Congress’s August recess gives members time to do learning tours in their districts and elsewhere.
It also coincides with the return to school.
During this August recess, I had occasions to remember my years at Emory & Henry College (now University).
I recently was a guest speaker there for a political science class.
Arriving on campus, I was reminded of when I started at Emory as a student.
During my stroll across campus, I could not help but recall many happy memories, including one of the toughest classes I ever had to take.
As a freshman, I enrolled in an Honors class which was a dual class. This dual class was both a history and political science class.
It was on the history of diplomacy in Europe and sub-Saharan politics, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa and the United Nations.
The class was for freshmen who were interested in world history and politics. I looked forward to the class because of my long love of history and politics. It was taught by Dr. Gene Rasor and Dr. James Foster.
Both were good professors from whom I learned a lot. But Dr. Rasor, who was my faculty advisor, also became a lifelong mentor.
Some might find that relationship with Dr. Rasor strange because Dr. Rasor was a liberal Democrat, and even then, I was a conservative Republican. But through the years, both as a student of Rasor’s in class and out, it did not stop us from having a great relationship, traveling together and debating the issues of the day as friends, not enemies. For decades, I tried to convince Rasor that he should be more conservative and he would often joke: “Griffith, when are you going to come to your senses?”
To me, this is the epitome of how American politics ought to work. We can disagree, we can debate, we can think our friend and colleague is mistaken. But we should not view each other as enemies and all of us should have friends that we can disagree with and still love.
Rasor was a task master. In that first class, he assigned us to read “A Diplomatic History of Europe Since the Congress of Vienna” by Albrecht-Carrie.
It is a 696-page book, and we had less than a month to consume it.
Coming out of high school, it was quite a task. And the task was difficult, but very educational.
In the end, Emory & Henry made arrangements for us to travel to New York to talk with representatives of various countries, including some in sub-Saharan Africa.
I will never forget meeting with the Eritrean representatives. At that time, Eritrea was considered to be a part of Ethiopia.
Class lectures and discussions focused on the politics of sub-Saharan Africa and U.S. policy towards the region.
One of the big concerns at that time in Africa was the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union.
Marxist groups in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa were gaining ground.
Today, the behind-the-scenes conflicts are between the Chinese Communist government and the United States.
So when I recently received learning tour invitations from CARE and the Aspen Institute to study Zambia, I immediately thought of that first class at Emory & Henry and my mentor, Dr. Rasor. While there, we studied U.S. policy towards sub-Saharan Africa, including food and health issues.
Zambia is a country of more than 20 million people and a former colony of the United Kingdom.
This was my second ever learning tour to Africa.
Two years ago, my visit to Kenya was the first time I stepped on the African continent. As part of that trip, we were supposed to visit Somaliland (an autonomous region of Somalia), but due to safety concerns, staff revised our itinerary to stay in Kenya. These countries are in sub-Saharan Africa as well.
In Zambia, I visited rural health clinics and farms to learn how they dealt with health issues and the recent drought.
Our conversations during the trip also included a meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, and a nearly two-hour meeting with Zambia’s president, Hakainde Hichilema.
I enjoyed getting Zambia’s president’s perspective and discussing with the bipartisan group ways to improve the U.S. position in sub-Saharan Africa.
As I work on health care issues in the United States and abroad, I will keep in mind the lessons I learned in Zambia.
