Compared with the turmoil that often permeates a student’s college experience, the event that caps it all off — commencement — has remained remarkably staid in its traditions, even a little dull.
Many folks like it that way, especially when it comes to the commencement speeches. Those usually considered best are inspirational, amusing and blissfully short. As the old joke goes, commencement speakers should think of themselves as the body at a wake: They need you so they can have the party, but nobody expects you to say too much.
This commencement season, however, has proved more controversial. At several recent ceremonies, graduates, audience members, even faculty sitting on the dais, reacted strongly to the remarks of a few commencement speakers who spoke out against the war in Iraq, the president and homosexuality, among other things.
Some of the unhappy listeners stormed out of the ceremonies. When New York Times reporter Chris Hedges gave an anti-war speech at Rockford College, his microphone was unplugged twice and a few tried to rush the lectern. At other ceremonies, students chanted patriotic slogans, booed or told the speaker to shut up and go home.
At least after Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream fame) delivered his controversial remarks at Ithaca College, he and Jerry Greenfield offered everyone Peace Pops.
Here are excerpts from four controversial commencement speeches:
New York Times reporter Chris Hedges, speaking at Rockford College.
“I want to speak to you today about war and empire.
“Killing, or at least the worst of it, is over in Iraq. Although blood will continue to spill — theirs and ours — be prepared for this. For we are embarking on an occupation that, if history is any guide, will be as damaging to our souls as it will be to our prestige, power and security. But this will come later as our empire expands, and in all this we become pariahs, tyrants to others weaker than ourselves. Isolation always impairs judgment, and we are very isolated now.
“We have forfeited the goodwill, the empathy the world felt for us after 9/11. We have folded in on ourselves, we have severely weakened the delicate international coalitions and alliances that are vital in maintaining and promoting peace and we are part now of a dubious troika in the war against terror with Vladimir Putin and Ariel Sharon, two leaders who do not shrink in Palestine or Chechnya from carrying out acts of gratuitous and senseless acts of violence. We have become the company we keep. . . .
“Fear engenders cruelty — cruelty, fear, insanity and then paralysis. In the center of Dante’s circle the damned remained motionless. We have blundered into a nation we know little about and are caught between bitter rivalries and competing ethnic groups and leaders we do not understand. . . .
“We will pay for this, but what saddens me most is that those who will, by and large, pay the highest price are poor kids from Mississippi or Alabama or Texas who could not get a decent job or health insurance and joined the Army because it was all we offered them. For war in the end is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians and of idealists by cynics. . . .
“In wartime when we feel threatened, we no longer face death alone but as a group, and this makes death easier to bear. We ennoble self-sacrifice for the other, for the comrade; in short we begin to worship death. And this is what the god of war demands of us.
“Think finally of what it means to die for a friend. It is deliberate and painful; there is no ecstasy. For friends, dying is hard and bitter. The dialogue they have and cherish will perhaps never be re-created. Friends do not, the way comrades do, love death and sacrifice. To friends, the prospect of death is frightening. And this is why friendship or, let me say love, is the most potent enemy of war.”
TV talk-show host Phil Donahue, speaking about “what liberals believe” at North Carolina State University.
“Only Congress can declare war, and not just one man, the president. . . .
“[Liberals believe] that no one in authority should tell you to `shush’; that executing retarded teenagers is wrong, and that unions give workers a deserved place at the bargaining table. . . . Your mission is to challenge your public servants and bring America back to basic constitutional values. . . .
“I’m here to support the Constitution. Your job is going to be to bring us back to this original vision. . . .
“Take a liberal to lunch. . . . “Take a Dixie Chick to lunch.”
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, speaking at Ithaca College.
Greenfield was cheered by the graduates as he talked about how he and Cohen started what would become an ice cream empire, and how they sought to use its financial success to advance political and ideological causes.
But Cohen was booed, and a few people walked out, when he spoke out against the recent war in Iraq and U.S. military and defense spending.
“I’m told that at occasions such as this, it’s behooving upon me to spout some advice. . . . And so, today, the advice I’d like to offer is: Eat lots of ice cream now because in 30 years you’ll be lactose intolerant. . . .
“Well, I’ve also received some advice about speaking at commencement ceremonies, and the people I’ve talked to said don’t get involved in anything too deep, a lot of the audience has been out celebrating kind of late the night before and their powers of concentration are not, shall we say, at their most high. Well, I’m going to throw all that advice out the window. . . .
“So, now I’ve got a low-tech audio demonstration that should synthesize some of the ideas that I’ve been talking to you about. Hang on. [Pulls out a metal box and places on lectern.] Now. What I’d like to do here is give you a demonstration of some of what our government is currently doing. The U.S. currently spends about $30 billion a year on our nuclear arsenal, and it was developed during the Cold War to fight the Soviet Union. Well, I’d like to demonstrate to you exactly what we get for that money. What I’m going to do is I’m going to toss some BBs into this can and if you can close your eyes, it’ll help you to visualize it a little better. I’m going to toss in one BB [drops BB]. That represents the equivalent of 15 Hiroshima-size bombs. Now I’m going to toss in six BBs [drops BBs]. That is enough nuclear weapons to blow up all of Russia. And now I’m going to pour in the amount of BBs that represents our entire nuclear arsenal [extended pause as he pours rest of BBs]. That was 10,000 BBs, the equivalent of 150,000 Hiroshima-size bombs. That is enough to blow up the entire world, 10 times over. So, a lot of people feel like we don’t really need to spend money on that anymore. . . .
“In my lifetime, things have never been as bad as they are today in our country. It used to be that the leaders of the oil and defense industries had an undue influence on our government, but today they are the government. . . .
“Our country already has the widest spread between rich and poor of any industrialized nation in the world and these tax cuts just make it worse. So, even if you’ve never voted before, if you’ve never helped get people registered, if you’ve never been political, now’s the time to start. We’ve got to stand up and do our patriotic duty as Americans and say no, this is not the way our country was meant to be.”
Cardinal Francis Arinze, speaking at Georgetown University’s liberal arts college.
Arinze, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, was asked to talk about Christian-Muslim relations. Instead, he talked about the decline of the family and moral values.
A letter protesting Arinze’s speech was signed by about 70 faculty members at the Jesuit university and delivered to the dean of the university’s school of arts and sciences. The speech was criticized as inappropriate and insensitive, even though it was consistent with Catholic doctrine.
“In many parts of the world, the family is under siege.
“It is opposed by an anti-life mentality as is seen in contraception, abortion, infanticide and euthanasia.
“It is scorned and banalized by pornography, desecrated by fornication and adultery, mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut in two by divorce.”
