Page 272 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
That didn’t entirely stop the protests, however, but the protests were tepid compared with those that would occur in other places as time went by. So, when it came to commencement, each graduate faced his own test. Thirty students decided to wear white armbands on their black commencement robes to register their dissent. Twenty students walked out during McNamara’s award ceremony. One student, Eliot Isenberg, marched along in the train of seniors who were mounting the platform to shake hands and receive their certificates, but, when he reached President Plimpton, who was greeting each student and pre- senting him with his diploma, he pointedly and very visibly refused to accept it. The graduation made the front page of The New York Times (above the fold). My parents were there and knew that I was one of the students who wore a white armband. Neither of them was concerned in the slightest. My mother, however, was not happy that the student who made the largest protest was, obviously, Jewish.
After the graduation and all the hugging, congratulating, picture taking, and general good cheer, we held a reception for the parents of the graduating members of Phi Gam at the fraternity house. It was all very nice, very happy, and very polite, but, toward the end of the cock- tail party, I was sad to see that the various groups of parents and students had somehow separated from one another much in the way that the students had originally separated at the start of freshman year: in accor- dance with their perceived backgrounds.
The next day, Mark Guyer and I, both quite relieved, proud, and happy, climbed aboard my yellow Mustang, put the top down, and drove home with the rear of the car adorned with ribbons, balloons, and a sign: “Just Baccalaureated!”
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