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2005 Commencement Address:
Civil rights attorney John Payton '73
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It is a very special honor to be asked to speak here today. In
thinking about
what I would say, I found myself reflecting back on the
issues that defined my
generation. The Civil Rights Movement, the Kennedy
assassination, the Vietnam
War and the Peace Movement it spawned. Political activism
itself. And that
reflection led me to think about the issues that will define
your generation. What
are they? Terrorism? The threat to our core values presented
by the response to
terrorism? The realization of how diverse and yet
interdependent the world has
become? It is hard to pose any of these questions without
reference to September
11. Because September 11 will likely have a tremendous
impact on the issues that
define your generation. So, I want to begin by talking about
September 11.
 September 11 was almost four years ago. Sometimes it seems
longer;
sometimes it seems like yesterday. I became the President of
the District of
Columbia Bar four years ago next month. June 2001. The
District of Columbia is
a medium size city with a very large Bar. There were then
over 76,000 members
of the DC Bar. Over the summer the Bar is pretty quiet. The
first meeting of the
Board of Governors -- our trustees -- is in the fall. I had
an aggressive agenda for
my presidency that was to begin at that meeting. And in 2001
that first meeting of
the Board of Governors was scheduled for Sept. 11, 2001.
September 11 was a Tuesday. That Sunday I had just returned
from the
United Nations’ World Conference Against Racism that was
held in Durban South
Africa. Tuesday was my first day back in the office. I had a
TV on my desk, and
someone sent me an email early that morning about a report
that a small plane had
crashed into the World Trade Center. I turned on the TV and
saw the second plane
hit.
That Tuesday was a literal nightmare. Two planes crashed
into the World
Trade Center in New York, a third plane crashed into the
Pentagon. The Towers
collapsed. Thousands of people were killed. A fourth plane
had apparently
attempted to crash into the White House. Or into Congress.
The President was in
an unknown secure location. There were reports that the
State Department had
been bombed. That the Capitol had been bombed.
Of course I cancelled the meeting of the Board of Governors.
And, because
the Bar’s offices are only a few blocks from the White
House, I also closed the
offices and told everyone to go home. The next day,
Wednesday, the Bar reopened
and I decided to visit with all of the employees who had
come to work.
We met in a large conference room to talk about the
unforgettable images
that are now seared into our memory. Around the room was an
incredibly diverse
group of people. I asked to hear from all those in the room.
One woman talked
about walking out of the Bar offices on Tuesday and not
knowing if she should
walk close to any federal building out of fear it may be a
target. Another talked
about cringing when a plane flew overhead. A parent talked
about going home
early and not realizing that her son had also come back from
high school early and
had been frantically and unsuccessfully trying to reach her
at the Bar, not knowing
that she was already on her way home.
 Another person at the meeting told of walking toward the
huge Mall that runs down the center of the District of Columbia and seeing
tens of thousands of frightened people rushing across. Men, women, children, all
races, all ethnic
groups, all categories of people. But not panicked or rude
or discourteous.
Rather, they were aware and supportive of each other. Cars
were grid locked on the streets, but there were no horns blaring. There was a
common unspoken sense
that we were all in this together. Differences that had
divided us the day before,
had lost meaning when the planes hit the two towers and the
Pentagon.
That day we did not have a race problem in America. I think
we all had a
similar initial reaction to 9-11. Horror. And unity.
I also think September 11 had special significance for the
seniors here today.
College is where many of us, probably most of us become
adults. Where we try
and figure out who we are, what we want to do. For you
graduating seniors today,
that has all happened in a post September 11 world. You are
unique in that sense -
- the first class of college seniors whose entire college
career was post 9-11.
I have talked to some of you about September 11. Although
the fall term
had begun a week earlier, for all practical purposes, your
college years began on
September 11. And September 11 has hung like a cloud over
much of the time you
have spent in college. Sometimes in the foreground, always
in the background.
Unfortunately, that remarkable spirit of unity that we all
experienced on
September 11 did not last. Almost immediately it was
replaced by two very
disturbing developments. The first was a rejection of and
hostility toward the
value of racial, ethnic, religious and cultural diversity.
This manifested itself in the
extreme distrust of certain persons and cultures and
religions thought to be
incompatible with American values and culture. The second
development was a
serious erosion of fundamental legal rights that we cherish
and promote as
Americans. There is irony in both of these developments.
Strength through
diversity and the importance of legal rights are key parts
of the American
experience.
With respect to diversity. We are the most diverse country
on the earth, the
result of extraordinary immigration over centuries.
Continuing to this day. Not
that we have not had fundamental problems with respect to
this diversity; but we
have certainly come to understand its importance, and even
to embrace it.
 Yet, after September 11, we have seen the rise of the view
that the United
States does not need the rest of the world. That the concept
of the United Nations
is suspect. As are some historical allies. International
agreements we had
promoted only months before were reevaluated and dismissed.
Some acted as if
we could -- as the only military superpower -- create a
“Fortress America” and relate to the rest of the world from within that Fortress.
