Lehrer, on Americans’ lack of cohesion.

Jim Lehrer: Well, at the risk of sounding political – and I don’t mean this politically at all – I think some of the awful things that have happened in the country [USA] recently are the result of our not having shared experiences as citizens of all races, creeds, ages, sizes, abilities, whatever.

We go to war, just a certain number of people do the fighting for us. And the rest of us aren’t even affected. On Iraq, I asked the President of the United States [George W. Bush] in an interview I did. I said, “Mr. President, you’ve said the war against terror is the single most important thing that’s come into this country, for the United States of America, in centuries. But have you not asked all of us to participate?”

“Oh well, you know . . .”

I don’t mean to put the President down; but the thinking isn’t that you have to sacrifice when there’s a situation that arises like war, or a Katrina.

Katrina; remember how everybody rose then, too? They say, “Oh, well what can we do about Katrina?” Go to New Orleans today. Go to the shoreline of Mississippi today. Misery is still there. We don’t follow up. We don’t feel responsible for New Orleans. We don’t feel responsible for Iraq one way or another.

I’m an American. I’m responsible for what happens in my name, and that’s how I feel about it. It’s one of those things that really bothers me.

I hate it that we couldn’t get our act together and help those people rebuild in New Orleans and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I don’t understand why we had to take military action against Iraq in such a way that caused the calamity that has resulted.

There are people in the world who hate us. I mean really hate us. You say “America” or “American"; we’re a red flag to a lot of people in the world. And it really disturbs me because we’re basically really good people. We have got to be given an opportunity to demonstrate our goodness. Our goodness has got to be called upon all the time. It can’t be haphazard. That’s the big lesson; the last several years leading up to this very moment; that if you don’t ask of the good, the good may not happen. And you get what you expect. And if you expect the best, then you have the means by which to call everybody to task. And you must absolutely need to encourage people, and to encourage us all to do better. And I don’t think we’re doing that. And that bothers me more than anything.

Recorded: July 4, 2007.