Jeff, the lead singer and guitarist, was Thomas Jefferson, and down the list it went. John Adams , Benjamin Franklin-- with Lyn the producer-- but this whole thing was actually a history lesson.It was telling the same story of today about a group of disenfranchised young people who had a very, very strong message, but they weren't sure
many ways and so, this will serve as a blueprint and a challenge for the future, we think. John Adams : I look back at the founding of NRDC and I think about Stephen Duggan, now long gone, and James Marshall, Bob Marshall's brother, who was a great wilderness person,and James Marshall was a great environmentalist from the Adirondacks and helped write the state law that protects the Adirondacks and the Catskills; the Forever Wild clauses; and
So, NRDC was founded just over 40 years ago, I guess. Can you tell a little bit about the story about what actually inspired it and how it was born? John Adams : Do you want it?Pat Adams: I'll just start if off, okay?
So they thought it was time to start a national organization, built on the NAACP pattern, and I'll let John talk more about that. John Adams : Yeah, I guess it's appropriate to talk about what happened very quickly thereafter.I was at the US Attorney's office and been a litigator in working on criminal matters for five years, but we had a farm in the Catskills.
anyone my age, even though I was only-- Pat Adams: Never trust anyone over 30. John Adams : So, that three years put me at a disadvantage.But we worked at reaching an agreement about what it would be if we were able to start this organization and we agreed it would be a collegial place where we work together to
I'm curious, what separated NRDC and the approach that you took there from other environmental groups, as this movement really took off in the late 60s and the 70s? John Adams : Well, first of all, we had these new laws and a lot of the new laws were tobe written. And Ford Foundation funded six really talented lawyers and we were there to help write these
So, in that sense, NRDC constantly is adding to its staff, but with very specific departments. John Adams : Patricia has mentioned them, but through 1985, we didn't have a singleperson working on communications.
A lot of public attention was brought to it and it was a great victory. And those members came in and have pretty much stayed and membership has also grown since then. John Adams : I'll finish on that. The lagoon in San Ignacio -- we didn't know whether we could save this nursery, which is quite a remarkable place and I urge you to see it.It's eco-tourism now. The Mexican fishermen take you out in the boats, the baby whales come up and kiss you and it really is true--
Pat Adams: You kiss them, John. John Adams : I kiss them.It’s a remarkable place and so, we started using the Internet to get in touch with people and sending out letters and ads and everything else that you could do with the communications
But also, just how that has evolved? John Adams : Well, NRDC came to California in 1972, and came to Stanford and one of thefirst lawyers--one of the Yale group-- was John Bryson. He became, ultimately, the head of the Public Utility Commission here at a very young age, and then from there, became
box, and it will be finding new ways for clean energy and I think that's one of the essential things we need, and I think there's a great deal of hope. John Adams : Well, technology got us into this mess; it better get us out.And I think that's where all of us come from at NRDC.
What do you make of Prop 26, which did, and what seems like a little bit of a backdoor at the same things? John Adams : Annie, would you come up here?Annie: Hi, I'm Annie and I work on our California issues. Prop 26, I think there's gonna be
So, you don't necessarily have to make that separation. John Adams : Well, NRDC is not your typical example, but we are hiring every year. Wehave grown and grown and we're gonna continue to grow as far as I can see.
I don't think there's any turning the clock back. I think more people are getting jobs in the environmental world than on almost any of the other professions. John Adams : Pat Adams: Noah Horowitz: Honorary doctorate.
I don't think there's any turning the clock back. I think more people are getting jobs in the environmental world than on almost any of the other professions. John Adams : Well, we hoped you had that strategy. And I think it’s gonna have to
They had collaborated on the Declaration of Independence, and Adams went up to Braintree, Massachusetts And John Adams ' last words were, Thomas Jefferson still lives.
There's a famous case in a courtroom in Boston in which lawyers defend smugglers who have been illegally searched. And John Adams later in his life would say, everyone who watched that argument in court, there and then was a spark of independence born. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson writes in his bill of particulars about the king that one of his offenses
Not every family to be rich, but to have a certain level of economic liberty and independence. President John Adams pushed broad-base property ownership when he was in Massachusetts. And he wrote, "the only possible way of preserving equal liberty is to make the acquisition of land easy to every member of society."
Voila, you've turned a relationship of violent inequality into a relation where the victims are running around feeling inadequate all the time, making terrible apologies for themselves And John Adams has this quote saying, "Well we can't have majority vote.
president, when you look at some terrible political campaigns that have been run in times before this-- and Thomas Jefferson was one of the worst offenders when he ran against John Adams . And he hired people to write the most awful, awful things, untrue.
