And shared with us a world of ideas. And he once took us inside hisily in a very personal way. Hes authored 12ooks. Im incompetent to properly introduce bill moyers si therely not enough time. Before a studio audience a man known for his modesty and his reluctance to talk about himself, agreed to sit down witme for a conversation i shall never forget. Ladies aoy gentlemen, mr. Bills. upbeat music audience applause but it started before it you were a journalist. Exas something unusual occurred in marshall that taught you about this america. You wereorhe son of one of the t people in town anywhere else, in any other time, you wouldnt have had much of a shot. How did it happen that a poor boy got the shot you got . I was the beneficiary of affirmative action for poor, white southernoys. If you studied hard, worked hard, moved around town, met people, there were men particularly men in the town who would say, hes a comer lets help him. Hes a poor b lets help him. So the rodeo club gave me a scholarship, the City Commission let me come in and sitin on their meetings. I was just constantly touched by people older than i am who saw something in me d thatnt see in myself. So they just kept moving me from one opportunity to another. But you know in those indays the gap of income uality was not so great. E of my best friends was anne blalock, who was the daughter of the richest man in town. But we went to the same school, we went to the same parties, we went to the same dances. Mf and i never felt untable in the presence of the kids in town whose parents were really the more fortunate ones. And thats changed in this country today to a verdisturbing extent. Theres very little conversation, theres very little intercrse, theres very little communication, very little participation between the poorest people, poorest kids in our country, in our cities, and those who are well off. But i, it never occurred to me, that i wast as good as anne, or it didnt occur to her that i was not her equal o relationship, and so that little town said to me, you signify, you matter. It doesnt matte that your dad is poo so those benefits in this small townter. It were available to an aus young man who was white. You are 14 years old, youre in marshall, texas, and theres a political rally, and for the first time in your life you see in person Lyndon Baines johnson, the senator of the state of texas. What did you think when you first saw him . Ve i was bowled by the helicopter. audience laughs was on the town square and the helicopter landed. He traveled the state, this is the 1948 election, which he was beaten by 87 very contested and i have no doubt illegal votes down in the valley of texas. But he was campaigningrd in a , so who didnt want to see a helicopter 48 inhe first year that helicopters were used in campaigns . So i went down to the town square and when he got off the helicopter took his big stetson and tossed it into the crowd. W later learned that he did that at every stop and he had somebody on his staff who went and got the stetson and returned it to the helicopter at the next stop so he could toss it again. Mean i learned a lot about politics in that very moment. That realization that this was part of the game. This was just not that he had an Endless Supply of stetsons in the helt opter, but i remember t spoke must have been 1,000, 2,000 people, at courthouse square. Big man, boisterous, stentorian in his tall, p commandisence, and i remember being stunned by the power of his persona. Something you didnt see again, really, until the campaignngf 64 when he was runor president for the first time in his own right. No so youh texas, university of texas austin, southwest theological seminary, woulcommitted toinburgh and spenbecoming a preacher, preaching in two churches upon gradtion. But in there somewhere is a letter that you sent to lbj suggesting that the young voice wasnt being heard as much, and maybe you knew something. And he was struck by that apparently, le because he cyou. I had been at North Texas State College in upstate texas and i would go stop at the Student Union from time to time and watch the mccarthy hearing. Some of you dont remember the mccarthy hearings but the extremist Joseph Mccarthy a senator from wisconsin on anticommunist cruse had gone bond the limits of reasonable dialogue and reasonable politics and the senate had called him to question s about to censor him. And the senate had and sitting in the Student Union watching those hearings i became very gaged. Dont ask me exactly why it was, as i say, i was 20 im 82 now that was a long time ago. But i felt maybe i wanted to be a political journalist. I planned to be a journalist i was working my way through the colleges on the publicity staff of the college covering the sports from the college and writing newsletters. Ic i went to my oon a saturday afternoon wrote a letter to, i had never met senator johnson except to see him from the helicopter. A and i wrottter saying, id like to learn about politics and youre in a campaign down here where youre trying to reach young people i and i thin got something for you and youve got something for me. The letter got to his desk, he always want to have bright, young men around him. Go John Connally becamernor ans were young men on his staff at one time in his career. And i went to washington and spent the summer he in fact when i got offtrollr to the capitol where his Senate Majority office was w getting onto the trolley, and he took my hand and said, come on, he didnt even have a warm greeting he just took me down a long corridor in the basement of the capitol opened the door and took me down to an addressograph machine, og an addreph machine was like a sewing machine, you would hit the pedal and a metal plate would come through, the stamp would come down, and print the address on the envelope. So inbetween eight oclock at night, and seven the next morning, i 0 dressed by foot 275,velopes. My i hadnt even unpackedag ane to the room where i was staying, and that impressehim. So then he moved me over to his own office to answer his own correspondence and there i was at 20 hitotally inexperienced in writing his letters to eisenhower, writing his letters to the secretary of state, writing his letters to his contributors in texas, and we bonded. I was going back tthis sme at the end of the summer, and Lyndon Johnson at his desk said, ghou know, i think you to transfer to the university of texas. Thats where he lived and thats where he had a tevision station and i sai thmr. Leader i dont anhave any money,he had im going to get married, and ive got a job in north texas in denton, he said, i l give you a job [don] ktbc . [bill] ktbc the Radio Station which somehow mysteriously was the only station in the country that could broadcast all ree networks. audience laughs i wonder how that happened. They had a monopoly, the vorable gods were looking down, and i got a job with him. He had promised me that he would pay me a hundred dollars a week that was astonishing in 54. It was more than my father had ever made in his life as i said earlier and i went down and he worked me 40 hours a week buwe bought the first mobile unit in texas. And i used to tool around town study, covering accidents and murders and the state senate the state legislature and that was probably the biggest crime scene in austin. audience laughs but anepay that fall i had a profound experience i still have a hard time describing it. Ci and i d that politics wasnt, and journalism wasnt going to satisfy my instincts and my intuitions, or even be a healthy place to work. So i decided to go and teach a religious institution id get my phd first, so i went to the seminary four years. Soand i wabegraduating inach alate decof 59,itution my judith and iife, were packing our boxes to move back to austin where i