Have you noticed the changing leaves are especially radiant this fall?  Perhaps the leaves are hanging on a little longer and the reds and ambers have just enough life in the leaves to glow.  Or perhaps they are resonating with the political moment, CHANGE.  Rebublican, Democrat or undecided all seem intent on the thought.  So perhaps the leaves are singing that message too.

I wonder sometimes how change became the banner of the two parties.  Wouldn't I rather see "Vote McCain for Paradise Now?"  Change only tells me what I'm leaving, not where I'm going.   

Yale, when I arrived at 18, seemed immutable, monolithic and anti-change.   Hadn't it been as I found it for 300 years?   But having been involved with Yale now for 20 years, I've come to see the extent to which Yale is the result of an incredible diversity  of voices sounding and sometimes clamoring across time, space and context.  All change Yale in their own ways, big and small.

And it has been the commitment to the ideals of excellence, discernment and truth in those voices that has made Yale adapt so well and be as great as it is.  They may make a bad political bumper sticker, but those ideals make the change for the best at Yale, in NY and in the world.  YAAMNY exists to help in some small way make change for the for the better in NY.  And I hope you will make change yours and for the best on election day and every day in the communities where you live.