When I was a little boy, I used to lament things that were hard. In those moments when I found myself complaining to my father, his reply would often be: “It builds character.”

Chautauqua, as we round out our Summer Assembly season, I have stood witness to many things that were indeed hard about our time together this summer. We entered our summer with COVID still an ominous presence. We struggled to find the necessary staff to operate Chautauqua amid a national labor shortage, and we were looking at all of this as we geared up for the first full season Chautauqua has had in person since 2019. These worries would later be dwarfed.

To say Friday, Aug. 12, was hard would be a gross understatement. As I have said on numerous occasions since that day, it was unlike anything we had experienced in our nearly 150-year history. Before I share any further thoughts, please allow me to extend the prayers of the Chautauqua community both to Salman Rushdie and Henry Reese for their continued recovery…

Tragedy and trauma have a way of forcing us inward, to examine and re-examine what happened, what it all means, and producing an endless stream of “what ifs.” We will continue that critical examination, but our experience of tragedy and trauma also must have even broader meanings for us to discover. I have come to at least one very clear conclusion: I think that what we experienced on Aug. 12 may not be so much about building character, as my dad would have said, but rather it produced a moment that has helped us to better understand the character of Chautauqua that already existed…

Our historic and founding vision still calls us to answer the question: “What does it mean to be human?” That is our role: to remind our nation and our world that humanity itself is worth fighting for. It cries out for explanation! It begs us to find a path!

So how do we do it? Chris Thile told us just this week from our own Amphitheater stage: “I feel like I’m at my best when I’m listening. That’s how we’ll effect positive social change.”

Chautauqua’s core ingredients of interdisciplinary and multi-generational exploration; our belief that the answer lies not in one person but in the best of all of us who show up, either here, online or in the world under the banner of this Chautauqua — all of us hold a piece of that answer and it is only when we convene, when we gather, when we listen, when we bring our best and our broken selves to this Chautauqua exploration that we can lift up the best in human values and the best in humanity itself…

So, tonight, as we close out our 149th Summer Assembly Season, here is my pledge, Chautauqua’s pledge to you:

We will not shy away from bringing the most impactful voices to the forefront to share their truth, their experiences, their counsel to us and their humanity. We will not be made afraid of elevating the most important conversations of our time. Tonight, we double down on freedom of speech and freedom of expression. We double down on Chautauqua’s mission to serve as Democracy’s Platform.

Neither the “fanatics of the far left nor the far right” will have a platform in Chautauqua. We will not allow the “apostles of bigotry and bitterness” to have any more oxygen. Those who want to live in a place of hatred and division have more than enough platforms on mainstream and social media; they will not find a new one here at Chautauqua.

We will, however, harness the powerful intersection of the arts, religion, education and recreation across the generations to live up to the reflection we saw in the media mirror about the best that Chautauqua has to offer.

We will always be a home for all those who are brave enough to bring their brokenness and their gifts to our sacred grounds, to our growing online platforms, and to our partnerships, to demonstrate that while the fringes may have a stranglehold on too many portals in our society, there will always be at least one place that meets people where they are to pose the important questions of our time and to, together, find answers.

We will continue to champion dialogue across difference, in good faith, and the exploration and elevation of the best in human values. For it is in that elevation of those values that habits for good form and the definition of a broader, beloved community take hold.

If Maria Ressa was correct, and we have but a very short time to save our democracy, then let Chautauqua be the hallowed ground on which we make that stand. It is why we were created. It is why we endure. We only need the courage to transform our “tear-soaked hope” to truly live into being the “community of possibilities” the world so desperately needs.

I tap the gavel three times …

Chautauqua 2022 is just the beginning.

Michael E. Hill is president of the Chautauqua Institution. These remarks marked the close of the 2022 Chautauqua Institution season.