A few thoughts for the graduates
This was a remarkable week for me and my family. I am proud to share that my youngest granddaughter graduated from high school on Thursday, and I am so very proud of her.
I know that many of us are celebrating middle school, high school and college graduations during this season, and I wish all of our graduates the best as they move on to the next phase of their lives. You’ve conquered a remarkable goal, and you should be proud.
I hope our young graduates will spare me a moment to share some thoughts with them–and with the rest of us, as well.
I have had the pleasure of participating in and witnessing many graduations. To prepare myself for those occasions, I’ve read a good number of graduation addresses that folks–some famous and some not so famous–have given to graduates.
I’ve read everyone from Maya Angelou to Bill Gates to Kermit the Frog.
I’m guessing a favorite among young people might be an address that Muhammad Ali gave to a Harvard graduating class, which has been labeled the shortest graduation speech in history.
He said: “Me. We.”
“Me. We.” A lot of meaning is packed into those words.
When I sit down and think really hard about what one message I would really like to deliver to today’s graduates, what one meaningful piece of wisdom I want to impart, what one thought I truly want to convey, one thing is foremost in my mind:
Pull up those pants!
That’s half a joke, I know, but it’s half serious, too.
While I sure do want young people to pull up those pants so I can quit worrying about them falling down, I also want them to pull them up metaphorically. And I’ll give you three reasons.
First, young folks are going out into the world, some of them to more education and others to full-time jobs. You need to start focusing on your future, what your life is going to be like, and how you’re going to make it happen. And you need to start thinking about how you are going to present yourself to the world.
This means you’ve got to hitch up those britches, square your shoulders, and prepare yourself to meet the world as an adult. The diploma you received indicates that you can think and act on some adult level. Now you’ve got to start presenting yourself that way as well.
Another reason to hitch up those britches is so they don’t trip you up on the way to meeting your goals.
You’ve got to rid yourself of all the things in your life that drag you down, hold you back, or otherwise impede your progress in getting where you want to go. That means shedding bad habits, bad influences, bad thoughts and bad friends.
As W.E.B. DuBois wrote, “Freedom is a state of mind: a spiritual unchoking of the wells of human power and super-human love.”
You need to streamline yourselves, lighten your load, and divest yourselves of baggage that’s going to do you no good as you move up and on to your next adventure.
There’s also a third reason to “hitch up” those pants, especially for you young men. And you are men now, you are no longer boys.
That means you need to develop and maintain respect and a sense of responsibility toward others in your life, especially the women.
And that means keeping those pants pulled up.
I mean that in all seriousness. If you truly want to make a contribution to your community and your city, if you are serious about becoming a responsible citizen, you will NOT do it by fathering a child without a warm, loving two-parent family to support it.
Today in our city, some 54 percent of the households are headed by single women. And out of the 300,000 or so residents under the age 18, almost one-third live in poverty.
There are not many educated poor people. Education is the key.
It allows you to secure gainful employment and advocate for good health care, adequate housing, responsible political representation, and equality.
It’s yet another reason to pull up those pants.
There’s one last point I’d like to make.
And I’d like to borrow from a commencement speech by former NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw.
He said: “You are now educated. You probably think of it as a ticket to a good life. But if you graduate today and stop learning tomorrow, you are uneducated the day after.”
One more time: “If you graduate today and stop learning tomorrow, you are uneducated the day after.”
You finish a class. You finish a book. You finish a job. You finish a meal. You never finish your education.
That’s my shortest and loudest message to our graduates. Keep learning.
You all know Patrick Ewing? Three NCAA finals with Georgetown? First in the 1985 draft to the NY Knicks? Eleven times an NBA All-Star? Dream Team Gold Medal winner at the 1992 Olympics?
Well, what you don't hear about Patrick Ewing is that he graduated from college on time.
And listen to what he said. He said: “Getting that degree meant more to me than an NCAA title, being named All-American or winning an Olympic Gold Medal.”
You also probably don’t know that Mr. Ewing audited classes for years afterward at Georgetown.
"I was just doing it for me," he said.
So hitch up those britches, keep learning, and do it for you.
You’re young. You’re bright. You’re motivated. You’re all that.
And you’re on your way.
Good luck and God bless the graduates of 2009.
Sen. Scott represents the 2nd Senate District, which includes areas of Detroit and the cities of Hamtramck, Harper Woods, Highland Park and all of the Grosse Pointes. She serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee. She holds a coffee hour in the Pointes on the third Monday of every month at Caribou Coffee, 19419 Mack Ave. in the Woods. Visit her online.
