Commencement Remarks 2021: Wisdom for the Ages

by Alan Heil

Graduate addresses can blend together as compositions rendered in a fine orchestra.  

To quote Amelia Nierenberg in the New York Times: “Graduation is really a victory.”  Or, as basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told graduates at Washington University in St. Louis: “Surviving means that you have come through the catastrophe, but you’re still relatively intact. That’s what graduations are all about.”

Analyst Nierenberg’s eloquent testimony to 2021 graduates quotes a series of commencement speakers nation-wide:

—President Joe Biden, to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut:

“Class of 2021, you have it all. The press always asks me why I’m so optimistic about America’s chances in the world… and I’ve said to them: because of this generation… you’re the most progressive, best-educated, least prejudiced, most open generation in American history. We need you badly. You’re ready.  It’s time to get underway.”

—Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville:

 “There is going to be an amazing time over the next 10,15, 20 years, as we see what happens with new technology, with the power of community, to hopefully create a lot more good.  And I don’t see any other path forward… for my daughter, for her entire generation… for all of us to not just survive, but thrive together… working together to bring about the very best in each and every one of us.”

—Bina Venkataraman, editorial page editor of the Boston Globe at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles: 

“Look for heroes not on the silver screen or even at this podium — but at eye-level and within reach: the people in your life who have been afraid but done the right thing anyway, who have shown you by example how to be bold.  Prize bravery over bravado… even the small and unrecognized moments.  You can be heroic whenever you choose, whoever you are, without being perfect or celebrated or superbly talented.”

—Laurene Powell Jobs, business leader, and philanthropist, also at UVA in Charlottesville:

“Change in ourselves and change in the world happens similarly:  It comes slowly, then all at once.  What matters is your readiness for the moment of revelation, of challenge, of opportunity.  We have to be prepared to walk through the door when it opens, or, by our own power and purpose, to open it ourselves.  And sometimes, we have to tear down walls, the ones within and the ones without.”

—Ruby Bridges, civil rights activist, at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana:

“You see, Class of ’21, opportunity comes packaged in many boxes and it often shows up with no return address.  The sender is history, and she does not accept returns.  Once the package is opened, you accept the gift, and you embrace the demands attached to it.”

—Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser for the covid-19 epidemic, at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill:

“Let me assure you, as a public health person who is devoting every waking hour (and even some of my dreams) to ending this pandemic: That it will end, and we will come out of this stronger than we were before this challenge.”