March 1, 2007
9:12 p.m. EST
My Fellow Americans,
Every time I put pen to paper to write this column I am humbled by the privilege and mindful of the history we have seen together. Each Friday we have gathered together beneath the vaulted barrel ceilings of the Hop, in the round belly of Collis, or within the great phallus of Baker Tower as you read your papers over breakfast. Over the course of the last term, we have together served Dartmouth through another period of its history, dutifully engaging in an open discourse regarding the issues we are faced with, and it has been my privilege and honor to serve with you.
Today we bear witness to the momentous occasion of the last Mirror of '07W. In honor of this monumental juncture, this historic occasion, this extraordinary moment, we must take this opportunity to look at ourselves in our own mirrors. We at Dartmouth are a microcosm of our great melting pot nation. In 1769, a community was forged upon a small slab of frozen granite. Today, we are its living, breathing, changing legacy. We are a campus comprised of varied peoples with multifarious passions, customs, ideas, ideals, values and opinions. A consequence of the heterogeneity of our population is the possibility, nay inevitability, of the development of factions. There has been, of late, the emergence of campus sexuality as a divisive subject. (See "Sex: Not at all Like Steak," Feb. 21; "Nothing Unwholesome about sex at Dartmouth," Feb. 22 "The Superficiality of Lust," Feb. 26).
There are those among us who adamantly and vocally celebrate sexual liberties and the pursuit of pleasure in any and all of its varied forms. There are also those who believe that frank sexual dialogues are perversions that make light of sexual sanctity. There are also those who elect to abstain from these ideological negotiations and retreat into the ignorance of not reading The D. There is room for all of us upon our chilly, yet delightfully sunny corner of the earth.
There will always be differences and debate. But even tough debates can be conducted in a civil tone, and our differences cannot be allowed to harden into anger. To confront the great issues before us, we must act in a spirit of good will and respect for one another. The existence of a public dialogue about sex and sexuality does not belie the existence or possibility of chaste voices. To engage in any dialogue, no matter the form, is to move closer to the day when all people, oversexed, undersexed, unsexed or just sexed, can live together in harmony, without bitterness or resentment. Together, we are making gains toward this end.
These gains are evidence of a quiet transformation -- a revolution of conscience, in which a rising generation is finding that those who want to have sex until their genitals erode can peacefully coexist with those who choose to remain as virginal as our fair continent was prior to our plundering of its bountiful natural resources.
The Dartmouth has played a role. You can as well. Talk to your friends. Talk to strangers. Do not scoffingly write your fellow citizens off as jezebels, gigolos or Jesus freaks. Take a moment to understand the genesis of their beliefs, for they come from somewhere. Tonight, the state of our Unions is strong -- and together we will make it stronger.
Our fair college on the hill must remain the shining beacon of liberty that it has been for the last 238 years. We must remain true to our commitment to conversation. Whether one chooses to indulge or deny his or her sexual tastes is immaterial. We should ask only that the rights of each of us, to be promiscuous or prude, celibate or slutty, silent or vocal, be respected.
We are privileged to attend a College that is marked by greatness. Yet our greatness is not measured in number of sexual partners or frequency of orgasms, but by who we are and how we treat one another. So we strive to be a compassionate, decent, hopeful society. Before history is written down in books, it is written in courage. Together we must have the courage to embrace one another, if not physically then ideologically.
May God bless America.
(Applause.)
End 10:03 p.m. EST
Note: Some material in this column was inspired by and/or ripped from the Jan. 31 State of the Union Address.
