Commenced and Commissioned
Written by Kelly Matlock
MAE 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 5 (July)
.jpg)
WORDS OF WISDOM, CAUTION AND
JOCULARITY FOR THE CLASS OF 2010.
At Emerson College’s commencement in Boston, Mass., keynote speaker Bernard Cornwell, a renowned English author and scholar, acknowledged that most graduates won’t remember their keynote speaker. When questioning friends for advice on useful words to bestow, he said, “Eighty-seven percent could not remember [what their commencement speaker said], they had absolutely no idea, which suggests that my presence here is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike, but we have to push on, don’t we?”
Anderson Cooper, a well-known broadcast journalist, while speaking to Tulane University grads at the Super Dome in New Orleans, La., mirrored the milieu of Cornwell, saying, “I have absolutely no memory of actually graduating college. I know I did because I’m constantly hounded by the alumni association—these people could find Bin Laden.” Cooper added that not only does he not remember what the speaker said, “I don’t even remember having a speaker.” However, among these forgettable speakers are those who do manage to captivate the attention and memory of graduates. Although Bernard Cornwell questioned his usefulness as a speaker, he immediately went on to deliver an often hilarious and memorable speech; prodding students to think for themselves, he used examples of the past follies of modern thought, reminding students that celery was once considered poisonous and females were once discouraged from higher learning because it lessened their attractiveness to males.
Although the worth of speakers is debated by speakers themselves, a well-delivered speech that addresses current issues tactfully, made by a well-regarded or powerful figure, can leave a mark. Graduates this year at the University of Michigan are not bound to forget that the president of the United States was their keynote speaker. However, not every graduating body is lucky enough to have the president address them. The president traditionally speaks to three universities: two public and one military. This year, President Barack Obama spoke to the University of Michigan, Hampton University and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
CALLING GRADUATES TO ACTION
Like her husband, Michelle Obama was a prized and soughtafter speaker. She spoke to the graduates of George Washington University, conveniently located in Washington, D.C. These students won the opportunity to have her speak, through meeting a challenge posed (by the first lady herself) at the beginning of the school year. This involved completing over 100,000 hours of community service. The class of 2010 not only met the goal, they exceeded it. Michelle Obama thanked the graduates and highlighted some of the ways the students had impacted their community: through food drives, park revitalizations, school restorations and a free medical clinic in Anacostia, an economically impoverished area in the District of Columbia.
In the same spirit of helping those in need, Michelle added that the class of 2010 also “applied to organizations like Teach for America and the Peace Corps in record numbers.” The founder and chief executive of Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, spoke at Marquette University’s commencement this year.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, at Emory University, hoped to inspire graduates with a “can do” attitude as he spoke of becoming the youngest body-building world champion at 20 and then winning the most championships, 13, of anyone in the sport. Overcoming his laughable accent to become at one point the highest paid actor in Hollywood, Schwarzenegger then ran for governor of California with no previous political successes, which by many was considered a ridiculous act. He won in 2003, and again in 2006. However, he said his greatest success was the volunteer work he had done for the Special Olympics, an event held bi-annually on Emory’s grounds.
Army Lieutenant Colonel Gregory Gadson, who spoke at Webster University, is a man who gave significantly for his country while fighting in Iraq. He lost his legs in combat, as a result of roadside bomb in Baghdad three years ago. He began his speech by saying he “lost a bit of vocabulary and vernacular” as well, sharing that one of his favorite sayings used to be that he was “busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.” The crowd laughed and he smiled, adding: “Since I lost my legs, I can no longer use that phrase.”
Gadson delivered an upbeat speech, urging graduates to enjoy their day, but to keep in mind that, “As we celebrate your tremendous accomplishments today, let us keep in perspective that our nation is heavily committed to two wars against extremism in the world, dealing with significant natural and man-made disasters in a struggling economy.” He implored graduates to continue to cultivate their learning in many venues and “continue to make our nation great.”
MESSAGE TO A NATION AT WAR
While Obama joked at Hampton University about the long-standing reign of Hampton in the “battle over the real HU”—the annual basketball game between Hampton and Howard, both historically black universities—he was notably stoic as he addressed the West Point graduates. Those graduates, 78 young people who are being commissioned as the newest officers in the U.S. Army, are fully aware of the dangers ahead of them as the war in Afghanistan escalates. In addressing West Point grads, Obama said, “We are poised to end our combat mission in Iraq this summer. And as we end the war in Iraq . . . we are pressing forward in Afghanistan. Six months ago, I came to West Point to announce a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. And I stand here humbled by the knowledge that many of you will soon be serving in harm’s way. I assure you, you will go with the full support of a proud and grateful nation.”
Along with urging support for the troops, Obama made sure to add that U.S. citizens have work to do, saying, “The rest of us must do our part . . . strength and influence abroad begins with steps we take at home.” He outlined the need for America to fully turn its efforts toward education, clean energy, science and research. “Simply put, American innovation must be the foundation of American power—because at no time in human history has a nation of diminished economic vitality maintained its military and political primacy,” he asserted. “We cannot leave it to those in uniform to defend this country; we have to make sure that America is building on its strengths.”
Similarly, at Hampton, Obama touched on the current economy, an increasingly globalized world and a “24/7 media environment.” He again stressed the importance of education as the essential ingredient in America’s eminence, pointing out that, “For much of the 20th century, a high school diploma was a ticket into a solid middle-class life. That is no longer the case. Higher education is now invaluable. The unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is over twice as high as for folks with a college degree.”
