As a former speechwriter, commencement speeches are my favorite. I’ve given two in my life, both to my high school and college alma mater (they were forgettable, and I haven’t been invited back).
Commencement speeches are less designed to inform or persuade—unless a politician uses the occasion to make news—than to advise, inspire, and challenge. They honor the people sitting before them and their parents and caregivers for achieving a major milestone in their lives, either a high school or college graduation. Sometimes, they can entertain. Humor can be powerful and effective.
I’ll add trade schools to the mix. One of my most recent favorite commencements was an unsolicited one in 2021 by Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” fame and the founder of the Mike Rowe Works Foundation, which promotes the skilled trades. He spoke to a “class” of graduates via his Facebook site. These graduates probably start with more job opportunities and pay than many university graduates. Mike said as much, using examples of three graduates to make his point.
Not all “commencement” speeches have to delivered before a graduating class. One of nominees for best speech comes from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas via the increasingly popular website, PragerU (short for Prager University, launched by Salem Network radio talker and author Dennis Prager). Thomas’s five-minute video focused on the importance and power of courage, which is terrific advice from someone who knows.
Throughout history, people have had to find those principles, beliefs, or people for whom they were willing to die. Then, in turn, for which and for whom they were willing to live.
I think of those who fight our wars, respond to our emergencies, or who work difficult and taxing jobs to care for their families.
In that vein, I also think of my grandparents who willingly sacrificed so that my brother and I could live and prosper. Without complaint, they found that quiet courage to take on a commitment that would consume the remainder of their lives and much of their quite modest resources.
It is profoundly humbling to think of what they did and the constant courage it required. Is there anything for which you would go through that much difficulty? Do you have the will and the courage to prepare educationally, morally, and intellectually to address the myriad challenges that you will face?
In this world of social media and shaming and other personal attacks, will you have the courage of your convictions to stand up for what you believe in?
There are challenges coming your way. As I have so often had to do in my own life, I pray that each of you will have the wisdom to know what is right and the courage to do it.
My favorite commencement speaker in recent years - 2021, again, during the height of the pandemic - is Mitch Daniels, the former President of Purdue University and a Bush Administration official. This one was delivered outdoors.
For decades to come, scholars and ordinary citizens alike will look back on your senior year, trying to identify its consequences, and imagine what lives so disrupted were like. As they do so, they will know more than we can now about the results of the choices today’s leaders made. They will reach judgments, with the benefit of hindsight, about the wisdom and maturity with which our nation handled the challenge of this particular pandemic.
Odds are, not all those judgments will be favorable. Time will tell.
Time has indeed spoken, and Mitch was right. Those alleged leaders, especially the so-called experts we relied on to marshall us through, not only got things wrong, but they also lied, covered up, screwed up, refused to accept accountability while claiming victimhood, and grasped desperately to their self-proclaimed status as icons and defenders of the very science they abused. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a proponent of no-masks-then-masks, viral gain-of-function research at the infamous Wuhan, China bio lab, using government resources to censor and undermine experts with different views and deeply harmful school lockdowns, gave one of the commencement speeches this year. More about that in a moment.
Dr. Fauci’s speech is a candidate for one of the worst of 2024, along with the turgid, awful, untruthful, and inaccurate speech by none other than Joe Biden at Morehouse College, a highly respected historically black institution in Georgia. It eclipsed by leaps and bounds my younger son’s 2016 commencement speaker at North Carolina’s Elon University, former presidential counselor David Gergen. Instead of inspiring graduates, seemingly unprepared, he focused darkly and provocatively on “bathroom bills” in the Tar Heel State and referenced “chosen genders.” It tainted an otherwise wonderful weekend and, fortunately, is largely forgotten.
While you can still find the speech on YouTube (don’t waste your time), Elon removed the transcript from their website. I generally don’t recommend political people for commencement speeches, and I cite Gergen as example#1.
Gergen can now hand the trophy for worst commencement speech to Biden. It’s not close. At least Gergen didn’t lie and pander as frequently as Biden, although both were equally as political.
Before I get to the best commencement speech of 2024, let me get my two nominees for the worst one of the year. First, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a perpetual favorite commencement invitee for reasons I can barely fathom, given his arrogant, often-wrong-but-never-in-doubt management and counsel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, President Joe Biden and his commencement at Morehouse College.
Fauci’s advice to Columbia University medical school grads is among the most self-unaware I’ve ever seen. From Columbia’s website:
“Seek and listen to opinions that differ from your own, but critically analyze information, which you have learned to do so well here at Columbia, so that you can discern and challenge weak assertions built on untruths,” Fauci said. “As future leaders in medicine and science, we are counting on you for that. Our collective future is in your hands. You and your humanity are the keys to optimal patient care and are integral to the path that you have chosen.”
Amid these serious issues facing new professionals in science and medicine, Fauci also encouraged the graduates to seek and cultivate happiness.
“It is important that you allow yourselves to cultivate joy as much as you do your professional accomplishments,” Fauci said. “Find your sources of joy and embrace them. Many of you will be in serious and important positions starting relatively soon. This is not incompatible with the fact that you have so many other things to live for and to be happy about. Reach for them often and relish the joy.”
