Thumbs Down

The majority cannot resist the temptation to wag its finger at the selection of Governor Dukakis as the Class Day speaker. Their dissatisfaction apparently stems from nothing more than an overwhelming desire to be dissatisfied.

The waggers' list of objections reads like a ludicrous laundry list. The governor is this, the governor isn't that, all thrown against the backdrop of the suggestion of impropriety by the committee chairman. Their charges against the student are unsupported by any facts and use circumstantial evidence to condemn him for commiting the apparently heinous crime of supporting Dukakis for governor (as The Crimson and almost everybody outside of the John Birch Society did) and then using his connection to try to get that prominent American to favor the senior class with an address in June.

Seth Goldman owes his classmates no apologies--the authors of the majority are the ones who ought to say they're sorry for an ill-considered attempt to spoil a Harvard event. The bottom line of the majority opinion is that they wouldn't have chosen him. All that can be said to that is, it's a good thing they were never asked.

Dukakis' long-standing connections with the University--and a local barbershop--are used against him in the majority opinion. Who better to address Class Day than someone who used his Harvard education to try to bring about change in the world? Next, the majority charges him with campaigning. This proves the Duke is ambitious, a trait that should not set him apart from a crowd of Harvard seniors. The majority might trust an intelligent audience not to be brainwashed. We think we can discount the possibility of the Class Day crowd abandoning Tercentenary Theater en masse for a round of New Hampshire campaigning. If Dukakis launches into a hackneyed stump speech, then he will lose more votes than a rousing performance will ever earn him.

The process of picking a Class Day speaker is undoubtedly flawed. The present selection method is neither democratic nor efficient. That is the opinion The Crimson ought to have expressed. Their blathering against Goldman and Dukakis has no rhyme or reason.