This year’s James Otis Lecture Series in Austin was a resounding success and illustrated the continued vitality of this educational resource. Even though the House Chamber was being remodeled and, thus, unavailable for our usual program, we built upon last year’s attendance with more than 100 students from as far away as Henderson coming to Austin to listen to and ask questions of our fantastic slate of speakers.
TEX-ABOTA President-Elect, Mitzi Mayfield, came in from Amarillo to pinch hit for TEX-ABOTA’s President, Charlie Henke, while he attended a comparative law seminar at the Institute for Law and Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany with the ABOTA International Issues Committee in Germany. While Charlie was certainly missed, Mitzi was fantastic. She started off our program with a concise and informative explanation of ABOTA, its goals and its principles. ABOTA Foundation President, Fred James, flew in from Iowa to talk to the attendees about the Foundation’s civics education program, including the James Otis Lecture Series. With that base of information in place, the venerable historian and professor, Dr. H.W. Brands, once again regaled the students with tales of the creation of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, the structure of our government, the importance of that structure in surviving as long as we have as a nation, and many, many other points that were so appropriate and inspiring for our celebration of Constitution Day. His speech drew many fine questions from the audience, which he deftly and graciously answered.
With the support of our sponsors, and the continued backing of TEX-ABOTA, the students were once again treated to an amazing BBQ lunch at Scholz’s Garden while Dr. Brands signed copies of his newest book for the students. Such was the interest in his book that some kids took 2 copies! After lunch, our friend, colleague, mentor and favorite storyteller, Dicky Grigg, capped off the event with yet more inspiring tales of the beauty of our country, the fragility of our republic, and the importance of standing up for the rights which we as Americans hold dear.
The feedback from the students and teachers was universally positive, if not effusive. They appreciated ABOTA’s dedication and efforts to help expose so many interested students to such important information, in a way that was easily and enthusiastically digested.
The James Otis Lecture Committee wishes to express our gratitude to our speakers, to TEX-ABOTA and our sponsors for funding this endeavor and, most importantly, we wish to thank the frontline folks at the Chapter level who reached out to schools and school districts to stir up interest in the program, followed up in the Spring and Fall to ensure folks knew about the program, and even spent their own Chapter resources to get many of the students to Austin.
