Campus Happenings
C O N S T I T U T I O N D AY —
SEPTEMBER 15
9 / 1 1 T E N Y E A R S L AT E R
— SEPTEMBER 19
“James Madison is the central
figure in this drama,” said St. Francis
College Law Professor Frank
Sorrentino, author of American
Government: Power and Politics in
America, in a lecture celebrating the
224th anniversary of the signing of
the U.S. Constitution. Dr. Sorrentino
discussed the impact of Madison’s
accomplishments, including his
role in creating and assuring the
success of the Constitutional
Convention as well as his intention
to create the political gridlock that is
so prevalent today. Sorrentino said
that Madison wanted a slow moving
form of government to safeguard
the personal liberties of minorities
in the population. He also explored
the significance of the U.S.
Constitution among other governing
doctrines, noting its emphasis on
democracy and the idea that the
power of government comes from
the people not from a monarch,
king or divine figure.
Arab Spring dealt “a devastating
blow to the ideology of Al-Qaeda,”
said Fine Arts Professor Dr. Yassin
El-Ayouty, editor of Perspectives on
9/11 (Praeger, 2004), in the second
part of a two-part lecture marking
the 10th anniversary of the World
Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
The first part of the lecture, delivered
by Philosophy Professor Gerald
Galgan, co-writer of the epilogue
to Perspectives on 9/11, explored the
idea of amoral moralism in relation
to terrorism. Professor Galgan
noted that a way to combat amoral
moralism is to understand that
“it takes a civilization to cultivate
a citizen of a democratic republic.”
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