June 2, 2023 • 38 mins
Commencement is a time for celebration and inspiration for new graduates ready to change the world. In this episode, co-hosts Dana Rampolla and Charles Schelle share their personal favorite speeches from this year's University of Maryland, Baltimore graduation ceremonies.
First is Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who spoke at the University of Maryland School of Social Work convocation ceremony, outlining his seven reasons for hope.
The second speech is from former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D), who spoke at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law hooding ceremony, telling graduates to use their knowledge to ignite positive change.
There were many other great speeches at UMB's ceremonies. Here are a few to check out:
- Universitywide Commencement featuring University System of Maryland Regent Bill Wood, Retired Lockheed Martin Chairman and CEO Norman Augustine and UMB Student Government Association President Joanna Zhao Ye.
- University of Maryland School of Medicine hooding ceremony featuring Dayna Bowen Matthew, JD, PhD, dean and Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School and Outstanding Scholar Award recipient Nicholas Fioravante.
Listen to The UMB Pulse on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you like to listen. The UMB Pulse is also now on YouTube.
Visit our website at umaryland.edu/pulse or email us at umbpulse@umaryland.edu.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jena Frick (00:04):
You are listening to the heartbeat of the University
of Maryland, Baltimore, the UMBPulse.
Charles Schelle (00:17):
Dana, what do you love about commencement?
Dana Rampolla (00:19):
I think one of my favorite things is when I hear
pomp and circumstance startplaying every single time when I
was graduating from high schooluntil our recent commencement
here at U M B, I hear thosefirst couple notes and I just
get that tight feeling in mychest and start to tear up.
Charles Schelle (00:37):
So you take the, uh, emotional.
Yes.
Route and emotional experiencewith it.
I really like a good speech,even though I cannot tell you
what my undergrad speech wasabout.
I kind of remember who it was.
Oh boy.
It was a columnist for theWashington Post.
But in the moment you like tohear those inspiring words.
Being able to work commencementlike the both of us each year,
(01:00):
we hear a lot of speeches,right?
Dana Rampolla (01:03):
Yeah, for sure.
And it's, it is interestingbecause I agree with you, I
don't remember anything aboutany of my commencement speeches,
which is really a sad statement,but, Being an employee at the
University of Maryland,Baltimore, and having the
opportunity to sit through asmany as we do each year, there
are some that just really standout and resonate with me as a
(01:23):
person, as a professional, andas a, as a mom.
You know, I'm always thinkingabout what my, my children heard
when they were graduating, andwhat our students here and how
it feels for their family to sitthere and hear great speeches.
Charles Schelle (01:36):
So for this episode, we're doing things a
little bit different.
We thought, let's celebrate thecommencement season and let's
provide some moments of hope andinspiration.
We talk about changemakersthroughout this past season and,
these guest speakers aredefinitely changemakers in their
own right.
We wanna highlight two personalfavorite speeches this year.
(01:58):
One is from Congressman JamieRaskin, who represents
Maryland's eighth CongressionalDistrict.
He spoke at the University ofMaryland School of Social Works
Convocation Ceremony.
And what I really liked abouthis speech was that it provided
hope, seven reasons of hope somuch that he went into why
(02:22):
social workers are important toour society and to democracy and
hope for the future.
Dana Rampolla (02:30):
And our second speech that we're excited to
share is from our formerMaryland Attorney General Brian
Frosh.
He served in that role from 2015to 2023, and he had some great
advice and stories forgraduates.
One that really stuck out was astory about a classmate who
didn't turn the last page whenhe took the bar exam and he
missed a question and thereforefailed by two points.
(02:52):
Oh, it's all in the details.
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
Yeah, he was really enjoyableand just such a, a calm and
compassionate speaker.
I, I think it was one of myfavorites for sure.
Charles Schelle (03:03):
Definitely.
And we've had a few otherspeeches and, and we couldn't
put them all in this episode.
Unless you wanted to be here formaybe two hours.
So, uh, for our other speecheswe have links in our episode
description that we wanted tohighlight.
One is a short and funny speechfrom University of Maryland
(03:24):
School of Medicine's, NicholasPonte, uh, he received the
Outstanding Scholar Award.
Really funny anecdote.
I don't wanna spoil it, but alittle bit of salty and friendly
life advice given to him by apatient of his, um, uh, another
one from the School of Medicinewas Dana Bowen Matthew, uh, she
is a professor of law at GeorgeWashington University School of
(03:46):
Law.
She gave great advice for hopeand inspiration as well, and
working in the medical field,especially when it comes to
equity and diversity.
she's also an author and in 2015she served as the senior advisor
to the director of Office ofCivil Rights for the US
Environmental Protection Agency.
(04:07):
So again, check those, links inour show notes and episode
description to listen to those.
But first one tap is CongressmanJamie Raskin.
Jamie Raskin (04:32):
Well, thank you Dean Postmus and um, uh, to you
Dean Postmus and distinguishedfaculty members to the moms and
dads out there, thegrandparents, the uncles and
aunts.
Us and cousins and friends andsiblings, uh, to the 2023
(04:53):
graduating class of theUniversity of Maryland School of
Social Work and to the, uh,convocation committee that
invited me especially, uh, it'san honor to address one of the
nation's great schools of socialwork.
You have an illustrious andstoried past here and every
time.
(05:13):
I hear your name.
It makes me proud of our stategraduates.
You enter an extraordinaryprofession.
It has been central to thedevelopment of the major
civilizing movements and socialreforms of the last century in
our country.
And the history of social workhas been profoundly intertwined
(05:35):
with the history of feminism andwomen's political participation
in our country.
Our first female cabinet member.
The great Francis Perkins whoserved in President Franklin d
Roosevelt's cabinet was a socialworker.
She played an instrumental rolein the creation of social
security and the passage of thefederal minimum wage law, and
(05:57):
she placed the ethic of socialsolidarity and mutual support at
the center of the New Deal.
The first woman ever elected toCongress.
Jeanette Rankin from Montana in1916 was a social worker.
And a Republican.
She was a passionate campaignerfor a woman's suffrage.
And after being elected toCongress from a state that
(06:19):
enfranchised women early, shefought for the 19th Amendment
for all women to get the rightto vote, and that was ratified
four years after she went intothe house.
She was a crusader for socialreform, for voting rights and
election reform, and apassionate anti-war activist who
voted against us participationin the first World War.
(06:41):
Barbara McClusky, the firstwoman ever elected to the United
States Senate in Maryland, aDemocrat, and the longest
serving senator in our state'shistory was and still is a
committed social worker.
And she, of course, went to thisgreat school, um, and Senator
Mikulski talks about it all thetime as a formative influence in
(07:04):
both her professional life andher political life.
And for her public office, shesaid was just social work with
power.
And she never abandoned thesense of social mission and
public purpose that she learnedright here with this amazing
faculty.
So I know that you launched yourcareers with a spirit of great
(07:24):
pride in the past than deepaffection for this remarkable
institution.
