Word: moynihan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Etched on the Ivy-covered Dexter gate to Harvard Yard and memorized by thousands of Harvard students and faculty, this unofficial motto has been a guiding principle of our institution for generations. It is a principle that found its realization in the life of Daniel Patrick Moynihan...
Last week Harvard, New York and America lost of one of its most prescient and luminary minds. Moynihan will be remembered most for his service to his Country: his near quarter-century representing New York in the United States Senate, his enormous impact as adviser to four consecutive United States presidents, and his distinguished tenure as ambassador to India and to the United Nations...
...political scientist, he was at the very top,” said Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53, who chaired the government department during Moynihan’s time at Harvard. And true to his social science training, Moynihan was always guided by his research when formulating his policy proposals: he always tried to find solutions to fit reality, not fashion a reality to suit his solution...
...Moynihan, along with a few colleagues, including the late Paul Wellstone and current Rhode Island senator Lincoln Chafee, were able to win voters' confidence without having to compromise their messages, or their intellect. Whether he was led by political instinct or innate conviction, Moynihan believed fiercely in the importance of serious, multi-layered debate, a skill that continues to dissipate as the daily sound bytes shrink...
...Rather than pin our national hopes to politicians at ease with nuance, most of us seem to crave average thinkers with average ideas. And that's a shame, because all of us should feel encouraged and comforted, rather than threatened, by the presence of great thinkers in Washington. As Moynihan proved over the course of nearly forty years in government, great minds are well-used in the messy and essential arena of public service...