Panetta Lecture Series focuses on The American Dream

Former Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, was in Monterey Monday night for the 21st Panetta Lecture Series. This year’s theme: “Is the American Dream Alive and Well?”

“The question is whether or not our children and their children will have the opportunity to achieve that American Dream,” Panetta said at a press conference, Monday.

Political leaders crossed party lines, discussing a changing country and how the “American Dream” is at a crossroads. Joining Secretary Panetta Monday was former Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) and former Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire)

“The American Dream doesn’t exist because we wish it so. It happens because we make it so,” Dodd said.

Dodd says the American workforce needs a new education. Job training to deal with the rising threat of automation, and a growing knowledge of rapidly changing technology. “My high school daughter, in her school, there are three students taking coding at a time when there should be a whole class.”

Ayotte says partisanship is getting in the way of more important discussions. “Right now we are not focusing enough on the transformation that is happening to our economy and we are not focusing our education to meet that challenge.”

Before Monday night’s lecture, they spoke with a group this most effects – students preparing to enter the workforce.

When asked what our greatest threat is to people reaching “The American Dream,” Panetta pointed to Washington.

“Whether it is dealing with tax policy, whether it is dealing with education, almost every area that needs to be addressed gets bogged down in the party politics.