had been accepted to do my phd in American Civilization and had a teaching assistantship at Baylor University st which is a bschool in wacoy between dallas and austin. And the phone ranghrit was two days aftertmas, hn and it was lyndon n, i hadnt talked to him in two and a half years. He said, bill how are you doing . Im fine,r. Leader. What are you doing, he said. Im packing to go back to austin. And in said, no, no, im to make a run for it, i hung up and i said, get judith pack for washington, not for austin. And we went up, on e way she said, what did he offer to pay you . And i said, i have no idea he didnt mention it. Ie ae laughs and so i spent that year back in his office traveling with him, spending every night in some hotel, around the country, seeing all of the politicians, meeting them, watching what hpened. They were heavy drinkers in those days, and after all day of campaigning theyd come to the hotel and they would drink until 1 30, 2 30, 3 30 in the morning s and i had y up until it was over. Of course i learned a lot, but gradually, l th me in the direction of washington for my career. When he didnt get the nomination he did get picked to be the mce president ial runnie. I started to go back to texas then, and he said, no stay through the election then you can go. And so i did and during the campaign vii was the liaison on the prese the swoose named after the plane he h been on in the pacific, briefly during world war ii, and the caroline which was John Kennedys plane. And i got to know the irh mafia, to be frank and others have written this, i was thsonly person on johnseam who could talk boston and interpret boston to austin. audience laughs and i becava in their eyes somewhaable. So when the election came and we won, barely, as you know, john kennedy came down to the lbj ranch and isure that lbj set him up for this, but john kennedy was leaving and he turned on the porch of the lbj ranch saw me leaning in the corner, came over and said, i hear youre not coming with us. I said, no, im going to teach at a Baptist School and ill get my phd. And he said, dont you know harvard was founded pt by a t preacher . He said, we need you in washington, so i went. And just a few months into working in the Vice President s office, boring job, he was bored out of his mind, it was a nonjob at that time, and i had written a speech for lbj, he said, i dont ha s a speech, im going ak at this university give me a speech. So i sat down on my little portable typewriter and wrote a speech proposing a youth corps, where did i get the idea . Om Hubert Humphrey in minnesota he had been advocating a youth corps a peace corps, kennedy of urse picked it up but so did we. And after s e election i realizednnedy announced that he was going to start the peace corps, to thats what i wanted o so i began what became a strenuous and almost futile effort to resand i was one of the vi prefounding organizers of the peace corps, became its first Deputy Director and i had the three be years of my life. You know it was a new effort to send young people who were not in military uniform out to help shape the identity of america in the world and to give them a sense of the world that they would bring back. And i cant tell you every time i come to minnesota, every time i go to the Hubert Humphrey institute, i gave the keynote speech at the Humphrey Institute when ty opened it. People come up to me, my age and younger, and they say, we were in the peace corps, it was a defining moment of my life. I it was minouldnt have been happier. I got a call from kenny odonnellf 63 who was then John Kennedys most powerfuassistant, bill we want you to go to austin, the president is goin go d we sent an italian, advance man from boston, whom i knew, jerry bruno, we sent him down there, and he just cant, they can understand each other. Whom our efforts, weve, we sengot to raise money. Weve got to speak in houston, and youve got to go down there and hold hands. So i did, i went down and i was Holding Hands with the governor and the labor people, and the liberals and the conservatives until the president got out of town. Sitting at the Forty Acres Club xaat the university of having lunch with the chairman of the state Democratic Committee and the most promising young member of the state senate, ben barnes the maitre d came over to me and said, mr. Moyers youve got a call, so i went and took it. It was bill paine the secret Service Agent assigned to me in dallas and he said, bill, the president s been sho i immediately went back and told my colleagues and went right out to the airport, on the way, ben barnes arranged for a little aircraft to carry meeto dallas, halfway beaustin and dallas, id robert trout on cbs in a haunting voice, the president is dead. I landed at n,ve field, started to to the hospital, parkland hospita cand got a dispatcherl saying, the president , Lyndon Johnson no was on air force one parat love field, righwhere. A dispatcherl saying, went back, went up to air force one, the secret service stopped me, he didnt know me, and i wrote a note what did it say . Its in the library. Mr. President , dont ask me why intuitively i started calling him mr. Presiden id always called him senator, or leader. Mr. Prneident im here if yo me, bill moyers. A few minutes later the secret service age came back and called me up the steps er and i was on air force one. Ugon] what was going thyour mind . No awesome, my god, look at this, it was very practical, how do i help him . W . Whats he going to do cause he had never expected to be president , wasntaleady for it, wasnt prepared for it. I was a practical guy. I mean in the campaign of 60, organizing the peace corps, those were administrative and managerial jobs. And i had never even been in the white hoe and i was standing at the back of that plane, saying, how can i be helpful . And when he went back into the bedroom of air force one security had closed all the portholes, but he had opened thceone in that inner ofinner bedroom, inner sanctum and he was looking o. Quietly, very calmly, and i said, mr. President what are you thking . And he said, are the missiles flying . Ofre were in the mids cold war, the cuban missile crisis was not long behind us, and i realized theisthat he had things onind he had never had on his mind before. And i just started filling in with thsmall details. Calling the speaker of the house, just functial things, and i was good at that, and e reason he came to trust me was because i had that sense of doing the details and not being conspicuous about it. But there were no great and noble, or fearful thoughts in mind on thatane coming b. Hi, everybody. Is my namon shelby. Im the person whos sitting next to ll moyers in the program that youre watching. And it has been the highlight of my life. When i was first asked to host the program and to ask thers questions of bill moi knew that he was not going toca be as forthcoming e hes a very modest person, he doest like to talk about himself. In fact, in the first break that we took, he leaned over and apologized to me and said, im sorry im talking so much. No, thats cool, you can talk as much as you want to. This show that youre watching was for me a labor of love, the opportunity to interview him and spend some time with him and be able to ask him about those incredible times duringti the johnson administ when he was present for the creation of what we now call history. Fe which is ply fitting for journalists because its always been said that journalistsit the first draft of history but much of what he has seen and covered and reported has become itself history and the way he has wtten it, and the way he has spoken it to us will stand as a landmark of the great journalism that is produced. Im so glad that youre watching this program, and supporting this television station. What