Doris Kearns Goodwin on Meet The Press (3 December, 2017)

ICYMI: Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin joined the Meet the Press panel discussion about the uprising against sexual harassment and assault in American culture and the workplace: “I think it’s a mistake when people say that standards have simply changed. You can’t rationalize behavior in the past that was wrong. If it was wrong now, it was wrong 100 years ago, it was wrong 50 years ago. What’s changed now is that the victims are speaking up in a way that they didn’t 50 years ago. And they’re speaking not just by themselves, but in a chorus, and it’s become a movement….This is a watershed moment. I keep thinking of Bobby Kennedy’s talk in South Africa, and this exactly what’s happening now: ‘It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up (or a woman stands up) for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope…and those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.’ That’s what’s happening now….It’s not a moment that’s going to go away.” Listen to more of the conversation here.