Two fearless Outing Club trip leaders and their ten trippies gather around an orange-yellow flame as evening settles in and darkness falls over the sylvan landscape. These lucky trippies have the good fortune to have leaders with taste and foresight, leaders who have brought the requisite marshmallows, chocolate bars and honey graham crackers, leaders who know the art of 'smores. Sure, the flame comes not from a crackling campfire, but a portable stove. But hey, 'smores are 'smores no matter what.
One can glance around the circle and see the faces of new friends, Akiko from Japan, Grace from Korea, Doey from India, Aurelia from California, Barbara from Ohio, and the roll continues. People of different colors, genders, ethnicities and religions, differences which can parade on and on like a marching band, blaring the tune that only eyes can see. Does this make for diversity?
Sure it does, but this is not the kind of diversity that is essential. As Antoine de Saint-Exupery reminds us in 'The Little Prince,' "It is only with the heart that can one see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."
It is great that people who appear so different from the outside and on the surface can gather in times like this, sharing 'smores and stories, but the only way this can happen is not because everyone is different, but rather because they have so much in common. Many share similar aspirations, fears and ideas.
We hear about diversity all the time, but one can not be too careful in differentiating between types of diversity. Would the much talked about diversity evident to the casual observer be much at all if everyone in that circle shared identical opinions, identical views of Bill Clinton, or even Ronald Reagan? What if everyone in the circle had the same opinion of The Dartmouth Review or Spare Rib? That would not be diversity at all.
Reading the Freshman Issue of The Dartmouth, there were two words that appeared together in articles discussing the College's image and politics; when one was there, the other was not far away, as if one was inseparable from the other. Those words are conservative and intolerant. Are all conservatives intolerant? Or is that a stereotype?
Yes, it is true that conservatives as a political movement have been intolerant, but no more intolerant than what are now considered liberals. I say "what are now considered liberals" rather than just liberals because the liberalism of today is a far cry from the historic origins of liberalism. Voltaire is credited with saying, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it." Now we hear, "do not say what you want to say as you want to say it because regardless of your intentions, you may offend someone." All thoughts, ideologies, words, political viewpoints, etc. are equal, but some are more equal than others.
As graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate coat the stomachs of those gathered around the flame, the group rises and each person places their arms around the shoulders of those they are next to. Now is the time for the trippies to learn the alma mater (at least the words, since the tune gets lost somewhere in the drown of voices).
As the second verse approaches, the enchantment of the hour is broken as the leaders realize now is the appointed time when they must pass on the requisite history of "Lest the old traditions fail." The singing stops and "education" begins.
The trippies are told by the leaders that they were instructed to inform the freshpeople that the yelling of the line "Lest the old traditions fail," because of its history and those who yell it, can reasonably be inferred to be evidence of bigotry, reflecting times when co-education had just begun and some would shout this line to female students to tell them they were not welcome at Dartmouth. The trippies are told that they can yell this line if they so choose, but doing so can and will set them apart as intolerant and ignorant.
It is appropriate to know how the yelling of this line may be interpreted, but is this the time or the place? This place where people who did not know each other just one day earlier are now arm in arm, sister and brother? This time when traditions such as the D.O.C. outing trip, the alma mater, ghost stories and good old-fashioned conversation converge?
Is that the smell of a 'smore burning over the stove? No, it's the magic of the moment going up in flames.