But I also don't need to tellyou that we're sending you off
to do nearly impossible work.
Under conditions of sharppolitical polarization and
dramatic economic inequality,and that you will almost
certainly be underpaid for yourindispensable and excellent and
(07:46):
intricate service to ourcommunities.
And yet, and yet, I cannot thinkof anyone in America.
In a better position to help oursociety and shape a positive
American future than the membersof your graduating class.
(08:12):
And because I am allotted, uh,just 10 minutes here and a
foolishly.
Already used three of themtelling you things you already
know.
Uh, I wanna give you sevenreasons before I leave you, for
you to be feeling tremendousoptimism about your work and
hope for the American future.
(08:32):
So it's seven reasons in sevenminutes.
One reason for hope enclosed ineach remaining minute I have.
And the first reason I bring youis for my own political career.
And when I first got intopolitics, I ran for the Maryland
State Senate against a 32 yearincumbent who was president pro
(08:53):
tem of the Senate and the bossof our local political machine
in Montgomery County.
And when I announced theMontgomery Journal, our local
paper quoted pundit who said,Raskin's, chances of victory are
considered impossible.
And nine months later we got 67%of the vote, and the Washington
Post had an article quotingpundit who said Raskin's victory
(09:16):
was inevitable.
So we went from impossible toinevitable in nine months.
Because the pundits are neverwrong, but I like to tell young
people that in politics, nothingis impossible and nothing is
inevitable.
But it's only just possiblethrough education and organizing
and mobilizing people for changeand anything that seems
(09:40):
inevitable.
Was once considered impossible.
So you and your careers, by yourcreativity in your college, your
compassion and your educationwill regularly make the
impossible, inevitable in thelives of other citizens and
other families.
And that's the first reason Iwant you to be optimistic today.
(10:04):
And the second also comes fromthat same campaign of mine back
in 2006.
And when I did my kickoff speechand subfreezing weather in
January, I laid out all theimpossible things that I wanted
to do in Annapolis and DeanPostmus, uh, mentioned some of
them like passing marriageequality and abolishing the
(10:25):
death penalty and bound banning,uh, military style assault
weapons in our state.
And adopting a national popularvote and enacting medical
marijuana for sick people.
And after I gave my speech, awoman came up to me and she
said, Grammy, Jamie, greatspeech.
I loved your speech, but onething she said, take out
everything you've got in thatspeech about gay marriage
(10:47):
because it's not gonna happen.
It's never gonna happen.
And it makes you sound likeyou're really extreme, like
you're not in the politicalcenter.
And I had to swallow hardbecause I didn't have man that
many, um, Attendees with me thatday when I kicked off, and I
didn't want to offend her, butmy three kids were right there
watching, and I remember so muchmy 11 year old son, Tommy, being
(11:11):
there and looking right at me tosee how I was gonna respond.
And so I said, thank you verymuch for telling me that,
because it makes me realize thatit's not my ambition to be in
the political center.
It's my ambition to be in themoral center.
And that's why I call myself.
(11:32):
That's why I call myself aprogressive.
The heart of that word isprogress, and we can make
progress towards morality.
Our job in politics is to findthe moral center the best that
we can and bring the politicalcenter to us.
And the reason I'm telling youthat story is because Maryland
(11:53):
ended up doing all those things.
Not because of me, but becauseof everybody who was in office
doing all those things thatinspired me to run for office in
the first place.
Um, we made the impossible,inevitable by operating from the
moral center, not the politicalcenter.
And you too can do that everysingle day in your work.
(12:17):
I have seen politics.
And I have seen government andI've seen public policy, and I
have seen social administrationwork here in the state of
Maryland, and you are the nextgeneration that's gonna make it
work.
(12:38):
The third reason I offer youcomes from a two minute
conversation that I had withPaul Essa Bina, who is the
manager.
Of the Hotel Dil Koen in Rwanda,and the subject of the movie
Hotel Rwanda about the Hutu Hutugenocide against the Tutsi
minority in Rwanda back in 1994.
(13:00):
And when the Hutu militaryunleashed a brutal campaign of
ethnic cleansing against theTutsi.
Uh, Mr.
Essa Bina, who is Hutu, allowedmore than 1000 Tutsi refugees to
secretly take shelter in hishotel, saving their lives.
And when I saw him speak aboutit more than a decade, LA later
(13:22):
I had the chance to ask him aquestion, and I asked him this
simple question.
I said, you risked your life andeverything you had to save other
people's lives.
What made you so different fromthe people who were unwilling to
act?
And he gave me this most amazinganswer.
He said, A lot of people walkaround with guilt and shame
(13:44):
about something they may havedone in the past, and that makes
them feel that they cannot actto do good in the present.
It paralyzes them.
But I realized, although I haddone some things I was not proud
of in my life, that I couldstill act to help a lot of other
people.
Now, you do not have to beperfect.
(14:04):
To do good in the world.
And so that's a reason for greathope, which you can carry with
you in the world.
You do not have to be perfect todo good and to be good.
My friend Kate Benic tells methat this will be key to your
success as a social worker.
You may have been in badtrouble.
Like Malcolm X was before hewent to prison, but you can make
(14:27):
a good trouble later on As mylate colleague and friend John
Lewis called it, you can alwaysgo from bad trouble to good
trouble in your life.
My fourth reason for hope isthat most of the common negative
messages.
We receive about human natureare just propaganda in
disinformation.
(14:48):
And the vast majority of humanbeings on Earth do good the vast
majority of the time.
And I can't prove this to you inone minute, but there's a great
book that I recommend to you byRucker Br Bregman called
Humankind, which can prove it toyou.
And by the way, this would makea great graduation gift for
(15:08):
anybody.
Still trying to find one.
Um, it's called humankind, butin the book, Bregman debunks
almost all of the key negativemessages we carry around in our
heads about the depravity of ourspecies.
You know, William Golden won aNobel Prize in literature
because of his novel, Lord ofthe Flies, which has sold tens
of millions of copies in whichwe all read and were traumatized
(15:32):
by in middle school.
But as Bregman explains it, thelore of the flies is completely
demolished.
As a thesis about human natureby the evidence of a real world
shipwreck of Australian schoolboys in 1965 who found
themselves stranded on a desertisland, and they created a
(15:52):
peaceful, functioning democraticcommunity with fairness and
rules and absolute decency.
And the boys form bonds oflifelong friendship.
And became men of real characterand conscience.
Meantime, the author of The Lordof the Flies, William Golden,
was a depressed misanthrope whoas a teacher once divided his
(16:13):
students up into gangs and urgedthem to fight one another.
I've always understood the Nazisgolden.
Once said in an interview,because I am of that sort by
nature, the Lord of the Flies isnot a reflection in the mirror
of human nature, but areflection in the mirror of its
author Bregman.
