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HESBURGH LECTURE SPEAKER AND RENOUNED GENETICS ETHICIST DELIVERS LECTURE AT CAZENOVIA FORUM (October 27, 2007)

CAZENOVIA, NY – Harvey A. Bender, professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Human Genetics Program at the University of Notre Dame, discussed the complex social, political and personal implications of genetic engineering.

According to Professor Bender, “the new [genetics] industry is predicated upon the belief of better living through genetics.” He outlined the dramatic advances of modern day genetics and both benefits and drawbacks of The New Medicine upon our society.

“It was a fascinating evening for anyone who is interested in where the ever accelerating advancements in human genetic technologies are taking our society, as well as our ability to handle all the social and ethical ramifications,” said Richard Huftalen, co-president of the Cazenovia Forum and a member of the Notre Dame Alumni Association.

In addition to his position at Notre Dame, Professor Bender also serves as Adjunct Professor of Medical Genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate training at Case Western Reserve University majoring in chemistry and English. His graduate studies in Developmental Genetics were undertaken at Northwestern University where he received both his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. Professor Bender served as a U.S. Public Health Fellow in Genetics at the University of California (Berkeley) and has held postdoctoral positions as a Gosney Fellow at the California Institute of Technology and as a Visiting Professor at the Yale University Schools of Medicine and Law.

This was the fifth event in the Cazenovia Forum lecture series, which was founded last year by local residents to promote discussion and understanding of critical issues facing our nation and the world today. The Forum has previously hosted Jim Angle, Washington correspondent for Fox News Channel, Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, Rebecca Lipkin, London-based producer for the Al Jazeera English television network, and Tom Ricks, military correspondent for the Washington Post.

AUTHOR BRINGS VIEWS OF IRAQ WAR TO CAZENOVIA

CAZENOVIA, NY — (September 21, 2007)

“The Iraq Fiasco: A failure of the American System" was the title of Thomas Ricks’ Cazenovia Forum lecture on September 21, 2007. The Pulitzer prizewinning military correspondent for the Washington Post spoke before a full house on the state of the Iraq war and the mistakes that were made in its planning and execution.

Ricks cautioned audience members to take anti-depressants before listening to his speech because, he admitted, his conclusions are not encouraging. “We spent 90% of our war planning on how to reach Bagdad and only 10% on what to do once we got there. It’s like taking a new job and focusing all your planning on the commute,” said Ricks. “There was no thought given to nation-building, only to military tactics and how to capture Bagdad. Our missteps during this essential period are largely responsible for creating the insurgency that we are now fighting.”

Ricks is the author the #1 New York Times bestseller FIASCO: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, which was published last year and is now available in paperback. He is also the author of Making the Corps, a chronicle of the lives of a group of U.S. Marine recruits going through boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina.

Ricks blamed the current Iraq situation on five essential failures: a failure of the Bush Administration for creating the rush to war; a failure of military leadership and planning; a failure of intelligence; a failure of congressional oversight; and a failure of the media. “Optimistically, I think we will be in Iraq another three to five years. Realistically, I expect us to be there another 10 to 16 years,” concluded Ricks.

Ricks has covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post since 2000. He was part of a Wall Street Journal team that won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2000 for a series of articles on how the U.S. military might change to meet the new demands of the 21st century. Born in Massachusetts in 1955, Ricks grew up in New York and Afghanistan and graduated from Yale in 1977.

SPEAKER DELIVERS INTERNATIONAL NEWS TO CAZ
By Brandi Moyer
(from the Cazenovia Republican, April 4, 2007)

(CAZENOVIA, NY) — At 7 p.m., March 30, almost every seat in the Catherine Cummings Theatre was taken, awaiting a speech by the executive producer of programming in the London Bureau of Al Jazeera English, Rebecca Lipkin.

Lipkin brought information with her that the majority of America is still waiting to hear, the whole story. Not focusing in on any one of the world conflicts that dirty more than the Middle East, Al Jazeera’s aim is to give full coverage of places and events that have not been covered before, and from all sides.

In a world where Americans are hypnotized by the death of a celebrity and the birth of the next, Lipkin ponders if people in America even care about foreign news. She stated, “I do not want to believe that. The world is watching and America is not.”

Al Jazeera English, which is the world’s first English-language news channel headquartered in the Middle East, does not have pressure to conform to societal demands and to compete for ratings like many American media programs. Al Jazeera is not biased, and is considered the closest to moderate reporting. Lipkin said that “There are moderate voices that want to be heard throughout the world.”

