New Spring IOP Fellows Discuss Political Action

Six new fellows at the Kennedy School's Institute of Politics (IOP) explored the relation between public work and their private lives at a formal panel discussion last night at an IOP Forum.

In a program titled "Personal Perspectives on Politics," the former governors, campaign experts and political activists outlined distinctions they have observed working as insiders or outsiders to the political process. Before an audience of about 150 people, the panelists affirmed their committment to public service while acknowledging limits to modern-day politicking.

"What intrigued me was not just covering the process," said former communications director for the Republican National Committee Kathryn Murray, "but being involved in the process, and to be able to affect it." Murray, who began her career as a political journalist, told the audience she decided early on that she could better contribute to the public by becoming an insider in political campaigns.

Another fellow, Ann F. Lewis, former national director of Americans for Democratic Action, expanded Murray's point to party politics. As an active Democratic force in the recent presidentialelection, Lewis said that she sought to reform thepolitical arena through inclusion.

"At a time when our government is on the rise,we can be as involved in our government as we wantto be--nobody can shut us out," Lewis said.

Lewis applied her principle of inclusion tohelping to bring Jesse Jackson into the innerranks of the Democratic party. "I didn't get intopolitics to rearrange the placards around thetable," she added, "I want to open up the room."

But progress comes slowly, Murray said. Shewarned that students who are "set to change theworld" would have to learn to be content if theycould only "change one law, or an election."

Although organizing political campaigns is"very dull, repetitive and unglamorous work,"Lewis said, she explained that she persistedbecause it was the only way to effect change.

Former U.S. Sen. and Washington Gov. DanielEvans, having experienced the art of politicalcompromise as both a legislator and executive,described his political philosophy in terms of a"surfer theory."

"In politics, you can either be ahead of thewave of public opinion" or under it, Evansexplained, adding, "sometimes you can catch thewave and ride it for an extraordinarily longperiod and make some major changes."

A former senior policy adviser to the Jacksoncampaign, Ronald Walters, however, advocatedresisting political tides. A self-proclaimed"insurgent," Walter described his history ofparticipating in sit-ins during the civil rightsmovement, giving the audience an outsider'sperspective on prompting political action.

In the same vein, Walter added that while heappreciated the IOP fellowship, he was wary ofHarvard's "bias towards the manager."

Physicist and former Delaware lieutenantgovernor S.B. Woo addressed a different fault ofcontemporary politicians.

"Politicians today have visions, but few act onthose visions," he said.

The physicist added that he believed thattoday's politicians need to understand better theimportance of technology in today's world.

The study groups conducted by the fellows willbe open to undergraduates as well as graduatestudents throughout the spring semester. Thefellows will also be in the undergraduate houseson occasion for meals