I am delighted to be here in Germany, and I'm going to tell you something.  (Looking to  her left ) Thank you – is that wine?  I'm going to tell you something which most of you  will think is nonsense, but which is very truthful.  I'm really incapable of lying – I'm a  Roman Catholic, and I tell the truth.  The last time I was in Germany I said this, and I say it again:  I am really struck by the graciousness of the German people.  It surprises me, because it seems to be so completely genuine. And right underneath it is a natural  intelligence which really sort of stuns me – because it seems to me the Germans speak  English and understand English better than most Americans.  (In response to applause)  I  mean it!  I mean it!  You're a very curious nation – very complicated and complex. Now  I know that there are many other countries represented here, but I'm addressing the Germans because this is my host country.  It is a complicated country – you are a complex people. But let it be said here and now, by this woman who is as American as apple pie, that I do not believe they come any more gracious or any more intelligent than the German people. 

Since I saw you last I have had an interesting odyssey.  I'm afraid the world would call it sad – much of it has been sad.  My father died.  And shortly after my father died, my  deeply loved and much missed mother died of Alzheimer's disease.  This has cost me a  great deal, but as my husband says, "Snap out of it, greet the day."  We all must go to  oblivion, and I think it is how we rise to the moment that marks the man.  So he's right.  Today is the day and this is the minute.  And I'm going to take it.  I've had a wonderful  year.  I had a series which was cancelled – about the Irish Westies.  I don't know if any of you are familiar with the West Side Irish in New York.  Very tough.  (In response to  someone off-stage)   The Black Donnellys.  Only outdone by the Italians.  Otherwise the  Irish are tough, as you know.  Beautiful. Exciting.  Attractive people.  Why are you  laughing!?  And I played the mother.  This was most devastating of all – only yesterday I  played the girl.  I said, "The mother, you are seeing me for the mother? But these children are twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty five…" He said, "Yah?"  I played Mrs. Donnelly.  It did all right.  It was a Paul Haggis, Bobby Moresco project.  But it failed because it lacked heart, I think, in the end.  And it lacked the thing that all Irish know makes the world go round, which is humor.  Even as an Irishman takes a bullet he can laugh.  It's a different kind of courage.  At any rate, it was aired and it was cancelled.  And then I did a play that made me happier than I have been in many, many, many months.  And it was called "Our Leading Lady", written by Charles Busch, who is a drag queen.  And when I say that, I mean… this man is a drag queen par excellence.  He inhabits a woman as you have never seen a woman played before.  Far more beautifully than any woman could play herself. He is so intrinsically a woman.  So this has been history. But in this case he wrote the story of a real woman, her name was Laura Keene, she was a great actress, she was on stage the night Abraham Lincoln was shot – and it shows what happened to her and to her life.  And I loved it – I did it for six months, and then we closed.  And that was just two weeks ago.  And now I'm here.  And I'm delighted to be here.  And I want to  talk to you about all kinds of things. But as usual I could yammer on in a sort of  redundant and merciless fashion. I'd rather hear what you guys are interested in.  So  who's got a question for me?  Does anybody have a question for me?  Where are you all  standing with your microphones?  You're not. (In response to the many camera flashes  from the audience)  This is the camera flashing nation of the world.  Who has a  microphone and who has a question?   (In response to someone in the audience) Yah, yah. There?  To my… this is my left.

From the Audience:  To your right.

Kate Mulgrew:  (Holding up her right hand) This is my right.  Just ask the question,  darling.

Q 1:  Good evening Miss Mulgrew.

Kate Mulgrew:  Good evening.

Q 1:  Thank you very much for your return to FedCon, and you've done a wonderful job  in the character of Kathryn Janeway…

Kate Mulgrew:  Stand up so I can see you.

Q 1:  I'm standing!

Kate Mulgrew:  Ohhh!  (waving) Hello!  There you are!  Oh yes, I like you! Yes, what's  your question?

