Radio City Music HallLecture Series – Al Gore

Review – Radio City Music Hall Minds That Move the World Lecture Series

Vice President Al Gore, Part One

 

This evening I had the pleasure to attend the second installment of the Minds that Move the World Lecture series. Tonight’s featured guest; Vice President Al Gore, Nobel Laureate, Oscar Winner, Best Selling Author, and the winner of the popular vote in the 2000 Presidential Election.  I had to the pleasure to be joined by my friend, Caroline, from Brazil. The evening was an amazing experience. First hearing from Al Gore and his perspective of the global climate crisis, but also hearing reaction from someone who is not an American citizen. I got two educational experiences for the price of one.  My acidic review of the first lecture with pundits Arianna Huffington, Tucker Carlson and James Carville will not be in evidence this post.  This evening was time well spent and very profound in the depth of its content.

 

First, a little on my impressions on Al Gore. I have always liked Al Gore and looked up to him as a political role model. I worked as a volunteer on his 1988 Presidential Campaign. I noticed even then he had something to offer the political landscape in this country. That was 20 years ago.  I have grown up and do not engage so much in hero worship or true believerism. Time will do that to you. As I have grown, so has Al Gore. We all remember Al Gore, Gorebot, a little stiff, a professional politician, a man of the Senate, and a dutiful, productive Vice President. Al Gore probably would have ended up as yet another footnote in a long list of politicians who come and go on the Washington scene, but he had his moment of personal evolution, born out of crisis, that led him to turn inward and re-examine himself in his role as politician. What at first might have been blind ambition by a young man in a hurry was transformed into what he has become today – a remarkable visionary, accomplished author, and tireless advocate and spokesman for the environment and citizen empowerment.  Gore’s defining moment game many years ago, following his 1988 candidacy for President.

 

He campaigned as a “Southern Centrist” whose main opposition was Jesse Jackson. On Super Tuesday he won Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Nevada, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. Gore eventually suspended his campaign and the nomination went to Michael Dukakis. Gore was on the short list of possible Presidential Candidates in 1992 when his moment of transformation began. On April 3, 1989, his then six-year-old son Albert was nearly killed in an automobile accident while leaving the Baltimore Orioles’ opening day game. Because of the resulting lengthy healing process, Gore chose to stay near him during the recovery instead of laying the foundation for a 1992 presidential primary campaign and it was during this time period that he wrote Earth in the Balance. Addressing the global climate crisis, Gore’s book went to become the first book to make the New York Times Bestsellers list by a sitting senator since John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. Gore was selected by Bill Clinton to be his running mate in 1992, and became a high-profile Vice President with a portfolio that included the Reinventing Government initiative and investing in the nation’s technological infrastructure. While he did not invent the internet, which he never claimed to begin with, Al Gore saw the potential for its power and a source to enhance democracy and a free flow of ideas long before many others did. Al gore was the Democratic nominee for President in the much-disputed 2000 election. In a time when our nation was faced with a political quagmire, with the results not known for nearly a month, a time when hanging chads and butterfly ballots entered the lexicon of public dialogue, once the Supreme Court Decision was handed down, Al Gore conceded the election with dignity and grace. In his remarks shortly after the Court released its decision, Gore said “…Now the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court’s decision, I accept it. I accept the finality of this outcome which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College. And tonight, for the sake of our unity of the people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession. I also accept my responsibility, which I will discharge unconditionally, to honor the new president elect and do everything possible to help him bring Americans together in fulfillment of the great vision that our Declaration of Independence defines and that our Constitution affirms and defends.”

 

In those gracious words, Al Gore once again transformed. Gone was Gorebot and policy wonk. I believe the measure of a man is not in how he handles victory and the triumphs in his life, but with the grace, humility and courage by which he conducts himself in moments of defeat and disappointment.  Citizen Gore licked his wounds and went on find a new mission – to set a new standard for what a private citizen can achieve.

 

Tonight’s lecture was in two parts – Al Gore speaking to the audience, and then having a sit down discussion with Russell Goldsmith, Chairman & CEO of City National Bank. Mr. Goldsmith is ranked as one of nation’s ten best CEOs and City National Bank, is dedicated to the community by providing clients with access to important financial services, including loans that support economic development and job creation. Goldsmith also gave the introductory remarks before Gore took to the stage to thunderous applause.

