He quoted from a commencement address he had recently given at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee: "Pericles was right when he told the Athenians that the citizen who takes no part in public affairs is not merely unambitious but useless.
In a series of events including a podcast recorded in the comedian Marc Maron's garage; an interview with George Stephanopoulos, which turned into a discourse on tolerance; and, most recently, his commencement address at Howard University he, too, has been speaking out unequivocally, and doing some uplifting along the way.
Since my divorce, we've racked up a duo of elementary school graduations, middle school graduations, high school graduations and just recently, the first college commencement.
By far the funniest of the recent commencement addresses.
I am a sucker for a solid speech, and with graduation ceremonies just recently wrapping up around the U.S., I've spent a lot of time listening to and reading commencement speeches.
When President Bush spoke recently at the commencement ceremonies of the United States Coast Guard Academy, calling for a global drive against poverty, starvation and disease, an aide to Mr. Powell scored it as a victory.
Theodore Sorensen, who as a young man wrote President Kennedy's best speeches, gave a commencement speech of his own recently that was not so much an address as a cry of anguish.
He recently gave the commencement address at nearby Colby College in Waterville, Me., where he taught in the 1990's, advising the graduates to take a life partner, have children and find work they can lose themselves in.
-- Joan Didion Here are my thoughts after recently attending several commencement ceremonies.
