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Paul Farmer
Founder, Partners in Health
FDR called it "freedom from want," as the fourth freedom, is freedom from want. I do believe, even someone of modest origins like me, still had freedom from want. I never experienced want. You asked me earlier about my childhood, living in a bus. But that's not the same thing as living in a bus and having to run from violence, or not having enough to eat. It's a very different kind of thing. So those are my sort of twin definitions of being an American, is a certain amount of protection from vulnerability around want. And then the civil and political liberties that we have. It's terrific to be able to write what you want, and say you want and, and I've done that my whole life.
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Paul Farmer
Founder, Partners in Health
I would say that it's hard to have an American Dream if you can't get an education and you can't feed your family. Again, I learned this as an adult, not as a child, because I was shielded from those problems as a child. I didn't know that across the world, hundreds of millions of people would never enjoy education or basic health services. I didn't know that. A big part of the American Dream for me is, again, yes, the ability to speak one's mind, and the civil and political liberties that we enjoy there. But also, making sure that there's some sort of safety net, so that people just don't hit the ground and end up in the ground. That's a big part of the American Dream in my view, is not having to worry if you're going to not have another meal to eat, or not worrying that if you lose your job, then your whole family, you know, collapses into the poor house.
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Paul Farmer
Founder, Partners in Health
I think that's what's going on in the United States now, is people are saying, "Well, if unemployment hits ten percent, what do we do?" Well, in the Depression it was 25 percent, maybe more. And a lot of effort had to go into addressing the needs of the most vulnerable Americans then. That's a big part of the American Dream. I think it's worth restoring, and sort of rehabilitating, and talking more about that, about what was done after the Depression, during the Depression. What was done to say, "Hey people need not to be ill-clad, ill-housed and ill-fed." The Second Bill of Rights, Roosevelt's last inaugural -- if I'm not mistaken, in 1944 -- and he laid this all out very clearly. What did that mean, "freedom from want?" And he talked about, people ought to be able to get good jobs and good education and be safe, and I think that is a huge part of the American Dream. And people sometimes forget, we all forget. I get vivid reminders, because I go to places where there is danger and a great deal of want, and no sound safety net. So I get these reminders of what privilege we have. That's really something that's worth hanging onto.
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Sally Field
Two Oscars for Best Actress
I'm frightened for the American Dream. I'm so terribly frightened for America. The American Dream really was to have possibilities, to be safe and have possibilities. It is what -- my children say this to me sometimes, that I shouldn't have said, and I can't help it -- I will still say it, but you can be whatever you want to be. If you want it, work on it, devote your life to it. And anything's possible. And my children say, "Well, we're the generation that you've said that to, and that was bad because we expect that anything's possible." Well, God damn it! And I would be censored if that were Fox. I do think that anything is possible. It doesn't mean you won't be drug behind the wagon for some length of time. That's what America once was. I am very worried about our country though. We need some leadership. We need some bold, brave leadership. We need Abraham Lincoln.
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Judah Folkman
Cancer Research
There's a freedom to pursue ideas and jobs and kinds of work that fit you, that you like to do, freedom to express yourself, to write. It's not freedom from responsibility, but most places in the world you're told what you can't do, by the government, by the police, I mean, very few places like this country. And even in places like in Europe, great countries in Europe, after five o'clock, it's not so good to be working past five. It's frowned on. You are told, "That's not the way we do it here." There's a style. So there's enormous freedom here to do -- that just doesn't exist in other parts of the world. And I think that's what's so great about this country.
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Judah Folkman
Cancer Research
A few minutes ago I was taking a cab to the airport, and there was a Russian cabdriver who had been here only two and a half years, so he's just barely speaking English, but he had four cell phones going, all pasted on his dashboard, and they were ringing, and he was answering them. He was dispatching, and he was driving, and I said, "What are you doing here?" He said, "Well, I own a cab company. I have four other Russians working for me, and we do not make enough money. We make money, but we don't make enough money to rent a place to have a dispatcher." So he's the dispatcher. So he was saying -- I can't remember his words -- saying, "What a country!" Because he could never have done this where he was. And he was about 30, and he was working 18 hours a day. It's amazing.
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