Similarly demolishes, the othermajor cultural proofs of human
(16:36):
depravity we carry around in ourminds like the Milgrom
experiments undertaken in theearly 1960s at Yale by a social
psychology professor whopurported to show that people
were willing to administerpainful shocks.
To experimental subjects if theywere told to do that by someone
in authority?
Well, Bregman shows the totallydubious methodology of the
(16:58):
study, and he demo debunks allof it as something verging on a
fraud.
The point is that so much ofwhat we've internalized about
the alleged evil of our ownspecies is just wrong and false.
The evidence is that whileundoubtedly there have been a
lot of fanatical andpathological leaders who come to
(17:18):
power, Vladimir Putin is one whocomes to mind from abroad.
Um, most people end up rejectingthese leaders as tyrants and
monsters, and your job is tohelp translate the ordinary
moral sentiments and intuitionsof the vast majority of the
people into effective publicaction reform and change.
(17:44):
My fifth, my fifth Reason forYou.
Um, is that whenever things lookgrim, if you feel surrounded one
day by corruption andinsurrection and inequality and
indifference, remember that westand on the shoulders of giants
(18:04):
who overcame far greater oddsthan we face.
Even today, Frederick Douglasswas born enslaved, not even hour
away from here.
At the Y River Plantation on theeastern shore, he escaped from
the violence and oppression ofslavery to become America's
leading abolitionist and freedomfighter and a major national
(18:26):
leader through Civil War and thereconstruction.
Harriet Tubman.
Was also born into slavery inMaryland and became a leading
abolitionist and freedom fighterwho rescued and liberated at
least 70 enslaved people on theeastern shore.
And Frederick Douglass said, ifthere is no struggle, there's no
progress.
(18:46):
The struggle may be moral orphysical, or moral and physical,
but there must be struggle,power concedes nothing without a
demand.
It never has and it never will.
A message to you from a fellowMarylander in the 19th century,
and if Frederick Douglass andHarriet Tug Tubman can conquer
slavery with the Supreme Courtagainst them and the US Senate
(19:09):
against them and.
The entire scientificestablishment against them.
We can conquer climate change inour time with the entire
scientific establishment on ourside.
We can make that happen and itmight not feel like it
sometimes, but you can look toanother great hero of the
(19:33):
American Revolution.
Tom Payne, who said, these arethe times that try men and
women's souls.
The summer soldier and thesunshine patriot will shrink at
this moment from the service oftheir cause in their country.
But everyone that stands with usnow will win the love and the
favor, and the affection ofevery man and every woman for
all time tyranny like hell isnot easily conquered, but we
(19:57):
have this saving consolation.
The more difficult the struggle,the more glorious in the end
will be our victory.
A message to you from the 18thcentury from Tom Payne.
Um, so my sixth reason is this,um, so many people belonging to
(20:20):
the new generations ofAmericans, uh, generations
millennial and Y and z and Ican't keep them all straight
because I'm sinking deep in themiddle age here.
But, um, all, all of the youngpeople that I know are way
beyond.
The racism, the sexism, thehomophobia, the immigrant
(20:41):
bashing.
They're also a little bit beyondgrammar too, but that's a
different problem.
Um, but they have succeededbeyond the false idols of the
past.
The young are committed toaddressing the climate crisis
and overcoming racism, and theyare serious about defending
(21:01):
freedom and expanding equalityin our country.
Our future is a pro-democracy,pro-freedom, pro-human rights
future, and you can see it inthe young people of America, and
there's a reason.
That reactionary forces inAmerica are trying to shut down
(21:22):
college student voting and todisenfranchise the young
population, but it will beimpossible to do that.
You cannot disenfranchise entiregenerations.
The real threat to theirempowerment is the crisis and
mental and emotional health.
And so if we can keep theirspirits up, if we can safeguard
their health and teach them howto organize, then democracy will
(21:47):
prevail in this new century.
And finally, my seventh andfinal reason for you comes from
my dad, Marcus Raskin, who was apolitical philosopher, and he
used to say to the kids in myfamily, when everything looks
hopeless, you are the hope.
(22:07):
You are the hope.
And yeah, I know that this is alot of pressure and even guilt
to impose on you on yourgraduation day, but when I look
out at this magnificent.
And Startlingly young class of2023 of graduating students, uh,
(22:28):
what, what just happened there?
Um, all I can see in your facesis hope.
Great hope for our future and inour future.
You are the hope, indeed and youwill be the hope.
For the countless people youcome to serve over the course of
(22:49):
your career.
So there are my seven reasonsfor hope for you.
I could actually give youhundreds more, but like all
commencement speakers, I've runout of time and the rest is up
to you.
So God's speed and may fortunelove you.
Thank you.
Charles Schelle (23:27):
Wow.
That, that was a lot for thatspeech.
He packed a lot of informationin.
A lot of great.
Reasons for hope.
I, I liked how he weaved alittle bit of everything, of,
what's on the line for thefuture and, and how social
workers can be the reason thatwe hope for a better future.
Dana Rampolla (23:48):
Yeah, and personally if you've taken any
time to read or if you haven't,you might wanna kind of Google
him.
He's been through a lot ofexperiences in the last year
that were really, I.
Challenging and emotionallyexhausting.
And for me to see that he cancome out of those experiences
and still inspire hope inothers, really speaks to who he
(24:08):
is as a human being.
So kudos to him for being ableto withstand all of that and
share such great wisdom witheveryone.
Charles Schelle (24:16):
Absolutely.
Our next speech is from theUniversity of Maryland, Carey
School of Law.
And this again, is formerMaryland Attorney General Brian
Frosh and his speech and messageto students.
And he really hits on,misinformation and truth and
honesty and some other, juststandup qualities that I think
(24:37):
we all should follow.
Brian Frosh (24:43):
Well, uh, thank you very much for that kind
introduction, Dean Hutchins.
I think it's gonna be straightdownhill from here.
I'd probably be better off justsitting back down.
Uh, and, uh, Well, let me, letme tell you about, uh, my
graduation from law school.
This is many years ago whendinosaurs still roamed the
(25:04):
earth.
We had a very distinguishedspeaker at our commencement, and
I don't remember his name.
Um, I don't remember anythingthat he said.
I do remember very distinctlywishing that he would stop
talking.
And, uh, all I can say is if youfind yourselves in that position
(25:26):
this morning, uh, Dean Hutchinsmade me do it.
Um, I wanna say congratulationsto all of you.
I was really impressed by theremarks of Sam and Kaka and, uh,
You all have a great deal to beproud of.
Uh, you take a big step in ajourney that you have shared
(25:48):
with your friends and your yourfamily, and you should take time
to savor that you are, uh, I'msure, excited.
Uh, you should be proud, uh, anduh, you probably are.
Uh, A bit uncertain as I know Iwas when I graduated from law
(26:10):
school.
But this is a watershed moment,uh, for all of you.
And, um, I know when Igraduated, and I'm sure you're
going through the same thing,I'm sitting there wondering, you
know, what's next?
