Archives
Strobe Talbott
Thursday, April 3
6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Boston Public Library, Abbey Room
In his new book, The Great Experiment, Strobe Talbott, former Deputy Secretary of State (1994 – 2001) and current president of the Brookings Institution, recounts the progression to a global nation (i.e. The League of Nations and the U.N.). Through the lens of history and personal experience, he assesses the prospects for global cooperation and the United States’ role in the process. What can we learn from empires and conflicts of the past? Can a world made up of many nations govern itself peacefully? Talbott joins us tonight to give us an insider’s opinion of current United States foreign policy and explain why he believes we should take the lead in multilateral global politics for the future.
Book signing will follow lecture and discussion
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Daniel Pipes & Amy Dockser marcus
Thursday, March 27
6:30p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Old South Meeting House
The Arab-Israeli conflict is century old and still not resolved. The dispute between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs over the same land — land that contains holy sites for the three major monotheistic religious: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — is bitter and deep. What is the nature of current tensions? What are their implications for U.S. policy? Tonight, Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Amy Dockser Marcus and Dr. Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum and a columnist for the New York Times Syndicate , focus on United States diplomacy in this conflict, debating whether it has been part of a peace provess or a war provess.
Book signing will follow lecture and discussion.
This program is presented in collaboration with the Old South meeting House as part of the partners in Public Dialogue Series.
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Anita F. Hill
Thursday, March 20
6:30p.m. – 8:00p.m.
Boston Public Library, Rabb Lecture Hall
As a laywer, scholar, and vivil rights activist. Professor Anita F. Hill, Brandies University, has shed light on the legal and social forces shaping our nation and served as an inspiration to those seeking justice and truth in the face of great personal risk. Launched into the public sphere by her testimony in Justice Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court Confirmation hearing, she used her potentially crippling experience to encourage those who have suffered from haassment and discrimination in the workplace to also “speak truth to power.” She First Amendment Aard and share her thoughts on her life and work. Moderated by Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Harvard University Law School.
Archives
Panel discussion. Speakers to be determined.
Thursday, November 13
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Old South Meeting House
Obama. McCain. Who will be sitting in the Oval Office on January 21, 2009? What does it mean for the future of our country? Supreme Court justices. The economy. Foreign policy. Global warming. Nuclear proliferation. Abortion. Energy security. Join us as we unravel the deciding factors that led one candidate into the winner’s circle — and then look forward to its impact on the coming years for our nation.
This program is presented in collaboration with the Old South Meeting House as part of the Partners in Public Dialogue Series.
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Gary Hirshberg with Nancy F. Koehn
Thursday, November 6
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
C. Walsh Theater, Suffolk University
Can one really do well by doing good? Savvy corporations of all sectors and sizes are now embracing an environmentally friendly outlook. Adobe is striving to make its campus carbon neutral. Car manufacturers are flocking to catch-up with Toyota’s hybrid Prius. Even Wal-Mart has retrofitted its stores with high-efficiency lighting systems. What are the incentives for entrepreneurs and business owners to “go green”? And what are the challenges they face as they seek to provide value for shareholders while staying true to their mission and morals? Gary Hirshberg, Chairman, President and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, joins Professor Nancy F. Koehn, Harvard Business School, to discuss how businesses are leveraging quality products, creative marketing, and cost-saving efficiencies to both enrich shareholders and make the world a better place.
Book signing will follow lecture and discussion.
Archives
James Carroll
Thursday, October 30
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
C. Walsh Theater, Suffolk University
Why are intolerance, violence and war so deeply ingrained in religion? Constantine’s Sword, the latest film by Oscar-nominated documentarian Oren Jacoby, follows James Carroll, Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University, Boston Globe columnist, and author of the forthcoming book Practicing Catholic, in his search for answers to this question. Looking to his own past and that of his religion, Carroll addresses the darker side of Christianity and explores the consequences of the religion’s influence on United States foreign policy. In what ways can religion inspire us to be better people? How can it lead us astray? And where do we, as a society, draw the lines between our religion and public life? James Carroll joins us to screen the film and address the blessings and perils of religion.
