Spring Break
Emulate Brandeis' merits
by Sahar Massachi
Forum | 5/19/09
Posted online at 4:07 PM EST on 5/18/09
Graduates, congratulations on getting your degrees! Now, I'm no Cory Booker, but I figured I'd take a crack at delivering my own sort of mini-commencement address.
You know, it's weird. Why wait for a long speech giving life advice until after you graduate? If there was something particularly important to say, it should have been said four years ago. What advice is important to college graduates that isn't equally useful for people 10 years their senior? And who am I to advise people two years my elder? Let's compromise. I'll write about what I know: Louis Brandeis, his life, his work and social justice.
A name like Brandeis must be "earned," as the man himself might say, "by effort, earned by a persistent, active desire to have and to hold that which lies before us." OK, well, what does that mean? We students-and alumni-must follow Louis Brandeis' greatness and ideals. Well, since Louis skipped undergrad and graduated a year early as valedictorian of his law school class, maybe we can't quite follow his impressive greatness. We also can't create new sections of U.S. law, like a right to privacy or sociological jurisprudence.
In today's times, we might take a look back at Brandeis' groundbreaking work, Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It. In this book, he refers to the financial oligarchy, not an oligopoly. Brandeis was, at heart, a political reformer who "fought bigness in the cloak of monopoly." In Boston, he dealt with the Gas Combine, Elevated Railway Company and life insurance businesses. In the case of the gas and insurance industries, he devised a plan so that business would be more efficient and benefit workers, owners and the public. When the Elevated Railway Company resisted reform, he simply fought for public control of its destiny.
Heed his example. In life, there will always be corruption and violations of our social compact of good governance and public spirit. Stick to your values; remember what is important. The Gas Combines of today may ask the Massachusetts legislatures for permission to create mergers and monopolies. There's a place for opposition, yet the Brandeis spirit transcends and encompasses activism. Brandeis, throughout his life, sought to understand these sorts of problems so well that he could come up with a solution equitable to everyone.
You know, it's weird. Why wait for a long speech giving life advice until after you graduate? If there was something particularly important to say, it should have been said four years ago. What advice is important to college graduates that isn't equally useful for people 10 years their senior? And who am I to advise people two years my elder? Let's compromise. I'll write about what I know: Louis Brandeis, his life, his work and social justice.
A name like Brandeis must be "earned," as the man himself might say, "by effort, earned by a persistent, active desire to have and to hold that which lies before us." OK, well, what does that mean? We students-and alumni-must follow Louis Brandeis' greatness and ideals. Well, since Louis skipped undergrad and graduated a year early as valedictorian of his law school class, maybe we can't quite follow his impressive greatness. We also can't create new sections of U.S. law, like a right to privacy or sociological jurisprudence.
In today's times, we might take a look back at Brandeis' groundbreaking work, Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It. In this book, he refers to the financial oligarchy, not an oligopoly. Brandeis was, at heart, a political reformer who "fought bigness in the cloak of monopoly." In Boston, he dealt with the Gas Combine, Elevated Railway Company and life insurance businesses. In the case of the gas and insurance industries, he devised a plan so that business would be more efficient and benefit workers, owners and the public. When the Elevated Railway Company resisted reform, he simply fought for public control of its destiny.
Heed his example. In life, there will always be corruption and violations of our social compact of good governance and public spirit. Stick to your values; remember what is important. The Gas Combines of today may ask the Massachusetts legislatures for permission to create mergers and monopolies. There's a place for opposition, yet the Brandeis spirit transcends and encompasses activism. Brandeis, throughout his life, sought to understand these sorts of problems so well that he could come up with a solution equitable to everyone.
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