UMB Class of 2025: Stepping into Greatness, Service, and Truth

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In this graduation season compilation on “The UMB Pulse,” hear from three of the visionary leaders who spoke directly to the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Class of 2025 — and to anyone entering a world that desperately needs bold, ethical leadership.
 

·       Paul A. Offit, MD ’77, director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, opens with a personal and historical reminder of why public trust in science — and vaccines — must be protected at all costs. (05:36)
  

·       Zach Noel, PharmD, PhD ’23, BCC, associate professor at the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy, brings heartfelt storytelling and humor to the stage, challenging graduates to choose their “auxiliary labels” wisely and live their values with purpose. (21:09)

·       Sherrilyn Ifill, JD, the Vernon Jordan Distinguished Professor in Civil Rights and founding director of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy at Howard University School of Law, closes with a profound call to action — urging law graduates to become the next generation of founders and framers, rebuilding a democracy in crisis. (31:10)

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Episode Transcript

Charles Schelle (00:00):
Congratulations to the University of Maryland

(00:02):
Baltimore class of 2025!

Dana Rampolla (00:03):
Woo.

Charles Schelle (00:04):
We did it! Well, it feels like, there are
certain types of graduation speeches.
All of them are different, but there,there are certain structures and, and
between Dana and myself, I think we'veheard plenty through the years and I.
We're gonna play a littlegame on this podcast.
We won't tell you the answers.
You're gonna have to decide foryourself, you know, which type of

(00:27):
graduation speeches are you going tolisten to this year in the UMB Pulse.
So I think, uh, the way that I'm lookingat these, there's the, your time is
now where you have to take the reins.
Um, there's themetaphorical, maybe a label.
Or something is representing,um, something in somebody's life

(00:48):
that, that's really important.
Uh, there's the reflective wherethey look back, uh, on their journey
and remember all the people that,um, have helped 'em along the way.
And, there's the stakescould never be higher.
And it feels like every year a speakermight say something about, you know, we're

(01:08):
at a critical juncture in this country.
Um, but I feel like maybe this yearthe stakes have raised a little bit
higher of, what do you think, Dana?
I.

Dana Rampoll (01:17):
Yeah, it could be.
I think you're right.
Every year there's kind of a callto action, like as you're graduating
and you start that next season oflife to take something with you
that you can bring to the future.
And this year I do, I do feel like anumber of people touched on situations or.
I don't wanna say problems, but for lackof better word, problems going on within

(01:41):
our own communities, our own country.
And I think people havebeen called to to act.

Charles Schelle (01:48):
Right.
And so we've balanced this year'sbetween the, the serious talking about,
um, misinformation, truth, um, vaccine,uh, vaccines and why they're important,
uh, the democracy along with your more,I would say, lighter, encouraging.
Um, speeches and they will rangefrom maybe about 15 minutes or so

(02:12):
to one by Sherrilyn Ifill, , atthe end to over 30 minutes.
So, um, they are well worth everyminute when you listen to them.
So of course if you want to hear aspecific speech, just check the show
notes for those timestamps and jump ahead.
You can always double back if you decidethat you wanna listen to the others
after you get to the one, um, you wanted.

(02:33):
So.
Let's tell you a little bit more aboutwho you'll hear from on this episode..

Dana Rampolla (02:38):
We're gonna get started with Dr. Paul Offit, who is an
internationally recognized expert inthe fields of virology and immunology.
He serves as the director of theVaccine Education Center and Professor
of Pediatrics in the Divisionof Infectious Diseases at the
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
He is also the Maurice R Hillmanprofessor of Vaccinology at the

(02:59):
Perleman School of Medicine atthe University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Offit is a well-published expert inthe areas of Rotavirus specific immune
responses and vaccine safety, and theco-inventor of the Rotavirus vaccine
RotaTeq, which is recommended foruniversal use in infants by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.

(03:20):
He is also a proud and engagedalum of the University of Maryland
School of Medicine class of 1977.

Charle (03:31):
Let's get the pharmacist involved this year with Zach Noel.
Dr. Noel is a teaching associateprofessor in the Division of Practice
Advancement and Clinical Educationat the University of North Carolina
Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
. Dr. Noel is a outpatient cardiologyclinical pharmacist at UNC Health
Hillsborough campus serves asan instructor in course manager

(03:54):
within the pharmacotherapy seriesand conducts research within
health professions education.
Prior to joining UNC in 2023, Dr.
Noel was a faculty member here atthe University of Maryland School
of Pharmacy for seven years.
During this time, he was a clinicalpharmacy specialist at the University of
Maryland Medical Center, co-coordinatorof the postgraduate year two cardiology

(04:17):
residency program, and activelyengage with teaching and managing
courses within the pharmacotherapyseries of the pharm D curriculum.
It was here at the University ofMaryland School of Pharmacy Dr. Noel
developed a passion for evidence-basededucation that led him to earning a
PhD in health professions educationfrom the University of Maryland

(04:39):
School of Graduate Studies in 2023.
Finally we will hear from Sherrilyn Ifill.
She's the Vernon Jordan distinguishedprofessor in civil rights at Howard
University School of Law and foundingdirector of the 14th Amendment
Center for Law and Democracy.
Ifill taught at Maryland Carey Lawfor 20 years, from 1993 to 2013 before

(05:01):
leading the NAACP Legal Defense andEducational Fund for nine years.
Confronting the Legacy of Lynching inthe 21st Century" was highly claimed and
is credited for laying the foundationfor contemporary conversations
about lynching and reconciliation.
Ifill was elected to the American Academyof Arts and Sciences in 2019 and was named

(05:24):
by Time Magazine as one of the 100 mostinfluential people in the world in 2021.

Dana Rampolla (05:30):
There's a lot of inspiration ahead in this episode,
so make sure you have a full tankof gas or a load up on snacks.
Let's kick things off with Dr. PaulOffit, talking about the importance
of vaccines, public trust in science,and the dangers of misinformation to
the School of Medicine class of 2025.

Paul A. Offit (05:50):
First of all, congratulations, you made it.
So, my parents were children in the 1920s.
Their parents or my grandparents werescared of diphtheria, which killed 15,000
people every year, mostly children.
They were scared of pertussisor whooping cough, which killed

(06:10):
about 8,000 children a year.
I was a child of the 1950s.
Um, my parents feared polio, whichcould, could paralyze as many as 50,000
children every year and kill 1800.
Um, I was, um, actually in a polioward when I was five years old.
I didn't have polio.
I had a failed operation on my rightfoot, which led left me in a chronic care

(06:33):
facility, specifically what was calledCronan's Hospital for Crippled Children.
Back in the days when you could usewords like crippled and feeble-minded
in the names of children's hospitals.
Um, but I remember polio.
I mean, I remember children in iron lungs.
I remember the sister Kenny HotPack treatments where they would
put, um, these excruciatingly hotpacks on withered arms and legs in

(06:54):
the hopes of restoring function.
I remember children screaming,there was one visiting hour a week.
On Sundays from two to three, uh,my mother couldn't come because she
was, um, ill with a complicationwith my brother's pregnancy.
My father was a traveling salesman,so he actually also didn't come.
And I just remember there was a, a windowto the left side of my bed that looked
out on the front of that hospital, andI just kept staring out that window,

(07:17):
hoping some would, would save me.
I mean, it was a experience likethat out of a Dickens novel.
Um, they were also scared of measles,which could cause, um, as many as
48,000 hospitals every year and 500deaths primarily from pneumonia,
dehydration, and encephalitis.
And of those who had encephalitis,there was about a thousand cases of
encephalitis for measles every year.

