BILL MOYERS: Here at the Journal, we continually hold up to the light a multitude of beliefs and ideas that inform our democracy. We often explore the hopes and aspirations that sustain us as a people — what we and the rest of the world call "The American Dream." You can go to our website at PBS.org and tell us what you think the American Dream should be. You can also find many of the men and women who have appeared on the Journal and hear their vision for the American Dream.

KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: There's no one dream, but if I had to think of what I would hope for is respect, dignity, fairness, justice. Those are words that need to be fleshed in and filled in. But those to me are so much a part of what this country could be about.

WILLIAM GREIDER: It's not just about political reform and financial reform and dealing with global warming and dealing with an oversized military and etc, etc. It's about Americans kind of reconsidering what they really want in this society, and what really matters.

LEYMAH GBOWEE: My vision for this beautiful dream is that the military and the policies of your military will truly reflect freedom and justice for all and not impose themselves on countries that, quote, unquote, "are not their friends."

DOUGLAS BLACKMON: I think that we've arrived at a moment in American life when there's a willingness to talk about the past, talk about how to extend opportunity to everybody. And I think that we're on the verge of a very different kind of pursuit of the American dream, and in a way that hopefully, some of these terrible vestiges of the past finally fall away.

MELISSA HARRIS LACEWELL: It's always about collective action. It's not an end place to which we arrive; it's a process. It is the process of being together in our democracy. So for me the big question of the American dream has to do with whether or not we can together improvise and create something great.

BILL MOYERS: The conversation continues at PBS.org, where you also can read more about W.S. Merwin's life and work and view some of the Journal's other interviews with American writers. Just log onto PBS.org and click on "Bill Moyers Journal."

Next week, three theologians talk about the American crisis: sin, greed, and prosperity.

SERENE JONES: I love sin. It is not out of date. This financial crisis should show us that it is in fashion.

GARY DORRIEN: This is a society that has stoked and celebrated greed virtually to the point of self-destruction.

CORNEL WEST: You can't have a prosperity gospel anymore. The prosperity's gone. And the market is no longer model, at all. So where do we go?

BILL MOYERS: Serene Jones, Gary Dorrien and Cornel West — next week. That's it for the Journal. I'm Bill Moyers. And I'll see you next time.