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Douglas J. Feith
Thursday, October 23
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Old South Meeting House
The following warnings appeared in a 2002 Bush administration memorandum:
• “US could fail to find WMD on the ground in Iraq.”
• “Post-Saddam stabilization and reconstruction efforts by the United States could take not two to four years, but eight to ten years.”
• “Iraq could experience ethnic strife among Kurds, Sunnis, and Shia…”
The author? It was Donald Rumsfeld, former United States Secretary of Defense, in a powerful analysis of the downsides of going to war in Iraq. Why then, did one of the decade’s most important foreign policy decisions go the other way? Douglas J. Feith, former United States Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (2001 – 2005), joins us tonight to discuss the dynamics of the first Bush term, and how we make foreign policy decisions.
Book signing will follow lecture and discussion.
This program is presented in collaboration with the Old South Meeting House as part of the Partners in Public Dialogue Series.
Archives
Jon Keller with Jeff Jacoby
Sunday, October 5
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
C. Walsh Theater at Suffolk University
Massachusetts. It is the proud birthplace of modern-day liberalism, and the nation’s foremost test kitchen for its agenda and political practices. It is also, some say, home to sluggish economic growth, insular political culture, and a government that often fails to deliver relief for the working-class people it claims to help the most. Are Massachusetts politics an ideal others should strive toward? Or have we led the rest of the country (or at least its Democrats) dangerously off course? Tonight Jon Keller, WBZ-TV News’ Political Analyst, joins Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe columnist, to review the ups and downs of our beloved state’s political culture and what can be done to carve out a “new frontier” of American leadership.
Book signing will follow lecture and discussion.
Archives
Laurence H. Tribe
Thursday, September 25
6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Moot Court Room, Suffolk University Law School
Between the lines of our parchment Constitution, renowned legal scholar Laurence Tribe argues, there is an “Invisible Constitution.” Tribe purports that some of our most cherished and widely held beliefs about our constitutional rights are not even included in the written document. How does this “Invisible Constitution” impact the central constitutional debates of our time – from gun control to abortion to wire-tapping? How has this framework for reading the Constitution evolved, and how does it work? Professor Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School, joins us to discuss how we interpret our country’s most important document.
Book signing will follow lecture and discussion.
Receive a free copy of the U.S. Constitution at the door.
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Jimmy Wales with Christopher Lydon
Thursday, September 11
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
C. Walsh Theater, Suffolk University
Across the globe we are building, editing, and contributing to a growing body of knowledge and tools at everyone’s fingertips. Volunteers in leaderless organizations contribute to online initiatives and articles. Software developers spend their free time collaborating with complete strangers. Amazingly, these efforts are creating products of extraordinary quality, sometimes better than that of large for-profit organizations. Why do we do it? Why does it work? Join us tonight as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales joins journalist Christopher Lydon to address these questions, where “web 2.0” will take us next, and how Objectivist philosophy guides his vision.
Archives
Thomas S. Blanton with Alasdair Roberts
Thursday, September 18
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
C. Walsh Theater, Suffolk University
Over the last eight years, Federal policymakers have struggled with contending claims about national security, executive privilege, and open government. Is the current administration excessively secretive? Or are its methods simply the most effective way to protect our nation in the post-9/11 world? Tonight, in recognition of International Right to Know Day, Thomas S. Blanton, Director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, joins Professor Alasdair Roberts, Suffolk University Law School, to discuss government transparency and suggest top reform priorities for the next President.
Book signing will follow lecture and discussion.
Archives
Alexander Ginzburg, October 18, 1981
“A totalitarian government usually arises with the help of one factor, namely mass terror. The human rights movement in the USSR began in the mid-1950s; it could not have come into being earlier because right before this, in the Soviet Union, there was a 40-year period of bloody, mass terror; approximately 66 million people were killed.
“After the October 1917 revolution, the number of intellectuals who remained could be counted on your fingers. The next victims were the peasants because they were the best carriers of the nation’s historical memory. By the mid-1940s, entire national groups were exterminated.”
“Stalin’s death in `953 ended the most severe and bloodiest repressions in the country. By 1956, people began to feel that they could no longer live under repression and wanted to be heard by the government.
