Sen. John Kerry Delivers Weil Lecture on American Citizenship

Sen. John Kerry delivered the 2009 Weil Lecture on American Citizenship at UNC Friday, March 20. The Institute for the Arts and Humanities, part of the College of Arts and Sciences, presents the Weil lecture biennially. 

Speaking to an audience of more than 500, Kerry emphasized awareness of climate change and encouraged citizens to fight global warming—and shared with the local crowd that he picked UNC to win the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

UNC-system president Erskine Bowles introduced Kerry, and audience members had the opportunity after the talk to ask the senator questions.

Please check back for updated content and photos. To read local news media coverage of the lecture, check out the following stories: 

The Daily Tar Heel (dailytarheel.com)
Jeannine O’Brian, Staff Writer

Sen. John Kerry asked the UNC community Friday to realize its power and fight global climate change. "There are some that try to argue that you can't deal with climate change in an economic crisis," Kerry said. "But I can't think of a thinking that is more off-base than that. Dealing with climate change is part of the solution to the economic crisis." Read more...

The News & Observer (newsobserver.com)
Jay Price, Staff Writer

Americans should treat the fight against global warming as this generation's civil rights movement, rising up against companies that are planning a massive lobbying campaign to block efforts to reduce carbon emissions, Sen. John Kerry said Friday. "I believe we have staring us in the face a moment of remarkable opportunity and we need to seize it," Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said. Read more...  

Tar Heel Blog (tarheel-blog.blogspot.com)
Sean, site blogger

Senator Kerry was the Weil Lecturer on Citizenship for 2009. The Weil Lecture series invites one distinguished speaker each year to give a talk on citizenship. The first lecturer was President Taft in the early 1900s! Kerry's talk centered around global climate change and the need to act despite pressing economic concerns. He advocated increased entrepreneurship and using capitalist market forces to drive innovation and create new jobs in alternative energy. Read more...

The Herald-Sun (heraldsun.southernheadlines.com)
Beth Velliquette, Staff Writer

Climate change is the challenge of this lifetime, U.S. Sen. John Kerry said during a lecture about citizenship Friday at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, spoke at Hill Hall as he delivered the Weil Lecture on American Citizenship. Kerry called the fight to stop climate change as important as the fight for civil rights. "This is the challenge of a lifetime," he said. Read more...

News14 Carolina (news14.com, includes video clip)
Miracle King

Sen. John Kerry was the guest speaker for the 2009 Weil Lecture on American Citizenship on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill Friday. The series was presented by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities. The event dates back to 1915 when the first lecture was given by President William Taft. Kerry spoke mainly about global warming and the action students can take to help. But he also spoke to reporters about the state of the nation. Read more...