Q 1:  I think you've brought a lot of commitment to your character and it shows… and …  a couple of years ago John de Lancie came to FedCon and he shared his memories of  working on Voyager and he's a close friend of you, I understand…

Kate Mulgrew:  Yah…

Q 1:  I'm interested – what are your memories of working with John de Lancie. 

Kate Mulgrew:  My memories of working with John de Lancie.  (smiles)  You know very  well what they are!  They are very dangerous memories. 

Q 1:  Really?

Kate Mulgrew:  I was either in the bathtub with him, or in the bed with him, or in some  kind of an absurd situation with him… He is a consummate actor.  But you know, when  you act with one of your great friends, something else takes over. So you spend the whole  time trying not to laugh.  Do you understand?  But I would say the best creative time  I ever really had with him was in "Death Wish", which I loved.  Does anybody remember  that episode? When truly his hand was forced – philosophically and reasonably. And you  saw the actor rise up, I think, to meet the role, in a way that he theretofore had not done.  And I was awfully proud of him, and I loved going head to head with him on that.  I just  love him anyway.  He's the only man in my life who I spend an hour with on the phone.  He's more interesting than a woman on the phone! He loves to cook; he loves to clean; he  loves to sail; he loves to dream; he loves to chat – well, he loves himself!  Anyway – next question!  And I love him.   Thank you. 

Q 1:  Thank you very much.

Kate Mulgrew:   Is there a question on the right side?  You, you.  Yes darling, I see you.  (In response to someone in the audience)  She has a political question.  Doesn't  somebody have a microphone, because otherwise it's going to dement everybody.  No?  Here darling, you take it from me. (Kate hands the questioner the microphone)

Q 2:  In 2001, you asked a young German  lady who came to Pasadena… why Germans didn't talk about their past, and whether  they had learned from it. I would like to return that question … do you think young  people are learning from what's going on now in the US government, and will they learn  enough to go out and vote and change what's happening?

Kate Mulgrew:  Did you hear this question?

From the Audience:  No.

Kate Mulgrew:  Okay, this is very, very difficult.  Does everybody want to get into it,  because I do.

From the Audience:  Yes.

Kate Mulgrew:  If you guys don't want to, and you want to talk about laughs and how  we're all going to make costumes and all the rest of that nonsense, we can. Otherwise,  this lady has asked an incredible question.  And I'm going to address it, okay?  She said  the last time I was at FedCon, and she is correct, I addressed the question of what  happened in the war, here in Germany.  And that I had tried over a number of days, to  penetrate what seemed to me a wall about what happened in the war – we all know what  we're talking about – Nazi Germany. I couldn't get any young person to commit to me  that his father, or his grandfather, or his great grandfather had been involved in the SS.  I  couldn't get anybody to engage in that conversation with me at all.  So – tit for tat – she  is asking me, in my own country, with my own young people representing what is the  worst administration in the history of the United States, whether or not I believe my  young people will ask the right questions.  If they don't – they are dead.  And yes, they  will.  They will stop volunteering for this army, which is patently absurd.  They will stop supporting this government, which is a government of lies. And in my country, if this is the home of the free and the brave, this bullshit will stop when this president is out.  And that's how I feel. And I think that it is only fair in all us … our nations – you've got a good woman now - Angela Merkel. She's good yah?  Most of you agree?  She's all  right.  She's not going to win … you know…Tony Blair's all right.  We must all  learn to speak the truth of our history, and of most importantly, of what is going on right now in this world. And it is unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. So you've heard it here from me and we can drop this, or we can pursue it.  However we won't have many  laughs.  So let's go on to the next question, shall we?

Q 3:  Good evening.

Kate Mulgrew:  Where are you?

Q 3:  Up here on the balcony.

Kate Mulgrew:  I'm very upset.  Yes darling, what?

Q 3:  I apologize in advance for my not at all political question.  When I sat in the  opening show, and before you came on stage, a friend of mine saw you in the press  conference and I asked her, "How is Kate Mulgrew?" And she said, "Oh, Kate Mulgrew,  she's great, she's exactly like Captain Janeway."  And I was just wondering – I mean you  played this character for seven years, which is quite a long time…

Kate Mulgrew:  (slowly) Seven and a half…

Q 3:  Sorry!  Very sorry! 

