**Commencement Speech**

de Teel Patterson Tiller

Goucher College

# August 3, 2003

Towson, Maryland

President Ungar, honored faculty and administration of Goucher College,
friends, families and guests, and soon-to-be graduates -- good
afternoon. Most importantly, congratulations graduates - for your hard
won achievement today! And thank you President Ungar for the honor of
coming before you **all** at so important an occasion.

I stand here today 3-times blessed. **First** for the honor of receiving
your honorary doctorate; **secondly**, for the invitation of delivering
this commencement address, and, **thirdly**, for a reason none of you
who invited me knows -- but a reason with great meaning for one of us in
this auditorium today. My mother (who joins us today) has never had the
occasion to see me receive a degree. You see - I graduate from college
in the late 1960's at the time of the great counterculture. We were
about changing the world (or at least being disruptive of it -- it is a
little vague with so much time having passed) and conventions such as
graduations were not seen as relevant to the cause. Years later when I
received my graduate degree, I had a new job to get to and bills to be
paid and believed I was past such things. But I realize now (as such
wisdom comes to those of us as we age) that graduation is not for the
graduate so much as for those who have supported and championed them in
the journey. Today is as much (or more) for you in civilian dress in
this auditorium as for those of us in these extremely odd costumes.
Today is a long overdue homage to my mother (Doris Eichlin Tiller) that
I am happy to be able to render thanks to you President Ungar, my friend
Richard Wagner, and to Goucher College for this great and unintended
gift. Of the three blessings today, it is the one most meaningful to me.
Mother, this is for you.

I have been given two challenges this afternoon: 1) to keep my remarks
short; and, 2) to craft some message equally meaningful to the four
seemingly diverse disciplines receiving degrees here today.

This turned out **not** to be a difficult task and the answer came
quickly. In a word - **Authenticity**! And specifically - the power of
America's authentic past. America's story researched and written,
America's authentic historic places visited and preserved for future
generations, our nation's historic objects and material culture
conserved, interpreted, and open to our citizens in great museums, the
power of creative ideas in expressive arts \-- All as powerful
**[teaching]{.underline}** touchstones. This binds us here today as
graduates and as Americans. This too, is at the core the National Park
Service's mission as we preserve and interpret the places entrusted to
us where our nation's most important historical events happened.

America is blessed with a panoramic history over thousands of years,
beginning with the First Americans and continuing with successive waves
of immigrants from virtually every nation on this earth. Preserving the
history and the material culture of the American story for future
generations is, for many of us in this room, an article of faith. We
preserve these places, these stories, this music, this theatre, these
ideas, and concepts, these objects and collections because they impart
the larger stories and truths about who we are as individuals, who we
are as a people, and who we are as a nation -- where we have been and
(importantly) where we are going. In an increasingly virtual world, the
love of historic authenticity is a key idea that unites us here today.

And it isn't often easy. We live in a time of **fame without
achievement**; a time of **spin over substance**; an era that values
**parsing words rather than clarity of meaning**; and a time of
**franchise and homogenization**. Through all, however, there remains a
powerful reality - the power of our nation's authentic past. It is out
there, only waiting to be experienced. To stand where Lewis and Clark
and the young Shoshone mother Sacagawea looked out over what would
someday become the State of Montana, to visit Seneca Falls and Waterloo,
New York and to bear witness at the site of the first Women's Rights
Convention of 1848 links you to those places, to names like Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and to critical times in American
history in a way theme parks and video games never can. To look upon the
actual campaign tent General Washington used throughout the Revolution,
to hold drafts of poetry written by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, to go eye to
eye with Gilbert Stuart and Thomas Sully's portraits of our Founding
Fathers and Mothers brings life to them. To stand on the spot at the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC where Martin Luther King, Jr.
delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 brings excitement,
authenticity, and credibility to our nation's past and to our future. To
experience afresh Charles Ives, Aaron Copeland, Jelly Roll Morton and
Charley Parker, Tennessee Williams, Rogers and Hammerstein, and Martha
Graham is to, most assuredly, connect with the American spirit.