Did I make the right choices?
Uh, will I ever find a job thatI think is fulfilling?
(26:32):
Uh, Will I ever get out of debt?
And I, I can tell you, I, I cananswer all of those questions
based on many, many years ofexperience.
I can answer them very directly.
I don't know.
Uh, when, when I look in themirror, I see an 18 year old
(26:52):
trapped in this aging wreck of abody and, and.
I, I spent decades in publicoffice.
I, you know, as Dean Hutchinsmentioned, I got bills passed.
I sued people, I prosecutedpeople, and the whole time I'm
thinking to myself, when are thegrownups coming back into
(27:14):
reassert control?
I, I don't, I don't think thosequestions ever go away for, for
anybody.
Um, and, uh, I know most of youare probably apprehensive about
the bar exam, and I'm going totell you a bar exam story.
So this is a trigger warning.
Okay?
(27:35):
This is a true story.
It didn't happen to me, but ithappened to one of my close
friends in law school.
Uh, he was in a five person barreview study course or study
group.
And, uh, at the end of day two,because back in those days there
were lots of essays.
It was a, an essay day, and hisgroup, uh, got together after
(27:57):
the day and somebody said, Ican't believe there was a
Marbury versus Madison questionon the essays.
And one kid said, what?
Marbury versus Madison question.
My friend said, you know, theone that was on the back of the
bar exam, he said, I neverlooked at the back of the bar
(28:20):
exam.
It was a 25 point question.
He failed by two points.
Yeah.
So, um, there.
There's some, there's somemorals to this story.
(28:42):
Of course, he made, he made hisfriends swear that he would not
be identified if anyone toldthis story.
But there the first lesson is,you know, you're lawyers.
You gotta look at every page,you gotta read every sentence,
you gotta read every word.
This guy, uh, let me go back andsay that this guy retired a
(29:04):
couple of years ago from a verylong and distinguished career.
As a judge, the second moral ofthe story is that it doesn't
matter how many times you getknocked down, it matters how
many times you get back up.
Um, if you haven't ever failedat anything, if you haven't ever
(29:33):
made a huge uh, mistake, youwill.
It's gonna happen.
It happens to everybody.
Um, and, uh, the, the thing isyou should try to avoid stupid
mistakes, but you're certainlygonna make mistakes.
And the critical thing is tofigure out what you did wrong,
(29:54):
pick yourself back up and go get'em, um, with your law degree.
You have a tool that will allowyou to improve the lives of your
clients and of society at large.
Thousands of years ago, theGreek scholar Archimedes said,
give me a place to stand and Iwill move the world.
(30:18):
What he was talking about wasleverage, and as a lawyer, you
have a powerful lever.
You have the ability to beagents of change.
Like the people who were sittingbehind me, like Congressman John
Sarbanes.
The law is your tool, and youshould use it as a force for
(30:40):
good and as a force for justice.
By graduating from law school,you've demonstrated that you
have the ability to thinkcritically, to analyze sharply,
to write compellingly, and tosolve problems.
Nimbly, you're in the 1% now.
Perhaps not in wealth, but interms of ability and achievement
(31:06):
and potential to make an impact,you are among the elite.
The skills that you have learnedare skills that throughout
history have improved the livesof human beings.
Uh, about.
10 or 15 years ago, I listenedto a course on cd.
It's one of the great courses.
It was a course called BigHistory, and it was taught by
(31:29):
Professor John Christian andit's now on the web.
It was literally a history fromthe Big Bang to today.
13.7 billion years in a fewlectures.
It was a half a billion or abillion years for each lecture
that he, uh, gave.
(31:50):
So the perspective is likenothing else you've, uh, ever
seen in any other course.
Uh, it starts with cosmology,the creation of the universe,
the formation of the galaxies,and ultimately our solar system.
And finally, the earth.
Then it moves into geology, themovement of, uh, continents and
(32:12):
then, uh, the beginning of lifebiology.
Um, and there are many lessonsin this course, but the one that
I think is most pertinent fortoday relates to the question of
why human beings have come todominate the earth.
(32:32):
Why we have spread over overevery continent and why we're
able to adapt to so manyenvironments and why we have
caused the instinct, eextinction of thousands and
thousands of other species andmanaged to, uh, survive
ourselves.
(32:52):
And the answer is not because wehave the biggest brains.
We don't, it's not because wehave opposable thumbs.
It's because of what ProfessorChristian calls, uh, collective
learning.
We, like many other animals,learn things and are able to, to
(33:12):
pass them on to our, uh,children and have them passed on
from, uh, our parents.
But we have, uh, Archivedaccumulated and passed on
knowledge from thousands ofyears ago and from thousands of
miles away.
Every case you read, every TVshow you watch, every modern
(33:36):
tool that you use from a pencilto a cell phone represents the
collective learning of millionsof people.
With the internet, with cellphone technology, the speed and
volume of collective learning,uh, grows and it grows
exponentially.
(33:57):
We know what a scientist acrossthe world has discovered.
Within minutes or even secondsof that discovery, you stand on
the cusp of the most rapidadvances in knowledge in
learning.
In human history, artificialintelligence, of course, will
(34:20):
accelerate those advances.
As lawyers, you are uniquelywell equipped to take advantage
of that rapid learning.
As I look across this gatheringthis room, I ask each of you to
capitalize on collectivelearning.
(34:44):
When we look around the worldtoday, it's clear that we need
change agents.
We see it across the planet in achanging warming climate that
threatens natural resources andthe lives of billions of people.
We see it right here at homewhere our nation is in turmoil,
(35:06):
racism, violence and hate seemto be on the rise.
At times the rule of law, thefoundation of our democracy and
the subject of your studies forthree years is under attack.
In my lifetime, the only periodthat was as perilous as troubled
(35:28):
was the 1960s when we were inthe middle of the struggle for
civil rights and in the middleof the Vietnam War in 1968.
Uh, Bobby Kennedy, the formerpresident's brother, not to be
confused with his slightly Aledson, Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr.
Uh, was running for presidentand, uh, Bobby Kennedy was to
(35:51):
speak at a rally inIndianapolis.
Shortly before the event, MartinLuther King was assassinated.
The Secret Service wantedKennedy to get out of town.
And he refused.
He insisted upon addressing thecrowd and they did not know that
King had been murdered.
There were no cell phones inthose days, no internet.
(36:13):
So when he told them, if youlisten to the recording, there's
kind of a collective gasp andthen cries and screams and spoke
extemporaneously.
And he, among the things that hesaid was the following, he said,
what we need in the UnitedStates is not division.
What we need in the UnitedStates is not hatred.
(36:36):
What we need in the UnitedStates is not violence or
lawlessness, but love and wisdomand compassion for one another,
and a feeling of justice towardsthose who still suffer in our
country.
Kennedy spoke those words 55years ago.
(36:57):
It's pretty clear.
