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J. Carter Brown
Director Emeritus
National Gallery of Art
J. Carter Brown: I have a very biased view of the relative importance of culture and things like just making money. I was very disappointed when I had dinner with an undergraduate at Harvard a couple weeks ago who said that over 50 percent of his class, he thinks, are just absolutely tunnel-visioned about how they can max out their income. And, I just feel that is a kind of corrosive aspect of American society that is doing us in. It's the result of the consumerism that is driven by this massive assault of advertising, by the "gold rush" mentality of the dot-com era, get-rich-quick stock options and so forth, which I think it's fortunate for this country that some of the bloom has gone off that peach. But, it distorts the values. It makes people aggressive and competitive, and they have no time for their families, for really mining the riches that are out there that could enrich their lives. And so, I hope that our education system can begin to deflect more attention to exposing the young to the arts, and to culture, and to their heritage, so that then we develop a demand side to culture that will make the whole thing happen. They will become the electorate, they will become the patrons by virtue of being the consumers of art. If some of them also are producers, that's great, but that's a very small minority. And if we can get the value system of the society turned toward that direction, we will have a much happier nation.
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Willie Brown
Former Mayor of San Francisco
I think that moving into adulthood at 11 or 12 years of age, self-sufficiency, independence, decision making in a responsible fashion, never allowed to be a flake, or never tolerated to be a flake, all constitute qualities that have been of immeasurable value in every aspect of my life. Just the discipline of being able to set your time when you went to school, when you did your homework, when you did the work you had to do, your household chores. And you always had those, every kid in my household was assigned those, and every kid that I knew in the community. Plus the fact that you had to help produce that which sustained the family, and you could not be selfish.
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Willie Brown
Former Mayor of San Francisco
Listening is an art that most people do not possess. Most of us talk. And when we finish talking, we start thinking what we're going to say next. In interviews, I hate to be interviewed where the person interviewing me never listens to what I'm saying. They simply have a fixed agenda, and they're going to get through that agenda no matter what. Now, the agenda may not be relevant to anything that I've said in each subsequent question, but nevertheless, they stay with the agenda, so they're not listening. It takes greater skills to listen than it does to speak.
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George H.W. Bush
41st President of the United States
I'm disturbed by the attack on political figures. The assumption that everyone is guilty until proven innocent, is just 180 degrees different than the justice systems ought to be. And I don't know what it takes to change that. I think the attacks that hurt me the most were not those that differed with me on abortion, or guns, or prayer in school, or on balanced budgets, or on taxes. The ones that hurt the most were those that challenged my character. Didn't trust my word. And I think there's an adversarial feeling in the press that "All politicians are going to lie to me, and therefore it's my obligation to get to the truth." It's a very unhealthy view. And some political people do lie all the time, and step over their friend to achieve the objective themselves. But I'm one who believes that one's word of honor is about one of the most fundamentally important things there is.
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George H.W. Bush
41st President of the United States
Would an American President, would I, who fought for my country and did my level best, leave an American incarcerated, knowing that we could do something about it? And the answer was, no. It's the attack on character, it's the attack on your very fiber, your being, that hurts. And who's guilty? Well, I think to some degree the press is much more unaccountable and ferociously adversarial. And I think there's some that have accepted the view that, well, this might well be true, the man doesn't have the character. And I did. I made mistakes, screwed things up real bad on a lot of things. Couldn't get things done the way I wanted, but it wasn't because I was a couple of quarts low on character.
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