To visit Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee and look at the
cramped recording studio that launched the careers of Jerry Lee Lewis,
Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash and **changed** forever the
course of America's history. I am happy to report that the Secretary of
the Interior this past Thursday designated Sun Records in Memphis as our
nation's 2,348^th^ National Historic Landmark -- the nation's most
exclusive list of historic properties that include the likes of
Monticello, Mt. Vernon, and the Alamo. I took particular pleasure in
writing into the Secretary's speech on that occasion the immortal lyrics
\-- **Ooby Dooby**. **[Now]{.underline}** for those of you under 50,
Ooby Dooby was one of the great 1950's hits of Rock and Roll pioneer Roy
Orbison. Ooby Dooby was recorded at Sun Records and I am sure I am safe
is saying that I can take credit for the first documented instance in
American history of a Cabinet Officer uttering the words Ooby Dooby in a
public address. It is a hard job, but someone has to do it. As a quick
and sad sidebar \-- Regrettably Sun Records Studio founder Sam Phillips
died just this past week \-- the evening before the Secretary's
designation. History is also (if nothing else) endlessly ironic.

Who needs history and historic place? Who needs museums? Why perform
Williams, O'Neill, and Balanchine? Why teach history? It is a fair
question particularly in this nation borne of a tradition of breaking
from the past and continuous re-invention. There has always been a
tension (a healthy one I suspect) in the American character between
looking back and looking forward. I think, however, perhaps no better
answer to these questions can be found than in the sad days following
September 11th.

One of the grim outcomes of that dark day was the press's endless musing
over the question, "was **this day** the largest single loss of American
life?" The historical event that held that sad distinction up to then
was the Civil War Battle of Antietam -- fought in September of 1862 not
far from here in Sharpsburg, Maryland. Fortunately as the information
came in the days following September 11 and people from the two World
Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania were
accounted for, Antietam's dubious distinction held -- 7,640 killed or
missing in one day. What was particularly striking, however, was a more
important similarity between those two events - separated by 139 years,
almost to the day.

It is hard to forget (now two years on) the heart-wrenching images on
the evening television of families and friends with photographs of
missing loved ones searching the streets of Lower Manhattan \-- going
from hospital to hospital. But what is so remarkable, and why history
and historic place is so instructive, is that we know that the **exact**
same things happened after the Battle of Antietam. Families searching
the fields -- around the Dunkard Church -- at the Stone Bridge -- going
from hospital to hospital -- many with photographs - looking for loved
ones. The analogy is powerful. But what does this tell us? That history
repeats itself, yes. But more importantly, that we have been here before
and that we will get through this and things will be OK. (Pause) We will
be OK.

That is the power of authentic historic place, the historic object,
expressive art, and historic lesson; that is the power of knowing and
understanding your history and where you came from. Today, at perhaps no
time in our nation's history since World War II and the Great Civil War
do we need these assurances - **that we will be OK**. Teaching history,
preserving the places where America's history actually happened,
preserving America's material and expressive culture **are acts of
faith**, contracts between this generation and those that went before,
and between us and the generations yet to come.

But there are troubling signs. The number of young people attending live
theatre is down. History is increasingly being dropped or watered down
by the political correctness police in K-12 curricula. A recent report
released by the **American Council on Trustees and Alumni** suggests
that the situation is no better at our colleges and universities. 556
recent college graduates surveyed at 55 of the nation's top college and
universities were polled. Only 60% could correctly place the American
Civil War in the right half of the 19^th^ century. Moreover, only 34%
identified George Washington as the American general at the
Revolutionary War battle of Yorktown; 37% thought it was Ulysses S.
Grant. Only 23% polled correctly identified James Madison as the Father
of the Constitution. Remember, these are recent college graduates - from
purportedly the nation's top schools! These were not the hapless victims
of Jay Leno's "in the street" interviews.

