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"To whom much is given, much is expected"
It is indeed an honor to be with you today, graduating students
and families, faculty,
administration, fellow honorees, community leaders, and friends
of the college. For this honor you give me today, I thank you and
my mother thanks you. She recently celebrated her ninetieth birthday
in Daphne, Alabama. Mom here on earth, and Dad up above, or where
ever heaven may be, it took this long but you may now call me Doctor.
Thank you for instilling in me a life-long thirst for both education
and knowledge. Mom, I should probably also tell you that the other
doctorate is still being delayed by technicalities, like finishing
the dissertation and other things.
Commencement speeches are required to be long and boring. I'll try
to at least make this one short. I've lived in two centuries; you
have a good chance of living in three. That means that you can go
back to school many times and enjoy many careers. Each year I go
on a speaking tour around the country asking eager young graduates
and soon to be f graduates to imagine themselves as they will be
at age 85. You may be trying to do that right now, and it is very
difficult, even impossible. Right? Youth lasts forever and I am
Immortal and Invincible! Yeah? f
Well let me make it easier for you. Pretend you are in a movie.
The make up artist made you look really old and you're sitting in
a rocking chair on a movie set. Now you can see yourself. The director
then tells you to reflect on your life as you have lived it - you
did ; every thing they said to do; you went to a good school, you
worked hard for a good : education, you got a good job and you lived
well. Now here's your motivation, the ' director tells you, "Will
that be enough?" Is that all there is? Is that what life is
all about? I guarantee that most of us are saying right now, "No,
that is definitely not enough."
And that is the answer given by heroines and heroes down through
the ages, as well as people like the priests and sisters who have
worked to mould you all these years.
To be fulfilled as human beings, we must give back. We live today
in a nation of contrasts. Amid deep sorrow for the losses suffered
in this past fall's series of crimes against humanity, and attacks
on our American freedoms, our spirits are lifted up by
examples we've seen of supreme courage and sacrifice. How often
before September 11, in your young lives, have working class heroes
and heroines been held up as role models. How many times have you
heard children of all classes say, as they do now, "A doctor?
No I want to be a firefighter, a police officer or an emergency
rescue worker."
Many of our newly discovered national celebrities have several attributes
in common, and those are courage, character, and commitment. One
of my early mentors in the struggle, Martin Luther King, whom we
honored last month and this - Black History Month - once said, "The
measure of a man or women is not where they stand in times, of peace
and prosperity but where they stand in times of adversity and controversy."
Our knights in leather fire hats, cop caps, hard hats, and respirators
stood tall as they shepherded the burned and bleeding from the ruins
of the Pentagon and the tangled remains of the World Trade Center,
and as they mourned the heroic fallen in that Pennsylvania field.
It is time now for you to stand tall in defense of our values and
our homeland. And I must tell you that some of your elders are worried
about you. They are concerned that you might not pick up the torch.
I've tried to reassure them that you will be fine, but only you
can make them truly believe. As an activist, I am compelled to say
that it is somewhat unnatural for the younger generation to be (or
to be seen as) more cautious and conservative than their priests
and ministers, parents and teachers. When President John Kennedy
proclaimed, in 1960, that the torch had been passed to a new generation,
we believed him. We took the torch and ran with it.
I remember the concern of my parents when they thought I might be
running too far and too fast. Dad and Mom were both graduates of
Bob Jones College, now somewhat infamous as Bob Jones University.
I am probably the only white southern veteran of the civil rights
movement named for Dr. Bob Jones. He conducted the wedding ceremony
for my Mom and Dad and he is probably not happy with the way I turned
out.
What I am trying to say on this august occasion, on this Saturday,
February 2nd in the year of our Lord, 2002, is that each of us has
a social responsibility. And I have faith that you will make your
mentors proud. Last month my friend Danny Glover was "disinvited"
to speak at a MLK Day celebration by the Modesto, California City
Council because he made some allegedly controversial remarks to
an individual following his lecture to the Princeton University
student body. During your life of service and civic responsibility,
you will, no doubt, find that defense of free speech and defense
of critical thinking is sometimes as scary and dangerous as running
into a burning building. May God give each of you the strength to
be our protectors. Thank you and have an exciting life!
URL:
www.bobzellner.com
Last modified: February, 2007
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