Kate Mulgrew:  Do go on!

Q 3:  How much of Janeway is in you, and how much of you is in Janeway?

Kate Mulgrew:  Are you that woman that I know?

Q 3:  I don't think so.

Kate Mulgrew:  No, I don't know you.  A lot of Janeway is in me.  Do you really think  that Paramount Studios – come on baby – let's play the game - it's called the numbers  game - is going to put billions of dollars on the table – if they don't think that I am  enough like their idea of this female captain to carry the numbers?  You know Star Trek  paved the roads of Paramount. It's all about money.  They looked long and hard.  They  made a mistake with Genevieve Bujold – they did not have her in, they did not meet with  her.  They just said she's a brilliant French Canadian actress, we're sure she can do the  job.  That is not the ticket with Kathryn Janeway.  They needed a captain who could  stand on her feet for seven and a half years with those ... men.  Who would try never to  complain.  Who would always be the first to work, and the last to leave. Who would  always be the best prepared and the most hopeful about the day's work. Who would  always be the most passionate and the most angry if things went wrong. Who had to raise  children who would be the most disappointed, who would be the most tired and the most  excited. In other words, they needed a soldier. They got a soldier – they got me. They got  the right captain.

Q 3:  Thanks. 

Kate Mulgrew:  I took it… I took it very seriously ladies and gentlemen – I'm sorry.  I  mean I guess it's all right for some of the others not to, but I had to take it deadly  seriously – I was a broad!  And I don't mean in Europe!  I was a woman.  This was a big  test.  They were all standing there waiting to fire me.  Are you crazy?  Waiting to see me  fail.  Of course no woman could do this, because no young man would want to watch a  woman do this. No young twenty-two year old boy is going to watch a thirty-five year  old woman comport herself on the bridge in the manner of a Patrick Stewart or a William  Shatner and get away with it.  I had to prove it to them, and it was hard.  It was very  bloody hard you know, because men are tough.  You guys are tough.  That's why you're  great soldiers.  What?  No.  I'm not tougher. I never met a woman as brave in battle as a  man. I'll tell you that's the truth. Men are very brave – in battle. But what I had to prove to men is that I could be as good a captain.  And that took about two seasons.  Because you all sat back in your chairs in front of your TVs with your beers and  whatever the hell else you had, not saying much, mumbling the occasional invective, and  it took about two years before the first guy turned to his son and said, 'Aw, she's all right.  She's all right.' I don't blame you.  I don't blame you.  It's been a man's world always.  And now it's time to compromise a little bit.  But we're doing a good job, I think, don't you? 