The report further revealed that 78% of these institutions no longer
required students to take **any** history as undergraduate requirements,
and none required American history at all. "It is not surprising," the
report states, "That college seniors know little American history. Few
students leave high school with an adequate knowledge of it and even the
best colleges and universities do little to close the knowledge gap."
The report all but confirmed a similar trend in secondary schools across
the United States. As noted American historian David McCullough observes
in the report, "we are raising a generation of young Americans who are
historically illiterate."

So what? Why should we care? Without context, historic places, museums,
theatre and performing arts centers -- our intellectual past -- our
history itself becomes irrelevant. If Americans lose their passion for,
and interest in, our history, then preserving objects and places, the
expressive arts -- the tangible links to our past -- ultimately becomes
meaningless. These things, these places are not self-revealing like
Platonic archetypes. Each generation must learn anew and find value in
them.

Our nation faces critical challenges in this first decade of the 21st
century \-- to be sure -- illiteracy, heath care, national security,
terrorism, war, jobs, AIDS, affordable housing, civil rights, the
environment. Historic research, museum collections, the arts, preserving
and visiting historic place and historic literacy do not seem to be high
priority demands in comparison. And it is often hard to make convincing
budget arguments for this agenda to the Congress and to State and local
legislatures in the face of overwhelming budget deficits. I am reminded
of a statement, however, made by Arthur Schlesinger that puts this in
some perspective. He said, "History is to a nation rather as memory to
an individual. As an individual deprived of memory becomes disoriented
and lost, ... , so a nation denied its past will be disabled in dealing
with its present and future."

President Franklin Roosevelt echoes a similar sentiment during the
Second World War, "Preserving historic place, " he said, "strengthens
our resolution to defend unselfishly the hallowed traditions and the
ideals of America."

As you have doubtless gathered by now, I am a shameless,
unreconstructed, politically incorrect commercial for the excitement --
and saving grace - of American history, for the ability of museums to
open intellectual doors, for preserving and visiting historic place as
powerful teaching experiences, for the refreshing of performance
classics from dance, music, and theatre. As the Associate Director of
the National Park Service responsible for our mission in these arena, I
am privileged to wrestle daily with many of these challenges. **Your**
National Parks have a unique compact with America's history and our
people. While many American's associate the U.S. National Park Service
with the preservation of our nation's finest and most pristine natural
places -- Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Denali, the Everglades,
Skyline Drive, and Acadia - Few of our citizens realize that 230 of the
388 parks in the national system were created to preserve important
moments or ideas in our nation's history.

60% of our great national parks preserve and retell the American story.
At Tuskegee Airman in Tuskegee, Alabama where the hangars and airstrip
at Moton Field commemorate the story of the famed Tuskegee Airmen -- the
ace African American pilots of World War II. At the great Anasazi
archeological ruins of Mesa Verde in the Four Corners in the American
Southwest. At Manzanar in eastern California -- the site of the World
War II Japanese internment camps, one of the most shameful chapters in
our nation's history. At Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, Shiloh, Tennessee and Corinth, Mississippi, and
Petersburg, Virginia. Where the Civil War began at Ft. Sumter in
Charleston harbor, South Carolina. Where it ended at Appomattox
Courthouse in central Virginia. At the studio of sculptor Augustus
Saint-Gaudens in Cornish, New Hampshire or the home of great American
playwright Eugene O'Neill in Danville, California. Each of these is a
national park -- **your** national park.

Visit Klondike Goldrush in Alaska and walk the Chilkoot and White Pass
Trails and experience what the life of a Sourdough of the 1898 Alaska
Gold Rush was like. Visit Father Damian's settlement on Molakai'i,
Hawai'i to learn about his work with lepers. And while in Hawai'i, visit
the U.S.S. Arizona in Pearl Harbor the holds still the remains of many
of the 1,177 crewman killed on December 7, 1941. Visit Hardin, Montana
and walk the banks of the Greasy Grass River and experience the
untouched prairie vistas at the site of the 1876 Battle of Little Big
Horn where 263 U.S. Army soldiers met death at the hands of several
thousands Lakota, Arapaho, and Cheyenne warriors. Visit the Monterey
County Jail in California that played so prominently in the life of
Ceasar Chavez.

