‘Mandela’ a good reminder but misses its mark

Cole R. Minnick

First Posted: 5/6/2014 In response to the editorial &#8220;Bring deep thinkers, big names to Valley via speakers series&#8221; (April 25), the more the merrier!
For who could disagree with The Times Leader that &#8220;we as a community&#8221; have much to talk about and learn? I would only encourage residents, and potential donors, to investigate and take advantage of the programming already in place at the area&#8217;s local institutions. Wilkes-Barre will develop as a college town when its residents become more deeply involved in the life of the city&#8217;s colleges.
The Times Leader&#8217;s editorial notes Wilkes University&#8217;s Allan P. Kirby Lecture Series and Max Rosenn Lecture Series in Law and Humanities. Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s STEM Lecture Series likewise deserves notice. The editorial claims, however, that events at the area&#8217;s institutions &#8220;are often limited, bringing in only one or two speakers annually, and sometimes narrowly focused.&#8221; Here I must beg to differ!
The 14 public events organized and hosted over the last two years by the King&#8217;s College McGowan Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, which I direct, have brought to the Wyoming Valley &#8220;a range of personalities&#8221; &#8211; as the editorial praises the Celebrity Lecture Series for having once done &#8211; on an array of topics.
By way of example, 2013-2014 visitors have included moral theologian Kathryn Getek Soltis, who spoke on the prison-industrial complex; medical ethicist F. Daniel Davis, who delved into his work as director of bioethics for the Geisinger Health System; and Washington Post columnist Melinda Henneberger, who discussed her reporting on the scourge of sexual violence on college campuses. In spring 2013, the center hosted the country&#8217;s pre-eminent scholar of the Amish and Mennonites, Donald Kraybill, who gave a fascinating presentation on Amish attitudes toward business; and a panel discussion of the kids-for-cash scandal, headlined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Bill Ecenbarger.
Speakers scheduled for 2014-2015 include Teresa Ghilarducci of the New School for Social Research, a labor economist who will also be speaking next fall at Harvard and before the U.S. Senate; Commonweal magazine associate editor Molly Wilson O&#8217;Reilly, who will discuss Pope Francis and the future of Catholicism; the University of Chicago physician and medical ethicist Daniel Sulmasy, who is a member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Problems; and Amy-Jill Levine, a Jewish scholar of the New Testament at Vanderbilt University whose most recent book concerns the parables of Jesus.
These deep thinkers and big names warrant our attention and gratitude for visiting the Valley. The more area residents at these events, the merrier!
Bernard G. Prusak
Shavertown

Don’t overlook ‘deep thinkers’ visiting King’s