Top-tier speakers spark general sessions

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The highest scoring player in NBA history, Abdul-Jabbar shared his thoughts on race relations, which he also explores in his latest book, Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White, and reflected on his career as an athlete, author, actor and advocate for racial justice.

“Why write this book now?” Knabe asked. “I think I’ve been motivated to write on these subjects my whole life,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I paid of lot of attention to to the civil rights movement when I was growing up in the ’50s and ’60s.”

Hearing of the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi “really got to me,” he said. The turbulent times made him concerned for his own safety.

“The fact that attitudes that had been around for over 100 years really had a lot to do with that,” he said. “It made me very aware of what we need to do in order to communicate with each other and do a better job of making this a great nation for all of our citizens.”

Harking back to his playing days, Abdul-Jabbar fielded several questions from the audience about his college and pro basketball careers. Knabe also mentioned that Abdul-Jabbar has been nominated for a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

In closing, Knabe asked Abdul-Jabbar about his Skyhook Foundation (www.skyhookfoundation.org), whose mission is to bring educational opportunities to underserved communities. It’s mission: “Give a kids a shot that can’t be blocked.”

After the general session, he signed copies of his new book.

(If you would like to preorder KAJ's new book, "Writings on the Wall" visit www.kareemabduljabbar.com)

 

Jon Meacham

Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham analyzed the 2016 race for the White House in historical context and offered a few predictions.

The national contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was about even when Meacham spoke, as the Democratic National Convention was just ramping up. Since then, Clinton has seen a substantial bounce in the polls.

Still, Meacham said, “People who think this is a slam dunk on either side I think are wrong, and I think that it’s going to be a long Fall.”

He noted that both candidates have high unfavorable ratings. But he said that Clinton won’t be able to win “simply by being not Trump.”

As an historian, he took the long view of what brought Americans to the current state of divisiveness in politics, while extending hope by noting this isn’t the first time this has happened.

“One of the things that I spend my time doing,” he said, “is trying to figure out not why things are so bad right now, but trying to figure out how we got out of similar moments in the past.”

In that vein, he harked back to other times of turmoil in American history, and how presidents learned from their mistakes.

Perhaps most notably, he recalled how lessons from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 informed President Kennedy’s approach in de-escalating the potentially disastrous Cuban Missile Crisis the following year — which took America to the brink of nuclear war with the then-Soviet Union.

“The ability to say I got that wrong and I now need to do better is one of the hardest things for those who are in political life ... but many of us would not even be here if Kennedy hadn’t learned from his mistakes,” Meacham said. “The capacity to learn on the job is absolutely essential.”

For both candidates, it’s a “legitimate question” about how well they admit to their mistakes, he said. “And if you think that the Democratic nominee is really good at that, I have a private server I can sell you,” he added, wryly.

Drawing parallels to the past, Meacham compared present-day divisiveness to that of the post-Revolutionary War period. “The golden age of American life was ferociously divisive, ferociously partisan,” he said.

“Partisanship is a perfectly fine thing, it’s why we have a democracy… that’s the nature of being a free society,” he added. “It’s reflexive partisanship that becomes an issue. If I disagree with what you’re saying simply because you’re the one saying it, then I’m foreclosing the possibility of reason and judgment and growth. We have to be able to listen to each other in a coherent and respectful way.”

Governments work best when opposing sides are willing to compromise, he said.

Taking questions from the audience after his remarks, Meacham was asked to predict who will win the presidency. He said he often gets it wrong but that “the math favors the Democratic nominee.”

Earlier, however, he said in the current age of anxiety over economic and social upheaval, it’s “not inexplicable” that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee because he has given voice to many Americans who feel left behind.

Speaking to any elections officials in the room, he said, given the unfavorable ratings of both Trump and Clinton, the campaign will be a “ferocious” one. “So those of you who run the elections, lay in a lot of coffee because I think it’s going to be a long Election Day.”

Jack Dangermond

Esri president and co-founder Jack Dangermond showed assorted county officials at the Opening General Session what was possible with geographic information systems.

The software he pioneered is now at work in many departments in counties across the nation, with applications ranging from real estate assessment databases to emergency management. “Mapping and GIS technology is becoming a kind of language that is essential for managing in a digital environment,” he said. “It’s a visual language that helps us look at and instantly understand things that we couldn’t understand with all of the written words and mathematical languages. This is a language for everybody — it touches everything.”

Throughout, Dangermond illustrated the impact geography, what he called “the platform for understanding and acting,” has on management.

“GIS is affecting the whole process of planning in economic development, from green infrastructure planning to urban design in terms of understanding before acting.”

He showed off how weather information can be adapted through GIS maps to   predict how the rainfall will eventually flow downstream, and warnings for earthquakes hundreds miles away that could give people a chance to get to safety before the shocks reach them.

“Counties are using it in different departments to save money, save time, be better,” he said, “but the holistic aspect is something I particularly think you as elected officials need to know and understand; it’s right there to be captured and used.”

“We create geographic knowledge, understand it and then act in a more sensible way.”

Dangermond described the future of what is possible with GIS, as it is integrated into various new and existing technologies, including dynamic data.

“The world is becoming real time in digital space,” he said.

“You and I are living in an interesting time because everything is digital even though many of us claim we are not technical,” he said. “Underneath your feet, we’re learning how to measure everything that moves and changes.