After Politics
After teaching at Harvard University for the 2005–2006 academic year, Graham is now focused on founding two centers to train future political leaders, one at the University of Florida – where he earned his bachelor's degree in political science in 1959 – and one in his hometown at University of Miami.
The UF Center, known as the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, is housed in the university's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and provides students with opportunities to train for future leadership positions, meet current policymakers and take courses in critical thinking, language learning and studies of world cultures. On February 9, 2008, Mike Haridopolos Hall was dedicated on the UF campus – funded by longtime friend and fraternity brother of Graham, James Pugh, and his wife Alexis – and serves as home to the center, as well as the university's oral history and African and Asian languages programs.
In the Spring of 2009 Bob Graham published a book titled "America, The Owner's Manual: Making Government work for you" which aims to inspire and teach citizens how they can participate in their democracy in effective ways.
Bob Graham currently serves as the Chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. Graham has also been sworn in as a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, established by Congress to examine the global and domestic causes of the recent financial crisis. The Commission will provide its findings and conclusions in a final report due to Congress on December 15, 2010. Also in 2010, Graham was named co-chairman of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Bob Graham's most recent venture was to create the Florida Conservation Coalition, which aims to unite numerous environmental groups by one vision to pressure the 2012 Florida legislature and governor to recognize environmental issues in Florida and take legislative action on them so that 40 years of hard work at the state level are not reversed. Their website is http://floridaconservationcoalition.org/.
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Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“All is politics in this capital.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“One might imagine that a movement which is so preoccupied with the fulfillment of human potential would have a measure of respect for those who nourish its source. But politics make strange bedfellows, and liberated women have elected to become part of a long tradition of hostility to mothers.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)