Remembering Leon Higginbotham - Almanac, Vol. A dozen eulogies, including that of his daughter, Dr. Karen Higginbotham, and of Penn colleagues Dr. Houston Baker, Judge Louis H. Pollak, Dean Colin Diver and Dr. Renee Fox, made up this region's memorial service for the late Judge Higginbotham, who was also honored in New York and Boston. The Philadelphia service was led by Penn's Chaplain, the Rev. William Gipson. Following are the opening remarks of the President.
Facts are nasty little things.
They get in our way. They oppose, frustrate and confound us. They stand, hard, unyielding, and unavoidable between the world as it is and the world as we would have it be. No matter how we struggle and strain, the facts of this world too often seem immutable, indelible, ineffable. In his life and in his work, he recognized that neither denial, delusion, nor despair are useful responses to even the most distressing and depressing facts.