Adam Coates. "Thousands at DPU to hear Gorbachev"

     Saluting the crowd with his rolled up speech notes and offering a warm smile, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev promoted a common future when he stepped up to the podium at DePauw University's Lilly Center on Thursday to speak to the scores of students, alumni and citizens who gathered in hopes of getting a glimpse of the renown leader.
     After offering a stand-up applause, the crowd fell silent as the 75-year-old Gorbachev, by way of an interpreter, talked about the conflict-filled past of his country and shared his ideas for a better future.
He began his speech, which was part of DePauw's Ubben lecture series, by noting the 20th anniversary of the beginning of "perestroika" ‹ Gorbachev's plan for bringing about economic and governmental change in the once communist country.
     "We needed a change," he said, recalling the mid 1980's which found Gorbachev as leader of the communist party and beginning summit talks with then U.S. President Ronald Reagan. "Society needed a change."
     But on Thursday, he admitted the changes in his country have been slow in coming and at times have been difficult for some to accept.
     "In our country, everyone welcomed perestroika initially," he said. "But then we saw many problems emerge."
     Some of those problems, he said, continue in Russia today and are found in nations around the world.
     "We are facing the challenges of the future," he said, offering his belief that world hunger and the fight over natural resources are current problems threatening the safety and future success of the world with its population of more than 6 billion people.
     He devoted a large portion of his 45-minute speech to describing what he called a "global environmental crisis" effecting two-thirds of the world's nations today. At the heart of it all, he said, is the fight for natural resources, such as water and oil.
     He estimated that only one-third of the world's population lives in what he described as "decent conditions" and that nation must join nation to end the crisis.
     "We cannot pretend everything will sort of work itself out,"Gorbachev said.
     With that, he turned his attention to the current place that oil holds in the world economy. He called it a "bone of contention" and cited predictions by some that the world may one day run out of its natural supplies of oil.
     Fresh water supplies, he added, are also shrinking in many countries around the world, and it is important for multi-national alliances to keep watch that the situation doesn't worsen.
     "We live in an international, globalized society," he said. "It is important for countries to be interdependent."
     Those statements were closely followed by talk of the United States and Gorbachev's belief that nations must join forces when dealing with global issues.
     He spoke pointedly about his feelings concerning the U.S. and the war in Iraq.
     "We don't want a second Vietnam ... no one does," he said receiving widespread applause. "That shows it needs to be solved through common efforts and not through unilateral demand."
     The "pinnacle" to bringing piece in nations like Iraq, he countered, is the United Nations which in his words, "We need to support and reform."
     He concluded his speech by stating that he believes the world is gradually making progress but that more needs to be done.
     "We can only have a common future," he said.
     Following his speech, Gorbachev was greeted with more applause to which he quipped, "If you want me to continue, I would be happy to do it."
     As he stepped away from the podium, feedback in the microphone caused a high-pitched squeal to fill the Lilly Center.
     "That was not a bomb," he said, receiving laughter from the crowd.
     Following his Thursday speech, which was his first visit to Greencastle, Gorbachev was headed to Manhattan, Kansas on Friday to speak to students at Kansas State University.

The Banner-Graphic, October 28, 2005