an absolute privilege it is to be watching this superb program with you this evening. It is truly remarkable to hear bill moyers tell us about hiser life ences. Imagine, he is the only one still living from that plane on the day that kennedy died. Wow. Hi, im margaret prestrud and im a member of Public Television, and im asking you to give your support this evening, as well, around thisnd ful program. When you do do it with a gift o8 or 7 a month, we will be happy to gift you the wonderfule program that wnjoying. As don mentioned, its not just the program that were seeing, that theres almost an extra hour, as well, because we just were not able to fit it all inth program. It is truly a special recollection from bill moyers. With a gift 156 or 1 a month as a sustaining member, ourft o you will be the program weve been enjoying as well as a companion book to bill moyers journal. This is 4 pages, it is 43 interviews, every interview has a personal introduction by bill moyers setting the stage,w telling you was that day in the studio. Fa its just inating read. With a gift of 252 or 21 a month as a sustaining member, we will send you the power of myth, where bill moyers and Joseph Campbell talked aboumythology and how it impacts our lives. It is just fabulous series. Not only is it the d. V. D. But it also includes a viewers guide and extra footage that was not in the original that you can enjoy. These are all our way of saying thank you when you call and make that pledge of support. Why dont you do it right now . Call the number on theottom of your screen or go online to show your support for this very special program on your Public Television station. When bill moyers left the l. B. J. White house, he spent some time working on other projects and then he ended up at wnet in new york city. His first touch with public broadcasting, and then, from there, he started to work with nbc anthen with cbs, he jumped into Eric Sevareids shoes as a commentator on the cbs evening news and then he went bacto wnet, commercial television, hened didnt have the ability to expand thought. Just talking to other people, lettg them expound, letting them talk, can we keep up with the kind of standard that he set . The only way we can do that is if we somehopull ourselves together and make moneyal available for your lublic television station. That is the only way wereon going tonue to get that kind of journalism coverage. It means here you can trust what you get. You keep great conversations coming with your financial contribution to this station today. Make a monthly sustaining gift of 7 or a onetime donation of8 and well thank you with a d. V. D. Of this program, which cludes nearly an hour of additional conversation, plus questions and answers with bill moyers. In with a monthly sustagift of 13, or a donation of 156 right now, youll enjoy the program d. V. D. , pl the book bill moyers journal, theti conversation ces. With 43 indepth interviews from his popular tv series. Enjoy the 25th Anniversary Edition of the seminal series, the power of myth with Joseph Campbell with your gift of 252 or a sustaining contribution of 21 per month. The threed. V. D. Set includes nefootage not seen in the original release, and an interview with film maker george lucas. Youll also receive the d. V. D. Ofodays program. Please call and give to this station right now. Thank you for your support. T you know, the job of pbs and your local station to inspire, to entertain, to illuminate, to uplift everyone in your mily, everyone in your community to do a little bit more, to do a little bit better because the great issues of the day are put right in front of you. And you have the opportunity to make decisions, and then it makes democracy work and its one of the tenets of bill moyers that it is a democracy in peril, unless we do act, unless we do make these decisionon our own. You want the education. You want the inspiration. You want those things in your life and theyre not available elsewhere. You can watch all the cable, all the commercial channels you want to and you wont get what you get on your station. So i hope you will join us in supporting this statn. Mesticalln the white house, lbj pledged to carry ojohn f. K. And Time Magazine called you the young man in charge of everything. audience laughs but the vietnam war interfered, and got in the way nd of these great hopesreams. Did you resent the war in that way, se did you the war as a man of the cloth . Did you resent the war as a Public Policy . In those first two years when i was in charge of the domestic progr i didnt think about the war. As we look back and as documents are revealed it turns out that many decisions were made in 64 and early 65 by thd president , mcnamara ndy. And as the war began to escalate it was very troubling. I wish that i had been a moral prophet, and had said, this is gonna enin disaster. It was tragic, it was one of those tragedies of history which Lyndon Johnson is responsible for that changed tcourse of ou. Frustrated the Great Society programs, snuffed them out in the cradle. C i mean evestituency that we had practically th foGreat Society program for remaking the institutions of america, schools, roads and all of thaetwas a victim of the m war. Many times i left in january of 67 because i felt what i cared about was no longer being nurtured, no longer being funded, and there was no longer a priority of lyon johnson. He had to be, when youre in a war, you have to fight it, and so i left. My influence was limited then, humbled, because the president , i was andvocate of stopping the bombing of the north. And i used to go to meetings in the cabinet room and id come in and the presidensaid, here comes ban the bomb bill. And they began to see me thaway and therefore believed that i was skewed. No less light than Doris Kearns Goodwin said that, moyers should write the book, because all of those blanks even in caros work can be filled in by bill moyers. And when i read why you wont write a book aut lbj i was touched professionally and personally for why you said you wont do it. Woulouyou tell people why yont . There were so many reasons i cant be sure im remembering the nge that you are refero. There were many reasons, many reasons. Ll first ofi didnt want to be the thief of his confidence. I spent hours, hours with the man alone, on the campaign trail, in those first 12 months of our time in the white house, and he never believed that anything he said to me, whether he was drunk or sober would become public. And secondly i lived the experience but i dont rememb it that well. Because there were so many things coming at me. I was telling my really good friends here this morning at hen i left the white house i put all my files in 100 boxes we moved themo the Brookings Institute and then on up to new rk when i was publisher of the newspaper. I never opened them after 25 years took them to our new home in new jersey put em in the attic, never opened them. I hadnt opened th for 50 years, so last year when we decided to sell our house, i had to get all of those boxes out including the carcasses of mice and the shells of creatures of all kind and i opened them. And the first box i opened was the first three weeks in the white house, and all we could do, i didnt even have an assistant that had known thats how we were thrust into the hurricane. Five of us, six of us, the president , on mrs. Johjack valenti, me, horace busby and a couple of others. And there were all the kennedy people but they were so grief stricken and so shattered that we felt as if we were alone on thisland, and the island was in the midst of this great tsunami. An so i just put my files and all my correspondence, cables and all that in the files, here i was 29 years old and there were cables coming in from the uprising in nigeria, and the civil war