[Editor’s note: Another member of the JK blogging community, mbk, has a report with pictures of last Monday evening’s launch of JK and THK’s new book, “This Moment on Earth”. No pictures were allowed during Charlie Rose’s interview with JK and THK but mbk did get some nice shots from the book-signing that occurred afterward. Enjoy!]

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March 12, 2007

This Moment in Manhattan by mbk

On a balmy March evening, five stalwart Kerry supporters from three different states converged on the lively 92nd St Y on the Upper East Side to see Charlie Rose interview John and Teresa Kerry on the occasion of their new book, This Moment on Earth.

At the last minute (and thanks to Violet for arranging this), the publisher included us in a pre-lecture reception at the Y, offering us a brief glimpse of a selection of guests from the worlds of publishing and local New York journalism, as well as the Kerrys themselves, at close hand. We also are pretty sure that we saw Chris Heinz there, as well.

Then to our seats for the main event. The auditorium was nearly full, including Kerry supporters, environmentalists, and New Yorkers of all stripes. Watching live from other locations were synagogue congregations in Palm Springs, California, and Naples, Florida, and members of a community center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Please note: As Karynnnj has already provided a lovely overview of the interview, I will now offer the nitty-gritty detail. Since I did not (and, in fact, was not allowed) to tape the proceedings, the quotes below are not necessarily exact; they represent instead my very best attempt to record the Kerrys’ remarks as accurately as I could with pen and paper. The words outside the quotation marks represent my paraphrasing and extrapolation from those remarks. I’ve highlighted my favorite JK and THK quotes in bold, and I’ve placed my own reactions to their words in italics. <!-more-> THE ENVIRONMENT JK : “Feedback is nature’s way of telling us what’s happening”, and the data from that feedback, on temperature and carbon dioxide levels of the oceans and the atmosphere, tell us that something is seriously, urgently, wrong. “We have only one choice”, said Sen. Kerry, and that is to reduce greenhouse gases. We have to become carbon neutral, and to do so quickly, as we now have only a small temperature cushion and a tiny window of time to change our ways. It is “staggering to me”, said Sen. Kerry, that our president has done so little.

And it’s not just George Bush’s fault; “Congress still doesn’t’ have the will” to push through the major, urgent change that is needed. All of us, said Kerry, need to energize the grass roots, and to make this a voting issue in 2008. But it’s not enough, he said, for a candidate merely to be against global warming, and to mouth all the words. The candidates need to have an actual track record, and we need to ask them, “What are you actually going to do about it?”

Charlie Rose asked, “If there is not political will, there must be opposition. What is the nature of that political opposition?” Teresa took the ball this time around, saying that the problem is not only opposition, but lack of awareness. “When people see bad news”, she said, “ they have two reactions: either to (a) do something or (b) to hide.  Oh, yes. In my opinion, our country has been in hiding since 1980, and it hasn’t worked. It’s high time we try approach (a).

Teresa also fingered as members of the opposition the “people who don’t like science. . you know who they are”. Big smile from Teresa’s spouse at that point, and laughter throughout the hall.

The ball next passed to the smiling spouse. In response to a question about China’s environmental problems, Sen. Kerry stressed the importance of getting China and India “on board now, not 2 or 3 years from now.” Alluding to the erosion of our moral authority , Sen. Kerry continued, “We need to challenge them, but we also have to challenge ourselves. It is hard to take them on when we don’t have clean hands.”

Sen. Kerry then went on to detail possible routes to carbon neutrality: a cap on use of carbon, the (disgracefully delayed) development of alternate renewable energy sources, such as geothermal and solar. In response to specific questions, Sen. Kerry acknowledged that nuclear energy would also be part of a “mosaic” of strategies, but also stressed that nuclear energy is not “the vision of the future.”

“What about biofuels”, Charlie Rose asked. “Is ethanol next?” THK this time: “No. Ethanol is great, but it’s not a great answer”. Teresa noted that use of ethanol would necessitate rain forest deforestation in Brazil, and come at the expense of food crops in China.

(Bravo to John and Teresa Kerry: always connecting the dots. A good model for the rest of us. Time to wake up and start thinking, everyone).

FOREIGN POLICY The conversation next shifted to the Middle East and foreign policy. Sen. Kerry noted that many leaders – King Abdullah, Mubarak, Kofi Annan – “are all looking for a larger diplomacy than we have offered.” Answering Charlie Rose’s question about the effect of the “surge” on the area, JK answered, “ Anyone who believes that patrols will solve the problem has not learned the lessons of Vietnam or Bosnia.”

