Turner Urges Students to Save World
• The media mogul tells a packed audience at Brown University that threats of nuclear war, overpopulation and environmental exploitation are putting the world at the brink.
BY GERALD M. CARBONE -- Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- In a speech at Brown University that some students called entertaining, offensive, and "kind of kooky," media mogul Ted Turner last night defended private-property rights and praised communist dictator Fidel Castro; called the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center "brave" men, then decried all violence as "stupid and uncivilized"; and warned students that Earth's environment will probably "collapse" in their lifetimes.
Speaking before an overflow crowd of more than 500 people in Salomon Auditorium, Turner compared himself to a modern Paul Revere, crying out, "To arms, to arms, environmental degredation is coming!"
The world is on the brink of collapse, Turner said, because of the threats of nuclear war, population explosion, and enviornmental exploitation.
In comparing the state of the world to a baseball game, Turner, owner of the Atlanta Braves, said it's like "the seventh inning and we're down by two" runs. "There's still time to avoid catastrophe. . . . We need to get a good closer in there and just shut them down. Not John Rocker," he said, referring to the former Braves pitcher whose comments about gays, minorities, and New Yorkers offended legions.
Turner's talk was titled "Our Common Future," but at times it was tough to discern a common theme. He began with a summary of his undergraduate days at Brown University, leading to his dismissal from campus in 1960 for having a girl in his room. ("It was either that or stay in the snow and she'd freeze to death. And I got caught.")
As Turner grew "more and more successful in business" -- and won the America's Cup off Newport -- Brown made overtures about welcoming him back to the community; eventually former Brown President Vartan Gregorian awarded him an undergraduate degree.
"So I graduated from Brown at 50," said Turner, now a white-haired 62. "Now I can say I'm a college graduate -- something Bill Gates can't do."
Turner segued to 1980, when he was drafting plans for the 24-hour Cable News Network (CNN). That's when he had to "bone up" on global issues and identified nuclear war, population growth, and the environment as mankind's most pressing problems.
He then produced a cartoon called "Captain Planet" to influence children to work for environmental causes. He asked audience members who had seen the cartoon to raise their hands, and he seemed pleased when most of the college-aged students did. "I thought of Captain Planet," Turner said. "In fact, I am Captain Planet."
Turner said that people in developed nations must adopt a global outlook and help those in developing nations. "The reason that the World Trade Center got hit is because there are a lot of people living in abject poverty out there who don't have any hope for a better life," he said.
Of the 19 men who hijacked the planes that hit the towers, he said, "I think they were brave at the very least." He asked for a show of hands of people who would act as suicide bombers for their country and got none.
In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, Turner revealed that despite the global reach of his media properties, he is something of a technophobe: "To me, a VCR is totally impossible. . . . Now my butler can handle it, but I have to get him up to turn it on.
"I think the Internet's great if you want to talk to somebody thousands of miles away who you don't even know."
Asked how young people can help save the world, Turner replied: "How you vote is important, too. A few more votes in Florida, and we could have had the best environmental president we ever had. Now we've got an oil man. He [President Bush] is another Julius Caesar. Just what we need."
Asked about plans for a "Star Wars" defense system to shoot down ballistic missiles, Turner said, "I think it would be a lot more cost effective to negotiate a treaty" with nations possessing nuclear weapons. "It's just more and more expensive all the time when we need to use the money for education, and health care and improving the human condition. I don't believe people should kill each other or hurt each other. I just think it's stupid and it's not civilized."
A student from Montana asked Turner whether he'd allow public access to his expansive land holdings in that state. "You buy it and you can share it," Turner said. "Can I live in your home with you? We believe in private property in this country."
Brown student Jennifer Edwards, of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, asked, "I want to know if you will help me stop suicide on my reservation."
"I'll tell you," Turner said, "I don't like suicide because my father killed himself. I don't know how to stop suicide. . . . I thought of it myself a number of times, but I decided I wanted to live."
When asked about his "greatest achievement," Turner responded: "My greatest achievement in life? My five children graduated from college and are reasonably successful, and that's the most important thing that can happen to a person is family."
Of course if Ted had his way, everyone else would only be allowed to have one kid.