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One of the world’s leading diplomatic figures, John Kerry, will appear at The Progressive Forum on Saturday, September 29, at 7:30 p.m. Kerry will sit in conversation with Randall Morton, Progressive Forum president, to highlight stories behind his memoir, recounting a remarkable 50 years in public service — from decorated Vietnam veteran, to five-term U.S. senator, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, and the 68th Secretary of State — during some of the mostimportant events in our shared history.
All attendees will receive a free copy of Kerry’s memoir, Every Day Is Extra.
The venue is Congregation Emanu El, 1500 Sunset Blvd.
Tickets are available at ProgressiveForumHouston.org or at 888-695-0888 seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. General admission tickets are $70 each. Discount tickets for students with valid IDs and seniors 65 and older are $40 each. Tickets for reserved seats and speaker reception are $150. Tickets will also be available on event night at the door.
“Kerry’s book is a passionate, insightful, and, at times, humorous sharing of wonderful stories about colleagues such as Ted Kennedy, John McCain, President Obama, and many others,” Morton said. “He provides a forceful testimony for the importance of diplomacy and American leadership in our increasingly uncertain world.”
A Yale graduate, Kerry enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1966, serving valiantly in Vietnam. He returned highly decorated (three Purple Hearts, Silver Star, and Bronze Star with Valor for Heroic Achievement), but disillusioned. He testified powerfully before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971 as a young veteran opposed to the war at the age of 28, saying, memorably, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to die for a mistake?” The next day, he was arrested during a VVAW (Vietnam Veterans Against the War) march near Boston honoring American POWs held captive in North Vietnam.
Kerry served as a prosecutor in Massachusetts, then as lieutenant governor, and was elected to the Senate in 1984. In 2004, he came within one state, Ohio, of winning the presidency. He returned to the Senate, chairing the important Foreign Relations Committee. As Secretary of State, he tried to find peace in the Middle East, dealt with the Syrian civil war while combatting ISIS, and negotiated the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow for Global Affairs at Yale University, as well as the inaugural Visiting Statesman for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
About The Progressive Forum
The Progressive Forum is the nation’s only lecture series expressly dedicated to progressive values. The Progressive Forum served the community for its first nine years as Houston’s largest speaker organization, averaging 1,000 people per event. After a three-and-a-half-year hiatus, The Progressive Forum relaunched in the fall of 2017 by presenting Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, and in the spring of 2018, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, Katharine Hayhoe.
The history of The Progressive Forum includes national book launches for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, climatologist James Hansen’s Storms of My Grandchildren, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s My Beloved World, and the autobiography of Lester Brown, Breaking New Ground. The Progressive Forum provided the film premiere of Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars, introduced by Robert Redford, who commissioned and narrated the documentary. Gloria Steinem celebrated the 30th anniversary of the National Women’s Conference in Houston. From government, The Progressive Forum presented U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and two Supreme Court justices, retired John Paul Stevens, and Sonia Sotomayor.
For more background on The Progressive Forum, go to ProgressiveForumHouston.org/about-us.