The Bryan Series®

Krugman: Health Care Reform will Pass and will Work

In his New York Times op-ed column Oct. 26, Paul Krugman expresses his confidence that Congress will send a health-care bill to President Obama and that America will have reform after decades of consideration.

Citing Massachusetts' experience with reform, Krugman believes the national plan will have broad public support once it's in place.  Chances for success will be greater if it has "a real public option to keep insurers honest," he says.

He writes:  "The new health care system will be criticized; people will demand changes and improvements; but only a small minority will want reform reversed."

"This thing is going to work."

Quindlen Assesses Obama in Nov. 2 Newsweek Cover Story

Anna Quindlen, who spoke on "Choices and Changes" in the Bryan Series in April, assesses Barack Obama's presidency to date in Newsweek's Nov. 2 cover story.

She writes:  "This president promised to tackle the big stuff, swiftly, decisively, and in a fashion about which he was unequivocal, and voters took him at his word a year ago ... He is methodical, thoughtful, cerebral, a believer in consensus and process. In an incremental system, Barack Obama is an incremental man ... The president is a person of nuance. But on both ends of the political number line, nuance is seen as wishy-washy ...That's really how our government works, by inches."

She concludes by challenging readers: "So if the American people want the president to be more like the Barack Obama they elected, maybe they should start acting more like the voters who elected him, who forcibly and undeniably moved the political establishment to where it didn't want to go."

Quindlen, the former columnist, now writes occasional stories for the magazine.

Toni Morrison Receives Norman Mailer Lifetime Achievement Award

Toni Morrison, who spoke in the Bryan Series in March 2007, received the first lifetime achievement award presented by the Norman Mailer Writers Colony Oct. 20.

The awards dinner in New York City attracted literary lions such as former Bryan Series speakers Salman Rushdie and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

The writers colony is a nonprofit organization founded earlier this year, located at the home of the late author and Village Voice founder in Provincetown, Mass. It aims to help nurture writers in the spirit of Mailer, who died in November 2007 at the age of 84.

Among her many awards, Morrison is one of five Nobel Prize winners to speak in the Bryan Series including Paul Krugman, who will present a talk on global economic challenges Nov. 3.

Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project Promotes Multicultural Exchanges

In addition to being one of the world's great cellists, Yo-Yo Ma is a collaborator, innovator and educator.  In that spirit, he established the Silk Road Project in 1998.

The project has a goal of connecting the world's neighborhoods by bringing together artists and audiences around the globe.

It takes inspiration from the historic Silk Road trading routes, which were important paths for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between Asia and the West for nearly 3,000 years.

"I have always been more curious about what joins people together than what separates them," Yo-Yo Ma said about Silk Road.

When he speaks in the Bryan Series Monday, Oct. 26, expect to hear more about his passion for connecting people through the arts and particularly through the project.

The event is sold out.

Join the Friends of the Library for a Paul Krugman Discussion Nov. 1

Want to have a chance to discuss Paul Krugman's viewpoints as expressed in his books and newspaper columns?

The Friends of the Guilford College Library are hosting a conversation about Krugman with faculty members Ken Gilmore and Deena Burris Sunday, Nov. 1, at 3 p.m. in the Carnegie Room of Hege Library on campus.  The discussion is open to the public at no charge.  Refreshments will be served.

Gilmore, an associate professor of political science, and Burris, an assistant professor of business management, will center the conversation on "Paul Krugman’s World View."  They will draw from Krugman’s latest books and his columns from The New York Times.

Tickets for Krugman’s lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 3, are available at the Greensboro Coliseum Advance Box Office, online at Ticketmaster.com and by phone at 1-800-745-3000.

Subscribers Very Positive about Trudeau Program Experience

Bryan Series subscribers' response to the Garry Trudeau program that opened this year's series was overwhelmingly positive.  For the first time, subscribers received a post-event survey and more than 33% (a total of 194) were returned.

89.3% of respondents were very satisfied with Trudeau's presentation and 88.6% were very satisfied with the overall experience.  A small number of respondents were moderately satisfied and a handful were dissatisfied.

Subscribers were invited to comment about the event, and 183 comments were received. They focused on the length of the program (90-plus minutes, longer than average), traffic control and parking with a concert at the Coliseum Complex, the format of the Q&A session (obviously an important aspect of the program for our patrons) and the use of the screen by Trudeau to project some cartoon images (not readable from a distance).

