Inside the Main Event

Seen & Heard at the ServiceNation Forum

Power players from the world of politics, development, and Hollywood came together at Columbia University Thursday night to hear Barack Obama and John McCain take a day off the campaign trail to present their mutual support of volunteer service.

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**featuring soundbites from Tobey Maguire, Jeffrey Sachs, David Paterson, and Queen Noor of Jordan

Queen Noor's Words of Wisdom on J-School

Greg B spoke with Queen Noor of Jordan during a commercial break. "I applied to Columbia J-School and ended up deferring," she said to him, "and then within the year I was married. I always thought journalism was a good way to address the problems I saw."

Tobey Maguire AKA Spiderman on serving

Greg B. asked Maguire if he had ever volunteered for any of these initiatives. His reply: "I am interested in them but have not made a commitment to any organization."

Maguire went on, "For awhile I tried to decide what I wanted to do, did I want to choose an organization or start my own thing? I couldn't make up my mind, so I've decided to put one foot in front of the other and see where it goes."

Thanks for serving, Spiderman.

Gov. Paterson on serving while at Columbia U

Governor Paterson to J-School Student Greg B: "I wish I had taken advantage of more opportunities to serve while I was here [Columbia]."
Greg: "Was it a lack of availability or a lack of motivation?"
Gov: "Lack of motivation."

Obama on stage picture, by Greg Bocquet

Empty Seats! After all that?! photo by Greg Bocquet

Gov. Paterson gets a standing ovation

Photo by Greg Bocquet.

And AARP gets a word in...

Kim Sedmak, executive producer of AARP.tv speaks to service and the older generation: "People over 50 have an opportunity to make a big contribution to the volunteering community. The AARP has done a lot on behalf of this issue. We need to energize people."
-Greg Bocquet

Jeffrey Sachs speak to us

The director of the earth institute at Columbia University, and author of "The End of Poverty" says to our inside man, "We need more government funding but we need a variety of approaches. It really is a whole ecology that needs to be involved." -Greg Bocquet

The Brookings Institute speaks to us

David Caprara, head of the Brookings initiative on overseas service, says to our correspondent inside, "This event is building a mandate for both parties, it's bringing the parties together and that brings us together as Americans." -Greg Bocquet

Inside the Auditorium

Snippets of interviews by our man inside Greg Bocquet:

Kevin F. F. Quigley, Director of the Peace Corps:
"Young Americans today have a comparable inclination to service as those in the 60s, and I think they are going about it in a much smarter way."

"If you want to make an impact on the world, being at Columbia is a great start. I was here from 79 to 81 in the school for international affairs and the most significant experiences I had was the service work I did while I was in school here."

Jeffery Sachs - Director of Earth Institute at Columbia University:
"I think McCain sees things in a more militarized way, and that scares me."

"I think the whole question for us as a country is whether we will approach the world with a military mindset or a humanitarian one. We talk about this so little in our country, I wish we talked about it more."

"I hope the candidates don't see [volunteer service] as a substitute for a proper nationally funded development effort."