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What I Know Now - Tom Carper '82: Vietnam Veteran, Entrepreneur, Politician, Amtrak Board Member

August 28, 2017

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From the Spring 2017 Western The Magazine for Alumni of Western Illinois University

Most visual arts are best experienced in public places.
Galleries are predictable with everything just so. Public displays offer everything else.

It's important to know what I don't know.
Once I recognize that there are things I don't know or understand and discover what they are, I make better decisions.

A comprehensive college education experience should include community interaction.
I worked for, and with people, we called "townies:" Bill Gelvin and the guys at Modern Home & Appliances; as a University Union student janitor with Howard Settles, Fred Shughart, Harold Frowein, Evelyn Pogue and Barbara Heap '60; and with Gene Lewis and Tom Barry at the Elks Club. They all treated me fairly and trusted me, and from them I learned important things about work and life.

Our country would be well-served by mandatory military service or domestic government service.
It would be a small price to pay for the privilege of citizenship.

You can feel bad about some things. Don't feel bad about feeling bad.

As I get older, history becomes more important.
I can apply more context to events by understanding past decisions. I think presidents and members of Congress could use strategic history lessons.

People who say 60 is the new 40 are not 60.

Local elections are very important.
The turnout for local elections is shamefully low. The government closest to the people has the lowest voter turnout. Go figure!

The New Yorker magazine cover from March 29, 1976 is correct.
Google New Yorker magazine cover "A view of the world from 9th Ave."

Getting up before dawn to shovel sidewalks before school was a good thing.
Builds character, maybe. Do I appreciate the quiet and beauty of a new snow before the sun is up? You bet.

Best pre-employment discussion. A 1969 interview set the tone for my own hiring decisions.
"We are a profit-making organization and we want you to work it like it was your own." July 1969, Triple S Bar, Eatontown, NJ. George, Pete and Nick Samarus, owners. Just back from Vietnam, Nick interviewed me standing by the cash register in the liquor section. He said, "Work for a couple weeks with all the brothers and we'll see how it goes." I passed the test and used that speech countless times in my own businesses.

Faculty from the past from WIU are important to who I am today.
Music appreciation course Fall 1964, sitting in the back row with fellow football teammates, the professor said, "I know you aren't music majors and are not into this now, but try to appreciate certain parts." I did and still do. Loren Logsdon, in English, made "Dandelion Wine" one of my favorite books. In geography, Professors Martin, Gabler, Griffin and Caspell made me understand that rocks, mountains, hills, valleys and neighborhoods are more than they appear. Since I had taken a meteorology class, I had a meteorology textbook sent to me in Vietnam to better understand the weather. Jerry Banninga, in speech and communications, made me remember to this day the common fallacies in reasoning.

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