Former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal held a guest lecture Tuesday evening at Brenau University to celebrate Brenau's Learning and Leisure Institute's 30 years of programming.
Deal’s lecture titled "The Keeping of Our Republic" discussed the challenges of the past 250 years to our form of government at the state and federal levels.
“It's an honor to be invited, I get a lot of invitations to things. But I think it's always important for us to be an educated population,” Deal said. “I think that's the great thing about the BULLI program is that even those who are perhaps beyond the normal timeframe of being educated in a college or whatever, that they can continue to learn, and they can continue to explore topics, that perhaps some of them like me, have always wanted to do, but never had the time while they were living and working and raising family.”
"The Keeping of Our Republic” will be expanded into an in-person six-week BULLI course taught by the former Governor.
“It comes from the statement that Benjamin Franklin made when he was asked the question at the end of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, 'What have you given us, Dr. Franklin?'” Deal said. “And his answer was, 'A republic, if you can keep it.' So we've been keeping it for these 236 years. It's always good for us to review where we came from, and see how we got to where we are now, and then try to forecast where we may be going in the future.”
Deal discussed two important things to remember to keep the republic.
“It's important for us to remember that our founding fathers when they were drawing up our Constitution, they always deferred to two things. One was the states, the importance of the states,” Deal said. “And secondly, and more important than the first was the people. It was always the idea that it was the people who were the very backbone of our country. We forget that sometimes. We get so caught up on other things that we forget that we have responsibilities to make sure we keep the Republic.”
In his lecture, Deal talked about the importance of the judicial branch and how it is the backbone of looking at the country through history.
“The judicial branch is the best one to look at, in terms of where we are, in terms of how we've progressed to deal with issues that are very different and impossible for our founding fathers to actually contemplate,” Deal said.
The former governor touched on what he feels is the most important function of an elected official.
“I have always believed that one of the most, if not the most, important function of anybody who is an elected official is to serve the people, the people who elected you,” Deal said. “People have problems. They have problems with understanding what their government and the government programs that affect their lives actually do. And they need help. So I always felt like the greatest service that, especially as a member of Congress, that I could provide, was to help them with their problems.”
The BULLI program is a partnership between Brenau University and community leaders and offers courses ranging from health and wellness, self-improvement, the arts and academics.
BULLI also provides social and leisure activities like the BULLI hiking club, the Dinner Together group and various special events.
