TULANE TALK

November 11, 2011

Good Morning:

Today, in honor of Veterans Day, Tulane will read aloud the names of the more than 6,200 American service men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. This ceremony will coincide with similar readings at more than 100 universities around the country.

Approximately half of the names will be read from 8 a.m. to noon on the LBC quad. The remaining names will be read from noon to 4:30 p.m. inside McAlister Auditorium. Those names will include Sgt. First Class David James Todd Jr., a former Tulane Army ROTC instructor, who was killed Aug. 20, 2008 while on patrol in Afghanistan. At 1 p.m. we will observe a national moment of silence for Sgt. First Class David James Todd Jr. and all of our fallen heroes.

Honoring our veterans enjoys universal support among Americans and is very much in the spirit of next week’s meeting of the Bipartisan Policy Center at Tulane. This annual event, hosted by Tulane professor and Democratic political strategist James Carville and his Republican strategist wife Mary Matalin, will bring together major players from both sides of the political aisle to discuss how to remove the “poison from partisanship” for the good of all Americans. Former Sen. Trent Lott, former Clinton adviser Kiki McLean and Steve Schmidt, senior strategist for the 2008 McCain campaign, are just a few of the participants in this one-of-a-kind event.

The Bipartisan Policy Center summit will be held from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., Nov. 16 in the LBC’s Kendall Cram Lecture Hall. It is free and open to the public, but http are required. The summit will also include a screening and panel discussion of The War Room, the critically-acclaimed documentary of the 1992 presidential campaign, at 7 p.m., Nov. 15, in the Woldenberg Art Center’s Freeman Auditorium.

Hope to see you at one of these events that celebrate our freedoms and honor those who safeguard them.

Have a great weekend,