(07:38):
Um, about a quarter wouldbe left, blind or death.
They were scared of mumps, the mostcommon cause of acquired deafness.
They were scared of rubella, which when,and infected pregnant women caused a
high probability of delivering childrenwith congenital birth defects like
heart defects, blindness, and deafness.
When I graduated from here, I did myresidency, my pediatric residency at

(08:00):
Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh,and they had a rotation in that
first year where you were, um, on 12hours on 12 hours off for 21 straight
days in the emergency department.
At the end of which you werelike psychotic, but you know
that that was what that thought.
And I remember I did two to three spinaltaps every night that I was on call.

(08:21):
Why?
Because we didn't have vaccinesagainst Hemophilus, influenza B, or
Meningococcus, or pneumococcus, whichwere common causes of meningitis.
Today, the pediatric residents in ourhospital at Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia don't do spinal taps.
They don't know how to do them.
When, when the child comes in withsuspected bacterial meningitis, which
is rare, it's the interventionalradiologist that does the spinal tap.

(08:45):
Now my children were born in the 1990s.
My wife and I were scared ofrotavirus, which as an intestinal
infection would cause severedehydration and hospitalization, and
about 70,000 children every year.
We were scared of respiratorysyncytial virus, which was the most
common cause of hospitalizationfor young children, accounting for
about 80,000 hospitalizations everyyear, and a hundred, 300 deaths.

(09:07):
We now have actually a maternalvaccination and a monoclonal
antibody to prevent that.
And, and over this past year, it'sbeen available and it's been, uh,
not widely used, but used enoughso that you're starting to see a
drop in the infant mortality rate.
My grandchildren, um,were born a few years ago.
These two ridiculously cute grandchildrenwere born, uh, in the past few years.

(09:28):
And, uh, my son and daughter-in-lawdon't fear any of these
diseases, which is the problem.
Um, I think not only have we largely asI think this child can attest to, um.
Not only have we eliminateddiseases like measles, we've
eliminated the fear of measles.

(09:48):
We don't remember measles anymore.
We've eliminated the memory, and Ithink the consequences are, as is
shown by a recent uh, CDC report.
More parents are choosing notto vaccinate their children for
non-medical reasons than ever before.
You know, by the way, when I, when Igraduated from medical school, like a
hundred years ago in 1977, there was,I, I had, uh, there was a pediatric

(10:08):
award called the J Edmund BradleyPrize for Excellence in Pediatrics.
And I actually won that award,but as I got up there was a
child crying the entire time.
So this is like going full circle here,but their voices should be heard,
which is really the point of this talk.
Um.

(10:30):
So, so what's happened is whatyou would expect to happen
when immunization rates fade.
Um, the, it's the most contagioushuman infection that comes back first.
Measles, far and away the mostcontagious of the human infections.
And so over the past year there'sbeen three deaths from measles, um,
including two in young children.
That that number, that three number,uh, equals the total number of deaths

(10:54):
from measles over the last 25 years.
The two children that died, we haven'thad a pediatric death from measles in
this country since 2003, so it's beenmore than 20 years since that happened.
Um, and the estimates are, although if youlook at the CDC website, it'll say that
roughly 1100 children in this country orpeople in this country have had measles.
If you talk to people on the groundin, in Texas and other places, that's

(11:16):
just people who have been confirmedto have measles by serology or PCR.
The number's probably at least3000, probably closer to 5,000.
This is the biggest measlesoutbreak we've had in 30 years.
So to put this in a broader perspective,in the last 50 years, child deaths
have been reduced worldwide by 75%.
40% of that reduction hasfrom vaccines, and 60% of that

(11:39):
is from the measles vaccine.
This is not a disease thatyou wanna see come back.
So what happened?
Why have we lost trust?
Um, why are we facing measles outbreaks?
I think the pandemicinterestingly, didn't help.
You.
You would've imagined that creatinga vaccine a, against using a novel
technology messanger RNA, against a virusthat had unusual biological and physical

(12:02):
or clinical characteristics would've beenseen for what it was, which was heroic.
I mean, we probably saved 3million lives with that vaccine.
And it is a remarkably safe vaccine.
It's not free of any side effect, butin the world of vaccines, I'm, I'm on
the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee, andwhen we've reviewed that vaccine in, in
December, 2020, um, the 800 pages thatwe got to review before we authorized

(12:23):
or recommended authorization of its use,you're looking, you're reading every word
because you know that there has neverbeen a medical innovation in human history
that has not been associated with somehuman price to be paid for knowledge.
And that always happens here.
The price was relatively smallmyocarditis, which is generally
short-lived, transient self resolving.

(12:43):
Um, so it was amazing.
I mean, the two people that did Mr.
The mRNA work, starting in 1997, DrewWeissman and Katie Karikó won the
Nobel Prize in medicine for 2023.
Nonetheless, the what's happenedover the last few years, I think
with this pandemic has in some wayssoured people away from vaccines.
And I'll explain why.
I think in 2020.

(13:04):
We didn't have anything.
We didn't have antivirals, we didn'thave monoclonal antibodies, we didn't
have vaccines until the end of the year.
All we had for a virus that was killinghundreds and ultimately thousands of
people a day, was to try and restricthuman to human contact for a virus
that could be spread asymptomatically,meaning anybody you came in contact with
could potentially spread a virus to you.

(13:25):
Which could kill you.
So what do we do?
We restricted travel.
We closed schools, weshuttered businesses.
We quarantined, we masked.
We isolated people.
We tested, tested, tested.
And I think for many people that wasseen as massive government overreach.
The following year, 2021, when wehad a vaccine, um, you couldn't
really go places without showingthat you had been vaccinated.

(13:47):
You couldn't go to your favoritebar or restaurant or sporting
event or place of worship.
You may get fired from, from work.
And, um, I think that again.
Was seen as massive government overreach.
And I think inadvertently we leaned intothis libertarian left hook and I think
we're feeling the results of that punch.
And there, there's another issue also.
The, um, the head of CDC in 2009 was a mannamed Richard Besser, Dr. Richard Besser.

