The ebay auction for the hat is over and it raised a whopping £81,100.01, or in American loot, $131,647.60.
For a hat. For an ugly hat.
But the massive amount is going to charity. Don’t know who won or what the person will do with the most famous hat of the year, but thanks for giving, I guess.
And thanks to Princess Beatrice for being a good sport.
When I wrote about the royal wedding, I made fun of Princess Beatrice’s hat. To be fair, everyone else did, too. And I stand by my assessment. It’s not a flattering hat.
But Princess Beatrice has turned all the scorn to a good cause. And good for her. She’s auctioning the hat off via ebay. Right now, six days before the auction ends, the bid is £11,000.00. For American readers, that’s $17,788.35 at today’s exchange rate. Not chump change.
The monies collected will be split between UNICEF UK and Children in Crisis.
People made fun of her, but she turned it around. I’m no fan, but credit where credit is due. This isn’t my usual topic for this blog, but I support charity when I can. And people who can turn negatives to positives should be saluted. Fair play to you, Beatrice.
Last night I had the great honor to give the keynote speech at the farewell dinner for graduating seniors in the Union College AOP/HEOP program. While all my students are special to me in their own way, this class holds a special place in my heart because they were the first class I taught in America after being away for 12 years.
For those unfamiliar with AOP or New York State’s program HEOP, these are fantastic programs to help bright, talented students with potential be able to attend schools they might not otherwise have been able to due to financial considerations. Most of these students are from poorer areas with weaker public schools, so they also lack college preparation. The students are often given an immersion program the summer before school, which Union College provides, and tutoring during the school year. It was in the pre-freshman immersion summer that I met this graduating group.
Every single one of this group of 21 had distinguished him or herself in some way while at college, through leadership, scholarship, talent, service to the college or local community through volunteering or a combination of these areas. AOP/HEOP programs nurture students, and with that little bit of extra care, these students blossom into the type of graduate America is hungry for.
I wanted to share the speech, minus the introductory and concluding comments, because I ad-libbed them, because what I have to say, while especially for that very special group, stands for many of the graduates of 2011.
So now, here’s the speech. Congratulations, as well, to all 2011 graduates.
I had many brilliant ideas for this talk. Sheer unadulterated rhetorical brilliance. But they all happened late at night, between sleep and wakefulness and I was too lazy to write them down, so by morning they were gone. So you’ll just have to take my word for it.
At times I was seriously tempted to just get up here and wing it. I’m good at improv and sometimes just seeing your faces would have given me plenty of stories to embarrass you with. But since this is a one shot deal, if it flopped, there’s no redoing it tomorrow. So I thought the better of that idea.
Instead I wrote this, so I hope it’s OK. And I’m going to read it, more or less, and I know you’re not used to that from me, but if I don’t I might get off track and go on a tangent and who knows where we’ll end up. And if I don’t have something to focus on up here, I might possible let some water leak out of my eye or something and that would be gross.
Because I am that proud.
I look out you graduating seniors and my heart swells with love and pride. I remember the kids I met the summer of ’07. Shy, cocky, brash, brilliant, brats, unpolished but so much potential. I’ve watched you over the years, even though I’m far away I’ve got cyber eyes. Between Facebook and a few summers coming back, I’ve stayed in the loop, and I’ve watched you become the outstanding men and women sitting here today.
You’ve accomplished so much in your four years here. Every time I hear about your studies abroad, your internships, your mentoring, the shows, awards, I feel pride again.
Now it’s traditional to tell graduates that they are the future of the nation because in reality, they are. No getting around that, and as I told you that first time I ever met you, I took your education seriously because you’re going to be taking care of me when I’m an old lady.
But you also know me. And tradition, while nice, is not all that important to me. It’s good to know our roots but slavish following of what was done before is just foolish.
And you’re not just the future. You’re the now. You’re changing the world already. You’ve changed it already. You’re the role models to the kids in your neighborhoods, to your relatives, to the people who think they are unimportant in our society because our society shows them every day that they are not valued—the immigrants, the working class, the poor. Some of you are the first college graduate in your family, like I was. Through this achievement alone, you’ve already changed the entire trajectory of your family’s American history.