That my generation has failed toachieve the ideals that he
expressed.
It's up to you.
I hope you will hold yourselfand your colleagues to the
highest standards.
I hope you will strengthen andadhere to and respect our legal
(37:20):
institutions.
Our democratic system cannotsurvive without them.
If you want to make adifference, take responsibility.
You now have a place to stand,change the world.
Thank you very much andcongratulations.
Jena Frick (37:54):
The UMB Pulse with Charles Schelle and Dana
Rampolla is a U M B Office ofCommunications and Public
Affairs production edited byCharles Schelle, marketing by
Dana Ramola.
You are listening to the heartbeat of the University
of Maryland, Baltimore, the UMBPulse.
Charles Schelle (00:17):
Dana, what do you love about commencement?
Dana Rampolla (00:19):
I think one of my favorite things is when I hear
pomp and circumstance startplaying every single time when I
was graduating from high schooluntil our recent commencement
here at U M B, I hear thosefirst couple notes and I just
get that tight feeling in mychest and start to tear up.
Charles Schelle (00:37):
So you take the, uh, emotional.
Yes.
Route and emotional experiencewith it.
I really like a good speech,even though I cannot tell you
what my undergrad speech wasabout.
I kind of remember who it was.
Oh boy.
It was a columnist for theWashington Post.
But in the moment you like tohear those inspiring words.
Being able to work commencementlike the both of us each year,
(01:00):
we hear a lot of speeches,right?
Dana Rampolla (01:03):
Yeah, for sure.
And it's, it is interestingbecause I agree with you, I
don't remember anything aboutany of my commencement speeches,
which is really a sad statement,but, Being an employee at the
University of Maryland,Baltimore, and having the
opportunity to sit through asmany as we do each year, there
are some that just really standout and resonate with me as a
(01:23):
person, as a professional, andas a, as a mom.
You know, I'm always thinkingabout what my, my children heard
when they were graduating, andwhat our students here and how
it feels for their family to sitthere and hear great speeches.
Charles Schelle (01:36):
So for this episode, we're doing things a
little bit different.
We thought, let's celebrate thecommencement season and let's
provide some moments of hope andinspiration.
We talk about changemakersthroughout this past season and,
these guest speakers aredefinitely changemakers in their
own right.
We wanna highlight two personalfavorite speeches this year.
(01:58):
One is from Congressman JamieRaskin, who represents
Maryland's eighth CongressionalDistrict.
He spoke at the University ofMaryland School of Social Works
Convocation Ceremony.
And what I really liked abouthis speech was that it provided
hope, seven reasons of hope somuch that he went into why
(02:22):
social workers are important toour society and to democracy and
hope for the future.
Dana Rampolla (02:30):
And our second speech that we're excited to
share is from our formerMaryland Attorney General Brian
Frosh.
He served in that role from 2015to 2023, and he had some great
advice and stories forgraduates.
One that really stuck out was astory about a classmate who
didn't turn the last page whenhe took the bar exam and he
missed a question and thereforefailed by two points.
(02:52):
Oh, it's all in the details.
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
Yeah, he was really enjoyableand just such a, a calm and
compassionate speaker.
I, I think it was one of myfavorites for sure.
Charles Schelle (03:03):
Definitely.
And we've had a few otherspeeches and, and we couldn't
put them all in this episode.
Unless you wanted to be here formaybe two hours.
So, uh, for our other speecheswe have links in our episode
description that we wanted tohighlight.
One is a short and funny speechfrom University of Maryland
(03:24):
School of Medicine's, NicholasPonte, uh, he received the
Outstanding Scholar Award.
Really funny anecdote.
I don't wanna spoil it, but alittle bit of salty and friendly
life advice given to him by apatient of his, um, uh, another
one from the School of Medicinewas Dana Bowen Matthew, uh, she
is a professor of law at GeorgeWashington University School of
(03:46):
Law.
She gave great advice for hopeand inspiration as well, and
working in the medical field,especially when it comes to
equity and diversity.
she's also an author and in 2015she served as the senior advisor
to the director of Office ofCivil Rights for the US
Environmental Protection Agency.
(04:07):
So again, check those, links inour show notes and episode
description to listen to those.
But first one tap is CongressmanJamie Raskin.
Jamie Raskin (04:32):
Well, thank you Dean Postmus and um, uh, to you
Dean Postmus and distinguishedfaculty members to the moms and
dads out there, thegrandparents, the uncles and
aunts.
Us and cousins and friends andsiblings, uh, to the 2023
(04:53):
graduating class of theUniversity of Maryland School of
Social Work and to the, uh,convocation committee that
invited me especially, uh, it'san honor to address one of the
nation's great schools of socialwork.
You have an illustrious andstoried past here and every
time.
(05:13):
I hear your name.
It makes me proud of our stategraduates.
You enter an extraordinaryprofession.
It has been central to thedevelopment of the major
civilizing movements and socialreforms of the last century in
our country.
And the history of social workhas been profoundly intertwined
(05:35):
with the history of feminism andwomen's political participation
in our country.
Our first female cabinet member.
The great Francis Perkins whoserved in President Franklin d
Roosevelt's cabinet was a socialworker.
She played an instrumental rolein the creation of social
security and the passage of thefederal minimum wage law, and
(05:57):
she placed the ethic of socialsolidarity and mutual support at
the center of the New Deal.
The first woman ever elected toCongress.
Jeanette Rankin from Montana in1916 was a social worker.
And a Republican.
She was a passionate campaignerfor a woman's suffrage.
And after being elected toCongress from a state that
(06:19):
enfranchised women early, shefought for the 19th Amendment
for all women to get the rightto vote, and that was ratified
four years after she went intothe house.
She was a crusader for socialreform, for voting rights and
election reform, and apassionate anti-war activist who
voted against us participationin the first World War.
(06:41):
Barbara McClusky, the firstwoman ever elected to the United
States Senate in Maryland, aDemocrat, and the longest
serving senator in our state'shistory was and still is a
committed social worker.
And she, of course, went to thisgreat school, um, and Senator
Mikulski talks about it all thetime as a formative influence in
(07:04):
both her professional life andher political life.
And for her public office, shesaid was just social work with
power.
And she never abandoned thesense of social mission and
public purpose that she learnedright here with this amazing
faculty.
So I know that you launched yourcareers with a spirit of great
(07:24):
pride in the past than deepaffection for this remarkable
institution.
But I also don't need to tellyou that we're sending you off
to do nearly impossible work.
Under conditions of sharppolitical polarization and
dramatic economic inequality,and that you will almost
certainly be underpaid for yourindispensable and excellent and
(07:46):
intricate service to ourcommunities.
And yet, and yet, I cannot thinkof anyone in America.
In a better position to help oursociety and shape a positive
American future than the membersof your graduating class.
(08:12):
And because I am allotted, uh,just 10 minutes here and a
foolishly.
Already used three of themtelling you things you already
know.