(14:12):
And uh, he was great.
He was out in front ofthe media every other day.
Explaining.
Here's what this vaccine is, here's whatthis virus is, here's how we're doing.
Here's how many deaths are occurring.
Here's where the deaths are.
He was great.
So I saw him at a recentmeeting and I told him that.
I said, you did great in 2009during the swine flu pandemic.
He said, thank you.
I appreciate that.
I could never do it today.

(14:33):
One reason, social media.
So I think that is something that we'reup against now, that we weren't up
against before, which is it's very easy tospread misinformation and disinformation.
But all is not lost.
Um, a recent publication in the JournalNature by Heidi Larson and David
Bersoff offered a Path Forward, sothey made the following four points.
One research produced by the uh, EdelmanTrust Institute and the Global Listening

(14:58):
Project found that trust in scienceand scientists remain high globally.
But scientists and scientific informationexist in an increasingly complex ecosystem
in which people's perception of whatcounts as reliable evidence is influenced
by other factors such as politics,religion, culture, and personal belief.

(15:18):
In the face of this complexityon people are turning to friends,
family, journalists, and others tohelp them filter and interpret the
vast amount of available information.
The current problem is not a lossof trust in science or scientists.
But a misplaced trust in unworthy sources.
And they offer three solutions.
First work with locally trustedsources to disseminate information.

(15:43):
And I'll give you an example inPhiladelphia, um, there is an
African American surgeon at Templewhose name was Aila Stanford.
And, um, she was upset when she sawthat when the vaccine first came out.
And people wanted it.
There was a, there was an allotment givento, um, Temple University to distribute
the vaccine in North Philadelphia, apredominantly Black and Brown community.

(16:04):
But when she looked out in the parkinglot, which she saw were Lexuses and
Mercedes Benzes from people coming fromthe suburbs in to get this vaccine.
That upset her enough to createsomething called the Black
Doctor's COVID Consortium.
And she, and about 200 other peoplewent into North Philadelphia and sat
in people's living rooms and gavethem somebody who they could trust.
Who they could talk to.

(16:25):
And she would come back again and againif she had to, and explain to them why
it was important to get this vaccine.
And over the period of of months,really she was able to vaccinate
50,000 people in North Philadelphia.
She was a point of light duringthis pandemic, and we needed more.
Second, I think, um, we needto, uh, colter cultivate greater
scientific literacy specificallythat we learn as we go.

(16:49):
I mean, you don't know everything atthe beginning, and there were certainly
mistakes that were made during this, therecommendations associated with COVID,
but I think we needed to explain thatwhen we make recommendations, we're making
it based on what we know at the time.
That we think we know enough, notthat we know everything, and that
we're open-minded to the factthat we might learn as we go.
Probably the best example during thepandemic was the vaccine that was

(17:09):
licensed or authorized in February, 2021.
The adenovirus vector vaccine.
So fairly soon we found out thatthat vaccine could surprisingly
cause clotting, including clotting inthe brain, including fatal clotting
in the brain, which ultimatelydrove that vaccine off the market.
It was picked up fairly quicklyand withdrawn fairly quickly.
But again, some people will look atthat and say, see, these people don't

(17:30):
know what the hell they're doing, whenin fact, we were always, we had systems
in place like the vaccine safety datalink to very quickly pick that up.
Third, I think we need tomake scientific communications
more resonant with audiences.
People are predisposed to focus oninformation that is visceral and
emotional rather than points on a graph.
And I had to speak a few days ago atthe Montgomery County Immunization

(17:51):
Coalition, and the woman who spokebefore me, her name was Alyssa Canowitz,
and she got up there and she toldthe story of her daughter, Amanda.
Four years old who died of influenza.
And she showed pictures of her andfilm of her and her daughter, her
daughter with, with her husband, herdaughter, with her brothers and sisters.
And, uh, then described exactlywhat it was like to watch her
daughter die of that disease.

(18:13):
And, um, no one who listenedto that wasn't moved by it.
And I think we need to make it more real.
I think the, um, that when youhear statistics like 1100 uh,
children are suffering from measles.
It, it's, it's just a statistic.
I mean, not to quote Stalin, notusually go Stalin, but Stalin said,
um, you know, one death is a tragedy.

(18:35):
A million deaths is a statistic.
So you need to find a way to makethat those stories come alive.
So, um, the authors concluded that thescientific community cannot stop the
amplification of misinformation, but thatdoesn't mean that it's, it's powerless.
So we need to get our voices out there.
Okay, so I'm gonna end on a positivenote, and that's to do, even though I

(18:56):
have to go back to 16 hundreds to find it.
But Galileo, so, uh, Galileo was thefather of observational astronomy.
He described the rings around Saturn, themoons of Jupiter in the phases of Venus.
That was in his first treatise.
In his second treatise, he got intotrouble because what he did was he
bought into Nicholas Copernicus's notionthat the earth revolved around the sun.

(19:19):
That the earth wasn't the center ofthe firmament as sort of dictated at
the time by the Roman Catholic Church.
And they, he had violatedthen their edict.
So they brought him before a Romanto tribunal and, um, put him in
chains and forced him basicallyto renounce what he had said, that
the earth revolves around the sun.
And as he was being let out, hesort of looked back at the tribunal

(19:40):
and he said, presumably in Italianand referring to the earth.
And yet he said it still moves,meaning, um, you can put me in chains,
but that doesn't change the science.
And I think that, um, the same istrue today, that um, it doesn't
matter how many times our Secretary ofHealth and Human Services, Robert F.

(20:02):
Kennedy Jr. claims thatvaccines cause autism.
They don't, and it doesn't matter howmany fringe scientists or politicians or
sycophants or media venue, uh, uh, uh, or,or media folks, uh, amplify his claims.
That doesn't change the scienceand science is a powerful
thing to have on your side.
Unfortunately, it might take a while.

(20:23):
Um, in October, 1992, Pope John Paul IIappeared before the Pontifical Academy
of the Science is to hear the reportof a commission asked to examine the
inquisitions, um, mistreatment of Galileo.
The Pope accepted the commission'sfindings that they had treated him poorly.
And a headline in the New YorkTimes read after 350 years,

(20:43):
the Vatican says Galileo was right.
It moves.
So I'm optimistic that it won't take thatlong to undo the harms created by the
current wave of misinformation and youradvocate advocacy for science and truth

(21:04):
will have everything to do with that.
Thank you.

Dana Ra (21:09):
Now with some heartfelt humor, University of North Carolina
Teaching Associate Professor Zach Noelhelps the School of Pharmacy grads
remember the labels that matter most.

