BOB EDGAR
April 24, 2012

On April 24, 2012 Jonathan Fanton sat down with Bob Edar for a discussion about his work as head of Common Cause, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to increase transparency and accountability in American politics. For more information on Common Cause, click here.

Good evening. I am Jonathan Fanton, Interim Director of Roosevelt House, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to our ongoing program on the election of 2012. Tonight we have a very special guest, Bob Edgar, who is President of Common Cause, a movement of over 400,000 members determined to improve our democratic form of government. Its mission statement is direct, powerful and inspiring: “Common Cause is dedicated to restoring the values of American democracy, reinventing an open, honest and accountable government that serves the public interest and empowering ordinary people to make their voices heard in the political process.”

That statement resonates with one of Roosevelt House’s central themes: to encourage the Hunter community, especially students, to engage in the political process. Voter registration is available on the first floor of the Roosevelt House. And our Public Policy Program is helping first-time voters understand how to translate their views and opinions into informed votes whether for individuals or on issue referenda. Indeed, this is a theme of our ongoing series, The Road to November: Exploring America’s Challenges on the Way to Election 2012, which examines the key social, political, and economic issues preceding the November 2012 Presidential election. You might be interested in our next event in this series on May 8, when Jonathan Alter will engage Ira Shapiro in a conversation on his latest book, The Last Great Senate.

Surely, this series would impress Franklin Roosevelt, who said in one 1938 address to the nation that:
“The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.”

I am particularly pleased that Bob Edgar is part of this program. I joined the Board of Common Cause not only because I believe in its mission but because I think Bob Edgar is an extraordinary leader.

Trained in theology at Drew University, he was the United Protestant Chaplain of Drexel University until being elected to the House of Representatives in 1975. During his six terms in the House Congressman Edgar led efforts to improve public transportation, fought wasteful, pork-barrel projects involving the country’s water usage and supply and authored the community Right to Know provision of Super Fund legislation. After Congress, he was President of the Claremont School of Theology for a decade and then served as general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ.

Under his leadership, Common Cause has new energy and focus. He will tell us, I am sure, about the Amend 2012 campaign aimed at cleansing our electoral system of the pernicious influence of big money. And the Common Cause spotlight on redistricting programs, efforts to modify the filibuster system, improve government accountability and transparency, challenge the tax-exempt status of the American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC), and much more.

A recent poll suggests increasing numbers of Americans distrust our political process and policy formation. A Fall 2011 Congressional Budget Office poll found that 89% of Americans say they distrust government to do the right thing.  In a recent Gallup poll a record low 10% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing and 86% disapprove. An April 2012 Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 64% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track (washingtonpost, April 11, 2012).

That is a dismal and deeply disturbing commentary on the state of our democracy which was founded as a “city upon a hill” to set a standard for the world. No wonder that our Constitution no longer serves as the model for new democracies.

A recent New York Times article entitled “The Constitution Has Seen Better Days” notes that “Among the world’s democracies, constitutional similarity to the United States has clearly gone into free fall” since the end of World War II. Even Justice Ginsburg said in a speech in Egypt earlier this year, “I would not look to the US Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.”

This is not a state of affairs we should allow to continue. It is time for the American people to transcend party lines and engage with bipartisan organizations like Common Cause to get our democracy back on track.

Bob Edgar will share with us his ideas on what we as citizens can do. After his remarks, he and I will have a conversation for 10 minutes and then open up to your questions and comments.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Bob Edgar.

VARTAN GREGORIAN
April 17, 2012

On April 17, 2012 Jonathan Fanton sat down with Vartan Gregorian to discuss his renowned career as an educator, scholar, and philanthropic leader.

Good evening.  I am Jonathan Fanton, the Interim Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute.  This historic building, home to Eleanor and Franklin, and Franklin’s mother, Sara, is now the center of Hunter College’s Public Policy program.  In addition to teaching and research, Roosevelt House sponsors programs that bring policy maker together with faculty, students and the general public to discuss issues of the day.

Tonight’s program is a little different.  I have long wanted to have a series of public conversations with the most interesting people I know personally, people I have met in my years at President of the New School and the MacArthur Foundation but also through civic activities such as Human Rights Watch.

My first guest was former Mayor Ed Koch.  Our conversation, no surprise, focused on the local state and national political scene.  Next was a conversation with Agnes Gund, former President of MOMA who is one of our country’s most articulate advocates for the arts and art education, a major collector and a builder of cultural institutions.

