The Robert MacNeil Report; Bicentennial

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can good evening i'm jim lehrer in washington and robin is away tonight well it's finally here the fourth of july weekend that major peak in our yearlong celebration of the nation's two hundredth birthday tomorrow in sitka alaska of their log rolling and axe throwing contests there's a five hour hear shelling colorado springs colorado a quilt auction of lake park in philadelphia they'll be cutting a five and a half stories high birthday cake and here in washington it will be a big parade down constitution avenue on sunday before he'll read the declaration of independence at independence hall in philadelphia and at faneuil hall in boston the huge tall ship event operations area will take place on the hudson river in new york city the ringling brothers barnum and bailey circus will do a special bicentennial performance in pine bluff arkansas all a pony express rides will win in el paso texas will be any fireworks extravaganza here in washington that night and on and on throughout the weekend and throughout the country the celebration will go on and

we thought it was the appropriate time to stop and take stock of how we are celebrating our birthday what we're putting into it and getting out of it and what it all adds up to in terms of a lasting effect in maine now the official organization in charge of the bicentennial celebration is the american revolution bicentennial administration known as part of its major thrust has been to encourage a grassroots type of celebration in other words getting people from citgo alaska alike our talented new york and boston and so on to do their own unique kind of celebrate this localized approaches seen in this tv commercial one that are built without to encourage bicentennial activity centennial is bringing new life and

let's remember john warner is the administrator of art but when he took over the job in april nineteen seventy four it became his responsibility to pick up the pieces from the original american revolution bicentennial commission which was dismantled after charges of political corruption among other things mr warner is also a former secretary of the navy was warner is what's happening this weekend what you had in mind is the way the bicentennial should be celebrated family due to corrections on that the earlier introduction first i'm not in charge of the bicentennial the people united states are in charge of the bicentennial and secondly i didn't realize how old that tape was it mentioned two thousand communities there now with thirteen thousand came at these flying the nation's bison when your fly with those corrections made it satisfies is what you want i

hope that there would be more but basically we've come a long way in the brief two years that i've had the opportunity to take a leadership role in the bicentennial again we're up to thirteen thousand communities i brought with me today the computer index which will be placed in the archives united states to show what has been done for the nation's bicentennial by the people whose records over fifty thousand different programs and that's an interesting there's just as much activity west of the mississippi as if to be found east in the midst of a giant the whole united states all fifty states and all of our employees are involved you feel basically then that your localized approach or grassroots approaches it says it's called was the way to go and you feel you might cause they satisfied well what about them the question that there's been no real national focus north finally that it brings in all of the all of the americans and the one thank you know that's important to the fourth of july weekend because a

country on a solid awakening to what's been taking place for a long time and buy something you actually it was terrific and remember we started in nineteen seventy four lexington concord so that many activities are computer shows about eighteen thousand have taken place already so the country is now beginning to realize what these millions of people what i've characterized as the largest the most massive volunteer movement we've seen as the spy history of our country what they're doing i'd mac was it all has no bed of roses un your arbor colleagues have been criticized for loudly in fact for allowing of the celebration of become a bonanza of commercialism red white and toilet paper etcetera etcetera etcetera that's what you're built the first time it's our right we can take the criticism but let's make certain that people understand that they were a nation of collectors we've always wanted to collect things and be the federal government has no business trying to censor either what is being said or what is being viewed on the media or what is being manufactured nine states

let the free enterprise system operate and were the critics in my judgment have made a mistake they've underestimated the good judgment of the american people to decide for themselves what they want to hear what they want to see and what they want to buy souvenirs of the bicentennial the store and then i take it then you were completely satisfied with the bicentennial celebrations worked out just exactly the way you wanted to if you could change anything you wouldn't guess i go to the people in charge of the bicentennial i think they've done a superb job in putting it together and it's just tremendous mosaic of thousands upon thousands of individual activities which is a gift to the nation far better meanwhile several large event was a great big world exposition in the city artifacts there is another bicentennial organization that has been promoting a whole different kind of birthday celebration it's called the people's bicentennial commission and they're fanatic message is summed up in this commercial seventeen percent of the american public they were keeping our economic system

