Bono Addresses Class of 2001

Bono, the lead singer for the world famous rock band U2 and the guest speaker at yesterday's Class Day ceremony, described himself as "a rock star with a conscience."

As Bono held the stage of the Tercentenary Theatre during the ceremony, his conscience was far more prevalent than his stardom. He encouraged his audience of about 30,000, including the 1,600 members of the Class of 2001, to build an awareness of the larger problems in our world.

Bono placed a particular emphasis on the "everyday holocaust that is Africa," which he described as "the biggest health threat since the bubonic plague wiped out one-third of Europe."

Through his work on behalf of third-world debt relief with Jubilee 2000 and Drop the Debt, Bono has been working to combat the "lack of development in third world economies due to the crushing weight of old debts."

On behalf of his humanitarian efforts, Bono has flown around the world and met with the likes of former President Bill Clinton, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Pope.

Bono kept yesterday's speech lively with his tales of "crisscrossing the globe like the Partridge family on psychotropic drugs" with Stone Professor of International Trade Jeffrey D. Sachs '76--who was instrumental in securing Bono as Class Day speaker--and University President-elect Lawrence H. Summers. Anecdotes included a photo shoot in which the Pope wore Bono's signature sunglasses, a plane flight in which an exhausted and disheveled Sachs was mistaken for a member of the Grateful Dead, and a raucous political debate in a "posh" Washington restaurant with Summers.

Bono did not miss the opportunity to take a few jabs at Summers for being "culturally challenged," but he also showed sincere gratitude for Summers' help with the Drop the Debt campaign.

"When I asked [Summers] to look up from the numbers to see what we were talking about, he did the hardest thing of all for an economist," Bono said. "He saw through the numbers [and encouraged] the government of Washington to cough up the dough."

Bono described his personal struggle and the outlet he found through music.

"I'm rebelling against my own indifference, I'm rebelling against the idea that the world is as it is and there is nothing you can do about it," he told the crowd.

Bono's primary message to audience members was that they need to join the struggle and do what they can to make a difference in their world.

"I think I've come here to ask your help because this is a big problem and we need some smart people working on it," Bono said, assuring the graduates that they could play a role in how the world perceives the crisis and what kind of action is taken to end it.

Bono was selected as the Class Day speaker by a class-wide poll of all the seniors. The Class Marshals were able to secure Bono with the help of Sachs, and were ultimately successful because the Boston leg of U2's American tour happened to correspond perfectly with the Class Day ceremony,

Students reacted positively to Bono's call to action.

"He expressed the fact that you can find room in your life for noble pursuits, whether you are a rock star or a Harvard graduate," said David F. Browne '01.

Some students had expected a lighter speech from someone who is known more as a rock star than a political activist by the general public.

"I was expecting him to just pat us on the back," said Jason R. Mann '01. "I appreciated his honesty and the way he just leveled with us."

The message of encouraging each student to play a role in improving the world carried through much of Class Day.

Yesterday's ceremony also honored two seniors, Rose M. Kakoza '01 and Lee M. Hampton '01, who were presented with the Ames Award for their four-year record of exceptional community service, both on campus and in the larger Boston community.

To close his speech, Bono spoke of the optimism he had felt as a young Dubliner who watched America place a man on the moon.

"We said, this is mad. Nothing is impossible in America," he said. "Is that still true? Tell me its true. And if it's not true, you, of all people, can make it true again."

--Staff writer Warren S. Adler can be reached at wsadler@fas.harvard.edu.