A Badge of Courage

ED MEESE DESERVES the Kennedy School award. None of the other distinguished recipients deserves it more.

Of course, that was not immediately apparent. The initial confusion is understandable: originally, we were led to believe that the award recognized distinguished public service. The fact that the medal is called "The Kennedy School 50th Anniversary Honorary Medal For Distinguished Public Service"--combined with the fact that it bears the words "distinguished public service"--probably contributed to that mistaken impression.

Proceeding on a false assumption, a lot of people were mystified, shocked, or simply outraged when they learned of Meese's selection. Although Meese attended Yale and Berkeley, both fine schools, he is hardly an exemplar of our highest ideals.

Last week, what first seemed like nonsense began to make more sense. In a memo addressed to Kennedy School students, staff, and faculty, Dean Graham T. Allison '62 sought to clarify his intent. The awards were devised as "a way of expressing appreciation" to participants in a series of events celebrating the Kennedy School's 50th anniversary. The honored guests were chosen on the basis of "longevity, commitment, and accomplishment in public service."

An improvement, but somehow, that explanation wasn't entirely satisfactory, either.

As Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law Lawrence H. Tribe '62 told the Washington Post, "If distinction just means climbing, regardless of what values one tramples on the way up, then [Meese] has had a very distinguished career. John Mitchell was also attorney general of the United States."

Finally, over the weekend, the Kennedy School dispelled the last lingering doubts about the prize.

"It's not an honorary degree," Kennedy School spokesman Naomi Chase said emphatically. "I see it more as a token of appreciation. It's a medal thanking people for helping us celebrate the 50th."

Asked if that meant the medal was tantamount to a door prize or party favor, Chase said: "It's a nicer party favor. It's a more expensive party favor."

The token quality of the award doesn't exclude the element of distinction, Chase later said. "People have different ideas about what distinction means."

AT LAST, the truth.

The more cynical among us might dismiss the Kennedy School's current explanation as an innovation conceived in embarrassment, a posture calculated to placate the perturbed. But Harvard's school of politics couldn't deliberately perpetrate such a deception--not such a clumsy one.

Ed Meese's medal is a reward for his being a major public official and sharing the birthday fun. Nothing more.

For a moment, even the truth seemed unsavory. Pinning a medal on some public servant's chest mainly for his attending a Harvard party seemed the height of hubris. Medals are usually reserved for extraordinary accomplishments, like winning a marathon, furthering world peace, or failing that, demonstrating uncommon valor on the battlefield.

And therein lies the answer. As one K-School professor noted, Harvard is not the attorney general's "natural constituency." For Ed Meese, visiting Harvard to collect his prize would be a heroically courageous act. One might even consider it worthy of a medal.