Columnist Shares Poignant Stories, Powerful Insights

New York Times columnist and award-winning journalist and author Roger Cohen delivered a mesmerizing speech to students and faculty in the Campbell Performing Arts Center last Monday evening, November 10.
Mr. Cohen has reported from conflict zones around the world including the Balkans, Afghanistan, and the Middle East for more than two decades. His 1998 book, Hearts Grown Brutal, is regarded as perhaps the best book on the horrific war that ripped apart Bosnia 20 years ago. His latest book, a memoir of his family titled The Girl from Human Street: Ghosts of Memory in a Jewish Family, will be published by Knopf this January.
 
Mr. Cohen’s talk was a beautifully written, impassioned, and informative cornucopia of history, current events, and clear-eyed wisdom that called for students to engage in the wider world as a way to serve both their country and humanity as a whole. 

Recounting his family’s difficult life as Lithuanian Jews who fled Russian pogroms in time to avoid the Holocaust, and his own early childhood in apartheid-era South Africa, Mr. Cohen urged students to fight oppression and hatred whatever its forms and wherever it exists. He helped the audience better understand the complexities of our world today, and he chastised President Obama for failing to provide sufficient global leadership, which Mr. Cohen argued was one reason for the challenges that we face today, whether it be the Islamic State or increasing authoritarianism and expansionist tendencies in Russia and China. 

Many Sixth Formers and faculty commented that Mr. Cohen’s talk was the finest that they had been privileged to hear at Groton School. After the lecture, about 50 students joined Mr. Cohen and the Maqubelas at the Headmaster’s House for a reception where students continued to ply Mr. Cohen with questions. The next day Mr. Cohen generously visited classes and joined members of the English and History departments for lunch. 

Mr. Cohen's visit was Groton's Ridenhour Lecture, given in honor of Ron Ridenhour, the American soldier who helped expose the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War and then became an investigative journalist and later spoke at Groton School.  

Mr. Cohen's New York Times column, published just after his Groton visit, touched upon the themes of his outstanding talk and referenced his visit to Groton School and his admiration for Ron Ridenhour.—Tom Lamont P'12,'15, history teacher
 
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