Wayne A. Danielson's Speech
	BEB 150
	May 30, 1970



		Were you There When....?
	The words to an old Negro spiritual go like this:
	"Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
	Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
	Oh sinner, it causes me to tremble.
	Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

	I think of these words today because many of the conversations I hear among the seniors seem to begin with the same phrase:
	Were you there when? Were you there when?
	The words echo in the memory of all graduates across the world.  They cause us to think with nostalgia of our memorable experiences, our never-to-be-forgotten days on campus.
	Were you there when we beat TCU?
	Were you they when they put #1 on the tower after the Cotton Bowl game and the town went crazy?
	Were you there when we threw old Dr. Birdwhistle in the fountain?  Of course, with this particular class the questions may well have a somewhat different tone:
	Were you there when the bulldozers came to Waller Creek?
	Were you there when we piled the branches against the door of the Main Building?
	Were you there when the police came into the Chuck Wagon?
	Were you ther when tear gas was thrown?
	Were you there when 20,00 students marched for peace?
	As these questions indicate, these students, the seniors we say farewell to today, have been an unruly group at times, an impassioned group at times, a concerned group at times.  It will be years before we, in the slow pace of scholarly thought, get around to making an accurate assessment of what they did to or for American higher education.  My personal feeling, however, is that when the last shout dies away and the last can of tear gas is thrown we will find that this generation of students left more than they took, added more than they subtraced.
	They left their teachers more concerned over student rights and privileges.
	They left their administrators more sensitive to the consequences of decisions.
	They left their admissions officers more cognizant of the problems facing minority groups in this country.
	They left those in high political office more aware of the power of youth, as a group, to influence the course of events in the nation for good or ill.
	They left all of us a little more likely to be truthful and candid in examining issues, in response to their candid slogan:  tell it like it is.
	The campus will never be the same.  but what comes next?
	Now, we send them back to the world which sent them here.  They have changed and the world has changed.  But they have changed more.  If they did not "fit" the colleges and universities they came to, they will fit even less well the world they go to.
	What will happen?  Will they change that world as they changed the campuses?  Or will they be lost in the crowd, isolated, powerless, ground down by "the system," the "establishment" they have berated so earnestly?  Will they "join 'em" if they can't beat 'em"?  or will they drop out to a day-to-day existence of joyless work and pointless play?
	I don't know the answer, of course.
	but I think that if there ever was a student generation determined to try to do something to change the world, it is this generation.
	If there ever was a studjent generation less likely to adapt to the "good old ways: of society, it is this generation.
	If there ever was a student generation less likely to adpt to the "good old ways" of society, it is this generation.
	If there ever was student generation less impressed by the accomplishments of its elders and less inclined to imitate them, it is this generation.
	I don't need to urge these young men and women to go out and climb the montains that lie before them.  They are already on their way up.  And the mountains had better get ready to be climbed -- or else move aside!
	The main guestion, of course, is whether this energy, this power, this determination will be used constructively or destructively -- to build a better world or simply to tear down as admittedly imperfect one.  God gave us all freedom to choose.
	You may be the greaduates who 30  years or so hence meet at an alumni gathering and instead of recalling the TCU game remark:
	Were you there when the riots of 1975 broke out?
	Were you there when the universities closed down?
	Were you there when the concentration camps started?
	Were you thee when we lost the right to vote?
	Were you there when we burned the White House?
	You may also be The graudates who meet 30 years or so hence and say to one another:
	Were you there when we solved the population problem?
	Were you there when the smog left Los Angeles?

If there ever was a ------ climbed -- or else move aside!

	Were you there when the Hudson ran clean?
	Were you there when the last family in Texas lifted itself out of poverty?	Were you there when law and order returned to our cities and our highways were made safe?
	The choice of memories is up to you.
	A song has caught the imagination of young and old alike.  It begins with words something like these:
	"When the moon is in the seventh phase
	 and Jupiter aligns with Mars,
	 Then peace will rule the planets
	And love will gude the stars.
	It is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius...."
	1970 graduates, I think ths is your song and your special mission.  I urge you to choose to work for the dawning of The Age of Aquarius.  I hope that you will be here when it comes.
1970_files/Wayne%20Danielson%20-%201970.doc