Walt Michael's remarks
Honors Convocation at McDaniel College
on the occasion of receiving
the Trustee Alumni Award
May 2, 2004
Baker Memorial Chapel

Thank you, President Coley, members of the McDaniel College Board of Trustees, the administration, the faculty, our dedicated staff and most especially, this day, our honored students. I happily accept this award on behalf of my family and the large number of Common Ground on the Hill volunteers, many of whom are alumni, who have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me for the past ten years.

I am grateful to be in your presence, and grateful to be in this space, Baker Memorial Chapel, the place in which it could be said that I came alive. In my student days, this room was a sacred space, a space in which our community gathered, worshipped and reflected. It was the building that housed Dean Ira ZeppÕs office, the oasis for so many of us.

It was in this room where Dean Zepp taught us about the voices and cries of our brothers and sisters in our midst and around the world. It was in this room that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was to have spoken to our community in the spring of 1968. It was in this room that we mourned for him. In this room, I became a conscientious objector. In this room we honored the memory of Major Jim Moore, who fell in battle in Vietnam. This is, for so many of us, a sacred space.

I am hopeful that the students being honored today will come to an ever deepening awareness of the importance of this institution in your lives. I do not suffer under any delusions that you are not ready to be gone from this work mill. But I should like to plant the seed of your return continued to this place, your alma mater.

When I returned to campus in 1994, I arrived with some musical instruments and a business plan written by my musical cohort, great friend and Common Ground on the Hill's founding President of the Board of Directors, Dr. Bill Troxler, the President of Capitol College. I also carried with me a postcard, which I had received from folksinger Pete Seeger.

When I recruited Pete for the Common Ground on the Hill advisory board, he said that he would agree to join the board if all I asked him to do was to give me one piece of good advice every year. The words on this postcard are my rudder and enough good advice to last a lifetime. I read this to every group of students I teach here on the Hill. The postcard reads:

"If the world were a global village of 100 people, one third of them would be rich or of moderate income, two thirds would be poor. Of the 100 residents, 47 would be unable to read, and only one would have a college education. About 35 would be suffering from malnutrition, at least half would be homeless or living in substandard housing. Of the 100 people, 6 of them would be Americans. These 6 would have over a third of the villageÕs entire income, and the other 94 would subsist on the other two-thirds. How could the wealthy 6 live in peace with their neighbors? . . .

(Following words were omitted from speech:) . . . Surely they would be driven to arm themselves against the other 94, perhaps even to spend, as Americans do, about twice as much per person on military defense as the total income of two thirds of the villagers."

So, as you graduates, Class of 2004, step out into the world, I ask you to do so with the understanding that, no matter how many college loans you must pay off, no matter how difficult your job search, you, by way of this college degree, reside in the top one percent of the worldÕs population in terms of education and access.

McDaniel College takes pride in being an institution that changes lives. I believe that at the core of that pride is our sense that you will now go forth and change lives. This institution, this sacred space, asks you to do exactly that. We would also ask that you return to your alma mater and tell us about your lives and your work. I might suggest that the best way to do this is to attend Common Ground on the Hill in the summers, a wonderful way to continue your education and receive inspiration.

There is an old saying, source unknown, which goes: "The mighty oak was once a little nut that stood its ground."

Poet Mary Jean Irion wrote: "Faith is not making religious - sounding noises in the daytime. It is asking your innermost self questions at night - and then getting up and going to work."

Will Rogers said: "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

Now, go change some lives!

Walt Michael
May 2, 2004