And Jefferson lived in mortal fear of this loss of the American experiment. He and John Adams , in particular, really saw the American Revolution almost as a child of theirs. It sounds very odd that they would have a child together, I guess.
He was then the first Secretary of State. If you look at John Adams , well, John Adams was no longer president.
possible as brief as possible to get your point across so even 2,000 years ago he was talking about breaking things up into three so in 1776 John Adams was going to ride the Declaration to break away from England and his committee came to him and said John we you're the most you have the most ethos out of anybody
He was then the first Secretary of State. And the other alternative is John Adams , the sitting President of the United States, the person who might have won the election if things had been
and that there will be mistakes. And I have a quote in my book from John Adams before the Revolutionary War actually when he defended-- he was a defense attorney, and he defended British soldiers who were accused of massacre of colonists.
But just to walk you through it-- and I should mention that the illustration on the left was by the local artist Wendy McNaughton, and the one on the right is by John Adams who also who worked with us on that video. So we take the food scraps-- I mean, even if you're really conscientious about food waste, there's still certain things like onion peels,
It was like, Jim, the perfect name for your new beer is Sacred Cod. His cousin, John Adams , who was the lawyer who defended the British troops.
Example-- "Money of the Mind: Borrowing and Lending in America from the Civil War to Michael Milken," and biographies. Another example, "John Adams : Party of One." His journalism has appeared in the "Wall Street Journal," the "Claremont Review of Books and Foreign Affairs." His television appearances include "60 Minutes," "Charlie Rose," and a 10-year stint on the "Wall Street Week" with Louis Rukeyser.
So let me say a word about "liberate" and Thomas Jefferson. So Jefferson writes to his friend-- or frenemy-- John Adams . He says, ours will be the follies of enthusiasm.
So I don't want to overstate the case, how important molasses and rum was in the origins of the American Revolution, but we should also not gloss over it. After all, it was John Adams who said, we should not blush to recognize the importance of rum and molasses in our War of Independence. But it's not just a story about the roots the Revolution.
jobbing at the time. I can't imagine having a drink with John Adams .
He was then the first Secretary of State. He was Vice President of the United States to John Adams .
will be presenting to a select few Americans, our highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. One of these few Americans receiving the honor is John Adams , right here. John is a true environmental hero and legend. With his wife, Patricia, he founded the NRDC back in 1970.
Franklin, and Abigail and John Adams . And I mentioned that even the liberal Christians of the 19th century in America like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Susan
it's the first free state. When John Adams wrote the Massachusetts Constitution, which was the U.S. Constitution, a lot of it was based on it, he said all men were born free.
Duel are great yeah the duel are so this is kind like John Adams with sex and
Brooks Adams, the grandson of John Adams , the great-grandson of -- sorry. The grandson of John Quincy Adams and great grandson John Adams . So from this, you know, family of people who
Because the thing that we would struggle with the most is if we said you know to John Adams or somebody, we'd like to do your opera but we'd
Voila, you've turned a relationship of violent inequality into a relation where the victims are running around feeling inadequate all the time, making terrible apologies for themselves I mean, I was actually going through just recently some of the writings of John Adams and others of the founding fathers, their reflections on democracy, which, of course,
I don't think there's any turning the clock back. I think more people are getting jobs in the environmental world than on almost any of the other professions. Bill: Thanks, everybody. John Adams : We want to thank Winnie and Bill. Thank you very much.
They had collaborated on the Declaration of Independence, and Adams went up to Braintree, Massachusetts But they had a mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush, who said to John Adams , this is a shame.
than that. And it's the idea that it really is better that 10 guilty people go free than that one innocent person be convicted. Why? Well, as John Adams put it, it's because the crimes and misdeeds are so numerous that you can never prosecute every single one of them and get a conviction.
He was 33 years old at the time, and he was tasked to come up with a draft that he would hand off to John Adams and Ben
And he wrote, "the only possible way of preserving equal liberty is to make the acquisition of land easy to every member of society." In fact, you might not know this, but after the American Revolution when John Adams was drafting the Constitution of the new state of Massachusetts a number of his colleagues suggested changing the name of the state of Massachusetts-- of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts--
He was then the first Secretary of State. Thomas Jefferson was the sitting vice president at the time, running against his own president, John Adams , in the election.
I wanted to add -- I noticed in the citation, I think, that Obama is listed on the website about the Presidential Medal of Freedom. One of the quotes, I think was from Rolling Stone, said, "If the planet had a lawyer, it would be John Adams ." Which I think, from what I know about John and about NRDC is very apt. So, why don't we start?
frugality" going on back then. Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams , all those guys were trying to get Americans to stop buying imported goods.