Word: walesa
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...seemed that this year would fail into the same initial rejection pattern. Polish labor leader Lech Walesa received an internationally publicized invitation but was unable to accept. Instead, he offered a text, selections of which President Bok read at the June 9 ceremonies And as a result, the official address was delivered by Mexican writer ambassador Carlos Fuentes...
...this year's forum was a success--not merely because officials managed to salvage a link to Walesa, not even because of the historical firsts--having two speeches, and having a speech read in absentia. Rather these two addresses embodied what a Harvard Commencement speech should be--a fresh, well-crafted intellectual argument. Walesa's absence muffled the celebrity parade mentality that has surrounded the event in recent years, while Fuentes' eloquence helped play up the importance of the ideas themselves...
According to the two speeches, the major difference between the two movements is their relative familiarity with freedom. Fuentes' tone was one of a people bitterly resentful of rights consistently denied them and ready to battle for them. Walesa wrote of a country just beginning to shake off its feeling of resignation, and just starting to realize the importance of fighting for freedom. He conceded that "the introduction of martial law brutally demonstrated the limits of progress attainable in Poland today...
...Lech Walesa, founder of Poland's Solidarity movement, turned down Harvard University's invitation to address its graduates out of fear that the Warsaw government would not allow him to return home. President Derek Bok read portions of Walesa's speech, which had been delivered to the U.S. embassy in Warsaw and sent on to Harvard. "Almost daily I receive letters from unknown friends in your country, cards with wishes and expressions of good cheer. I have pondered what could link people living in such different political and social systems and so far from each other. What...
...announced early in April that the Gdansk electrician had accepted an invitation to deliver the Commencement address in person, but later reports indicated that he would not leave Poland. After giving up on that possibility and selecting another Commencement speaker. Mexican poet Carlos Funnies, officials floated the possibility that Walesa would mail the speech, and that someone else would deliver...