President Keohane and I don't regularly lunch together, so I have no idea what her column, scheduled to run today, is going to be about. She will probably congratulate everyone on a wonderful semester and praise various University groups and institutions for their successful endeavors. She may also cite many improvements on campus and tell us how much better our lives are soon to become.
Regardless, though, I can be certain of one truth: Her words will not excite the mind and demand to be embraced into people's hearts. Her tone will be political rather than personal, calculated, instead of imbued with true moral principal. And as a result, will fail to inspire.
She is just one person, just a single woman with all of her own strengths and frailties. As a cog on the wheel, she should not bear the brunt of criticism for the way that the University as an institution conducts itself.
In fact, as she has often admitted, she is little more than a glorified fund-raiser, whose biggest mistake is in allowing herself to be called president when such a title is clearly inappropriate and misleading. Yet she is also a symbol of a certain order, an established system of rules and behaviors that hides behind convoluted rhetoric and ultimately espouses nothing more than the status quo.
Friday, as part of a rally to urge the University to reject a sweatshop code that upholds secrecy rather than the sanctity of human rights, I heard Nan give a speech about political maneuvering. She insisted that we must all make compromises (supporting a faulty code) in order to eventually get what we want (an effective one).
I was reminded of when I was seven years old and Mark Evans, the coolest kid in class, promised me that he'd be my friend if I gave him some comic books. "You can't play cards if you're not invited to the table," he seemed to be saying. Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. I find it ironic, and more than a little disturbing, that an administration of mature men and women is still playing children's games. And I wonder for how long that this age old struggle between the idealism of youth and the stagnant pragmatism of those in power will continue to inflict harm on our society.
When I grow up, I may realize that I was a naive, foolhardy young man. Right now, however, I fail, concerning most subjects, to appreciate the practical point of view.
Take the sweatshop code. We can join the rush of other universities to compromise our principles and sign a code that we know is inadequate. We can play the role of the politician. Or we can act as leaders and strive for a more just proposition. We can show others that idealism is abstract only when one talks about it in such terms. For, if everyone were idealistic, there would be no pragmatism, only a constant effort to uphold high ideals. And if such a view is irrelevant because so few people are idealistic, perhaps it is only because most of us lack the courage to try.
People are not swayed by cold logic. Society is not transformed through petty games. Was Thoreau practical? How about Martin Luther King? Even Walt Disney and Bill Gates started with a dream.
Harvard is steeped in tradition, and Princeton is a playground for the aristocracy. Duke is a young university, rapidly gaining in prestige and power. Let us stand for something greater than what our pockets can support and our minds can conceive, not just concerning sweatshops, but concerning every facet of life here at the University and beyond where we have a chance to honor the ideals upon which this university was built.
"Duke University seeks to engage the mind, elevate the spirit, and stimulate the best efforts of all who are associated with the university; to contribute in diverse ways to the local community, the state, the nation, and the world; and to attain and maintain a place of real leadership in everything we do." Pretty words. High ideals. Don't let them dwell in obscurity. Let's not allow ourselves to live a lie.
Joshua Weber is a Trinity senior.
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