You  know, you know what I really think?  You know what I think really saved it for  me?  I'm not a feminist.  Oh – is everybody going to shoot me now?  I'm not a feminist,  and I don't buy it. I don't buy radical politics.  I love men too much. I've got too many  brothers!  And I've had two husbands.  I've got two sons.  I dig men!  And I know this about  them:  Whereas they're very simple, they're also very pure.  And they want to do the best all the time. We women are complicated and a little smarter. But doesn't that make it the perfect  dance?  I say it's the perfect dance – if everybody would stop trying to act like it's a big  war. Where's the war?  I'm delighted you're a man, honey!  And isn't it a good thing I'm  a woman? So let's make the best of it. We can do it.  And I think when they did Voyager  and they put me in the seat, that was the… history finally said, 'you know what? It's  time.'  So I… I have often said, not only do I feel privileged, but … what a moment of  elevation.  What a moment of unbelievable excitement when I walked – now I'm getting  teary eyed, but I'm going to show you – when I walked on that bridge, and I had to go  from everybody's station to station.  Tuvok.  Mr. Kim. Mr. Paris.  Chakotay.  To my  own… no, well not Chakotay yet, but then to the captain's seat, to sit and say, "Engage."  I could hardly get it out.  The power of it.  Because what it said was not 'engage', what it  said was, 'finally, we are one.'  That was something. That was great.  So I… I… I've had,  you know, a marvelous opportunity, that I don't think any other actress, at least in the history of television, has ever had.  Don't you agree?  And that's the other thing, I think,  that made Voyager successful.  I love to laugh. And I don't know anybody who laughs  better than men. At least the men that I like. Right?  So I got all my guys laughing.  Of  course they were all such incredible pigs!  They were impossible.  They were impossible  and you know all the naughty and terrible things they did to me.  And they did them to me for seven years.  And I accepted them, because I'll do anything for a good laugh.  No,  no… don't laugh… don't… don't… clap because I have to tell you what they did.  They did  the unspeakable, gentlemen.  On Friday night, three – four o'clock in the morning, when  there's no turn around on the Paramount lot – the union lets you go all night long –  twenty-four hours, 'cause Saturday's a day off – who do you think they put the camera on last?  Who do you think they thought, 'She'll come through. Put that camera on her,  she'll do it.  She'll do five pages of dialogue – oh Captain Janeway.'  But who was behind  the camera?  All those men.  And what were they doing?  Taking their pants off.  Did I  break it once?  Not once!  Was Garrett Wang just on this stage?  Am I ever going to get him back some day! 

Who's got a question?  Yes madam?

Q 4:  Over here.

Kate Mulgrew:  Yes?

Q 4:  Good evening Mrs. Mulgrew, I hope you're still doing fine after all these  autographs and so on.

Kate Mulgrew:  Where are you?

Q 4:  Up here.

Kate Mulgrew:  There you are.

Q 4:  Hello!

Kate Mulgrew:  Hello.

Q 4:  Well you're being on stage, one question comes up to my mind.  You have been  enormously successful with your last play, "Tea at Five", I just wonder if you might give  us a very small taste of it right here, right now. 

Kate Mulgrew: But that wasn't my last play.  That was not my last play. "Our Leading  Lady" was my last play, and before that was "The Royal Family". But "Tea at Five" for some reason has stuck in everybody's minds and imagination, because I was alone on the  stage.  It's the story of Katharine Hepburn.  Do you all know who she was? The great  movie star?  And it captured the imagination of the people because first of all she's dead -  but she was extraordinary.  So (in the young Hepburn's voice) I played her when she was  very, very young, and (in the older Hepburn's voice) I played her when she was very,  very old. And she was a very opinionated old woman, and she had a lot to say about a lot  of things! And she had a very short patience.  She'd come off the stage in the middle of a  play and she'd say, "Why the hell are my props not where you said they'd be? Oh, you're  too stupid to live."  She was great. I'll tell you a story.  Do you want to hear a story about  her?  This is not the play – but while I was doing the play in New York, a wonderful  actress came to see me, by the name of Dina Merrill, who was a fabulous American film star of the forties and fifties, and was a friend of Hepburn's. And she said, "Oh, Miss  Mulgrew, I have to tell you a story."  This was still when Hepburn was living.  She said,  "I was just out at Fenwick," which was Hepburn's house, "six months ago. And Hepburn  was living in her bedroom at that time, and she was on oxygen and in a wheel chair, and I…  I was taken up the stairs by the maid, Nora, and we knocked on the door (Kate knocks)  no answer (Kate knocks again), and I opened the door, and I peered in, and I saw a  woman's figure sitting in a wheel chair facing the ocean. But her back was to me.  And I  said, 'Kate, Kate'- nothing.  I crept closer – 'Excuse me, Kate, it's Dina – I've come to  visit you.'"  She said there was a very long pause, and very slowly the figure turned.  "Shhhh… (in Hepburn's voice) I am trying to solve a puzzle."  And went back to the ocean, and those were the last words she ever spoke.  That's my story. 

You want to know what the puzzle was? She was trying to solve the puzzle of her life.  And I think that's the whole thing.  She gave up her whole life to be a star.  That's a hell of a cost.  Who else has a question?

