2020 Commencement Address

September 11, 2021

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It is now my privilege to address the Class of 2020 on the occasion of your commencement.  It is a special joy to be with you here, live and in person, on this day that belatedly marks your passage from students to graduates of Washington and Lee.

At the Olympic games this summer, one of the most dramatic and heart-wrenching stories was that of Simone Biles – arguably the greatest gymnast of all-time – falling prey to a sudden, debilitating case of what is known in her sport as the “twisties.”  Asked to describe the experience, she said it involves: “not having an inch of control over your body … [having] no idea where I am in the air … no idea how I’m going to land, or what I’m going to land on … [my] head, [my] hands, [my] feet, [my] back.”

Imagine spending your entire life practicing complex, demanding, dangerous skills until you can do them without thinking.  You perform feats that no other human has ever dared to try.  You have achieved true mastery.  And then one day, it’s gone.  Analysis intrudes upon instinct.  Anxiety and hesitation follow.  Launching yourself into the air, as you have done thousands upon thousands of times before, you can find no frame of reference.  The world is upside down.

Over the last 18 months, we have all been living the “twisties.”  In February of 2020, you knew what you were doing.  You were 3Ls and seniors.  You had put in the work.  You were entering the homestretch, anticipating the precious moments and the memories you would create in your final semester together, before launching yourselves into the next phase of your lives.

And then you got an email from me.  On March 13, 2020, I announced the suspension of classes and sent you home until further notice.  The virus turned our world upside down overnight.  “Further notice” turned out to be until today.  Five hundred and forty-seven days later.  I wish it had not taken so long, and I am truly thrilled to have you back.

When I communicated the cancellation of your original Commencement, I expressed my confidence that you would emerge from this experience ready to meet the challenges ahead with vision, courage, and grace.  I remain confident – despite the fact that since your W&L careers were disrupted, the challenges we all face have proliferated.

Covid-19 has caused suffering around the globe on a scale we could not have imagined.  Vaccines have made a difference – without them, we would not be gathered here today.  But the virus has proved to be a resilient foe and the pandemic is not behind us.

The murder of George Floyd, on May 25, 2020, made painfully visible the persistence of racial inequality and spurred national calls for meaningful steps toward greater justice.

The siege of our national Capitol, on January 6, 2021, reminded us that democracy is fragile and not to be taken for granted. 

And here at W&L, we spent last year grappling not only with Covid, but also with our institutional history, our institutional future, and the relationship between the two.  The Board of Trustees conducted a painstaking examination of these issues, which culminated in June with its decisions to retain the university’s name, while making significant symbolic changes and substantive investments in superlative liberal arts and legal education for an increasingly diverse community.

The debates that took place on this campus, and throughout our extended W&L family, were passionate but ultimately healthy.  The ability to engage in self-examination, to pose fundamental questions, and to take on difficult conversations, is a sign of institutional strength.  As I emphasized in my Convocation address – two short days ago -- we are united by our shared purposes, our principles, and our values.  These have given previous generations at Washington and Lee the wisdom to navigate their own challenges — from the elimination of athletic scholarships in the 1950s, to the integration of the student body in the 1960s, to coeducation in the 1980s.  In each case, the university emerged as a better version of itself.  Today, we remain, like our predecessors, laser focused on our mission – to help students learn to think freely, critically, and humanely, and to conduct themselves with honor, integrity, and civility.  In doing so, we prepare our graduates – you – for responsible leadership in your personal, professional, and civic lives.

I have great confidence in our faculty.  I have great confidence in our staff.  They are – as you know from personal experience – exceptional teachers and mentors.  And, therefore, I have great confidence in you.  You are ready – to succeed, but also to lead.

And heaven knows we need your leadership more than ever.  Our world is plagued by serious problems that cannot be addressed without the mature and constructive participation of people who often see things in conflicting ways.  Working effectively on any complex problem requires interpreting information, evaluating courses of action, making good faith efforts to persuade those with whom we disagree, and being willing to compromise when our disagreements cannot be fully resolved.  But that essential mode of collective engagement – it is called “cooperation,” as any good kindergarten teacher would remind us -- is existentially threatened by intense polarization that quite literally prevents people from hearing one another and has grossly degraded the quality of public discourse and thinking.

Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, notes that polarization is nothing new.  What is different, he argues, is the personalization of our differences.  We increasingly define people by their opinions, which turns disagreements about issues into personal hostilities.  The resulting tribalism is both rooted in and reinforces mistrust between groups of people who do not know, understand, or like one another.

Farhad Manjoo, New York Times columnist, wonders whether “we’ve hit the limit of our capacity to get along.”  Posing his concern in the form of a question, he asks: “Are we capable as a species of coordinating our actions at a scale necessary to address the most dire problems we face?”

We would like to be able to answer in the affirmative.  We had better be able to answer in the affirmative.  There is a lot at stake.  How can we reverse the spiral of mistrust and polarization?

In June, President Biden spoke at the funeral of John Warner, who graduated from Washington and Lee in 1949.  Biden and Warner served together in the United States Senate for 30 years (1979-2009).  On opposite sides of the political aisle.  In his eulogy, Biden credited Warner with understanding that democracy is more than a form of government, it is, he said, “a way of being, which begins and grows in an open heart.”  Elaborating, Biden stressed that “[John] understood that empathy … is the fuel of democracy, the willingness to see each other as opponents, not as enemies.  Above all, to see each other as fellow Americans even when we disagree … especially when we disagree.”

That same month, shortly after the Board of Trustees’ announcement, Kathleen Parker concluded her column in the Washington Post by observing: “Whatever one thinks of W&L’s decision, the board was a model for approaching controversial issues.  If talk is sometimes cheap, it can also be therapeutic.  Honesty expressed with civility will surely get us further along the road to mutual understanding and resolution than destroying public property and, along with it, the goodwill we’ll need if we are to create a peaceful future together.”

Honesty expressed with civility.  Empathy.  Trustworthiness.  

These are our values, and they connect all generations of our community.  Our graduates are known for these traits.  This reputation, which you will carry with you into the world, is the reason a Rutgers professor who studies cheating in college and knows our Honor System told the Washington Post: “I would trust a Washington and Lee alum with anything I own.”

At this institution, you have learned to treat one another with respect, to express your own views with candor, and to listen carefully to the views of others.  These habits – of intellect and character – are what the world needs to chip away at partisanship and polarization, to find and forge more common ground, and to foster kindness and decency toward everyone, regardless of our differences and disagreements.  Each and every one of you is well prepared to contribute to this monumentally important task.  I urge you to embrace it, to set an example, and to lead the way.

Simone Biles eventually landed on her feet, recovering well enough from the “twisties” to win a bronze medal on the balance beam.  That might seem like a modest accomplishment for someone whose trophy case is already festooned with 4 Olympic and 19 World Championship gold medals.  But under the circumstances, with her world turned upside down, it may prove to be her greatest triumph.

We will land on our feet too. Your being here today is itself a triumph. I am confident that you are ready to go forth, to make a difference, and to make us proud. Indeed, I am confident that for the last 547 days you have already begun going forth and making us proud. Congratulations and thank you.