Kylie McGovern, Editor

On Oct. 27, The Nation Constitution Center in Philadelphia honored Judy Woodruff and David Rubenstein with The Liberty Medal for their “inspiring work in modeling and promoting civil dialogue about the shared values of liberty that unite Americans.” A few La Salle students had the privilege of attending this year’s 35th ceremony. The Liberty Medal was created in 1988 to celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the Constitution. The award was first granted in 2006 to Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton in recognition of their bipartisan humanitarian efforts. Since its creation, The National Constitution Center has awarded The Liberty Medal to several impressive people, including Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai.

This year, The Nation Constitution Center honored Judy Woodruff and her career in journalism. Woodruff has worked in network, cable and public television news, focusing on defending First Amendment rights. She has also advocated for women in journalism, a value celebrated at The Collegian, throughout her career. 

David Rubenstein has spent his career preserving American history to promote the importance of civics. In addition to preserving historical documents and monuments, Rubenstien has authored two books: The American Story and The American Experiment. 

During the liberty medal ceremony, Jeffery Rosen, President and CEO of The National Constitution Center, welcomed guests and then engaged in a dialogue with Woodruff and Rubenstein, ranging topics from learning American history to the causes of polarization. Rubenstein expressed a commitment to civics and preserving history, saying, “Well, the reason I think it’s important is this: Jefferson said many times that a representative democracy only works if you have an informed citizenry. Sadly, we don’t have as informed a citizenry as we would like, in part because we don’t teach civics and American history very much anymore.” Rubenstein continues explaining, “I’d begun to think that if we don’t have informed citizens, we aren’t going to have the republic that the Founding Fathers gave us, and we’re going to have a different form of government, one that all of us probably wouldn’t like as much. So what I’ve been trying to do in my efforts, is modestly to kind of let people know more about history, more about our country’s background, more about how the government works, on the theory that an informed citizenry will make the country a better country.”

Woodruff spoke about the causes of polarization, saying, “There are forces at play in this country, which we’re all familiar with: economic inequality is one of them.” She continued, “We’re divided over the question of race…” In addition, Woodruff described how the news media has changed, which affects polarization, saying, “The fact that people get their news and information from so many different places…that does not lend itself to people coming together to work together on finding solutions.” The entirety of the ceremony and this dialogue can be found here. 

After this conversation, Woodruff and David Rubenstein received their medals, and each gave an acceptance speech expressing gratitude for the award.