Q 5:  Right here.

Kate Mulgrew:  Yes?

Q 5:  To your right.

Kate Mulgrew:  To my right.

Q 5:  Yes.   Actually right now I cannot think of any really intelligent question 'cause  that's why I just want to say thank you for having entertained me for like seven and a half  years.  It was wonderful and it's great talking to you now, thanks and I wish you good  luck for the future.

Kate Mulgrew:  Thanks.  Danke.  How nice.  See what I mean?!  German manners -  they're impeccable.  Thank you.  Who else has a question?  Ask me anything!  I'll  answer you… oh, I like this lady.

Q 6:  Hi!

Kate Mulgrew:  Look at this lady.  Isn't she pretty with her scarf?

Q 6:  Thank you.  You're pretty too!

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.  Oh, do go on!  What's your question?

Q 6:  I wanted to know what plans you're having for the future – if you're taking part in a  play in Europe again – maybe London?

Kate Mulgrew:  I've had an offer to do a play in London in 2008, which I may or may not  do.  But I'm going to be very frank with you and say unless you're Meryl Streep – and  not even Meryl Streep – Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie – an actor's life is fifty percent doing, and fifty percent waiting to do.  Things just don't roll, you know.  Just because we have a great run on something doesn't mean it all comes. It means, in fact, that we have to try even harder.  I left Los Angeles after Star Trek and I went to New York to throw myself back into the theatre, and that's not been easy.  It's been extremely rewarding, but not easy.  So all I can say to you is that I'm learning a little bit how to let it unfold day by day.  This is the great gift of life. I mean, we're all going to die – there's absolutely no guarantee – and what the hell difference is a job going to make anyway.  But every now and  then you get one that…that alters some essence of your being. And you wait for that, with  the patience I hope, and the wisdom that is reflective of the rest of nature. So that was a  long winded way of saying I haven't a clue!

Q 6:  Thank you.

Kate Mulgrew:  But thank you for the question.  Who else?  Anybody else?  Yes madam?

Q 7: Hello.  To your left.

Kate Mulgrew:  No – to this lady here.  Yes. This lady. I know I'm going to fall right on  my…

Q 8:  Hi there… good evening. I was just wondering, what is your most precious memory  of seven and half years Voyager?

Kate Mulgrew:  She wants to know what my most precious memory of seven and half  years on Voyager was.  Hmmm… that's really impossible. Do you know I raised two  children during that period?  And I can't remember my … the most special memory of  that!  And yet you're asking me to remember one thing.  I would have to go to the very  end. Because it is what is clearest in my mind.  And I know you're all going to be aghast  and rather saddened by this, but don't be.  It's life, it's fine.  We shot everybody out at  the end of Star Trek: Voyager.  One by one they were released, and they held me for a  week for all kinds of pick-ups and pop-ups and green screens and blue screens and I was  held for the week while all the others were let go. And so we did this, and we did that,  and little by little as I traveled around my set, which was three sound stages, I could see  that my quarters were no longer there, or Mr. Paris' quarters were gone, or the mess hall  was coming up – that was fine.  I had the bridge, I had the turbo-lift, I had the Doctor, I  had the mess hall.  And the final day came for me to do about eight hours of quick shots  on the bridge. Red alert, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. With my crew – but I was the only actor left.  And, I swear to you, that between takes they took away Tuvok's console, Mr.  Kim's, they took away Chakotay's chair, and they took away, finally, Mr. Paris's chair.  And they had me just alone in a chair with a camera, because it was saving them money.  And when I stood up to do my last five shots on my feet – between those takes they  drilled the screws out of my chair.  I didn't say one word. It was a wonderful metaphor  for what the whole thing had been. Harder than hell, and tougher than nails. I wasn't  going to say one thing.  The chair came up, the camera came in, I did my last thing.  'Cut.  Print.  That's a wrap. Thank you very much Captain Janeway, Miss Mulgrew – let's hear  it.'  There were only four guys on the crew and here's what it sounded like: (Kate claps  slowly four times).  And I stood there… no, no… I'm not sorry, life goes on.  But I  turned, and I saw silhouetted in the door, a figure. And it was a figure that I loved – and it was the  figure of Bob Picardo.  And he was standing there all alone.  And he had come back to  the studio all by himself, knowing what this moment would mean.  And he came forward  as they took my chair off my bridge, put his arm around me and he said, "Captain  Janeway, may The Doctor buy you a wonderful bottle of champagne?" And I said yes.  And those are the memories that are worth remembering. It's always about people.  Bob  Picardo – the best person. The best.  I mean truly decent person.  John Ethan Phillips – I  don't think I heard that guy complain once in seven years. Robbie McNeill made me  laugh so hard I could hardly act!  Some of the others gave me a headache, but those guys  were great!  And for me it is about the friendships that are formed.  And I have about  three or four that I'll go to my grave with.  And that's something to be said, isn't it? As  well as my own pride in the work that we did. It was good work.  It was very good work.  Sometimes I catch it, and although I… I look at it like this you know… you don't want… I  don't want to see it.  I have to say what's she… she's speaking that… that techno-babble  rather well, that woman is!  And that's me!  And so I mean it was a great lesson, and I  think a …