“I had written a lot and was published a great deal but became frustrated with government censorship. The Soviet Secret Police arrested me after I had put out three issues of a magazine called Syntaxis. This ‘childish amusement’ cost me two years of my life spec in a labor camp.
“The human rights movement in the Soviet Union has attempted to form free trade union, much as the Solidarity movement in Poland. But so far Solidarity has not been successful in becoming a mass trade union movement. In 1977 the trade union leaders were placed in insane asylums (by the KGB) and still are sitting there”
Archives
Congressman Barney Frank vs. Cal Thomas, October 4, 1981
Thomas: “The Moral Majority’s main tenets are prolife, support of the traditional male-female relationship, anti-pornography and against legalization of drugs, and pro-American.
Today religion and religious principles are suffering from discrimination The trend in America is to secularize government and bleach the culture clean from religious influence. The Moral Majority is a pluralistic political group whose supporters are mad and not going to take it any more. However, the organization does not act as a political arm twister.”
Frank: “The Moral Majority invokes religious positions to argue for the illegitimacy of its opponents’ positions.”
Thomas: “The Moral Majority deplores the double standard toward the voice of the left vs. the voice of the right. Both sides have their nuts. We’re dealing with ours and I hope the left is dealing with theirs.”
Frank: “There are excesses by the new left that I find objectionable. The Moral Majority supports legislators who oppose abortions but also oppose child nutrition and day care. From their perspective, life begins at conception and ends at birth.”
Thomas: “The greatest danger, something worse then war, is to be silent, and the Moral Majority will never be guilty of that. We would rather be arrogant and accurate than be wishy-washy and afraid to speak out.”
Frank: “The Moral Majority’s attitude is, ‘We will decided and if you disagree you are immoral.’”
Archives
Norman Lear, March 29, 1981
“The religious New Right has grown so strong that it threatens the spirit of liberty for this generation. The ‘Christian New Right’ is threatening the freedom of expression of others through a rapidly growing network of TV and radio stations that is blanketing the country, espousing the same far right fundamentalist points of view while attacking the integrity and the character of anyone who does not stand with them.”
“These leaders and organizations have ever First Amendment right to express themselves as they wish. But if we agree that the American experiment is based on the conviction that a healthy society is best maintained- not by an attempt to impose uniformity but through free and open interchange of differing opinions- then the dogma of the religious New Right violates the spirit of the First Amendment and the spirit of liberty by claiming a kind of infallibility.”
“The religious New Right is making a claim to infallibility. To disagree with their conclusions on numerous matters of morality and politics is to be labeled poor Christian pr unpatriotic or antifamily.”
“The root cause of America’s problems is out choice of bottom-line behavior. No one will take the chance with an original idea – not when the name of the game is to win fast. In industry, government, or academia, leadership everywhere seems all ready to sell the future short for a moment of success.”
Archives
Daniel Yergin vs. Barry Commoner, October 26, 1980
Commoner: Our growing dependence on foreign oil is because of actions taken by the oil companies in their own self-interest. Oil companies should be turned into public utilities. People, not company profits, should run
Yergin: Although oil companies do make large profits, attacking them diverts attention from the real cause of the energy crisis- the political and economic implications of the world’s limited oil supply. The United Sates could use 30-40% less energy without sacrificing its present standard of living. Energy conservation is an issue of survival.”
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Isaac Asimov, October 12, 1980
“I predict an enormous industrial revolution in space. I foresee interplanetary expansion and industrialization as viable ways of solving many world and natural crises.
“All worldwide organizations will strive to work towards planetary expansion. Disasters such as the effects of a possible nuclear war, diminishing oil supplies, volcanic eruptions, and other possible mishaps could, if not addressed, lead to compounded problems.
“We should be spreading ourselves throughout the universe. Interplanetary expansion could lead to possible solutions to these problems and serves as an alternative place for people to pioneer to in the even of a catastrophe.
“More money should be invested in space exploration activities. There are enormous industrial resources in space. The true catastrophe is men using their time on foolish parochial projects.
”Unity amount nations is essential if interplanetary expansion is to be considered, Nations must work together in order for expansion and building or space settlement to take place.