in cypress, and the turmoil of the British Government which was in trouble, and the information about the movement of chinese troops towards the border of korea, and right on down the line su there was one after another. And what did we know about them . What did i know about them . I had been at the peace corps. Even Lyndon Johnson who had been in ma of those meetings with president kennedy, what did he know about them . And suddenly decisions were being made about issues for which there was very little time to collect the evidence. You know Lyndon Johnson kept saying to me, y in all thors, a man is no better, aand i really believed that, band that has guided metion. In my journalism career the last 44 years. My opinion it if you dont mind my saying so, un ss i can back it up with evidence. You said in a couple of places, in some of the books that you have written you said in a more than a dozen books. And the thousands of hours of television that you produced. I found three references to the word atonement. Where you talked about a personal need to atone. When you sfid to William Sloane c in one of the very last conversations you had with reverend ffin. You were saying you were glad that you had grown old enough to begin to acsiunt for in essence th of the past. , and he said to yill we have a lot to atone for. Has your journalism career, and i will make it easier for you if you want to answer it this way, because it has with me, been an atonement in aense a redemption . I dont look at it that way, and i never have. But let me say in the crucible of power you make a lot of mistakes. Some of them come fr character, some of them come from a paucity of information, and some of them come from haste, o but you make a lmistakes. You dont see there are consequences until you are out of theovbatt. And you can read what the other side said the other troops on theheovbatt. Other side of the trenches ornahe files in north vise records or inthat you misjudgedry u donit or made a mistake, president s or stesf assistants to the ent you make a lot of mistakes. And if you let the mistakes eat away at you st they will y you. But you learn certain things, that is youyi happier if you are to report the truth than if you are trying to conceal it. You have more fun, you feel betteat night. Instead of trying to cover it up. Th when i became press secretary against my will by the way, the president went through tri or three press secre. He said, i want you to be press secretary, i said, mr. President i dont want to do it, thank you anyway. The second time didnt do it. The third time i said, yes, because id still have my shoulder out of joint here. And that afternoon i flew home to see my wife who was in dallas visiting her parents. And as we went to bed th evening, she had on her red and white silk pajamas. I said, you know this is the beginning of the end. And she said, why . Youre trying to help s e president get his idross,. Youre serving his interests rightly. But if youre tryingsto help the press undd why hes making those decisions, or what they mean, youre trying to help the press. Er and were moments that grew in intensity and paranoia, wain which he thought i serving the press more than i was serving him. But at some point you came to the conclusion standing at he lectern in the white house that you wanted to be on that side. Yes i remember it clearly. Wait was in the briefing room, my office was the briefing room. By the way there were only ab t 40 or 50 accredited reporters in the my owhite house then. Efing room. There are l w 1,100, so i had a smfice, and wed brief the press there laughs . I knew we had carefully arranged for the president to go to bbut i couldnt let that out suntil after three oclock. Because the first line that would have gone out from the press corps they would have rushed out g and said, johnson for surgery. And we agreed we called the fed, we called the secretary of the treasury, if you do it before ithree oclock. Down it could bring a government down. And johnson gid, it could bring ernment down. So we calculated a carefully, thought out strategy, and i would not answer a questions that subject until 3 01. Well Merriman Smith who was e dean of the white house correspondents his wife had a really close friend who was a nurse at bethesda hospital. D,d merriman came in and s bill i know the president s going to bethesda but i he to have it confirme in those days Pierre Salinger who had been kennedys press secretary, le had urged me tn to smoke cigars, i never smoked. He said because youre goingstts and youre going to need 30 seconds to think of the answer. Y and re smoking a cigar you can light it up and youve got 30 seconds to compose your answer. audience laughs so i was hooked i smoked a cigar on my sons front porch this afternoon, i got used to them. And anyway, so i ease up lighting my car and he said, let me light it. He smoke cigarettes, so i walked around him and locked my door from the inside, took the key and put it in my pocket. Om y office to the lobby where the press phones were no and he said, damnit iit im gonna go out and write it. So he opened the door, he couldnt get it ope we were seven minutes till three and he couldnt, andno, im serious,ing me behind the desk. He started coming at my son of a bitch, he said, i know you got, just nod, just confirm it some way. Otherwise im going to take your no answer as a confirmation. So finally he calmed down a little bit and at three oclock i pushed the button to the outside the press came back in and i made the announcement. Then they started askil thes and then and there i said to myself, a as i lightigar, again, i want to be on their side asking the questions, than on my side not answering them. Lets leave the white house and lbj and now youre a journalist. 1970 you go to channel 13 wnet, and begin doing a weekly show and get television in your blood, but when you decided to have a nversation with Joseph Campbell can you imagine what it would have been like to walk into some placlike cbs and say, i got an idea two guys sitting down facing ta each otheing for a series of six long shows about mytholog ou they have told you, you were crazy. They would have called bellevue hospital. audience laughs to the idea, but i had colleagues who talked about Joseph Campbell and i had read the hero with a thousand faces when i was at e university of texa and didnt understand it, faces but i had read it and remembered it. And then i read that he had been advising george lucas on the star wars film. So i called him up and he said, of course id love to sit and talk with you. Cbs wouldnt consider it, my friends at pbs, they saw the value of it and they put up a good bit of the money that i had to raise to do it. And we did 20 someodd hours over two summers d 85 6 at George Lucass skywalker ranch. So myths are stories of the search by men and women through the ages for meaning, forfeignificance, to make ignify, to touch the eternal, to understand the mysterious, to find out who we are. People say that is a meaning for life. I dont think thats what were really seeki. I think what were seeking is an experience of being alive so that the Life Experiences that we have on the purely physical plane will have residences within that are thos of our own innermost being and reality. And so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. Thats what its all finally about, and thats wh these clues help us to find within ourselves. Re thtion initially from the station was, what . Two guys sitting there, twoewh ing about mythology . D had no promotion and it went out and within the next seven days after it first aired, after the First Episode aired, stations were getting calls from people, what is thi put it back on, and they began to run it and it grew and it grew, its the most, be its what i will emembered