October 14, 1970
Page 36938
ADDRESS TO UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE GRADUATING CLASS OF 1970
Mr. BYRD of West Virginia. Mr. President, on behalf of the Senator from Maine (Mr. MUSKIE), who is necessarily absent, I ask unanimous consent that a statement by him and an address by William Gardner, class president, be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the statement and address were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
STATEMENT OF SENATOR MUSKIE
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, on Sunday, June 7, I had the privilege of addressing the graduating class of 1970 of the University of New Hampshire. Another speaker at the commencement exercise was William Gardner, class president. I wish to share with Senators his thoughtful statement on the ideals and goals of the students of today.
ADDRESS BY WILLIAM GARDNER
Among us here this afternoon are many segments of our society – a society which all of us as individuals contribute to – a society which all of us would like to make better in our own individual ways. It is important then for all of us to try and understand, or at least listen to what each and every member has to say. This is terribly important today in a country that is becoming more and more polarized from within. We must learn to realize that it is a healthy period when people begin to take part in their Government's decisions, rather than automatically agree that all what our President does is right. It is important for all of us to realize that the Government should not be an impenetrable block which must either remain exactly the way it is or be completely altered by revolution. It must be flexible enough to accept our reforms. We must learn to tolerate and listen to the voices of all individuals for individuality is an American right and it is something we all treasure.
However, we cannot abuse it as some of us have. For within every society you will find the Jerry Rubins and the Abby Hoffmans who will stand at one extreme, and at the other you will find the Spiro Agnews and the John Mitchells who will cause just as much harm, for they, too, seem to lack the ability to listen.
I am just as disenchanted with the radicals as I am with those they criticize, but they all have their place in American society. We are fortunate that our country exists somewhere in between these two extremes and this is where our hope for the future lies. Many of us here today are not the radicals of our society, yet we are not the silent majority. We are just as outraged by the waving of the Viet Cong flag, the take-over and burning of university administration and ROTC buildings, and we are just as nauseated at the violence and discord that exists. We find ourselves somewhere in the middle not knowing where to turn. A writing by one of our classmates, Ed King, was shown to me a few days ago and I think it portrays where many of us stand and is identifiable to all.
My country is tearing itself apart before my eyes, and in its agony is tearing the world with it, and I am caught in the middle, for I can take no side. The radicals are trying to cure our society by destroying it and building it anew. The society, preoccupied with fighting the radicals for its survival, will not cure itself. And while these ideologies struggle, people are dying in a war in Indochina and dying of disease and starvation in the ghetto.
I had observed the anti-war demonstrations here in Durham for several years. I observed them with a mixture of frustration and disgust, for they were circuses, complete with parades, flags, bands, and the everpresent ringmasters. Only, instead of elephants, the parade had obscene posters and its contingent of freaks. The flags were red, black, and North Vietnamese. The bands were rock instead of brass. The ringmasters were there in force with the revolutionary equivalent of "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!" Women's liberation was shouting "in this ring", while the blacks were shouting "and in this ring" . And at the same time the peacenicks were shouting "and in the main ring" and while the show went on, people died in Indochina and the ghetto.
The demonstrations were angry now, and in Ohio and Mississippi six students died. They weren't just body counts anymore. A beautiful young girl, who had placed a flower in a guardsman's rifle, died in the street – gunned down before the horrified eyes of the boy who loved her. Another young girl went looking for her dog, but found death instead. A young ROTC cadet, second highest in his class, lay dead – shot by the very men he may have someday lead. Another boy, wary of both military and radical alike, died in the street – a victim of both. In another city, a high school student walking home from work and a young father studying law were gunned down in a furious and senseless hail of police bullets.
Yet while a shocked nation mourned these six, hundreds of unarmed, faceless people died in Indochina and the ghetto.
The cry went up for a mass demonstration in Washington, and so we followed. But when we got to Washington, all we found was the circus, only bigger. People moved through the audience selling soda and peace buttons, the rhetoric, the music, the flags – they were all there, only the names were more famous.
The radicals had shouted, "Revolution ! Destroy the society!" The society had responded, "Law and order! Destroy the radicals!" The radicals had attacked with bottles and bricks, and allegedly, with bullets. But society had counter-attacked with tear gas, clubs and bayonets and undeniably, with bullets.
Bewildered, desperate, we stand in the middle, caught between a revolution prepared to use any means to destroy this society, and a society prepared to use any means to preserve itself against revolution. We could not choose the society, for it was so busy killing to defend itself around the world that it would not fight the cancers which ate at it at home. We could not choose the revolution, for it was too busy trying to destroy the society than to look for a better replacement.
We tried to find the answer ourselves. We looked to democracy and found mob rule. We looked to socialism and found the destruction of the individual. We looked to totalitarianism and found tyranny. We looked to capitalism, and found the glorification of greed. We turned to our President and he called us bums.
We turned to man and his institutions, but they were too busy fighting to hear or to answer. And so we turned to God for some answers, a new way, and He said to us very simply, love. Love your God and love your neighbor. But when we tried to love, our country called us cowards, traitors, and demanded that we join the killing in Indochina and if necessary in the ghetto.
And so, after demonstrating for five years against the war in Vietnam, our President answered by moving it into Laos and Cambodia. And so, for some, disgust and frustration turned to direct action and involvement, and this was the basic reason why students here at the University of New Hampshire called for a strike. But the people who participated did not want to destroy those rights that they were striking to protect or uphold, so every effort was made to allow those students who chose not to strike to fulfill their academic responsibilities.
Before I introduce the first student speaker, I would like to make one final remark.
Tomorrow many of us will no longer be students, reading books or discussing theories about our society. We will be living those books and living those theories. We will be a working part of it.
But we must never forget the ideas we formulated here at the university and the ideals and goals we pledged for our generation. We must no longer be a society where hollow patriotism prevails in slogans such as "America, love it or leave it." "For the reluctance to admit that some things have to be changed, the intolerance of dissent, the attitude that anyone who disagrees with the men in power should leave the country, are the evils that we must overcome."
Throughout our school years we have been taught that America is the greatest country but now that we are graduated we have come to realize that the greatness is still far from complete. We have no faith in our ideals because we find it necessary to kill in order to preserve them. Each and every one of us has to decide what we believe in, what our goals are and follow them. We can say we believe in peace, that we believe in liberty, but we must now live those beliefs, even if it means our death; for to kill for what you believe in is merely death, but to die for what you believe in is the ultimate fulfillment of life.
We must continue until these goals are met and I pray we will be the generation which attains peace and not war, love and not hate, freedom and not repression, Woodstocks and not Vietnams.