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Commencement Address, Wisconsin State University, June 3, 1966
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4525944
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Commencement Address, Wisconsin State University, June 3, 1966
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1966
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The original documents are located in Box D20, folder "Commencement Address,
Wisconsin State University, June 3, 1966" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press
Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Digitized
from
Box
D20
of
The
Ford
Congressional
Papers:
Press
Secretary
and
Speech
File
at
the
Gerald
R.
Ford
Presidential
Dr
Jones.
Library
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS--WISC. STATE U.--JUNE 3, 1966
I LOVE YOUR TOWN AND I AM HAPPY TO BE HERE. IT IS
THE KIND OF PLACE THAT SPEAKS TO ME OF ALL AMERICA.
WHAT COULD BE MORE AMERICAN THAN A SLOGAN LIKE "OSHKOSH,
B' GOSH" OR "WE COVER THE WORLD.' SOME PEOPLE CALL THEM
COVERALLS; SOME, OVERALLS. TO ME, EITHER WORD SAYS
very
OSHKOSH AND THE, BEST OF AMERICA.
growing
THIS IS A GREAT, STATE UNIVERSITY, AND YOU ARE ASSEMBLE
HERE TOGETHER FOR THE LAST TIME. NOT ONE OF YOU KNOWS
FOR SURE JUST WHERE YOU WILL BE A YEAR FROM NOW AT THIS
VERY HOUR.
my
well
THESE COMMENTS fine OF MINE MAY BE THE LAST WORDS YOU WILL
HEAR AT THIS INSTITUTION. WHAT EVERYONE IS MOST INTER-
R.FORD
GERALD
ESTED IN, HOWEVER, ARE YOUR WORDS AND YOUR THOUGHTS AND
YOUR GOALS AS YOU LEAVE AND AS YOU TRAVEL ON
-2-
MY THEME TODAY 1SA FAMILIAR ONE IS SIMPLE THAT,
IN AN AGE WHEN SO MUCH IS SAID OF "TOGETHERNESS,"
APARTNESS DESERVES INCREASINGLY AN EMPHASIS OF ITS OWN.
NO ONE CAN DENY THAT "TOGETHERNESS" -- UNITY -- IS
REQUIRED FOR STRENGTH AND SURVIVAL, FOR THAT OF INDIVI-
DUALS, THE COMMUNITY, AND THE NATION. THE SEEMINGLY
CHAOTIC EVENTS ERUPTING IN THE WORLD ABOUT US MAKE THIS
PARTICULARLY CLEAR. BUT IS IT NOT TRUE ALSO, THAT APART-
NESS OF THE RIGHT KIND, THAT IS, PLACING AN EQUAL EMPHASIS
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL, IS REQUIRED FOR
FULFILLMENT AND FOR PROGRESS?
THE GREAT PROBLEMS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY INDIVIDUAL
PROBLEMS. THE GREAT DECISIONS MUST, THEREFORE, INITIALLY
BE INDIVIDUAL DECISIONS. SENSITIVITY, APPRECIATION AND
-3-
COMPREHENSION ARE ALWAYS, IN THE FIRST INSTANCE, QUALITIES
AND FUNCTIONS OF INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE. THE ASSEMBLY
LINES OF MODERN EDUCATION, AS WELL AS THOSE OF MODERN
INDUSTRY, AND JUST CONCEIVABLY THOSE OF MODERN POLITICS,
ARE QUITE CAPABLE OF SWEEPING US PAST OPPORTUNITIES LIFE
OFFERS US AS INDIVIDUALS FOR MAKING OUR OWN CLEAR-HEADED,
QUIET DECISIONS AS TO THE COURSE WE WISH TO FOLLOW.
I HOPE THAT IN THIS RESPECT YOU WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY
although 2 am print to be one.
COLOR ME REPUBLICAN. RESPECT FOR AND EMPHASIS UPON THE
IMPORTANCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL IS NOT A PARTISAN NOR EVEN
A POLITICAL CONSIDERATION. IT HAS BEEN THE FOCUS OF
ATTENTION AND OF EMPHASIS BY THE GREATEST OF THE
PHILOSOPHERS. IT HAS BEEN THE INTELLECTUAL REQUIREMENT
OF THE GREATEST OF THE TEACHERS THROUGHOUT THE AGES
-4-
IT HAS BEEN THE RECURRENT THEME AND THE PREACHMENT OF
MEMBERS OF THE CLOTH OF ALL FAITHS SINCE THE DAWNING OF
TIME--FOR WE ARE INDEED CREATED IN HIS SOLE AND INDIVIDUAL
IMAGE AND LIKENESS.
