Former U.S. President discusses the importance of cooperation
Former president Bill Clinton speaks at the Lied Center to a full house. He was presented with the Dole Leadership Prize for providing leadership that inspires others. “I always liked Clinton; I admired his intelligence,” teacher Marsha Poholsky said. “He is the only president in recent memory that had a balanced budget.”
On Nov. 23 former President Bill Clinton accepted the 2015 Dole Leadership Prize in front of over 2,000 people at the Lied Center.
Clinton, who has been to Lawrence once before in 2004 to speak at the first Dole Lecture Series, was honored for his bipartisanship during his two terms as president. The prize comes along with $25,000 that Clinton returned to the Dole Institute.
Since its founding in 2003, the Dole Leadership Prize has been awarded to former President George H. W. Bush, former South African president Nelson Mandela, a nobel laureate and multiple senators and organizations, to name a few.
Associate Director of the Dole Institute of Political Science Dr. Barbra Ballard descries the selection process as a group effort between the director, senator Dole and the rest of the Dole Institute staff.
“Senator Dole and President Clinton are friends and have worked together, so we were hopeful that this would help persuade President Clinton to come to campus to accept the Leadership Prize,” Ballard said.
Because of limited space at the Dole Institute, the staff decided the Lied Center was better suited for such a large event.
“We chose the Lied Center because it would provide more opportunities for people to attend the event,” Ballard said.
The Dole Institute made sure that tickets to see the former President speak were given free to the public.
“It is important to the Dole Institute to offer free admission to our programs and events,” Ballard said. “It provides opportunities for KU students, faculty, staff and community to attend regardless of ability to pay.”
The Lied Center was packed in anticipation for Clinton’s speech on Nov. 23. Junior Emily Hopkins was in the crowd with her brother, after her parents recommended they attend.
“My parents thought it’d be a good experience to experience a president speak,” Hopkins said.
I really liked how he touched on political polarization in America and how there’s a need for compromise.
— Brett Carey
Hopkins most enjoyed seeing a former U.S. President.
“I guess there’s the awe factor that he was president for some time,” Hopkins said.
Senior Brett Carey was also in attendance.
“I thought it was a great [chance] to hear someone who’s very important and has had a great impact on our country speak,” Carey said.
Clinton briefly talked about the policy success of his administration, but chiefly stressed the importance of interdependence and cooperation.
“We have one remaining bigotry: we don’t want to be around anyone that disagrees with us,” Clinton said during his speech.
Clinton focused on how much Americans disagree with one another, citing that the most recent Human Genome Project found that all humans are 99.5 percent alike.
“Don’t we all spend 99 and a half percent of our time thinking about the half of a percent of us that’s different?” Clinton questioned in his speech.
The former president willed Americans to cooperate despite increasing political and social polarization. Carey plans to implement Clinton’s compromise sentiment more into his life.
“I really liked how he touched on political polarization in America and how there’s a need for compromise,” Carey said. “I already do this, but I’ll even incorporate it more so to hear what the other side of … the story.”
