A speech I submitted for my graduating class commencement address at Gustavus Adolphus College where I did my Bachelor's in communication studies and political science. June, 2008.
We gather here today at the threshold of destiny a privileged lot. Because of our education here at Gustavus, we our privileged to leave with degrees in the sciences, the arts, the humanities. Because of Gustavus we have been privileged to have benefited from an outstanding faculty, administration and staff, been able to attend world class events, speakers and entertainers, we’ve traveled around the world. Because of Gustavus, we have been privileged with the freedom and resources to pursue our own destiny.
So where do we go from here?
Today we enter the higher echelons of an incredibly elite minority in this world. With our degrees today we join a meager 1% of the world’s population with a college degree.
So where do we go from here?
My friends, we live in impossibly difficult times. Stark poverty and hunger choke over 25% of the world’s population earning less that a dollar a day. War, genocide and famine are wiping out entire communities. There are parts in this world – too many parts in this world – where a child is more likely to die by the age of sixteen than graduate from high school. Discrimination and hate run rampant on our streets, in our schools, at our work place and at the highest levels of government. Unfair trade practices and financial systems are keeping generations away from any sort of sustainable livelihood. Pollution and waste are chocking our planet. Our world is in peril and the challenges ahead of us are essentially insurmountable.
So where do we go from here?
We have two options. We can go down the road often traveled, where a small minority of the privileged elite find much success. And as members of this small minority of the privileged elite, this is not a difficulty for us. The worlds problems are simply too complex, too challenging and too distant to matter. You will have a good comfortable life in this path. You will have many friends. You will be happy. But what – for a moment – what if we chose the other path… the path less traveled. Is it beyond the realm of possibility for an entire generation to rise and refuse to settle for what is and instead dream of what might be?
Is it too much to ask that in a world of plenty, our children do not die of hunger on our streets? Is it too much too ask that in a world of reason, our first instinct is to communicate and not to kill? Is it too much to ask that in world of so much diversity we might choose to judge a person by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin? Is this too much to ask for? Is this beyond our reach? Cause if it is, then we are no more than who they say we are: selfish elitist hoarding the worlds resources for our own benefit. But we will refuse to live our lives that way. We will choose to give and not take. To bring peace not war. To heal and not destroy. To love and not hate. To live and not die.
Together we will rise up like a phoenix from the ashes of destruction to start this permanent revolution and rebuild a greater society. Together. E pleribus unum.
No body said this is going to be easy… Sustaining hope in a generation of fear. And we are going to loose some battles – a lot of them. The challenges before us seem insurmountable and might well be beyond our meager capacities to achieve. But what if this capacity was limitless? A true measure of a peoples resolve is what they do in the face of impossible odds. Why not do what is hard? Why not accomplish the impossible? And why not start here today? Why not turn things around, individual by individual, community by community, country by country?
Gustavus, may this be our dream. Let us use this anger and energy within us, let us use our privilege to speak out to the world in one voice. We, Gustavus Adolphus College, reject a world of prejudice. We, Gustavus Adolphus College, reject a world of hate. We, Gustavus Adolphus College, reject a world of poverty and hunger and death and disease cause we deserve so much more than that. The world deserves so much more than that. And we have the resource to make a difference, and that resource is us.
Look at the places this class is headed off to. From Mankato to Minneapolis, from Illinois to Ohio, Massachusetts, New York to Washington DC, Florida, Colorado, California. We are going to Bangladesh and Japan, to India, South Korea, Vietnam, Bolivia, Italy, Sweden, Morocco, Ghana,
We are going to be in the U of M, Georgetown, Boston University. We are going to part of the military, Teach for America, the Peace Corps.
We are gong to be teachers, lawyers, doctors, athletes, engineers, scientists, business folk, community organizers, politicians, librarians, journalists, actors, dancers, mothers and fathers and role models.
And with one voice let us reject the destiny that settles for what is and instead demand one that imagines what might be. Let us transcend the ordinary and move boldly forward with determination and the values that this school has embedded in us. Always striving for excellence, always working for community, serving others, doing justice to our past and homage to the future.
Cause my friends, together, we aren’t going to attempt to change the world… we will.
May that be our destiny. May that be our legacy. May that be where we go from here.
Gustavus Adolphus College, thank you. Goodbye. Farewell and Amen.
NOTES:
1) The title "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" is taken from the last series episode of M*A*S*H.
2) "Sustaining hope in a generation of fear..." is a reference made to a speech by President Bartlet in The West Wing episode "20 Hours in America".
3) "...we might choose to judge a person by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin" is an intentional reference to MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech.
