Bill Moyers Speaks at 92nd Street "Y"

Bill Moyers spoke May 19 at the 92nd Street "Y." Amy Goodman interviewed him. He was wonderful, but very pessimistic about the prospects for our country if we don't somehow reverse the Citizens United decision—by a Constitutional amendment. He said if we don't get rid of it, we'll simply have a country devoted to the prosperity of the super-rich, which is what we mostly have now. He also recommended that PBS pick up Amy Goodman's program, Democracy Now. General applause. Otherwise, he reminisced about the Johnson administration, and how it left it over the Vietnam War; how much admiration he had for John Gardner, whom LBJ made secretary of HEW (he also founded Common Cause)—Gardner was a Republican, back in the time when there were principled Republicans. And he spoke of his own son, whom he and his wife rescued from serious drug addiction, and who recovered to become a major force in the drug recovery movement, and author of the book Broken (his name is William Moyers), which Moyers recommended above his own book, a compendium of his interviews. I bought it, and when he signed it he told me that the administrator there had told him I was coming and had even shown him some of my work! He said he liked the photo of the Dalai Lama. Of course, I was touched. I managed to take some photos of him, one of which I will add to my collection of "Apostles of Justice." His interview book covers some of the same territory—focusing on the interviews of course, rather than the photographs. I told him about it and show him some samples, and he very kindly signed my copy of his book "Kindred Spirit."