PROGRAM GUESTS

WYNTON MARSALIS
Wynton Marsalis is a musical genius leading a renaissance of pure, mainstream jazz. The self-assured son of a New Orleans jazz pianist, he got his first trumpet when he was 12. At 14, Wynton made his debut with the New Orleans Philharmonic. He graduated from high school with honors and entered the Juilliard School of Music on scholarship. CBS Records signed the young Marsalis at age 19, and Wynton quickly became a trail-blazing hybrid, fluent in both jazz and classical fields. His debut album Remained on the charts for 39 weeks and was selected "Record of the Year." Wynton has received numerous Grammy Awards and nominations and five consecutive "Musician of the Year" awards. He is heralded as the most critically acclaimed jazzman of the decade.

ANTONIA C. NOVELLO, M.D.
Dr. Antonia Novello was the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, and is the conscience of the nation's health establishment. Dr. Novello grew up in a small town in Puerto Rico. She struggled with chronic illnesses throughout her childhood, never knowing a year without a hospital stay. Dr. Novello's triumph over her illnesses instilled in her a profound compassion and "the dream of becoming a doctor for the little kids in my hometown." Later, as a teenager, Dr. Novello did not tell her mother that she applied to medical school until after she was admitted "because of deep fear of failure." She graduated from the University of Puerto Rico Medical School in 1970, and earned a master's in public health from Johns Hopkins University, where she also completed her training in pediatric nephrology. Dr. Novello joined the National Institutes of Health as deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. As deputy director, Dr. Novello was responsible for the coordination of pediatric AIDS research. This inspiring physician and administrator was sworn in as the nation's 14th Surgeon General; the first woman and the first Hispanic ever to hold that position. Dr. Novello has launched major campaigns addressing the special problems of America's youth, overseeing the health of an entire "generation at risk."

NEIL SHEEHAN
Neil Sheehan is one of the nation's greatest reporters. He obtained the Pentagon Papers, which brought The New York Times the Pulitzer Prize gold medal for meritorious public service. Mr. Sheehan was an honor student at Harvard University before joining the Army as a newsman in Korea and Tokyo where he edited the Seventh Infantry's newspaper. Neil Sheehan moonlighted for United Press International and later took a full-time job with UPI in Vietnam at a salary of $100 per week. Mr. Sheehan became an award-winning Vietnam War correspondent In 1962, while serving as bureau chief, he met a dedicated career officer by the name of John Paul Vann. Sheehan used the life of Col. Vann as an essential metaphor for America's experience in the war, blending history and biography. A Bright Shining Lie took 16 painstaking years to complete, and is a brilliant and powerful work of enormous substance and ambition that earned Sheehan the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award and the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

SENATOR ROBERT KERREY
Robert Kerrey has been the Democrat Senator from Nebraska since 1988, and serves on numerous committees.

BACKGROUND

The Constitution of the United States does not state who can vote, only who can be barred from voting. The Framers avoided the issue of citizenship and gave the states the power to decide eligibility. Through the passage of constitutional amendments (the 14th, 15th, 19th and 26th), eligibility has changed.

Additionally, although the vote of each citizen counts, citizens of the U.S. do not vote directly for president. They vote indirectly, through electors. (See Article II, Section I of the Constitution.)

THE MEANING OF FREEDOM by Ambassador Sol M. Linowitz

Sol Linowitz was Chairman of Xerox Corporation. He became the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States and later was appointed by President Carter as Co-Negotiator of the Panama Canal Treaties. Ambassador Linowitz was the Personal Representative of the President for Middle East Negotiations during the meetings between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin.

Of all the rights and privileges we enjoy as American citizens, none is more significant or precious than the right to vote. It is also our greatest responsibility. For, by exercising our right to vote, we participate in the political process and assert our will as to who shall govern us.

Every vote matters because each vote is an important exercise of our freedom as citizens. When we add together the total of our individual votes, one by one, it becomes the will of the "We, the People." It was those very words "We, the People" that the founders of our republic used in the Preamble of the Constitution. Not "We, the King," or "We, the Royalty," but "We, the People" who came together to form "a more perfect Union" based on the idea that every person has the inherent right to be treated with respect, dignity and fairness -- as a child of God.

The idea goes all the way back to the year 1215 -- to some simple words in the Magna Carta: "To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice." When our forefathers had finished binding up the wounds of our Revolution, they adopted a Constitution and a Bill of Rights to assure preservation of the freedoms for which they had fought. So they put into the Bill of Rights magnificent restraints which would entitle the individual to say "no" to the Government and get away with it. In the 1st Amendment they provided that there could be no law abridging freedom of speech, religion or press. In the 2nd and 3rd Amendments there were restraints against the people's right to bear arms and against forced billeting. In the 4th Amendment they outlawed unreasonable searches and seizures. In the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Amendments they spelled out the lessons they had learned in the Star Chamber and in other dark places and provided for a right to a fair hearing, to a trial by jury, to avoidance of self-incrimination and to protecting life, liberty and property under due process of law.

Millions of people in other countries know -- sometimes far better than we do -- the value of these treasured rights and freedoms. At this critical time in world history, people who have come through the black night of oppression are hoping and praying for rights we take for granted. And many stand ready to die for democracy -- for the right to assert their will freely.

We who are blessed to be living in a democracy where these rights are assured, must not squander our birthright through neglect, ignorance or indifference.

To do so would be a betrayal of our heritage. The freedoms which have been transmitted to us cannot be stored away and preserved in darkness; they will not be strong and vibrant unless they are used. How we use them is a test of our commitment to democracy and of our understanding of the rich legacy which is ours as a nation and a people.

PRE-PROGRAM INVESTIGATIONS

Read the following sections of the U.S. Constitution: Article II, Section I; Amendments 14, 15, 19, and 26.

According to the Constitution, whose votes count? Was this always so?
In your school and in your home, whose votes count? Does everyone's vote count equally? How do you feel about this?
In other countries, who can vote? Select a country and investigate the voting laws. In reality, does the voting occur according to the law?