Tammy Baldwin gave the Commencement address at my alma mater this year.
The Commencement page says "At the age of 37, Baldwin became both the first woman and the first non-incumbent, openly gay person to be elected to represent her state [Wisconsin] in Congress. She was re-elected to her sixth term in 2008 and currently serves in the 111th Congress."
I read her address online.
Near the beginning she says:
Okay, I'm excerpting most of the remainder of her speech.
I heart fandom. Someone linked to the NYT article "Dear Donna: A Pinup So Swell She Kept G.I. Mail", commenting, "I can't recommend this story highly enough. Both because it is Memorial Day, but also because it offers a really unique window on (and starting point for discussion about) fan/celebrity interaction."
The Commencement page says "At the age of 37, Baldwin became both the first woman and the first non-incumbent, openly gay person to be elected to represent her state [Wisconsin] in Congress. She was re-elected to her sixth term in 2008 and currently serves in the 111th Congress."
I read her address online.
Near the beginning she says:
My bio says I won my first campaign for public office when I was 24 years old. But my classmates always remind me that’s not completely true. My first campaign was right here at Smith when I ran for president of my house. I felt confident. I had passionately followed politics for years. And, not only was it my house, it was called Baldwin House.Aww.
Needless to say, I lost. But, I learned my lesson. I’ve never run another campaign against a Smithie. And I’ve never lost another election.
Okay, I'm excerpting most of the remainder of her speech.
One of my favorite professors was Jim Henle. My first class with him was “infinitesimal calculus.” I was a math major and a pretty sharp student. In his class he did something that took me completely by surprise.***
He assigned us “insoluble problems” -- problems with no solutions -- as homework. We weren’t expected to come up with the answers. But we were expected to show some progress.
Professor Henle’s point was that by pushing against the boundaries of what we knew, we could expand those boundaries. Of course, in the back of our heads, a lot of us had another thought: that every problem starts out as insoluble. Then somebody goes and cracks it.
I never figured out any of the problems. There’s a reason I became a politician and not a mathematician. But as my career has progressed, I’ve thought back to that class many times.
Far too often, our greatest challenges are portrayed as insoluble problems. And our reaction is to throw up our hands, say “oh well,” and go on to the next challenge. But history teaches us that even our biggest problems have solutions. How do you calculate the area of a circle? How do you build a computer for less than a million dollars? How do you govern without a King... or Queen? All insoluble problems -- or so they seemed.( Read more... )
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. said “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” He used it in many speeches, but the most famous time was in his speech in Montgomery after the march from Selma.
Remember this was the third attempt to march. The first time, they were attacked by the police with clubs and tear gas and had to turn back. The second time, they were stopped by a judge’s order. The third time, they finally made it all 54 miles to Montgomery where Dr. King gave his speech.
However, all they had accomplished was getting to Montgomery. They hadn’t changed any laws. They hadn’t gotten any concessions. Jim Crow was still the law of the land.
Today, we remember the march from Selma as a key turning point in the civil rights struggle. This is how progress happens. You push and push and push until you can’t push any more. Sometimes you are beaten back. But in the end, that arc bends just slightly and the world is a better place.
Many of you know this history. I raise it today because it is easy to forget that in the history books, we always know how the story ends. Real life is different. We can’t see that far ahead. We don’t know what the future brings.
It becomes easy to focus on problems that have clear cut solutions. How do I get this job? How do I get this apartment? How do I pass this bill? Avoiding the insoluble problems means saying that at best, we can do only a little bit better. What a tragic pronouncement!
I heart fandom. Someone linked to the NYT article "Dear Donna: A Pinup So Swell She Kept G.I. Mail", commenting, "I can't recommend this story highly enough. Both because it is Memorial Day, but also because it offers a really unique window on (and starting point for discussion about) fan/celebrity interaction."