the way it is when the rest of us was seventy eight percent of the state were changes in the american economy fifty two percent of the american public feel employees should determine broad company policy and sixty seven percent of us want more discussion on such issues want to know more like people bicentennial commission washington dc two zero zero three six mr rifkin that mr warner just mentioned is jeremy rifkin is the founder and director of the people's bicentennial commission must reckon has been a radical activist for the past ten years and he's the author of two books on economics common sense to the case against corporate tyranny an upcoming book called economic democracy first literate and i wanna know more i do want to know more about those statistics jonathan in the commercial how do you know that that many americans feel that way about the economic system well back last year we commissioned one of the nation's top public opinion pollsters peter hart research and the posters for cbs and washington post not organizations dr masters series of questions of the american public to find out where the american people are

happy with his economic system or whether they want fundamental changes in it and if so what kind of changes the results of that survey some of which were on that commercial surprised us to some extent but i think it shocked many people here in official washington it suggested that justice two hundred years ago there was a change in the sentiments in affections of the american people toward monarchy and out rule by the king we've seen in the last few years a change in the sentiments in a faction the people in relation to the economic system we live under where millions of americans are now beginning not only to question its authority and legitimacy but they're beginning to demand that we buying democratic principles into that sphere of american life are now to your organization the people's bicentennial commission what did you set out to do when you set yourself up and how did you realize those goals and short when you accomplish if anything well it's about ways of answer the first second we're two objectives in mind we felt there was a

need to have a different perspective on the nation's to honor the anniversary to the one the government and the big corporations and the public relations man on madison avenue were preparing we did have a revolution two hundred years ago there were firebrand radicals many of them like sam adams and campaign and patrick henry our men and women that diet personally i see is mile heroes and it's seen to be rather strange that today on the eve of our celebration that said this revolutionary movement in these radical ideas and thoughts were being taken over next procreated abide that time the richard nixon's of the country we wanted to provide a broad range of education materials and programs to requite people with the great revolutionary condition of seventeen seventy six in the first anti colonial struggle two hundred years ago so we set about providing materials and program survivors churches civic organizations schools etc the other part of our objective deals with contemporary issues that we've failed the revolution has not been yet completed and that dead today that we have a new set of

monarchs in this country the giant corporations which to our way of thinking god i made american life out as surely as king george did again without being elected government and we feel these giant institutions aren't really accountable to the public so our second objective has been to try and update the revolution to talk about a new movement in this country to extend the principles of the decoration into the economy and what he accomplished blown out well that's a hard question i am not sure what we've accomplished to tell you the truth that here as we move into the july fourth weekend i think we perhaps have a small effect perhaps a dent in terms of trying to reawaken a revolutionary of the radical conditions in american history i certainly has critics of the dui bicentennial i think we've had some impact in terms of the of toning down some of the ghost commercialization chris you folks about them with third have not escape criticism either your vanities are promoting kind of mccarthyism trying to entice corporate

secretaries to china to turn in their losses corporate watch determine their husbands for all its corporate misbehavior my question is this is turning out is turning in your husband or your wife that any kind of american ideal if you want a huge arsenal for the dual and i guess that facade like to clear up something we never called upon the families to turn to turn and anyone for corporate wrongdoings which are referring to is the twenty five thousand dollar reward there we extended two secretaries employees of giant corporations if they do come forward with evidence are relating to criminal wrongdoing by major corporate executives you know there the corruption in a giant corporations to me is very similar to the corruption we face down the colonial legislatures in the market two hundred years ago unlike then perhaps after they are many americans i think are very upset about corruption in high places but are reluctant to stand up and speak out because of fear of job recrimination or loss of financial security and offering his twenty five thousand dollars we hope to

encourage decent hardworking americans to come forward with information they might know about these terrible abuses would hope that the money itself would allow a financial bikers for them in case they did suffer a financial rescue ensure no regrets about none whatsoever is a menace that we gave out our first report last week and i think that particular case our narrative the attention was a mobile else are the legal are sanction breaking active in supplying the rhodesian economy with all its gasoline and diesel fuel in contravention of us law and i think out of that particular case to me is this isn't part of the east india company is collaboration with a crown two hundred years ago mr rivkin thank you dr richard gambino is a philosophy professor at queens college in new york city and teaches courses and ethnic studies in the intellectual history of america he was appointed by president ford to serve on the advisory council for the bicentennial and they know what you think of the two approaches mr warner's mr reagan's organizations have taken the celebration beginning with his the reforms approach i have some problem of the first i think his

