Thatcher captivates museum crowd

As former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher approached the podium to speak in the University Museum's Harrison Auditorium yesterday afternoon, the 800 students, faculty and administrators on hand gave her a standing ovation. After the applause died down, she first declared her admiration for Walter Annenberg, founder of the Annenberg School and former ambassador to Great Britain, who brought Thatcher to the University. Before beginning her speech, during which she discussed liberty, democracy and the new world order, Thatcher mentioned that she had been given a choice of lecture topics -- two of which were women in government and leadership positions. "Women, leadership and government," said Thatcher, Britain's first woman prime minister. "I can tell you that we can lead and we can govern." The audience responded with laughter and a round of applause. She then talked briefly about censorship. "I tend to be against censorship," she said. "But obviously there are certain protective laws that you have to have for public decency. But apart from that, I tend to be against [it]. You cannot have a free society without a free press and you can't have a free press without a free society." Thatcher then went on to discuss liberty and democracy, calling the U.S. Constitution the "best expression of liberty in the English language." Thatcher also spent some time discussing the importance of democracy and human rights, touching on the tragedy of Nazism and communism in this century. "We had every hope of a better life in this century," she said. "Yet this century has spawned the two worst tyrannies this world has ever known -- the Nazis and communism." Thatcher described how dictators "speak the language of the people" but do not "address the interests of the people." She said that neither Nazism nor communism could have occurred in the United States or in Great Britian because of the nations' respect for human rights. Thatcher added that the free world successfully defeated these tyrannies because of its "love of freedom" and with the defeat of communism came the structure for a new world order. She did say, however, that there is no real way of "enforcing" a new world order, but that the term has more to do with a hopeful atmosphere. Thatcher mentioned capitalism as a forerunner to democracy and a factor in the new world order. She said capitalism is "economic democracy" in which every time consumers buy products they are casting "an economic vote for that product." Thatcher ended her speech with a reference to the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, saying that each person was created differently and each "has the power to move the world." Afterward, Thatcher answered questions from students, one of which concerned her opinion of the new British prime minister. Although she never really directly stated her opinion, she did give advice on avoiding debt. "You have to make up your mind," Thatcher said. "You have to learn to say no to many good causes and many extravagant causes. It will make you unpopular for a long time, but when it comes to election time, if the economy is sound, they will vote you back into office." Meanwhile, as Thatcher spoke inside, groups outside the Museum expressed their disappointment with the University's choice of speaker. Groups such as Northern Irish Aid and Clan Na Gail made up the 15 or so protesters who carried signs and waved Irish flags outside the museum gates. And the faint sounds of chants such as "If you have red hair, Thatcher will arrest you," and "Ask her about civil rights in Ireland!" could be heard in the auditorium. John Gallagher, one of the protesters, said he was there to "bring into light the racism in Ireland" that is caused by British "occupation." Mike Doyle, another protester, said he used to live in Ireland where he was once been "beaten by English police." "Those people should be ashamed to go in there [to see Thatcher]," he said. But students were not deterred by the protestors. One student, Wharton sophomore Jason Diaz, said it is interesting that the Irish still identify Thatcher with the disturbances in Ireland. He said, however, that he was still "impressed with seeing a world leader speak at Penn." Annenberg Dean Kathleen Jamieson called Thatcher a "powerful speaker." "I think what we saw today was vintage Thatcher," Jamieson said. "We saw evidence of the power she brought to governance." Jamieson added that she thinks Thatcher was generous in answering the students' questions past the scheduled time. "I was pleased on the number of student questions she took," Jamieson said. "We had made arrangments that she would be walking out of the auditorium at two o'clock, but when she saw the number of students with unanswered questions, she stayed." Many students said they found Thatcher "inspiring." "She's great because she's a woman, but she gets respect," said College junior Tessie Topal, a member of Jamieson's communications class. "When you look at her, you don't think that there's a woman speaking -- you think there's an intelligent human being." College sophomore Abby Russell, also a member of Jamieson's class, said, "She has all the qualities any young woman would want to emulate." Other audience members said they found Thatcher's speech disappointing. "I enjoyed it a lot, but I was also disappointed," College sophomore Alan Lederman. "She side-stepped a lot of issues, like the new British prime minister and new government.