Video Highlights from Historic Conference at Old Parkland
I am thrilled watching this and listening to the implacable resolve and the soaring commitments of these American heroes. Each of them makes me feel as proud to be an American as I do when standing at attention with my hand over my heart listening to our National Anthem.
Robert Woodson describes them as new American patriots and I trust that listening to them your heart will be enlivened, and your soul elevated as mine have been. I hope you will receive this in the Spirit it is intended… as a Fourth of July Birthday Present from each of the eloquent presenters. I am only the fortunate conduit who has the privilege of bringing them to you. Together their voices form a chorus for a new anthem, not to replace the old, but to be conjoined with it.
Listen intently to the cadence and the words of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and adopt them as your own, as I have …..consider them as fit accompaniment to our Pledge of Allegiance and as a call to action. Our pledge is not for white or to black, but to all our people, to every community our commitment is “to love on our people.”
Our Fourth of July is a celebration of Diversity, Inclusion and Equality when properly understood and taught. The men and women featured here are our pre-eminent instructors. Let us take their message into our schools , our institutions of higher learning, our basketball courts ,and our playing fields. On the July Fourth let us resolve to take America back. Let freedom ring.
Dear tim,
This past May, an extraordinary conference took place on the Old Parkland campus in Dallas, Texas.
There, AEI’s Ian Rowe joined Glenn Loury, Jason Riley, and Shelby Steele to reconvene the Fairmont Conference held 42 years ago in San Francisco. At that historic conference, Thomas Sowell gathered independent thinkers and leaders to explore alternative solutions to the problems of poverty and inequality faced by black Americans. But unfortunately, no successor conference carried on the spirit and purpose of the Fairmont gathering—until May 2022.
Following Dr. Sowell’s example, the four organizers of the Old Parkland Conference assembled an outstanding roster of scholars, leaders, and practitioners to reconsider the problems of poverty, inequality, and social mobility in ways that liberal elites and academics would not. AEI and our peers at the Manhattan Institute and Hoover Institution pooled our resources and talent to make the organizers’ vision a reality.
While the lectures and conversations at Old Parkland testified to the fulfillment of our country’s founding promise, they also revealed the work that must still be done to strengthen communities, promote responsibility, and foster opportunity for all our people. I believe this conference has laid a firm intellectual foundation on which real progress toward liberty, dignity, and prosperity can be based.
The Old Parkland Conference also signaled AEI’s increasing efforts to build bridges to communities who share our values but have not yet found their home among conservatives. I believe that the Old Parkland Conference showed they have one.
As we celebrate the spirit of independence at the heart of our national experiment, we’re reminded that the advancement of black Americans is a large part of the reason we can now hail America as the greatest beacon for liberty in history.
I hope you enjoy the video highlights from the Old Parkland Conference and view its full lineup here.
https://www.aei.org/multimedia/james-madison-americas-first-politician-with-jonah-goldberg-and-jay-cost-viewpoint/?mkt_tok=NDc1LVBCUS05NzEAAAGFVTnYeK0ChTw36HZcGLqbufBH39mqWokvzR4Xc9AeNzIRDIvnnGq1GheiPCuBgqq452nxESH9bY3ozHN5BaXNbEebDvY2meAF-l0hotf7Rf_rLZk
Sincerely,
Robert Doar
President, American Enterprise Institute