The audience, which consisted of a variety of faces from the community and a few from Cazenovia College, took full advantage of the question and answer session at the end of the speech.

One member of the audience spoke up, posing an interesting question. Also, a difficult one, “If peace is the main goal, and I think it is, is Democracy necessary to achieve peace?”

Lipkin could not directly answer his question, but she did comment that people need to realize that in order to judge success in society, they should compare the present with what society was like 10 or 20 years ago. She states that Iraq was a secular country. A country with a plan to change in the future. Howver, everyone is familiar with how things turned out in Iraq. Lipkin suggests, “Lots of countries have terrible leaders.” Many ideas are left unchallenged in American news media.

Information about Al Jazeera can be found at www.aljazeera.net.

NATIONAL EXPERT ON GOVERNMENT SECRECY SPEAKS AT CAZENOVIA FORUM

CAZENOVIA, NY – (February 23, 2007) Government secrecy and intrusion in the name of national security often produces the opposite effect and makes America less safe, according to Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, who spoke at a public event in Cazenovia on February 23.

Blanton delivered the Cazenovia Forum lecture before about 100 people who had gathered at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church to hear about government secrecy in the global war on terror and throughout America’s recent history. One of America’s foremost experts on the topic, Blanton is a frequent guest on nationally broadcast news and discussion programs.

In his remarks, Blanton discussed the origins of the National Security Archive, an independent organization that serves as a repository for declassified government documents, as well as its efforts to keep government honest and open without sacrificing national security. Over the past 20 years, he said, the Archive has used 32,000 separate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to declassify some seven million pages of government documents.

Blanton covered various secrecy issues regarding the war on terror, noting that many of the objections to covert actions such as wire-tapping and torture have come “not from the ACLU, but from conservative Republican political appointees who have old fashioned ideas about how the Constitution should protect people, and how government actually works better when it is more open and transparent.”

In a half-hour discussion that followed, audience members questioned Blanton on how to determine the appropriate level of secrecy and surveillance in order to ensure America is protected from its enemies.

In one of many anecdotes he told during the evening, Blanton recalled learning that the most requested document from the U.S. National Archives was a picture of Elvis Presley meeting with President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office. Shortly thereafter, his organization obtained other documents from that meeting, including Presley’s original handwritten letter to the President, and put them on its website.

FOX NEWS CHANNEL'S JIM ANGLE KICKS OFF CAZENOVIA LECTURE SERIES

CAZENOVIA, NY – (December 9, 2006) The Cazenovia Forum, an organization focused on attracting nationally-known speakers to Cazenovia, inaugurated its lecture series on Saturday with an appearance by Jim Angle, chief Washington correspondent for Fox News Channel, at Cazenovia College’s Catherine Cummings Theatre.

An audience of nearly 150 people listened as the veteran broadcaster provided a Washington insider’s analysis of current topics such as the War on Terror, Social Security reform and the upcoming transfer of power in Congress.

Sprinkled throughout his remarks were humorous stories and first-hand accounts that Angle has collected while serving as a White House correspondent during the past four presidencies.

At the close of his remarks, Angle took questions from local residents on issues ranging from the conflict in Iraq to the potential presidential candidacy of Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

“It was like having our own briefing on the hot topics of the day from someone who is right where the action is,” said Deb Wester, who attended the event. “And the stories he told about presidents and other politicians were both interesting and entertaining.”

Angle joined Fox News in 1996. He served until last year as its senior White House correspondent, as well as substitute host for Special Report with Brit Hume. He previously covered economic policy for ABC News and, before that, he worked in public radio for 18 years, anchoring the popular national program Marketplace and serving as National Public Radio’s senior White House correspondent. He is also a frequent guest host of The Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio.

“Jim Angle’s speech was a great way to kick off this lecture series,” said Rich Huftalen, co-president of the Forum. “The great turnout and feedback we received will help us draw more nationally-known speakers to Cazenovia and give local residents a chance to hear more about important issues.”

The Cazenovia Forum is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization recently founded by local residents to promote discussion and understanding of critical issues facing our nation and the world today. To this end, the Forum will bring nationally and internationally known experts to Cazenovia to speak on topics of current interest. The group plans to hold at least four lectures a year, with speakers and topics for future events to be announced soon.