Preaching what she called the "Gospel of Government," former Democratic presidential candidate Carol Moseley Braun talked politics at a School of Law event on Saturday at the Hilton Inn at Penn.
"Each of us has something unique to give," she said, "but the important thing is that we give it."
The event was part of the Black Law Students Association's 16th annual Sadie T.M. Alexander Commemorative Conference.
Penn Law professor Wendell Pritchett, introducing Moseley Braun, called her "a woman of firsts," having served from Illinois as the first black female U.S. senator.
Attendees seemed impressed by Moseley Braun's message.
Wharton sophomore Ebele Mora called the speech "very inspiring."
Moseley Braun "really had a clear message of encouraging people to be involved on an international level," Mora said.
Moseley Braun said that when young people ask her for advice on how to enter politics, she tells them to learn about government.
"After all, it is government that is the objective of politics," Moseley Braun said. "It is the expression of power that affects us from cradle to grave."
She acknowledged blacks' debt to their past, which she said "must be a guide for our actions in present times."
"The faith of our ancestors and the vision of the American Dream is what brought us here today."
After her speech, Moseley Braun accepted questions from the audience that were centered mostly around current events.
She took aim at the No Child Left Behind Act, labeling it, "No Child Left Untested or, alternatively, No Behind Left."
Moseley Braun cited a Wall Street Journal report that found that 50 percent of black males in New York are unemployed.
"This is the greatest country in the world," she said. "We can do better than that."
Moseley Braun criticized the Bush administration for budget deficits, its environmental policy and the War on Iraq.
"Does our generation become the first one to turn the lights out on the American Dream?"
Reflecting on her failed presidential bid, Moseley Braun noted that health care, education and jobs were the three issues about which voters were concerned.
"I came out of it more inspired than ever that the American people want to do the right thing," she said.
Moseley Braun pledged to support the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, noting that she worked in the Senate with John Kerry for six years.
"John Kerry is the best," she said.
The daylong conference also featured a book signing and address by author and economist Julianne Malveaux, a panel on issues facing minority lawyers and a panel on the results of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision.