There’s nothing wrong with what he said. Still, if you believe, as I do, that the “messenger is the message,” it has the same credibility as Iran talking about human rights, or Democrats talking about “threats to democracy” while keeping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off the ballot in as many states as possible. I could go on. Nobody eschewed advice, punished or censored experts who disagreed, or arrogantly punished media outlets who dared challenge him (Hugh Hewitt in particular) than the stunningly arrogant Washington Nationals fan who liked his celebrity a bit too much.
He retired in 2022 as the highest-paid federal employee and its largest pensioner. His retirement income is reportedly well north of $400,000 per year, more than a former President of the United States.
Speaking of the President, Joe Biden’s Morehouse speech was awful, full of lies, pandering, and horrible advice. It was also badly delivered. It’s not worth spending much time on, but you can watch or read it. Neither is advised without a heavy dose of Dramamine or a stiff drink within reach.
A couple of notes. He claimed the graduates were victims because they were black. And he falsely said the White House was full of “Morehouse men.” There’s not a single Morehouse graduate on the White House payroll. They used to be on Kamala Harris’s payroll, but like most of her staff, they left. He also embarrassed himself by almost introducing a Hamas hostage who clearly wasn’t there (he at least caught himself, for once). It was dark and just embarrassing. The man is not up to the job.
Now, on to the best speeches.
Our runner-up for best speech is Jonathan Roumie’s humble, personal, inspiring, and faith-based commencement at The Catholic University of America on May 11. Roumie is best known for portraying Jesus Christ in the popular series, “The Chosen.”
Roumie started his speech very nervously. He was obviously not a veteran of commencement speeches, and he was clearly humbled, if not intimidated, by his appearance. But he warmed up with an inspiring speech about his rags-to-riches desperate turn to Jesus Christ before winning his role in The Chosen. From the Catholic News Agency:
“You don’t need to play Jesus for the world in order to be Jesus to the world,” Roumie told the crowd of graduates.
“I’ve realized that just because I play Jesus on a TV show doesn’t mean I can or I should stop being Christ to everyone I know when the cameras turn off, and neither should you,” he said.
“Just because you’re not an actor playing Jesus or a priest or a nun doesn’t mean you’re not meant to represent him at all times, wherever you go.”
Roumie said this does not mean “God is expecting perfection from you,” but that “you must endeavor to preach the Gospel by the life you live, by your actions and [by] the choices you make.”
He said, as Catholics, this includes “the political positions you take and the advocacy for the causes you champion,” such as “defending life at all stages.”
But our winner is no surprise: a sterling if imperfect speech delivered to Benedictine College’s graduates. It became well known only because 1) a city official decided to doxx the three-time Superbowl champion kicker, but the woke NFL criticized it, along with a group of Benedictine nuns.
Watch and read it for yourself. It won’t take long, and you’ll be inspired. It brimmed with traditional Catholic doctrine, praise for motherhood and his wife, and the Latin Mass. As a “rad trad,” I suspect the FBI has him in their sights as a potential terrorist.
I’m delighted at how quickly the spouse of the Chief’s owner, his head coach, Andy Reid, and even the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers came to his defense. Good for them.
What got him in trouble? This:
While COVID might have played a large role throughout your formative years it is not unique. Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder. Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith but at the same time is delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally. He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I'm sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice. He is not alone. From the man behind the COVID lockdowns to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common: They are Catholic. This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn't cut it.
He dared criticize Joe Biden and abortion. Here’s more that clearly triggered The Left, including their religion of DEI:
Our Catholic faith has always been countercultural. Our Lord along with countless followers were all put to death for their adherence to her teachings. The world around us says that we should keep our beliefs to ourselves whenever they go against the tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion. We fear speaking truth because now unfortunately truth is in the minority. Congress just passed a bill where stating something as basic as the Biblical teaching of who killed Jesus could land you in jail.
But make no mistake, before we even attempt to fix any of the issues plaguing society we must first get our own house in order, and it starts with our leaders. The bishops and priests appointed by God as our spiritual fathers must be rightly ordered. There is not enough time today for me to list all the stories of priests and bishops misleading their flocks, but none of us can blame ignorance anymore and just blindly proclaim that that's what father said. Because sadly many priests we are looking to for leadership are the same ones who prioritize their hobbies or even photos with their dogs in matching outfits for the parish directory. It’s easy for us lay men and women to think that in order for us to be holy, that we must be active in our parish and try to fix it. Yes, we absolutely should be involved in supporting our parishes, but we cannot be the source for our parish priests to lean on to help with their problems just as we look at the relationship between a father and his son, so too should we look at the relationship between a priest and his people. It would not be appropriate for me to always be looking to my son for help when it is my job as his father to lead him.
He even criticized the leaders of his own church. Good for him.
Congratulations to Harrison Butker for the Commencement Speech of the Year.
One last thing: an honorable mention to Jerry Seinfeld for his excellent, practical, and entertaining commencement at Duke University. A few know-nothings walked out on him because he’s Jewish, but it’s also a good and memorable speech.
“Find fascination,” Seinfeld extolled. “Fascination is way better than passion. It’s not so sweaty.
“I will give you my three real keys to life,” he added, mentioning that this part had no humor. “Bust your ass. Number two, pay attention. And number three, fall in love.”
But here was the line that earned its way into stories and rings true: “My point is, we’re embarrassed about things we should be proud of and proud of things we should be embarrassed about.”
Touche. But this was the winning line with which I resonated the most: “The less confident and secure you feel in the direction (you take), the more surprises and excitement you will have in store.” Great advice for any graduation class.