I would be curious to see what he would say and what jokes he would attempt to crack for his bored (and possibly outraged) audience.
Apparently, 50 Brigham Young University students didn’t feel quite the same way toward our vice president when they organized an alternative commencement ceremony after hearing Dick Cheney was the keynote speaker.
Students also protested President Bush’s commencement address at St. Vincent College last Friday.
In both cases, the students felt that Bush and Cheney weren’t men who fully represented the values of their schools and thus, should not speak at their graduations.
Aside from the fact that the schools can’t make everyone happy with their choice of speakers, I think these students are giving the people they despise too much credit.
We have graduation to commemorate the dedication and tenacity of the students, not to reiterate the flaws of the speakers these schools have managed to reel in.
While protests are unlikely this year for basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, speaker invitations have created some unrest on campus in the past.
In 2002, UCLA graduate students objected to an invitation for first lady Laura Bush to be their speaker, claiming she had “shallow credentials.” She didn’t end up speaking at the commencement.
But Cheney did end up speaking at BYU, and the students who allowed their distaste for the speaker to push them off their campus on a milestone in their college career showcases the over-importance of politics in our lives.
Politics have invaded everything from dinnertime conversation to whether we are going to participate in our graduation.
I’ll give the Bush administration some credit.
I doubt any of them would walk onto the commencement stage and start defending or promoting Bush principles ““ like the war on terror.
Graduation is not about politics, and the speakers aren’t necessarily as politically canny as Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who during his 1947 Harvard commencement address, brought up economic plans to restore broken-down countries post-World War II.
Students should just let speakers read off their overly traditional good wishes and let them continue on their way.
Graduates at such universities should be grateful to have memorable speakers at their graduations ““ the controversies surrounding their characters will just add to the experience.
Frankly, if you don’t agree with your speaker’s politics, you don’t even have to listen during the ceremony. Instead, start thinking about how you are going to pay off the monstrous debt you have amassed over the last four years.
If you still have time, you can mull over the solutions to famine and war.
These speeches don’t last for long and don’t have that huge of an impact in the grander scheme of things (both on the day and in your life) to miss the ceremony you have worked so hard to be able to attend.
As far as whining and protesting to the school boards go, it’s pathetic. Many want likable celebrities, such as Jon Stewart or Will Ferrell, to speak at our graduations, but you can’t just call them up.
Universities struggle to have these celebrity speakers for graduation, and sometimes you have to settle for the president of the United States as opposed to the latest and greatest stand-up comedian.
As much as many wholeheartedly disagree with Bush’s or Cheney’s political character, they are still men who changed the course of American history. I think that their commencement addresses would be interesting and engaging enough to stop us from walking out or stoning them to death.
College graduation shouldn’t be turned into a political movement. We shouldn’t create drama on a day when there should be none. We shouldn’t bring our political biases into every detail of our lives. We shouldn’t spend our last few pennies to hold an alternative graduation ceremony like the BYU students.
We should have enough decorum and strength of character to not high-tail it out of our graduation because there is a disagreement in politics.
Would you rather have Bissell as your keynote speaker? E-mail Bissell at abissell@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.