As we end the school 2007-2008 school year, and the season of graduation commencement addresses befalls us, I am once again disappointed by the message communicated to our graduates. The end of high school and college are key turning points in the lives of our children. It is a time where they set out on their own to make their way in this world - A time where they begin to contribute fully to our society.   Commencement addresses are supposed to motivate and inspire our young people to get out there and do great things – to inspire the “American Dream” of working hard and making the most of your opportunities to become a success. Unfortunately, an increasing number of our commencement speakers don’t seem to know what the American Dream is – for them America seems to be a big nightmare.

In past years, there have been numerous liberal commencement speakers that use their 10 minutes of podium time to trash the current administration, pontificate on the evils of the Iraq War, or promote their radical social agenda. This year’s theme seems to be, “the country is broken, so you need to abandon your plans and donate your time to fix it”.   For me, this raises many questions.

How is this country “broken”? Sure, America has its faults and has made many mistakes, but do they really rise to the level of leaving the country in a state of brokenness? What about the many successes taking place in this country everyday? We survived a major terrorist attack on our own soil that should’ve decimated our economy and forced us into a depression – instead the economic damage was short lived and our economy came back stronger. The American standard of living is still far better than any country in the world, which has been causing an influx of people literally dying to get into this country for the past 100 years. If things are so bad here, why is this occurring? The idea that the country is broken seems to communicate that the problems outweigh the successes, which is not a message that I agree with.

How does it help our country to have our best and brightest young minds give up on their dreams to pursue alternate career paths in the name of “the good of the country”? I do think that it would help if all generations would think less about themselves and more about giving some of their time in service to their country and community. From my parents’ generation back, every able man spent 2 years in military service and every woman was in some sort of church or community volunteer group. That seems to be absent from my generation, and I fear we are leaving that absent in the lives of our children. However, I don’t think that requires changing our long-term dreams and aspirations – this time of service doesn’t need to consume our lives and careers. Perhaps through pursuing the American Dream that they already have in mind this year’s graduates are already on a course to change the country or the world for the better – without the preachy advice of their commencement speaker. 

How is it fair that those preaching this plan of “drop what you’re doing and fix the country” are the ones that have already achieved their American Dream and have the personal wealth necessary to support such altruistic paths? The ironic part of this message is the pure hypocrisy of its delivery. Those preaching this message are too lazy to do it themselves, but rather they prefer to pass this job on to others – requesting sacrifice of the young so they don’t have to. To me this sounds like passing the buck.

If I were to give a commencement address I’d prefer to inspire graduates by telling a great American success story, or pointing out how far this great country has come from the small band of rebels it once was. Our founding fathers were also discouraged by the skeptics in their midst as well as their home country, but the triumph of their ideas and the will of the American people succeeded in the face of adversity… proving how great a nation America really is.