Graduation
The Graduation Season has ended, and the graduates are on to new beginnings as they leave their high school and college experiences behind. Friends and relatives gather to celebrate this passage with parties, formal dinners, or backyard barbecues. The graduate basks in the moment.
Finally with the end of the pandemic panic, actual cap and gown ceremonies complete with music and speeches, have taken place. The music is rarely controversial, although at times the speakers hijack the moment to push their personal agenda. This appropriation of the ceremony most often occurs when colleges invite those who fit the liberal faculty belief system
Of course, there has been no shortage of outrageous loons pushing their self-righteous view of what kind of world awaits those who have matriculated. One high school valedictorian in Texas decided to ditch her approved speech and do a rant about abortion rights to her classmates. Free speech is her right but commandeering the event to push her views on others was rude and disrespected those in attendance. Not up lifting in the least.
Nationally, the country had political officials, past and present, giving messages at various universities. Easily the two worst addresses given were by the President and the Vice President. These two gave new meaning to “laying an egg” or “bombing” in a public forum.
Joe Biden passed on an invitation to speak at the University of Notre Dame when over 4,000 Notre Dame students and alumni wrote a letter protesting his pro-abortion policy. So, Joe showed up at the Coast Guard Academy to share his wisdom with the so-to-be new Ensigns.
What followed was, beyond a doubt, the worst commencement address by any President in recent memory. Biden started the speech by asserting, “We’re going to speak for about four hours” and “I thought I was hot in a blue suit,” noting that the cadets were in their dress blues. Those lame attempts at humor bombed. Joe went on to mangle the name of a distinguished cadet and quote a Chinese dictator.
When more grimaced jokes bombed, one of which he plagiarized from a President Reagan speech about the Navy, Joe said, “You are a quiet — you’re a really dull class. I mean, come on, man. You can clap. Is the sun getting to you? I would think you’d have an opportunity when I say that about the Navy to clap, but — but being here together.” Huh? Fact-checked because you can’t make this nonsense up. Nothing inspirational was uttered as these graduates are sent off to serve the Nation, pledging to fight and perhaps, die to keep America safe. Insult humor worked for Don Rickles but doesn’t for a President.
Not to be out done, Kamala Harris followed up Biden’s unbelievably bad commencement speech with an egg laying dud of her own. Addressing graduates at the Naval Academy, she asserted that “climate change is a very real threat to our national security”. Not Iran, North Korea, China, or Russia, the real threats to American national security? Seriously.
Instead, she continued down the woke path of climate change with the following bullshot, “You are electrical engineers who will soon help convert solar and wind energy into power, convert solar and wind energy into combat power. And just ask any Marine today, would she rather carry 20 pounds of batteries or a rolled up solar panel, and I am positive she will tell you a solar panel, and so would he.” One can only imagine what these young, future Marine and Naval officers must have been thinking when the Vice President shared this sagacious assessment of their future military roles.
However, there were some uplifting speeches. Former Secretary of State and West Point graduate Mike Pompeo speaking to the graduates of Regent University in Virginia had some memorable lines. One was, “Our country must remember that no one can enjoy the pursuit of happiness if you cannot own the fruits of your own labor. And no society can retain its legitimacy or a virtuous character without religious freedom.” He also said, “We must cherish our freedom, particularly this freedom to practice our faith, not just for the opportunities it provides to each of us, but for the goodness of living a life in accordance with God without oppression that it makes possible. And when government oppresses that freedom, we must stand up. Each of you have that responsibility. It is a big burden.”
Mitch Daniels, President of Purdue University gave an outstanding speech, that sadly was not widely reported. Daniels told his graduates to have “the courage to act on the conclusions you reach.” He went on to say, “The risk of failure, of a hit to one’s reputation, or just that the gains don’t outweigh the costs, all these can deter or even paralyze a person out of fulfilling the responsibility someone has entrusted to them.” In further remarks he said. “Pursuing one goal to the utter exclusion of all others is not to make a choice but to run from it. It’s not leadership; it’s abdication.”
One of the most significant passages from his remarks follows, “Maybe the great historian Jacques Barzun summed it up best: ‘The last degree of caution is cowardice.’ Certainty is an illusion. Perfect safety is a mirage. Zero is always unattainable, except in the case of absolute zero where, as you remember, all motion and life itself stop.”
The contrast between the addresses given by former Secretary of State and Purdue’s Mitch Daniels is stunning when compared to what Joe and Kamala served up. They provided bad fast food while Mike and Mitch gave them five-star food for thought.