LET ME AT THIS POINT REASSURE YOU THAT, PERHAPS IN A
DEPARTURE FROM THE TRADITION OF COMMENCEMENT ADDRESSES,
IT IS NOT MY INTENTION TO DEPLORE, TO DISCOURAGE, OR TO
DESPAIR. I DO NOT BELIEVE, DESPITE THE ENORMITY OF THE
PROBLEMS WE FACE, THAT THEY ARE INSOLUBLE. I DO NOT FOR
A SINGLE SECOND BELIEVE THAT YOUR GENERATION IS EITHER
INCAPABLE OF FINDING THE SOLUTIONS TO MANY OF THEM OR
UNWILLING TO FACE THE NECESSITY TO DO SO. I CANNOT AGREE,
FORD
I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO AGREE, WITH THOSE WHO PERIODI -
GERALD
CALLY LOOK ABOUT THEM AND VIEW THIS AS THE WORST OF ALL
-5-
POSSIBLE WORLDS. NOR AM I WILLING TO CONCEDE THAT MY
GENERATION, AND THOSE WHICH PRECEDED MINE, HAVE DONE
AS BAD A JOB OF IT AS MANY delapilly PROCLAIM.
for THE
HEALTH OF OUR PEOPLE HAS BEEN IMMEASURABLY
the genens of
proneers inthe laboratory and with the patient
ENHANCED BOTH THROUGH, MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENT, AND LEGISLATIVE
ACTION. EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES AND METHODS HAVE BEEN
IMPROVED BEYOND ALL THE EXPECTATIONS OF FIFTY YEARS AGO,
THROUGH THE CONCERTED ACTION OF EDUCATORS, PUBLIC ADMIN-
ISTRATORS AND ENLIGHTENED HOLDERS OF ELECTED OFFICE.
WORKING CONDITIONS AND RETIREMENT AND PENSION PROVISIONS
HAVE BEEN IMPROVED TREMENDOUSLY THROUGH THE CLOSE
COOPERATION OF MANAGEMENT, LABOR AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP,
CIVIL RIGHTS--AND CIVIL LIBERTIES--HAVE, THROUGH VIGOROUS
BIPARTISAN DETERMINATION IN THE CONGRESS AND IN OUR STATE
-6-
LEGISLATURES, BEEN MULTIPLIED AND STRENGTHENEED REMARK-
ABLY IN THE PAST FIFTEEN YEARS ALONE.
THAT MUCH REMAINS TO BE DONE IS UNDENIABLE, BUT THAT
GREAT OPPORTUNITIES REMAIN TO BE SEIZED IS CRYSTAL CLEAR.
TO SUGGEST OR TO MAINTAIN THAT, IN THIS AWESOME NUCLEAR
AGE, THERE CAN BE NEITHER HOPE NOR CONFIDENCE IS POPPY-
COCK. OUR DAYS ARE NO LONGER THAN THOSE OF OUR FORE-
FATHERS, OUR NIGHTS ARE NO DARKER. AND IF THERE IS AN
ADVANTAGE THAT IS OURS IT LIES IN THE FACT THAT THEY
STOOD SO TALL BEFORE US, STRODE SO CONFIDENTLY AND
MAINTAINED SO WELL FOR US THIS DEMOCRACY Republic IN WHICH WE LIVE.
I MUST CONFESS THAT I FIND MYSELF IN THE POSITION OF
GERALD
THE MAN WHO, AFTER LISTENING AT LENGTH TO SOME OF THE
WEIGHTIEST MINDS OF HIS GENERATION DESPAIR AS TO THE
-7-
FUTURE, REMARKED INNOCENTLY. "I TOO AM TRYING TO BE
PHILOSOPHICAL ABOUT THIS WORLD OF OURS, BUT I GUESS I
JUST DON'T KNOW HOW. CHEERFULNESS KEEPS CREEPING IN."
FOR ME, CHEERFULNESS KEEPS CREEPING IN FOR MANY
REASONS:
---BECAUSE OF THE YOUNG AND VIGOROUS STRENGTH AND
HOPE YOU HERE TODAY REPRESENT,
---BECAUSE OF THE INFINITE HUMAN, NATURAL AND
INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES OUR NATION POSSESSES,
---BECAUSE WE ARE NOW, AS WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN,
"INVOLVED IN MANKIND."
WE ARE DETERMINED TO HOLD AND JUSTIFY OUR PLACE OF
HONOR IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS. OUR PLACE OF STRENGTH
AND RESPECT IN THE CIVILIZED HISTORY OF MAN.
