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MAY 6, ~2005 - Page 9 COMMENTARY Don't be a racist, Give the new pope a chance That conclusion made the media had told me to be- when a reporter asked" Are successful? I don't know. But sense on the surface. Forty lieve. you doing too much travel- you don't either. Only time percent of the world's Catho- ing?" does. Here's what doesn't and lics live in South America or When all the haters "Yes," was the reply. never should matter in picking Africa, so a pope from either came out, saying how a Ger- Pause. "But sometimes too a pope: race, ethnicity, back- continent would appeal to man couldn't represent the much is the right thing to ground, nationality. and understand the masses. 1.1 billion Catholics world- do." Then he walked away, Here's what does matter: Achotce from anywhere (Eu- wide, I agreed. At first. off to somewhere where he faith, love, leadership. Youcan't rope) else (Europe) that had Then I remembered was to keep doin*g. see that in skin or on a map or a much paler skin tone something else: John Paulll, ina family tree. It's all about the (white) would alienate the the man that had been lion- So the people who character. Ifhe can connect with many. That's what the media ized since his death, the man hated on Benny 16 when he the world, he's the man for the When he walked out, told you. And me. whom many had claimed was chosen were indirect rac- job. The other 114 Cardinals the crowd cheered. But I bought into it fully. helped to kill the Iron Cur- ists. Why? Because race in thought Benny could do that shocked, stunned, saddened Wanted to see new perspec- tain, the loving. kind, beauti- any form doesn't matter for better than they could. was 1. This wasn't the man I tive represented. Prayed for ful man, was white and came choosing a pope. And it The fact I wanted a pope was hoping for. This wasn't the world to finally hear a from Poland. Where's that? doesn't matter for choosing from Africa or Latin America the man they had told me I new voice like Cardinal ln Europe, next to Germany. anything else. simply because they were Afri- should want to be there. But, Francis Arinze of Nigeria or If you believe that only can or Hispanic meant I fellinto looking back, I realize I had Cardinal Bergoglio of Argen- It isn't about who you Latinos and Africans can their trap. Iwas racist. Now, the really just fallen into the trap. tina. Then, out walked Joe are. It's about what you do. identify with a Latino or Af- epiphany has been restored Their trap. Ratzinger, soon to be Benny John Paul II united rican pope, you're racist. If I'm not that any longer. 16, of Germany. My heart people that didn't share his you believe a European or So am I sold on Benny? Since John Paul II had sank. background or his race and white pope can't identify Nope. Not yet. But I'm ap- died, r had been bombarded, Another 'European didn't speak his language. So with people unlike himself, proaching him with an open saturated, told about the way pope. Just like the rest. More he did. Everything. He never then you're wrong. Itwas just mind, giving him a fair chance. things should proceed. The of the same perspective. rested. He acted. done for 26 years. 1t can be He has to earn my hate, or earn consensus was this: the next More of the same ignorance. There was an interview done again. my love. He should have that pope should be African or That's what I thought r be- I saw with JP dos on a plane chance with you too. Latino lieved. But, really, it's what during one of his many trips Is Benny 16 going to be A Spring at McDaniel, an /Intellectual community' Reflections by visiting scholar Michael Dirda, a 1993 Pulitzer Prize recipient for criticism tents in the midst ofArcadia. cause It has allowed me to re- ofthe western world, starting readers. In the end writers teach Fortunately, I soon dis- live some of my own college with Plato's Symposium and themselves, inspired by the covered that r could take a days. Long ago at Oberlin ending with Nabokov's books and authors they love. different approach to College [discovered art and Lolita. I couldn't help but During the semester I McDaniel, and travel, slowly, music, the exhilarations of quip that we were beginning was privileged to see amusing down the main street of the late-night bull sessions, the with pederasty and ending plays, listen to distinguished original town, lined with pleasures of libraries, and the with pedophilia. But,in truth, speakers like Elie Wiesel, learn small and odd shops, and so perhaps misguided ambition most of the novels, poems, about the fabulous Budapest recover my more to read as much of the plays and operas we studied program, spend time with my Wordsworthian serenity. world's great literature as I dealt with yearning, adultery, colleagues in English, Romance I tell this story because could. For a long time [had and all the tragic co nse- languages; and history, attend it encapsulates one aspect of hoped to become a teacher quences of passion. My stu- dinners and parties and my McDaniel experience, myself, but instead found dents hav.e worked ha~d, processionals. On most eve- and one way I tend to view myself drifting into journal: read attentively, argued With nings, though, Iwould overeat coUegelife.For four years un- ism. Still, the memory of the