East Lansing, MI. A few months ago, I noted in a short essay that former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia was to receive the University of Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal. This honor has come to be regarded as the highest annually bestowed upon an American Catholic. His address upon receiving the reward, while quite evidently intended to be a modest note of thanks, strikes me as one worth sharing: worth sharing as a solemn lyric of reverence for the sacred institutions of family and Church particularly appropriate to Front Porch Republic, and as a touchstone for this Fourth of July, as many of us contemplate the nature of our allegiance and patriotic love.
I’ve heard enough commencement addresses in my time, and the good ones are few and far between. Thanks for this.
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