Gary Hart and Anna Holmes Display Abundance of Wit and Charm as Spoken Interludes Concludes Spring Season

Spoken Interludes’ season-ending, book-reading program was a resounding success as Gary Hart and Anna Holmes described their latest literary achievements in Hasting-on-Hudson on June 30, 2015. An audience of nearly 200 attended the dinner/book reading event.

Spoken Interludes’ has an uncanny knack for presenting charismatic authors. Andre DuBois Ill and Michael Korda are two of the many of its speakers who have captivated its audiences —and Hart and Holmes didn’t disappoint as the spring program concluded at the RiverView hall.

Hart is a former Colorado senator (1975-1987) and a former presidential candidate (he ran in the 1988 Democratic primary campaign). Hart’s new 240-page book, The Republic of Conscience, The Light in the Ruins, was released in hardcover on June 30, 2015, — the same day he appeared in the Spoken Interludes program.

In opening his talk Hart said, “The Government is corrupt,” but he added he did not mean that government officials take bribes or do anything illegal. He expressed dismay with the four billion dollars spent annually to lobby Congress and the executive branch, and he noted that more than 400 former members of Congress are now lobbyists.

“The cost of a presidential campaign has skyrocketed to 1 to 2.5 billion dollars,” he said, in explaining why candidates have become increasingly dependent on contributions from special interest groups. He said the time is coming, “when concerned citizens will confront the candidates” but in answering a question from the audience, he said he doubted this would happen in his lifetime.

Holmes spoke first reading briefly from an essay she wrote — one of 16 which appeared in Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: 16 Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids, released in April, 2015.