MTP Transcript for Dec. 24

MR. MEACHAM: Well, to whom much is given, much is expected.

DR. WARREN: Good point.

MR. MEACHAM: And Americans are uniquely gifted. We have been blessed with abundant natural resources and liberties and it’s a great joy to live here.  And there is a kind of stewardship, I think, we owe to our children and, and future generations. The founders’ phrase was “generations yet unborn.” And I think the idea, you know, the commandment began in Leviticus, love thy neighbor as thyself, and I think that’s something we can all agree on, whatever our faith, whatever our doubts.

MR. RUSSERT: And to all our kids, they are always, always loved, but they are never, never entitled.

MR. MEACHAM: That’s right, that’s right.

MR. RUSSERT: The mandate of our generation.

DR. WARREN: What you think you own is really on loan.

MR. RUSSERT: “The American Gospel,” Jon Meacham. “The Purpose Driven Life,” Rick Warren. Thank you for a very uplifting conversation.

MR. MEACHAM: Thank you.

DR. WARREN: Merry Christmas.

MR. RUSSERT: And to you both.

Coming next, our MEET THE PRESS minute. Poet Robert Frost, 51 years ago, he was right here on MEET THE PRESS and wait till you see this memory of an 80-year-old man. We’ll be right back.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: Our MEET THE PRESS minute, 51 years ago, Robert Frost, right here on this set. We’ll be right back after this station break.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: Christmas Day, 51 years ago, Robert Frost was right here on MEET THE PRESS.

(Videotape, December 25, 1955):

Mr. NED BROOKS: Our guest on this Christmas Day is a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Mr. Robert Frost.

Robert Frost has now passed 80 years old, but he is still young in hope and in dreams, free from despair and pessimism. Mr. Frost is a man of deep loyalties to his land, to people in general, and people in particular.

Mr. LAWRENCE SPIVAK: Mr. Frost, is there any one of your poems that better expresses how you feel about America than any other poem?

Mr. ROBERT FROST: I suppose that’d be hard to narrow down. You’re—there’s, there’s one, one that’s historic, almost, you—if you want me to say it.

(Reciting) “The land was ours before we were the land’s. She was our land more than 100 years before we were her people. She was ours in Massachusetts, in Virginia. But we were England’s, still colonials, possessing what we still were unpossessed by, possessed by what we now no more possess. Something we were withholding made us weak, until we found out that it was ourselves we were withholding from our land of living, and forthwith found salvation in surrender. Such as we were, we gave ourselves outright. The deed of gift with many deeds of war, to the land vaguely realizing westward, but still unstoried, artless, unenhanced such as she was, such as she would become.”

And it all lies in that first line, “The land was ours before we were the land’s.” We had to belong to the land that would, that belonged to us. And that’s my nearest talking about America directly.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: At the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961, Robert Frost was to deliver a special poem for the occasion. The glare of the sun prevented him from seeing the copy. Instead, Frost recited from memory, “The Gift” outright, same poem you just heard.

And we’ll be right back.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: That’s all for today on this Christmas Eve morning. As we leave you, all of us at MEET THE PRESS hope you and your families have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas and a very happy new year. And during the holidays, we remember especially those men and women who are serving our country in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world. In that spirit, we are joined by the United States Navy Band Brass Quartet.

(United States Navy Band Brass Quartet performs “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”)

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