Uh, I wanna give you sevenreasons before I leave you, for
you to be feeling tremendousoptimism about your work and
hope for the American future.
(08:32):
So it's seven reasons in sevenminutes.
One reason for hope enclosed ineach remaining minute I have.
And the first reason I bring youis for my own political career.
And when I first got intopolitics, I ran for the Maryland
State Senate against a 32 yearincumbent who was president pro
(08:53):
tem of the Senate and the bossof our local political machine
in Montgomery County.
And when I announced theMontgomery Journal, our local
paper quoted pundit who said,Raskin's, chances of victory are
considered impossible.
And nine months later we got 67%of the vote, and the Washington
Post had an article quotingpundit who said Raskin's victory
(09:16):
was inevitable.
So we went from impossible toinevitable in nine months.
Because the pundits are neverwrong, but I like to tell young
people that in politics, nothingis impossible and nothing is
inevitable.
But it's only just possiblethrough education and organizing
and mobilizing people for changeand anything that seems
(09:40):
inevitable.
Was once considered impossible.
So you and your careers, by yourcreativity in your college, your
compassion and your educationwill regularly make the
impossible, inevitable in thelives of other citizens and
other families.
And that's the first reason Iwant you to be optimistic today.
(10:04):
And the second also comes fromthat same campaign of mine back
in 2006.
And when I did my kickoff speechand subfreezing weather in
January, I laid out all theimpossible things that I wanted
to do in Annapolis and DeanPostmus, uh, mentioned some of
them like passing marriageequality and abolishing the
(10:25):
death penalty and bound banning,uh, military style assault
weapons in our state.
And adopting a national popularvote and enacting medical
marijuana for sick people.
And after I gave my speech, awoman came up to me and she
said, Grammy, Jamie, greatspeech.
I loved your speech, but onething she said, take out
everything you've got in thatspeech about gay marriage
(10:47):
because it's not gonna happen.
It's never gonna happen.
And it makes you sound likeyou're really extreme, like
you're not in the politicalcenter.
And I had to swallow hardbecause I didn't have man that
many, um, Attendees with me thatday when I kicked off, and I
didn't want to offend her, butmy three kids were right there
watching, and I remember so muchmy 11 year old son, Tommy, being
(11:11):
there and looking right at me tosee how I was gonna respond.
And so I said, thank you verymuch for telling me that,
because it makes me realize thatit's not my ambition to be in
the political center.
It's my ambition to be in themoral center.
And that's why I call myself.
(11:32):
That's why I call myself aprogressive.
The heart of that word isprogress, and we can make
progress towards morality.
Our job in politics is to findthe moral center the best that
we can and bring the politicalcenter to us.
And the reason I'm telling youthat story is because Maryland
(11:53):
ended up doing all those things.
Not because of me, but becauseof everybody who was in office
doing all those things thatinspired me to run for office in
the first place.
Um, we made the impossible,inevitable by operating from the
moral center, not the politicalcenter.
And you too can do that everysingle day in your work.
(12:17):
I have seen politics.
And I have seen government andI've seen public policy, and I
have seen social administrationwork here in the state of
Maryland, and you are the nextgeneration that's gonna make it
work.
(12:38):
The third reason I offer youcomes from a two minute
conversation that I had withPaul Essa Bina, who is the
manager.
Of the Hotel Dil Koen in Rwanda,and the subject of the movie
Hotel Rwanda about the Hutu Hutugenocide against the Tutsi
minority in Rwanda back in 1994.
(13:00):
And when the Hutu militaryunleashed a brutal campaign of
ethnic cleansing against theTutsi.
Uh, Mr.
Essa Bina, who is Hutu, allowedmore than 1000 Tutsi refugees to
secretly take shelter in hishotel, saving their lives.
And when I saw him speak aboutit more than a decade, LA later
(13:22):
I had the chance to ask him aquestion, and I asked him this
simple question.
I said, you risked your life andeverything you had to save other
people's lives.
What made you so different fromthe people who were unwilling to
act?
And he gave me this most amazinganswer.
He said, A lot of people walkaround with guilt and shame
(13:44):
about something they may havedone in the past, and that makes
them feel that they cannot actto do good in the present.
It paralyzes them.
But I realized, although I haddone some things I was not proud
of in my life, that I couldstill act to help a lot of other
people.
Now, you do not have to beperfect.
(14:04):
To do good in the world.
And so that's a reason for greathope, which you can carry with
you in the world.
You do not have to be perfect todo good and to be good.
My friend Kate Benic tells methat this will be key to your
success as a social worker.
You may have been in badtrouble.
Like Malcolm X was before hewent to prison, but you can make
(14:27):
a good trouble later on As mylate colleague and friend John
Lewis called it, you can alwaysgo from bad trouble to good
trouble in your life.
My fourth reason for hope isthat most of the common negative
messages.
We receive about human natureare just propaganda in
disinformation.
(14:48):
And the vast majority of humanbeings on Earth do good the vast
majority of the time.
And I can't prove this to you inone minute, but there's a great
book that I recommend to you byRucker Br Bregman called
Humankind, which can prove it toyou.
And by the way, this would makea great graduation gift for
(15:08):
anybody.
Still trying to find one.
Um, it's called humankind, butin the book, Bregman debunks
almost all of the key negativemessages we carry around in our
heads about the depravity of ourspecies.
You know, William Golden won aNobel Prize in literature
because of his novel, Lord ofthe Flies, which has sold tens
of millions of copies in whichwe all read and were traumatized
(15:32):
by in middle school.
But as Bregman explains it, thelore of the flies is completely
demolished.
As a thesis about human natureby the evidence of a real world
shipwreck of Australian schoolboys in 1965 who found
themselves stranded on a desertisland, and they created a
(15:52):
peaceful, functioning democraticcommunity with fairness and
rules and absolute decency.
And the boys form bonds oflifelong friendship.
And became men of real characterand conscience.
Meantime, the author of The Lordof the Flies, William Golden,
was a depressed misanthrope whoas a teacher once divided his
(16:13):
students up into gangs and urgedthem to fight one another.
I've always understood the Nazisgolden.
Once said in an interview,because I am of that sort by
nature, the Lord of the Flies isnot a reflection in the mirror
of human nature, but areflection in the mirror of its
author Bregman.
Similarly demolishes, the othermajor cultural proofs of human
(16:36):
depravity we carry around in ourminds like the Milgrom
experiments undertaken in theearly 1960s at Yale by a social
psychology professor whopurported to show that people
were willing to administerpainful shocks.
To experimental subjects if theywere told to do that by someone
in authority?
Well, Bregman shows the totallydubious methodology of the
(16:58):
study, and he demo debunks allof it as something verging on a
fraud.
The point is that so much ofwhat we've internalized about
the alleged evil of our ownspecies is just wrong and false.
The evidence is that whileundoubtedly there have been a
lot of fanatical andpathological leaders who come to
(17:18):
power, Vladimir Putin is one whocomes to mind from abroad.
