Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
INDIANAPOLIS - Trish Brown, executive director of the Warsaw Community Development Corp., is now part of an elite group - she's one of 18 graduates of the 1998-99 Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service series.
The group was honored Friday in Indianapolis.
"The group of Republican women we honor today are at the forefront of bringing the optimism we saw in Ronald Reagan to our institutions, our public life and our society," Lugar said in his keynote address. "This program works, whether it's women who successfully run for public office or the women of excellence who work forcefully behind the scenes."
Another key issue stressed in the series, Lugar said, is the need for public leaders and officials to exemplify honesty and integrity in the service.
"Integrity is of the utmost importance for public officials. Those who don't abide by that degrade the public's trust to the point that their pronouncements are nothing more than a Tower of Babel - where the language is so parsed it doesn't mean anything anymore," he said.
The series, started in 1990, is intended to increase women's participation in government and politics. The Republican women are selected to participate, free of charge, based upon their demonstrated leadership in the workplace or in community service, and who are committed to the full participation of women in politics and government.
"The most important thing I've learned through this series is to listen to everyone - on both sides of an issue - because it takes everyone working together to get something done," Brown said.
She'll get an opportunity to put the knowledge she's gained to work quickly. Brown is a Republican at-large candidate for the Warsaw City Council in the May 4 primary election.
The Lugar Series doesn't take policy positions on the issues, but instead encourages the participants to explore and develop their own philosophy and to use that to serve their communities in expanded ways. It gives the women first-hand experience in the political process, from briefings by Lugar to training sessions on how political campaigns are run.
"I have always believed that the best and the brightest among us should aspire to governmental service. Indiana's future, and, indeed, the future of our country, depend upon the quality of the individuals entering public life," Lugar said. "Rarely have I been affiliated with a program which demonstrates such positive results for our state as this one."
