Bill Moyers interview with Stewart Udall

[sallydallas124]

MOYERS: You wrote a book in 1963 — bestseller THE QUIET CRISIS — that was both a love song to the West and a call to conservation. You were a hopeful idealist in those days, as I think many of us were, about preserving and protecting our natural resources. I mean, this was an ethic of stewardship that you had laid out there. Are you an optimist now?

UDALL: Well, it's hard some days to be optimistic when you look at what's happening in Washington. I'm filled with a lot of sadness. You know, we had a big tent, Bill, for 20 years.

We had a big tent on the environment. And Republicans and Democrats, we all worked together. Nixon was a good President on the environment. Gerald Ford was good.

We didn't have these stupid quarrels now. We didn't attack each other. We all worked together. And that was the glory of that period, to me. I never called anybody names, an environmental extremist. We didn't make it a partisan issue. We all worked together.

MOYERS: So what's happened?

UDALL: What happened was that they dismantled the tent.

The attitude today, the ideology that is driving people in Washington, is that we have too many environmental laws, some of them are too strict, we ought to relax them, we ought to recognize that businesses are being harmed by activities that regulate them. And it's a sad picture to see the consensus that we had developed break down and have the kind of political arguments made over environmental issues.

It didn't exist for 20 years.

MOYERS: It's harder and harder in the West, isn't it, to get elected without the support of business, without a lot of money from that side in to your campaigns?

UDALL: You know, it almost seems sometimes in Washington that they appear and say, "Well, now, what can we do for you, if you will make big contributions to our political campaign?"

Washington's a cesspool of money, Bill. I was there 49 years ago. It has changed so drastically it makes me sick every time I look at it.

MOYERS: Because?

UDALL: Of money. Of money.

Bill, I want to say something to the business community. The business people that I knew in the 60s and 70s and worked with them on projects had a sense of integrity. That they owed duties to the country, duties to the community. The element of honesty was very strong.

This breakdown that we've seen in the last three, four years in corporate America, the greed that we see… And the shocking thing to me is that nobody's shocked. There's no indignation in Washington.

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript242_full.html
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I don't know if this has already posted or discussed since the interview is from last week. It's terribly sad that this guy has to see his work dismantled in his old age.
There's no indignation because dishonesty & manipulation seem almost accepted. I worry about values in the future - not religious values - but basic values such as honesty & kindness. Not to sound melodramatic, but will my son live in a world where it's considered weak or weird to be kind and not a jerk out for self?

[Bozita]

1. Wonk posted mp3s and quicktimes for this program.

Good stuff for those who would rather watch or listen.

[Champion Jack]

2. This is the statement that REALLY hit home for me...

"I want to say something to the business community. The business people that I knew in the 60s and 70s and worked with them on projects had a sense of integrity. That they owed duties to the country, duties to the community. The element of honesty was very strong.

This breakdown that we've seen in the last three, four years in corporate America, the greed that we see… And the shocking thing to me is that nobody's shocked. There's no indignation in Washington."