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Steve Heller
Posts:366
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| 05/11/2007 5:35 AM |
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At yesterday's School of Visual Arts commencement ceremony held at New
York's incredible Radio City Musical Hall, commencement speaker, the
eloquent (and humanist) New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof commanded the graduates to
"travel," to learn more about the world and its profound differences so not to
make the same mistakes, by implication, of the U.S. President and
his minions have made, by leading us into war with Iraq, unaware how the
cultural divide would impact the nation's goals and outcomes. Only
by understanding others - only by making an dedicated effort to meet
others as equals - will ignorance be reduced.
Following the introductory speech by President of SVA David Rhodes
on the failure of government to truly lead the nation, Mr. Kristof
noted that China, once the most powerful of empires, has been a
sleeping giant until now. Therefore, sound leadership is a premium we can't affort to
loose.
Students must understand Western hegemony is
on the wane. Short of learning Chinese (which Mr. Kristof speaks
fluently), its
time to study the world - and particularly China - as integral to
addressing our own well-being. American attitudes are not the only ways
of
life
any longer.
Yet this was not naysaying negativity but a proscription for positive action.
Milton Glaser wrote on an SVA sponsored poster protesting the
horror in Darfur, "We are all African." Mr. Kristof implies we are all
the world.
At the end of his soft-spoken yet rousing address he told the Class of
2007 to go "party," enjoy their hard earned moment of celebration, but
then the morning after "go save the world," even if only a small piece of it.
Good words to commence by.
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