Susie Anderson
Staff writer
Chautauqua lost a cherished friend, and America lost one of its principled voices with the passing of Bill Moyers on Thursday. The former White House press secretary, renowned broadcast journalist, ordained minister and award-winning author died at 91 in a New York City hospital.
Moyers graced Chautauqua audiences several times, bringing with him reflections on morality, democracy and the shared American ideal. His words lingered long after the lectures ended, speaking both to the urgency of the moment and the timelessness of civic responsibility.
In 2016, the former aide to former President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered an Interfaith Lecture warning against rising inequality in the United States. Moyers deplored the rise of indifferent politicians and corporate elites and warned against an America that worked for the desires of the few and powerful rather than the many. According to a July 11, 2016, lecture recap in The Chautauquan Daily, a chorus of Chautauquans joined Moyers as he recited: “We the People of the United States do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States.” Moyers then said, “What do these words mean but that we’re all in the business of nation-building together?”
Moyers returned to the Hall of Philosophy in 2017 to moderate the Interfaith Lecture Series during a week themed “A Crisis of Faith?” In dialogue with spiritual leaders and scholars, he examined the role of faith in public life. Reflecting on the week’s conversations, he offered a poignant metaphor.
“I’ve often described journalism and journalists as beachcombers of the shores of other people’s knowledge and experience,” Moyers said, as noted in a July 16, 2017, Daily article. “I am, to a very real extent, what I gather. This week of beachcombing has yielded an exceptional harvest.”
During that week, Moyers delved into topics such as the exodus from organized religion, the collision of faith and oppression and the hope of finding community through spirituality. Reflecting on those discussions, Moyers reinforced the unique electricity of Chautauqua dialogues.
“Even to blink this week was to miss another lightbulb going off, a keen insight, a compelling metaphor, a thought worth holding and turning over in your mind again and again,” Moyers said. “I tried to take notes but kept suspending my pen just an inch above my notebook because I was mesmerized like a child at the ice cream parlor, confronted with 36 different flavors and wanting to taste each one. That’s Chautauqua.”
In his last visit in 2019, Moyers discussed the power of persuasion in saving democracy. In an Aug. 14 Daily article, Moyers warned against the concentration of wealth and lamented a fraying sense of trust in civic life.
“You cannot have Chautauqua without trust, you cannot have a state without trust, you cannot have a country unless we trust each other — basically, knowing we are flawed, we are going to make mistakes and that there will be mutinies in our midsts,” he said.
Echoing the foundational principles he had championed for decades, Moyers reminded audiences of shared responsibility: “Wherever we are going, we are going together, we are all together in this nation and on this planet; you and me, us. We are all called to affirm the big ‘We’: We the people.”
