Congratulations to Hobart and William Smith Colleges to their success in getting Mark Gearan to become President of their colleges. To me (an outsider) this proves that the leadership of those colleges is truly visionary and courageous:
Visionary because all education should what up to the reality that the next Century will require gifted and committed leaders willing and able to teach all our children about all the world, not just the USA or ancient governments. Courageous because it will take financial and academic commitment to turn established U.S. Academic Leaders into worldwide Education Leaders.
Mark Gearan has the ability to become exactly such an educational and inspirational new leader, because he knows that all education must become focused on all the world and all the world’s problems if we are to create a peaceful 21st Century. Is that actually possible?
Can the USA actually become the leader in such a worldwide transformation of society? Who knows? No one knows! But even self-centered, narrow-minded seekers just for billionaire status, not just millionaire status, in the 20th Century must wake up to the reality that in the 21st Century even billionaire status will be no guarantee of “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for the billionaire himself or herself or for their immediate family members.
The world is shrinking. Our World of the 21st Century will never become a World where the USA manages and dominates every nation and all people everywhere. That will not be possible for any nation or any one of the five or six continents. We, the USA, must seek a New World for the whole world and with all the nations and races and creeds and languages of that whole world. Mark Gearan knows all these facts. He knows them better than I, and he has not only the vision but also the necessary youth and years to make Hobart and William Smith Colleges both leaders and successes in this whole New World!
What a time to be alive! What an ideal place, with an ideal faculty and visionary students, Mark Gearan now possess! May all of you, individually, and as an institution lead the way to the creation of a new USA and a New World in the 21st Century.
The Chairman of your Hobart and William Smith Board of Trustees has put all I have tried to say today into eloquent and accurate words of his own. Listen please to the worlds of Charles Salisbury: “Not only does Mark Gearan’s strong and varied leadership experience make him an ideal President, but his particular sensitivity to internationalism and service make him the best possible President for these Colleges…”
Amen! Amen! Amen! I say to these words of the Chairman of your Board of Trustees. May all of your hopes and dreams come true.
