Wes Clark to speak at Emory University 4/10/06

[BootinUp]

I'm tryin to make this, and hope to see DU'ers there.

4/10/06 - General Clark @ Emory University, Atlanta, GA 7pm EST (details)

Start: Apr 10 2006 - 7:00pm

description:

General Wesley K. Clark will deliver the inaugural lecture of the Charles R. Yates Distinguished Lecture Series at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday, April 10, 7:00 p.m.

Lecture topic: "Strategic Leadership in the 21st Century"

This lecture is the inaugural event of the Charles R. Yates Distinguished Lecture Series. Admission is free.

Click http://www.emory.edu/events/ for more details

Location:
Glenn Auditorium in Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church at 1652 North Decatur Road, Atlanta, GA

New lecture series brings former presidential candidate to Emory
By Jason Singer
Staff Writer
January 24, 2006

Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and 2004 presidential candidate General Wesley Clark will speak at Emory this spring as part of the university’s inaugural Presidential Distinguished Lecture Series.

According to Vice President and Deputy to the President Gary Hauk, the university created the series to attract high-profile lecturers with expertise on important global issues.

“We wanted to find a way to bring more internationally distinguished speakers to speak on substantive issues: politics, the arts, literature,” he said.

The series will run twice a year, with one program during the fall and spring semester.

The office of University President James W. Wagner will fund the inaugural program while the university explores other fund-raising methods for future programs of the semiannual series.

Hauk would not disclose the amount Clark will receive for the speech.

According to Hauk, one alumni group wishing to honor former University President Goodrich C. White might fund future Presidential Distinguished Lecture programs, but Emory has not made any official announcements.

The address by Clark, a retired four-star general, in Glenn Memorial Auditorium will highlight the event on April 10, which will include both a reception and a book signing in either the Carlos Museum reception hall or the Goizueta Business School after the lecture.

Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Michael Mandl first suggested Clark as a candidate for the Presidential Distinguished Lecture after attending a speech by Clark at the 2005 Forum for the Future of Higher Education in Aspen, Colorado last September.

In that speech, Clark emphasized the role of American universities in maintaining the country’s position at the forefront of global strategic leadership.

Subsequently, Mandl thought Clark an apt choice for the series’ first speaker.

“It just seemed to me the topic was right for a college campus,” he said. “The speech resonanted with me as a conversation we’ve had at this school several times.”

Hauk said he considered Clark to be an apt choice for the series’ first speaker.

“He was our first choice,” he said. “Now that we have the Strategic Plan in place, it seemed like a good moment to reflect on the century coming up.”

Clark served as the supreme allied commander of NATO from 1997 to 2000, following more than 30 years of service in the U.S. military.

He garnered international praise for his leadership during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, in which he saved an estimated 1.5 million Albanian lives from ethnic cleansing without incurring any Allied casualties.

In 2004, he campaigned as a candidate for the Democratic Party presidential nomination before dropping out of the race and backing eventual Democratic nominee John Kerry. Clark is still considered a potential candidate for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

Though Emory has not officially invited any speakers for the fall 2006 installment, Hauk expressed optimism about bringing another prominent guest.

“It will be someone of the international stature,” he said.

[Casper]

1. Someone ask him about the SOA

In the past General Clark has supported The School of the Americas, a combat training facility for Latin American soldiers located at Fort Benning. It's the location of the annual SOA Watch demonstration where, since 1990, peaceful demonstrators have been harrassed and arrested.

I have been a big fan of General Clark but recently learned of his support for SOA. I'm hoping he has changed his tune and will speak out against this facility.

From the SOA Watch website:

"Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins."

[BootinUp]

2. If someone does ask I am sure he would answer

He would probably give a similar answer that I have seen him give before. That if there is any evidence of wrong doing at the school he would personally look into it and take action to get it stopped. But he would also say he supports the main objective of the school which is to train these students to the same high standards that US soldiers are trained to.

My own comment: There is something wrong with the idea that a school is responsible for what graduates decide to do with their own God given free will.

[Terran1212]

4. The school trains them to do that "with their god given free will" its a

Terrorist training camp as far as I'm concerned.

[wyldwolf]

3. why don't you?

We can all follow Democrats around and call them out on the things about them that bother us. Sounds like a winning plan!

[Terran1212]

5. You mean our elected leaders will do what we want?!

I thought we elect people and then they do what they, not the constituents, want!

I didn't know democracy at all :(

[wyldwolf]

6. that was quite a conclusion to draw from my post

Irrelevant.