On Friday, Oct. 20, 2023 at 7:30 PM, Stephen C. Widom Cultural Arts at Emanuel will present guest speaker, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (retired), former chief of staff to the late General Colin Powell.
Following a brief service, the Friday night guest in the pulpit will offer the talk: “How Do We Exploit the Crises Ahead to Restore American Democracy?” At the conclusion of Col. Wilkerson’s talk, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
Colonel Wilkerson explains his theme: “America confronts a series of potentially imminent crises unlike any in her past: the dissolution of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the severing of the Trans-Atlantic link; the alienation of Europe’s most powerful state, Germany; the resurgence of nuclear weapons and new weapons states absent any arms control treaties; a very possible war with the world’s most successful modern economy, China; and the ultimate crisis, occurring in real-time, of sweeping climate change – the very beginning in geological terms of what scientists have labeled the Anthropocene, or the age of man’s ultimate impact on Earth.
If that were insufficient to challenge the most talented statesmen and women, today afresh we have the awful circumstances in Israel, Gaza, and if leaders are not careful, a wider war in the Levant.
We could hide our heads in the sand and weep — as did many of old when Jeremiah or Cassandra recounted their many sins or predicted the future. Or we could begin now to exploit these very crises to fuse and shape a new democratic beginning, one that shares wealth more widely and fairly, taps more deeply and smartly into human intelligence and creativity, renews and reinforces government of the people, spreads and enforces better justice for all, and arrives at formulas for a world of comity, cooperation, and collaboration.
And ultimately, peace. Even though I’m not likely to be here to see it, I get goosebumps just thinking about the opportunities.”
Lawrence Wilkerson’s last positions in government were as the late Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff (2002-05), and associate director of the State Department’s Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass.
Before serving at the State Department, Wilkerson served 31 years in the U.S. Army, including as deputy executive officer to then-General Colin Powell when he commanded the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989), special assistant to General Powell when he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93), and as director and deputy director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Va. (1993-97).
More recently, he was visiting professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va..
All members of the community are welcome. Refreshments will be served. Temple Emanuel of Great Neck is located at 150 Hicks Lane, Great Neck, NY 11024. For further information, call 516.482.5701