Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993 TAG: 9305090232
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Believers in conventional wisdom are "usually rather grim spirits who dream little and dare less," Wilder said. "It usually reflects status quo."
Wilder told the 1,750 graduates that people such as James Madison, Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King Jr. "made lasting and permanent contributions to the improvement of mankind" because they "dared to be different."
In Richmond, Benjamin Hooks, the former director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told 160 graduates of the University of Richmond's law school to "vote, dream, try and believe."
"We keep moving forward," said Hooks, an attorney who worked with civil rights leader King and argued civil rights cases for the NAACP. "Using the ballot intelligently will determine how far we go."
He quoted poet Langston Hughes in telling the graduates that "without dreams life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly."
In Farmville, Virginia Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Lacy told 805 graduates at Longwood College to live with integrity and tolerance.
"Ethics are not discovered in the clarity of the laboratory, but they are realized in the grayness of life," said Lacy, the first woman justice on the state supreme court.
She said the nation's cultural diversity "can be our greatest strength. Now it becomes your turn to affirm that a democratic society, no matter how varied or how diverse, can endure and survive."
She also stressed the importance of keeping close ties with family and friends.
In Norfolk, 1,950 students received degrees from Old Dominion University.
Georgia Supreme Court Justice Leah Sears-Collins, the first black woman to sit on a state Supreme Court, said, "life is a great and noble calling."
Sears-Collins, a former traffic court judge, offered four rules of the road for a successful life: "watch your lane, mind your speed, pull over and rest and always take the high road."
In Fredericksburg, 801 graduates of Mary Washington College and their families cheered when Gordon Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education, said, "Commencement means that you have sent Mary Washington College the last tuition check."
In other ceremonies Sunday:
Lynchburg College awarded diplomas to 582 students in the class of 1993, the last to graduate under President George Rainsford, who is retiring.
Virginia Intermont College in Bristol gave diplomas to 140 students.
by CNB