Chancellor Green welcoming attendees to Prague Spring 50

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04/11/2018 Added

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Chancellor Ronnie Green opens the Prague Spring 50 events by welcoming the attendees.

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[00:00:11.120]If I could get everyone's attention,
[00:00:12.780]we'll get started with our opening session
[00:00:15.780]tonight of Prague Spring 50.
[00:00:20.540]Please let me be the first to welcome you all
[00:00:23.000]to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln,
[00:00:25.100]my name is Ronnie Green, and I
[00:00:27.130]have the pleasure of serving as the 20th chancellor
[00:00:29.750]of the university here, so for those
[00:00:31.670]of you who are joining us from outside
[00:00:33.775]the university, welcome to Nebraska,
[00:00:36.256]welcome to the University of Nebraska Lincoln,
[00:00:39.060]we're very, very glad that you're here
[00:00:40.901]for what promises to be a really special week
[00:00:44.016]in our campus and in the year this year
[00:00:47.410]that we're experiencing here at Nebraska.
[00:00:50.506]This is a really major effort that
[00:00:53.440]has been led by two people, and I want
[00:00:55.397]to first acknowledge them, because they
[00:00:57.746]have worked very, very hard to develop this event,
[00:01:02.447]to bring a very A-list group of speakers
[00:01:05.650]and scholars to join us here in Lincoln
[00:01:08.300]to celebrate this mile-mark in history,
[00:01:11.258]James Le Sueur, who is our chair
[00:01:14.870]of the department of history in the College
[00:01:16.720]of Arts and Sciences, here at UNL.
[00:01:18.710]James, please stand and take a bow.
[00:01:21.020]Right here.
[00:01:21.948](applause)
[00:01:28.280]And Marina Chapkova who his an alumna
[00:01:31.710]of the university here, one of our former
[00:01:33.931]scholars in the program, and is currently
[00:01:36.750]at the Ministry of Agriculture in Prague.
[00:01:38.813](applause)
[00:01:44.530]It's very fitting that we are having
[00:01:47.070]this conversation in Lincoln, Nebraska,
[00:01:49.140]because as those of us who live here know,
[00:01:52.796]Nebraska is a place of immigrants,
[00:01:56.850]and it is a place that was settled
[00:01:58.700]by people from all over the world,
[00:02:00.471]and one of the most distinct groups
[00:02:03.313]that settled here were Czechs from that region
[00:02:08.110]of Europe that we celebrate through this event.
[00:02:11.910]I want you to think back, as we open tonight, to 1968.
[00:02:17.420]There aren't all of us in the room
[00:02:19.040]that can remember all the way back
[00:02:20.638]to that period, but many of us looking around the room can.
[00:02:25.030]It was a time of great unrest in the world.
[00:02:28.530]Tomorrow, you might recognize, we celebrate
[00:02:31.430]the 50-year anniversary of the assassination
[00:02:34.010]of Martin Luther King in 1968.
[00:02:37.840]The Vietnam War was at a peak during that period.
[00:02:41.970]In January of that year, the Tet Offensive
[00:02:44.189]was launched in 1968.
[00:02:48.330]The Apollo 8 Mission happened in 1968,
[00:02:52.100]the first man-spacecraft orbiting of the moon.
[00:02:56.270]You might remember The Olympics in 1968,
[00:03:00.067]and the events that were occurring
[00:03:04.214]around civil rights, especially,
[00:03:06.180]where there were fists in the air
[00:03:08.220]in defiance of some of the issues
[00:03:11.210]related to civil rights in that time.
[00:03:14.830]And there was this thing in Prague
[00:03:17.420]that occurred from January through August
[00:03:19.960]of that year, that was a standing up
[00:03:22.650]against communist repression behind the Iron Curtain,
[00:03:27.020]that we're here this week to really celebrate
[00:03:29.710]and think about what the meaning of that was,
[00:03:32.477]about the Velvet Revolution that occurred 21 years later,
[00:03:36.588]when they were liberated from communism
[00:03:40.350]and had the opportunity to move into freedom,
[00:03:43.126]as they know it today in the Czech Republic.
[00:03:46.400]Václav Havel's key role in all
[00:03:49.690]of that experience, you'll hear a lot about that this week.
[00:03:53.330]So 1968, I'll have to tell you,
[00:03:55.520]I feel sometimes like we're sort of back
[00:03:58.160]in 1968, just to be really honest,
[00:04:02.125]but this is a year that we're now 50 years,
[00:04:06.580]believe it or not, past in our history.
[00:04:10.670]So this week-long celebration of events
[00:04:14.030]and opportunity for us to commemorate
[00:04:16.400]that experience with our friends
[00:04:18.620]from the Czech Republic, the scholarship
[00:04:21.460]that has emanated from that part
[00:04:23.910]of the world, and from that series of events.
[00:04:27.120]Introspection, that at this point
[00:04:30.310]in history I'd say is very important
[00:04:32.240]for all of us, having the opportunity
[00:04:34.274]to be introspective this week,
[00:04:36.423]remembering back to that time is very valuable.
[00:04:40.640]So James, and Marina, thank you so much
[00:04:42.643]for giving us this opportunity
[00:04:45.040]in bringing this group together.

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Chancellor Green welcoming attendees to Prague Spring 50

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