Zach Noel (21:19):
The class of 2025.
It is so good to see you again.
Thank You for having me.
I am, yes, I am.
Just, I'm so Delighted to be backin a place that has meant so much
to my family and I, and I'm deeplyhonored that you all reached out to
me, um, to speak with you all today.
Your class is near and dear to myheart, and I don't mean that because

(21:41):
I helped teach you all cardiology.
Um, you thank you so much for includingme as part of this celebration.
Before I go any further, I want youto pull out your phones if you're
able to do that with these things on.
And, um, I would like you to pleasenot pull up social media or your email.
I promise now that rotations are done,you'll have much more time to watch TikTok

(22:01):
and YouTube Shorts with some downtime.
Uh, but in all seriousness, I wantyou to open up your phone and I want

you to set an alarm for (22:07):
00 PM.
Um, when your alarm goes off, I wantyou to text, call or find someone
who has been influential in yourjourney to getting to this point.
Friends, soon to be pharmacists.
Make no mistake about it.
We're here to celebrateyour accomplishments.
Uh, but I don't want our enthusiasmin the moment to crowd out humbly

(22:27):
acknowledging the individuals and supportsystems that have been so important.
It takes a village as you know.
So if you haven't done so by the time youralarm goes off, be sure to express your
gratitude, be it to a family member, afriend, um, or one of the amazing faculty
that are on stage or sitting behind you.
Well, her name is Jillian Lynn.

(22:50):
You've probably never heard of Jillian.
It's the 1930s and Jillianis eight years old.
Schoolwork is a struggle for Jillian.
She was labeled as slow by her teachers.
And her teacher sent a note home toJillian's mom stating that she would
soon be attending a special school.
Mom and Jillian go to see a psychologist.

(23:12):
The psychologist asksquestions to Jillian and mom.
Suddenly the psychologist says toJillian, I'd like to talk to your
mom outside for just a moment.
As the psychologist heads out thedoor, he switches on the radio and
music starts playing the psychologistand mom, leave the office.
Thinking no one was watching.
Jillian stands up and then starts dancing.

(23:34):
The psychologist smiles, turnsto mom and says She isn't slow.
She's a dancer.
Enroll her in dancing school.
Jillian, whether you know it ornot, would go on to dance in the
London Ballet and eventually becomechoreographer for Andrew Lloyd Weber's
Cats and Phantom of the Opera two of thelongest running Broadways in history.

(23:56):
I share that story with you toillustrate the power of labels.
Jillian was labeled as slow, butthanks to her mom's persistence and
advocacy and the thoughtful input ofa psychologist Jillian's trajectory
was changed for the rest of her life.
Class of 2025.
Like Jillian, you'llsoon bear a new label.

(24:17):
A lot's wrapped up in the label ofpharmacist, and I know you're ready for
the responsibility that comes with it.
But it's not the actual label ofpharmacists that I wanna focus on today.
Rather, I wanna spend some timetalking about the auxiliary labels
that you'll wear as a pharmacist.
I can remember being tormentedas a student working at Rite Aid.

(24:38):
You see, as I filled prescriptionsin front of me was a clear plastic
dispenser of auxiliary labels.
You know the one I'm talking aboutthat has 10 or 15 different rows of
brightly colored stickers, and yourjob was to pick the two or three most
important ones to stick on the bottle'cause that's all you had room for.
Uh, I can rememberbeing tormented by this.
Do I put, do not drink with grapefruitjuice or do not drink with alcohol?

(24:59):
They both seemed important at the time.
Um, auxiliary labels provide crucialinstructions, warnings, and reminders to
supplement the primary prescription label.
As soon to be pharmacists, I wannachallenge you to identify the
auxiliary labels that are mostimportant to you as a pharmacist.

(25:20):
They should serve as reminders of whatyou value and strive for in your career.
Over the years, I've createdlabels that represent things
that I value as a pharmacist.
It's a way of keeping me focusedon what matters the most, and to
keep the main thing the main thing.
One such label that I wear is hashtag ABL.
In pharmacy school, a professor ofmine used the slogan hashtag abl,

(25:43):
which stood for Always Be Learning.
At the time, hashtags were cool andup and coming, but regardless of the
pound symbol in front of the letters,the underlying message struck me.
To this day, I have hashtag A BLFridays where I devote a block
of time to reading updates in theliterature and broadening my horizons.
I do so because I value being a learner.

(26:05):
It makes me a betterpharmacist, a better educator.
And a better leader.
Lifelong learning is so importantto being a pharmacist that it's part
of the oath that you'll soon take.
The words you'll utter are, Iwill accept the responsibility to
improve my professional knowledge,expertise, and self-awareness.
I hope you'll embrace lifelonglearning and perhaps even make it
an auxiliary label of your own.

(26:28):
Another auxiliary label thatI wear is guardian ad litem.
The word literally meansguardian of the court.
You see, in 1976, judge Soukup ofSeattle, Washington was forced to make a
life changing decision for a 3-year-oldchild who had suffered from child abuse.
He realized that through all thehearings and court proceedings,

(26:50):
there was no one there to advocate onbehalf of the child's best interest.
Two years later, the first courtappointed special advocates were
assigned, and 40 years later.
Every state uses a guardian adlitem for foster children, ensuring
that each child has someone toadvocate for their best interest.

(27:10):
I wear my guardian ad litemlabel as a reminder to advocate
for my patients and my students.
It's my job, and it's soon to beyour job to advocate on behalf
of those who you're caring for.
Whether it be in direct patient care,in industry, or some other alternative
career path, I hope you'll considerwearing the Guardian ad litem label.

(27:31):
Now these labels, right, representmy values, but I'm not here
today to cast my values on you.
Rather, I'm here to encourageyou to identify your own labels
that represent your values.
What auxiliary labels are goingto accompany you as a pharmacist.
It's your choice.
I need to give a disclaimer.
Decades of research on label theoryhave shown us that labels can be a good

(27:54):
thing and they can also be harmful.
As I refer to these auxiliarylabels, I wanna emphasize that
the goal is not to conform to theintellectual shortcoming, stereotypes
and oversimplifications of labels.
What I really want is to challenge youto consider what you value and assign a
label to it that will serve as a reminder.