Tonight is a very special evening for me as we welcome one of my very closest friends, Vartan Gregorian, a mentor who has taught me much about the world, different cultures, indeed life itself.  We first met when we both came to New York, he as President of the New York Public Library and I as President of the New School.  His appointment as a Professor of History at the New School accelerated the revival of the New School’s Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science.

Vartan has lived an amazing life.  Born in Tabriz, Iran of Armenian parents, he went to elementary school in Iran and secondary school in Lebanon before coming to Stanford in the late 1950’s where he earned both his undergraduate and Ph.D. in history.  He taught at San Francisco State, UCLA, and The University of Texas before coming to the University of Pennsylvania where he was the founding Dean of Arts and Sciences and then Provost.  We came to know him for reviving the New York Public Library in the 1980’s before moving to Brown University as Provost.  And I had the pleasure of being his colleague again when he became President of the Carnegie Foundation when I was President of the MacArthur Foundation.  We are both healthy skeptics of how large foundations work and so at the annual meeting of the big foundation Presidents we took care never to make eye contact lest we share a knowing smirk as one or another of our colleagues was going on about saving the world.

For all of his leadership accomplishments, Vartan is at heart a teacher and a scholar, one of those rare administrators who continued teaching.  His books on Islam and the emergence of modern Afghanistan have founded renewed relevance.  And his The Road to Home is the most honest and sensitive autobiography I have read.

Our mutual friend Bill Moyers describes Vartan as “an erudite charmer, a master of the handshake and bear hug, …..a champion of the public good.  His passion for education, philanthropy and friendship is contagious.”  And his colleague of many years, John Silber, said “He has the innocence of a baby, the integrity and dedication of a saint and the political skills of a Talleyrand.”

To that I would simply add that Vartan is the most loyal friend I know, always there to share the high points and cushion the reverses.  He manages to see the world in all its complexity, a realist but not a cynic, an optimist but not a romantic, confident but humble.

We are all glad that the road to home brought Vartan back to New York.

Vartan, you are our north star, brightening our lives, putting our institutions on a sure course, making a complex universe more comprehensible and humane.

A wise woman once said you don’t build a reputation or make a name for yourself on what you are going to do.  You just do it.

Vartan, your grandmother would be proud.

And I hope I have followed the advice she gave you as a youth: “Don’t insult a crocodile before you cross a river.”

So here we go.

On March 7, 2012 Jonathan Fanton sat down with Agnes Gund to discuss her career and the ways in which an engagement with the arts can enrich American society. Gund has served on the boards of MoMA, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Frick Collection. In addition, she is the founder of Studio in a School, a not-for-profit that brings professional artists into New York City’s public schools and helps teachers connect art with other academic subjects.

March 7, 2012

Good evening. I am Jonathan Fanton, the FDR Fellow at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. This historic building, home to Eleanor and Franklin, and Franklin’s mother, Sara, is now the center of Hunter College’s Public Policy program. In addition to teaching and research, Roosevelt House sponsors programs that bring policy makers together with faculty, students, and the general public to discuss issues of the day.

Tonight’s program is a little different. I have long wanted to have a series of public conversations with the most interesting people I know personally, people I have met in my years as President of the New School and the MacArthur Foundation but also through civic activities such as Human Rights Watch.

My first guest was former Mayor Ed Koch. Our conversation, no surprise, focused on the local state and national political scene. Tonight will be different. My guest is Agnes Gund, a dear friend from whom I have learned so much about the arts and about life. She is one of our country’s most thoughtful advocates for the arts and art education, a major collector, a builder of cultural institutions and a force for shaping public policies that nourish our cultural lives. It is appropriate we gather under the approving gaze of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt who did so much to advance the arts during the Depression. Think of the Federal Theater, Writers and Arts Projects that nurtured photographers Dorothea Lange and Gordon Parks whose work you passed as you came in.

Aggie and I first met at the New School through a great lady, Vera List. Vera asked Aggie to serve on a committee to collect art for the public spaces at the New School and to loan to students for their rooms. The committee helped create the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, which sponsors lively programs about the larger role of the arts in our society.

Aggie strongly supported the New School’s legal challenge to the Helms amendment that aimed to prevent government funding for art deemed obscene or indecent. The New School refused to accept the Helms condition and sued the NEA, a case that the NEA settled by dropping the Helms language from all of its grants. We would not have been able to take on this challenge without the support of Agnes Gund and her colleagues.

Agnes Gund has done more for the arts in our city and country that anyone I know. She has been Chair of MoMA, now chairs its International Council, has served on the Boards of the Getty, the Frick Collection, the Barnes Foundation, her home town Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland. And that’s only a sample. She has been honored with the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton, and the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. She is a leader in art and cultural policy in her role as Chair of the mayor’s Cultural Affairs Commission and the New York State Council on the Arts.