WHEN I SPEAK, HOWEVER, OF THE OPPORTUNITY BEFORE YOU
-8-
FOR PERSONAL SATISFACTION, SUBSTANTIAL ACHIEVEMENT, AND
TOTAL FULFILLMENT, I THINK WITH EQUAL WEIGHT OF AN OBLI-
GATION THAT IS PECULIARLY AND UNDENIABLY YOURS AS MEMBERS
OF A HIGHLY FAVORED AND GREATLY BLESSED SEGMENT OF OUR
SOCIETY--THAT OF THE EDUCATED MAN AND WOMAN.
AS A MEMBER OF THE CONGRESS, TO BE SURE, BUT EQUALLY
AS A HUSBAND AND A FATHER AND A WORKING CITIZEN, I SEE
YOUR OPPORTUNITY AND OBLIGATION INEXTRICABLY COUPLED IN
THREE SPECIFIC AREAS OF DUTY: THE DUTY TO THINK, THE
DUTY TO VOTE, THE DUTY TO ACT.
OF THESE THREE, THE MOST IMPORTANT AND THE MOST
DIFFICULT IS THAT OF THE DUTY TO THINK. FOR, DESPITE
THE ACADEMIC AND INTELLECTUAL ADVANTAGES THAT HAVE BEEN
YOURS, THE PROCESS OF THINKING AS AN INDIVIDUAL, IN
LIBRARY
-9-
TOTAL INDEPENDENCE OF OUTSIDE INFLUENCE AND PRESSURE, IS
PERHAPS THE MOST DEMANDING THAT ANY MAN OR WOMAN FACES.
IN THE WORLD OF POLITICS TODAY, AT A TIME WHEN
POLITICS IS AND WILL EVERMORE BE EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS,
YOU ARE CHARGED AS INDIVIDUALS BY BOTH CONSCIENCE AND
CIRCUMSTANCE WITH THE DUTY TO THINK. THIS IS THE DUTY
TO EXAMINE ISSUES IN THE GREATEST POSSIBLE DETAIL, TO
QUESTION THE OBVIOUS--BOTH THE OBVIOUS DOGMA AND THE
OBVIOUS PROCLAIMERS OF IT--TO ASK YOURSELF, QUITE BY
1
YOURSELF, WHETHER THIS ISSUE OR THAT IS A VALID ONE,
I
WHETHER THIS CANDIDATE OR THAT IS THE PREFERABLE ONE,
w
WHETHER THIS VIEWPOINT OR THAT IS AN ACCEPTABLE ONE.
2urge
2
AND IN THIS PROCESS TO RESIST THE PRESSURE AND THE
RALD
LIBRARY
PROPAGANDA OF PREFABRICATED INFLUENCE - - JUST POSSIBLY
EVEN THAT OF YOUR CLOSEST ASSOCIATES AND FRIENDS.
-10-
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL IS ALWAYS DRAMATICALLY
ILLUSTRATED BY HIS USE OF THE THINKING-MAN'S FILTER.
ONLY BY ITS INDIVIDUAL AND COLDLY (OR WARMLY) INTELLEC-
TUAL USE CAN YOU ARRIVE AT OPINIONS AND DECISIONS THAT
ARE WORTHY OF AN INQUIRING MIND.
IN TANDEM WITH THIS DUTY TO THINK, THERE OF COURSE
COMES YOUR DUTY TO VOTE. THIS, I ESPECIALLY NOW, I IS
A
DUTY WHICH, IF NOT FULFILLED, CAN REPRESENT DISASTER
FOR YOU AND YOURS, BUT WHICH, IF EXERCISED CAN REPRESENT
NOT ONLY SATISFACTION BUT, / I DARE TO SAY IT, I SALVATION.
EDMUND BURKE'S DICTUM STILL VIBRATES WITH TRUTH: "ALL
GERALD
THAT IS REQUIRED FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS THAT GOOD
MEN SHALL DO NOTHING." There to also the appropriate quote from the
great Italian poit, Dante, "The hothest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of
drises do mothing
great moral DO YOU CLASSIFY YOURSELF AS A LIBERAL, A CONSERVATIVE,
-11-
OR AS A MODERATE WALKER-DOWN-THE-MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD;] —
Insert
will
HAVE YOU ASKED YOURSELF THIS IN CONSIDERATION OF EACH
OF THE POLITICAL ISSUES OF OUR TIME?) WILL YOU ASK
YOURSELF THIS--IN AN HONEST SEARCH FOR A RATIONAL ANSWER
AS YOU PREPARE TO CAST YOUR FUTURE VOTES, BOTH ON ISSUES
AND FOR OR/AGAINST INDIVIDUALS? WILL YOU vehement FOR EXAMPLE,
willyou
IF A LIBERAL, BE PREPARED TO SHARE THE BLIND PARTISANSHIP
WHICH CHARACTERIZES SOME OF OUR ALLEGED LIBERALS? WILL
thouat that for out fringe The political spectrum
YOU, AS A PRIDEFUL MODERATE, BE SATISFIED TO WALK
DELICATELY DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, FEARFUL OF RISK
AT EITHER HAND AND HOPEFUL THAT SOMEHOW YOUR NEAR-
NEUTRAL POSITION WILL, BY ITSELF, REPRESENT YOUR BEST
THOUGHT AND YOUR BEST VOTE?