Um, most people end up rejectingthese leaders as tyrants and
monsters, and your job is tohelp translate the ordinary
moral sentiments and intuitionsof the vast majority of the
people into effective publicaction reform and change.
(17:44):
My fifth, my fifth Reason forYou.
Um, is that whenever things lookgrim, if you feel surrounded one
day by corruption andinsurrection and inequality and
indifference, remember that westand on the shoulders of giants
(18:04):
who overcame far greater oddsthan we face.
Even today, Frederick Douglasswas born enslaved, not even hour
away from here.
At the Y River Plantation on theeastern shore, he escaped from
the violence and oppression ofslavery to become America's
leading abolitionist and freedomfighter and a major national
(18:26):
leader through Civil War and thereconstruction.
Harriet Tubman.
Was also born into slavery inMaryland and became a leading
abolitionist and freedom fighterwho rescued and liberated at
least 70 enslaved people on theeastern shore.
And Frederick Douglass said, ifthere is no struggle, there's no
progress.
(18:46):
The struggle may be moral orphysical, or moral and physical,
but there must be struggle,power concedes nothing without a
demand.
It never has and it never will.
A message to you from a fellowMarylander in the 19th century,
and if Frederick Douglass andHarriet Tug Tubman can conquer
slavery with the Supreme Courtagainst them and the US Senate
(19:09):
against them and.
The entire scientificestablishment against them.
We can conquer climate change inour time with the entire
scientific establishment on ourside.
We can make that happen and itmight not feel like it
sometimes, but you can look toanother great hero of the
(19:33):
American Revolution.
Tom Payne, who said, these arethe times that try men and
women's souls.
The summer soldier and thesunshine patriot will shrink at
this moment from the service oftheir cause in their country.
But everyone that stands with usnow will win the love and the
favor, and the affection ofevery man and every woman for
all time tyranny like hell isnot easily conquered, but we
(19:57):
have this saving consolation.
The more difficult the struggle,the more glorious in the end
will be our victory.
A message to you from the 18thcentury from Tom Payne.
Um, so my sixth reason is this,um, so many people belonging to
(20:20):
the new generations ofAmericans, uh, generations
millennial and Y and z and Ican't keep them all straight
because I'm sinking deep in themiddle age here.
But, um, all, all of the youngpeople that I know are way
beyond.
The racism, the sexism, thehomophobia, the immigrant
(20:41):
bashing.
They're also a little bit beyondgrammar too, but that's a
different problem.
Um, but they have succeededbeyond the false idols of the
past.
The young are committed toaddressing the climate crisis
and overcoming racism, and theyare serious about defending
(21:01):
freedom and expanding equalityin our country.
Our future is a pro-democracy,pro-freedom, pro-human rights
future, and you can see it inthe young people of America, and
there's a reason.
That reactionary forces inAmerica are trying to shut down
(21:22):
college student voting and todisenfranchise the young
population, but it will beimpossible to do that.
You cannot disenfranchise entiregenerations.
The real threat to theirempowerment is the crisis and
mental and emotional health.
And so if we can keep theirspirits up, if we can safeguard
their health and teach them howto organize, then democracy will
(21:47):
prevail in this new century.
And finally, my seventh andfinal reason for you comes from
my dad, Marcus Raskin, who was apolitical philosopher, and he
used to say to the kids in myfamily, when everything looks
hopeless, you are the hope.
(22:07):
You are the hope.
And yeah, I know that this is alot of pressure and even guilt
to impose on you on yourgraduation day, but when I look
out at this magnificent.
And Startlingly young class of2023 of graduating students, uh,
(22:28):
what, what just happened there?
Um, all I can see in your facesis hope.
Great hope for our future and inour future.
You are the hope, indeed and youwill be the hope.
For the countless people youcome to serve over the course of
(22:49):
your career.
So there are my seven reasonsfor hope for you.
I could actually give youhundreds more, but like all
commencement speakers, I've runout of time and the rest is up
to you.
So God's speed and may fortunelove you.
Thank you.
Charles Schelle (23:27):
Wow.
That, that was a lot for thatspeech.
He packed a lot of informationin.
A lot of great.
Reasons for hope.
I, I liked how he weaved alittle bit of everything, of,
what's on the line for thefuture and, and how social
workers can be the reason thatwe hope for a better future.
Dana Rampolla (23:48):
Yeah, and personally if you've taken any
time to read or if you haven't,you might wanna kind of Google
him.
He's been through a lot ofexperiences in the last year
that were really, I.
Challenging and emotionallyexhausting.
And for me to see that he cancome out of those experiences
and still inspire hope inothers, really speaks to who he
(24:08):
is as a human being.
So kudos to him for being ableto withstand all of that and
share such great wisdom witheveryone.
Charles Schelle (24:16):
Absolutely.
Our next speech is from theUniversity of Maryland, Carey
School of Law.
And this again, is formerMaryland Attorney General Brian
Frosh and his speech and messageto students.
And he really hits on,misinformation and truth and
honesty and some other, juststandup qualities that I think
(24:37):
we all should follow.
Brian Frosh (24:43):
Well, uh, thank you very much for that kind
introduction, Dean Hutchins.
I think it's gonna be straightdownhill from here.
I'd probably be better off justsitting back down.
Uh, and, uh, Well, let me, letme tell you about, uh, my
graduation from law school.
This is many years ago whendinosaurs still roamed the
(25:04):
earth.
We had a very distinguishedspeaker at our commencement, and
I don't remember his name.
Um, I don't remember anythingthat he said.
I do remember very distinctlywishing that he would stop
talking.
And, uh, all I can say is if youfind yourselves in that position
(25:26):
this morning, uh, Dean Hutchinsmade me do it.
Um, I wanna say congratulationsto all of you.
I was really impressed by theremarks of Sam and Kaka and, uh,
You all have a great deal to beproud of.
Uh, you take a big step in ajourney that you have shared
(25:48):
with your friends and your yourfamily, and you should take time
to savor that you are, uh, I'msure, excited.
Uh, you should be proud, uh, anduh, you probably are.
Uh, A bit uncertain as I know Iwas when I graduated from law
(26:10):
school.
But this is a watershed moment,uh, for all of you.
And, um, I know when Igraduated, and I'm sure you're
going through the same thing,I'm sitting there wondering, you
know, what's next?
Did I make the right choices?
Uh, will I ever find a job thatI think is fulfilling?
(26:32):
Uh, Will I ever get out of debt?
And I, I can tell you, I, I cananswer all of those questions
based on many, many years ofexperience.
I can answer them very directly.
I don't know.
Uh, when, when I look in themirror, I see an 18 year old
(26:52):
trapped in this aging wreck of abody and, and.
I, I spent decades in publicoffice.
I, you know, as Dean Hutchinsmentioned, I got bills passed.
