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George Mitchell
Presidential Medal of Freedom
One of my older brothers, Johnny, was a very famous athlete and went on to great exploits in college. For years, I was introduced as Johnny Mitchell's kid brother, the one who wasn't any good. So I developed very early a massive inferiority complex, and I've told the story often about how that inspired me later in life to get involved in other things, because I couldn't out-do my brothers in sports, and it's a very competitive relationship. So I got into politics, thinking that I might become mayor of our home town someday.
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George Mitchell
Presidential Medal of Freedom
George Mitchell: I was asked to go to the Middle East by Prime Minister Barak, Chairman Arafat, and President Clinton, and chaired an international commission there. The report which we gave to President Bush just about a year ago is one of the few things that the Israelis and Palestinians agreed on, at least rhetorically. President Bush has adopted it as a basis of U.S. policy in the Middle East. But our feeling of surprise and elation at the positive response by the Israelis and Palestinians has created an extra special discouragement at the failure to implement the recommendations in our plan.
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Scott Momaday
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Poetry, it seems to me and I'm pretty sure I'm right about this, is the crown of literature. To write a great poem is to do as much as you can do in literature. Everything has to be very precise. The poem has to be informed with motive and emotion. You're bringing everything that literature is based upon to bear, when you write a poem. I think of myself as a poet, I'd rather be a poet than a novelist, or some other sort of writer. I think I'm more recognized as a novelist, simply because I won a prize. But I write poetry consistently, though slowly. And it seems to me the thing that I want to do best. I would rather be a poet than a novelist, because I think it's on a slightly higher plane. You know, poets are the people who really are the most insightful among us. They stand in the best position to enlighten us, and encourage, and inspire us. What better thing could you be than a poet? That's how I think of it.
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Scott Momaday
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
When I published The Way to Rainy Mountain , someone who was writing a review -- or interviewing me -- said to me, "You know, you're very lucky to know who you are, with respect to your grandparents, your great-grandparents, five generations back. You know about that. I don't know that about myself, or my people." And that came as a surprise to me, because I hadn't thought about it, you know. And I had taken it for granted. But I sometimes think that the contemporary white American is more culturally deprived than the Indian, in that sense. Because very few people know about their ancestry, going back even a generation. I'm always appalled by students who -- you know, I say, "Well look, you've got an oral tradition. You've got a family oral tradition, if nothing else. Tell me about your grandparents." And sometimes they just don't know about their grandparents, and I find that very sad, and alarming, but it's true. It's true.
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Greg Mortenson
Best-Selling Author, Three Cups of Tea
I went behind the village one day. I saw 84 children sitting in the dirt. There was about five girls and 79 boys. And most of the kids were writing with sticks in the sand, and the older kids were helping the younger kids. And then I had looked around, and I didn't see a teacher there. And I thought, "This is very strange. We've got 80 kids here and no teacher." And they said, "Our teacher, Master Hussein " -- master means teacher -- " is in the next village, Munjung, because we can't afford his daily one-dollar salary." And then a young girl named Cho Cho came up to me. She was about seven or eight. She said, "Could you help us build a school here? It's very cold. Could you just please help us build a school?" I had seen a lot of poverty in my life. I grew up in Africa. And I've seen development, so those kind of experiences really shouldn't affect me to such a degree, but when I looked into her eyes, I saw such a purity and such a kind of resilient determination to ask me for help. So I made a promise. It was kind of this "eureka" moment, but I said, "I promise I'll build a school for you." And little did I know that I'd changed my life forever.
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Greg Mortenson
Best-Selling Author, Three Cups of Tea
K2 is a very beautiful mountain. In the Balti language, which is of the people there -- it's classical Tibetan -- K2 is called Chogori or Chogor, means "the big peak." It's a very symmetrical peak and granite mass -- you can put 84 Matterhorns inside of it -- but it's kind of reaching up to the heavens. Also, one of the reasons I decided to climb a mountain to honor my sister Christa is that the very same hour that my sister died, I actually was climbing in Mount Sill which is in the east Sierra Mountains in California, and I fell about 800 feet. And the exact same hour that my sister died from epilepsy, I fell about 800 feet down a mountain. And earlier in the day, I had seen a ruby-throated hummingbird up near the top of the mountain, and ruby hummingbirds don't fly at 14,000 feet. Afterwards, I kind of put it together. I think that hummingbird was my sister coming to say goodbye to me. So that's one reason I chose climbing as a way to honor her memory. But yet, I never knew that it would take me to a far greater climb and a more special way to honor her memory.
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