(28:15):
So that you can remember to keepthe main thing, the main thing.
As I round for third or roundthird and head for home, I wanna
tell the story of two pharmacists.
They sat in seats just likeyours many years ago, earning
the label of pharmacists.
But along their journey, compromisingdecisions led one thing to another, and

(28:35):
as fate would have it, their label wastaken away from them what was entrusted
to them by society and intended for good.
Became distorted and warped over time.
My parents no longer bearthe label a pharmacist.
Somewhere along the way, theylost sight of what they value.
Mislabeled, if you will, friends, I wannaremind you not to lose sight of what you

(28:58):
value and to always use your pharmacistlabel for good and for the care of others.
Your impact as a pharmacist comesfrom living your values, not just
from earning a title or a label.
Keep the main thing.
The main thing.
In closing, I recently conducteda randomized uncontrolled study in

(29:19):
which I asked fellow pharmacistswho it was that spoke at their
pharmacy graduation, and I havedisappointing news for someone like me.
Over 90% had absolutely no idea.
The forgetting Curve is awell-established phenomenon that
highlights the finite capacity ofworking memory and the disturbing

(29:40):
speed at which we forget what we hear.
Just like the lectures that I gave you inschool, you don't remember those right?
Over the last 10 minutes, I've spokenabout 1500 words, and if I'm fortunate,
you're going to remember 150 of themby the time you eat dinner tonight.
For the record, I don't rememberwho spoke at my graduation either.
And so with the innatelimitations of human memory in

(30:00):
mind, if you remember anything.
Remember stories like Jillian's Momand Judge Suko, who were advocates
for the vulnerable, just as you'reto be advocates for your patients.
Remember my college professor whotaught me the value of lifelong learning
through a simple hashtag, and remembermy parents and to always use your label

(30:20):
of pharmacists for the good of others.
And when you think of them, Iwant you to think about what
you want said of you one day.
What auxiliary labels do youhope to have attached to your
name when your career is over?
Write them down, reflect on them.
We can't predict the future, but we canidentify the values and attributes that we
want set of us and strive to be like them.

(30:42):
Class of 2025.
Doctors of Pharmacy Pharmacists,welcome to the profession.
Your hard work.
Your hard work, and the supportof those around you have paid off.
Congratulations onmaking it to this point.
Now go and do great things.

Charles (31:03):
And we will close the special graduation episode of the
UMB Pulse with a powerful chargefor this generation of leaders.
Howard University School of Law Professor,Sherrilyn Ifill shares a vision for
rebuilding democracy and the roleMaryland Carey Law grads have in it.

Sherilyn Ifil (31:20):
I am so thrilled, uh, to be, to be back here
and, um, and to be with you.
Congratulations, class of 2025.
Um, Dean Hutchins, uh, who I've knowna very long time is extraordinary.
I hope you know how blessed and lucky youare to have had her as your dean during

(31:41):
your three years at the law school.
She's extraordinary and, um, so thrilledthat I could be here with you today.
Thank you.
Um, so many of my colleagues atthis law school became good friends
and are dear friends to this day.
And, um, some of them are here.
Michael Pinard.
He is the person with whom Ilaunched the reentry, uh, clinic

(32:04):
for formerly incarcerated people.
Um, Monique Dixon, who was mystudent, she was one of you.
And, um, I later hired herat the Legal Defense Fund,
where she ran our policy work.
Uh, and it was she who reallyorganized that town hall.
Um, people like Tanya Banks now retired,who really was my friend and Sherpa,

(32:26):
um, Richard Bolt, who was nice enoughto co-teach with me my first semester.
So, uh, he knows whereall the bodies are buried.
Uh, and he showed me the ropesand I'm always so appreciative,
appreciative of him, uh, for that.
And of course, people like Doug Colbert,who I've known for many, many years,

(32:47):
and who's now actually my neighbor.
Uh, and the man who hired me,Don Gifford, um, and gave me a
shot at becoming a law professor.
Uh, I birthed two children duringthe five, the first five years
of my teaching tenure here.
Uh, I feel like I raised all three onthe third floor of the first building and

(33:07):
the second floor of the second building.
Um, they're not here withme today, unfortunately.
My husband is here with me.
And, um, it's just a testamentto how comfortable I felt to
be, uh, at this institution.
Even as I was compelled to work incrediblyhard to live up to the expectations
of students and my colleagues.

(33:28):
I had the privilege of teaching thousandsof Maryland law students over those
20 years, largely achieved by teachinglarge sections of civil procedure
and con law for my first few years.
Um, and, uh, loved just being involvedwith students at this law school.
I run into my former students all thetime, uh, and I've noticed something

(33:49):
about Maryland law students, um,Maryland law graduates have a heart and
a spirit for service, whether they'reattorneys in public interest practice
at law firms in private practice.
Maryland law graduates serve.
They serve on bar committeesin civic organizations, on
judicial selection committees,on boards of public institutions.

(34:11):
They speak at judicialand lawyer conferences.
They create scholarshipand mentoring programs.
Maryland law graduates are doing thework that keeps our profession afloat.
They do the work that supports thefunctioning and integrity of our
profession and of the rule of law.
And I hope that in these times when.

(34:31):
So many in our profession havelost their way when the bonds that
used to knit us together, whateverour ideological differences and
litigation posture have been forgottenby some and shredded by others.
When for some being an officer ofthe court no longer means that we
owe a duty of candor and clarity tothe tribunal before which we appear

(34:55):
when lawyers appearing before thecourt can not be counted on to.
Not make misrepresentations tothe court or to work in good
faith to obey judicial orders.
When some lawyers and law firmsare prepared to sacrifice their
independence to outside pressure.
Perhaps we can now see how important itis to develop lawyers who hold allegiance

(35:16):
to the profession, who work to keep us ontrack in all the ways that may seem boring
or like a time suck, but that are criticalto the functioning of our profession.
And to maintaining its integrity.
Those kinds of lawyersare Maryland lawyers.
I know that many of you will bethose lawyers in your day jobs.

(35:36):
You'll be public defenders, prosecutors,state agency lawyers, city lawyers,
bar officers, uh, judicial clerks, lawlibrarians, federal government lawyers.
But even those of you who enterprivate practice, who become tax
lawyers, entertainment and sportslawyers, contract erisa, you too will
find ways to serve the profession.

(35:57):
You will take seriously youroath, your oath as an attorney.
You'll take that oath sometimelater this year or next, and I
hope you really pay attention.
I did when I took mine.
When you take that oath, let the wordsgo deep in, you never forget that.