THERE ARE MANY CITIZENS AND VOTERS NOWADAYS, AS IN
-12-
DECADES PAST, WHO EXPECT OF THEIR POLITICAL REPRESENTA-
TIVES AND LEADERS THE VISION TO SEE THINGS, THE JUDGMENT
TO SEE THROUGH THINGS, THE FAITH TO SEE THINGS THROUGH--
This
IS OBVIOUSLY AN IMPOSSIBLE IDEALISM. AT THE
VERY SAME TIME, THEY EXPECT AND DEMAND INFINITELY LESS
OF THEMSELVES, FULLY CONTENT TO THINK BRIEFLY, IF AT ALL,
from The White Haure to the Court Home,
TO VOTE QUICKLY, IF AT ALL, AND TO EXPECT MIRACLES.
CONVERSELY, THERE ARE POLITICIANS AND INDIVIDUALS,
WHO DOWN THROUGH THE YEARS LOOK EXPECTANTLY TO THE ELEC-
TORATE ALONE FOR GUIDANCE AND DIRECTION, QUITE UNWILLING
TO RISK AN INDIVIDUAL OPINION OR CONVICTION FOR FEAR OF
EXTINCTION AT THE POLLS.
IT IS REQUIRED, YOU SEE, NOT ALONE OF YOU BUT OF OUR
POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN ALL PARTIES, THAT THE IMPORTANCE
-13-
OF INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT AND TRULY INDIVIDUAL VOTING BE
PARAMOUNT, I EVER DOMINATING GROUP AND PARTY AND OTHER
PRESSURE, WHETHER OF A POLITICAL OR INTELLECTUAL OR
ECONOMIC KIND.
WHEN, FOR EXAMPLE, THERE COME BEFORE THE CONGRESS
SUCH ISSUES OF A COMPLEX AND PERPLEXING NATURE AS
FOREIGN AID, FEDERAL AID TO EDUCATION, REAPPORTIONMENT
OF CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS, UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE,
APPROPRIATIONS MEASURES AMOUNTING TO BILLIONS UPON
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS THAT WILL EFFECT THE FUTURE OF
EVERY FAMILY IN THE NATION, THERE IS REQUIRED OF EACH
MEMBER OF THE CONGRESS THE MOST INTENT, THE MOST
LIBRARY
INDEPENDENT, THE BEST THOUGHT HE CAN POSSIBLY BRING TO
THE MEASURE. THERE IS REQUIRED EQUALLY THEREFORE,
-14-
PRIORI, THE FINEST POSSIBLE REPRESENTATION IN THE
CONGRESS THAT YOU, BY YOUR BALLOTS, CAN PRODUCE.
FINALLY, LET ME SUGGEST THAT YOU HAVE THE DUTY TO ACT
CONTINUINGLY IN EXTENSION AND FULFILLMENT OF YOUR
THINKING AND IN JUSTIFICATION OF YOUR VOTE. TODAY'S
PROBLEMS WILL BE SOLVED ONLY BY CONTINUING THOUGHT AND
POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC ACTION ON THE PART OF
SUCH AS YOU. THEY WILL BE SOLVED ONLY BY THOSE. WHO,
HAVING USED THEIR GOD-GIVEN RESOURCES OF THE MIND AND
THEIR FREEDOM-BORN GIFT OF THE VOTE, ARE WILLING TO WORK
WITH UNFLAGGING INTEREST AND ZEAL TO REALIZE THEIR
INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE DREAMS.
TO THE IMAGE OF THE THINKING-MAN'S FILTER, LET ME ADD
THAT OF THE DISTILLATION OF THOUGHT CALLED WISDOM, WHICH
-15-
MUST BE ITS INEVITABLE PRODUCT. THIS REQUIRES OF YOU,
AS IT HAS REQUIRED INCREASINGLY OF EACH GENERATION, THAT
IN ONE RESPECT YOU BE CONSERVATIVE AND DRAW FROM THE
PAST THE VERY BEST IT HAS TO OFFER FOR APPLICATION TO
TODAY'S AND TOMORROW'S NEEDS. IT REQUIRES OF YOU
SIMILARLY THAT YOU CHALLENGE BOTH THE OBVIOUS AND THE
DEVIOUS, BE PREPARED TO ENTERTAIN NEW IDEAS AS THEY
PROVE TO YOU TO BE TRUE IDEAS, AND TO DEMAND THAT BOTH
THE PROVEN AND THE PROMISING BE IMPLEMENTED EFFECTIVELY
FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD.
