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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

A Local Lecture

Last night I attended a lecture by Dr. J.R. Fears from his series "Lessons in Leadership Through the Great Books". It was held at Northern Oklahoma College here in Enid in Montgomery Hall at the Gantz Center. It was the second of five lectures in the series and was entitled "Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar'". The series is sponsored by the Cherokee Strip Regional Heriage Center. I estimate there were about 1000 people in the audience. Their site is Cherokee Strip.

I went not knowing what to expect. It started right at 7:00, as advertised, and there weren't many seats left. Within a few minutes there were teen-aged looking people sitting on the floor because there were no more seats. The audience was comprised of people aged from their teens to senior citizens. I would guess the median age was about 55 years old. After a brief introduction Dr. Fears gave his lecture and after about 45 minutes he opened for questions and we were out by 8:00.

And it was actually a very good lecture.

Dr. Fears is very knowledgable on the subject, is a great story-teller, is very animated, and engages the audience. But what was really interesting was how he applied the lessons of "Julius Caesar" to one of our greatest leaders - George Washington. And how other leaders, such as Napolean and Hitler, did not learn from "Julius Caesar" and they and their people suffered the consequences.

His message included such assertions as: Our great country has its roots in high moral integrity and that's why we've been successful. Though we've had our share of "Julius Caesar" - like leaders, we have a constitution that allows us to rectify the situation. But we must participate in the process to keep the country strong.

I really liked it. I think I'll go to the next one. I wish I could've heard his first of the series when he discussed Theodore Rooseveldt.

Posted by Randy at 2:47 PM
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