(36:19):
You swear to demean yourselfhonorably and fairly.
That's from the Maryland Oath,every state has a similar one.
Maybe in years past new lawyersrepeated the oath without much
thought, but I ask that you reallyfeel the words, what it means to demean
yourself honorably and fairly, thatyou will defend our constitution and

(36:41):
laws as the supreme law of the land.
I don't take oaths lightly, andso it's always mattered to me
what I said when I took my oaths.
I understood that the oath bound metogether with others in my profession.
Lawyers with whom I might have nothingin common, and from whom I might sit

(37:02):
on an opposite side of the courtroom.
But we were joined in this projectto resolve our disputes, to advance
our client's interests withinthe context of this legal system
to which we pledged allegiance.
I planned to be a civil rights lawyer.
By no means did I believe our systemwas perfect, but I understood that

(37:24):
I had pledged to do the work ofmaking change by working within
the context of this infrastructureand doing so honorably today.
That may seem quaint, butI assure you it is not.
It is the glue that holds togethera profession that is essential
for ensuring the strength of therule of law, and as such, it is

(37:45):
essential for undergirding democracy.
There can be no healthy democracywhere the rule of law is threatened.
And what this means, what we do, how weshow up in the profession, whether we
truly comport ourselves as officers ofthe court, whether as prosecutors, defense
attorneys, civil rights lawyers, privateor in-house counsel, we adhere to the

(38:08):
principles of the rule of law and takeseriously the ethical rules that guard
the integrity of our profession matters.
It matters in ways fundamentalto the maintenance and strength
of democracy in this country.
I serve on a task force of the AmericanBar Association focused on democracy.
And on May 1st, we joined withothers in a nationwide initiative

(38:30):
asking lawyers to retake their oath.
We asked lawyers to film themselvesrepeating their oaths, and it
was powerful and important.
So remember the oath.
Um, there's also a neworganization called Maryland.
Uh, Lawyers Defending American Democracy,and I hope some of you will look it
up and join, including on the faculty.
Very important.

(38:51):
So I do have something I wannasay, um, that I think is important.
And I will say it's a little surrealstanding up here today because I
can recall sitting on the stage atThe Lyric with my faculty colleagues
during one of our commencements.
I think Karen Rothenberg was Dean,and almost in reverse deja vu.
I knew that one day I would be givingthe commencement for this law school.

(39:12):
Yeah, it's a true story.
No ego.
I had no reason to believe I would doanything worthy of standing before you.
It was just, that was years beforeI left to take leadership of LDF.
It was just a moment, but as clear asday, I saw myself giving the commencement
address to Maryland Law graduates.
I haven't thought about it much sincethen, but I've never forgotten it.

(39:33):
So when Dean Hutchins reached out toask if I would do it this year, it
felt completely natural to say yes.
And now I'm not a psychic.
Or particularly prescient or nor amI a real adherent to those kinds of
things, but the feeling I had thosemany years ago was so strong that I
found myself wondering a few weeks ago,why did the future visit me that day?

(39:55):
What might be so important for me totell you today that the future reached
out to tether me to this moment.
I admit, I could never have guessed,would never have imagined that
the circumstances in which wefind our country, our profession.
The state of higher education, ourrights to free speech, the protection
of civil rights and liberties, andour very national identity would be as

(40:18):
contested and strained as they are today.
I would never have guessed that I would bestanding before you to speak to you as a
commencement speaker does about hope andpossibility and hard work and integrity at
a time when my own belief in this familiarformula as the key to success and a life
of consequence is being tested daily.

(40:38):
I assume that when the day came, I,I would stand before the graduating
class of whatever year and tellyou with confidence, clarity, and
certainty, the steps for the path ahead.
But things are differentthan we all expected.
Our country, our profession, the worldyou are inheriting is considerably
more precarious and fraught than Ianticipated, and that imposes a greater

(41:01):
sense of responsibility on me today.
So first let me be clear aboutwhat's most important today.
You made it your hard work.
Your dedication has paid off.
What you've done is no small thing.
Law school is a commitment tostudy, to work, to discipline.
It can be a humbling experience.
It is an expense that likelywill be with you for some time,

(41:25):
but you completed it and inso doing, you've affirmed
your commitment to this path.
Maybe you had doubts along the way,but today your completion of this
task stands as a testament to yourmaturity, commitment, and vision.
At any moment during your studies forthe bar exam this summer, or as you
start your new job, whatever it mightbe, or as you try to make ends meet, as
you embark on this career, if there'sany moment when you doubt yourself,

(41:49):
when you feel as though you can't quitemeasure up, I want you to remember this
accomplishment and what it says about you.
About your intellect, yourdetermination, and your character.
Now with everything in me, I wish thatthe world and the time in which you
will take your first steps as a lawyerwas one that was more hospit hospitable

(42:10):
for your entry into the profession.
I do.
I've spent 37 years as a civil rightslawyer, and every sacrifice I've
made to my health, my time with mychildren, my own happiness at times.
All of it was in the sincere beliefthat I could, I would make the world and
especially our country, a better countrythan the one that had been left to me.

(42:32):
At least that's what I told my kids,and God bless them, they believed me.
I struggle every day with thesense that I let them down.
It's been disappointing to feel asthough the world, I am leaving my adult
children and my beloved grandson is inworse shape than the one handed to me.
And I think, I think many olderadults, perhaps many even of.
The parents who are here todayare feeling the same thing.

(42:54):
It's a sacred pact of human life thatwish that we leave the world to our
children as one where there will begreater ease, greater safety, greater
humanity than the one left to us.
And in many ways, those of mygeneration are facing that.
It feels like we failedin that sacred obligation.

(43:15):
But I'm not sure this is theright way to look at this.
I say without equivocationthat our country is in a
moment of democratic crisis.
The times are grim.
We cannot be certainwhat the outcome will be.
All of this is true, and it would bedishonest of me to stand here and not
say it, but I wanna encourage us all tostop doom scrolling for a moment or for

(43:37):
the older folks turn off NPR and CNN,which my, which my kids always told
me, gave them a headache in the car.
And take a moment to see this timethrough a different lens because
yes, the times we are in areturbulent, challenging, sometimes
ugly, but they are also more honest.

(43:57):
The moment in which we find ourselvesallows so many of more of us to see
the truth, the painful truth aboutthe weaknesses in our democracy.
We can now see so many more of the cracksand fissures in what many once thought
was the solid foundation of our democracy.
It's shocking yes.
To see how deep those fissuresgo, but at least we can see it

(44:20):
now and that's a good thing.
If you own a home, wouldn't you rathersee the cracks in the foundation
than blithely go on Believing thatyour infrastructure was strong until
one day it falls apart around you.
The work of being a civil rightslawyer, I've long said is the work
of seeing those foundational crackslong before your peers and colleagues.
Because we understand that we can bestevaluate the integrity of our democracy by

(44:44):
examining how it interacts or serves thosewho are at the margins or at the bottom.
So the very issues that many of ushave long lamented and worked to
fix, have now deepened into profoundand potentially catastrophic that
threatened to bring our democratichouse down, but can also be readily
seen by everyone and herein graduates.

(45:09):
Lies the opportunity of this momentbecause we can only repair, we can only
fix and replace damage that we can see.
I'm a student of the14th Amendment Americans.
Uh, America's second foundingwas ushered in by the 14th
Amendment to our Constitution.
And by that I mean the restructuringof our nation after the Civil War.

(45:32):
So let me provide a lens from thathistory for viewing the current moment.
Think about the challengesthey faced in 1865, those who
inherited a fractured nation.
The war war was over, and in fact,the war was still going on in pockets.
In some places in the country,600,000 people were dead.
Resentment was still simmering.
4 million Black people, formerlys slaves were enslaved were now

(45:57):
to be integrated into America'spolitical, social, and legal life.
And the one man who hadheld the union together
was assassinated in a conspiracyin which the plan was to kill
multiple members of his cabinet.
Imagine what it felt like forthose members of Congress, for
those leaders in that period.

