“Pathima mathima,” former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis told students last Wednesday. “Things happen and you’re supposed to learn from them,” he added, explaining the Greek adage.

In his remarks during a discussion on campus, Dukakis reflected on his lengthy political career — he served as governor from 1975 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991, and also ran for president in 1988. While America is a drastically different place than it was when he first became politically active, there are still many lessons to be learned from the nation’s past mistakes, Dukakis asserted.

Dukakis told the audience that he finds fault with 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “When was that?” he asked, questioning Trump’s ideal of a “great” America of days past. Drawing upon his childhood and youth, Dukakis painted a picture of a more close-minded, less progressive nation.

Dukakis was inspired to go into politics because of the racism and corruption he saw around him as he grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. “Boston was racist. It was anti-Semitic. Irish kids were beating up Jewish kids on Blue Hill Avenue in the middle of the Holocaust, and people of color could not live on this side of the railroad tracks,” he said, adding that the Massachusetts state government was “one of the three or four most corrupt governments in the United States of America.”

While working in Washington, D.C. after graduating college, he noticed blatant segregation in buses, restaurants and schools, even as Americans “were running around the world telling people that we’re the capital of the free world.”

Although he acknowledged that “this is an infinitely better country and, I will argue, an infinitely better world” than when he first started in politics, he added that there are several key moments that today’s politicians must learn from to create a better country.

He reflected on one of his larger accomplishments from his time as governor. In the early 1980s, the federal government gave Massachusetts funding to build highways to relieve traffic congestion around Boston. However, “it seemed to be obvious that building more highways wasn’t going to solve the traffic problem,” he said.

Instead, Dukakis fought to repurpose the money for improvements to public transportation around the city. “If you think the conventional wisdom is wrong, challenge it,” he urged.

This advice also applies to the state’s ongoing opioid crisis, Dukakis said. “I’m married to an addict,” he told the audience, recounting his wife Kitty’s addiction to diet pills and subsequent depression.

“If you’ve had that experience, one of the things that you learn … is that you can’t target a single drug to be successful, because addicts will try anything. And the point of fact, folks, is that the drug of choice in this country is liquid. It’s called liquor,” he explained. On his walks home from Northeastern University, where he teaches politics, he often finds empty vanilla extract bottles on the sidewalk; with a 35 to 40 percent alcohol content, vanilla extract is a cheap fix for addicts, he explained.

The biggest takeaway from this experience is that “just say no” isn’t enough, Dukakis argued. He cited the Governor’s Alliance Against Drugs or Alcohol, an initiative he started while in office that sought to promote prevention, education and treatment for drug addiction. The original program was terminated under Mitt Romney’s administration, but a similar initiative is needed to address the escalating crisis, Dukakis asserted.

Additionally, the power of grassroots organization cannot be underestimated, Dukakis continued, explaining that he now wishes he had done more of it in his 1988 campaign.

In the current presidential election, both parties need to do a better job of reaching out to voters — especially people of color and blue-collar workers, he said.

“Why would they vote for Trump? For this guy?” he asked, incredulous. “What’s the Trump economic handout? Cut taxes for the rich and deregulate the financial industry … Why would blue-collar Americans — white or otherwise — vote for this guy? Because we haven’t been knocking on their doors.”

“So you guys have much to do,” he concluded, urging political engagement and involvement. “And I hope you’ll do it.”