text.s,and shown a.w~n- at the Glar cafeteria.work late My heart sank as I first de~f~1 intellectual .CUrJOSlty, in my office, then go down the drove into Westminster. Hav- dergraduates at McDaniel or rainy days amid the soft spiritedness and indepen- hill to, the big empty house similar liberal arts colleges susurration of hushed voices ing followed Route ~7=: my are separated from the real in the Reserved Reading dence. For me, the course where I was staying. There r home in Silver Spnng, I d en- world that crouches outside Room at Carnegie Library was a chance to re-examine would sip a glass or two of joyed the buc?lic.rolling coun- their doorstep, waiting to stayed with me. Paradise lost. favorite books and to try to wine, usually while listening to tryside, the wmdmg roads, t~e spring. Even students with And regained, at least clarify what I thought about Ella Fitzgerald or Jussi Bjorling, sighting of a used bookstore. 111 part-time jobs can look to the somewhat, here at McDaniel. them-and to lea rn from sometimes almost weeping a shopping center (Books With McDaniel campus as a tem- On my second evening in minds younger and perhaps over the loveliness of "The Way a Past). My CD player was porary refuge. To me, what residence, r sauntered into more supple than my own. You Look Tonight" sung by playing Mozart's Marriage of college offers is the chance to the library and roamed the In the afternoons r con- Margaret Whiting or thrilling, Figaro, loud. I was in a ~ery as always, to Rita Streich as the good mood-or at least as m as spend four years with only stacks for three hours, gradu- ducted a seminar on literary Queen of the Night in The journalism. Here, r confess, [ one real purpose+to learn as ally making up an armload of good a mood as on~ can ~xpect much as possible, to acquire books r had long wanted to spent a lot of time discussing MagicFlute. Often Iwould read from any introspective middle- a little more in bed, happy to aged guy. (As Emerson once at least the rudiments of a Jib- read-books on Grub Street my own career at The Wash- know that [could look forward and the Library at Alexan- ington Post Book World, tell- eral education. Nothing else said, after 30 a man gets up sad really matters. For once one dna, on the medieval legend ing stories and anecdotes, to a whole semester of such every morrung.l ~ll in all, the graduates, the world is there, that the poet Vergil was also striving to impress on some days and evenings. old spirits were high. the men- offering all its tawdry and a magician and necromancer, very bright seniors (for the But now that semester is tal outlook sunny, and.every- gloriousseductions,opportu- on Victorian book illustra- most part) the values of a nearly over. With a bit of luck, I thing seemed right With the nities and travails. Jobs, fami- lion, on Shakespeare's boy journalism that is lively, per- may be back here again next world. lies, mortgages await, as do actors (the Canadian novelist sonal and amusing, as well as spring. I hope so. But now it's And then, suddenly, my success. frustration and fail- Robertson Davies' rare first thoughtful or well reported. time to return wholly to my car was passing through the ure. But for the few years that book), on favorite writers like It is hard to teach.writing. At other life--I am already over- most hideous strip of fast-food one is in college, especially at Evelyn Waugh and Max one moment, I found myself due with a new book and hope joints, car lots, big b~x stor~s, a small intellectual commu- Beerbohm and Robert Bur- correcting simple punctua- to work on it this summer. And and all the gimcrack, JerrybU1~t nity like that represented by ton. Best of all, I discovered tion errors, in another point- then yet another is due in De- facades of America the bounti- McDaniel, a student is prima- that as a faculty member all ing out awkward syntax, in cember. A writer"likes to keep ful and ugly. My pretty road rily a scholar. this material could be mine still another, sitting back and busy. Still, r am grateful to have metamorphosed into a four- Teachers, books, labo- for an entire year. r would go envying sentences as good as been able to spend this semes- lane highway, still in. the pro- ratories, theaters, lecture and back to the library and abuse any by my award-winning ter here at the exceptional intel- cess of being built-With dump concert halls and, just as im- this enlightened privilege colleagues at The Post. I sus- lectual community that is trucks and road equipme~t portent. the proximity of throughout the semester. pect, though, that the real McDaniel College. It's been, gracing the curbsides. Traffic other young scholars-these On Tuesday and function of a writing well, great. Besides, I still have thickened, stalled. "What have lie at the heart of a liberal Thursday mornings r taught course-aside from impart- all these wonderful library I done?" I thought to myself. education. I was honored to a course called Love's Mys- ing the basics of good, clear books that aren't due for at least Westminster was no happy ru- spend this past spring semes- teries, in which the class and English-must be to create another eight months. ral seat; it was a cheap trav~l- ter at McDaniel in part be- Iread some ofthe great books better and more sensitive ing carnival that had pitched Its