…I come here today with a request for the Class of ’08: We need you to fix the country — and I’m sorry to ask this of you. And I’m deadly serious and we really do. I am 49 and on behalf of my generation, I’m so sorry, the Internet is so cool we got sidetracked. I can burn an hour on Perez Hilton like that. And I know I speak for a lot of you: WebMD, very cool, except anything I’ve ever punched in comes back “thyroid cancer.”
The Internet is fantastic and it takes way too much of our time, so, with apologies, we need you all now to step up and every adult in this place has every faith that you’re up to the job. You are today, as of today, as fearsome a weapon as the one they assembled during the Manhattan project in a similar place — Soldier Field up in Chicago. You are the most fearsome weapon in the world. You are students in the United States of America armed with a newly-minted college degree from the Ohio State University.
So pick one area: energy, politics, diplomacy, science, education, military, transportation. Start with climate. Something tells me this may be a challenge in the years ahead. Tomorrow’s predicted high for Columbus is 220 degrees.
Energy policy: Can you please help us find a way to get around without fuel in our tanks that comes from an enemy of this country?
—NBC Anchor Brian Williams in a Graduation address to Ohio State University.
I was a member of that graduating class sitting in beautiful old Ohio Stadium on Sunday. The commencement address was terrific; both fun and poignant. I followed the link that Dr. Harmon posted and was surprised by the reaction of the blogger. The speech was very well received and did not come across as being political in the least. It was simply a day to celebrate the graduates and larger family of THE Ohio State University as a whole. It would be a mistake to read anything more into and quite frankly takes away from the achievement of the more than 7,000 of us who earned degrees this past weekend. O-H!
…and can you please help future journalism majors to focus on investigative reporting rather than writing opinion-making articles?
Thanks very much for the eyewitness account #1.
but the Manhattan Project work was under the stands of Stagg Field, at the University of Chicago, not Soldier Field.
No problem Dr. Harmon. If I remember correctly one of your children has joined us here in the glorious Buckeye State. I think you said they were attending one of the five sisters, but I cannot remember if it was Oberlin, Dennison, Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon or Wooster. Regardless, she cannot go wrong with any of them. However, if she is considering graduate work, there is no better place than the most comprehensive research university in the country; THE Ohio State University. O-H!