organization's exploiting bicentennial for an ideological purpose and he's using the newsstand means in the vices madison avenue means in that isis is described and that is that the crying on their use by large corporations are as a new american history many followers turned away from the notion that america should be radicalized from the very beginning of the revolution itself and it turned into a revolution of the rights and dignity in moderation and writes bouncing rights and self correction and then there is the euro revolution was to create a system which would be self corrective not too great an ideology which would be a panacea but turning to the government's federal government's approach i think the emphasis on local communities has been fined however those that is not to exclude some national focal events or even their national football programs in english and how some of those are also i think that the the emphasis on the seventeen seventy six period has been overdone and not enough

emphasis has been put on the two hundred years of history there were sort of what happened after the rubble of the onset of a sobering numbers that and us with a human being a nation i think also looks at itself and says wharton some ideas of life now outsource only remaining what do i make of the ones that had the years i've had women make of what's remaining now the answer has been some emphasis on this but not enough the i would've like to have seen more of an understanding of the american people themselves who really don't understand ourselves we focus on the founding fathers we focus on the history and has always been taught and then various ideologies you criticize history where another ah but the my mind of a scene in the movie taxi driver were well meaning presidential candidate gets into a cab than scared and mayer says managers when i go around the country about young people thinking and then

just pours fourth level of compliance and you gotta do something marvelous news directors nominate is not if you're overwhelmed but the gap between mr manning intelligent presidential candidate and this ordinary citizen i think is overseeing the united states today and nowadays neither one of these celebrations are these organizations it really touched or think they do agree reporter seymour that also would've liked to have seen more understanding of certain americans have their own pluralism is incredibly a pluralistic country we don't understand ourself different ethnic groups in this country to fund regional groups the different hopes and aspirations the different kinds of criticisms of corruption come from different sources ira a day by boston roman catholic would be very different than a mormon in utah perhaps no i wouldn't do with corruption another reason i think we form in this country isn't an elite that the fines issues and the elite is made up

well also a video of the only their world essentially the harvard professors and sort of define i'll what audi the issues whether it bars corporations weren't security environment and yet though we've lost though it will last or will always of hiring the people themselves to find how does that have been done i mean let's say that by some magic want somebody said okay i'm back again they now set up advice and toenail something or other that would have done what would you just suggested how the world couldn't have been done for too much of a teacher and i would go by the rule that they're retrospect this is brought to the future a real look at the two hundred years of american history where we came from who we are why we are the way we are real differences real confusion zell real bias ah would naturally lead them to certain hopes and an aspiration senate and then re examination assaults in the future we've always been a country where we thought were going to be the legal us postal reform the

world were in a b q or r i think we need to reexamine law this is an unrealistic view of human nature out the other side however i think we need to also look at the fact that something is with freedom house in new york texas are living here freely throughout the world witches the former political scientists towards political rights of minorities and the enchanters semi succinctly and surveys show that roughly forty five percent of the world's population sixty eight nations as care as not free one and inspections related from each country's where the one to seventy based on this criteria thirty five point three percent of the worlds population at four nations characters are three and only a less than twenty percent just on the twenty percent characters it's pretty sure there's still a work to be done and we should focus think we should've focused on that during the celebration i think that we've lost in the world will need to recapture and i wasn't doing most corporations will only stiffen at what point is is the way to recapture that there was a time when the world look to us i

really recently wrote something with no job although you to abraham lincoln in the american civil war issue the emancipation proclamation trouble he wrote a letter to him saying that his name would go down second only to jesus christ in history say do you know the world used to look to the united states and i think we found easy answers as the warrant doesn't anymore and it's not just the corporate corruption with it was much deeper than that let let's pick up on this now while free of the us senate from a slice of maryland said a nineteen seventy two court unless we do something the two hundredth anniversary of the american revolution will insist for the most part in activities that will make no difference at all in the lives of most americans stormed the question of course is what difference is the bicentennial making a lot of americans it is perceived and yes you know it's interesting i don't have one show they recite them advice and he takes a much more positive view now of the bicentennial and i think this is the boss to prove here for the national archives of how the people have come forth