That’s a pretty big responsibility for people so relatively young. But so far, you’re pulling it off with grace.
You’re a very lucky group people—you’re Union graduates. I’m not saying this because I’m at Union, but this is a school of which to be proud. Graduating from here grants you access to a different world, and your degree is a great gift. You worked very hard for that gift, but it’s still a gift thanks to the wonderful AOP/HEOP program that brought you to a school you might not otherwise have been able to attend.
But there’s a catch, and the gift comes with strings. “to whom much has been given, much will be required” and no, I’m not paraphrasing Uncle Ben. He was paraphrasing the book of Luke, a much older source of wisdom.
The strings are in the choices you make. Humans are such interesting animals. They fascinate me. They are capable of much baseness and evil, and we see this every single day. yet at their best, they are brilliant. Most, though, choose mediocrity. They take the easy path of going along to get along. They lose the spark and fade into age.
Tonight, I am giving you a charge: Choose rightly: be magnificent.
Choose whatever path you want to follow in life, even if you have to create the path as you go, but travel on that path with gusto. If you do something, do it flat out, no holds barred. Don’t hold back. As Emerson wrote, “Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
This is a difficult choice I’m asking you to make. I know it. It is easier to hold back, to not give everything of one’s self. In the eyes of the world, it’s smarter. Protect yourself, they tell us. Don’t “wear your heart on your sleeve”. And for goodness sake, don’t be uncool. Chill, don’t be too enthusiastic. Not cool, man.
Edna St. Vincent Millay had this to say to them: “My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends – it gives a lovely light!”
Be a child of light. Continue to be an illumination to this world. That is the charge I’m giving you.
And do it with love—let that be the source of your power because it really can move mountains and change the world.
In “Praise Song for the Day,” Elizabeth Alexander’s poem written for Barack Obama’s inauguration, she wrote:
Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?
Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.
I love those words. Love that casts a widening pool of light–what an image! Can’t you just see the light of disinterested love widening from each person, enveloping one another in that healing, caring light–the light that drives out darkness? As Dr. Martin Luther King tells us, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that; hate cannot drive out hatred, only love can do that.“
These are the things that will change this world for the better. And I charge you to try.
And since you’re going to be busy being magnificent you will change the world. As Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Do you want a kinder world? Be kind. More just? Be just. Whatever you do, do with thought. Ask: What are the ramifications of my action?
Again, this is not an easy path. But have I ever asked you to take the easy way? The easy way’s not worth it. This is a hard won, stony path to choose. It is so much easier to be thoughtless. To react instead of acting from thought. Take it from me, I know. But you will never regret anything you do or say if you act and don’t react.
One thing Americans are good at–better than any other group I’ve lived with, I think–is raising money for charity in many, many ways. And since right now I need something to feel good about, I wanted to write about this. And, I confess, I have an ulterior motive.
Over the years I’ve sold raffle tickets, baked countless cookies and brownies for bake sales (and unfortunately bought countless cookies and brownies from bake sales), done walk-a-thons, dance-a-thons, and one memorable year in a college, a diet-a-thon. They probably wouldn’t be allowed anymore, as they sound like something that’s not encouraging healthy diet. But people sponsored us a set amount per pound. It went from the Friday before Spring break and ran for two weeks. The school nurse did the official weigh-in on her office scale.
My history professor, Dr. Vanderhoof, sponsored me a whopping dollar a pound (every one else was doing 10, maybe 25 cents). To both of our amazement, I lost 14 pounds, a feat I have never repeated in such a short time span, and have never forgotten. Much celery was involved. Dr. Vanderhoof cheerfully forked over the money that went to the Council for Exceptional Children and became one of my favorite professors (for more than just the sponsorship, really).
I’m not saying Americans are the most charitable group going, but a large percentage of Americans hand over money to friends for everything from cancer research to school book drives to animal shelter drives. These are the yearly events. Americans are usually pretty good at chipping in to the Red Cross for disaster relief for things like Katrina, Haiti and the new disasters in America’s south right now, as well.
