Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and Newsweek columnist Anna Quindlen urged Hamilton College graduates to “be not afraid” in her address at Hamilton’s 194th commencement on Sunday, May 21. Bachelor of arts degrees were awarded to 503 Hamilton graduates at the ceremony, held in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House. Quindlen told graduates that the phrase “be not afraid” is "a simple directive and an old and honorable one, found in both the Old and New Testaments. That is because it is truly the secret of life," she said.
She urged graduates to not be conformists. “People will tell you what you ought to think and how you ought to feel,” Quindlen said. “They will tell you what to read and how to live.” She acknowledged that while leaving friends and a familiar place are scary, “you must learn to put the fear aside or at least refuse to allow it to rule you ... No one does the right thing from fear.
“Our political atmosphere today is so dispiriting because so many of our leaders are leaders in name only," Quindlen noted. "They are terrorized by polls and focus groups, by the need to be all things to all people, which means that they are nothing at all.
"Our workplaces are full of fears: fear of innovations, fear of difference. The most widely used cliché in management today is to ‘think outside the box.’ The box is not only stale custom,” Quindlen said, “it is terrified paralysis. It is not only that we need to think outside it. We need to flatten it and put it outside for the recyclers.”
Quindlen added, “In my own business, fear is the ultimate enemy. It accounts for censorship, obfuscation, the homogenization of the news when sharp, free, fearless news is more necessary than ever before ... Too often our public discourse fears real engagement or intellectual intercourse; it pitches itself at the lowest possible level of homogenization, always preaching to the choir, so that no one will be angry. Which usually that means that no one will be interested.
“What is the point of free speech if we are always afraid to speak freely?” Quindlen recalled asking a professor of religion what she did to suit the comfort level of the diverse groups of students in her class. “‘It is not my job to make people comfortable,’ she said, ‘it is to educate them.’ I nearly stood up and cheered,” Quindlen said. “If we fear competing viewpoints, if we fail to state the unpopular because of some sense of plain-vanilla civility, it is not civility at all. It is the denigration of the human capacity for thought, the suggestion that we are fragile flowers incapable of disagreement, argument or civil intellectual combat."
“Forget fragile flowers,” Quindlen warned. “We must be smart and sure and strong enough to overcome the condescending notion that opposing viewpoints are too much for us to bear – in politics, in journalism, in business, in the academy. Open your mouths. Speak your piece. Fear not.”
“Fear not. Remember Pinocchio. There is a Jiminy Cricket on your shoulder. It is you, your best self, the one you can trust. The only problem is that it is sometimes t hard to hear what it says because all the external voices and messages are so loud, so insistent, so adamant. Voices that loud are always meant to bully.
Quindlen quoted her favorite passage from the Tao, that says in part “In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present ... ”
She concluded “We live in a world in which the simple, the generous, the enjoyable, the completely present, above all the simply yourself sometimes seem as out of reach as the moon. Don't be fooled. The ultimate act of bravery does not take place on a battlefield. It takes place in your heart, when you have the courage to honor your character, your intellect, your inclinations and yes, your soul by listening to its clean clear voice of direction instead of following the muddied messages of a timid world.”
In his address to the class of 2006, valedictorian Matthew D. Danziger (Ocean Beach, N.Y.) compared college to running. “College is like the perfect mile,” he said. “The gun goes off, it’s freshmen year. The goal is to establish our position,” said Danziger, a mathematics/economics double major. “We're afraid and a little nervous,” he went on, citing some of the challenges first-year students face, such as balancing academics and a social life. “The second lap, sophomore year,” he said, “We take this time to adjust ... decide how we want the rest of the race to pan out.” We declare majors, make plans and set the tone for the rest of our college careers.
“Third lap, junior year,” said Danziger. “Some of us get tired of running in circles, so we go abroad.” He called this third lap the time when we realize what we need to do to finish. The final lap is senior year. “Where we finish comes down to how hard we can kick at the end. We know if we have nothing left to give at the end, we’ve done our best,” said Danziger. Senior year is the “sprint at the end” of the mile. In closing, Danziger thanked his family and friends, and addressed his classmates: “Class of 2006 ... you've all run a perfect mile.”
Also speaking on behalf of the graduates was Haley Reimbold (Roosevelt, N.J.), winner of the James M. Soper Merrill Prize, given to the student who best typifies the ideals of the college. Reimbold said she was raised in Roosevelt, N.J., which shaped her development significantly. Roosevelt was intended to operate as a kibbutz, a communal, self-sufficient homestead. “The spirit of community remains to this day. In this isolated town of 900 people, I was raised by and relied on my neighbors.” She said when the time came to look at colleges, “Hamilton quickly became my choice.” She said “What distinguished Hamilton was the sense of community I felt. Hamilton granted the freedom, provided the tools and support to engage in service learning.” At Hamilton, she added, faculty “took our classroom to the streets.”
Honorary degrees were awarded to Joseph S. Nye, Jr., the Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and the Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, to Quindlen and to Bill and Judith Davidson Moyers. Bill Moyers is a public television producer and broadcast journalist and Judith is president of Public Affairs Television.
