Harvard’s kindess pledge a good idea

Incoming Harvard freshmen were asked to make the following pledge this semester:

“As we begin at Harvard, we commit to upholding the values of the College and to making the entryway and Yard a place where all can thrive and where the exercise of kindness holds a place on a par with intellectual attainment.”

The problem with this pledge is that it is simply that — a pledge. If someone is already unkind to begin with, they will likely overlook this pledge. There is no outside entity that can force someone to be kind to someone else. If force is involved in such a way, the end result is not true kindness, but coerced kindess. True kindness is something that comes from the heart.

However, let us hope that Harvard will actually see an impact from this pledge. They will likely see the immediate impact, not on those who need it most, but on their students who are already kind. This could have a snowball effect. As more students are nice to other students, those students who were treated in a nice way will theoretically return the gesture to someone else.

If anything, this policy draws attention to the miserable state of our culture. American culture is not a culture of kindness. This is seen in all aspects of our culture, from the world of reality TV to the world of politics; from the way professors interact with their students to the way those same students interact with their parents.

One unkind act often leads to another unkind act, but we have already learned that kindness works the same way. Try to imagine an America where people are courteous to each other, where they treat each other with respect and where they do not repay an unkind act with another act of similar unkindness. If more universities implement pledges that are similar to Harvard’s new pledge, we may actually be able to create an America that is closer to this imagined version.

In the absence of such a pledge at UH, Coogs should make their own personal pledges. They should pledge to try to be more kind to their fellow Coogs. Perhaps they could start in the campus parking lots.