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Another one related to politics, which also
has some relevancy, I think, to our alumni —
when George McGovern was running
for President of the United States on the
Democratic ticket he was not doing very well
and he was not getting very large crowds.
When he campaigned in the Dakotas he drew
a handful, so he'd stop and talk to any local
square that happened to be available, and he
came to this particular square and there was
an old wagon. So he climbed up on the back
of the wagon, there were about 25 people
around, he started speaking, some of them
drifted away, and at about the middle some
more of them drifted away.
Finally at the end there were only two people
left so he said, well I had better do a little
opinion survey. So he went down and said,
Well, you stayed, you must have been
interested. Which part of the speech did you
like best — the first part?"
They said, "No."
"The last part?"
"No."
"How about middle part?"
"No."
Then why did you stay?"
And they said "Well, it's our goddamn wagon."
And that may well be the way that we hope
that many of the alumni will feel about
the College of Law. Maybe some of the things
we do you don't like, maybe you would
have ideas as to how we could improve it,
but the bottom line is it's your wagon —
it's your wagon just as much as it is ours.
And what you do as alumni reflects on us,
and on the quality of legal education that
you got at Illinois, and what we do reflects
on you. So the better that we can make the
University of Illinois College of Law, the better
will be for you, and certainly for your children
who attend the law school.
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