St Edwards University - Tower Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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| Since we only jaauaam - go around once... The Schlitz people have a name for it, gusto, and it is sort of what all those graduation speakers were alluding to. Bishop Flores Mike Barrett

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uestioning the faithfulness of his genera- tion to its own great pretensions Mike Bar- rett, a math major from Miami, Florida, de- livered valedictory remarks to 217 graduates and their guests during 88th commencement ceremonies for St. Edward’s at Municipal Auditorium the morning of May 26. Suggest- ing that poet Jane Stembridge correctly per- ceived that “America is mean,” Barrett repudiated the “end of ideology” atmo- sphere of a modern consumer-oriented cul- ture that has servcu as the rationale for per- sonal complacency. “The end of ideology ...is a sort of mixture of resignation and unconscious self- pity that translates into a feeling that we have finally arrived at the perfect scheme of society and community, and so while there are certainly’ bugs left to be worked out, that is properly the work of government and great men, and ours is the well-earned privilege of enjoying all the rewards of consumerism which our previous hard work has won.” “I am not convinced,” Barrett told his classmates, “that we have not made the same mistake so many have made of assuming great things are done by influen- tial people with recognizable names in very uncommon places. We must not pass the buck that easily. Great things are born in the day-to-day, utterly common contacts that we have with real people.” “Ours is a more difficult job than any great figure’s, for we must do great things in very common surroundings.” Barrett’s remarks preceded the conferral of honorary degrees by university president Brother Stephen Walsh upon the Most Rev- erend Bishop Patrick F. Flores, Auxiliary to the Archbishop of San Antonio, and Dr. Joseph P. Witherspoon of the University of Texas School of Law and the Volunteer Executive Director of the Citywide Com- mittee for Human Rights. Bishop Flores had concelebrated the moving Bacculaureate service Friday evening, Shubert’s Mass in G, sung superbly by the Hilltopper Chorale under the direc- tion of James P. Morgan. Bishop Flores de- livered a poignant homily, putting before the graduates in very precise terms the challenge of a very personal responstbility. The Class of 1973