To George W. Bush: Why I Won't Sing
Dear George: Thanks for the invitation to the Class of 1968 Whiffenpoofs to sing for you at the White House. Unfortunately, I can’t participate. Here’s why. I don’t remember much of what Kingman Brewster said in his welcoming speech to the freshman class of 1968 in September 1964, but in broad outline it was the usual one about what a great opportunity we had been given, and what a great responsibility went with it. If he had just been talking about the responsibility to serve and to lead, I would be delighted to sing for you, because you have served and led more in the last 6 years than the rest of our class combined. But as I remember Kingman Brewster, it’s more likely that he would have talked to us about the responsibility to think before you serve and lead. He would have told us that the main purpose of our four undergraduate years would be to learn how to think, that learning to think is hard work, and that learning to think will make your head hurt. I don’t thin...