There is much more but I want to mention just one more thing, something I suspect may mean more to her than all of the above. She is Founder and long-time Trustee and supporter of the Studio in a School Association. She started that organization in response to a 1976 decision to cut arts and music from the curriculum of New York’s public schools to save money.  From modest beginnings in three elementary schools in 1977, the program is now in 160 schools, K-12. Aggie challenged the system to restore funding for art and music. And Studio in a School  now supplements the standard curriculum with opportunities to learn painting, drawing, and sculpting from professional artists, helps teachers incorporate art into their standard subjects, offers art workshops on Saturdays and during vacations, and provides teacher training programs for advanced students.

For all of these accomplishments and accolades, Agnes Gund is a humble, decent, caring person and a loyal friend. She understands how the arts enrich our lives, deepen our humanity, bridge cultural differences, call forth the best in us to imagine a better world. And fire our determination to work for a more just and peaceful society with opportunity for all. She has exquisite taste in art, a laser instinct about people, unstoppable confidence in the potential of young people, courage to say what she thinks and to express her values in action.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Agnes Gund.

On October 24, 2011, Jonathan Fanton sat down with Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York City, to discuss his career, New York politics, and relevant issues in the country and city today. 

Good evening. I am Jonathan Fanton, the FDR Fellow at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. This historic building, home to Eleanor and Franklin, and Franklin’s mother, Sara, is now the center of Hunter College public policy program. In addition to teaching and research, Roosevelt House sponsors programs that bring policy makers together with faculty, students, and the general public to discuss issues of the day.

Tonight’s program is a little different. I have long wanted to have a series of public conversations with the most interesting people I know personally, people I have met in my years as President of the New School and the MacArthur Foundation but also through civic activities such as Human Rights Watch.

I am delighted that my first guest is our former mayor, Ed Koch, who is a good friend and mentor. When I came to the city in 1982, Mayor Koch helped educate me about the mysteries and marvels of our city. He asked me to serve on a committee to review the state of the city’s homeless shelters, which was my first deep exposure to that challenge. And through my work as Chair of the 14th Street Union Square Development Corp., I saw how well the city worked under Ed Koch as I came to know his senior team like Parks Commissioner Henry Stein, Housing Commissioner Paul Crotty , and Deputy Mayor Alair Townsend.

As we became friends we had lunches and dinners together on a regular basis, occasions from which I always learned, not just about New York but about national and international affairs.

So what we are about to do is to bring you in on our ongoing conversations.

If there was ever a person who needed no introduction it is Ed Koch. Most of you have followed his career starting with the reform club Greenwich Village Independent Democrats through which he unseated long-time boss Carmine DeSapio as district leader.

A City Council seat came a year later and then in 1968 he was elected to the House of Representatives in a district that had not elected a Democrat since FDR’s first term. Among the marks he made in Congress, was as a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations where he proposed a cut-off of foreign aid to right-wing governments. Then in 1977, after winning a heated primary, he was elected mayor at a time when the City was on the financial rocks. He said, “We have been shaken by troubles that would have destroyed any other city. But we are not any other city. We are the city of New York and New York in adversity towers above any other city in the world.”

That deep faith in the people and institutions of our city, combined with hard work, courage, imagination, and a first-rate team, bought New York back from the precipice. And as the City regained control over its finances and its destiny, Ed Koch moved us from the defensive into a creative period.  After years of instability and looming fiscal ruin, Ed Koch put New York back on a sound financial footing. He balanced the city’s budget and encouraged the growth of business in New York. He implemented a merit-based appointment system for judges, passed ordinances barring discrimination against gays and lesbians, and introduced the most ambitious housing program in the nation that stabilized our neighborhoods.

Speaking of neighborhoods, it was under Ed Koch that the first Business Improvement District was created in Union Square. He showed us that government and the community could work together to revitalize places like Union Square. Now there are 66 BIDS in all five boroughs – and mayors all over the country have followed his lead.

And life after Gracie Mansion has been full: columns on politics and world events, the best movie reviewer I know, appearances in more than 60 films and TV shows playing himself, and nearly 20 books from memoirs to mysteries, including a touching candid exchange with John Cardinal O’Connor. Ed Koch has remained relevant, a force for principled discourse unconstrained by the bounds of political correctness.

So I have violated the “Needs No Introduction” rule long enough. Let’s get on with the conversation.