Believe in yourself" was the advice Charles Lewis gave the newest members of UD's Class of 1998 at Winter Commencement, held Jan. 9 in the Bob Carpenter Sports/Convocation Center on the Newark campus.
Lewis, a 1975 UD graduate, is the founder and executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C., that concentrates on ethics and public service issues.
A native of Newark, Lewis told the graduates that since he graduated from UD and left his hometown, the most important thing he has learned is "believe in yourself."
"I say 'believe in yourself' because you must be strong and have a clear sense of direction about where you want to be-or at least where you don't want to be-or you'll be swept away in the currents," Lewis said.
In a rapidly changing world filled with both opportunities and challenges, Lewis asked, "Who can we trust, ultimately, to protect our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
"Over the years, our ethically challenged politicians have done their best to earn our disgust and our distrust. Democracy itself is threatened, though, when the candidates we elect and the laws we enact hinge on how much money is spent. Actually, 96 percent of the American people do not contribute a dime to any candidate at the federal level, and less than 1 percent gave $200 or more to congressional candidates or the political parties in the 1996 elections," Lewis said.
Noting that 40 percent of U.S. citizens cannot name the current vice president, Lewis said, "Most Americans know more about their toasters today than about their public servants, even though they can be badly burned by both."
Lewis asked the University' s newest graduates, "Whatever your political inclinations are, will you get engaged in your communities, in the affairs of this nation and this world? Will you help to break the cycle of cynicism and distrust in this country, and hold our public officials more accountable to the truth about those crucial issues that affect our daily lives? Only then can we possibly contemplate a government truly of the people, by the people and for the people."
Also at the ceremony, Edmund N. Carpenter II of Greenville, Del., was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree. Carpenter, a former president of the Delaware Bar Association and the American Judicature Society, is retired from the law firm of Richards, Layton & Finger, where he worked as an associate, partner, director and president.
William T. Allen, a member of the University's Board of Trustees and chair of the Honorary Degrees and Awards Committee, read the citation honoring Carpenter, hailing him as a "treasured friend of the First State [who has] made the pursuit and attainment of justice your life's work and have, thereby, enriched countless lives in the state of Delaware, the region and the nation." Allen also praised Carpenter's compassion, dedication and service to his country and the legal community and called him an "exemplary citizen."
"Recognition by this great University is a rich privilege, and I am enormously fortunate to have received this honorary degree," Carpenter said. "I have always had a deep affection for the University of Delaware, especially since my father, some 30 or 40 years ago, served as chairman of its Board of Trustees.
"Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, 'The man who finds the work he loves, the gods have smiled on him.' I, through chance, landed in the work I loved, the practice of law, and that was extremely lucky for me. I had a passion for it, and apart from my wife, Carroll, who is here today, and my family and my friends, nothing has given me more pleasure, intellectual stimulation, sheer delight than that," he said.
Carpenter concluded by congratulating the new graduates and wishing that they, too, find the work they love.
-John Brennan