Address to SLU Commencement
- May 21, 2006
Viggo Mortensen
Thank you for including me in the distinguished company of this
year's other honorary degree recipients, Barb Tewksbury, Dick
Gilbert and Frank Piskor. It is a particular privilege to address
my soon-to-be fellow St. Lawrence graduates and their families.
Congratulations to you all. A special salute goes to those of
you who, like me, came from North Country high schools.
My parents
are also here today, and I'd like to offer them an overdue public
apology. Twenty-six years ago, I ended up being the lone graduating
senior not wearing the cap and gown, much to my mother's dismay.
To make a long and not very exciting story reasonably short:
My motive for doing this was because, like some of my classmates,
I was concerned about what we felt were unfair labor practices
by the manufacturer of our caps and gowns. Consequently, several
among us decided to make a silent show of protest by wearing
white armbands in lieu of our caps and gowns. I'm sure that others
understandably chose not to go through with this symbolic gesture
because they wished to avoid the risk of offending or disrespecting
their families and this university. Our president and today's
posthumous honoree, the late Dr. Frank Piskor, as well as our
commencement speaker, the late Senator (Daniel Patrick) Moynihan
of New York, seemed only mildly puzzled by my brief, inexplicably
unrobed appearance onstage. I'm sure the senator had no idea
why I removed my white armband and handed it to him as I collected
my diploma. Probably he thought it was some kind of fraternity
prank.
While I regret
any embarrassment I may have caused my family – and although I did feel
a bit foolish when I realized I was alone in showing up without cap and gown – I
do not regret the gesture or the sentiment behind it. I don't in any way question
those whose common sense kept them from joining me that day, and I am not claiming
any moral high ground. What I'm trying to say, in a roundabout way, is that activism
is not a dirty word. Much has changed in this country and the world since 1980,
but the value of active citizenship is greater than ever. Making an earnest attempt
to connect with people and issues outside of one's own limited personal circle
will always be worthwhile. My liberal arts education at St. Lawrence taught me
as much, and for that I am grateful. Perhaps the most important lesson I received
at this university was to try and remember that, to quote Thomas Paine, "my
country is the world, and my religion is to do good." Perhaps some parents
in the audience, considering the high cost of tuition, might feel that this sort
of education is pretty damned expensive. I believe, however, that the lack of
just such education can prove to be a lot more expensive for society in the long
run.
When calculatedly
dishonest and self-serving behavior is increasingly becoming
the norm from many of those holding high political positions
in the United States, it is thoughtful individuals such as you,
the members of the Class of 2006, who can help mend the frayed
moral fabric of the nation by your personal example. Whether
you see yourselves as so-called "liberals," "conservatives" or some
other political persuasion – or none at all – you now, by virtue
of your liberal arts education, ought to be qualified to ask intelligent questions
and not be intimidated or stifled by unreasoned argument, not matter how forcefully
it is presented. This, of course, goes for you non-U.S. citizen graduates as
well. I'm certainly not asking anyone to run out and burn down City Hall, or
to necessarily engage in any overt protest. I simply advocate your continuing
to explore being involved citizens. Don't ever be afraid to ask the question, "why?," or
as most small children do, to repeat that question as many times as you receive
an unsatisfactory answer. Inquiring minds are essential to a healthy society,
and to making an individual art out of living. With apologies to any Latin scholars
for my pronunciation, I offer the following epigram:
"Ducunt
volentum fata, nolentum trahunt."
For non-Latin
scholars, that translates as: "Fate leads those who are willing. The unwilling
it drags." Or, if you prefer your words of warning from a Greek, Plato once
said that "One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is
that you end up being governed by your inferiors." Recent election results
and subsequent political appointments in this country seem to bear that admonishment
out.
Since I'm
making such a point of promoting socio-political engagement – as Professors
Wells and Hinchman, among others, taught me to do here at St. Lawrence – what
specific issue can I leave you consider? In honor of my maternal grandfather,
the respected ophthalmologist Dr. Walter S. Atkinson, who received an honorary
degree from St. Lawrence in 1958 – the year I was born – I ask you
to reflect on the sorry state of this country's health care system.
According
to the journal Health Affairs, the U.S. spent two and
a half times more per capita on health care for its citizens
than the average industrialized country did in 2003, and it lagged
at least a dozen years behind all other industrialized countries
in adopting electronic health records. Just last week, a study
in the journal of the American Medical Association reported that,
although our per-person health care cost is nearly double that
of England, Americans, regardless of income, have more diabetes,
heart disease, respiratory problems and many other diseases than
do the English.*
The fact that
millions of Americans cannot afford health care insurance and
therefore do not seek regular necessary medical attention surely
is partly to blame. If you try to save money in the short term
by not regularly servicing your car, you will find that it won't
function very well in the long term, and that you will incur
great expense trying to fix the situation. The same goes for
your body. Lack of political will and leadership is the reason
our health care system has not evolved and kept apace of those
other industrialized countries – not logistics,
as many politicians and health care industry lobbyists would have you believe.
A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found
that 80 percent of Americans regard universal health care as
more important than holding down taxes. You don't hear this reflected
much in political discourse on Capitol Hill or by the health
care industry. Enormous profits go to drug companies, private
medical administration businesses and insurance companies in
the U.S.A., from overpriced drugs, superfluous bureaucracy and
other inefficiencies.*
Among the
most revered of teachings in any religion or spiritual code of
ethics, including those attributed to Jesus Christ, is the admonition
to care for the least fortunate among us. This lesson seems to
have gone unheeded by any in the health care and insurance business,
and, most tellingly, by the politicians who do their often uncharitable
and obstructionist bidding. This is especially galling in light
of how many of these same politicians regularly trumpet their
avowed Christian values as badges of honor and electibility.
Doctors like
my cousin, Margot Remington of Watertown, New York, are constantly
put in awkward positions by this state of affairs. They cannot
be expected, through occasional acts of charity to patients who
cannot afford needed care, and in spite of suffocating amounts
of unnecessary paperwork, to make up for the serious shortcomings
of our antiquated and, for most Americans, prohibitively expensive
health care system.
People cannot
be mentally focused, positive and actively engaged citizens if
they are constantly worried that the only thing keeping them
from financial ruin is to dangerously delay seeking or altogether
deny themselves and their dependents necessary medical attention.
You can, if you will, as informed individuals, do something – however
little – to call attention to this most important problem
in your own communities. I hope you will somehow get involved
in this issue, because it one that sooner or later affects us
all. As the poet W.H. Auden put it:
"There
is no such thing as the State
And no one
exists alone;
Hunger allows
no choice
To the citizen
or the police;
We must love one
another or die."
Here's wishing
you all a shining summer, and exemplary lives as citizens of the world. Go get
'em.
*
Source: Noam Chomsky, Failed States
