• The wide variety of ways in which our leaders think about a perfect world.
  
  
• The dominant and recurring ideals that cut across political boundaries.
  
  
• How their visions expressed in paint differ from their visions expressed in words.
  
  

A short sampling of leaders featured in A Perfect World:

General Norman H. Schwarzkopf,
Commander of Allied forces,
Gulf War

"It's easy for me to say what I hope for in the world. No more war! I mean, human beings have got to find a better way of solving their differences than killing one another. People lose sight of the fact that there are about thirty wars going on out there all the time. There are all sorts of wars along disputed borders, and religious wars, that sort of thing. I'm convinced that wars aren't the answer to anything; they're temporary solutions."

Bernadine Healy,
President and CEO,
American Red Cross, 1999-2001

"I have no doubt that this place will be here in fifty years, but I certainly hope that it will not have been touched in any major way by weapons of mass destruction. With the proliferation of terrorism that we're seeing now, there are real concerns about these weapons being in the hands of people with no allegiance to international law, and without any recognition of the need to protect human life, even their own. I want a world that has been spared from that threat."

Alan Dershowitz,
High-powered attorney,
Best-Selling author,
Harvard Law professor

"I guess if I had one wish for the world today -- and this is going to make my mother very unhappy -- it is that we become less religious. I think religion has been a terrible, terrible innovation in the world in general. I think we needed it for years. But now I think people use religion, or god, as an excuse."

Arun Gandhi,
grand-son of Mahatma Gandhi,
Co-founder of M.K. Gandhi Institute

"The twentieth century has been the most violent century in history, and that is not something we can be proud of. I do believe that we as human beings can make this a more peaceful world if each of us attempts to do that. So, in the footsteps of my grandfather, I can plant seeds in the minds of people and hope those seeds germinate."

Delano Lewis,
former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa,
ex-CEO of National Public Radio

"The main thing about a perfect world is that we need to know more about one another. The world is much too divided, country to country right now. There's still too much racial, ethnic, and religious animosity, based on ignorance. I would like to see those things diminished, but I would add that charity begins at home, and there's so much to do here in the United States."