Life's work / Alison Beard

An interview with retired U.S. Senator George Mitchell is presented. Mitchell was a working-class boy from Maine who grew up to be the majority leader of the U.S. Senate and, as envoy to Northern Ireland, one of the most respected peace negotiators in the world. Now 81, he explains his ethos in a memoir out this month. When attempting to start a dialog with warring factions, Mitchell said the challenge is not to get them to talk, because everybody will talk, but to get them to listen. Mitchell said an individual's authority is derived largely from the respect and trust that person has been able to generate. Mitchell believes there's no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended. He said conflicts are created, conducted, and sustained by human beings; they can be ended by human beings.

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