by Kenneth Paul Blake ’04

The summer I graduated, I returned home to California and felt that I had to explain Earlham’s ideals, its ranking, and its learning community to prospective employers as a plea to get hired. On paper, to someone who has never read Loren Pope’s "Forty Colleges that Change Lives," Earlham could have easily been one of those universities that mail its diplomas to anyone who requests one. I never went as far as to bring my transcript or a copy of my financial aid offer to prove that I had received a rich education, although it was distressing searching for employment in San Francisco where people with bachelor’s degrees regularly are rejected for jobs as office assistants and receptionists.

My father reminded me it did not matter that I did not have my ideal job directly out of college. It was more important that I made it, graduated with honors, and that this was a perfect time to enjoy the luxury of having a college degree. I knew that he was right, but I had spent the last four years of my life as an Earlhamite, a Bonner Scholar and I was ready to change the world. The first job I had that lasted more than two months was as a telephone banking representative with Bank of America. I was hired the day I applied and it was frustrating that I knew I could have gotten this job out of high school. However, the position afforded me the privilege of not taking on too much responsibility and I began a venture that I would not have cared about had it not been for my Earlham education.

Earlham’s mission statement boasts of instilling the value of being a life-long learner to prospective students, current students, and alumni; it was not until I left the college that I understood and accepted myself as a “mini-intellectual.” In my mind professors like Barb Caruso, Phyllis Boanes, Gordon Thompson, and both Paul and Mary Lacey were intellectuals. Even though I am literally taller than them, I can only aspire to think and read like them – so I am a “mini” intellectual, the junior whopper of Burger King if you will. I began to read all the books I had started, thought of reading, or wanted to read. I had no intention of writing a paper on them, or preparing for a comprehensive exam, but to consider the ideas, actions, and viewpoints of another person. I finally read "Frankenstein," "How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents," "The Bean Trees," "The Lost Language of Cranes," "Mysterious Skin," "Running with Scissors," "Black Girl in Paris," "A Million Little Pieces" followed by "My Friend Leonard" and the entire "Tales of the City" series. I was at a used bookstore in Berkeley every weekend and spent entire days reading and writing at Café Flor in San Francisco. It did not matter that my job did not allow for me to buy a house my first year out of college. My job did, however, keep me in used books, BART tickets, and enough money to drink coffee and tea all day at café’s.

A year after I left Earlham, I finally encountered someone — aside from a friend or family member — who recognized the name Earlham. I was interviewing for a position with the Admissions office at California State University, East Bay and the vice president of Enrollment Services looked at my resume, looked at me, and remarked, “Earlham College? I think that is the best kind of education a young man can receive.” A week later I was hired, was being paid on a salary instead of by the hour, and decided that I would take advantage of the fee waiver program so that I could earn my MA in English while I worked.

I miss Earlham. I will always miss Earlham. I think about how I want to return, someday, to sit on the bench in front of OA where I once considered going back home during my first year, to see whether or not there is still my inscription of “K-Dawg likes to read here” on one of the basement tables in Lily, to hear the sound of the leaves cracking under my feet in the fall, or hear the wind outside Quaker meeting during the spring. Whether or not the actual campus looks different I will remember how it looked as I left: welcoming - despite the fact that I was heading the opposite direction on National Road.

Dear Earlhamite Editor,

In the notes for the class of ‘74 in Earlhamite in the Summer 2005 issue, our chair Dianne Coffey was kind enough to summarize my successful Whistleblower Protection Act case against the Bush Administration. The best news however, includes more recent victories in reforms I have had the privilege to help bring about during the three and one half years since I left the federal government after calling attention to a series of violations of law and risks to the environment.

In 2004, I coauthored Government Accountability Project reports on the lack of whistleblower protection in the World Bank and regional development banks. I then carried out a successful reinstatement campaign as the attorney representing a World Bank employee/whistleblower which also helped strengthen internal oversight.

From 2002 to late 2005, I helped Indiana’s Senator Richard Lugar, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as they led Congress to take action on problems I had highlighted while at USAID. On behalf of a series of under-funded public interest groups I helped prepare reports, hearings and briefings which resulted in the enactment in November, 2005 in the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for 2006, of a broad set of statutory standards for accountability and controlling corruption in the World Bank and other multilateral development bank loans and operations. These provisions become part of permanent law, rather than expiring with the fiscal year. This followed our successful effort to enact legislation in January 2004 setting initial accountability standards and requiring reports from the Treasury Department. Those showed some improvement but not enough by the Multilateral Development Banks to meet a deadline of June 30, 2005.

We also won another victory in late 2004 strengthening the “Pelosi Amendment”, requiring improved public environmental assessments for a broader set of World Bank and regional bank proposals before they can earn the votes of the US members of their boards of directors.

So it has not been quite as dour and unrewarding for me as the story in the Christian Science Monitor that Dianne and others read made it seem.

I would also like to note that without the help of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), I would probably not have won my own Whistleblower Protection Act appeal which took more than two years of litigation, as Dianne mentioned. We had to overcome bad law and bad application of it by the initial judge, to win our appeal in September 2004. That claim, again, arose from having my position eliminated after I made disclosures of Bush Administration violations of law, abuse of authority, and serious risks to public health and the environment in World Bank and other multilateral bank loans and the loan review process. Thousands of other civil servants have faced similar fates with no real recourse given the backlogs and broken systems now in place. Neither process is fully corrected yet and US whistleblower protection for federal workers is a shambles.

Perhaps we could coin the phrase “Repress Oblige” to refer to the obligation of those repressed, rather than nobly blessed, to use that repression as a source of energy for reform. I had the information, the background, and therefore, the obligation, it seemed, and luckily some key Members of Congress, beginning with Senator Leahy, responded at least with regard to the large parts of the problem that pertain to the multilateral development banks.

Indiana residents should thank Senator Lugar and encourage him to do more as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in fighting both corruption and the destruction of the global environment. Only more time will tell if the reforms enacted so far will make a real difference in sustainable development.

Now I need to make up for lost time and make some real money before my
daughter has to pay (Earlham?) tuition and I have to retire.

John M. Fitzgerald
Class of ‘74

When I started work as Earlhamite Editor in August, I noticed a remarkable thing. Almost everyone I talked to at the College expressed a sense of ownership of and responsibility for the institution, yet they wanted to hear my ideas and allowed me great latitude in exploring new approaches to the magazine. This combination of commitment and open-mindedness has made my job so much easier, and I thank my colleagues for it.

I expect that alumni will embrace this new supplement to the Earlhamite with a similar generosity of spirit. What's more, I hope that Earlhamite readers will choose to participate in the success of this site by contributing letters and essays. We welcome your comments about the magazine and this online supplement. We hope to read first person accounts of how an Earlham education has shaped the lives of our students, faculty and alumni. Most of all, we hope that Earlhamite Extras, with the help of readers like you, will offer some sense of how Earlham alumni remain engaged in our changing world.

Welcome. We hope to hear from you soon.

Jonathan Graham
Editor

Friends:

We want to hear from you! After many years of not publishing letters to the editor, this site offers the Earlhamite a place to share correspondence from our readers. Whether you have compliments or complaints about the print edition of the magazine or this online supplement, we welcome your comments. Send us an e-mail today.

Cordially,

Jonathan Graham
Editor