We were particularly pleased to hear from one subscriber, who wrote, "The Bryan Series is one of the finest cultural offerings in Greensboro. Being a native of Southern California and only living here five years I greatly appreciate the type of sophistication your series continues to bring our city."

Thanks to all of you for your constructive responses, which our staff will take into account in preparing for future events.

You are always welcome to write us at thebryanseries@guilford.edu.

--Ty Buckner

NYT Review: Let Me Down Easy is "Continually Engaging"

Anna Deavere Smith's "Let Me Down Easy," at Second Stage Theater in New York City through Nov. 8, is "continuing engaging," Charles Isherwood wrote in a New York Times review of the play Oct. 8.

Smith, who speaks in the Bryan Series Feb. 28, "has created a loosely framed but vivid compendium of life experienced at its extremes, drawn about equally from the suffering and the ministering sides of the story," he writes.

Written, conceived and performed by Smith, the show focuses on health care in America from the perspective of a variety of well-known and not-so-well-known characters.

Gorbachev, Tutu Congratulate Obama on Nobel Peace Prize

Former Bryan Series speakers and Nobel Peace Prize recipients Mikhail Gorbachev and Desmond Tutu congratulated President Obama on receiving the Nobel Prize Oct. 9.

Gorbachev, the former Soviet Union leader who won the prize in 1990, said, "Your efforts have helped to bring about a significant change in the international climate. I feel close affinity to your vision of the global world and of relations among nations. Implementing it will require strong will, statesmanship and mastery of communication."  More coverage of his comments are here.

Tutu, the archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, who won the prize in 1984, said, "It is a very imaginative and somewhat surprising choice. It is wonderful.  He has had a very significant impact. It (Obama's presidency) has changed the temperature and almost everybody feels a little more hopeful about the world."  More coverage of his comments are here.

Gorbachev spoke in the Bryan Series in October 2004, and Tutu, in November 2005.

David Gregory Talks Kids, Dogs and Politics with Jon Stewart

David Gregory, who appears in the Bryan Series April 13, mixed it up with Jon Stewart on the subjects of kids, dogs and politics Oct. 8 on "The Daily Show." See the segment from the show here.

During the 7-minute interview Gregory told Stewart that President Obama has no choice but to tell Republicans that government is the solution to the nation's economic problems.

The funniest moments were when the 6-foot-5 Gregory stepped on stage, dwarfing the 5-foot-6 Stewart, and in the closing minute when Stewart stared at the camera and told Gregory's kids that "daddy doesn't love you enough to get you a dog." 

Tickets for the Gregory program are available here. 

Soldiers and the Impact of War: Garry Trudeau "Gets It."

 
Pultizer Prize-winning cartoonist Garry Trudeau opened the 2009-10 Bryan Series last night in front of an enthusiastic audience of more than 2,000. 

 

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Trudeau’s been writing Doonesbury for nearly 40 years – that’s an awful lot of ground to cover! Wisely, he focused on how Doonesbury has treated war over the years (picking up where he left off in an afternoon campus session with Guilford students).

 

Trudeau related how his early strips, which followed central character B.D. to Vietnam, depicted a “hippie Fantasia.” In later years, as Trudeau sent B.D. and other characters to Grenada, Operation Desert Shield and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he spent more time talking to soldiers and their families. Those modern plotlines have a great deal more verisimilitude as a result.

 

After a plot that saw B.D. gravely injured in the 2004 battle in Fallujah, Iraq, the Pentagon invited Trudeau to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center to meet wounded soldiers. He told a few of the stories of people he’d met there, like a woman who was guarding the roof of an Iraqi police station when she was wounded by an RPG attack, losing her left hand. Her teammates returned to the roof to retrieve her engagement ring. What struck Trudeau, he said, was how positive all of the wounded soldiers he met were, even after sustaining sometimes horrific injuries.

 

Later strips have depicted post-traumatic stress disorder, military sexual trauma and traumatic brain injury, the “signature” injury of the Iraq War. Again, Trudeau’s sensitivity to the voices of the soldiers he’s writing about impressed me. He seems to be deeply respectful of their voices and experiences.

 

That was particularly clear for me last night, as my parents (celebrating their 24th anniversary!) were attending. My step-father is a decorated Vietnam veteran. Growing up, I can remember times when he would meet another veteran, and something would pass between them. It was, for lack of a better term, a relaxation, as if they were both thinking, “Ah, finally, I don’t have to explain – here’s someone who gets it.”

 

If I came away from last night’s talk with anything, it’s that Garry Trudeau gets it.

 

--Sara Butner