“After 22 years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as the son of a Foreign Service officer, I care passionately about how our country is viewed:  it’s a tragedy what’s happened” to our reputation in the world. Citing the disastrous effects of our “message of indifference and arrogance”, Sen. Kerry then went on to recount the determination of central American Indians to keep Bush out of their sacred places; the growing crises in Lebanon, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, concluding, “This is not a foreign policy that’s working.” Later, JK noted parenthetically that many of the new (and disgracefully tardy) diplomatic approaches of the Bush administration in Iran and North Korea were exactly the strategies proposed by Kerry in the 2004 presidential race.

POLITICS (reluctantly) Next, THK’s turn, replying to Rose’s question about the Democratic primaries and the 2008 election. “I don’t think that people have [any more] patience with the status quo. Candidates should be clear and honest; if they don’t know something, they should say, ‘I don’t know’”.

After Rose pressed Sen. Kerry repeatedly on the 2004 presidential race, he reluctantly replied, “We were in the shadow of 9/11”, which proved to have a major effect on the collective American psyche, capsulized by the electorate’s apparent response to the Osama bin Laden tape related the Friday before the election. “We were winning on Thursday”, he said, and then the tape appeared on Friday. .

In response to Charlie Rose’s question about whether John Kerry’s race would become a “case study” for American presidential campaigns, Teresa Kerry replied, “If all John Kerry is is a case study, I am sorry for America.” God bless this woman.

Pressed further by Rose to state what she wants the world and the US to know about John Kerry, Teresa replied, “The world already knows. As for the US, that the campaign wasn’t perfect, but that he poured his guts out, that he was hard-working, and joyful.” She also noted that no sitting wartime president that ran for reelection has ever lost an election in the entire history of the United States, and ended with, “The loss isn’t so much ours. . there are worse personal losses. But the loss was bad for the country, and for the world.”

Rose to Sen. Kerry:  “What’s your biggest fear of the future – nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists?”

JK: Yes, that’s an issue, but it’s part of a larger one: “that we’re not summoning the political leadership and will to do the things that are in our grasp.” Teresa then chimed in – ”because of arrogance, ignorance, or indifference – none of which can be forgiven at a time like this.” Oh, you bet. The Kerrys, right on every issue.

After discussing the creative and innovative philanthropic projects of the Heinz Foundation, many of which focus on environmental and women’s issues, Rose turned once again to politics, especially to issues affecting the middle class. JK discussed the folly of the permanent tax cut, which results in a “loss to [economic] choices we would have” to help the middle class. “Instead, my colleagues chose to give the money to people earning more than 1 million dollars a year. It is obscene”, he continued, “and is contrary to all the principles we believe in.”

I detected pain in the voice of John Kerry, the foreign policy expert par excellence, when he said that the next president (which he predicts will be a Democrat) “will have an unbelievable opportunity to reach out to the world in a unique way, and to carve out a reputation on a par with” presidents such as FDR and others, if he or she works to repair the damage of the current administration to our reputation in the world. It’s a painful subject for many of us, too, alas . . .

A CHALLENGE FOR ALL OF US Near the end, Rose asked Sen. Kerry what it was like to have the “two top Democratic candidates” as colleagues in the Senate. THK immediately put up four fingers. (Great woman). JK then put it in words, noting that Sen. Biden and Sen. Dodd are also worthy, able candidates, and deserve to be heard. “I’ve been there when people aren’t listening. . . I want all the candidates to have the chance to be heard” in this election: “they each have something important to say.”

John Kerry, right yet again. Note to the media and to fellow citizens: There are two parts to this prescription. . First, that all the candidates have the chance to make their case. Second, that we LISTEN.

It’s high time that we break our 27-yearold habit of passivity , indifference, cynicism, and fear-driven choices, and start to work to get our country back. After years of neglect and destruction, the tasks are overwhelming. No single person, not even a good president, can save our country alone. But we can, if w eall resolve to work together to do the job. Once again, Sen. Kerry put it best:

“The challenge is frightening”, said Sen. Kerry, “but the choices are exciting.”

Time to get to work, everyone.

PS. By the way, I went home by Amtrak and subway: 200 miles, public transportation all the way. I like to think the Kerrys would approve.

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MBK, you’ve done a terrific job in bring the evening to life for those who couldn’t attend. Thanks so much.