Sept. 11 did more than just bring people closer; it increased U.S.interest in international issues. How long that interest lasts is aquestion many are pondering.
This was one issue discussed in a Senator’s Forum that took placelast week on campus.
The forum brought together six retired senators from variousstates to discuss how U.S. interest in international issues could beincreased and maintained.
The forum — co-sponsored by Price Charities and Southern IllinoisUniversity — was part of a three-day event from Mar. 17 to Mar. 19.It consisted of two other sessions that included an open paneldiscussion and the lifestyle and work in the Senate and the House.
Students, faculty and members of the community attended theforums. Collectively, the senators have 75 years of experience.
Former Senator James Sasser (D-Tenn.) said one way to increaseawareness and interest is through more international travel byelected representatives.
“When people travel, they are educated and they learn and theybecome better citizens,” Former Senator Joseph Tydings (D-Md.) said.
Former Senator David Durenberger (R-Minn.) suggested senatorsshould make more time for foreign leaders to visit the United States.
Former Senator Hank Brown (R-Colo.) said there should be morecourse offerings overseas for students.
Political science professor George Bergstrom asked Sasser aboutwhere he saw the future of U.S. relations with China.
Sasser, who served as the U.S. ambassador to China, said he wasvery optimistic for the future of the relationship.
“We may disagree with China’s government on a lot of things, butit is a stable government,” Sasser said. “China realizes it’s intheir interest to reach out to us.”
Political science professor and department chair Louis Terrellsaid he thought the senators were not prepared to discuss the issues.
“They really didn’t have much to add to make the Congress a betterplace to do work on international issues,” Terrell said.
Sasser disagreed.
“We weren’t told to prepare,” he said. “We were told to simplycome here and give our views and to be prepared to respond toquestions based on our experience. It seemed to me the overwhelmingmajority of the audience seemed to be well-pleased with what we hadto say and found it interesting and helpful.”
Treacy Lau, principal coordinator for Distributed Learning andmanager of SDSU-TV, said the forum was meant to be a free-flowingdiscussion and not a prepared briefing.
“To me, they were speaking from the gut, and I think that’s morevaluable than yet another lecture,” she said. “We get lectures allday at school.”
Women’s studies graduate student Margaret Slaska said the forumwas a wonderful opportunity for students to have first hand contactwith former senators.
International security and conflict resolution sophomore BryanHargrov said he thought it was an interesting discussion, but foundsome parts of it to be questionable.
“They’re talking about the private sector funding their trips, andI don’t think that’s going to happen,” he said. “I don’t think theywould have much support.”
Terrell said the senators should have focused more on buildingincentive systems to encourage senators to travel more and to focusmore on foreign policy issues.
“They were more concerned about protecting themselves fromdisincentives than they were about trying to find ways to encouragetheir former colleagues to be more engaged in foreign policy issues,”he said.