for introducing this great teacher to a mass audience. Because it was repeated over and again it became for years the icst fundraiser for puroadcasting. I lieve theres no better production value er than the pf the human face. When you let people look at your face, and your emotions, and your eyes, and the intensity in your participation in this conversation theres no way i could create that with technology. When you tell somebody, i love you, if youre fort ate when you tell when youre this close to them. If you ask them to marry you, youre looking right into their eyes. There is no power greater than the human face for the purpose of television, and television makes us intimate stngers. And so being able to sit like this and talk is probably the most person experience we have outside of sex. And since thats limited for many people, conversation is absolutely the way we entertain ourselves. audience laughs let me tell you a story. A year after that series aed, i was walking out of a restaurant, la caravelle restaurant, on 8th avenue, between 55th and 56th. I was walking out i was walking down the street and a you,ant, African American woman was coming this way. And you think you knowevision everybody you see on television. And i think some intuitive reason that i know the people who are watching, ive never lost that sense of the people on the other side of the camera. So our eyes connected and we walked on, stranger but i turned and she turned and she said, mr. Moyers . And i said, yes, she said, do you have a minute . E i said, sure, said, i came tk to be an actress and ive had a really difficult time. I had some good auditions but none of thewere satisf. Limy boyfriend and i ng together for a year he just suddenly left i havent seen him. I mean life just sort of come to an end for me. So one night i came home, and i went to my apartment, she pointed right across the street s toll Apartment Building and she said, i went up and i turned on the rner, i pulled down the window, i went over and poured a big glass of bourbon, and i know you like bourbon. And she said, i laid down on the couch ad and i was really to go, she said, when i had left that morning, i had left my Television Set on, and i heard these two guys talking about me myths, and thing of life, and all of this and i heard one of them say, do you think people are looking for the meaning of life . and the other one said, no, no, no, i think theyre looking for the experience of being alive, and she said, you know something snapped in me, eand then i heard a voof the a, come back next week audience laughs for the second edition of bill moyers and Joseph Campbell on the power of myth. and that postponed her suicide. She got up and said, i poured the bourbon out, i tuand i watched every off, one of those episodes. What i decided is i dont need to be an actress,et, but i need to experience the possibility of fe every day. Now those stories are common for people who watched that series, and i cant explain it adequately, even today, but this medium has the power to touch, and move, inform, and connect people, and why ive donediscovered, it for 44 years. And why ive done a thousand or more hours of television because Public Affairs is more than the news of the day, its the truth of poetry, which is a greater truth that you can get from any politician. William Carlos Williams said, people are dying for a lack of the news they dont get on the evening news. It can take people far away, it can connect people who di mean the marriage of her, the image and the word the most powerful combination of truth telling and experience sharing weve ever had. He its notuneiform tablet, its ns the printed word whichnderful, but its a marriage of the two ha and fromcoupling comes something creative. En and ts done this way, it is the most important and valuable contribution to our understanding each other nt that man has ever in. I want you to think back to a moment in time when he mentioned that woman that heth just bumped into o streets, who had in her mind the idea that she was going toe end her life andard her say, once i saw this show, the power of the myth with Joseph Campbell, i cnged my mind. And i hope that youre thinking about doing the 21 a month donation because if you do, you get the power of myth, and do you know that this is still, after all of these years, 25 years, that this istill the most requested of the d. V. D. S published by pbs and made available to the public. More people still seek that. You can have that in your home. We have only pbs to thank for that. L youral station. Us ] you keep great conversations coming with your financialta contribution to thison today. Make a monthly sustaining gift of or a onetime donation o 84 and well thank you with a o d. V. This program, which includes nearly an hour of additional conversatn, plus questions and answers with bill moyers. With a monthly sustaining gift of 13, or a donation of 156 right now, will a enjoy the program d. V. D. Lus the book bill moyers journal, the conversation continues. With 43 indepth interviews from his popular tv series. Enjoy the 25th annersary edition of the seminal series, the power of myth wi Joseph Campbell. With your gift of 252, or a sustaining contribution of 21 per month. The threed. V. D. Set includes new footage not seen in the original release, and an interview with filmmaker george lucas. Youll also receive the d. V. D. Of todays program. Please call and give to this station right now. Thank you for your support. Hf you listen to what jos campbell said, that people are searching for an experience of living, an experience for living. It changed the lives of so many people when they first heard that, and then when bill talke about that a persons judgment formation, that is ans or her important thing to remember in this day and age. So i hope that you will support this local television station. I hope that you will sport pbs so that we continue toin bring you the kind oepth reporting analysis and mindchanging opinionchanging and altering information that it has always given you. Sustaining membership is an easy, convenient and affordable wa support the programs youve. Sustaining members make an ongoing Monthly Contribution from either their credit card or checking account. Just choose e monthly amount you would like to give, then go online or call and well get it set up for you. Your donation will happen automatically each month so your support will always be current. If you want to change your sustaining membership, just coact us. Monthly contributions begin as low as 5 per month. O ine or call to start your sustaining membership right now. And the time to do that is right now, by making your phone call and giving a financial contribution to help keep this station strong. When you make that phone call, with a gift of 7 a month as a sustaining member, you can have this wonderful d. V. D. To enjoyre in your home, to sith others, perhaps, to listen to more in depth and, remember, theres d. V. D. Extras incled with that, an additional 49 minutes that were not going to be seeing. With a gift of 49 a month,yo ll get the d. V. D. But well send you bill moyers journal, the conversation continues. This is a companion book to that Iconic Program that he did here on pbs and it includesr so many ible interviews. You have robert bly talking about pory, Shelby Steele on race, there are so manyin indepth interviewere, in fact, its 43 interviews, what a wonderful y to really enjoy bill moyers with this book and this d. V. D. Or, with a gift of 21 a month, the power of myth. Now enjoyable would it be for you to have this in your home to listen to this conversation h that h such an impact for so many years. An the impothing, though, is for you to figure out what works for you and your family to support thistation and call the number