Hampshire College had 310 graduates at its Saturday commencement.
Staff photo by Michael Beswick - Winona LaDuke, keynote speaker at Hampshire College's 2011 commencement ceremony. AMHERST – At the Hampshire College commencement Saturday, there was talk about the end of the world, introductions of speakers by an emcee with a flair for the spotlight, and a recurring message to make the world a better place.
The keynote speaker was Winona LaDuke who told the 310 graduates that it was time for their new life, to be the example, and to have the courage “to get outside of the box.”
Before she took the stage she was introduced by 2011 graduate Rance J. Palmer, who listed LaDuke’s accomplishments for the crowd, including Ms. Woman of the Year in 1997.
LaDuke, an environmental activist and former Green Party vice presidential candidate, alluded to the date, as the Web has been swallowed by doomsday predictions.
“I’m not a Christian, so I’m not too worried about that Rapture thing,” she said.
LaDuke said each day, the graduates have the opportunity to become a better person.
“Be the people your ancestors would be proud of,” LaDuke said. “You go through once.”
The idea, she said, is to go on to the next world and say, “I did my best.” Whether that be keeping a few things from being genetically engineered, or preventing the world from combusting itself into oblivion.
LaDuke also is program director of Honor the Earth and founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, a reservation-based nonprofit organization. She works to protect indigenous plants and heritage foods from patenting and genetic engineering. She is a member of the Ojibwe Native American tribe.
“Keep a good heart and a good mind because we are the ones that are here,” LaDuke said.
She also told the graduates to pace themselves, because “it’s kind of a long haul.” She said when she was their age, she was fighting “big nuclear power plants” and “the FBI was chasing us around.”
“It takes time to make change,” LaDuke said.
She also advised them to be humble, saying in places like Amherst, people can get to be an “island” of political correctness. Lessons can be learned from the strangest people, ones that wouldn’t necessarily come to mind, she said.
She apologized to the students about the economy, but said what has happened has not really surprised her. Seventy percent of the economy is based on consuming “stuff,” she said.
“You can’t build a country based on empire,” LaDuke said.
Palmer also introduced Roberta Tudryn, the dining commons cashier, a Hampshire employee for over 30 years. She was the staff speaker.
Staff photo by Michael Beswick - Staff speaker Roberta Tudryn speaks at the Hampshire College graduation Saturday.“She’s always there to tell you to put some damn shoes on . . . it’s policy,” Palmer said, to laughs.
Tudryn said she calls Hampshire College “Happy College” because of the happiness it brings her.
Sigmund Roos, chairman of the board of trustees, urged the graduates to leave the world healthier, and more sustainable than how his generation left it.
“Today was to be the end of the word, so I’ll speak quickly, briefly, and because you all have such a short time left on this earth . . . Party like there’s no tomorrow, because there may be no tomorrow,” Roos said.
“I think that’s nonsense,” he added. “This is a great beginning, not an end.”
Interim President Marlene Gerber Fried paraphrased a quote from “Alice in Wonderland”: “As the queen told Alice, ‘You can think impossible things before breakfast, you just have to practice.’”