Acadia Senior College - special events

Seth Singleton: "Russia Confronts the West"

Date: October 25, 2008

Location: Jesup Library, Bar Harbor, Maine

Time: 2:00 - 4:00

Description: What is Russia up to, and how should the United States respond? Must we confront the
Russians, or should they be accommodated? If so, how?
Russians cheered their military victory in Georgia and the humiliation of the United States. On Moscow TV, Mighty Russia is back. President Medvedev has laid down his conditions for good relations - recognition of Russia's "privileged interests" in the countries around its borders and its right to intervene to protect Russian citizens - that is, anyone to whom it gives a passport. The Russians hint at or threaten gas shutoffs to Europe, confiscation of Western investments, arms shipments to Syria and Iran and the Taliban, tearing up treaties on nuclear missiles in Europe, and Russian naval bases in Venezuela. Russia is flush with oil and gas money - some $600 billion in reserves. The United States seems powerless, overstretched by its imperialist war in Iraq. A divided and irresolute Europe needs Russian gas.

But aren't the Russians justified to resist the apparently endless advance of NATO? Didn't Kosovo already break the precedent of maintaining international borders? Georgia's President Saakashvili, our guy, is a dangerous hothead who started the shooting. After Iraq, how can we criticize the Russians for invading an independent
country?

US politicians and pundits yell about Russian aggression. But what is to be done? Is it time to withdraw from the far corners of the earth, to rebuild our economy and attend to the needs of American citizens, and let Georgia and the rest cope with Russia as best they can? Or is this a moment for "defense of free peoples everywhere", as Harry Truman said at the start of the (first) cold war? Would acceding to Russia encourage a savage world of competing Great Powers, of the sort that brought us those other guns of August,
in 1914? Or is it really all about pipelines and money?

Seth Singleton lives in Hall Quarry, MDI, Maine and teaches international relations at the University of Maine. He studied Russian History and Literature at Harvard and has his doctorate from Yale. His research subject for many years was Soviet policy in Asia and Africa. He lived and taught in Russia in 1991-92 and has traveled to Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, and the Russian Far East. He has been Research Associate of the Harvard Russian Center, Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam and Bolivia, dean of a new university in Ecuador, and a university consultant in Mongolia.

This presentation is co-sponsored by The Camden Conference and Acadia Senior College.

Dr Anne Clunan to speak

Date: July 21, 2008

Location: Gates Community Center, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor

Time: 5:00 pm

Description: “The 20th Century’s Potent Legacy,” Dr Anne Clunan

“Weapons of mass destruction are the most persistent legacy of the last century.” While Al Gore might not agree with that assertion, the spread of weapons of mass destruction is an issue that no serious student of our globalized world can ignore.

In a talk sponsored by Acadia Senior College, Dr Anne Clunan of the Naval Post Graduate School will illuminate the pathways over which these weapons can spread, and what can be done about this risk to our national security. The pathways include “ungoverned spaces” -- well know breeding grounds for terrorists and pirates -- Somalia,
Pakistan's tribal areas, and Iraq -- and unconventional spaces -- outer space, cyberspace,
and the world's oceans. Dr Clunan will address the latest thinking about the U.S. role in these spaces.
A question and answer period and a reception will follow.

Prior to her academic career, Dr. Clunan was instrumental in the creation of the nonprofit
“Students for Czechoslovakia,” an entrepreneurial English language program for schools and colleges in post-Communist Czechoslovakia. Clunan subsequently launched the Civic Education Project, Inc., an international nongovernmental organization dedicated to promoting civil society in transitioning countries in central and Eastern Europe. In 1999 she received the Velvet Revolution Award from the Czech and Slovak governments for her work promoting democracy and friendship between the peoples of the Czech and Slovak Republics and the United States of
America. She has worked and traveled extensively in Central, Eastern, and Western Europe and the
former Soviet Union. She received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley. Her parents, Dorothy and James Clunan, live in Somesville.

As a continuation of the Acadia Senior College series, “Big Ideas of the 21st Century,” the event is free and open to the public. Persons planning to attend should RSVP to the Acadia Senior College office at 288-9500.

