A compilation of recent remarks made at Amherst.

“We choose to keep perpetuating a lie that keeps us comfortably dreaming of a past that never was and wishing for a future that can never be if all we do is just join hands and sing ‘We Shall Overcome’ once a year.”

The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago
At the annual interfaith service celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr., Johnson Chapel, Feb. 9, 2007
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“A whole generation of Americans has come to believe that serious political discourse is Eleanor Clift and Pat Buchanan screaming at each other.”

Journalist Joe Klein, author of Politics Lost and the anonymously written Primary Colors
At a lecture sponsored by the Victor S. Johnson 1882-1943 Lectureship Fund, the Octagon, March 1, 2007

“If the Times is not stopped, you’re going to see more and more leaks of these vital counterterrorism secrets.”

Gabriel Schoenfeld, senior editor of Commentary magazine
In a debate on whether The New York Times should be prosecuted for leaking details of National Security Agency wiretapping and
a program to detect terrorist financing, the Octagon, February 27, 2007

“If you leave that decision [of whether to publish classified information] to the government, you risk that government is going to cover up its own abuses.”

George Freeman ’71, assistant general counsel at The New York Times
During the same forum, part of the Colloquium on the American Founding

“My father had a look on his face that I had never seen before. He looked scared. Before I could discern what was happening, he got to the point: ‘I have Lou Gehrig’s disease.’”

Raj Borsellino ’09E
In an essay for the Amherst Story Project

Online Extra: More quotes from Joe Klein’s talk at Amherst:

“The First Lady snorted derisively.”

Klein, on Senator Hillary Clinton’s response to his claim that Primary Colors, his book about a philandering governor of a small Southern state, was a tribute to larger-than-life politicians

“This guy wrote a book on the audacity of hope and yet he isn’t very audacious.”

Klein, on presidential candidate Barack Obama. Klein added that he is “very hopeful” about the Illinois senator.

“I’m in favor of a universal draft.”

Klein, arguing that the country’s “ruling class” should face the prospect of mandatory military service

 “I think it’s absolutely essential to the country that you be better at this than we’ve been.”

Klein, encouraging Amherst students to engage in national and community service