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By Elizabeth Walker
As exciting and empowering as new technologies
may be, "It
is not enough to wire the world, if you short-circuit your
soul," NBC's Tom Brokaw told
more than 700 President's Council members and guests at their annual fall
dinner.
"It is not enough to explore space, if we
tolerate racial hatred," he said. "As we turn the page to a new century, we can
only wonder what people were thinking in 1899 about their technology-like the
first flights. As it turns out . they were only in their most primitive
stages." Yet Brokaw admitted that after nearly 40 years as a journalist, "I'm
not entirely clear how the picture gets from where I work to your
home."
Brokaw complimented President's Council members on their strong support of the
College (nearly $8 million from a record
1,760-plus members in fiscal 1999).
"With all the concerns, hopes and beliefs before us, you should feel a swelling
in your heart for all you represent," he said. "We take for granted all the prosperity
and achievement in this
room."
The veteran newsman and now first-time author
of an instant bestseller, The Greatest Generation, did not take
for granted the opportunity to visit Holy Cross on the very day the American
league playoffs
took place at Fenway. He told the crowd that his boss, NBC president
and chief executive officer Robert "Bob" Wright '65, provided two tickets to Game 4 and
his helicopter to help him find his way from New York to Boston and then to campus,
where he landed near the Hart Center.
Brokaw punctuated his talk with stories of
the "remarkable men and women" of the World War II generation, who, "through
extraordinary acts by ordinary people, did nothing less than save the world to
give us the lives we have today." In closing, he cautioned, "There is no software
to make us more racially tolerant. That is within us. This technology is in our
hands-an extension of our hearts and souls. Use it well to become color-blind;
to hate hate; to take care of our mother (Earth) and, most of all, to take care
of each other."
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