Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 24, 1993 TAG: 9305240055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Casteen reminded the graduates that Jefferson believed each generation had to work to solve its own set of national issues and problems and urged them to "fight our complacency."
"Mr. Jefferson would have despised our cynicism," he said.
Casteen told the group, which included his son, John Casteen IV, to "believe passionately in the rights of the people" in the spirit of Jefferson, and to work for equality of all people.
In Lynchburg, Lynn Yeakel, a former candidate for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, told graduates of Sweet Briar College that "women don't have to apologize anymore for succeeding."
Yeakel, who narrowly lost to Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., in 1992, told the 145 women that women should no longer live in fear of abuse, poverty, failure or success.
"A civilized society that prides itself on human liberty must not surround better than half the population with fear," she said. "It's OK to win. It's OK to aspire to high goals. And it's OK to bring balance to our lives."
In Lexington, Elizabeth B. Lacy - the first woman named to the Virginia Supreme Court - spoke to 138 graduates of Washington and Lee University's law school.
Lacy told the law graduates that "the issue is not where you do your job, but how you do your job. . . . I challenge you to remember your ideals and be true to them. To ignore wrong, to look the other way, puts the continuation of the practice of law and the fabric of our society as we know and want it in unquestioned danger."
On Saturday, about 4,200 students were awarded diplomas at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk had 119 graduates, and the Virginia Military Institute had 250 graduates. George Mason University in Fairfax awarded diplomas to 4,806 students.
by CNB