Time
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"Well, they [college] were probably the most important four years of my life in terms of intellectual development. Even though I had some very nice teachers in high school, they did not have the capability to make you question ideas, give you new ideas, or challenge your own ideas to help you develop new skills. And at Hampden-Sydney I encountered many professors who were able to do that. I had many who made me challenge my own political beliefs that made me change my own ideas. Often I did not realize this until two or three years down the road. However, they always did me the courtesy of listening to me when I wanted to argue or come after class with concerns about what professors had said about the South, Virginia, and others who shared my political beliefs at the time. They always listened and respected me, but then told me why they thought the way they did. They never made me feel ignorant or stupid. I realized later on how large an impact this had made on me. I went to college probably very typical of what people were like where I was from in Southside Virginia. White people who believed very much in states' rights and separate but equal. But a lot of things happened in the years I was at Hampden-Sydney, in addition to talking with professors. I began to watch the news and read the newspapers for the first time. Following the civil rights movement really made me question my own beliefs. Seeing the things that happened in Montgomery, Alabama and seeing the white power structure made me realize I couldn’t approve of that. Thank God some of the church bombings and drive by shootings didn’t happen in Southside Virginia, but living in Prince Edward County during college (which closed its schools for seven or eight years to avoid integration) brought me closer to this. I was very serious about the idea that people should be treated equally, but I didn’t realize that this didn’t match up with some of my other ideas. Then gradually in graduate school when I began meeting some people with different views, things that had been separate in my mind began to come together. Before I realized it I held a completely different set of political views than I had ten years earlier." |
"...in some ways I
may have become less idealistic. Which is sad. but I suppose it
is difficult not to become a little cynical and less idealistic when you
were young because things don't always work out how you want them to.
On the other hand so many wonderful things that have worked out that you
never imagined or expected to...have be wonderful. And that almost is
more important than the things at some point I wanted that didn't work out.
I suppose I am more cautious than I used to be. Hopefully, a little
less rigid about my opinions about things. I used to be very definite
about my opinions about everything and I was convinced I was the only one
who was right and argue about it with people. At times to other
people's great chagrin. Now I hope even though I still am firmly
convinced about my beliefs, I am more willing to accept that other people
don't share them and have their own good reasons which I may not
understand." "I worked my way both intellectually and emotionally through a series of positions I had had that I simply knew were untenable and I couldn't defend. If I really believed what I told myself I believed about the world…it’s one thing to say ‘separate but equal’ but then when you look and actually see what happened...then you know, you have to admit…you have to realize that the kind of people who were defending that were doing it in a way I could not possibly approve of. You don’t turn dogs loose on people who were demonstrating in the street…you don’t turn fire houses on them…you don’t scream insults and spit on people who are trying to attend a school. And when I was people doing that it made me really really think what are you standing for here…what is the basis of your taking this position…and it made me admit I didn’t have a real basis for it. And that if in fact the principles I like to think that I try to live by and I would hope most people do, which are the basic principles of every major religion…whether it’s Christianity or Buddhism…treat people as you want to be treated yourself…try to be honest…try to be kind…then that’s the standard I try to judge myself by." |