I congratulate you, though wistfully, because on your fresh, young, strong shoulders, rest our combined hopes, aspirations, dreams, and…apprehensions.
You trusted past generations, including my own, to provide you with a bright future in which to thrive, where you would nurture your descendants into compassionate beings.
We have disappointed you. The evidence was all there yesterday as I witnessed 900 of you set off with high hopes into the unknown.
Last evening, at commencement, the bureaucracy laid out a program for your future. It opened not with a celebration of education, but with a jingoistic parade of the “colors” innocently carried by some of you who took the bait from the military-industrial complex. This was followed by the National Anthem, whose words are now parroted by false patriots who suppress the liberties that anthem sought to protect and preserve.
We were then urged to stand to “pledge allegiance to the flag” with words that include “under God”, a God kidnapped by fundamentalists who seek to impose their corrupt version of a loveless and intolerant patriarch on all Americans.
So dear graduates, including my grandson:
forgive us our trespasses
as we try so hard to forgive the heartless oligarch usurpers of our government
lead us not into despair, but into a future better than the one we have given you
deliver us from the rapacity of today’s politicians and oligarchs
may it be so
I have hope in you, because those of you chosen to speak to the audience manifested care, support, and compassion for your classmates.
We do not deserve you, even as we honor your innocence, dedication, and warm hearts.
May God bless the Class of 2025. I will not feel disrespected if you take me to task and press me to protect your future, in this struggling land of the free, and home of the brave.
It is so difficult to fathom how we as a "free" society let it get this bad.
Amen.