College Graduation, 20 Years After

After reading several news stories today regarding how students at the New School in NY City and at Boston College treated their commencement speakers, I tried to remember who performed that sacred duty for my class.

I drew a blank. All I can recall is she was the assistant secretary of education for either the state of Federal government. She did not say anything that managed to stand the test of time. Perhaps because her speech was uninteresting or because I had stayed up most of the previous night.

For the record many of the students and the faculty at BC and the New School were horribly rude to Condi Rice and Sen. John McCain. They wore anti-war signs, turned their backs to the speakers and generally behaved like junior high students.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the war or any other topic, but what ever happened to common courtesy? And for the faculty to lead the way with this boorish behavior should result in the revocation of a couple of dozen tenures. Of course that will never happen. What this does show is the level of influence the teaching staff has on the kids.

And on top if it all shouldn't graduation day be about the students?

Will refocusing everyone's attention onto a political topic change anything? Will George Bush watch the ceremony and go, "well, gee if the BC students are against Iraq then maybe we should leave." No, it simply distracts from the festivities at hand.

Now back to my ceremony. The kids should be grateful that their schools were able to attract people of such stature to their commencement. In 20 years they will remember the speakers name and what they talked about, even if they disagreed with their political stance.

I hope these churlish children don't expect everyone to agree with them once they enter the working world. I hope they can sit in a cube across from a guy or gal who served in the military or who might be pro-life without strapping on an armband in protest or resorting to other immature actions.