2013 commencement speeches decry divisiveness embraced by Connemara inspections

I listened to two college commencement speeches given on May 11, 2013 — one by former President Bill Clinton and another by former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw. Both could have been written to address the divisiveness happening in the American Connemara Pony Society.

Clinton spoke to students at Howard University in Washington, DC, a school that has had an important role in civil rights in America. Clinton noted that the mapping of the human genome took place under his watch and that all differences in humans occur in half of 1 percent of our DNA; the rest of our human genetic material (99.5 percent) is the same. Despite the fact that we are all basically the same, humans spend most of their time worrying about the differences, he pointed out.

He urged graduates to focus on what really matters: “The first decision we have to make before we can get to all the policies and all the things that would change the world for the better is to share the future. To try to create a world of shared prosperity where there is shared responsibility. Where everybody can be a part of a community as long as they believe in certain values, including equal treatment and the absence of violence …”

In the end, he told students: “This whole thing comes down in the end to whether we think the future will be better if we face it with open hands or closed fists.”

Brokaw spoke at Loyola University New Orleans and said the American dream that students are striving for should include racial and gender tolerance, more economic justice, and more decisions for individuals and society alike based on need, not just on want.

He said: “So leave here today determined to become the generation of big ideas that unite us in the common pursuit of the goals that we all have, not small ideas that divide us.”

Are you seeing a trend? Some of the nation’s greatest thinkers are telling the leaders of the future that today’s world is about inclusion, equality and openness.

Is there a place in this new world order of inclusion and equality for Connemara inspectors who reject a Connemara because the animal doesn’t fit their arbitrary criteria for what a “true Connemara” should be?

No. In fact, the inspections are embarrassing, and if I were an inspector, I wouldn’t even own up to being one for fear of being called a bigot.

Inspections go against everything this country is finally starting to stand for. It’s time to put them away in their little Pandora’s box and never open the lid again.

The Connemara society must lead with open hands, not closed fists.