Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's appearance at the Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium Wednesday night was the latest of the series' distinguished leaders and thinkers, and the first of three coming to Hopkins this week.
O'Malley discussed the strengths of Maryland and greater America, as well as weaknesses that can be improved upon.
"We have everything we need for greatness," he said during his speech. "[But] we need to make tough choices now for a brighter tomorrow. We need to take individual responsibility today for building the bright future we prefer. And we do this not so much out of respect or nostalgia for what our parents and grandparents have done for us - we do it because of something deeper, and that is the responsibility we have to the people who will come after us."
The topics touched on prompted long lines to form during the question and answer period. O'Malley answered questions which were posed on issues ranging from global warming to crime statistics with extensive and detailed responses.
However when one student followed up on a question by asking whether or not he should be locked up for buying marijuana in Baltimore, the answer was short and to the point.
"Yes," O'Malley said. "Yes, and if you do it in a neighborhood and the people call their police department and ask them to get you off their front steps for doing that, yes, I believe you should be locked up. I don't think you should stay in prison very long, but I don't think you should do that to your neighbors."
Evan Lazerowitz, vice president of the College Republicans, said members of his organization planned to question the democratic governor about potential problems with his recent tax plans. One such inquiry was made during the event.
"This is just asking questions, there's no protest involved," Lazerowitz said. "It's good that he's coming to speak."
Another group was less restrained. Members of the Baltimore Algebra Project - including students from nearby high schools - protested outside of Shriver Hall before O'Malley arrived, chanting and handing out fliers demanding "quality education."
During an interview after the event, O'Malley responded to these two groups positively.
"The Algebra group used to always come down to see me as mayor, [but] I haven't seen them for a while, the good people that believe we should be investing more and more in education," O'Malley said. "In terms of the guy that asked the tax question - I mean, it's a good question. What will [those changes] do to our competitiveness and our ability to keep businesses in Maryland?"
"It seemed like a nice night. I mean, everybody asked good questions and they were very, very polite and kind to me," he added.
The governor is also a supporter of adding a paper trail to Maryland's many electronic voting machines, a stance brought to the nation's attention, in part, by Hopkins professor Avi Ruben.
"[Ruben's] been great," O'Malley said. "There's been a lot of public effort on it. We send kids to Iraq to defend democracy - we should be able to protect it here."
Despite his desire to improve the voting system, he said he did not see any major problems with the system in the last election.
"If you train enough judges properly, we don't have problems with them. I haven't seen evidence of problems with them. That doesn't mean there isn't a better and more secure and safer way to do it, in the same way that filling out ballots and sticking them in a box isn't as good as what we're doing today," he said. "We always need to make improvements."
The governor started considering elections and politics from an early age. When asked, he elaborated about his significant involvement in several political campaigns while in college and law school, including those of Gary Hart and Barbara Mikulski.
"At the age of 20 - without my own personal credit card - I had the title of assistant national finance director, so it was a great experience," he said.
O'Malley called presidential campaigns "great opportunities" to get involved for Hopkins students and students in general, looking particularly to the 2008 race.
"There will be opportunities and people should get involved," he said. "It's a great experience. That's where I learned to manage campaigns, run campaigns, hone campaigns - it was a great competitive advantage."
O'Malley also praised the progress being made by Hopkins, which has played such a large role in Baltimore, where he was mayor before being elected governor last year.
"I've always had a very good relationship with Hopkins," he said. "Hopkins is a source of pride for all of us, I think, as Marylanders, and certainly those of us that love the City of Baltimore. The efforts underway to expand the East Baltimore Development Initiative and to bring jobs and hope and better housing to the neighborhoods that surround Johns Hopkins - it's really hard, difficult, courageous and important work that the Hospital and Johns Hopkins family did not have to undertake, but they're doing it, and it's really going to transform, I think, East Baltimore."
He also stressed that his relationship with Hopkins didn't end when he stopped being the city's mayor.
"I still have a good relationship with Hopkins ... they're an incredible force for healing and science and also employment," O'Malley said. "Hopkins is a great institution, and I'm very privileged as governor that we have great institutions like Hopkins."
MSE will be hosting former presidential candidate Howard Dean tonight, followed by actor Danny Glover tomorrow.
