I thought this was pretty moving, no? It’s HIGHlights, but I included the video at the bottom.
<< … Before I spoke today, I really did give you, the Class of 2020, serious thought. And I'm honestly stunned by what you've endured in your short lives. For my Harvard class, 9/11 came in midlife. But I was thinking about it, you came into consciousness while our nation was still smoldering from that attack, and you've only known a world beset by terrorist hate.
You've grown up with mass shootings and school lockdowns, horrors completely absent from my childhood. You have now witnessed two economic meltdowns of stunning proportions.
You are actually living in a hotter and more treacherous biosphere than the one I was born into.
Two months into your freshman year, many of you voted for the first time in the 2016 election, and ever since, you've been living in the most polarized United States since the Civil War.
Now this you know all too well: you've been handed more than your share.
Tom Brokaw famously hailed the people who survived the Great Depression and World War II, not because of who they were, as much as what they endured, he called them “The Greatest Generation.” Now we don't know what you will be called because “The-Generation-That-Cleaned-Up-The-Mess-Left-By-Those-A-Hole-Boomers” doesn't just roll off the tongue.
You are actually living in a hotter and more treacherous biosphere than the one I was born into.
Two months into your freshman year, many of you voted for the first time in the 2016 election, and ever since, you've been living in the most polarized United States since the Civil War.
Now this you know all too well: you've been handed more than your share.
Tom Brokaw famously hailed the people who survived the Great Depression and World War II, not because of who they were, as much as what they endured, he called them “The Greatest Generation.” Now we don't know what you will be called because “The-Generation-That-Cleaned-Up-The-Mess-Left-By-Those-A-Hole-Boomers” doesn't just roll off the tongue.
You've been challenged your entire lives, and you've demonstrated one of the most precious qualities one can have: Resilience.
Now cynics like to mock the supposedly spoiled or callow youth of the new millennia, but you have seen and survived so much. And you've responded with wit, creativity, righteous anger, activism, and a gritty determination to take the reality you've been handed and make it better.
Look at you! 10 weeks ago, you were told to leave your dorms immediately, get your stuff, get out, something no one has said to me since my first marriage, and since that day, you have found ways to stay safe under absurd and confusing circumstances. And one way or the other, your hard won resilience has gotten you here, today, to your TV, or phone, or tablet, or smartwatch, to graduate from Harvard come hell or high water.
As the father of two teenage children, I look at all you've achieved in a frightful world, and it gives me great hope. You are remarkable examples to my children of how to be smart, brave, and, yes, resilient in a scary world.
My generation was always embarrassed to admit we went to Harvard, for fear of bragging. But you, class of 2020, have earned the right to be proud of your great accomplishment. The next time someone asks you where you went to college, hold your head high, look 'em square in the eye and say two miles south of Tufts.
… I have nothing to give you that you don't already have, and have had for a very long time. What I can offer is my boundless admiration, my deepest respect, my gratitude for working so hard, and bringing such honor to your families, your faculty, and your alumni. Our current troubles will pass, and you will laugh and thrive and experience great joy. I cannot wait to see what you fine people will accomplish, and I know that one day, years from now, one of you will stand where I stand, here in my backyard, and I will have you arrested for trespassing. >>
Thank you.
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