Remarks by the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones
Thomas More College Commencement Ceremony
Crestview Hills, Kentucky
Saturday, May 13, 1995
When your most distinguished and congenial president, Father Cleves, asked me to bring this year's commencement message, it was my intention to adhere to my long held view about such a speech: keep it light and brief. So often commencement speakers succumb to the mistaken impression that those who assemble have done so to hear them give a speech. I have come to know better.
Even so, I hope you will indulge, or as our young friends say, cut me a little slack, as I depart somewhat from my custom for a couple of reasons. There are two themes I would like to touch upon that are of the utmost seriousness, which you are uniquely equipped to assist Americans in confronting. I want to pull back the curtain and expose you to some troubling matters. In doing so, because of your maturity, speak with candor, about the controversies that rage in this and other communities which foretell a lessening of tolerance of differences. Moreover, we need also consider what appears, to a disturbing degree, the numbers of persons who blink at injustice, and are insensitive to pain and hurt. Finally, I think it also important to conclude in a defense of government.
But before focusing on these two concerns, I want to say a few words about my dear friend, fellow townsman who has served us all with his inspired leadership--Bishop Hughes.
We tend to see people in snapshot form--as they appear to us at a given moment. With respect to Bishop Hughes, students and parishioners think of him in his current role as the spiritual head of this important diocese and chancellor of thomas more college. I do so as well. But, I also remember Bishop Hughes as he performed yeoman's service in the diocese of Youngstown. There, he served not only the children in the diocesan schools, but was available to help the wider community address the myriad of problems it confronted. As father hughes and monsignor hughes he was always there, counseling wisely, inspiring us all to believe that we could make a difference. Later, here, as bishop hughes, he reached out to me, a protestant, a Black American, to join the board of Thomas More College. That, in my judgment, was a form of affirmative action, aimed at achieving diversity at the policy making level of this college.
That outreach was enriching to me for my vision has been broadened by virtue of my close association with this remarkable institution and those who serve it. As I look at the range of the students brought into the thomas more family, the spirit and Philosophy of bishop hughes that I first saw in Youngstown, is clearly reflected as recently as this past palm sunday, Bishop Hughes was the celebrant of a mass at the Ursuline motherhouse in Youngstown. In his homily he dealt with the wrenching problem of racial passions in face of provocation and what the christian response must be. thus, his boundless commitment to racial justice and social reconciliation adds to the honor I feel to be associated with him your excellent President Cleves, the faculty and staff of this wonderful college.
The first theme I wish to focus on is the concern of mine over the rush of persons, who, in a demagogic fashion, "play the race card." we see it in the o.j. Simpson case and the reaction to it. we see it being employed by persons with presidential ambitions as they attack "affirmative action". and the second theme I wish to raise with you is the persistent efforts through radical and indiscriminate attacks to make "government" the enemy of Americans and the cause of all of our problems. these two matters, the attack on affirmative action and the condemnation of government, trouble me deeply because they can seriously undermine the very foundations of this nation. Truly educated persons have the obligation to help their fellow citizens sort out problems in a logical and sensible way, and reject opportunists and demagogues. That is a challenge that confronts each of you.
These problems, I suggest, are not new. What has happened is that the nation has suffered, for whatever reason, knowledge lapses that cloud and confuse. Only if we can provide a perspective can solutions emerge. Let us take the issue of race on which talk show hosts, editorial writers and columnist like to pose as experts with their simplistic "color blind" prescriptions.
There is a history to draw upon as we think about this issue.
Of race, I would like to remind you of the classic work of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, "Souls of Black Folk," written in 1903. It was in that remarkable and prophetic book that Dr. Du Bois declared, "that the problem of the twentieth century would be the problem of the color line." events from that time to the present point to the accuracy of his declaration.
So serious a problem has this been that, in 1937, the trustees of the carnegie corporation of new york, one of the nation's wealthiest and socially sensitive philanthropic foundations, agreed to underwrite "a comprehensive study of the negro in the united states . . . ." to insure that the study would be objective and dispassionate the trustees selected a distinguished social scientist from Sweden, Dr. Gunnar Myrdal, to direct the study.
Five years later, he and his team produced a monumental work entitled, "An American Dilemma."
At the core of this dilemma is what he identified as the American creed. It is our ethos, a set of uncompromising principles representing a consensus of ideals for everyone in American society against which we compare our practices. The variance -- the gap-- between those professed ideals of equality
And reality of discrimination for people of color is what constitutes the dilemma.
What we are witnessing before our very eyes is the current manifestation the American Dilemma; of Dr. Du Bois' prophecy being played out in the slow, perceptible retreat on civil rights--in spite of principles to which we as individuals and a nation have sworn fealty. Though there are many aspects and variations to the dilemma, the basic dilemma is our professed commitment to the noble principles of equality while at the same time, we see a rejection of the means by which the achievement of equality can be realized.
