To the Editor:
In response to her opinions column ("Not content to hope in God," March 16), I would like to encourage Emily Breslin '10 to examine the University's motto through a different lens.
"In Deo Speramus" represents a collection of values establishers desired would shape and strengthen the University. Their ideas illustrate the robust traits Brown community members hold, and seek to encourage us when circumstances lead us to lose confidence.
Breslin acknowledges that hope provides fuel for many individuals' pursuits, but overlooks a significant truth: hoping is not easy. Hope requires an individual's willingness and self-determination to maintain. Hope obliges people to overcome their doubts, fears and emotional struggles so that they may look ahead and mobilize themselves toward a brighter future. Hope demands from individuals qualities such as strength, perseverance and stability.
"In Deo Speramus" also exemplifies another trait that I find sets our University apart: humbleness. Though mentioning God could tie itself to specific religious practices, I feel it serves a broader symbolic role within our motto. The concept speaks to those aspirations that lie beyond ourselves and reach into the infinite. It is this quality, and the humility inherent in not making ourselves our only hope, that gives worth to this motto for humanists, whether from a faith tradition or not.
It is important to respect the work of this University's leaders, whose act of establishing the motto is in itself a reflection of the values it symbolizes. Even if we disagree on certain beliefs, we can still honor the spirit of their enterprise in creating an institution they hoped would last long after they were gone and knew they had no power in themselves to perpetuate.
Irene Nemesio '12
March 17