If you have a good pitching arm, you could come close to hitting one of
the Service's most wonderful and complex historic sites right hear in
Towson, Maryland. Hampton Historic Site - an amazing and culturally rich
plantation house. When it was completed in 1790, it was the largest
domestic dwelling in the United States. There are astounding American
stories waiting for you -- America's early industrial age, the War of
1812, 19^th^ century garden designs, horse racing, a 5-star, American
decorative arts collection - and the difficult question of slavery and
how slavery made all this possible. If you are graduating today and have
not visited Hampton, shame on you. Go! And do not forget our other site
in Baltimore Harbor, Ft. McHenry -- of Star Spangled Banner / Francis
Scott Key fame.

One of our most recent additions to the national system is the site of
the September 11 crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. We
also manage for the American people the site of the Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Buildings in Oklahoma City where on April 19, 1995 168 people
(including 19 children) were killed and 675 of our citizens injured. The
Congress joins these places to the many Presidential birthplaces, forts,
archeological sites, battlefields, ranches, and historic homes we manage
for the American people not to preserve them for their own sake alone,
which is laudable. And not because these places always represent
something easy to understand or a chapter in our history with which we
are comfortable. These places grant us opportunities (sometimes
difficult) to learn what it is to be an American, to understand what
happened there, to have a conversation with the issues, that moment in
American history, to "talk" with those people long gone and to see what
they have to say to us and to find out what we can learn from the
experience. To understand what lesson Antietam and the Oklahoma bombing
site hold for us as we wrestle for meaning with the legacy of September
11.

Performing the nation's historic theatre, dance, and musical repertoire
is not just a great way to spend a Saturday evening. Historic sites and
museums are not simply recreational destinations. Each is a springboard
for personal journeys of intellectual and cultural enrichment. Our
nation's history is nothing less than our **civic glue**. Without it,
there is no understanding of our journey from past to present or
guideposts for current participation in our democracy. Newton Drury,
Director of the National Park Service during the World War II noted that
visitation to our historical parks near urban areas surged in the
1940's. He wrote in a 1946 report that, "The individual citizen faced by
a troubled world turned in the moment of national danger to the national
historic parks and shrines for renewal of their faith in their country's
traditions and their country's destiny for encouragement and patriotic
inspiration."

The National Park System constitutes a living American history textbook.
How effective are historic places and museums as learning sites? Look to
the recent accomplishments at George Washington Birthplace, our national
park unit in Virginia's Northern Neck. Our newly launched, place-based
educational programs that seek to enhance elementary school curricula
about the unique man that was George Washington has proven to be
effective beyond our wildest dreams. The local Washington County School
District Elementary School saw history proficiency test scores in the
550 \-- 4^th^ and 5^th^ grade students who participated in the park
program improve by 30%.

Civic dialogue is important in every age -- from George Washington to
George Bush. Art is civic dialogue. Reading the written word is civic
dialogue; so is visiting a museum and going to the theatre. It is
especially important today as we face serious threats to our democratic
way of life. Those of you graduating today have committed to that goal.
You have each chosen deeply important paths -- at a critical time in our
nation's history. Make no mistake about it -- your mission is important
and I honor you for it.

So bravo to you all in Education, in Arts Administration, in Historic
Preservation, and in Creative Non-Fiction. You are the keeper of the
nation's treasures and keepers of the national conversation. You are
admirable in all our eyes.

President Ungar, thank you again for the honor of coming here today.
Thank you **all** for your kind attention. I would like to end with a
quotation from the ever-serviceable John Adams. He wrote in a 1780
letter to his wife Abigail on what he saw as the goals of study. He
said, "I must study politics and war ... that my sons may study
mathematics and philosophy, ... in order to give their children the
right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, and tapestry,"

So, don't let President Adams down. Take your children to a museum. Take
your family to the theatre. Read! Visit Hampton and Ft. McHenry before
you leave Baltimore. And see you all in our great national parks! Thank
you.

\* \* \*