LIBRARY
IN THIS EFFORT YOU WILL ENCOUNTER AREAS AND FORCES OF
MOMENTARY DISCOURAGEMENT. THERE ARE STILL THOSE AMONG
US IN PUBLIC LIFE AND IN PRIVATE LIFE WHO ARE CARRYING
ON ARDENT LOVE AFFAIRS WITH THE PAST AND WHO CANNOT
looking 16- we must but fround.
?
BE MOVED FROM THIS, TO THEM, HAPPY EXERCISE. THIS IS PURE
BOURBONISM--NOT THE KIND YOU DRINK, BUT THE KIND YOU
THINK--IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL.
THE OTHER PRINCIPAL FACTOR AND FORCE IN OPPOSITION
radical
TO YOU IS THAT OF THE, MILITANT LEFT, WHICH BELIEVES THAT
INCREASED RELIANCE UPON GOVERNMENT PATERNALISM AND THE
SECURITY IT PROMISES IS NOT ONLY THE WAVE, BUT THE MAGIC
Can a
WAND OF THE FUTURE. NO THINKING MAN OR WOMAN
RATIONALLY ACCEPT ANY SUCH VLEWS, SUCH PHILOSOPHIES
Tet me remind you a government tig enough to give us everything we want no a government beg energh the from everything us her
we
SUCH FASE SE PANACEAS? CONTINUED AND UNDILUTED EXTREMI SM
IN POLITICAL THOUGHT, AS IN INDIVIDUAL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY,
CAN BRING NOTHING BUT DISAPPOINTMENT AND DISASTER.
I URGE UPON YOU, THEREFORE, A QUIET CONSIDERATION OF
THE POSITION AND THE POWER OF THE GENUINE MODERATE IN
-17-
OUR SOCIETY. THIS IS A POSITION AND A POWER RESPECTED
THROUGH THE AGES BY THOSE WHO THINK, BY THOSE WHO ARE
those
QUITE WILLING TO HEAR AND TO ASSESS THE ARGUMENTS OF THE
at either end 2 the political spectrum
BOURBON AND OF THE AVANT-GARDE, BUT WHO THEN AND ONLY
THEN, WITH A FIERCE INDIVIDUAL PRIDE OF MIND, DETERMINE
FOR THEMSELVES WHAT THE NEXT BEST MOVE SHOULD BE.
THE DUTY TO THINK, THE DUTY TO VOTE, THE DUTY TO ACT--
THESE REPRESENT YOUR OPPORTUNITY AND YOUR OBLIGATION AS
GRADUATES OF THIS UNIVERSITY AND CITIZENS IN THIS SOCIETY.
FAILURE TO SEIZE THIS OPPORTUNITY AND TO ACCEPT THIS
OBLIGATION WILL RESULT INEVITABLY IN YOUR LEAVING NOTHING
BUT YOUR SEAT-PRINTS ON THE SANDS OF TIME. MORE IMPOR-
TANTLY, IT WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE DISINTEGRATION AND
DESTRUCTION OF ALL THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN US OF BEAUTY AND
-18-
GOODNESS BY THOSE WHO HAVE WALKED BEFORE.
I AM TOLD BY SOME THAT THE ALARMS AND FEARS OF THIS
1
AWESOME NUCLEAR AGE HAVE DISCOURAGED COUNTLESS OF OUR
1
YOUNG PEOPLE, HAVE CAUSED THEIR HOPES AND DREAMS TO WILT,
3
AND HAVE LEFT THEM DESPONDENT AND CYNICAL AS TO ANY
FULFILLMENT WHATSOEVER IN THE YEARS TO COME. I DO NOT
BELIEVE THIS FOR A MOMENT, NOR DO YOU. IF I DID, 1
NOULD HAVE BECOME DESPONDENT AND CYNICAL AND WOULD LONG
SINCE HAVE CEASED TO LABOR IN THE POLITICAL VINEYARD FOR
FORD
THOSE THINGS IN WHICH I DO SO TRULY BELIEVE.
LIBRARY
I AM NOT IN THE LEAST DISCOURAGED. I REFUSE TO DESPAIR.
AND I SAY TO YOU FONDLY, BUT FLATLY, THAT YOU HAVE NO
REASON TO DO SO EITHER. IN EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY'S
SUPERB PHRASING. "I KNOW, BUT I DO NOT APPROVE AND I
-19-
AM NOT RESIGNED."