Even if that were possible, it would not be desirable. But
it is clearly not
possible. To say there is a world economy sounds trite but
it also understates just
how interrelated the world has become. Things we buy, food
we eat, websites we
visit, services we depend upon, come from all over the
world. As do our
colleagues, our friends, our teachers, our co-workers. What
happens over there,
what we do over there, affects us here. And today, we often
know what happens
around the world in real time. Live. Avoiding globalization
is no longer an
available choice; the only choice is the terms under which
we operate in the global
community.
Today, no nation can be an island.
There is a second irony to this effort to pretend we could
shut ourselves off
from the world in response to September 11. At that very
same time, the issue of
diversity was before the United States Supreme Court in the
Michigan affirmative
action cases. And in those cases virtually all of higher
education, including
Pomona College, was telling the Supreme Court about the
extraordinary value of
racial and ethnic diversity. At that very same time our
major corporations were
telling the Supreme Court about the value and necessity of
racial and ethnic
diversity in order to be able to operate in the diverse
world. Even the military was
telling the Supreme Court about the overriding importance of
diversity.
And the Supreme Court agreed. This is how the Supreme Court
put it:
“[N]othing less than the ‘nation’ s future depends upon
leaders trained through
wide exposure to the ideas and mores of students as diverse
as this Nation of many
peoples.” A statement that applies equally to the diversity
of the entire world.
Colleges and universities have long known this reality. And
have long held a
comprehensive view of diversity that includes racial and
ethnic diversity, gender
and geographic diversity, socio-economic diversity. But also
the diversity of
international students and international experiences.
Certainly Pomona College
has been well ahead of the curve on that front. The Oldenborg Center is a
testament to that commitment. Learning in an environment
that is diverse in
multiple ways produces better-educated graduates and
leaders. Who will
contribute to a better society and a better world.
Learning and operating in this diverse world allows us to
see people as the
people they are. Not as some type of foreign other. Fear
thrives on ignorance.
Equally important, however, learning and operating in a
diverse environment
allows us to see ourselves in a broader and richer context.
And to understand
ourselves in that broader context.
But don’ t get me wrong. Fear can sometimes overcome some of
the best of
intentions. Nevertheless, what comes from understandings
based on diversity can
act to protect us to some extent from that fear. Especially
the fear of an other we
do not know.
This fear is what led to the second development that
occurred immediately
after September 11 -- the erosion of legal rights. Rights
are part of the American
identity. Rights with respect to the government. Rights that
limit the power of the
government.
We all remember what happened. There was an overwhelming
fear of
Muslims or Arabs. That quickly expanded to include anyone
who was from the
Middle East or North Africa. And then it just expanded to
absurd proportions.
Sikhs were attacked. So were Christian Lebanese. And
Christian Iranians. People
were afraid to fly with anyone who they thought looked
threatening.
The vague image of Muslims or people from the Middle East or
maybe just
foreigners began to emerge as the profile of a potential
terrorist. Tens of thousands
of people were rounded up by the Immigration and
Naturalization Service. And
held without bond. The fact of their detentions was kept
secret. They were not
allowed access to counsel. Almost all of those rounded up
were summarily
deported. A few were arrested and charged, as opposed to
being deported without
charge. Almost all of those turned out, on inquiry, to be
innocent.
Congress, in this atmosphere, passed the Patriot Act. The
Attorney General
of the United States claimed that those who raised issues
about rights being
trampled were giving aid and comfort to the enemy. That is
the definition of
treason found in the Constitution. Chilling words intended
to be chilling.
It was in this atmosphere that in December, 2001, in a
widely reported
incident here in California, the publisher of the
Sacramento Bee delivered the
commencement address for the mid year graduation ceremonies
of California State
University at Sacramento. Ten thousand students and their
guests were in
attendance. When the publisher talked about why civil
liberties matter in these
times, she was booed. When she raised the issue of racial
profiling and worried
about the possibility that it could become routine, the
crowd responded by cheering
that possibility. The speech had to be halted and she had to
be led off the stage. It
was a shocking reaction by a crowd motivated by fear.
Other actions to curtail rights after September 11 were much
more deliberate
and calculated. And initially at least, secret. The
interrogation techniques at Abu
Ghraib. And at Guantanamo. The cavalier attitude toward the
Geneva
Conventions. The practice of “extraordinary renditions” in
which the government
apprehends a person and transports that person to another
country for secret
questioning that likely would entail torture. The claim by
the government of the
right to strip any person designated an “enemy combatant” of
literally all rights.
If another country had done these things prior to September
11 we would
have condemned them. When we do these things, we risk
becoming another
country.
These are the fundamental challenges of our times.
Appreciating the value
and necessity of diversity in an international context and
the preservation of our
core rights. As I am sure you are aware, for some time there
has been a sense that
younger generations have been drifting with respect to
involvement in social and
political issues. That there was a lack of commitment, even
a lack of conviction.
This concern was present well before these fundamental
issues presented
themselves in a post September 11 reality. Whether we could
afford that lack of
conviction before September 11 is now beside the point.
