University of Denver - Kynewisbok Yearbook (Denver, CO)

Page 13 text:

I hope that you will realize that from the beginning of this country there has been the closest link between educated men and women in politics and government. And also to remember that our nation’s first great leaders were also our first great scholars. I would urge yon, regardless of your specialty, and regardless of your chosen field or occupation, and regardless of whether you bear office or not, that you recognize the contribution which you can make as educated men and women to intellectual and political leadership in these difficult days, when tin? problems arc infinitely more complicated and come with increasing speed, and with increasing significance. Even the experts find themselves confused, and therefore in a free society-such as this, where the people must make an educated judgment, they depend upon those of you who have had the advantage of tlie scholar’s education. I ask you to give to the service of our country the critical faculties which society has helped develop in you here. 1 ask you to decide, as Goethe put it, “Whether you will be an anvil or a hammer,” whether you will give the United States the broadest possible benefits of that education. Our task in this country is to do our best, to serve our nation's interest as we see it, and not to lx swayed from our course by the faint-hearted or the unknowing, or the threats of those who would make themselves our foes. Tin's is not a simple task in a democracy. Wc cannot open all our books in advance to an adversary who operates in the night — nor can we always see reflected overnight the success or failure of the actions that wc may take. Peace and freedom do not come cheap. Wo arc destined, all of us, to live out most if not all of our lives in uncertainty and challenge and peril. We move for tlie first time in our history through an age in which two opposing powers have the capacity to destroy each other, and while we do not intend to see the free world give up, we shall make every effort to prevent the world from being blown up. The American Eagle on our official seal emphasizes both peace and freedom, and as I said in the State of the Union Address, we in this country give equal attention to its claws when in its left hand it holds the arrows and in its right the olive brand). This is a time of national maturity, and understanding, and willingness to face issues as they are, not as we would like them to be. It is a test of our ability to lx- far-seeing and calm, as well as resolute, to keep an eye on both (Mir dangers and our opportunities, and not to be diverted hy momentary gains, or setbacks, or pressures. And it is the long view of the educated citizen to which the graduates of a university can best contribute. Wc must distinguish the real from the illusory, the long-range from the temporary, the significant from the petty, but if we can be purposeful, if we can face up to our risks and live up to our word, if we am do our duty undeterred by fanatics or frenzy at home or abroad, then surely peace and freedom can prevail. We shall be neither lied nor dead, but alive and free — and worthy of the traditions and responsibilities of the United States of America. Jolui F. Kennedy Tlie President

Page 12 text:

to the student... President John F. Kennedy Chancellor Chester M. Alter Chaplain William E. Rhodes 10

Page 14 text:

 42WI