on your screen right now. And i hope you remember that this is a fundraiser. This moment in time when the conversation with bill moyers is sort of series and were talking about serious issu but i want you to know that all you have to do is look back on your own experience in your life and the importance of pbs and the showit has brought you, and the joy that it has that it has brought to you, and the way that it has helped your children, the shows that have been so important to them from sesame street all the way toro thisam today. So, remember that this local ostation is your lifeline incredibly importantit information, and ss worth your time and your dollars. Ti you keep great convers coming with your financial contribution to this station today. Make a monthly sustaining gift of 7 or a onetime donation of 84 and well thank you with agr d. V. D. Of this p which includes nearly an hour of additional conversation, plus bquestions and answers wil moyers. With a monthly sustaining gift d of 13, oration of 156 right now, youlenjoy the program d. V. D. Plus the book bill moyers journal, the conversation continues. With 43 indepth intviews from his popular tv series. Enjoy the 25th Anniversary Edition of the seminal series the power of myth with Joseph Campbell. With your gift of 252 or a sustaining contribution of 21 the threed. V. D. Set is new footage not seen in thean original releasean interview with filmmaker george lucas. Youll also receive the d. V. D. Of todays program. Plea call and give to this station right now. Thank you for your support. Your contribution in any amount would be appreciated. We know what the enomy is like, we know that some people are doing better, some peopleel not so those people who are doing better, maybe its time to look deep into your hearts and souls and say, should i bear the weight of the time i spent inof fronhe television with this television station pbs show that im watching or should i let someone else pay for it . Well, i think the real ar to that is, no, i probably ats all thats being asked. And to pay to the degree that you can afford. I heard one time someone say that you should give until it hurts. To give until it makes youhat feel great. And if you believe that this station and pbs has been important to you and will be important in the future, the only way that it can beut important in the fure is if there is funding. With all the news out there today, it is very difficult but here you can trust what you get from your station. Pl se give and give generously. want to read you a quote whicyou know and many people in our audience will probably know the first half, this is a quote from thomas jefferson. Whenever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their government. Now thats what is usually quoted. But actually that quotation goes on, and jefferson continues, that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied upon to see them to rights. Is america well informed . And can americanbe relied upon to set the wrongs to right . At at timesimes, generalizations are generally wrong, and i would not say the American People are not informed, ny are not, they dont want to be informed. Ou so they move t life with a limited supply of what it takes to think critically, but many others are, its like urnalism. Th i dont speak of media anymore because oreillys in the media and bill moyers is in the media and we are different journalists. But no, i think today, th the complexity of the issues, although in those days they were complex issues of forming a government i dont think people are as informedtion. As we need for democracy to function for government to be held accountable for huge economic institutions to be checked with balance. The whole secret of democracy is not that people are virtuous or not, its that some are virtuous sotimes and theyre not virtuous other times, and some a t not virtuous and thy are. What we need is checks and balances its the balarce of power, when bothes are trying to do the right thing, or ones trying to do the wrong thi and the Others Holding it account. So i dont think the American People are as a whole, are as informed as we need for democracy to work and its very difficult today given most people spend all day making a living, holding two jobs, raising a family, trying to help in their church, trying to work as volunteers at the Public Television station theyre busy. Thats why the accountability of politicians is so important because thre a professional peopl thatdesigned to solve the accoproblems but democracians should be able to solve the problems it creates for itself and were not doing that right now. Youre house is on fire, don, our home here on earth is on fire. Inour economy is not perfo for millions of americans inr highway system is capart. We should be able to solve the problems, by depending upon the politicians and bureaucrats who we elect are employed to take those problems at one of us alone can solve and were not, this country is unraveling, and we need not only more information we need more time to be active citizens. Change does come but it never comes swiftly, and there are people out there on the front line trying to fight climate change, trying to take on the clate deniers, trying to solve the problems of our inner cities, ll thank god for themf that. But theyre up against almost insurmountable odds and if we had a truly independent, nonpartisan, truth telling media wed be in a lot better shape. You know theres a great line in the play night and day by tom stoppard, where the photographer in that play says, people do terriblthings t, but its worse when they do it in the dark. And were settling into a dark period in american life, during which everybodys happy e because weusing ourselves to death. M we watch hy hours, i go on the subway in new york city and every week they put new sters up there are new Cable Television shows, and new plays on broadway and all of that. And theres so much to do and the web is constantly consuming obsessively consuming people. Er s so much to entertainh us that as my friendb the late neil postman who taught communications er s at New York University ussaid in his famous book, amusing ourselves to death, we will probably die laughing because of the little we know. N it comes d this issue it seems to me, bill, that its the difference between providing people what they need to know versus wh tand the invention of, rv the , blwhere we have asked the what would you like to see on the news . As opposed to, damnit, this is what youre getting. Because this is what you need to know in order to be a citizen and cast a reasonable informeopinio. We dont, or they, dont do it anymore. Because ratings, circulation, are more important. Theres a prophet in treating viewers as consumers instead of citizens in t great gift te of publivision and public radio is that we still somehow with the help of people like this its been able to hold to the idea of the American People as a community of citizens, t consumers. Years ago, don, i met a professor of english a great cultural critic at yale, a man named cleanth brooks. And he talked about the bastard muses and there re three bastard muse propaganda, which pleads for a particular point of view sometimes unscrupulously at th. Expense of the total tru sentimentality, which works to create an emotional response in excess of and unwarranted by the occasion. And pornography, which focuses on one powerful drive at the expense of the whole personality. In that little interview i did with cleanth brooks, i dont know a long time ago, comes to my mind almost every time i y to watch the news on corporate news, because it is propaganda, largely, sentimentality, largely, and pornography, in the terms of its twisted view of the human being and they have also twisted the heart out ciof what it means