|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Colin Powell
Former Secretary of State, United States of America
I was told the same thing in 1963 and '64, "We don't need a civil rights law. That's wrong. It's personal property. If they don't want to serve blacks in a restaurant or on a public highway, so what?" So what? Put some shoe polish on your face and see what you think about it! This is a wonderful country. It was unthinkable for me to be Chairman when I came in the army 40 years ago next month. It would have been unthinkable for me to have said, "You're going to be Chairman? Come on!" But it happened. And so, what will happen in one more generation? Maybe we'll get rid of all of these residual problems. But we're not going to get rid of them by just ignoring them or saying, "Gee, just do better," or "It's your fault." We have to do better and to some extent we have to make sure our children don't ignore what their forefathers did to get us to this point. Excellence in performance and high standards are important, but I think it's also appropriate to use tools such as affirmative action to make sure all doors are open.
View Interview with Colin Powell
View Biography of Colin Powell
View Profile of Colin Powell
View Photo Gallery of Colin Powell
|
|
|
Colin Powell
Former Secretary of State, United States of America
Colin Powell: It is a very powerful faith. It just comes from many, many years of watching this country deal with problems. Watching this country go through crisis after crisis. And always being amazed at the resilience that comes out of the heartland of the country, out of the people of the United States. I'm always of the view that no matter what crisis we are going through, whether it's a political crisis, or an economic crisis, in due course, either through an election, or through some other manifestation, the American people make their will known. That will is almost universally a will based on what's right, based on honesty, based on goodness. So, I am as corny as you can be on that subject. But it is the deepest element of my national faith.
View Interview with Colin Powell
View Biography of Colin Powell
View Profile of Colin Powell
View Photo Gallery of Colin Powell
|
|
|
Dan Rather
Broadcast Journalist
Dan Rather: The American Dream to me is freedom. It begins with freedom. It's the freedom to dream. The American Dream is the freedom to dream. The American Dream is being free to pursue the life you want to pursue. Not what somebody else may have in mind for you. Now once you go beyond the fundamental fact of the American Dream is freedom, it's the freedom to be, to dream, to pursue whatever you want to pursue. It takes different forms. It begins with sweet liberty, dreams of freedom, but it continues with such things as work and wealth, dream to pursue a career, to dream to be a journalist, be one. It's also to dream of fame and fortune if that's what you want to do, to dream of service, to be of service to other people. The point is that what makes America a new thing in history is the dedication to both the idea and the ideal that we can have a constitutional republic based on the principle of democracy. It's multi-religious, multi-ethnic, there's tremendous diversity, at the same time have enough unity to ensure that to the maximum degree humanly possible everyone has the freedom to pursue their own dreams. That's the American Dream.
View Interview with Dan Rather
View Biography of Dan Rather
View Profile of Dan Rather
View Photo Gallery of Dan Rather
|
|
|
Lloyd Richards
Tony Award-Winning Director
Lloyd Richards: Okay, you've got to go out and fight that battle again. Freedom of expression. Are we still fighting that battle? Yes. Will we go on fighting it? I assume so. Over the number of years that I have lived, those are the things that I have learned, that the most precious things are never totally won. It's like love. It's never totally won. It has to be worked at in order to be maintained. It's not easy. The whole thing of casting, and non-representational casting, I was doing that 40-some years ago. We were having those same discussions, and they will go on. You keep thinking, it's another generation, they've got to learn, too. They've got to discover, too. You don't realize the turnover in generation, the turnover in understanding. Anti-Semitism! Astonishing! I thought we dealt with that in the Second World War! I thought we understood something when we came out of that. But there, you see it cropping up again in the very major ways that it does. We have to do that one again? All right, we will do it again. I guess that's what life is all about. There are certain eternals, and you have to struggle to keep those eternals fresh, alive, and there for the next generation.
View Interview with Lloyd Richards
View Biography of Lloyd Richards
View Profile of Lloyd Richards
View Photo Gallery of Lloyd Richards
|
| |
|
