My name is Justin Desmangles i of the chair of the foundation celebrating the 41st year. [applause] for decades. I want to and extend my gratitude to an hour founder our founder who was one of the great artists, warriors of our time, ishmael reed is with us today. [applause] i also want to think our friends here the center for being so generous in in particular the director and to fellow board member presently the poet laureate at the center cisco jazz festival San Francisco jazz festival. [applause] the american book awards are hosted by the jazz center. Jazz has the uniquely american art form the american is a and the thread of telling it like it is to invite openly all cultures to develop and to seek peace with one another. And with that National Conversation that is exacerbated by a violent political crisis that has taken hold of the country in the rest of the world and with the viciousness of the american book awards and the before Columbus Foundation is it midways medicinal to he
Sevenminute documentary on the theme, the three branches and you. To show how action by the executive, legislative or Judicial Branch by the federal government affected you in your community. Theres 200 cash prizes for student and teachers totaling 100,000. For the list of rules and how to get started, go to studentcam. Org. Up next on American History tv, author Elizabeth Cobbs hoffman describes consequences of United States role in world leadership. Asking, is america umpire or an empire. Miss hoffman argues that the u. S. Played the role of umpire since 1776 but also argues that umpires cant win. This program is sponsored by world denver. Its about an hour. Thank you so much, kay. Thank you all for being here. I cant tell you how pleased and honored i have be here addressing the World Affairs council. And especially because what i hope we will discuss tonight is i think one of the most critical conditions of our time. Which is youre not going to know it, because i didnt turn on the
Where the biggest radio industry in the world was created, up to broadway. Thats where the entertainment is. Thats where bing crosby is. Thats where jack benny is. His lifelong rival, and they were truly lifelong rivals, tsarnaev with bill paley. Paley is the son of very rich cigar making family. The family started in the ukraine. By the time they moved from chicago to philadelphia, they had made it. He went to wharton school. His dad basically bought him the station. He hated him for that. And he dated nonjewish girls. These two guys would battle for supremacy in radio, television, and then Color Television for the next half century. Its paley who links it permanently to advertising. The only business in the country supported entirely by advertising. Somebody wrote him a letter and said im getting this great entertainment, great music, who do i pay. Nobody. Paid for by advertising. And paley then hooks up with Duke Ellington. In 1928, he signs up washington, d. C. s Duke Ellington who
No, the green light, right . The classic green light. So anyway, im here to discuss one the critical questions, i think, of our times which is why the United States assumed the role of world defender after world war ii . The question of whether we must continue this role indefinitely. Now this conversation springs from my new book which i hope is available outside but also from an oped that i wrote for the New York Times last year with the title, come home america. This was subsequently the subject of a morning joe show on the same subject. In the essay, i observed that everybody talks about getting out of iraq and afghanistan but what about germany and japan . In essence what im trying to raise here is a very fund amentl question which is where do we go from here. Do we need to consider more basic changes in American Foreign policy at this turning point in our own national history. Because i think in many ways for me, im a historian that our nation suffers from a lack of historical se
What is called the evasive passive. And accordingly, all the classic style guides advice against using the passive voice. Use the active voice. The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive. Many sentences can be made lively by substituting a transgent for a per puncher to perfunctory. Notice something fishingal the advice . It uses the passive voice to tell people not to use the passive voice. Similarly, the other iconic body of advice for writing happed out to every college freshman, George Orwells politics of the english language in which he says a mixture of vague yes and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern prose. I list the way that prose construction is dodged. The passive voice is used in preference to the active which contains not one but two examples of the passive voice. Now, the passive voice, and, for that matter, any english construction could not have survived in the language for 1500 years unless it was doing something u