Archives
Vance Packard, May 4, 1980
“The energy crisis is with us and the only way to deal with it in the next five years it to use cold turkey conservation. One of the most promising energy resources in the future will be nuclear fusion. But it will take 15 to 20 years before it will be fully developed. For the present coal is one of the solutions for the energy crisis, but coal is a nasty business. All alternative energy sources are promising but not for the next five years.
” We didn’t want to face the fact that we lived in a finite society, and today we are paying the price for our ignorance. Some people think it is their God-given right to jump into their air-conditioned cars and go to a night football game which lights the whole area for miles around with oil. In five years we will be in serious energy crisis, and in 15 years we will be out of petroleum.
“I don’t believe Regan when he says we can become energy self-sufficient if we decontrol the oil industry. One way to alleviate the oil crisis is to develop synthetic fuels. Another way is the use of corn as a fuel. But the use of corn might raise some moral questions: What is more important, gasohol or the use of corn as food for starving countries?”
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John Kenneth Galbraith, October 14, 1979
“ The great conservative revolution is no more that old conservatives talking louder. A large share of all economic comment comes from people with comfortable economic positions, who have access to the media. And as the conservative voice becomes louder, it seems to suggest that the tide of public opinion has shifted to the right.
“ It is the beginning of wisdom to mistrust these great right-wing revivalists. Many of their ideas are deeply in conflict with reality. Their philosophy can be summarized as ‘Services are a burden hoisted on unwilling taxpayers for no particular reason by bureaucrats.’
“ The ideal free market system is inoperable in today’s economy because of monopolies and oligarchies. Something is wrong when economists argue that Exxon and neighborhood newsboys are operating under the same economic forces.
“ The argument that the market gives people choices while the intervention of government takes choice away ignores the fact that government intervention gives freedom to the poor although it takes some freedom away from the more affluent.”
Archives
David Halberstam, October 7, 1979
“Television is dangerous; it has strengthened some institutions and weakened others. It has made society more volatile and far less structure.
“ The Pope and Ted Kennedy have the gift of theatre that makes them effective on television; it has given us a whole new kind of candidate. The coming of television ushered out the era of party system politics.
“ Americans know the government as slow, corroded, and awkward. They search for the nonpolitician who has style but not necessarily substance. One reason the president’s power has increased is that he can get on TV anytime he wants. With this unlimited exposure goes the danger that the people may get too much of him. The demented media hype raises expectations higher than capacity of government to fulfill them.
“TV has also come to determine what is news. Asking if a demonstration really happened if it is not covered b the media is akin to asking if a tree that falls in a forest with no one around makes a noise.
“Print is more important that even before. TV evaporates. A newspaper holds its turf. It becomes the daily menu.”
Archives
Phyllis Schafly vs. Karen DeCrow, April 29, 1979
Schafly: The ERA’s requirement that women be assigned to military combat is the greatest take-away of women’s rights. History offers no example of wars won with coed battles.
DeCrow: People are laughing at the new draft proposal. They are saying that we will lose our military strength if women are drafted. But given today’s weapons, physical strength is not an issue.
Schafly: ERA has nothing to do with equal pay or equal rights.
DeCrow: ERA will make the gains made in overcoming sexual discrimination permanent. 51% of the population is female, 17% hold jobs with a salary of $15,000 or more, and for every dollar a man earns, a women earns 50 cents. You can change these statistics by lending your support to get the three remaining states left to ratify the amendment.
Schafly: The ERA would require that husbands no longer support wives. You don’t have to accept that husbands should support wives, but ERA would not make it a free decision.
DeCrow: In the fight for ERA, there is the myth that women need to be protected and that ERA will take this protection away.
Schafly: Forty million husbands support their wives. Should we tell them that their support is wrong because we have entered a new era? We don’t have the right to change these terms.
DeCrow: The person who has the most gain form the ERA is the housewife. According to a survey, the housewife performs $3.4 billion of service each year. Yet she is entitles to no money but the money her husband chooses to give her. It is time to change that. ERA will not change the country overnight but it will end sexism under the law.”
Schafly: All I see in ERA is the takeaway of rights women already have.
DeCrow: It is disgusting for a nation who holds itself out as a leader in human rights not to hold out equal rights for women. Women might not have been at the last supper but they certainly will be at the next.