to be zen. And journalism is a fallen profession, almost like the first profession it is said, but it is still our only hope when both parties when i was in politics i believe it w the responsibility of one party to tell the truth about the other party, Neither Party does that toy. I would call Joseph Heller a curmudgeon i suppose and in your interview with him he says these sort of frightening things, heres what he said in the interview with you, democracy we celebrate is full of illusions such as participatory democracy, he called voting, a ritual and a delusion that comforts us, coindispensable to ouentment but absolutely useless in applition. Do you aee . Not with you absolutely, but i do believe that voting is easy and democracys hard. Democracy, so it happens, between elections in our local communities in our state house and elsewhere and it requires participation bpeople who go to schord meetings, and struggle, and argue for what they want. So i dont agree wholly with him. I dont believe in pure democracy, i dont believe you can put an issue out there and enough peoele will be able to beinformed and act on it you have to read the sentiment of the public and this is the rrible consequence oo ofuch money in politics. Representative government is a flawed act necessary form of demo we send our representatives to the state house here or to washington to make the best informed judgments they can for their constituents. Theyre never going to satisfy all the constituents me but maybe some they dont even satisfy most of the constituents but we hire them to make good judgments. Today most politicians, there are exceptions fortunately, but most politicians are more responsive todto the donors thans, there arethey are to the voters. , so that a Representative Democracy is skewed, corrupted, by the fact that money is the determinant of the outcomes of politics. D ats why whats happened to Representative Government we need a democracy in which people feel a sense as with Public Television that theyre well considered in the programs weve put on and the policies we adopt in politics and we dont have that at the moment, rarely. Mean we have a dysfunctional government in washington today. By the way, i do have a reverence for the constitution because they attempted to try to create a government of, by, and for the people, evth though they discovered was. But oney had this builtinict, that i didnt realize when i was growing up, i mean the man who wrote, all men are created equal, with his hand on that pen that was the same hand that caressed the breasts and thighs of his slave, sally hemings. Different time, different morality, but how could he reconcile writing these noble words, a men are created equal, when he bedded young woman over whom he had total domination and she had to do what he wanted her to do . They had these children together, how do you reconcile those opposites in your mind . I dont knowut it is that conflic in the intelligence and Decision Making of the peopl . Ow in that we have to constantly question. And so i have a different view of the constitution i meen i didnt even know was growing up that it protected slavery, and that many of the founders were slave owners. Slavery is woven like a dark thread rthrough our history and foundi. An the point of it is that change has to come from People Like Us who dont take for granted or take with finality what those in power tell us and who fight for the justice and the liberty and the equality that is mentioned in the declaration. To me the declaration is the much greater, more powerful, of the instrumenof our gove. So when you keep revising, the older you get, you keep revising what you know. Thats why living ck an old age if youre to have your health is a wonderful, internal, and perpetual university. Final question, to you mr. Moyers and that is would you repeat for them a story that Joseph Campbell said to you at the conclusion of all of the interviews when it was finally done. As when hd whether you intended to stay in this line of work . Yeah we ha sbeen together those tmers and i was leaving to come back, it wasnt the last time i saw him because when i got back to new york and started editing i remembered i had looked at all the footage and i hadnt asked him aut god. So i called him at his home in hawaii and i said, joe i didnt ask you about god. Would you come to new york ts do one more show . So he did, but joe iwhen i was leaving,ut god. When i was leaving skywalker ranch for the last time he walked with me out to our car. And he said, are you going to stay in this . I had not been certainaboum not been fixed in my trajectory. Are you going to stay in this work . An i said, yes, i think soand he he said, if you wanto chad change the metaphor. Change the story. As jmeeph campbell would sapher, instead of metaphor, the heroes journey is one as he describes it as, the person man or woman who goes out to an unknown place, faces dangers and terrors and drama, returns with the prize after the fight and tells the story and from the story we then the heroes of it can begin our own heroes journey. Bill moyers i speak for a lot of people, but this is very personal, you are the metaphor. You are the heroes journey, and i thank you so much for being a part of this evening. Well thank you. audnce applause Important Information that you receive on this television station can be entertaining. It has been entertaining. Its entertaining to your children, its entertainu. G to some of the great dramas, masterpiece theater, all of th is entertainment. But when it comes to public afeirs journalism, this is place you turn when you want to create for yourself an inform partnership. Now, as a person whos worked almost a half of a century in commercial television, i can tell you this, that it is ari popu contest. Theyre seeking people who will watch them and in order to do that, commercial television gives people wt they want to know as opposed to what they need to know. That was part of the conversation with bill moyers. But at the same time, i need to tell you that that is not a question that your station is asking. Ng it is not ashe question whether it is popular, it is requesti whether you need the information it is about to provide. You see whats on your seen right now. For 7, thats 84 a year, this d. V. D. , which is the d. V. D. Of the program that youre watching right now, but i ed to hasten to add for you that there is almost an hour additional information. We tked so much that we simply couldnt get it all into this one program but we t it on the d. V. D. So youll get to hear bill moyers continue to a taut things youre not seeing on this program. And they asked questioaudience bill moyers which he answers in his in imitable way. So please think about this 7 a month and make sure this is in your house. You know how you make sure that is your house, how you make sure Public Television is in your house, you give aco ribution. This is what its about, you come together with others in our community thateep this station strong. When you give a gift of 7 as a sustaining member with an ongoing pledge, we will be happy to share with you thism wonderful progth all that extra material that we are not able to enjoy. Now, with a gift of 13 amo h, this is very special because not only will you get nversation but you will alsoing get his companion book to hisll program, oyers journal. Every interview has a personal introduction from bill moyers, setting the scene for you, as it i you will enjoy having it in your home. Now, with a gift of 21 a month, our gift to you is a wonderful iconic series, thewe of myth. This is a sixhour seminal much about with josephed so campbell. Extras, too. It that but theres theres a 28minute interview also a 12page viewer guide is that goes along with that. What up to you right now, though, is