Kennedy Encourages Public Service

A high-caliber panel of public servants and journalists encouraged an Institute of Politics (IOP) audience yesterday afternoon to get more involved with politics and community service.

The talk, "Reflections on Public Service," featured Sen. Edward M. Kennedy `54 (D-Mass.), television commentator and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, former Sen. Warren B. Rudman `54 (R-N.H.) and former Congressman Philip R. Sharp (D-Ind.).

The discussion was moderated by Gwen Ifill, an anchor on PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."

Kennedy especially exhorted young people to follow a life in public service, citing successful activism in past eras such as the 1960s.

At that time, Kennedy said, "Young people were the ones who made the most extraordinary difference in our country."

Kennedy said he believes the same spirit is still alive.

"We see it every time a civil rights issue comes in front of the Senate," he said.

Rudman agreed with Kennedy, but expressed concern over the level of political involvement by today's young people.

"I have found it discouraging, the number of people between the ages of 18 and 35 who don't vote," he said.

Sharp echoed Rudman's point, saying he perceives a change in attitudes today toward political institutions.

"We've been through an era of disparagement about what government can do," he said, adding that right now "participation is all the more important."

When Ifill asked the panelists what big issues remain unaddressed in America, Kennedy and others said they felt it was race relations.

"America will never be America until we free ourselves as a society from, basically, racism," Kennedy said.

Goodwin agreed, saying the country does not always deal with the issue forthrightly.

"We talk about it as education, we talk about it as health care," she said. "And that misses the passionate point."

Sharp, who once chaired the Energy and Power subcommittee of the House of Representatives, said environmentalism rather than racism is America's largest challenge.

"We must find a way to balance our insatiable desire for goods with the necessity of having an environment that is healthy," Sharp said.

The panelists also fielded questions from audience members about current issues facing the government.

One student asked whether paying reparations for slavery is a good idea. Most of the respondents seemed opposed.

"There are steps that we could take to move forward, but I don't believe that is part of that," Kennedy said.

Ifill, the moderator, added that the debate currently underway is not truly about reparations, which she said are unlikely to come about.

Instead, she said, the real issue is free speech on campuses, and whether the debate should even be allowed.

A British woman visiting the U.S. also asked about the Kyoto protocol, which the Senate rejected early this year, and about President Bush's environmental policy.

Recently, Bush reversed a campaign pledge to treat carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

"The idea of global warming is enormously serious," Kennedy said. "That might not have been the best treaty, but we had better be serious about the business [of environmental issues]."