Dirk Kempthorne grasped audiences Wednesday night with the importance of having international cooperation.
On September 27th, the annual Borah Symposium plenary address was held in the Pitman Center’s ballroom at 7pm. For how late the night had already seemed, Kempthorne awakened the audience with his enthusiasm.
The Borah Symposium is a three-day event made to honor former Idaho U.S senator William Edgar Borah. This will be their 76th consecutive year. The first event dates to 1948 titled, “The Causes of War and the Conditions for Peace”. This theme continues as this year it was titled “World on the Edge” focusing on the importance of the future in international cooperation, an important theme in considering the events of Russia and Ukraine’s conflicts this past year.
Speaker Dirk Kempthorne truly brought the night’s event to life. Kempthorne has achieved a lot in his life. He has been the Mayor of Boise, a U.S. Senator, the 49th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior and a proud alumnus at the University of Idaho. He shared his experience in his career that not only involved interaction with other countries and governments, but also with the U.S. government.
He spoke on a variety of issues he was involved with like identifying polar bear endangerment, Afghani manuscripts and road and highway improvement.
“’Be prepared to be fired in the morning’ I was told, and I’m going to tell you in all honesty, I slept soundly that night” Kempthorne said after declining to sign on saying Polar bears weren’t endangered.
His stubbornness was rewarded with the president backing him up. He stuck to what he thought was right.
Kempthorne then told a story of his help with trouble in Taliban conflicts. He was asked to help move people away from an invaded safehouse.
“I knew we didn’t have the help of the United States government. So, I reached out and I called the government of Mexico.” Kempthorne said. “Twenty-four hours later they called me back and said we are granting political asylum to those on your list.”
He saved 395 Afghani people from the Taliban through allies of another country.
The best advice he gave was when he was asked the question by Freshman, Jack Schnieder, on dealing with international issues.
“Don’t wait until there’s a problem” Kempthorne explained. “The best way to preserve peace is to just be tough.”
He not only talked with passion but entertained the audience.
“The best years of my life were here at the University of Idaho,” he said.
Kempthorne closed his speech singing the symbolic “Go Vandals Go” song.
The people there know how inspiring it was to have met and seen what kind of a person came out of the University of Idaho, giving pride to the older generation and hope for the current students here in Moscow.
Sophia Newell can be reached at [email protected]