By Matt Thacker
In honor of Constitution Day, the McConnell Center welcomed the longest-serving senator in Indiana history.
Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, addressed an audience of high school and college students in the Miller Technology Center’s Bigelow Hall on Sept. 19.
His speech centered on the role and importance of education in the global economy. He said that the U.S. education system is not currently up to the standards of most other developed nations. However, he added that the current presidential administration has made improvements through the “No Child Left Behind” Act.
“It’s not meant to be a remedy; it just means there was a revelation,” Lugar said.
Lugar said that although the American economy is still much larger than those of nations like China and Japan, many Asian countries are gaining ground on the U.S.
“Jobs are leaving America,” he said. “Many of our industries are not as competitive as they need to be. – So I say to each of you, we have a big job to do. We are in competition with everybody.”
He encouraged students to become active in world politics and help strengthen the nation’s economy by becoming educated and working hard to keep jobs in America.
“Sen. Lugar’s speech spoke directly to the students at U of L who were in the audience. He spoke of the world they will inherit and the problems they will face,” said Dr. Gary Gregg, director of the McConnell Center.
Lugar was elected to the Indiana Senate in 1976 and has served ever since. He has been a major proponent of reducing the world’s nuclear weapons stockpile. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he helped create the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction, which has been credited with de-activating thousands of nuclear warheads.
“He’s the one person who, when he stands up and has something to say about foreign policy, everyone listens,” said U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
The event was held in celebration of Constitution Day. Last year, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia proposed in the national Congress that all public institutions must hold an educational program on Sept. 17. The bill passed, but the Senate did not clearly identify how the day should be celebrated. Since it fell on a weekend this year, the McConnell Center held the event on Monday.
Volunteers have also been passing out free pocket-sized constitutions at places such at the Oregon State football game. Malana Salyer, McConnell Center civics education coordinator, said they handed out a total of about 1,500 constitutions.
Salyer said that about 90 high school students from Eastern, Central and duPont High Schools in Louisville attended.
She hopes to keep reaching out to younger people as well as students at U of L. Her goal is to extend “civic literacy” by increasing awareness about world politics, and she said Lugar’s speech helped to educate people about those same issues.
“Sen. Lugar has such a breadth of knowledge about domestic but also international issues that we don’t always see in our speakers,” Salyer said.
The next speaker scheduled by the McConnell Center is Lt. Josiah Bunting on Oct. 25 at 5 p.m. at an undetermined location. The title of the speech will be “Lessons of U.S. Grant.”
