Government & Politics

Mary Fisher was the face of AIDS/HIV at the Republican National Convention in 1992 where she gave a speech imploring the party to lift the "shroud of silence" about the disease. Fisher comes from a wealthy prominent Republican family. Her father, Max Fisher was Honorary Chairman of the Bush/Quayle '92 National Finance Committee. Since she went public about her HIV-positive status, Fisher has been an eloquent voice in the fight against AIDS misinformation and discrimination. She's also the founder of the Family AIDS Network, Inc.

The final report on Iran contra by independent counsel Lawrence Walsh has just been released. Terry talks with Peter Kornbluh about the reports findings. Kornbluh is senior analyst on U.S.-Latin America policy at the National Security Archive and editor of "The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History," (published in 1993 by the The New Press).

Documentary filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus. Their film, The War Room, is a behind the scenes look at the Clinton presidential campaign from the New Hampshire primary to the election. Pennebaker and Hegedus chronicled the campaign through the eyes of its two main strategists, James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.

British Journalist Timothy Garton Ash. George Kennan has compared Garton Ash's powers of political observation to those of de Toqueville's. ASH's beat is Eastern Europe, and he has been on hand to chronicle the popular disavowal of Communism there (Garton Ash's classic account of the Prague Uprising in 1986 is "The Magic Lantern"). His most recent book concerns the German Re-Unification, and what Germany's role will be in the new Europe: "In Europe's Name: Germany & the Divided Continent" (Random House).

Harry Wu is a resident scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He came to the U.S. from China where he was held in a prison labor camp for 19 years. The son of a wealthy banker, Wu was a newly graduated college student when he was arrested in 1960 and denounced as an "enemy of the revolution." In the camps he endured torture, starvation, and he learned to "stop thinking in order to survive." In 1979 he was released.

Wu, who survived 19 years in Chinese labor camps, died Tuesday. Born in China, Wu had lived in the United States since 1985 and was an active proponent of human rights. Originally broadcast in 1994.

Former special assistant for National Security Affairs under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, McGeorge Bundy. He's co-authored a new book with Admiral William Crowe, "Reducing Nuclear Danger," XXXX. Terry will talk with Bundy about the threat that still exists of nuclear disaster from such countries as Iraq and North Korea.

Senator Paul Simon. He's been spearheading the campaign in Congress against TV violence. Simon has given the networks and cable a January 1st deadline to come up with a way of regulating themselves, or face regulation by Congress.

Senator Paul Simon. He's been spearheading the campaign in Congress against TV violence. Simon has given the networks and cable a January 1st deadline to come up with a way of regulating themselves, or face regulation by Congress.

Marjorie Heins is the director of the ACLU Arts Censorship Project. She's also written the new book, "Sex, Sin and Blasphemy: A Guide to America's Censorship Wars." (The New Press)

Terry continues her discussion about television violence with the former president of NBC Entertainment, Brandon Tartikoff and then with TV critic David Bianculli.

There are 100 million land mines in place around the world, left over from wars and conflicts. They continue to kill and maim thousands of civilians each year. Human Rights groups are calling for the banning of land mines. Terry will talk with two individuals about this: Eric Stover, Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights. He's one of the authors of "Land Mines: A Deadly Legacy," a study about the medical and social consequences of land mines in Cambodia. And with Stephen Goose, Washington director of the Arms Project, a division of Human Rights Watch.

Former Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy in the Bush Administration, Charles Kolb. He's written a new memoir about what went wrong with the Bush administration, how they dropped the ball on "gains" made by the Reagan administration. It's called, "White House Daze: The Unmaking of Domestic Policy in the Bush Years." (The Free Press).

Terry talks with a young man who has been through the program at the Camden County Youth Center, a juvenile detention center in Camden, New Jersey: Derrek Penny.

Mary Previte. She's the administrator of the Camden County Youth Center. Over the 19 years she's been at the CCYC, Previte has witnessed the increase of violence in our society, and the effects on among America's young. Previte says that most of the kids she sees live in terror, knowing violence as the only way to express their emotions. Fourteen years ago Previte started a student newspaper called "What's Happening", establishing a dialogue between herself, the kids, and the community.

Terry talks with two young men who've been through the program at the Camden County Youth Center, a juvenile detention center in Camden, New Jersey: Eddie Budah and Derrek Penny. Budah will read some of his poetry that has appeared in the Center's newsletter, "What's Happening."

Novelist Albert French. He found inspiration for his first novel, "Billy" (Viking), in the true story of an 11-yr-old getting the electric chair in the 1930's. "Billy," is the story of the "legal lynching" of a ten year old boy in the deep south who inadvertently kills a white girl. French writes in "Delta" dialect, epitomizing racial hatred in America. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Readings from the PEN American Center's benefit for Bosnian Writers, "An Evening For Sarajevo", held last night in New York City. Fifteen American writers read from their work to raise money for the writers of Sarajevo for food and supplies; writers in the besieged city are fighting to keep their literary culture vital and undiminished in a time of war.

Bosnian Journalist Zlatko Dizdarevic, an editor of the only daily newspaper in Sarajevo which has continued to publish during the war, and the author of "Sarajevo Under Siege: A War Journal," (Fromm International). He read last night at the PEN American Center's benefit, "An Evening For Sarajevo".

Doctor Marcus Conant. In the early 1980's Dr. Conant was among the first doctors in San Francisco to treat AIDS cases. Now Dr. Conant heads the largest private AIDS medical practice in San Francisco. After his 1985 study on how condoms block transmission of the AIDS virus, condoms became a household word. Dr. Conant is the director of AIDS Clinical Research Center and the co-director of the Kaposi's Sarcoma Clinic at the University of California at San Francisco.

Ed Ryder and Reverend James McCloskey The story of one man's fight for freedom. Three days after Ryder arrived at Holmesburg prison to do time for theft, he was accused of murdering a prisoner in his cell block. For twenty years, Ryder fought to prove his innocence... the city of Philadelphia rallying behind him. Reverend James McCloskey, who helps prisoners he believes are unjustly convicted get pardons, spearheaded the efforts for Ryder's release. Now Ryder is a free man.