Page 25 - 1970

To the graduates:

“ Now It’s Time for the Construction Gang ... ”

Every revolution bursts into action with a wrecking crew formed to destroy
the older order. Frequently this crew is carried forward by a guiding ideology.
Sometimes it is simply fueled by indignation. If this crew is tough and deter­
mined and if it has studied well the lessons of history in guerilla tactics, it may
overthrow a structure of considerable power. At least it will shake it.

Sometimes, as in the case of the American Revolution, the plans for a new
society were blueprinted before the shooting started. When violence had
achieved its first goal, the leaders referred to their plans, shifted their roles
back from soldiers to construction workers and turned to the task of build­
ing a new society in the ashes o fth e o ld .T h is is h o w o u r Nation was born.

Too often, however, the wrecking crews of revolutions have had little inter­
est in, or aptitude for construction. They know how to make molotov cock­
tails but cannot make new cities. Rightly or wrongly this is precisely the image
being cast by today's “ youth revolution” .

Revolt has never eliminated the basic lusts of man for wealth and power. It
has, on the contrary, stimulated them. When the construction gang fails, the
power structure drama simply changes its actors. The same play goes on.

It takes courage to shake any power extablishment, but it takes greater
courage and far more skill to challenge an establishment (old or new) and to
make the radical changes necessary to cleanse our air and our steams; to
eliminate poverty, injustice, and war; to plant forests and to build shining new
cities as legacies to our children and to their children to come. Your genera­
tion seems to be showing some of the necessary courage. It has yet failed to
show the skill.

How about you? Are you preparing yourself to join the construction gang to
build a new America? The formula is simple but time is running out. RETAIN
THE COURAGE AND LEARN THE SKILL.

Knute Larson

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