Now at the last Meeting of the Minds presentation at Radio City, there were quite the cast of characters both onstage and off.  We had Jim Carville on-stage, the poster boy for restless leg syndrome, clearly outlining the way the remaining Democratic primaries could play out, using blackjack as the primary metaphorical mechanism. We had the now famous “Bullshit” guy, who just kept screaming out Bullshit every time Tucker Carlson uttered a syllable.  I was kind of hard on Bullshit Guy last week. You see, tonight I became the evening’s version of “Bullshit Guy”, except I did not yell out explicatives. I am not one to yell out and make a scene, but I felt moved when Gore took the stage. I pride myself on having an extensive vocabulary, but all I could muster as the applause died down and Gore prepared to begin his remarks was to shout out “You Rock, Al!”  Didn’t rattle him at all, he laughed and said “I have to get a recording of that for my kids.” I am sure my lovely Brasilian counterpart wanted to crawl under her seat at my display of American lack of decorum, but hell, I voted for the guy two times for President and two times for Vice President. I had to say something.

Gore’s demeanor has changed and he was in both good humor, but there is also an emotional intensity about him that I have not observed in him before. He spoke with great appreciation about the generational makeup of the audience, baby boomers, world war II veterans, high schoolers and college aged young adults bonding together to hear about the challenges  that we face in America in reinvigorating politics.

Gore introduced himself by saying “I used to be the next President of the United States. I flew on Air Force Two. Now I have to take my boots off at the airport like everyone else” He described the aftermath of the 2000 election as “emotional whiplash”, and the reality did not set in until he and his wife Tipper were driving themselves in a rented Ford Taurus and he looked in the rear-view mirror and noticed there was no motorcade behind him. After a few more humorous anecdotes, including a false report that he and Tipper were planning to buy a Shoney’s franchise and run it themselves, Gore got into the groove of the evening’s discussion.

He described time we live in as an exhilarating in our personal lives and in our lives as a nation, we are “rich with possibilities based on the choices we make right now. The relationship between the human race and the Planet Earth has changed” Gore went on to describe the tremendous population shift in the last century, with the baby boom producing 2 Billion people and the world’s present population holding at 6 Billion and climbing.  The growth in population presents both a challenges and an opportunity. The power of new technologies, such as the Internet coupled with this growth in population has the created the potential for the average person to make an impact on thousands across the country and across the globe, “There has to be a dynamic shift in the way we think about the consequences of what we do The members of the greatest generation, those who fought in World War II, those who survived the great Depression thought about storing, husbanding resources, canning food, It came natural to them. The willingness to think about the future consequences of our actions is less now than it was then.”

Gore expounded on the idea that the need for instant gratification has infested both the business and media industries, and the impact upon future generations is less important than short-term business gains.  And when it comes to environmental policy and addressing the issue of global warming Gore said “we are managing the Planet Earth like it’s a business in liquidation.”

In Part Two of this article, I will expand more on Gores observations, the facts he presented, the possibilities for alternative renewable energy in this country, highlights of his one on one discussion with Mr. Goldsmith, and the renewed role the US could take in leading the initiative to making the commitment to renewable energy and climate protection. We’ll also hear from Caroline, a Brasilian citizen who shared the evening with me and get her point of view on this. This is a global issue and getting a global perspective on this evening will tie together this package with the beautiful ribbon it needs.

This was a different Al Gore I saw tonight. At times, he paused and got clearly emotional when he talked about the need for change. Al Gore is an admitted recovering politician, saying he is on Step Nine. He may no longer be a candidate, but he is a leader. This Al Gore brought his heart and soul with him tonight to Radio City Music Hall. He will not be a footnote in American politics.  He will be at the forefront of change on a global level. Maybe Al Gore did not envision himself as being the moral conscience of America and the world on environmental issues and reform when he first strolled through the halls of Congress and was out on the campaign trail. But he has clearly taken that mantle on, and wears this quite comfortably. He may not have gotten to the White House, but with his vision, and with our collective commitment, he may very well indeed bring us to the promised land.