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New York City was the venue last week for me, as I was invited to participate in an Ideas Festival with a gathering of news makers from around the country. I guess I was included as the token “Redneck,’ but for whatever reason I was invited, it was a stimulating program and a lively debate about just who we are as a nation, and what directions the country should take in the years to come. Being a presidential election year, sharing various perspectives of the nation’s future was a challenging and rewarding undertaking. Below are a few of the participants that joined me in being a part of the program. They will all be guests on my radio program in the weeks to come.
David Gergen (with me above) served as key adviser to four presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He now teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School for Public Leadership, and importantly, he has a real warm spot for New Orleans.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Meacham, who is also Executive Editor of Random House Publishing Group was part of the idea sharing gathering. We swapped stories about his publishing company (one of the world’s largest) and my company, The Lisburn Press (one of the smallest). Oh well, I do have high aspirations.
Grover Norquist has gained a great deal of clout in the nation’s capitol as President of Americans for Tax Reform. His organization has asked all candidates for national office to sign a pledge not to raise taxes in the foreseeable future. Grover creates a lot of controversy, and I look forward to a lively discussion on the radio with him in the next few weeks.