and done it on their own for example you mentioned that the world doesn't look that is over ninety two foreign nations are involved in or buy some kind of this past week we saw a prime minister defends next week will be the queen of england they're coming here i think in many respects all of this nation and the people of what about the point though that the market and in a just mentioned which is the state of mind of the american as an individual market has the bicentennial caused anderson out and say okay what am i was american what is my country is america what do i want this country to be like two hundred years from now where we gon be really think that's a little serious way this is not all far works and rhetoric and parades this isn't really a record of course don't have been laid down in each of these communities across the united states do you realize before the community has the right to fly that simple the national bison things simple they have to show to our organization that at least one of the bison thing programs has some prominent impact on the community to

improve the quality of life the stricken with your view of this the lasting impact of the past well i think you know for a majority of american people they couldn't care less about the most of what's going on in the bicentennial i suspected that they might enjoy some upgrades on july fourth in a few of the other local activities going on the community i really take exception both these gentlemen i think the death of tom paine and abigail adams were to come back to america today they would be very ideological they would be very concerned about that the same kinds of issues that they face that we face now in contemporary american life i think we have to have up there we have to out to times square to grips with a central fact of american life today and that is for millions of americans the electoral process is a joke they don't vote for millions of americans the economic system in which we live does not offer equal access to decision making and to fulfilling life for millions of americans the american dream are all aspects of the american dream have not gone

sour and because of all this i think what we need is a it's a real spiritual and political re commitment to the same kind of principles that were fought for two hundred years ago again today in this country who thought about will enable us talk about what we got and terms of a bicentennial celebration do you think that those points of them addressed i think martin mr warner contaminants i think certainly the people's bicentennial is done are books and educational materials and programs as you know or having is like five thousand schools and seventy five thousand churches thousands of bloggers and six civic organizations course images are controversial not everyone agreed with him but i do think that there is quite a bit of substance in terms of historical meaning in terms of contemporary meaning for americans through these programs long lead to have about and it is you know we're often on through the past two years we have been the darkness but this is the first opportunity we've had to be together and and my background i've had the privilege to travel through every single communist country in central europe and i've seen for my own eyes the way they live and my judgment this

is the finest system in our nation it has its faults it needs to be corrected but when your organization which as you said started with action programs in schools and you really have the imagination and the excitement of young people when i came on board at the time that the country to discredit our predecessors might have this you have a and then you took this so like turn into the political arena and began to offer these rewards to secretary since that takes the wives and families and things like that you lost your constituency at the very time they were looking for leadership well i attended this is a matter of fact up as we become more political in the end are attacking these giant cork or asians in the politicians in washington and call for a wide sweeping debate about alternatives to bring democracy to the economy we have picked up more support in the last year among young people when i mean the young people i don't mean the young people are harvard yale and columbia young people that are flocking to support our efforts are coming out of the trade school's junior colleges the community colleges people are in the unemployment lines are the workplace

and who desperately want a new vision for themselves and how they get political change is never easy i don't mind being attacked his radical ideas as my art my look at american history suggests that every major movement that has fought for social and economic justice as have those attacks leveled at them because no allies that change our relationships gizmodo just have a couple minutes left out the gambino would you not agree if i interpret what you said earlier that these organizations were fined for what they what they had to say but they're just warn others also doing different things and you know one of the things we haven't done for exams both the boosters of america and the harsh critics america take they give the same idealized version of some concern the site was no unanimity only fifteen percent so the population was actively involved in the revolution the revolution of different things radically different things to help and the jefferson that is that the so called founding fathers america's always been a nation

of the contentious people people are uncertain in the future which driving pushing ahead of all sorts of conflicting visions exactly what we are now on a much larger scale of course his innocence and i don't think we'll be world will know except that feudalism future that years from now just how serious people to take the bicentennial it's like a man returns twenty or forty or sixty or human nose looking back twenty years just what it meant whether or not joe particular young people today will look back on this later and say i was there for the bicentennial is that memorable and that will have to wait and say let me ask you each one of you how do you plan to celebrate the person with a fork i want to be in new york harbor because i'm the son of so and immigrants and there in new york harbor i can see also unclear why american history museum so i think there is a place for young people on july fourth and to be celebrating here with a massive demonstration in celebration we celebrate the best of america's

revolutionary conditions here in washington and to demonstrate for political and economic justice along with people like jesse jackson and jane fonda and i think that's the place won't be going up president ford and his travels throughout america complimenting the job well done they deserve the credit for this price and joan thank you all very much so you can celebrate any way you wish celebrate your fourth in a way you will show whatever you do have a good time and we'll see one monday robin will be back then and jan morrow thank you and goodnight emily and generally the pay to

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