The Opinions Editors selected this relevant reflection on free expression and reason addressed to the class of 1970 from The Record Vol. LXXV.
Several days ago I was asked by Lawson Wulsin to compose a small piece for his final edition of The Record. During recent years it has become something of a tradition for me to talk about the class that is just graduating, to discuss the impact that the class as an entity has made upon the school. This year I am going to resist that temptation for two reasons. In the first place, traditions are not always looked upon with kindness in the year 1970. But more importantly, I find it hard to say anything that applies to the Class of 1970 as a class. Its members have prided themselves on being individuals. This is precisely what they have been. There has been an emphasis on doing one’s own thing, a disinclination to do the collective thing.
In saying this I am not being critical. There have been some superb solo efforts, some of the best I can remember in recent years. But the class has been almost self-conscious about not assuming a general personality. It would be difficult for me to describe what does not exist.
I cannot even say something humorous about the class. This has not been a humorous class, nor are these humorous times. Perhaps at worst I can be guilty of a bad pun when I say that both the times and the class have been hairy.
What I would like to leave with you is a thought, a far more important thought than any single thing I can say about your class. In a few short months you will be moving to different academic arenas. Many of these will look and sound more like Roman circuses than like quiet groves of learning. Most of you will be swept up in causes far deeper than any you have encountered here. All of you will be bombarded with rhetoric. Some may even be tempted to resort to rhetoric yourselves.
Willy nilly, you are entering what thoughtful people recognize as probably the crucial battleground of the century. At stake is the future of free expression of ideas. The armies of repression and reaction are massing with frightening speed. I hope you will neither join them nor by your actions encourage them. To increasing numbers of people in the country the enemy is the college student. You may well find yourself guilty without trial and guilty by association, two unpleasant and un-American activities. You are going to reap the whirlwind sown by some of your predecessors. You cannot plead your youth as a shield against involvement.
These are serious thoughts with a serious intent. I present them here not to throw a shadow over your graduation and certainly not by way of setting your teeth on edge. I do so because I have confidence that you can bring to your college experience the same willingness to be rational that you have exhibited here at Hotchkiss. Reason is the legitimate weapon of the educated man and the only defense against bigotry and hysteria. We will need all we can muster.
Good luck and God bless you.
A. William Olsen, Jr.
