I see you

June 14, 2007

Dear Julie,

Secret Service agents guarded the stage and the entrances to the football stadium at Ohio State Sunday. They weren't needed. When Bill Clinton walked in to receive an honorary doctorate and give the commencement address, most of the crowd of nearly 50,000 cheered and applauded. Whatever antipathy his presidential sex scandal created while in office no longer existed in that atmosphere of celebration. Instead they greeted the white-haired statesman who has been a force in the worldwide fight against HIV/AIDs and, with former president George H.W. Bush, came to the rescue of victims of Hurricane Katrina. Here was a president who left office with the largest budget surplus in history and the lowest unemployment rate since John F. Kennedy was in office. They lavished applause on one of the most charismatic men ever to hold the office of president.

Here also was potentially the first gentleman in the nation's history, although nothing he said even indirectly referred to the political battle his wife is engaged in.

DC and my family were in Columbus to see our nephew Kyle and about 7,500 others graduate from OSU. Just the black-gowned "Pomp and Circumstance" stroll into the stadium alone took half an hour. They filled the seats on one end of the stadium, looking like an educated colony of bats.

Clinton's eloquence is undiminished. He spoke of traveling to a part of Africa where "I see you" is the common greeting. Each of us deserves to be seen, he said, and the differences between people and nations are so much less important than our similarities.

He spoke warmly of former president George H.W. Bush, whom he loves and respects in spite of their gentle disagreements over policy.

I quit watching people argue on political talk shows years ago. People arguing over the difference between truth and illusion is entertaining in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." In politics, that difference can be, well, illusory.

I have admired your embrace of politics, how you used government to serve those you represented when so many people in our generation rejected the political system as bankrupt. Some are only now beginning to engage those they disagree with. That's a positive sign.

These new graduates have been called the what's-in-it-for-me generation. Employers are scrambling to understand how to hire and motivate them because loyalty to a company is not their credo. A job is what they do between weekends, not who they are. They want to know how the job is going to get them where they want to go. They were raised by their parents, our generation, to feel special. They expect to be treated that way.

And what is wrong with that?

In Africa the greeting is "I see you." Buddhists bow to the Buddha nature, the divinity, in those they meet. The meaning is the same.

DC has not forgiven Bill Clinton for his unfaithfulness or Hillary Clinton for putting up with it. I, advocating for the devil, suspect that goodness is not all we have in common.

The people in that stadium root for the same team -- the Buckeyes, Clinton said, a bond that transcends politics, age differences and most everything else.

Sometimes, being human, we forget that we also are all on the same team.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.