[ close this window ]

Charge to Bard College Graduating Class of 2008
by Leon Botstein, Bard College President
May 24, 2008

The president's charge represents the last institutional occasion for giving advice, both practical and philosophical. Since what is said on such occasions is forgettable, if not predictable, particularly on the philosophical side, it is best to smuggle in some pithy, practical tips for life. I have only one. When you read the newspaper each day, whether online or in its smudging newsprint form, always read the obituaries first. The obituary section is usually the most truthful and reliable part of the paper. It goes downhill from there. An obituary can be an inspiration. At the beginning of each day we can get a quick, welcome reminder of how lucky we are to be alive, how much we might still do, what things we might aspire to, and what to avoid if we wish to have our reputations intact for posterity.

About a month ago, my eye caught a lengthy obituary, with a photograph, of one Abe Osheroff in the New York Times. He died in his early 90s on the West Coast. I doubt if anyone in this vast crowd has ever heard of him. I certainly hadn't. Mr. Osheroff grew up on the Lower East Side, went to City College in the early 1930s, and joined the Communist Party. His claim to fame was that he was a veteran of the Lincoln Brigade and fought on behalf of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.

Despite the defeat of the Republic, Mr. Osheroff, like most Lincoln Brigade veterans, remained fiercely idealistic and committed to progressive causes. Mr. Osheroff made a documentary on the Spanish Civil War. He was a carpenter and a kind of professional gadfly, protesting and speaking out against all sorts of injustice and causes, including the war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq. He became a legend in the Pacific Northwest, an embodiment, if not a caricature, of the left-wing Jewish, liberal activist, born of working-class parents, armed with convictions forged in the competitive and inspiring crucible of City College in the era of the Great Depression.

Mr. Osheroff, like many of his fellow fighters on behalf of Republican Spain, believed that if only the democracies of the world had not been so cowardly, and had actually risen to the defense of the Republican government, Franco would have been defeated and, in turn, Hitler and Mussolini. The carnage and catastrophe of the Second World War would have been prevented. But as Mr. Osheroff got older, he realized the outcome of his generation's last "great cause"—its failure—was less important than the experience itself. What one does, he concluded, ought not to be measured by the result—the success or failure—but by the principles that guide one's behavior. The obituary concluded with this observation from Mr. Osheroff: "If you need a victory, you aren't a fighter, you're an opportunist."

I wish to commend Abe Osheroff's insight to the Class of 2008. As you go forward to choose what you do and how you do it, whether in the private sphere or public arena, if you first calculate the odds for success and failure and avoid risk, you will not only show cowardice but cheat yourself. Be fighters. Resist the temptation to shrink from the odds. It is finally those who challenge the conventional wisdom of probabilities who change the calculus of reality and contribute something new to the world around them.

Given the legacy of the past eight dark and disappointing years of the Bush administration, finding just causes will, tragically, not be difficult. But there are four great causes that compel us. First, we must fight on behalf of liberty. That is an old-fashioned word, carrying echoes from the 18th century. But in today's context it means that we must preserve our civil liberties, the due process of law, and the rule of law for all. These principles have been violated by the conduct of our federal government. Liberty further demands that the character of our country remain open with respect to immigrants and foreign visitors.

Second, we need a fight on behalf of excellence. It is startling that, in the context of a seemingly endless campaign for the presidency, the one aspect of American culture and society most in need of improvement and investment—education—has been greeted by a deafening silence on the part of all candidates. Nothing in the infrastructure of the United States is more dangerous to the well-being and future of the country than the crumbling public school system, the low rates of high school graduation, the uncompetitive standards reflected by standardized curriculum and tests, the neglect of our public universities, and the selfishness and insularity of our wealthiest private universities and schools. We have permitted our research institutions in science and technology to lose their competitive edge. The strength of our economy and the quality of our daily lives are dependent on the intellectual capital we nurture. If there is cause for worry about the decline of America, that cause is the inattention and complacency with which we treat education in this nation.

The third cause worth fighting for is justice. It is the access to justice that requires our greatest attention, not so much its definition. By justice I mean social as well as legal justice. Justice requires that we lessen the widening gap between the rich and the poor here and abroad, that we work for the prevention of disease and the extension of proper medical care to all citizens, not only in this country but throughout the world.

Fourth, we need to fight to preserve our environment so that we may survive as a species. Collectively and individually, we need to address climate change, the demand for energy, boldly and not incrementally, in a manner that links this nation with the rest of the world.

To fight for these four causes in your life requires that you give up any prior assurance of victory. But you have the tools to fight. Not in recent memory has a graduating class received its diplomas in as decisive a moment in history. Although our attention is focused on the forthcoming election for president, this country needs more than a new occupant of the White House.

No progress will be made on any of the crucial challenges that face us—from foreign policy to the environment, immigration, and civil liberties—if we do not have an active and informed citizenry. We tolerate levels of ignorance and mediocrity that are incompatible with a free and open society. How can we make cogent decisions through the ballot box on stem cell research, cloning, biodiversity, global warming, the prevention of disease, energy policy, the provision of food, and economic development—or more vividly, our policies in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa—when we blithely as a citizenry are unaware of the basic facts, incapable of understanding the issues in their complexity, resistant to reasoned challenges to firm but dubious beliefs, entirely content to accept clichés and sound bites, and susceptible to manipulation at the hands of ever more powerful instruments of mass communication?

There has probably never been a moment in history when the proper education of a few, the kind of education you have received here, has been invested with more potential power and importance in the public arena. You represent an elite, a cadre of potential leadership blessed with the tools that our democracy desperately needs: the capacity to distinguish truth from fiction, to differentiate claims, to analyze arguments, to negotiate complexity, and above all to tolerate dissent with civility. Bard shows, through your accomplishments, that a serious education can be provided in our society. You bear witness to the unique power of learning in the 21st century and the indispensable link between learning and liberty.

In the months ahead, set a pattern for the rest of your lives. Do more than support a candidate for president. Do not rely on any public office or single individual—whether monarch, prime minister, or president—for leadership. Become leaders in your own right beyond the boundaries of your vocations. As informed and engaged citizens, use the power of your education in the service of the public good at all levels on behalf of the rights and freedoms we possess. Do this not for our private comforts but for the benefit of humankind.

May the educated exercise of your civic virtue and your civic duty make us proud of you as alumni/ae of this college. So my charge to you, Class of 2008, is to remember Abe Osheroff. Be fighters, not opportunists.

back to top