JACKSON, Tenn. — Oct. 5, 2016 — U.S. citizens have a responsibility to make the nation what they want it to be, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Oct. 4 at 51社区鈥檚 19th annual Scholarship Banquet.
鈥淭he United States of America is not a driverless Uber car,鈥� Rumsfeld said. 鈥淚t is a country that has been great and will be great only to the extent each of us engages, participates, supports people in public office, criticizes those who earn criticism, supports those who earn support.
鈥淚f we want to know about our future and what it鈥檚 going to be like, all we need to do is look in the mirror.鈥�
Rumsfeld, who served as secretary of defense under President Gerald R. Ford and President George W. Bush, was the keynote speaker for the annual event at the Carl Perkins Civic Center. The Scholarship Banquet raises money for student scholarships each year and celebrates the generosity of donors who help make a Union education possible for students.
One of the premier events in West Tennessee each year, the Scholarship Banquet has hosted such speakers as George H.W. Bush, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ben Carson and Condoleezza Rice, among others.
鈥淭his year鈥檚 Scholarship Banquet was a wonderful evening of celebration,鈥� Union President Samuel W. 鈥淒ub鈥� Oliver said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e grateful to Donald Rumsfeld for sharing his insights with us about the United States and where we鈥檙e headed as a nation, and we鈥檙e grateful to the many donors who give generously to help provide scholarships to our students.
鈥淯nion is a special place, and the Scholarship Banquet is always a special time to celebrate all that God is doing here.鈥�
Rumsfeld spent the bulk of his address discussing some of the gravest threats to the country. He listed nuclear weapons, Iran, China, a national debt of $19 trillion, cyber warfare and the world鈥檚 mass refugee problem, describing them as macro events that pose a variety of challenges.
But he said the greatest threat could be the 鈥渕icro events鈥� that nobody sees. Rumsfeld referenced the riots in Baltimore in 2015 that followed the death of Freddie Gray after he was arrested by police. While the riots were certainly public events that everyone witnessed, Rumsfeld said those events could have led to a wife encouraging her police officer husband to move to a different city and take a job outside of law enforcement.
As a boy, Rumsfeld played with marbles and magnetic particles. When he鈥檇 take a magnet and move it, all the particles would either be attracted or repelled. He used that to illustrate what he sees happening in the world today.
鈥淭he magnetic particles are pointing in the wrong direction,鈥� he said. 鈥淎 vacuum has been created in the world, and it is being filled by organizations 鈥� in some cases countries, individuals 鈥� who don鈥檛 have our values or our interests.鈥� Rumsfeld said the world is dangerous and untidy, and dealing with problems like ISIS and other global terrorism is difficult.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to prevail with bullets,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to take much more. And it isn鈥檛 going to be a war like World War II or World War I. It鈥檚 a long war. It鈥檚 decades. It鈥檚 much more like the Cold War 鈥� dealing with a philosophy.鈥�
Rumsfeld, a former navy pilot, served in a variety of government roles during his career, including four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, chief of staff for Ford, U.S. ambassador to NATO and presidential envoy to the Middle East. He directed the Department of Defense鈥檚 efforts in the global war on terror following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He also served as CEO of two Fortune 500 companies.
In recognition of his public service, Rumsfeld has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award.