Governor Martin O'Malley Delivers Keynote Address Before the US Naval Academy Forrestal Lecture Series
ANNAPOLIS, MD (January 27, 2009) – Last night, Governor Martin O’Malley delivered the keynote address before the entire Naval Academy brigade of 4,400 midshipmen and more than 200 attendees from visiting military and civilian academies at the US Naval Academy Forrestal Lecture Series. The January 2009 Forrestal Lecture is part of the US Naval Academy Leadership Conference that runs from Monday, January 26th through Wednesday, January 28th and carries the topic “Generational Leadership – How to Recruit, Lead, and Retain our Country’s Next Generation.”
Governor O’Malley noted particular traits possessed by the outlying men and women revered by history including a willingness to confront adversity: “Noah in building the ark had a willingness to confront adversity. Lincoln in teaching himself to read certainly demonstrated in his individual life a willingness to confront the adversity of illiteracy,” Governor O’Malley said. “When, as President, he refused to allow Fort Sumter to be evacuated thereby precipitating the Civil War, he again demonstrated a willingness to confront adversity. When Gandhi and Martin Luther King stood up to overwhelming odds, power, systemic injustice and historic inertia, they too displayed that all important quality of leadership – a willingness to confront adversity.”
Governor O’Malley continued: “Neil Armstrong’s small step for man was made possible not only because President Kennedy had the vision to declare that America would put a man on the moon; but because he also had the discipline to measure performance towards that goal by saying publicly that we would land a man on the moon within a decade. And implicit in his declaration of goal and his measurement of performance was the courage to change our level of effort, our magnitude of investment, as well as any other tactics and strategies necessary to achieve the goal.”
Governor O’Malley noted the discipline of setting goals and measuring one’s effectiveness on meeting those goals: “It is not a matter of goals or measures. It is a discipline of goals and measures. Not a choice of compass or controls, but a discipline of compass and controls to steer any ship of human endeavor. Setting goals and measuring performance only advance the mission, however, if one has as a leader or citizen the courage to change course when the things we are doing are not working. This, of course, is not always easy. We humans tend to fall in love with the way we’ve we always done it. We tend over time to confuse an unquestioning rote familiarity with expertise and excellence.”
In his remarks, Governor O’Malley cited the challenges America faces and the overwhelming need for disciplined leadership to tackle them. “We live in times when our own human frailty and the compounding of human propensities for self-destruction and hyper-consumption of the planet’s resources threaten our American and global way of life as never before. We face a range of challenges from global warming to the potential global collapse of marine life and bio-diversity; from global poverty and its many resource pressures including south to north migration, to global terror and the threat that this new type of asymmetrical warfare poses to our balance between liberty and security, and America’s moral leadership of the free world. These challenges are the terrain upon which your generation’s battle will be fought. But take some measure of comfort though from the truth that the essence of this battle is as old as recorded time; for the most fortunate and the least fortunate, for the privileged and the poor, the battle is always the same: will your world change you, or will you change your world?”
Noting that American leadership is best applied in the areas of American security, sustainability, and skills and innovation, Governor O’Malley concluded his remarks by referring to the transcendence of leadership. “But before all of those notions of community, and after your professional careers are over, you are and will remain a Citizen of the United States. And our greatness as a people -- our power to recruit and summon forth great leadership in every generation -- is not found primarily in our economic, diplomatic or military power, it is found in our fourth power: the power of our principles, the power of our values. It is a treasure found in self-evident truths. It is a treasure held in the spiritual tabernacle of a compassionate and noble community renown around the world as the United States of America.”
The Forrestal series was established in 1970 in honor of the late James V. Forrestal who, as one of the foremost proponents of seapower in our era, was instrumental in the development of the modern Navy. The purpose of the series is to enhance the education, awareness and appreciation of the members of the Brigade of Midshipmen in the social, political, and cultural dimensions of the Nation and the world. Some past lecturers include Sen. Chris Dodd (CT), Tim Russert, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Admiral Mike Mullen, H. Ross Perot, General Barry McCaffrey, President George H.W. Bush, General Colin Powell, Attorney General Janet Reno, David McCullough, and Vice President Dick Cheney.
