Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 8, 1995 TAG: 9505080128
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HAMPDEN-SYDNEY LENGTH: Medium
Allen, speaking to 194 graduates and about 2,000 spectators at the liberal arts college near Farmville, told the graduates they will face conflict in family and business life.
The Republican governor, alluding to last month's Oklahoma City bombing, also said conflict is inherent in American government.
``Representative democracy is not a gentle business,'' he said. ``Self-government is not a relaxing pastime.''
Allen told the graduates assembled on the lawn outside Venable Hall that the founders of the country designed American democracy to channel conflict into acceptable behavior.
The framers of the Constitution intended conflict between state and federal governments, as well as between different branches of governments, Allen said.
He also said that when people go outside the bounds of acceptable political discourse, as in the Oklahoma City bombing, democracy is threatened.
``Make no mistake, this was an attack on not just our friends and neighbors in Oklahoma City, this was an attack on all Americans, because this was an attack on this country's most cherished values,'' he said.
Hampden-Sydney, he reminded the graduates, has produced one U.S. president - William Henry Harrison - 12 senators, 12 governors and 33 congressmen since it was founded more than 200 years ago.
Meanwhile, at Bridgewater College, school President Phillip C. Stone awarded 155 degrees in a ceremony on the school's Jopson Field. He told students they must follow in the footsteps of visionaries such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King.
``I believe the special characteristics these men shared were the capacity to dream great visions - visions for society and visions of themselves - and the character to pursue those visions with passion, discipline and commitment,'' Stone said.
``Not everyone will dream a vision of who he or she will be; unfortunately, few people do.
``There is nothing about our nature that requires or even makes it likely. It is a discipline.''
by CNB