Education: Now, A Few Words from the Wise

Commencements are largely family affairs; this year's graduation ceremonies produced signal variations on the homey theme. At Boston University, Chief Justice William Rehnquist presented a law degree to his son James, who had been presented with a daughter by his wife the day before. Democratic Senator Bob Graham confessed having had trouble coming up with a theme for his address at the University of Florida until Daughter Cissy, who would receive a master's degree that day, offered a suggestion: how to get a job. At Loyola College in Baltimore, a well-known husband-and-wife team, Bob and Dolores Hope, was awarded honorary doctoral degrees -- his 53rd, in acknowledgment of which he dropped a chestnut: "Now that I am a doctor, at least I can get on the golf course on Wednesdays." At Vassar, Playwright John Guare and his spouse Designer Adele Chatfield-Taylor both spoke, after flipping a coin to see who would go first. (She did.) In a boisterous, though notably erudite, bit of counterpoint to the family theme, graduates of Harvard's School of Public Health tossed into the air hundreds of condoms encased in envelopes that bore the Latin message ad venerem securiorem. Translation: "for safe sex." Herewith a sampling of other, more formal messages to the Class of '87 from commencement speakers around the nation:

ABC Nightline Moderator Ted Koppel at Duke University, Durham, N.C.: We have actually convinced ourselves that slogans will save us. Shoot up if you must, but use a clean needle. Enjoy sex whenever and with whomever you wish, but wear a condom. No! The answer is no. Not because it isn't cool or smart or because you might end up in jail or dying in an AIDS ward, but no because it's wrong, because we have spent 5,000 years as a race of rational human beings, trying to drag ourselves out of the primeval slime by searching for truth and moral absolutes. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. It is a howling reproach. What Moses brought down from Mount Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions.

/ The Rev. Lawrence Jenco, released last year after being held 19 months as hostage by Lebanese terrorists, at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Three months prior to my release, Said, one of my captors, sat on the edge of my mat and said, "Do you forgive me?" to which I responded, "Yes, Said, I do forgive you and ask your forgiveness too." For there were times when I was filled with anger and hate. And on the evening of my release, Haj ((another captor)), quoting from my letter home to my loved ones, said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." I could not help but think these were the words of Jesus, who died in peace and returns to his disciples not with anger or retaliation against them, but with the simple greeting of "Peace be with you."