Governor Michael Dukakis shares his thought on the launch of The Boston Global Forum.
“Hi, I’m Mike Dukakis. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that the world faces many challenges, even as we get closer and closer to the day when force can be ruled out as a means of settling disputes between and among countries. But issues of climate change; the whole impact of the social media on life; the abolition of nuclear weapons from the face of the planet; the US-Chinese relationship… I mean, there are dozens and dozens of these issues, where, we think—in a very unique way—something we’re calling the Boston Global Forum can make a real contribution.
There are international gatherings and a lot of conferences, and many many things are taking place, all of them are good. What we would like to do is to focus each year on one particularly important issue or challenge that faces the international community. Here we can bring together representers, diverse groups of people who focus on the issue, study it carefully, recharge to others and come up with a concrete recommendation that will resolve the issue, solve problems, make this world a better place.
And as a native of Boston in the performance of the government and state, I’ll make it biased, but I think Boston happens to be a very special place in which to do this. You know, we Bostonians are like combatants in “the Athens of America.” And we do so because of the reputation of Athens in the ancient world. Boston today is a remarkable place with a collection of right and thoughtful and able people, dozens and dozens of world-renowned colleges, universities, medical schools, medical centers, and it has a very deep pool of people: talented people, caring people, thoughtful people. We believe we can recruit to focus on some of its major challenges, so we hope we can enlist many people in this effort.
We’d begin small, take a step at a time, but we think it’s a unique time which good people can really make a difference. And we most hope the Boston Global Forum will do precisely that. I’m looking forward to it, and I hope you are too.”