A week of intellectual feasting began with a serving of appetizing ideas Monday at the Aspen Institute’s fourth annual Aspen Ideas Festival.
At the opening reception former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said, “We have to use technology to teach our young people about the structures of our government and civic engagement,” noting that her young grandchildren are glued to computer screens.
John Holdren of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the Woods Hole Research Center said “we have a decade” to take action to avoid the catastrophic results of “global climate disruption” from the burning of fossil fuels.
Shelby Steele of Stanford University said he “would like to see the end of white guilt” when it comes to race relations in America.
Actor and writer Peter Coyote said he wanted to come to the festival to tell “the great men and women of finance” in the audience that not all cultures are based on self-interest.
And Dalia Mogahed, a senior analyst for the Gallup Organization, said that a recent poll of 90 percent of the Islamic population in the world found that “Muslims don’t hate us for our freedom. They admire us for it and want more of it.”
These and other ideas were the first of many to be articulated and explored in 175 sessions to be held before the Ideas Festival ends on Sunday morning.
Monday’s quick presentations gave “a sense of the breadth and the depth and the passion of the ideas that we will be sharing this week,” said Elliot Gerson, the institute’s executive vice president of policy and public programs.
“A really good idea is when common sense and imagination collide,” said Walter Isaacson, the president and CEO, during his brief welcoming remarks, adding that “there is nothing better than a friend who shares an idea with you.”
Isaacson praised festival director and Aspen Institute Vice President Kitty Boone and conference director Deborah Murphy for their hard work putting together an event with 13 different subject tracks, including “Global Dynamics,” “Climate and Sustainability,” “Innovation and Technology,” and “India: The Most Important Country for the Future of the World?”
About 1,200 people have paid to attend the festival and share ideas and the institute has structured the event so that members of the public can also attend a wide range of events, mainly in the evening and at venues such as the Hotel Jerome and the Belly Up nightclub.
“We have a lot more public programs than we have ever had,” said Aspen Institute Communications Director Jim Spiegeleman.
Institute chair Bill Mayer said planning for this year’s event began the day after last year’s festival and that it has taken 12 months to select the 250 presenters from government, media, business and academia that will be in Aspen this week.
“Everybody here is important in their own area and has a lot of influence, and understanding how these people think is important for all of us,” Mayer said.
Former President Bill Clinton is speaking for the fourth year in a row at the festival. His presentation on Saturday at 5 p.m. will not be open to the public but KAJX, Aspen Public Radio, will be broadcasting his remarks live.
Hillary Clinton, who has spoken in Aspen during the festival, is not expected to present or attend this year.
Barack Obama, who spoke at the festival in 2005, is also not expected this week, although he will be in Colorado Springs on Wednesday.
Other important government figures who will be here include Secretary of Homeland Defense Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Rep. Jane Harman, who serves on the Intelligence and Homeland Security committees in the House.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, who has been mentioned as a vice presidential candidate, will be speaking together on Thursday, July 3.
Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado, who has written a book about stem cell research and policy, will be presenting, as will Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado.
A long list of media luminaries will be at the festival, including Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now!,” which is heard locally on KDNK and has a syndicated column in this newspaper, Arianna Huffington of “The Huffington Post,” author and humorist P.J. O’Rourke, Newsweek’s senior Washington correspondent Howard Fineman, The New York Times columnists and authors Thomas Friedman and David Brooks, Slate editor Jacob Weisberg, talk-show host Charlie Rose and public radio hosts Kurt Andersen and Brian Lehrer, who will either be taping or broadcasting shows live from the festival.
Many other recognizable names from different fields will also be presenting, including environmentalist Paul Hawken, Bush administration attorney and U.C. Berkeley law professor John Yoo, actress Tyne Daly, former solicitor general Ted Olson, former CIA director James Woolsey, and National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia.
“This is a mental and physical marathon,” said Randy Antik of Naples, Fla., a regular institute patron who plans on attending as many events as possible and is working on setting up a similar event in Naples.
Paulina Vander Noordaa, the off-site venue coordinator for the Ideas Festival, recommended that valley locals might be especially interested in a presentation by photographer James Balog on Wednesday at the Belly Up at 7:30 p.m. called “Ice on the Run: Extreme Ice Survey,” a presentation on Friday, July 4, at 8 a.m. at the Hotel Jerome called “Morality and American Foreign Policy” and the taping of the radio program “Studio 360” with Kurt Andersen and his guest musician Steve Earle on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Doerr-Hosier Center on the Institute’s campus.
“If people don’t have a ticket, they can always show up at the venue to see if there are open seats,” said Vander Noordaa.
She recommended that people use the Aspen Show Tickets Web site to purchase tickets in advance to the public sessions. Most tickets are $15 but the cost is higher if breakfast or lunch is included.
More information, as well as video highlights of the event, are available at the festival’s Web site, www.aifestival.com.
bgs@aspendailynews.com
