University of Central Oklahoma
TUESDAY November 18, 1997
oWitivm,
The Student Voice Since 1903
Keating addresses youth issues during conference at UCO By Steven E. Wedel Staff Writer
O
klahoma Governor Frank Keating delivered the keynote address at the first Oklahoma Summit held on the campus of UCO on Nov. 12-13. The summit is the result of the President's Summit for America's Future, held last April in Philadelphia. A delegation of Oklahomans, led by the governor and his wife, attended the President's Summit and are now working to implement the ideas from the national summit in Oklahoma. Keating said the Oklahoma summit is one of the first state summits to take place since the national meeting. "We went with the purpose of discussing with other Americans the issue of our adult role in caring for children at risk," Keating said in a private interview. "We addressed the challenge of 15 million young people who were at risk to school drop out, gang membership, teen pregnancy and inadequate education." "What concerned me was the lack of a spiritual focus in much of this," Keating said. "I think to give young people an understanding of their role in the world you have to imbue in them the appreciation that they are special assets, special children of God, who have obligations and responsibilities to do well and to be good. "We have that focus here," Keating said of the Oklahoma Summit. "We have a number of religious leaders of all denominations that are participating in our summit." Keating said he thought the organizers of the national summit realized they were soft on the moral and religious issues and harder on the classic social service
Governor Frank Keating speaks to the public after addressing representatives of 29 communities and 14 Native American tribes Wednesday in the UC Ballroom. Keating proposed a statewide mentoring program to help high-risk youth. (Staff photo by Steven Wedel)
response. The governor said he hopes there will be more of a focus on the moral aspects of education, and pointed to recent events as an example of what he meant. "We had the two boys that murdered the girl in Little Axe," Keating said. "I had three teachers come to me, tearyeyed, saying they had been told they could not discuss moral issues in their
class. I said 'I could see you not talking about things that are strictly Christian or denominational, but to talk about civic virtue, to be a righteous citizen, that's your obligation as teachers.' I think that has to be a focus in this (summit)." During his keynote address at Wednesday's luncheon, Keating said the main goal of those involved in the summit is to find 25,000 volunteers who
are willing to mentor kids in the at-risk category. "Our children need to be tougher, smarter and better educated," Keating said. "And they need to be moral." He said he believed a mentoring program would serve to help young people resist the temptations of drugs, gangs and immoral activity, while providing a caring person to fill the role of an absent parent or sibling. "A society that's really a society must be a moral society where all of us understand our obligations and responsibilities," Keating said. The young people who will be helped by the mentoring program are a part of our society's future, Keating added. He said it is vital they are educated beyond the usual reading, writing and arithmetic and must learn to be moral individuals who understand and embrace their potential. "Every single person has an opportunity and an obligation to be somebody," Keating said near the end of his address. He closed his speech by calling on everyone present to take concrete action toward addressing the problems facing young people in Oklahoma today. Also speaking at the summit were authors Clifton Taulbert and Robert Fulghum, former University of Oklahoma and New Orleans Saints football player Jimmy Rogers, political commentator and attorney Burns Hargis, First Lady Cathy Keating and several other speakers.
Managing Editor Sandi Craig contributed to this story.
INSIDE TODAY INDEX Editorial 2 Sports 8,9 Around Campus ....11 Classifieds
12
FEATURE Awardwinning writer speaks to UCO students.
5
SPORTS Bronchos win conference division title and still miss playoffs.
8
MUSIC Local bands battle it out Friday night at UCO.