I sued people, I prosecutedpeople, and the whole time I'm
thinking to myself, when are thegrownups coming back into
(27:14):
reassert control?
I, I don't, I don't think thosequestions ever go away for, for
anybody.
Um, and, uh, I know most of youare probably apprehensive about
the bar exam, and I'm going totell you a bar exam story.
So this is a trigger warning.
Okay?
(27:35):
This is a true story.
It didn't happen to me, but ithappened to one of my close
friends in law school.
Uh, he was in a five person barreview study course or study
group.
And, uh, at the end of day two,because back in those days there
were lots of essays.
It was a, an essay day, and hisgroup, uh, got together after
(27:57):
the day and somebody said, Ican't believe there was a
Marbury versus Madison questionon the essays.
And one kid said, what?
Marbury versus Madison question.
My friend said, you know, theone that was on the back of the
bar exam, he said, I neverlooked at the back of the bar
(28:20):
exam.
It was a 25 point question.
He failed by two points.
Yeah.
So, um, there.
There's some, there's somemorals to this story.
(28:42):
Of course, he made, he made hisfriends swear that he would not
be identified if anyone toldthis story.
But there the first lesson is,you know, you're lawyers.
You gotta look at every page,you gotta read every sentence,
you gotta read every word.
This guy, uh, let me go back andsay that this guy retired a
(29:04):
couple of years ago from a verylong and distinguished career.
As a judge, the second moral ofthe story is that it doesn't
matter how many times you getknocked down, it matters how
many times you get back up.
Um, if you haven't ever failedat anything, if you haven't ever
(29:33):
made a huge uh, mistake, youwill.
It's gonna happen.
It happens to everybody.
Um, and, uh, the, the thing isyou should try to avoid stupid
mistakes, but you're certainlygonna make mistakes.
And the critical thing is tofigure out what you did wrong,
(29:54):
pick yourself back up and go get'em, um, with your law degree.
You have a tool that will allowyou to improve the lives of your
clients and of society at large.
Thousands of years ago, theGreek scholar Archimedes said,
give me a place to stand and Iwill move the world.
(30:18):
What he was talking about wasleverage, and as a lawyer, you
have a powerful lever.
You have the ability to beagents of change.
Like the people who were sittingbehind me, like Congressman John
Sarbanes.
The law is your tool, and youshould use it as a force for
(30:40):
good and as a force for justice.
By graduating from law school,you've demonstrated that you
have the ability to thinkcritically, to analyze sharply,
to write compellingly, and tosolve problems.
Nimbly, you're in the 1% now.
Perhaps not in wealth, but interms of ability and achievement
(31:06):
and potential to make an impact,you are among the elite.
The skills that you have learnedare skills that throughout
history have improved the livesof human beings.
Uh, about.
10 or 15 years ago, I listenedto a course on cd.
It's one of the great courses.
It was a course called BigHistory, and it was taught by
(31:29):
Professor John Christian andit's now on the web.
It was literally a history fromthe Big Bang to today.
13.7 billion years in a fewlectures.
It was a half a billion or abillion years for each lecture
that he, uh, gave.
(31:50):
So the perspective is likenothing else you've, uh, ever
seen in any other course.
Uh, it starts with cosmology,the creation of the universe,
the formation of the galaxies,and ultimately our solar system.
And finally, the earth.
Then it moves into geology, themovement of, uh, continents and
(32:12):
then, uh, the beginning of lifebiology.
Um, and there are many lessonsin this course, but the one that
I think is most pertinent fortoday relates to the question of
why human beings have come todominate the earth.
(32:32):
Why we have spread over overevery continent and why we're
able to adapt to so manyenvironments and why we have
caused the instinct, eextinction of thousands and
thousands of other species andmanaged to, uh, survive
ourselves.
(32:52):
And the answer is not because wehave the biggest brains.
We don't, it's not because wehave opposable thumbs.
It's because of what ProfessorChristian calls, uh, collective
learning.
We, like many other animals,learn things and are able to, to
(33:12):
pass them on to our, uh,children and have them passed on
from, uh, our parents.
But we have, uh, Archivedaccumulated and passed on
knowledge from thousands ofyears ago and from thousands of
miles away.
Every case you read, every TVshow you watch, every modern
(33:36):
tool that you use from a pencilto a cell phone represents the
collective learning of millionsof people.
With the internet, with cellphone technology, the speed and
volume of collective learning,uh, grows and it grows
exponentially.
(33:57):
We know what a scientist acrossthe world has discovered.
Within minutes or even secondsof that discovery, you stand on
the cusp of the most rapidadvances in knowledge in
learning.
In human history, artificialintelligence, of course, will
(34:20):
accelerate those advances.
As lawyers, you are uniquelywell equipped to take advantage
of that rapid learning.
As I look across this gatheringthis room, I ask each of you to
capitalize on collectivelearning.
(34:44):
When we look around the worldtoday, it's clear that we need
change agents.
We see it across the planet in achanging warming climate that
threatens natural resources andthe lives of billions of people.
We see it right here at homewhere our nation is in turmoil,
(35:06):
racism, violence and hate seemto be on the rise.
At times the rule of law, thefoundation of our democracy and
the subject of your studies forthree years is under attack.
In my lifetime, the only periodthat was as perilous as troubled
(35:28):
was the 1960s when we were inthe middle of the struggle for
civil rights and in the middleof the Vietnam War in 1968.
Uh, Bobby Kennedy, the formerpresident's brother, not to be
confused with his slightly Aledson, Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr.
Uh, was running for presidentand, uh, Bobby Kennedy was to
(35:51):
speak at a rally inIndianapolis.
Shortly before the event, MartinLuther King was assassinated.
The Secret Service wantedKennedy to get out of town.
And he refused.
He insisted upon addressing thecrowd and they did not know that
King had been murdered.
There were no cell phones inthose days, no internet.
(36:13):
So when he told them, if youlisten to the recording, there's
kind of a collective gasp andthen cries and screams and spoke
extemporaneously.
And he, among the things that hesaid was the following, he said,
what we need in the UnitedStates is not division.
What we need in the UnitedStates is not hatred.
(36:36):
What we need in the UnitedStates is not violence or
lawlessness, but love and wisdomand compassion for one another,
and a feeling of justice towardsthose who still suffer in our
country.
Kennedy spoke those words 55years ago.
(36:57):
It's pretty clear.
That my generation has failed toachieve the ideals that he
expressed.
It's up to you.
I hope you will hold yourselfand your colleagues to the
highest standards.
I hope you will strengthen andadhere to and respect our legal
(37:20):
institutions.
Our democratic system cannotsurvive without them.
If you want to make adifference, take responsibility.
You now have a place to stand,change the world.
Thank you very much andcongratulations.
Jena Frick (37:54):
The UMB Pulse with Charles Schelle and Dana
Rampolla is a U M B Office ofCommunications and Public
Affairs production edited byCharles Schelle, marketing by
Dana Ramola.
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