AGENTS OF DEMOCRACY
At the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Mich., Obama focused his address on what graduates can do as active citizens, a theme harmonious with his wife’s address to GW graduates. Yet Obama made it clear that he understood the challenges graduates face in finding employment, which can take priority over a call to citizenship, saying, “The fact is, when you leave here today, you will search for work in an economy that is still emerging from the worst crisis since the Great Depression.”
He also touched on the subject of American in-fighting, and the struggle to maintain a working democracy that best serves all its inhabitants, saying, “Democracy in a nation of more than 300 million people is inherently difficult. We’ve been fighting about the proper size and role of government since the day the framers gathered in Philadelphia.” Yet, he made sure to point out that “despite all the conflict … our experiment in democracy has worked better than any form of government on earth.”
Reminding graduates that change is constant, and that they can be instruments of change in the continual evolution of the country, Obama said: “Through revolution and civil war … depression and world war … periods of great social and economic unrest … civil rights to women’s rights, [our democracy] has allowed us … to move towards a more perfect union.”
Prodding students to be active agents of change while thinking for themselves, as Cornwell also stressed, Obama encouraged University of Michigan grads to value “hard evidence and not just assertion.” Quoting Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “Everybody is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts,” Obama concluded, “When we don’t pay close attention to the decisions made by our leaders, when we fail to educate ourselves about the major issues of the day, when we choose not to make our voices and opinions heard, that’s when democracy breaks down. That’s when power is abused.”
CHANGING TIMES
Meryl Streep, a graduate of Vassar College when it was one of the Seven Sisters, the “Female Ivy League,” gave a speech to the graduates of the women’s Barnard College, a liberal arts arm of Columbia University, about changing roles. Streep urged the female grads to “look for the cracks, because that’s where the light gets in … cracks in Senate floors.” Streep was referring to the never-before roles that women are securing in business and politics.
Nancy Pelosi, current speaker of the House of Representatives, and first female in the role, is a prime example of a “light in a crack.” Pelosi spoke to eager graduates of the women’s Mills College about how she felt as a peer-elected leader, invited to the White House for the first time, feeling that those women who came before her emboldened her and enabled her, and all women, to “have a seat at the table.”
Obama also lauded the fact that for the first time at West Point, the two most distinguished awards given by the academy—to the number one overall cadet and to the valedictorian—were earned by females. Emphasizing the importance of women who serve, Obama noted: “In the 21st century, our women in uniform play an indispensable role in our national defense. And time and again, they have proven themselves to be role models for our daughters and our sons—as students and as soldiers and as leaders in the United States armed forces.”
Gender roles aren’t the only things changing. As the world becomes a global marketplace, people are connected through the Internet professionally, as well as socially. People use the Internet to gather some (if not all) of their information, and new sources of information, such as Wikipedia.org, an online encyclopedia, gather millions of users. The Wikipedia Website defines a commencement speech as ‘typically given by a notable figure in the community’—at Amherst College, the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, was asked to speak at commencement.
Social sites, such as the larger-than-life Facebook, are a big part of the lives of class of 2010 graduates. Several speakers at commence ments, including Katie Couric at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, joked that graduates should get rid of any incriminating Facebook photos, as did Anderson Cooper at Tulane. Speakers advised graduates to be professional, and to distinguish themselves in the competitive U.S. job market.
Our current culture would not be what it is today without the great significance given to the lowercase letter “i” by Apple. At Auburn University, alumnus Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, commented on how meaningful he finds his work with Apple, a company he joined in 1998, before the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad came to market. Cook spoke of the acute flailing of the company when he joined, saying he ignored discouraging facts at hand and listened to his intuition—to invest in Apple.
GRADUATION IS JUST THE BEGINNING
Many colleges and universities choose alumni or regional figures of prominence, depending on where the university is located and what it values, whether it’s an all-female institution, a historically black institute, a military academy or a large, coed, public university. Just like a student must be accepted into a university or college, the institute for higher learning in turn vies for the speaker of their choice. They might not get it. So they go for their next choice, or the one after that. The third choice, the lesser celebrity, just might be more memorable, or meaningful to students. Meaningfulness varies.
However, humor is usually well-received and well-used by many speakers. Bill Cosby, an actor and comedian, has been noted by one source as having given the most commencement speeches—37—of all time. In 2003, Will Ferrell, a Saturday Night Live legend, made a commencement speech at Harvard that will certainly not be forgotten. In head-to-toe yacht dress, he led into his fully-comedic skit by hyping the crowd with a dance to the song “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang, and then feigns horror as he “realizes” he is in the wrong venue: Harvard is not “the Worcester Boat Show.”
Many students have worked hard for four years or more, and many parents, most who have funded the journey, are ready for the next step; these people seem to be looking beyond graduation and commencement. Whether what is said by a keynote speaker is remembered or not, these students have graduated, and given the current economy, that seems to be what matters. As graduates are commenced and sent into the world jovially with degrees, other graduates are commissioned as officers, and will be sent solemnly to fulfill their obligations to the U.S. military and to themselves. Speakers echo each other in urging all graduates to remember that not only are we a nation at war, but that many of their generational peers are currently those fighting in commitments overseas. ♦