IT WAS IN THE YEAR 1785, WE ARE TOLD, THAT A REMARKABLE
METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENON OCCURRED WHICH ONE DAY AT HIGH
NOON BLACKED OUT THE SUN OVER A LARGE PART OF NEW ENGLAND,
LEAVING THE AREA IN A DARKNESS AS DEEP AS THAT OF
MIDNIGHT. SO SUDDEN AND SO UNUSUAL WAS THE OCCURRENCE
THAT CHICKENS WENT TO ROOST, BATS BEGAN TO FLY AND THE
POPULACE IN MANY PLACES RAN PANIC-STRICKEN THROUGH THE
STREETS, BELIEVING THE END OF THE WORLD TO BE AT HAND.
state
IN THAT HOUR IN HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, THE LEGISLATURE
WAS IN SESSION AND AN IMMEDIATE MOTION OF ADJOURNMENT
WAS MADE, BUT THERE AROSE TO CHALLENGE THE MOTION ONE
ABRAHAM DAVENPORT, A GREAT YANKEE CITIZEN, AN INTIMATE
FRIEND OF GEORGE WASHINGTON S. SAID DAVENPORT, "EITHER
-20-
THE END OF THE WORLD IS HERE OR IT IS NOT. IF IT IS NOT,
THERE IS NO NEED FOR ADJOURNMENT. IF IT IS, I CHOOSE
TO BE FOUND DOING MY DUTY. I WISH, THEREFORE, THAT
CANDLES MAY BE BROUGHT."
THROUGH THE AGES, THE DOING OF ONE'S DUTY HAS ALWAYS
SEEMED A FORMIDABLE AND HARSH REQUIREMENT. IT CAN BE
THIS, OF COURSE. BUT, EQUALLY FOR YOU NOW, THE DOING OF
YOUR DUTY AS A THINKING INDIVIDUAL WILL NOT ONLY ASSURE
THE PRESERVATION OF THIS NATION AND OF FREEDOM BUT WILL,
I SUGGEST, BRING TO YOU THE GREATEST JOY AND FULFILLMENT
AS A PERSON THAT YOU ARE EVER LIKELY TO KNOW.
---END---
GERALD 1848817
Roturn
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS WISCONSIN STATE UNIVERSITY . JUNE 3, 1966
I love your town and I am happy to be here. It is the kind of
place that speaks to me of all America. What could be more American
than a slogan like "Oshkosh, B'Gosh" or "We Cover the World." Some
people call them coveralls; some, overalls. To me, either word says
Oshkosh and the very best of America.
This is a great growing state university, and you are assembled
here together for the last time. Not one of you knows for sure just
where you will be a year from now at this very hour.
My comments may well be the last words you will hear at this
fine institution. What everyone is most interested in, however, are
your words and your thoughts and your goals as you leave and as you
travel on.
My theme today is simple. In an age when so much is said of
"togetherness," apartness deserves increasingly an emphasis of its
own. No one can deny that "togetherness" -- unity -- is required
for strength and survival, for that of individuals, the community, and the
nation. The seemingly chaotic events erupting in the world about us
is
make this particularly clear. But N it not true also, that apart-
ness of the right kind, that is, placing an equal emphasis on the im-
portance of the individual, is required for fulfillment and for progress?
The great problems are fundamentally individual problems. The
great decisions must, therefore, initially be individual decisions.
Sensitivity, appreciation and comprehension are always, in the first
instance, qualities and functions of individual experience. The assembly
GERALD LIBRARY
-2-
lines of modern education, as well as those of modern industry, and
just conceivably those of modern politics, are quite capable of
sweeping us past opportunities life offers us as individuals for
making our own clear-headed, quiet decisions as to the course we wish
to follow.
I hope that in this respect you will not automatically color
me Republican, although I am proud to be one. Respect for and em-
phasis upon the importance of the individual is not a partisan nor
even a political consideration. It has been the focus of attention
and of emphasis by the greatest of the philosophers. It has been the
intellectual requirement of the greatest of the teachers throughout
the ages. It has been the recurrent theme and the preachment of
members of the cloth of all faiths since the dawning of time --- for we
are indeed created in His sole and individual image and likeness.
Let me at this point reassure you that, perhaps in a departure
from the tradition of commencement addresses, it is not my intention
to deplore, to discourage, or to despair. I do not believe, despite
the enormity of the problems we face, that they are insoluble. I do
not for a single second believe that your generation is either incapable
of finding the solutions to many of them or unwilling to face the
necessity to do so. I cannot agree, I have never been able to agree, with
those who periodically look about them and view this as the worst of
all possible worlds. Nor am I willing to concede that my generation,
and those which preceded mine, have done as bad a job of it as many
dolefully proclaim.