Checking to see if my hunch about Americans was correct, I found some amazing statistics. According to the National Parks Service,
According to Giving USA, a report compiled annually by the American Association of Fundraising Counsel, figures on American philanthropy showed that:
- Americans gave more than $307.75 billion to their favorite causes despite the economic conditions in 2009. Total giving, when adjusted for inflation, was down 3.6 percent, the steepest decline since the Giving USA annual reports started in 1956. It’s important to keep in mind that despite the downturn, giving still totaled $307 billion.
- The greatest portion of charitable giving, $227.41 billion, was given by individuals or household donors. In 2009, gifts from individuals represented 75 percent of all contributed dollars, similar to 2008 figures.
I think those are pretty cool numbers.
And in the essay “A Nation of Givers” from the journal The American: the Journal of the American Enterprise Institute, I found this incredible little bit of information:
when we measure monetary giving as a percentage of income in order to ascertain the level of one’s “sacrifice,” we find a surprising result: it is low-income working families that are the most generous group in America, giving away about 4.5 percent of their income on average. This compares to about 2.5 percent among the middle class, and 3 percent among high-income families.
Nice to know I’m helping the numbers of my demographic!
And I know the charity habit starts young. I did my first walk-a-thon, for the March of Dimes, when I was 10. It was 20 miles, people sponsored per mile, and that first year, I only walked 10 miles and was broken-hearted.
It seems that lately there’s a walk-a-thon once or twice a month, and blessedly, they are much shorter. This coming Sunday is the AIDS WALK NY, and I’m walking in honor of all the friends I’ve lost over the years. Since I’m not above shilling for charity, if you’d like to sponsor me, you can find the link to my page here. I’m walking with the Harry Potter Alliance Team because a) you know I’m a Harry Potter geek, and b) “the weapon we have is love”.
Yesterday I wrote about the death of bin Laden. Do I believe he’s dead? Of course. Do I need a picture? No, and frankly, I don’t want one. I don’t think they should be released not because they might upset Muslims and incite terrorists. I don’t want them released because it will upset me. My high school history textbook had a small black and white photo of Mussolini hanging by his feet. It still haunts me. Pictures of lynched African-American men in America’s south haunt me. So a close-up color shot of a high-powered rifle bullet to the head? I’ll pass.
And frankly, people who want to doubt are going to doubt. Even if the photos are released, and the president has vowed not to release them, there will be those who cry “Photoshop”. So really, releasing them isn’t necessary.
The kill has been confirmed by Al-Qaeda itself. I don’t really think Al-Qaeda cares about Obama’s approval ratings. I don’t think its leadership has an interest in making the US look “good”. Of course, my mind can do paranoid and conspiracy as well as the next guy’s. Maybe bin Laden is still alive, and well, the US is lying to make itself look good and Al-Qaeda is lying to reenergize itself. They haven’t been as popular as late, you know. They had no role in the liberation movements that have been happening throughout the Middle East. This is a perfect way to drum up support, having their leader be “dead”. But truly, I don’t think so.
Conspiracy theories have been around as long as there have been people. Do governments lie? Yes. Can governments be fully trusted? No. Should they? No. But does that mean everything that a government does is bad because, by definition, governments are evil and everything said is a lie? No.
During war, bad things happen. Soldiers are trained to kill and are rewarded for doing it well. Decisions are made in less than an instant and unless I was there, I am not going to second guess a soldier’s actions in the heat of an attack. As George Orwell wrote in his 1945 essay “Notes on Nationalism,” “Those who ‘abjure’ violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf.” I don’t like that uncomfortable truth, but there it is. I live in a world in which violence is used by nations on a regular basis. As an idealist, I wish that weren’t so. But as a thinking human, I know it is. I can work to change it, but in the meantime, battles rage.
Do I question the legality of the raid? Yes. The US did violate another country’s sovereignty to carry it out. Do I understand the realpolitik thinking behind the decision? Of course. I do think the US should be above reproof not because it’s the US and what it does is inherently “right,” but because its actions are right and proper indeed. On the other hand, this “War on Terror” has changed the art of war . No longer are the combatants clearly defined. War against a thing and not a nation? How can this work? Obviously not well, at all. But the world is changing, so the rules of war are changing as well. How can the old rules work when the board and players are radically different?
