WE THE PEOPLE
desire of people to learn about that era , that ’ s great . And hopefully one day there will be a play about Madison that is as good as the one on Hamilton .
With public trust of the media at an historic low , do you think cultural institutions have a bigger role to play in connecting the past to the present for public audiences ?
When organizations like Montpelier have more attractive exhibitions , it makes more people want to come and therefore it helps more people learn about the history . A lot of what is being done in Washington , D . C ., now with American history is to make more things interactive . For example , the National Archives has done a very good job of making a much more interactive exhibition and the American History Museum at the Smithsonian is doing the same thing . I think the cultural institutions are well-respected today because they have done a very serious job of recreating what happened in the past in order to educate people today . Education is the most wonderful thing you can do with the human brain , and to the extent that humans can be educated about their history , they ’ ll conduct themselves better . That ’ s my theory . I ’ m disappointed that in some surveys it ’ s been said that high school sophomores can remember the names of the Three Stooges easier than they can name the Founding Fathers . Those are the kinds of things you want to correct .
How have you seen Montpelier grow in recent years ?
Education is the most wonderful thing you can do with the human brain , and to the extent that humans can be educated about their history , they ’ ll conduct themselves better .
What Montpelier has done in recent years is to elevate itself in status to where it ’ s comparable to Mount Vernon and Monticello . Those two sites have been around longer as tourist sites , but in the relatively recent past Montpelier done a very good job of catching up . And because it has a Constitution center , I think it ’ s made itself a place where people can do more than just visit the past . They can talk about the Constitution and the future . I think people are appreciating these types of cultural institutions making themselves more modern and engaging the public more than they did in generations past . I think Montpelier under Kat Imhoff ’ s leadership has done an incredible job and I hope to stay involved .
What type of example are you trying to set for other philanthropists ?
First off , I always remind people that philanthropy is an Ancient Greek word that means “ lover of humanity .” It doesn ’ t mean rich people writing checks . You can be a philanthropist by giving away your time , your energy , or your ideas . I encourage young people who don ’ t have a lot of money to give away — or anyone for that matter who doesn ’ t have a lot of money to give away — to do other things to give back to society because I feel we all have an obligation to give back to the society that we are a part of . In my own case , I came from very modest means , and now I ’ ve been able to achieve what I wanted to do , and so I want to give back to the society that made it possible . I ’ ve tried to encourage other people to do the same and when I make speeches or make gifts it ’ s designed to get other people to do the same , because I don ’ t have enough money to make all of the changes that I see are needed .
How does a guy who grew up with immigrant roots in a working-class Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore become the nation ’ s premier champion of the Founding Fathers ?
It ’ s an interesting question and it ’ s very complicated . You could say to yourself that my ancestors 250 years ago were living in some shtetl in the Ukraine . So why don ’ t I spend my time on the history of the Ukraine or Russia where my forebears were ? Why do I care about this country when my ancestors were not here ? I ’ ve often thought about that , and I guess in the end I just consider myself an American and that I am part of the American tradition . I recognize that all of these people were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and there weren ’ t many people who were Jewish , none that were Black and there were no women included in the system . But if you try to correct history by applying today ’ s standards to what happened a couple hundred years ago , you ’ ll be very frustrated . I ’ ve decide that this country is an exceptional place , and I ’ ve benefitted from it , and the people that created this country are Madison , Washington , Jefferson , and Hamilton , and some reverence for them is appropriate .
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