Seniors Deliver Graduation Oratories

Latin Orator Charles J. McNamara '07 and English Orator Daniel J. Wilner '07 took the stage today in Tercentenary Theatre to impart advice onto their graduating classmates. [CORRECTION APPENDED]

Delivering the Latin Salutatory, McNamara compared the Harvard experience to that of a young Star Wars Jedi. In his speech, "Iohannes Harvard, Eques Iediensis"—"John Harvard, Jedi Knight"—McNamara reminded the audience of the friends and teachers who have groomed the Class of 2007, members of the "best Jedi Academy in the galaxy". As he stepped back from the microphone to show off a few of his real-life light-saber moves, McNamara said, in Latin, "Harvard University is giving us the Force...use your new weapons wisely, my fellow Luke Skywalkers."

Although McNamara's speech was entirely in Latin, the audience picked up on his mannerisms and eagerness, complementing his oration with chuckles and cheers.

"The speech went well and everything turned out to be excellent. I was a little bit nervous about the crowd and whether or not they'd get all the jokes, but I was lucky to have such great support from Lowell House and friends. I was happy about their graciousness to laugh when they were supposed to," McNamara said.

Following McNamara, Wilner delivered the Senior English Address. In "Daring to Choose," Wilner asked his peers to ask the question, "How do I want to live?"

Wilner said that many Harvard students view choices as overwhelming difficulties, but argued that the decisions facing the graduating class are blessings rather than burdens.

"We need not feel paralyzed in the face of a difficult decision. Instead, we should see it as an opportunity, one that Harvard has offered us every day: it is the opportunity to ask our own questions and find our own answers."

Wilner said that this experience requires a willingness to look beyond simple answers.

"This enterprise can be enriching only if we are prepared to make mistakes," he said. "You see, we might imagine that a machine that told us what to do would spare us a great deal of worry. But, in fact, we would be denying ourselves the chance to live—to be living our own lives, lives we can own."

As for himself, Wilner said has recognized that finding an answer to these questions takes longer than the four years allotted at Harvard.

"It wasn't a sudden epiphany—it is a process...everyone's trying to deal with the same thing. I realized it here, and it was at Harvard where this process of asking began, and I certainly don't think it will be end here."

Next year, Wilner will take part in the Philosphy, Policy, and Economics program at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. As for McNamara, he will be in Mississippi with Teach for America.

With the force of Harvard taking these two orators and their peers forward, McNamara believes that "if the force of Harvard is at all similar to the force of the Jedi, I'm fairly confident that Harvard has done its job and we could even save a planet.”

CORRECTION

The initial version of the June 7, 2007 web update "Seniors Deliver Graduation Oratories" gave an incorrect name for Charles J. McNamara '07. His first name is not Christopher.