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Nora Ephron
Humorist, Novelist, Screenwriter and Director
Nora Ephron: I've always had a very clear sense -- since I was a kid, reading books about people who didn't live in the United States -- about how lucky I was to live here. There's no place like it. I remember, after 9/11, there was a lot of foolish talk about, "Where we would go if we had to leave this place?" which I just thought was so idiotic. I couldn't believe it, because where could you go? Where could you possibly go? Nowhere. There is no place like this, no place that offers what this country does.
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Nora Ephron
Humorist, Novelist, Screenwriter and Director
My husband, Nick Pileggi, is first generation, first generation B.A., and he became a writer. He and I are one generation different, not in our ages, but in our parents' experience. That wouldn't have happened to him in another place, and it almost didn't happen here, by the way, because he was in junior high school and was assigned -- got his schedule in junior high school -- and he was in all vocational classes. And he went to the guidance person and said, "Why am I not in English classes? Why don't I have any classes like my friends have?" and they said, "Oh, you're Italian American. You're not going to need this kind of thing. You're not going to go to college." That was New York City! But he fooled them and switched out of it, but the point is you still hear stories like that, stories from people like Mario Cuomo, or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who couldn't get a job after she graduated from law school. There's still a lot of that stuff, and yet, compared to anyplace else, this is by far the best place you could be.
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Julius Erving
The Great and Wondrous Dr. J
Julius Erving: Take the time to assess your talent yourself, and then be willing to listen to others who can tell you what you have, and what you don't have. Just deal with the reality of the situation, the statistics. If there are 350 basketball players, and 350 million in America, then you're one in a million if you're going to make it into the pro ranks. Now with the game becoming a world game as it is, there will be more professional teams, which will create more jobs. But proportionately speaking, if you start dealing with the world, with 3 billion people or more, the percentages becomes even less that you'll make it. That's just getting in the door, not that you will become a superstar, then it shrinks again.
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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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