Home » Resources » News » All "Eyes" on Philadelphia

All “Eyes” on Philadelphia

August 28, 2011

An earthquake and Hurricane Irene weren't in the John Jay Institute's plan to begin a new term with a new class on a new campus and in a new city! But Providence has delivered an exciting week to the Metropolis of the American Founding. As I write this update, we are in the midst of recovery operations from the hurricane. Over a quarter million homes are without power in Pennsylvania. The Mayor has declared a state of emergency, the first since the 1980s, and yet the John Jay Institute has weathered the storm and its wake.

Thanks be to God!

A few of our incoming students are delayed in arriving due to cancelled flights, but most are here or in route. Among them Jose Urquilla arrived yesterday from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary just ahead of the brunt of Irene. Landing in New York's JFK, he drove to Philadelphia. (Rail service was suspended.) Jose is a former staff member of U.S. Senator Sam Brownback. No worse for the wear, Jose arrived upbeat and excited to begin the next chapter in his spiritual, intellectual, and professional development as an emerging leader. You can find his bio and that of the other Fall 2011 Fellows from this link to our Fellows Directory.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, especially this week. I want you to know that all is well here. We are blessed to have been spared from the worse. All are safe. I covet your prayers for our Fellows still in travel and for a successful term of study that begins tomorrow.

For Principled Public Leadership,

Alan R. Crippen, II
President & Founder

John Jay was one of the great architects of American liberty. As an author of the Federalist Papers, he played a critical role in winning ratification of the Constitution. As a leading diplomat, he helped to secure the place of the United States in the community of nations. As the first Chief Justice of the United States, he set an example of judicial probity. I'm delighted that Alan Crippen has named his new institute in honor of this exemplary American statesman. In his devotion to our nation's founding ideals, and to their propagation today, Crippen himself is a worthy heir to the tradition of Chief Justice Jay. I have no doubt that the John Jay Institute will help many of our most gifted young people more fully to understand and appreciate "the blessings of liberty" bequeathed to us by America's founding fathers."
Robert P. George, J.D., D.Phil.
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University