Call Him Doctor
William Schneider was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by his alma mater during the commencement exercises.
Keynote Address
William Schneider delivers keynote address during May 18, 2008, commencement
Following is the text of the keynote address delivered by CNN senior political analyst William Schneider at May 18, 2008 commencement:
When [President] Jehuda Reinharz invited me to speak at this commencement, he asked me an embarrassing question: Do you remember who spoke at your commencement ceremony in 1966?
I admitted I did not. But Jehuda added, reassuringly, "That's O.K. I don't remember who spoke at my commencement, either."
I am doomed to join the ranks of the forgotten.
Actually, a classmate of mine, Michael Schaffer, whom I invited here today, reminded me who our speaker was. It was United Nations ambassador Arthur Goldberg.
How could I forget? Nineteen sixty-six saw an outburst of student protest over the Vietnam War and the [Lyndon] Johnson administration. Some Brandeis students protested the war by wearing black armbands. Some stood and turned their backs on the speaker. A few walked out.
I guess it's different now. Now, the president of the university walks out on the commencement speaker. (Editor's note: President Reinharz left Sunday's ceremony early to attend his daughter's law commencement in Washington, D.C.).
Of course, I am not offended. I understand. Jehuda has heard me speak many times. And I will make sure he does again.
And, so, I bring you greetings from the Class of '66. We were the cutting edge of the baby-boom generation. Senator Edward Kennedy is the newsreel of our lives. He has been there at every important political moment, and we hope he will continue to be there for many years to come.
We baby boomers knew everything. We did everything. We invented sex. Well, I guess there was some sex before the 1960s, but nobody ever had any fun. We invented drugs. What did our parents have? Alcohol, cigarettes. Bad for you. And we darn sure invented rock 'n' roll.
So, here's our advice to you, Class of '08. Sit down. Shut up. And listen to us.
Here's something else we invented: politics. Before we came along, politics was all boring middle-aged white men. But look what our generation has given the country — Bill Clinton and George W. Bush!
Oops. Our bad. Sorry about that.
Now, look what we've got. A woman, an African American and an older gentleman. You remember in one of the debates, the moderator asked the candidates if they believed in evolution? McCain said, "Not only do I believe in evolution, I remember it."
Now, if the Democrats nominate Barack Obama, we baby boomers will not have any candidate at all! I suppose it serves us right.
Well, I have good news for you, Class of '08. Politics has become exciting again. Just like it was for us in the '60s. This year, voter turnout across the country is breaking all records. People are throwing money at the candidates. The Internet is creating new ways for voters to get involved. And the audience for politics — oh, bless their hearts — keeps growing and growing.
You are very lucky, as we were. It is a great time to get involved. And it's easier for you. You don't have to go to meetings. "The trouble with socialism," Oscar Wilde once said, "is that it takes up too many evenings." But you can do it at home, in your fuzzy slippers, anytime, clicking and texting and blogging away.
After all, you have been to a great university, where you have studied the four thinkers who created the modern world — Freud, Marx, Einstein and Darwin. Isn't it amazing? They were all Jewish — except for one who wasn't Jewish. Or was he? That mystery may be solved when a Brandeis scholar publishes a book entitled "The Origin of Darwin."
An Oxford University undergraduate once wrote a letter to British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli and asked him, "Prime minster, I am considering making a career in public life. What must I know to enter public life?" The prime minister responded, "Young man, there are only two things you must know in public life. You must know yourself. And you must know the times."
We journalists live for consciousness-changing moments in public life. Moments when, shall we say, the times, they are a-changin'. Like 1966. And, maybe, 2008. I grew up in the segregated South. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955, whites — who had fooled themselves into believing that segregation worked — suddenly saw how outraged black people were to live under Jim Crow laws. Consciousness changed. And, eventually, a social order was transformed.
I covered the Clarence Thomas [Supreme Court] confirmation hearings in 1991. When Anita Hill testified about her degrading experiences, sexual harassment changed overnight from a joke to a crime. Consciousness changed. And, eventually, gender relations began to be transformed.
When Matthew Shepherd was brutally murdered on a Wyoming fence post in 1998, the public began to understand the violence and hatred gay people face. People once saw gay rights as a solution for which there was no known problem. But consciousness changed. Now same-sex couples can marry here in Massachusetts and, in a few weeks, California.
Our generation has seen impossible things happen. And your generation will, too. Starting right now, when a woman and an African American are competing for a presidential nomination.
Our generation has left this country divided. We fought the great cultural civil war of the 1960s. Liberals versus conservatives. Red America versus blue America.
In 2004, Bill Clinton said, "If you look back on the '60s and, on balance, you think there was more good then harm in it, you're probably a Democrat. And if you think there's more harm than good, then you're probably a Republican." It's a split between two baby boomers who came of age in the '60s — Bill Clinton, who sees more good than harm in the '60s, and George W. Bush, who sees more harm than good.
That division has has gone on for 40 years now. Americans have had enough. They want it to end. And, so, the parties seem poised to nominate candidates who, in different ways, are promising to end it. On Thursday, John McCain told an audience in Ohio what he aims to achieve at the end of four years. He closed his remarks by saying, "This endless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end. We belong to different parties, not different countries."
Barack Obama offers himself as the great unifier. He condemns those who, as he puts it, "want to slice and dice this country into red states and blue states; blue-collar and white-collar; white, black, brown; young, old; rich, poor.
"We're going to need somebody who can break out of the political patterns that we've been in over the last 20 years," Obama says. A period, I note, that includes the Clinton wars of the 1990s.
In a normal political year, Democrats would be looking for a fighter. A tough guy, like, say, Sen. Hillary Clinton. Tough Democrats can be impressive leaders — Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson. You didn't defy any of them with impunity. When General Macarthur tried it, President Truman fired him. Defy John Kennedy, and his brother would get you. Cross LBJ, and you would wake up in the morning missing an important body part.
But this is not a normal political year. Voters are looking for a candidate who can deliver what George W. Bush promised way back in 1999 — when he first announced he was running for president — and then failed to deliver: :a uniter, not a divider."
And, so, my generation leaves your generation with this charge when it comes to the country's politics: We broke it. You fix it.
Thank you, and good luck.
