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American Morning
Lynne Cheney Discusses Children's Book
Aired May 27, 2002 - 09:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: She's the wife of the vice president, but Lynne Cheney is well accomplished in her own right. She has a Ph.D.; she is an author. She's also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Lynne Cheney is also passionate about the past, and she talked about that in a new children's book covering everything in American history from A to Z with Paula.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This latest project, called "America: A Patriotic Primer," a book which actually proceeded -- or at least the beginning stages of it -- September 11. So you had come up with this idea that you wanted American children to understand what makes the country so great.
LYNNE CHENEY: Well -- and during the campaign -- you know a campaign, a presidential -- a vice presidential campaign is such a wonderful thing in many ways -- you see the whole country in this compressed period of time. And we had our grandchildren on the campaign plane much of time.
I just really wanted to tell little kids about what a great country this is. And, of course, after September 11, the project took on a new dimension and an added importance for me and for Robin Glasser, the wonderful illustrator that worked with me on this book.
ZAHN: And as we talk, we're going to try to show as many of these illustrations as we can. I think what captured my attention was on the "A" page, which is "A is for America, the land we love." You have one of the more poignant stanzas from "America the Beautiful," where you wrote, "Oh, beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears."
CHENEY: After September 11, I had a real question whether we should continue to use that particular stanza from "America the Beautiful." Because there were so many tears, and I didn't know, could we keep saying that our cities were undimmed by human tears, and New York in particular. But the New York people working on the project, my editor and Simon & Schuster, they felt very strongly that, you know, by gosh, that is right. You know, we've taken a blow, but we're going to pick ourselves up and go on. And this is exactly the right thing to say. ZAHN: Before we let you go, so people have a complete understanding of how this book goes, you basically go A through Z and you tell America's history through these pages and really introduce American children to sports heroes, writers, poets.
CHENEY: Founding fathers. You know it's really important that our kids know about George Washington and John Adams and James Madison. It's important that they know as well about other heroes who have helped us live up to the great ideals that our founders put forward, people like Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
One of my favorite things about this book is it begins in New York Harbor. The last letter, Z, "Z is the end of the alphabet, but not of America's story. Strong and free, we will continue to be an inspiration to the world." Z takes place on the coast of California, and it's a sunrise.
And there's a wonderful quotation from Ronald Reagan. It says, "I think that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead." This is the American story, and we need to let our children and our grandchildren know what a great country this is and what an amazing story it has.
ZAHN: Well, my 8-year-old read this...
CHENEY: Oh, I'm so glad.
ZAHN: ... and loved it. And I don't think he knows what good medicine it was. You know, you tell kids they're going to read about American history -- Oh, yes, yes, yes. But this was a really nice easy approach to learning more about that.
CHENEY: I have an 8-year-old granddaughter, and she read it too. And she read the quotation from Thomas Paine -- it's on the "D" page -- and it says, "We have it in our power to begin the world again." Hearing this little 8-year-old voice reading that, you know, it just made me understand all over again how precious this country is and how dedicated we need to be to it so that your child, my grandchild, their children, their children's children will be able to live in liberty like we do.
ZAHN: A wonderful thing to be reminded of on this Memorial Day Weekend. Thank you very much for dropping by.
CHENEY: Thanks for talking with me about the book.
ZAHN: Nice to see you in person for a change.
CHENEY: It's great to see you.
ZAHN: Take care.
CHENEY: Thanks.
ZAHN: Have a good holiday.
CHENEY: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Nice chat. Lynne Cheney there.
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