For example, the health of our people has been immeasurably en-
-3-
hanced through the genius of medical pioneers in the laboratories
and with the patient. Educational facilities and methods have been im-
proved beyond all the expectations of fifty years ago, through the
concerted action of educators, public administrators and enlightened
holders of elected office. Working conditions and retirement and pen-
sion provisions have been improved tremendously through the close
cooperation of management, labor and political leadership. Civil rights --
and civil liberties -- have, through vigorous bipartisan determination
in the Congress and in our State legislatures, been multiplied and
strengthened remarkably in the past fifteen years alone.
That much remains to be done is undeniable, but that great oppor-
tunities remain to be seized is crystal clear. To suggest or to main-
tain that, in this awesome nuclear age, there can be neither hope nor
confidence is poppycock. Our days are no longer than those of our
forefathers, our nights are no darker. And if there is an advantage
that is ours it lies in the fact that they stood so tall before us,
strode so confidently and maintained so well for us this Republic in
which we live.
I must confess that I find myself in the position of the man who,
after listening at length to some of the weightiest minds of his generation
despair as to the future, remarked innocently, "I too am trying to be
philosophical about this world of ours, but I guess I just don't know
how. Cheerfulness keeps creeping in."
For me, cheerfulness keeps creeping in for many reasons:
-- because of the young and vigorous strength and hope you here today
represent,
-- because of the infinite human, natural and industrial resources our
FORD
nation possesses,
GERALD
LIBRARY
-4-
-- because we are now, as we have always been, "involved in mankind."
We are determined to hold and justify our place of honor in the family
of nations. Our place of strength and respect in the civilized history
of man.
When I speak, however, of the opportunity before you for personal
satisfaction, substantial achievement, and total fulfillment, I think
with equal weight of an obligation that is peculiarly and undeniably
yours as members of a highly favored and greatly blessed segment of
our society -- that of the educated man and woman.
As a member of the Congress, to be sure, but equally as a husband
and a father and a working citizen, I see your opportunity and obliga-
tion inextricably coupled in three specific areas of duty: the duty
to think, the duty to vote, the duty to act.
Of these three, the most important and the most difficult is that
of the duty to think. For, despite the academic and intellectual ad-
vantages that have been yours, the process of thinking as an individual,
in total independence of outside influence and pressure, is perhaps the
most demanding that any man or woman faces.
In the world of politics today, at a time when politics is and
will evermore be everybody's business, you are charged as individuals by
both conscience and circumstance with the duty to think. This is the
duty to examine issues in the greatest possible detail, to question the
obvious -- both the obvious dogma and the obvious proclaimers of it --
to ask yourself, quite by yourself, (1) whether this issue
that is
a valid one, (2) whether this candidate or that is the preferable one,
(3) whether this viewpoint or that is an acceptable one. I urge in
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this process to resist the pressure and the propaganda of prefabricated
influence -- just possibly even that of your closest associates and
friends.
The importance of the individual is always dramatically illustrated
by his use of the thinking-man's filter. Only by its individual and
coldly (or warmly) intellectual use can you arrive at opinions and de-
cisions that are worthy of an inquiring mind.
In tandem with this duty to think, there of course comes your duty
to vote. This, especially now, is a duty which, if not fulfilled, can
represent disaster for you and yours, but which, if exercised can
represent not only satisfaction but, I dare to say it, salvation.
Edmund Burke's dictum still vibrates with truth: "All that is required
for the triumph of evil is that good men shall do nothing." There is
also the appropriate quote from the great Italian poet, Dante, "The
hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of great
moral crisis do nothing."
Do you classify yourself as a liberal, a conservative, or as a
moderate walker-down-the-middle-of-the-road? Will you ask yourself this
in consideration of each of the political issues of our time, as you pre-
pare to cast your votes on issues and for or against individuals? If
a liberal, will you be prepared to share the vehement partisanship
which characterizes some of those at that far-out fringe of the political
spectrum? Will you, as a prideful moderate, be satisfied to walk
delicately down the middle of the road, fearful of risk at either hand
and hopeful that somehow your near-neutral position will, by itself,
represent your best thought and your best vote?
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There are many citizens and voters nowadays, as in decades past,
who expect of their political representatives and leaders the vision to see
things, the judgment to see through things, the faith to see things
through -- this is obviously an impossible idealism. At the very
same time, they expect and demand infinitely less of themselves, fully
content to think briefly, if at all, to vote quickly, if at all, and to
expect miracles from the White House to the Court House.
