On Oct 24, Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska spoke at Roone Arledge Cinema about the changing world and how politics for young people today has changed from when he was young.

"I told Barack Obama to pick Joe Biden [as vice president nominee]."

"A nation has no friends, only interests."

A few interesting points from Senator Hagel's visit last week:

1) He believes the public service would benefit young people and that everyone should consider it but is reluctant to make it mandatory. Talked about how in his youth the military was very different from now in that the majority of people were single and the military in general was nowhere near as professional as it is nowadays and used to argue that a draft will not work and is not needed in today's America.

2)  He advised Barack Obama to pick Joe Biden even though he's a Republican. Hagel also said that he believes that Biden is as good a thinker and has as good an understanding of global issues as any American can have. He also believed that the pair could re-introduce America to the world.

3) Apparently upon swearing as senator, he was so excited he ran down the well to swear in.

4) Gave tips to young people who want to get involved in politics:

• Be honest to yourself so you can be honest to everyone else.
• Do it for the right reasons.

5) Believes that America is an empire, but not in the historical sense of the word. Though we have started wars for dishonest reasons, he argues we are not a traditional empire because we're not conquering land, rather, we have interests that we aim to protect.

6) Finally, he said that the three people he would put on his Mt. Rushmore are:

• Eisenhower because of all the things he did not let happen during his eight year term (ie stripped down the French and British empires instead of joining them when Suez Canal was "taken" from them)
• Daniel Patrick Moynihan- preservationist who saved many valuable landmarks such as Union Station in Washington D.C.
• his mother because she represents the generation of people who lived through the Depression and WW2 and were the steadiest and most complete people he knew who always held high standards but were selfless and cared.

An audience asked why he did not run for Republican presidential nominee and he answered that

1) he did not think the Republican party would have supported him because he was such an outspoken critic of both the party and Bush

and 2) he thought being there for his kids during their teenage years was more important.