Monday, August 3 at 2:00 pm
Speaking in Maine returns to The College of the Atlantic’s Champlain Institute which is holding its sessions in a virtual environment. This year the Champlain Institute is exploring the future of US diplomacy, climate change policy, income inequality, national security, the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court, coronavirus, and other issues that will be critical national topics leading up to the presidential elections in November.
We welcome back Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell to the Champlain Institute for a special guest appearance. He gives a 30–minute talk on the historical roots of several of the critical challenges facing our country today: racial justice, immigration, the pandemic, globalization, and climate change. He assesses the ability of the US to deal with these challenges, especially in this time of widespread distress over the pandemic and the intense polarization that exists in American politics.
Senator George Mitchell:
Senator George Mitchell was appointed to the United States Senate in 1980 to complete the unexpired term of Maine Senator Edmund S. Muskie, who resigned to become Secretary of State. He was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1982 in a stunning come-from-behind victory. After trailing in public opinion polls by 36 points, Senator Mitchell rallied to win the election, receiving 61% of the votes cast. Senator Mitchell went on to an illustrious career in the Senate spanning 15 years.
In 1988, he was reelected with 81% of the vote, the largest margin in Maine history. He left the Senate in 1995 as the Senate majority leader, a position he had held since January 1989.
In 1995, Mitchell served as a special advisor to President Bill Clinton on Ireland, and from 1996 to 2000, he served as the independent chairman of the Northern Ireland peace talks. Under his leadership, the Good Friday Agreement—an historic accord ending decades of conflict—was agreed to by the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom and the political parties of Northern Ireland.
In 2000 and 2001, at the request of President Clinton, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Chairman Yasser Arafat, Senator Mitchell served as chairman of an international fact-finding committee on violence in the Middle East. The committee’s recommendation, widely known as The Mitchell Report, was endorsed by the Bush administration, the European Union, and by many other governments.
Source: The Champlain Institute - College of the Atlantic
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