Conversely, there are politicians and individuals, who down through
the years look expectantly to the electorate alone for guidance and direction,
quite unwilling to risk andindividual opinion or conviction for fear
of extinction at the polls.
It is required, you see, not alone of you but of our political
leadership in all parties, that the importance of individual thought
and truly individual voting be paramount, ever dominating group and
party and other pressure, whether of a political or intellectual or econ-
omic kind.
When, for example, there come before the Congress such issues of
a complex and perplexing nature as foreign aid, federal aid to education,
reapportionment of Congressional districts, unemployment insurance,
appropriations measures amounting to billions upon billions of dollars
that will effect the future of every family in the nation, there is re-
quired of each member of the Congress the most intent, the most independent,
the best thought he can possible bring to the measure. There is required
equally therefore, the finest possible representation in the Congress that
you, by your ballots, can produce.
Finally, let me suggest that you have the duty to act continuingly
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in extension and fulfillment of your thinking and in justification of
your vote. Today's problems will be solved only by continuing thought
and political, social, and economic action on the part of such as you.
They will be solved only by those who, having used their God-given re-
sources of the mind and their freedom-born gift of the vote, are willing
to work with unflagging interest and zeal to realize their individual
and collective dreams.
To the image of the thinking-man's filter, let me add that of the
distillation of thought called wisdom, which must be its inevitable product.
This requires of you, as it has required increasingly of each generation,
that in one respect you be conservative and draw from the past the very
best it has to offer for application to today's and tomorrow's needs.
It requires of you similarly that you challenge both the obvious and
the devious, be prepared to entertain new ideas as they prove to you to
be true ideas, and to demand that both the proven and the promising be
implemented effectively for the public good.
In this effort you will encounter areas and forces of mementary
discouragement. There are still those among us in public life and in
private life who are carrying on ardent love affairs with the past and who
cannot be moved from looking backward when we must look forward. This
is pure Bourbonism -- not the kind you drink, but the kind you think.
The other principal factor and force in opposition to you is that of the
LEFT
radical, militant, which believes that increased reliance upon government
paternalism and the security it promises is not only the wave, but the
magic wand of the future. Can a thinking man or woman rationally accept
any such views, such philosophies, such panaceas? Let me remind you,
-8-
a government big enough to give us everything we want is a government big
enough to take from us everything we have.
I urge upon you, therefore, a quiet consideration of the position
and the power of the genuine moderate in our society. This is a position
and a power respected through the ages by those who think, by those who
are quite willing to hear and to assess the arguments of those at either
end of the political spectrum, but who then and only then, with a fierce indi
individual pride of mind, determine for themselves what the next best move
should be.
The duty to think, the duty to vote, the duty to act -- these repre-
sent your opportunity and your obligation as graduates of this university
and citizens in this society. Failure to seize this opportunity and to
accept this obligation will result inevitably in your leaving nothing but
your seat-prints on the sands of time. More importantly, it will contribute
to the disintegration and destruction of all that has been given us of
beauty and goodness by those who have walked before.
I am told by some that the alarms and fears of this awesome nuclear
age (1) have discouraged countless of our young people, (2) have caused
their hopes and dreams to wilt, and (3) have left them despondent and cynical
as to any fulfillment whatsoever in the years to come. I do not believe
this for a moment, nor do you. If I did, I would have become despondent and
cynical and would long since have ceaded to labor in the political vineyard
for those things in which I do so truly believe.
I am not in the least discouraged. I refuse to despair. And I say
to you fondly, but flatly, that you have no reason to do so either. In
Edna St. Vincent Millay's superb phrasing, "I know, but I do not approve
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and I am not resigned."
It was in the year 1785, we are told, that a remarkable meteorological
phenomenon occurred which one day at high noon blacked out the sun over
a large part of New England, leaving the area in a darkness as deep as
that of midnight. So sudden and so unusual was the occurence that chickens
went to roost, bats began to fly and the populace in many places ran panic-
stricken through the streets, believing the end of the world to be at hand.
In that hour in Hartford, Connecticut, the State legislature was in
session and an immediate motion of adjournment was made, but there arose
to challenge the motion one Abraham Davenport, a great Yankee citizen,
an intimate friend of George Washington. Said Davenport, "Either the
end of the world is here or it is not. If it is not, there is no need
for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish,
therefore, that candles may be brought."
Through the ages, the doing of one's duty has always seemed a formidable
and harsh requirement. It can be this, of course. But, equally for
you now, the doing of your duty as a thinking individual will not only assure
the preservation of this nation and of freedom but will, I suggest,
bring to you the greatest joy and fulfillment as a person that you are
ever likely to know.
-- END--
GERNID R.FORD