(46:18):
So what did they do?
We don't learn a lot about this period inschool, and that's why so many Americans
fill in their gaps with extravagant andcounterfactual movies about the period.
But when I teach the 14th Amendment, andI promise I won't teach the class here.
I try, I try to demonstrate how muchof our national identity, our set of
expectations and protections as citizensof this country actually comes from

(46:39):
the 14th Amendment ratified in 1868.
And you probably know, certainly thelaw graduates know the first section
of the 14th Amendment guarantees,birthright citizenship, due process
protections, and equal protection of laws.
Protection.
Come on.

(47:01):
Just think about it.
Just think about the cascading powerof that one amendment, um, which
I think is the most consequentialamendment in the constitution.
Just that first sentence, ifI can just have just a minute.
Um, the first sentence of the 14thAmendment, every person born or
naturalized in the United States andsubject to the jurisdiction thereof,

(47:22):
is a citizen of the United States andof the state in which they reside.
Now that sentence was necessary,was necessary to ensure the
citizenship of Black people.
It was designed to overturn the DredScott decision, which you all will
remember, uh, from 1857 in which theSupreme Court said that Black people

(47:47):
not only were not citizens, but couldnot be citizens, which meant not only
could enslaved Black people not be becitizens, but also free Black people.
And so even free Black peoplewere rendered stateless persons.
And so that first clause, thatbirthright citizenship clause, um,
was meant to re- re ensure the,uh, citizenship of Black people.

(48:07):
And yes, they did debate whetherit would apply to the children of
migrants, uh, and they agreed thatit would, um, but just think about
the consequence of that provision.
Many of you in this room, your parents,your grandparents, your great-grandparents
arrived on these shores by ship orby plane, secure in the knowledge
that they could become citizens.
And that if they had a child, evena day after they arrived at Ellis

(48:30):
Island or touched down at then IdylWyld Airport or some other location
there, that child would be a citizen.
It changed the wholedemocracy of this country.
You would not be able to call thisnation, if you call it that, a nation of
immigrants without the 14th Amendment.

(48:51):
Tens of millions of European migrantsbenefited from birthright citizenship.
Evidence of the principle that hasalways been true in our constitutional
republic, that actions we take to expandopportunity and fairness to those who
are the least of these, those at thebottom and the margins always, always
in nors as well, to the benefit of thosefor whom the policy was never intended.

(49:13):
So win-win.
The point, but the point is not aboutbirthright citizenship itself or
even equal protection or due processat this moment, it's about the bil
ability of those framers to wrestlewith the meaning of citizenship,
drawing from decades of work, activism,writing, theory, and movement.
I call this the, the theoryof the founders and framers.

(49:34):
Right.
When I ask you about founders and framers,and when you were asked in your classes,
you probably said the, the founders andframers of our country, you probably
said, Hamilton and Jefferson and Madison.
All true.
But what about the second founding?
What about the secondfounding of our Republic?
And I don't just mean theCongress persons who wrote the

(49:55):
the three Civil War amendments.
I don't just mean Bingham andThaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner,
but I mean all of the people.
The activists, the lawyers, theabolitionists, the suffragists, the
petitioners and individual litigants, allof whom advanced ideas about the meaning
of citizenship in the decades prior to theCivil War that informed that amendment.

(50:19):
Even enslaved people whodemonstrated their determination
to live as free people.
To find their families who'd beensold away to become educated, to work
their own land and to be paid whenthey worked for others to marry who
they wish to marry and to raise theirown children, to be free, to be free.
They too were founders.
Their actions demonstrated for themore formal framers in Congress,

(50:43):
the core demands of citizenshipfrom the perspective of those who
had been excluded and they helped.
Through their actions populate the meaningof equality and what it would mean.
Let me just say a quickword to encourage you.
That concept of equality to whichall of us feel entitled, by the way.

(51:03):
It is not something that onegroup of people feel entitled to.
You feel entitled to it.
We have all kinds of ways in whichwe ensure equality in our society,
but the inclusion of equal protectionand the concept of equality does not
come from our first constitution.
It comes from the 14th amendment.
And if you think it comes fromthe founding of our nation, 'cause
we're gonna do our 250th anniversarynext year, please no, it does not.

(51:29):
What you're thinking about isthe Declaration of Independence.
We hold these choose to beself-evident that all men are
created equal, but that didn't showup in the original Constitution.
That included the three fifthscompromise and other ways in which
obviously equality was not on offer.
It was the 14th amendment that reachedback over the first constitution and

(51:49):
pulled the Declaration of Independenceinto our foundational constitution.
That's how powerful it is.
So why am I going over this historyto remind us that this nation has
been refound before and that the termsof that refounding were powerfully
influenced by the experiencesand advocacy of ordinary people.

(52:13):
And herein lies our opportunity.
You, my dear law graduates are partof the generation of founders who
will help us create the next stronger,healthier iteration of our democracy.
It may not require a constitutionalamendment, but it will require ambition,

(52:34):
vision, scholarship, engagement withAmericans who see this country through
lenses that are far too often dismissed.
It will require lawyers who areexcellent at their craft, lawyers
of integrity and uprightness.
It will require lawyers willing to amplifythe voices of their clients and willing
to work for a system of justice thatreally does apply equally to those rich

(52:56):
and poor, black and white, educated andnot, and it will require your belief that
nothing you do in the service of greaterjustice, greater democracy is wasted.
Some would have us believe thatthe work ahead is purely political.
And certainly that's important, but Iask you to remember that the weaknesses
in the foundations of our democracy didnot arrive on our doorstep a decade ago.

(53:21):
The weaknesses in our democraticinfrastructure didn't come down in
escalator, in a luxury high rise, theproblems, the deep devastating fractures
in the structures and foundations ofour democracy, that left us vulnerable
to the excesses of this moment.
Have existed for decades long ago.

