This man could have been our president:
An excerpt from Al Gore’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

When we unite for a moral purpose that is manifestly good and true, the spiritual energy unleashed can transform us. The generation that defeated fascism throughout the world in the 1940s found, in rising to meet their awesome challenge, that they had gained the moral authority and long-term vision to launch the Marshall Plan, the United Nations, and a new level of global cooperation and foresight that unified Europe and facilitated the emergence of democracy and prosperity in Germany, Japan, Italy and much of the world. One of their visionary leaders said, “It is time we steered by the stars and not by the lights of every passing ship.”

…

The great Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, wrote, “One of these days, the younger generation will come knocking at my door.”

The future is knocking at our door right now. Make no mistake, the next generation will ask us one of two questions. Either they will ask: “What were you thinking; why didn’t you act?”

Or they will ask instead: “How did you find the moral courage to rise and successfully resolve a crisis that so many said was impossible to solve?”

We have everything we need to get started, save perhaps political will, but political will is a renewable resource. So let us renew it, and say together: “We have a purpose. We are many. For this purpose we will rise, and we will act.”

Instead…we got the man who said all of these things:

The following poem is composed entirely of actual quotes from George W. Bush:

Make the Pie Higher

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It’s a world of madmen
And uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the internet
Become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish
Can coexist.

Families is where our nation finds hope
Where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!

And we got him twice.

In a past life, I worked as a Spanish teacher at the Millbrook School in Dutchess County, NY. It was a brief but intense experience, and I have very strong memories of both the people and the campus. Sometimes I wish I had some kind of amazing DVD to commemorate my time there…

…and now I do! Thanks to my friend David Pecchia at the Millbrook development office (and the many people who worked on it), everyone who has fond memories of Millbrook can relive the good ol’ days with “Down School Road,” a DVD commemorating the school’s 75th anniversary. The design of the packaging and the production quality of the DVD itself are gorgeous. From the moment I opened the slick folder to the fade-out of the last bonus feature, I was wowed. Not to mention more than a little bit emotional.

Of course, while the DVD was produced and given to thousands of people in honor of the school’s 75th year, it is also a fund-raising tool. The folder contains an Annual Fund donation form (convenient! although I already gave this year, Dave) and understated shout-outs (if such a thing exists) to major donors throughout the film. Other organizations seeking monetary gifts, such as my old alma mater, could learn much from this DVD.

The main lesson? In the modern age, there is no excuse for shoddy marketing materials. This DVD surely was not cheap to produce (despite the donated time and efforts of Millbrook students, faculty, and alumni) but its quality will be evident and appreciated by everyone who receives it in the mailbox this December. Even though I already gave to Millbrook this year, I was reaching for my checkbook halfway through the film. Imagine what alumns who actually have money will do when they see it! That new sustainable math and science building is as good as built.