to decide you want to support this wonderful station by calling the number at the bottom of the screen and saying you want to be part of wonderful television. I hope youre thinking right now about the importance of is station to you and yo family, what it means, what it has meant over the period ofy time of your famgrowth, what its meant to you personally and whether you want to be personally involved in supporting the kind ofg programmat you have come to expect from this station. I hope youre thinking about that and i want you to know that there is not a great deal would like to ask you tod we support this station so that we can continue with this. With money this statiosupport order to make sure that kind of programming continues on pbs. I hope you will think very, very hard right noabout getting up, picking up the phone or going to the website and making your donation right now. To become a member of something that is already a part of your communy. Sustaining membership is an easy, convenient and aordable way to support the programs you love. Sustaining members make an ongoing monthly ntribution from either their credit card or checking account. Just choose the monthly amount you would like to give. R then go onlinell and well get it set up for you. Yo donation will happen automatically each month so your support will always be current. Current. If you want to change your sustaining membership, just Monthly Contributions begin as low as 5 per month. Go online or call to start your sustaining membership right now. Music y keep great conversation coming with your financial contribution to this stationy. To make a monthly sustaining gift of 7 or a onetime donation of 84 and well thank you with a d. V. D. Of this programwhich includes nearly an hour of additional conversation, plus questions and answers with bill moyers. Of 13, or a donation 6ng gift right now, youll enjoy the program d. V. D. Plus the book bill moyeurnal, the conversation continues. With 43 indepth interews from his popular tv series. Enjoy the 25th Anniversary Edition of the seminal series, the power of myth with Joseph Campbell. With you are gift of 252, or a sustaining contribution of 21 per month. S the threed. V. Includes new footage not seen in theea original r, and an interview with filmmaker george lucas. Youll also receive the d. V. D. Of todays program. Please call and give to this station right now. Station right now. Thank you for your support. If you think about the fuel of y your automobile, whethre using some kind of petroleum or using the energy of n or using battery power, or a combination thereof, it is how o much power you can put i vehicle that tells you how good that performance is gointo be. Thats kind of a long way of saying that it is your contributionhat powers your station, that powers pbs. The more power you put into it, the greater the performanc youre going to get out of it. So if then that pbs is doing so if you think that pbs is doing a pretty good job right now, just think what it would do if it had the resources, fit had the participation of every member in the community who relies on what goes on on pbs and on your station. Think about how much it has meant to you over the years, how much it means now. Support your Public Television station. You know what, you can support your local stationgh now for programs like this and all of the other programs that you enjoy, howth you do it is calnumber on the bottom of your screen or you go online, whatever worksyo for you an familys budget. Perhaps you would like to support with a gift of 7 a month as a sustaining member and get the d. V. D. Of the Wonderful Program that wereor enjoying. He gift of 13 a month and not only get that d. V. D. But also get the bill moyers journal, the companion book to that with 43 interviews. Or maybe 21 a month would work for you and your familys budget and you would like to have the power of myth to enjoy along with the program that were watching, conversation with bill moyers. These are all suggested levels. Whats really important is you choose an amount that works for you and your family and call the number on the bottom of your screen or go online right now to show your support. Hether your favorite programs are the costume dramas that you love so much, you like downton abbey, victoria, you like mr. Selfridge, you like these prrams or you like the science programs, you like nova, or maybe you like frontline, the question is, are you one of those people who fit in the category at the end or the begiing of each program that says, this program is made possible by the following foundations and viewers like you. Whenou watch these programs, are you one of the viewers they are talking about . Did you make a contribution . Are you shirttailing on someone elses contribution . Are you confusing pbs and this station with commercial television, that all you have to do is sit thrgh some commercials . You dont see commercials on these stations. U will not see that on p what you will see is content like no other content youll receive. Nowhere, not on Cable Television, not on commercial television. Its time, as we end the end of this program, it is time to make the decision to donate now so that at the end of thra prwhen you see this program has been made available by people likeou you are one of those people. An he want to everyone whos called tonight. Appreciate that phone call so very much. But if you havent called, now is the time to make the but decision to go from being a viewer to being a contributor, to bei somebody who makes programs like this possible. Think about all the programs that you and your family enjoyr in yme. Name them off to yourself. I bet this is a lot, isnt there . Think about the value that that brings to you, think how much you enjoy turning on this station d being enlightened, learning something you didntor know beforaybe watching a childs face as they are introduced to a concept they have never heard before, the delightful giggles as they learn something brandnew. Thats all here and its all possible because of you. You arthe power in Public Television so wont you make that donation right now . Wo . T you make that phone ca become a supporting member today. Ti make a do to this station and to pbs, it counts. It does make a difference. The level that we can supply great information, great public information, great Public Policy information, great drama episodes, all of the great science and wildlife shows, that makes a difference based on your donation. 7 a month, you can get this conversation with bill moyers, which youve been watching shere but i want tnd you that it contains almost an hour of additional programming, additional conversation with bill moyers. Were in an interesting, interesting period in our history and it is time toan develonformed opinion. Hes had 83 years to develop that opinion and weve been the beneficiaries of that, in his search for truth, objective truth. Not faith and belief but tth. To find something that isde able. If two plus two is four, thats a fact. It wouldnt be five or seven, based on what the politicalha whims orsomeone believes. It would be for. Thats the kind of reporting that you get here. Youll hear him here before you hear him anywhere else feel so were asking you to think and think seriously about supporting this station. Make sure that this kind of programming continues throughout, for your children and for your grandchildren. audience applause upbeat music rl explore new and new ideas through programs like this, made available forveryone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Youching pbs this bbc world news america. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, and judy and peter blumkovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglecd needs. Wow, that is unbelievable. im flying