(53:42):
Brian Stevenson, the visionary,great lawyer and founder of Equal
Justice Initiative, said that inthis country, it is better to be rich
and guilty than poor and innocent.
Every week we read about anotherperson who has been exonerated and
released from prison after serving20, 30, 40 years in prison for a
crime they didn't commit for decades.
We have lamented the unmet legalneeds of the poor, which so

(54:04):
many of you are helping with.
I began litigating votingrights cases 36 years ago.
Voter suppression is not new.
Police brutality did not beginwith George Floyd's murder.
Wealth inequality has beensteadily on the rise for 40 years.
Literacy rates started fallingprecipitously 40 years ago.
Besides the brief 10 year periodfrom 1970 to 1980, our schools have

(54:27):
remained racially segregated andour neighborhoods even more so.
These are the elements thatweakened our democracy and made
it vulnerable to opportunists you.
And we, and I say we because manyof us are not leaving the fight.
We created this mess, and sowe have to clean it up too.
You and we will have the chanceif we're willing and dedicated

(54:50):
to reimagine and found.
This next iteration of Americandemocracy, one better able to withstand
the strong winds of authoritarianambition of economic crisis, of
social media and AI of prejudice anddiscrimination of political difference.
That's what those 19th century framers didto stitch together our fractured nation

(55:11):
after the Civil War and look what theyintroduced into our national identity.
Birthright citizenship, equality,the guarantee of due process.
From state, um, encroachment.
I know what some of you arethinking, that that much of the
promise of the 14th Amendment wasfrustrated and hardly recognizable.

(55:31):
30 years after its ratification,that reconstruction was defeated
and we entered a prolonged period oflegalized apartheid in this country
until the civil rights movement.
All that is true.
But what those founders and framerscreated, survived, even though its early
promise was frustrated, they createdsomething, enduring something that could
be harnessed by future generations.
The promise of equality in the14th Amendment may have been

(55:54):
frustrated by Plessy versusFerguson, but it was not killed.
It may have been frustrated by violenceand by congressional inaction in
the first half of the 20th century.
Yes.
But the guarantees of the 14th Amendmentwere enduring enough to inspire a band of
lawyers in the 20th century who had neverthemselves experienced equal citizenship.
I'm talking now about Thurgood Marshall,Charles Hamilton Houston, Oliver Hill,

(56:17):
Spotswood Robinson, to believe that theycould create a litigation strategy that
would one day end Jim Crow's segregation.
From the time they first began thatwork in 1935, when Thurgood Marshall
successfully challenged the exclusionof Black students from this law
school to 1954 in Brown versus Boardof Education was only 14 years, men

(56:40):
and women who had only known racialsegregation, imagined a country
without it and worked to make it so.
So enduring was the concept of equality,that it could be acted upon by ordinary
people like Rosa Parks and John Lewis,Diane Nash, and Fannie Lou Hamer.
Pauly Murray and Jack Greenberg,Robert Carter and Bernard Aids
Gloria Steinem and Marsha Johnson.

(57:02):
Lily Ledbetter.
Mildred Loving.
Jim Obergfel.
And the list goes on.
People who had never seen in Americaof racial or gender equality, who did
not grow up in a world in which youcould marry who you love, whatever
their race or gender, but they wereable to achieve the guarantees of
the 14th Amendment to make a worldthey had only imagined could be true.

(57:24):
All of us in this room have been thebeneficiaries of what their vision,
courage, and determination created.
So yes, reconstruction was defeatedin its time, but the concept and
belief in the right to equality.
Endured grew, shaped, and poweredgenerations, and we have the example
of how that promise was frustratedto inform how we build a foundation

(57:47):
that can withstand those forces.
These opportunities for transformativechange do not come often.
They present themselves most readilywhen the old systems have crumbled,
have shown themselves unable towithstand the pressure of the moment.
They do not, I believe, require war.
They do not, as I said, requireconstitutional amendments, although I
can think of a few that would come inhandy, but they do require our vision

(58:11):
and determination and our attention.
If we phone focus only on what hasbeen lost, we will lose the window of
opportunity to build what could be.
I believe there is nothing stoppingus from being founders and framers
except our limited understandingof who we are in this country.
But you, your clients, your neighbors,your family members have the right

(58:34):
and ability to influence and shapethe future of this country justice.
Sure.
As Frederick Douglas and Elizabeth KaStanton and John Bingham and Charles
Sumner, and so on and so forth.
When the foundation of your houseis crumbling, you have no choice
but to build a new foundation.
Now, there will be large sections ofthe old foundation that are still sound
and can serve as cornerstones for thenew stronger foundation you build.

(58:59):
But you may wish to use new,more durable materials to
build out that new foundation.
You may wish to use new methodsof building your foundation and
your house to better withstandstrong earthquakes and storms.
And so that's my charge to youtoday to see yourselves not as
bystanders, standards, observers,or even worse as victims of a

(59:23):
challenging moment in our country.
But instead to see yourselvesas founders and framers of the
America that your children andyour grandchildren will inherit.
To lean into the vital role thatlawyers always play in building a
new republic from Nelson Mandelato Thurgood Marshall, to Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, to Alexander Hamilton.
Whenever you see the creation of adynamic new iteration of democracy,

(59:46):
you will find lawyers wieldingthe pen and shaping its contours.
And because you areMaryland law graduates.
You've had a commitment to service.
It's so deeply embedded inyour professional makeup that
you're ahead of the game.
You don't have to be a civil rightslawyer, although I welcome you.

(01:00:07):
But remember that Charles HamiltonHouston, the father of Thurgood of of
Civil Rights and mentor to ThurgoodMarshall was a successful patent lawyer.
In a practice with his father, RuthBader Ginsburg was not only a women's
rights lawyer, she was an expertin civil procedure, both US civil
procedure and Swedish civil procedure.
Alexander Hamilton practiced white collarcriminal defense, and Nelson Mandela

(01:00:29):
hung out his own shingle and started asmall law practice with his best friend
to serve the people in his community.
But each of these lawyers staredsteered their countries toward
greater equality and democracy.
There's a role for you among the foundersand framers of our new democracy.
Our job is to fight for justice, forequality, for due process and humane

(01:00:50):
treatment, but our job is also tolook ahead, to work towards a vision
of the nation that we truly want.
One of you sitting out there will beup on this stage giving this address
to Maryland graduates one day.
Imagine that future.
Let it touch you now,give you a sense of hope.

(01:01:11):
An opportunity for what may yet be.
But today, today and, and maybeeven this weekend and beyond
is for family, for friends.
I feel her breathing on mefor crabs, for beer, for wine,
for baseball this summer.

(01:01:31):
Yes, it is.
For studying and passing the bar.
Um, but I know you'll haveyour work cut out for you.
When you start your new jobs.
You'll need to focus, get your land,legs, learning and absorbing all you can.
Don't worry, you'll knowwhen it's time to serve.
You don't have to look for it.
It will find you.
The only thing you'll have to do issay yes and believe that the oath

(01:01:53):
that you have taken, the oath offatty to the constitution of this
nation and of the states to which youare admitted, includes a commitment
to work for the strengthening.
And building of ourdemocracy and of our nation.
I truly believe that this is thecharge for all of us in this moment.
Thank you for allowing me to be withyou and congratulations class of 2025.

Jena (01:02:24):
The UMB Pulse with Charles Schelle and Dana Rampolla is a UMB
Office of Communications and PublicAffairs production edited by Charles
Schelle, marketing by Dana Rampolla