Because today, we
cannot. Today the very things that define us as a country
require conviction and
commitment. And courage.
What are the things that define us as a country? The rule of
law certainly.
The idea that the government may not act except pursuant to
law. At its most
basic, this is the right not to be detained by the
government unless charged with
violating a law, with attendant rights to counsel and human
treatment. Clearly the
right not to be tortured.
Freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. The right to
participate in the
political process. This right of participation being enjoyed
by all without regard to
race or ethnicity or gender or political viewpoint
All of these rights protected by an independent judiciary.
No one openly disagrees with these fundamental values. But
there are now
doubts about whom these rights are for. These doubts come
from fear. Fear of
“those people over there” that “are not like us.” Fear that
is projected onto people
right here.
This fear of “others” is corroding our confidence in basic
democratic values.
Our democracy is about interdependence and shared
responsibilities. In Abraham
Lincoln’ s famous formulation: “Government of the people, by
the people and for
the people.” That, in turn, depends on a confidence in the
whole. And in what
makes up the whole. Our country’ s enormous racial and
ethnic diversity -- drawn
from all corners of the globe -- is a potential source of
great strength. And that
strength from diversity is essential to thriving in today’ s
complex world. But to
realize that strength depends on our ability to use and
appreciate that diversity. To
recognize it as an indispensable democratic value. It
requires us to know
ourselves. To have confidence in ourselves.
We are an imperfect democracy. Not too many years ago our
country
rejected the very idea of strength from diversity. That
failure to appreciate our
diversity undermined and scarred our democracy. And resulted
in our disgraceful
legacy of racial oppression. We have made significant
progress, but we still have issues regarding our democracy.
It is now conventional to talk about how September 11
changed everything. This is often said with a tone of “ it is time to set aside
foolish causes like human
rights and turn to serious causes like national security.” I
think that is the wrong
point. The point is to see that September 11 does not change
everything. And that
task falls to all of you here today. We all felt the sense
of unity that first
characterized the response to September 11. That sense, that
strength, needs to be
captured as the legacy of September 11. Because we need that
strength to make
sure that the things that define us as a society are not
compromised and lost in the
response to September 11. To see that the knowledge and
understanding that
comes from the world’ s diversity is viewed as a strength.
This will not happen by
itself. It will require commitment and courage.
So, let me end by returning to something I said a few
minutes ago. That is
the observation that the generation represented by the
seniors here today seems less
interested in social and political issues. That your
generation seems less
committed. Now, I know that is a generalization and that
Pomona students
certainly exemplified the unifying reaction to September 11
that I talked about
earlier. There were teach-ins and rallies on this campus
that were designed to be
unifying. That said, I have heard this concern about
commitment by your
generation from some of you as well.
Why is this the case? I think part of the explanation
relates to an impression
that the most significant social issues -- civil rights is
the example most used in this
discussion -- that the most significant social issues were
addressed by my
generation and largely resolved. That there is less need of
commitment today.
Let me be blunt here. That impression is false. We have made
progress, no
doubt about that. But we have certainly not solved the
problems. We still see
significant racial and ethnic disparities in economic
achievement, educational
achievement, our criminal justice system, our neighborhoods,
our life possibilities.
And beyond issues of race are other important challenges.
Issues of economic and
social justice. And, it should be obvious that every one of
these issues today has to
be seen in a broader international context.
Equally important, of course, there are these new overriding
and fundamental issues at play today.
Democracy depends on each successive generation to recommit
to its values
and to see that they are preserved. Because what our
government does it does in
our name. Of the people, by the people and for the people.
It is our democracy.
My generation thought we could achieve racial and social
justice. We
thought we could affect the Vietnam War. Perhaps more
important, we thought we
should do these things. We were confident and cocky. And, in
hindsight,
sometimes quite simplistic. But committed and certainly not
lacking in courage. It
is not that we all went off to be activists. It is that we
took these attitudes with us
wherever we ended up.
Those were exciting times. Challenging times. Times whose
outcome was
uncertain. Like today. Nothing is certain. Except that these
too are exciting times,
challenging times. Times that require commitment and
courage.
There are huge issues before us today. So what can any of us
do
individually? You all know the answer. You are a special
group of individuals, from a special college. Some of you are future leaders. All
of you can make an impact. You can bring commitment to these issues. You can
bring courage to
these issues.
It’ s your turn. Make us proud.
About John Payton '73:
 John
Payton, widely considered to be one of the nation's leading
civil rights attorneys, will give the keynote address and
receive an honorary degree, during the event. A member of
the Pomona Class of 1973, Payton is a partner in the firm
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr and was the lead counsel
for the University of Michigan in the two landmark college
admissions affirmative action cases decided by the U.S.
Supreme Court in 2004.
He has served in leadership roles in the National Lawyers
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Washington Lawyers
Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and the Free
South Africa movement. Payton is also a past president of
the District of Columbia Bar Association. A native of Los
Angeles, Payton earned his law degree from Harvard Law
School.
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