Nobel winner gives lecture

Former Costa Rican President and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, clothed in a simple, navy suit and a quiet spirit of humility, walked to the podium Wednesday night and began his speech before the standing-room only Ballantine Hall crowd not with a powerful quote or suspense-inducing tale, but by thanking the audience for having him. \nIt was Arias' second of two Patten lectures in a series at IU. His speech was entitled "Moral Leadership in the New Century." \nArias began his speech discerning the difference between a moralist and a moral person.\n"A moralist is a person who seeks to perfect others," he said. "While a moral woman or man is that person who lives up to their own standards, rather than preaching them to others."\nArias spoke about the United States' triumphs and the troubles, as well as how to become a moral leader.\nHe told the biblical story of the crowd who had gathered around the prostitute, eager to throw stones at her and how Jesus told the group, "He who is without sin, cast the first stone," as a moral example of how one should think and act.\nPeople who aspire to be moral leaders, Arias said, must possess the courage to define and hold to their values.\n"We can be moral leaders by having the courage to define our values, to try every day to live up to them and to admit it when we fail," he said. \nArias cited Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi as examples of moral leaders because they did not begin their political careers by trying to perfect others. He spoke against people who preach messages of "'fire and brimstone,' while stuffing their pockets with the money of the poor."\nArias cited three elements of morality. People must first define their values, then live up to them, and finally, admit when they fail. \nArias emphasized the importance of not allowing failure to morph into cynicism. We all fail, he said, and the important aspect is for people to seek guidance when they think they are failing.\nArias encouraged students to define their values. Throughout college, people may pick up and reject more than 20,000 sets of values. This is good, he said.\nHe told the audience that if they remember only one thing he said, to know that they must work to acquire their own set of morals.\n"Determine to spend time with yourself, clarifying your own values," he said. \nHe also added that it's essential to ensure there is a concordance between one's values and actions.\n"Let your lives glow with the practice of your values," Arias said.\nFrom this point, Arais dove into the heart of his lecture -- talking about instances in which the U.S. has not lived up to its values. \nHe said this country's founders admirably labored to define their values and beliefs. But Arias posed the question, "What happens when a country's values conflict with its 'interests'?"\n"With respect," Arias cited four values on which the U.S. prides itself -- responsibility, freedom democracy, and prosperity -- and gave examples of situations in which it has contradicted those values by allowing interior interests to precede exterior causes.\nHe spoke about the high amount of carbon gas emissions the U.S. annually produces.\n"The U.S. emits, as you all know, about one-quarter of the world's greenhouse gases, despite having only 4.5 percent of the world's population."\nHe cited the United States' decision to exit the Kyoto Protocol as another example of its illustration of indifference.\nHe said the U.S.' rules often change once outside its borders. In the past, the U.S. has opposed democracies in favor of dictatorships, in order to eliminate communism.\nThe U.S. fails to give some of its prosperity to other countries, despite the money it does have to give, Arias said.\n"The U.S. gives one-tenth of its gross national product in aid -- the lowest of any industrialized country," he said.\nIn a question-and-answer session after Arias' speech, an audience member argued the U.S. has done an equal amount of world good as it has done bad. \n"How can we be satisfied if our actions are 50 percent good and 50 percent bad?" Arias replied. \nArias said he is unimpressed with the U.S.'s "rugged individualism." \nThis country must show more compassion and solidarity, Arias said. The rest of the world dislikes the arrogance and unilateralism that characterize Washington, he added. \n"I liked what he said about how the U.S. has to show more solidarity with other countries," said Monica Endara, an IU graduate student.\nAnother graduate student, David Woken, liked Arias' speech when he touched on more specific examples and situations. Woken said the speech started slow and Arais talked too abstractly.\n"It went on a little long," Woken said. "I had a hard time understanding him in the beginning, following where he was, but I liked it when he started talking concretely."\nArias ended the speech by appealing to the audience to take action against government policies with which they do not agree. He asked them why they would want to spend $80 billion bombing Iraq when they could use that money to eliminate poverty or provide education. \n"I appeal to you: don't accept policies as simple facts…Do not be part of the silent majority," he said.\nArias ended his speech with a simple, clear message: "Be the kind of leaders who bring healing and hope"