A second aspect of the American Dilemma is how best to convince our fellow citizens that we, as a nation, have not yet reached the point where race has become irrelevant, thus permitting a legitimate development and implementation of policies on a color blind basis.
The urban disorders of the 1960's that prompted the commencing of the kerner commission, led it to consider that the nation, rather than resolving the dilemma of racial injustice, was moving toward two societies, Black-white, separate and unequal. Now, as the nation prepares to move into the twenty first century, the question persists: can we effectively compete in a world dominated by people of color without first ridding
Ourselves of the hobbling vestiges of a system that morally and constitutionally sanctioned human degradation on the basis of race. That remains a challenge for all of us.
In facing the dilemma, we should note that the nation seems about to take giant backward steps. Responding to an argument similar to the one now being made that somehow it is no longer proper or necessary to provide affirmative remedies for racial inequities, former supreme court justice harry Blackmun recently wrote that "one wonders whether [one believes] that race discrimination against nonwhites is a problem in our society or even remembers that it ever was." understanding that, too, remains a challenge.
The second matter that I mentioned that needs our attention is the danger that lurks in the irresponsible attempts to make government our enemy. after all, government represents the collective will of the people. when the process by which that will is manifested is undermined by irresponsible · attacks, the stage is being set for disorder bordering on anarchy. what do those who engage in government bashing offer as an alternative to it - Somalia? Bosnia? Chechnya? Rwanda? Ponder, if you will, what those who struggle to survive in those despotic lands, would give to live under our system? The genius of our founding fathers was that they set forth a prescription for peaceful correction and change of that we do not like. Inherent in that prescription is the assumption of truth and civility. Underlying in those assumptions is a notion that decisions made will be based on knowledge, and its intelligent application to the formation of public policy.
It is not truth when persons who happen to control microphones and airwaves, distort and demean. Nor is it civility when those motivated by hate, hurl invective, scheme and murder children as they seek revenge for governmental policies with which they disagree. Acting on the basis of hate is desecration of civility and truth.
Perhaps it is in order to ask what happened to the idea that this is a great nation, served, for the most part, by a good government? Before we answer that question we need to reflect on what and who is government.
Government is more than some remote institution that we read about or that is defined for us by angry partisans. And is not to be simply dismissed as an assortment bureaucrats. Government is the policeman who protects your home and your family. It is the fireman who faces danger as he or she scales a ladder to enter a burning building to save lives. Government is the public health official who seeks to warn you about contagious diseases. Government is the meat inspector, and the person who insures that the milk your baby drinks and the food you consume is edible. It is government that gives us calm reassurance as we travel by air, drink our water and breath clean air.
Government is the city and county and federal prosecutor who represents your interests in the various courts of this community. It is government that you see when the National Guard and the U.S. Army responds to a flood, or a hurricane or tornado. The state patrolman in Oklahoma who stopped a car without a license tag that led to the arrest of a prime suspect in that unspeakable tragedy in Oklahoma City, was government, too.
And let us not forget how the nation's rural areas got electric power, and the highway network came into being, our parents and other senior citizens get their medical care and Headstart launches children into promising lives. All of that is government.
Government is you and those who act on and in your behalf. I am grateful that it was government that helped transform this nation from one that constitutionalized a system of slavery that held my forbearers in bondage to one that recognizes the dignity and nobility that god planted in each of us. Another reason I feel obligated to make a defense of government is because it was the gi bill of rights that made it possible for me to go to college and to law school.
So, my friends, as you go from this place, new degrees in hand, prepared to deal with the problems that abound, you will be forced to face up to the defaults of the past. Intertwined in virtually all that you do, personally and professionally, will be the American Dilemma -- problems associated with race in education, housing, the workplace and the justice system. The resolve and skill with which you approach them, given the institutional resistance you will encounter, and the frustration and divisiveness that run so deep, will tax all that you have learned during your years here at Thomas More College and to a substantial degree, determine the future of this nation. Yet, you must rise to the occasion.you owe that much to this institution that bears the name of a saint-who had the courage to defy Henry VIII and made the supreme sacrifice for doing so.
By virtue of having been here, you are equipped to meet the challenges of the American Dilemma. As you prepare to do so, I eave you with words I learned in my Sunday school as a child in Youngstown, Ohio, many years ago. They are from an old song I have never forgotten: "This little light of mine, l'm going to let it shine. Every where I go, l'm going to let it shine."
God blessed you with a "little light." Thomas More College has provided you with the means of increasing the glow of that "little light."
My charge to you is simply this: no matter where you go, "let it shine," for you never know whose pathway you may illuminate and whose soul may be saved.
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