COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION COMMENCEMENT

May 15, 1971

    

WAYNE DANIELSON'S ADDRESS


Margaret Mead's book which won her early fame was entitled, "Coming of Age in Somoa."  It contrasted methods of adolescent socialization among the South Sea islanders with those in modern industrial society.  It concluded, as I recall, that being a teenager in Tahiti was a lot less exasperating than being one in Dallas and was, by the way, a lot more fun.

The book comes to mind today, I suppose, because Margaret Mead has become a kind of guru to the younger generation as well as one of the most eloquent and provocative spokesmen on its behalf.  But it also comes to mind on commencement day in the context of the events of this year on campuses across the country including The University of Texas at Austin.  It seems to me that this was a year of coming of age for young Americans and perhaps for their parents and teachers, also.

Where are we, in May, 1971, on this campus and in the country?  Where are we in terms of our personal and collective maturity?

It seems to me that we are in a nation that has decided that it must learn how to end a long and devastating war without winning it.  It hasn't had to face this problem for some time and is not sure of how to do it, only that it must be done soon.  It's a maturing experience.

We are in a nation suddenly and acutely conscious of the effects on a limited natural environment of overpopulation, overconsumption, and overindustrialization.   We know we can no longer live in reckless disregard of the years ahead.  We know we must, like Joseph, prepare our world for lean and hungry years ahead or prepare ourselves to see that world starve and die.  The thought ages one considerably.

We are in a republic whose guarantees of freedom have been pushed to limits of protest and argument and rage that seem to produce nothing but more protest and argument and rage.  We must daily confront stern warning signs that freedom without responsibility engenders repression.  The realization adds years to one's mental age.


In short, it seems to me that on the campus and in the country we are all suddenly growing older, suddenly growing up.  As we near our 200th birthday as a nation, we are coming of age as a people.

The surprising thing, of course, is how much of this nascent maturity in America seems to stem from the generation we address and honor today - the college and university students of the late 1960's and early 1970's.

They are the ones who emphatically and earnestly and repeatedly called our attention to the unpleasant realities of Vietnam at a time when many of us older folk were still thinking about it in terms of past wars, of past conflicts.

They are the ones who in the 1960's candidly observed that we are creatures of God in nature and not simply childish, mindless consumers of products for modern industry.  (You may recall that they were of the opinion that a real tree along Waller Creek was worth more than a straightened concrete causeway carrying polluted water to a polluted river.)

They are the ones, certainly the freest generation we have produced, who out of the wild, inarticulate excesses of the sixties seem now to be finding some new, responsible paths to progress:

In politics, they have won the vote for 18-year-olds and they are going to use it.

In religion, some have gone beyond conventional and familiar forms to more ardent, direct and sometimes more honest experiences.

In fashion, they have met the midi-skirt and defeated it.

In music, they have moved from the hard, angry, ear-splitting rock to something smoother, softer, more subtle and assured.

In their life style, some are looking deep into the American past - not only for patterns of dress and appearance - but also for patterns of character in the individualistic, committed men and women of the frontier.

They are adding to their great freedom, in other words, an emerging sense of maturity and responsibility.

May 1972, is a troubled time in our country's life.  There is a war to end, an environment to restore, an economy to revitalize, a domestic tranquility to be reestablished in justice.  It is a time which curiously echoes the troubled days of early America.  There is obviously much for you graduates to do - particularly in professional fields of communication.  Yet I am deeply convinced of your ability and determination to do it.  And on the verge of our 200th anniversary as a nation, I am more and more persuaded that America has again produced a generation similar to the one it produced at the beginning, a generation that is coming of age, a generation with the intelligence, the training and the maturity to do the job.