There was a major break in the recording here. 

Q 9:  … question, what do you think about them?

Kate Mulgrew:  Well I don't because I'm not a scientist, that's what I get.

Q 9:  Some people think it's rather a man's job, being a captain.

Kate Mulgrew:  Here's what I get, that you might understand. Isn't it difficult being a  successful actress?  I get that a lot from men.  Isn't it difficult being financially  independent?  Isn't it difficult not needing a man in the typical way?  And my answer to  all of those questions is yes. Yeah it is. It's very difficult.  And I don't know when it's going to get any easier. My heart goes out to you, darling – you have a man's mind, don't  you?

Q 9:  I don't know.

Kate Mulgrew:  Well you're a physicist.

Q 9:  So why should I have a man's mind?

Kate Mulgrew:  Point five percent of physicists are women.

Q 9:  I know.

Kate Mulgrew:  I know the statistics. Most of them are men. You have a left part of your  brain, or whatever it is, it is excellent and I wish you Godspeed. But it's going to be  tough on any man who's going to love you, would be my guess.

Q 9:  No.

Kate Mulgrew:  I'm putting a total damper on this conversation, aren't I?

Q 9:  (laughs)

Kate Mulgrew:  No – you have a man who loves you, yah?  But he's not a scientist, is he?

Q 9:  Well he is.

Kate Mulgrew:  He is?  Oh mien Gott!  What kind of a scientist is he? 

Q 9:  Well… a very happy one!

Kate Mulgrew:  What is his field?

Q 9:  He's a theoretical physicist and I'm the experimentalist so we usually battle at home  who's doing the repairs!

Kate Mulgrew:  Oh, you didn't tell me that!! Theoretical and experimental – works every  time!  Perfect!  Thank you!  Thank you darling.

Q 9:  Well, I take that as a blessing!

Kate Mulgrew:  It's a blessing.  It's a blessing.  I love female scientists, you know.  They're… they're extraordinary. But in that field they are still absolutely – what's the  word you would use, madam? Not disdained, but ostracized – isolated.  We've not come  far from Marie Curie, believe me.  Men are very, very reluctant to let women into the  fold. 

Yes sir?  Madam.  Whoever's next.

Q 10:  Up here on the balcony, to your left.

Kate Mulgrew:  Yes, got you.

Q 10:  Hello.

Kate Mulgrew:  Hi.

Q 10:  First of all I want to thank you (for) sharing this very heart touching story about  your last day on the set – I actually cried myself with my tears – sorry.  I do receive every  newsletter from your page and I do follow your charity for Alzheimer Diseases and I've  never seen an actress or actor or famous person who is so passionate to help those people  and to promote to bring some people to spend money for the research and stuff like that.  So I want to thank you to stand up and say 'I am who I am and I do want and I want to show  to everyone'.

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.