And humans like to think we’ve changed, too. We are civilized and compassionate. We have learned much about violence and how it’s a bad thing. Yet we still want the world “safe for democracy”. We want our peaceful comfortable lives. We want to “fight the good fight”. As long as no one dies, is injured, is damaged in any way. People want Al-Qaeda gone. They want the terrorism to end. We send soldiers to fight, searching for the terrorists and those soldiers die or are injured. And people are shocked. What part of “going to war brings death” are they confused about, I wonder.
We are constantly shocked and outraged about “women and children” and “innocent civilians” being killed during attacks. I don’t want to see children killed, or women, or civilian men, but since when is it a surprise that it happens? Once upon a time wars might have been taken place in battles outside a town or city on a field, but even when the fighting was mostly hand-to-hand, civilians got caught in the crossfire. Children went to battle on a regular basis. If family legend is true, my own great-grandfather was in the Crimean war at the age of 10, sent as a bugler, but still on the battlefield.
I am not saying these deaths are right or are to be accepted. What I’m saying is why the shock? What do we expect? A bloodless war?
We want it all–all the benefits of war without the drawbacks. This would be great if we could figure out how to stop human beings from resorting to war, but we can’t. Why? Because human nature doesn’t really change.
After I had gone to bed on Sunday, I got a text message. Grumbling at inconsiderate students, I decided it would be best to check it since I was mostly awake.
“Osama bin Laden is dead. Prez about to speak” read the text from my sister.
I immediately put on the computer and the TV and called my son out to watch. And history unfolded itself in front of my eyes for the second time in a weekend, but this was much more somber news. I’ve been meaning to write about it since it happened, but I have no time. I work 70 hours a week, sometimes more. Leaves little time for thinking much less writing.
So many emotions. I teach many vets and active service people, so my first thoughts went to them. Maybe they weren’t part of the raid, but they played their roles in the War on Terror. I have students who are in Afghanistan, so of course I worry but my overwhelming emotion was pride–I’m proud to be their teacher because they are the best. All of them have volunteered to face a danger most of us cannot conceive of ever facing, and while they are at it, they earn their college degree.
I watched the president’s speech. I liked it. I followed Twitter. I was disgusted by tasteless jokes and impressed by deep thoughts that can be conveyed in 140 characters. The talking heads came on right after the speech, and I pretty much tuned them out. The 24/7 news cycle has destroyed thought in this country, at least, probably elsewhere, as well.
Because I live in NYC, local news programs had many of the WTC victim’s family members. Each one spoke movingly. Almost all said this was a time for somber reflection not jubilation, a sentiment I share. I watched till 1AM, but since I get up at 6, I soon had to force myself to bed.
The next morning, reaction in my classroom was mixed. Relief, joy, fear, disinterest, disbelief. As a whole, I think that matched the rest of the country.
Today President Obama came to NYC to visit Ground Zero. He also visited a fire station in my neighborhood that lost every man on duty that morning.
All week I’ve been wanting to write, but now when I’ve carved out a little time to do so, nothing is coming. Sitting here I realize I feel numb, and I don’t know why. I think in part it’s attributable to this being the last two weeks of classes, so work has become intense. I’m tired from a year of teaching, exhausted from having to work three jobs to survive. I’ve come to the conclusion that while it’s a good sense of closure for the families that bin Laden is dead, I’m far more concerned with America’s crumbling economy and wealth inequity, and to be honest, my own state of underemployment for the past three years.
I have two students facing eviction next week–just in time for finals. Many of my students have just learned that due to budget cuts they won’t be able to finish their degrees on time. They are more real to me than someone a half a world away.
There is much to think about, of course, and for someone who sincerely cares about America, this numbness is a frightening, much more frightening than any terrorist threat.
I know I’m not saying anything of value here, but I couldn’t let this momentous event pass uncommented upon. I couldn’t come back in a few weeks and write about something without pausing to at least mention something so important here in America.
Good riddance to bin Laden.
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