A Graduate

Today is Graduation Day! My high school seniors will be making their way across the stage to pick up their diplomas, proof that they did in fact accomplish something these past four years. Some students, of course, need no such affirmation from society. They have worked hard and they have done so for their own good. They didn’t need any coaxing to come to school, to study hard, to graduate with honors. Like little Aristotles, they want to know. They believe without knowing that the difference between the educated man and the uneducated man is as profound as the difference between the living and the dead.

This year I had so many excellent students [particularly in my AP U.S. Govt. and Politics class] that when pressed by my administration to issue awards, I refused. I refused to identify only three students for awards, when so many deserved recognition. And again, the number of students who deserved recognition were the very individuals who least require any sort of affirmation from me. These individuals are never defined by others: they define themselves.

I like to think that I’m a lot like them, but I must say, when one of these students decided to recognize me this year with a beautiful letter and a generous gift card with which I took my wife out to dinner for Mother’s Day, I was completely blown away! I guess I learned that even a hard-core Individualist, like myself, likes to be told he made a difference in somebody else’s life. Maybe I should have given those awards, after all.

If I were to give an award to this student it would most certainly be “Most likely to succeed.” If you could see him, you would agree: the only student in the school who arrives each day with a starched and pressed dress shirt and tie, he certainly understands how to dress for success. You would agree, but you would understand very little about him. This young man is far more complex. He exasperates many of his classmates with his strong opinions, a quality I particularly enjoyed while he sat in my class. See, I enjoyed exasperating him with mine! The reason I hold so much hope for this student as he embarks on his future [in politics] is not his strong opinions, however, but rather, his willingness to listen to mine.

When asked for my advice concerning his future in politics, I told him that he should never compromise his values. To his credit, this young man knew that I didn’t mean: never change your opinions. He sat in my class for three months challenging my views, agreeing when he could, bombing me with insightful questions when he didn’t. In the end he began to form his own opinions and, more importantly, discovered that consistent, rational opinions on political issues are born only of a rational philosophy.

A politician must listen to his opponent to find the root of his opponent’s error. He must be ready to reverse his own position if the error, once discovered, happens to be his own. As much as I loathe what Chris Matthews has become since 2003, he did tell a wonderful Barry Goldwater story: Two-thirds of the House had already voted up the proposed 26th Amendment to the Constitution permitting 18-year-olds the right to vote. The Senate was debating the bill. The minority leader, Arizona Republican, Barry Goldwater led his party to withhold the necessary support. Goldwater was sitting in the Senate chamber listening to his colleagues on the other side of the isle make their arguments, when suddenly he turned to his whip and said: My God...they’re right! The majority leader changed his vote that day and persuaded the Republican caucus to do the same. The 26th Amendment passed the Senate.

The root of every error is found in philosophy and usually surfaces in an argument as raw emotion. Coercion...force...duty...guilt...and unconditional love...these are the enemies of reason. Judge, my friend, and prepare to be judged by others.