Q 10:  You're welcome. 

Kate Mulgrew:  But… but I'm small potatoes darling.  I mean there are a lot of celebrities  who do a lot more than I do.  Have you been watching the G8 summit, any of you?  Bob  Geldof has been just extraordinary.  I mean you could do a lot if you want to do a lot.  We can…(applause)

Yes madam – up there on the balcony.  You look like you're about to break into song!

Q 11:  Hi.

Kate Mulgrew:  She looks like a little sparrow.  What?  What darling?

Q 11:  Yah.  First a general question because I heard so many different versions of your  name, and I wanted to know how it is pronounced properly.  Is the stress on the second  syllable, like MulGREW, or is it MULgrew?

Kate Mulgrew:  It's such a wonderful question!  Do you want to know why that's such a  wonderful question?  Nobody ever gets my name right!  Now I don't care, but when…  (in response to a signal of some sort) What does that mean?  It means it's over.  It means  five minutes?  Is this God's way of saying five minutes?! 

When I was a little girl it was Katie Mildew, Katie Mulgren, Katie McGrew, McGaw,  Madoo.  Mulgrew.  Kate Mulgrew. 

Q 11:  Mulgrew.

Kate Mulgrew:  And now it's very important because I've lost both of my parents.  When  you lose both of your parents, you want your name pronounced correctly.  Katharine Kiernan Maria Mulgrew.  That's my name.

Q 11:  Okay, great.  Thanks. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.  Yes? You. Anybody else?  Questions…

Q 11:  I just wanted …

Kate Mulgrew:  Oh yes, she's going on – Edith Piaf.  Yes?  What darling?

Q 11:  Just because of this Bush thing, yah? We… we were discussing the Iraq crisis…  we were discussing the Iraq crisis in an English lecture and we came to the end that  there's really no… no end.  You can't…how to end this thing. I mean if America drew  out of Iraq, how they go on and… if you would have… what's your opinion about this?

Kate Mulgrew:  How to end it?

Q 11:  Yah.  If there is a possible ending?

Kate Mulgrew:  I would tell you what I would do.  But of course now we're so in the soup,  because this fool got us into it, right?  Racing headlong in there to find Bin Laden, which  we've done so well.  We must pull out, and we must pull out quickly.  Now I know that this will  mean civil war in Iraq.  But it is better that they have civil war, than this thing limp on for another ten years and hundreds of thousands are killed indiscriminately.  We've already done enough.  It's too late. It's too late.  Congress must say no to the financing of this war. And our troops, or our soldiers as I prefer to call them, must learn to say, 'we no longer volunteer for what we know is heinous.'  It must end now.  That's how I feel.

Q 11:  Thank you.

Kate Mulgrew:  Do you all agree with me?  (much applause)  How many of you really  think it would be better if we took another two years easing our way out of that country?  So as to avoid what we know is an inevitable civil war. Does anybody think that there's a  solution to this problem?  Bush made damn sure there was no solution.  We're screwed,  baby.  So the best way to do it is to walk out.  Save as many lives as you can, right?  The  Sunnis.  The Shiites.  They're all going to do what they're going to do.  America must  pull out.  We're already disgraced.  And the best day will be when that idiot leaves office.  At any rate… I can't… you know I cannot go on like this because it is…it is… it is not a  good thing, but I… I just… I'm heartbroken by it.  I'm heartbroken by it. This is a great  country, The United States of America.  We were.  We were the land … We took in the  hungry and the poor, and the immigrants.  We were the great ally to every other nation.  We were responsible for most of the freedom of the world.  As a superpower we  promised not only liberty, but liberty of thought, but in the last four years we have let the world down.  And for that, as a single American, I apologize.  But I'm going to say to  you when Mr. Obama, or Mr. Edwards or even Mrs. Clinton steps up to the plate next, we  will once again take a deep breath and we will say this is our land – it is the land of the  free and the brave and we are proud.  And I thank you very much.

Thank you very, very much, Germany.  I'll see you tomorrow.  God bless.