Moral and Intellectual Freedom

Isaac Sharpless, Quaker
Haverford College Commencement
June 20, 1888:
“I suggest that you preach truth and do righteousness as you have been taught, whereinsoever that teaching may commend itself to your consciences and your judgments. For your consciences and your judgments we have not sought to bind; and see you to it that no other institution, no political party, no social circle, no religious organization, no pet ambitions put such chains on you as would tempt you to sacrifice one iota of the moral freedom of your consciences or the intellectual freedom of your judgments.”

Long ago…

Been cleaning out some old files to clear up space on the hard drive. (The iPod is great, but eats up gigs.) Ran across this from my time as a grad student in English. It’s a little outdated, and will be meaningless to most people, except for those still toting grad-school cynicism and bitterness.

Summer begins

The semester’s over at last. Turned in grades last night — nothing left but graduation Saturday morning.

So now it’s time for . . .

Doom 3.

Normally I’m not one for bloody violence, and I resisted picking up the new Doom because the screen shots were really disturbing, especially the giant spiders and the floating heads. Eek. But then the demo came in the mail, and I found myself laughing out loud at the game’s creepy audacity. In some ways it’s the same Doom it’s always been — get from Point A to Point B and kill everything in the way — but with Surround Sound and nightmare quality graphics it’s far more immersive. I won’t be playing just before going to sleep.