I find it interesting that of all the arguments I have heard against Henry Winkler speaking at Class Day, none have doubted his character, his accomplishments, or the likelihood of his delivering an excellent speech. These issues do not seem in question. Sadly, the only argument against Class Day becoming Happy Days can be summed up in the words of one gentleman who voiced his concerns in a recent letter to the Yale Daily News: "We're at Yale--we should be getting Presidents". Curiously, this judgment appears to reject Mr. Winkler, not on the basis of who he is and what's he done, but rather on who he isn't and what he hasn't done.
To explain why this is such a dangerous attitude, one must first define the purpose of having a Class Day speaker at all. Tellingly, the position's one qualitative requirement is that the candidate be a Yale graduate. Why? Because this is a ceremony meant, before anything else, to inspire. After all, the Class Day address isn't really about the speech itself (most detailed memories of what was said never make it off the Old Campus quadrangle). Rather, it's about a small crowd of young men and women in black caps and gowns, perched on the brink of the daunting abyss known as "The Real World", who might for a moment look upon the esteemed and accomplished figure ruminating at the lectern and stop to ponder how, once upon a time, that person sat where they are sitting now, in a similar cap and gown.
The fact is, you don't need to be President of the United States to be great, or to merit the respect of your peers. There are as many ways to be great and to do great things as there are dreams of greatness. The importance of reminding students of this as they prepare to leave Yale and embark upon their adult lives is underlined all too clearly by the provincial attitude among some undergraduates who dismiss Henry Winkler, despite his phenomenal success in the entertainment industry and his selfless charity work (not to mention his being a veritable icon of American culture through his "Fonz" character), simply because he does not have his own personal Secret Service entourage.
Some might contend that a Bill Clinton or a George Bush would automatically be superiorin the tole of guest speaker to That Guy Who Played The Fonz, I challenge them to submit one good reason that these men would be more qualified for the job in question. Sure, they have each been The Most Powerful Man in the World. But just as I could argue that not all Presidents have been great men, certainly not all great men have had (or wanted) the opportunity to be President. So, as the Class Day debate rages on, we must ask ourselves: Do we define greatness by that which we could not conceive of achieving ourselves? Or by that which we would aspire to recognize in ourselves?
Think of it this way. For a moment, stop looking at Henry Winkler in the context of a potential candidate in The Pool of Really Famous People We Can Brag About Having Had Spoken At Class Day. Instead, regard him in the same context as the people you see in the dining hall, the flow of people on the way to class, the solemnly scrawling figures you pass in the library, that cute sophomore who's always late to your history section. Look closely, for there was a time when Mr. Winkler, too, was part of that anonymous crowd.
So Henry Winkler doesn't rule his own country. So he doesn't make an eight-figure salary. So he hasn't won a Nobel Prize. Guess what? You probably won't either.
Henry Winkler is simply a Yale graduate, as all of us will presumably be someday, who has done his best and made a difference in his and other's lives. Perhaps he is not Yale's most "successful" alumnus. He is certainly not its least. That he is somewhere in the middle may make him the ideal Class Day speaker.
John Helzer is a sophomore in Pierson.
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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