Tradition

HAMILTON, NY -- Out there right now are terrorist organizations that want to destroy our way of life. Not for any particular purpose, just because they hate us.

That's a hard thing to fight, and though we are trying to destroy these organizations, and I agree with that, one of the best ways to fight this kind of attitude is by doing exactly what we did at the Colgate reunion last night. Each Friday night of Reunion Weekend, all the alumni and their families have a torchlight parade down one of Colgate's famous hills (the one we used to call Cardiac Hill as students here). It's a very moving ceremony, and especially all the kids, including mine, were mesmerized. I kept thinking, this tradition is over 100 years old. And with each torch that was then thrown on the bonfire, we keep traditions going, we keep our society going, we keep ourselves going, and continue in strength. This is what we need to fight terrorism -- not just armies and the CIA, but our own selves, here at home, doing simple things like this, that provide continuity.

Today, in the central New York rain, all the classes paraded down Broad St. in this small town (OK, it was a small parade, and maybe would have been larger if it hadn't been raining -- incidentally, the umbrella I had to buy was broken on first opening; the store was nice enough to exchange it right away), and then an all-class lunch, in the basketball court, underneath the banner retiring the number of Adonal Foyle, who starred here in the mid-1990s and is now playing for the Golden State Warriors.

There'll be a class banquet tonight and then home to Wrigley Field tomorrow afternoon. I haven't said much about yesterday's one-sided 9-1 loss to the Astros, because I didn't learn about it till this morning's paper, and frankly, there isn't much to say. In half an hour or so, I'll go watch a bit of today's game, then off to the banquet. Will write about today's game, and tomorrow's, sometime late tomorrow afternoon.