in machinery alone. this tractor and plow cost me 22,000. go back 20 years ago, you could

buy a tractor then probably for 800, $900. >> but the profit from his father's labor has not gone up in jeffrey's lifetime and he knows it. producing more food has meant less money in the years since johnny was born. like john, i grew up close to the land and i know what we stand to lose if we don't do something about their future and their stake in the promise of this country. >> we set a goal and that makes you feel good, that you can reach these goals in your life once in a while. there's very few kids staying on the farm. i don't know who is going to farm. but i don't think i would want him to take it under the conditions that we're farming under now. i think there's better opportunities in town. i'll give him an education and he can work his 40 hours a week like the rest of the people and forget about it.

>> if you dump everybody into the cities, the cities are already overcrowded, they're overburdened, you got too many people piled up in too small a space. so the farm problem is really everybody's problem. >> i don't want to stay on that farm out there. my dad broke it with horses and i'm not going to give it up that easy. >> i'm going to help you stay there. >> yes, i'm calling in reference to the ad in the boston globe. >> murray came off the streets of new york, worked his way through school on the gi bill and has lost his job in the administration's aerospace shuffle. >> about 15 years -- >> i was a substantial paid engineer, manager. i enjoyed a nice reputation and finally it happened, the day came and i left. naturally i contacted a lot of

companies in the engineering field. they were all being haunted by the same problems of layoffs and no work. so i have 50 letters, great qualifications, you're mr. wonderful, but we have no use for you at this time. >> like nearly 2 million others, murray got caught in the whipsaw of our war-based economy. while this administration fails to turn war plans to industries of peace when it will make no plans to convert his talent from missiles to mass transit. when it exports jobs to japan and germany and imports goods that he could design better, murray is left to his own devices. >> i would love to do something for you quickly because i understand the problem -- >> it's a problem. >> things are slow. i know your capabilities. you're the kind of guy my company needs and wishes to continue to grow with. >> what does its look like downstream?

do things look like they're going to be picking up shortly? >> we sit back here and wait. >> the worst i ever felt was my lack of fulfilling my role as a provider, as a husband and a father. i would hear little bits of conversation, don't ask daddy for that. i'm 185 pounds. when i see that kid look at me that way, i feel like i'm 2 foot nothing and weigh zilch. how the hell do you fight the fact that the kids look at you with sympathy in their eyes. i'm going to put my suit and tie on every morning and go out and do something. i looked at all of the franchises, i went to movie theaters to dairy barns to you name it. >> i don't want to encourage smoking. i'll have to check this out with my boss -- >> is your boss in now? >> not at the moment. >> there's no way of telling how

many murrays with advanced degrees are wasting their hard-earned talents in america today. there's no way of gauging the loss that this administration has inflicted on our troubled today by the deliberate squandering of trained minds. and murray alone can know what it's like to have to look to his wife for the support of their family. >> started working on a part-time basis when i was still employed. well, when i was working and my wife left in the morning, that was great. i felt she was doing something that was creative with her time. to see her leave now in the morning is -- i just get a knot in my stomach and i get so damn angry. >> okay, honey, have a good day. >> there's so much to do. the hours and days and years that are being lost in cleaning up the environment, the health

problems, the medical problems. just so many great things we can work on and we're not. and that's what hurts. that's what's frustrating. >> this country can have full employment, utilizing people's skills up to the fullest of their ability and we can do it in peacetime. i don't think we have to have a war going in order to provide employment to the people of this country. >> out in milwaukee i met two young men who rekindled my since of hope about this country and of what can be done to restore the spirit of caring about each other again. david hunter and his friend tom pool. >> he was in the army too. >> why? >> because he went to the government. >> were you there too? >> yeah, he was right by where i was. >> where were you? >> i was there.

>> i was going to be in vietnam for two years to see if i could do it. i'm really bitter because of what i've seen. i wrote a letter home for a kid who lost his arm, i watched three people die. it's not a beautiful thing. but the people of the united states don't appreciate what life and death does to people. i can't imagine. why did they let 50,000 guys die

first? god knows how many came back like tom, me, no legs, no arms, no eyes. why did they let all of this happen? >> let's get down there. >> the tragedy of this war will not end with the signing of any treaty. it will not end with the return of the last prisoner. >> i don't suffer with those who were wrong ten years ago, nor do i suffer with those in power who have been wronged for the last four years. those profits who have made a

political gain out of human suffering have been much in the news. but these are the anonymous forgotten victims of that game tucked away to languish in nameless hospitals. >> when i came through after 13 days of unconsciousness, the first thing i remember the doctors saying is, you'll never walk again the rest of your life. and now my big deal is educate myself so i can educate other guys like me so that they won't want to die. they want to live. i wanted to die once too and i tried it. now i want to live every second of every minute of every hour of every day. i'm going for a doctorate in medicine. i want to go up to a guy who is

laying in bed who broke his back, and i want to be able to say, i've been through it. >> in the last four years, over 100,000 of them have been left to find their own way back from the devastation brought by drugs and shrapnel. that is the great tragedy of a government who will offer them no real help to come all the way home. >> if you don't want to walk, they're not going to give you braces. if you don't show up down here when you're supposed to show up down here to walk, why is the government going to waste the money? do you know how many braces right now are just rotting, how many are hanging up back there? do you want to walk? >> i want to walk. >> a person can want it and want it and wish for it, but you got to work for it.

wishing doesn't get you anywhere. wish you could just get out of the braces, period. i wish i could get out of them. but that doesn't help me walk at all. you got to want to walk. >> they wanted us to play war. we're broken soldiers. don't throw us away. >> i love the united states but i love it enough so i want to see some changes made. the american people want to believe in their government and country and i would like to be one of those that provides the kind of leadership that would help restore that kind of faith. i don't see i can do it alone. of course, i can't. but the president help set a new tone in this country. he can help raise the vision, the faith and the hope of the american people and that's what i would like to try to do. >> i would like to get a president that we can believe in. >> i hope i'll be that kind of

of a president. weeknights this month on american history tv, we're featuring "the contenders," our series that looks at 14 presidential candidates who lost the election but had a lasting effect on u.s. politics. tonight we feature former texas businessman ross perot who was an independent candidate in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. that starts at 8:00 p.m. eastern. enjoy american history tv this week and every weekend on c-span3. you're watching american history tv. every weekend on c-span3, explore our nation's past. c-span3, created by america's cable television companies as a public service and brought to you today by your television provider.