The Politics of Sports – Excerpts from the classic film "The Festival of the Nations" by Leni Riefesnstahl followed by a discussion led by Bill Baker

Date: July 26, 2008

Location: Southwest Harbor Public Library - Sponsored by Acadia Senior College and the Camden Conference.

Time: 2-4:00 pm

Description: From August 8 to August 24, 2008, the Beijing Olympics will signal China's emergence
as a prominent player on the world stage of modern culture. This international mixture of sport and politics is nothing new. For much of the twentieth century, democratic, fascist, and communist powers wove political themes around quadrennial Olympic Games. Invariably, popular opinion and national media played key roles, especially with radio, television, and documentary film.

Leni Riefenstahl's "Olympia" immortalizes the Berlin Olympics of l936, the "Nazi Olympics" that celebrated the resurrection of Germany from the ashes of military defeat and economic disaster. Like the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, the Berlin Games provoked protests from around the world. For obvious reasons, Riefenstahl's Olympia ignored those protests. Instead, she focused on several nationalistic themes that shaped her brilliant presentation of athletic events.

For this viewing of excerpts from the classic documentary, William J. Baker will provide commentary. Baker, recently retired as Professor of History at the University of Maine, now resides in Bass Harbor. Amid his ten books are a survey history of sports in the western world and a best-selling biography of Jesse Owens, the American star of the Berlin Olympics. Bill is one of the U.S.'s foremost sports historians.

Annual General Meeting -2008-

Date: Took place on June 4, 2008

Location: Neighborhood House, Northeast Harbor

Time: Meeting at 5:30, dinner at 6:00

Description:Acadia Senior College members gathered for our 2008 Annual General Meeting and supper on June 4 at the Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor. Retiring President and ASC founder Jim Clunan passed the gavel to incoming President Bill Dohmen, who read a resolution by the Board honoring Jim and his wife Dorothy for
their outstanding vision and leadership in establishing the College and guiding its vigorous growth over eight years.

ASC members in attendance elected two new Board members: Jim Kitler, who will serve as our new treasurer, and Rob Fry. Ginny Blaney is the new Vice President.

Jim's farewell speech outlined the significant milestones of his tenure, and credited the "entrepreneurial" spirit that motivated the creation of this lively organization, and will continue to guide its growth. (Click here to read Jim Clunan's farewell speech.)

As a finale, Sheri Kean's winter term line dancing class showed off their hot stuff. It was a fitting wind-up to a year full of "stimulation, knowledge, interaction, and fun."

AGM Photo (Peggy Forster photos)

Date: June 4, 2008

Location: Neighborhood House, NE Harbor

Time: Prize time!

Description: Ginny Blaney holds the basket while Dorothy Clunan draws the winning names! Those signing up for 2008-09 membership by June 4th were eligible for gift certificates from Sips, and Sawyer's Specialties. Congratulations to winners: Jim Kitler, Phoebe Milliken, Sam Williams and Phyllis Adams!!

AGM Potluck

Date: June 4, 2008

Location: Neighborhood House, NE Harbor

Time: Hungry time!!

Description: Rita Gallon and Jane Adams set up the Potluck table... yum... hope you were there!!!

Dine and Discuss (The first in a series)

Date: Took place on June 6, 2008

Location: Jordan Pond House

Time: 6:00 pm

Description:Dr. Allan Currie, Chief of the Medical Service at Eastern Maine Medical Center, was our guest speaker at this first in a series of programs featuring professionals sharing insights from their current fields of work. His topic, Health Care in the 21st Century, played to an enthusiastic group in the private dining room at Jordan Pond House on June 6th, 2008.

These Dine and Discuss gatherings were initiated by Dr. Robert Gallon, a clinical psychologist, musician and ASC faculty member who has a day job that conflicts with much that the Senior College has to offer its retired members. All of the programs in this series will take place on Friday evenings and will be open to the entire community as well as ASC members.

Watch for publicity about two upcoming programs in September and October, 2008.