The alumni newsletter of Antioch College Fall 2004
The alumni newsletter of Antioch College Fall 2004
The weather was perfect on April 24 th as the Class of 2004 received their degrees at Antioch College.
Students, both graduates and future graduates, faculty, staff, families, and Yellow Springs residents filled the seats, some opting to sit under the shade provided by numerous flowering trees, to watch the 120 members of the graduating class receive their diplomas.
There was only one cap and gown and “Pomp and Circumstance” did not play as the graduates took their seats to listen to members of the faculty and of their own class, as well as honored guest speaker Amy Goodman—an award-winning journalist and co-host of the daily television and radio news program, “Democracy Now!”—speak. The students who spoke were not selected for their academic achievements and weren’t given formidable titles, such as valedictorian. Instead, nine students volunteered to speak, some even to sing off-key. Outfits ranged from barefoot with khaki slacks and a Hawaiian t-shirt to brightly colored dresses of magenta and yellow with chiffon filled skirts.
Amy Goodman was selected by Antioch fourth-year students to give the commencement address and she graciously accepted. “It is a great honor to be with you, to be with the students who are graduating today; with your families, with your teachers, with the staff of Antioch College, my teachers in college, Jim and Cheryl Keen. It is a very important day. These are very serious times.”
Andy Wright, Erica Sosa and
Samantha Cullen Maronek
waited
for the procession to begin.
Victor Garcia, Professor of Foreign Civilizations and
Languages (Spanish), spoke to the graduating class and
shared his insights from his 20+ years of teaching at Antioch College.
Goodman spoke with passion and urgency as she discussed world violence to world peace and shared her personal experiences covering war and the recent traumatic experiences that shook our nation. “I come to you from Ground Zero. We broadcast just blocks from the towers of the World Trade Center once stood. In fact, on September 11 th, 2001, we were broadcasting Democracy Now. 8:47 the first plane hit the first tower. We were about to go on the air, we didn’t know what had happen. We work out of the garret of a one-hundred year old fire house, now a community media center. At 9:03, the second plane hit the second tower and we had already begun the program, “From Pacifica Radio: This is Democracy Now!.” We didn’t know what that explosion was, but we kept broadcasting.” Goodman’s stories were told in grave detail, captivating the audience.
Goodman concluded her thirty-minute speech with a wise final thought that graduates and the audience as a whole took to heart: “Whether we are graduating now or later, whether employed or unemployed, we have a choice to be the sword or the shield.”