Keller @ Large: An Alternative To Dud Commencement Speeches
BOSTON (CBS) - I'm sure I may have missed a good one, but judging from the commencement speeches I've seen so far this spring, it's turning out to be a tough season for commencement speeches.
Listen to Jon's commentary:
Podcast
First, there was the alleged debacle of outgoing Congressman Barney Frank's address to the Lasell College Class of 2012, which one graduate wrote to the student newspaper was "a rambling, politically charged rant that was of little relevance, and contained little consideration of the audience to which you were delivering it. You took what should have been a once-in-a-lifetime moment of celebration for the class of 2012, and turned it into an opportunity to spew partisan vitriol."
Barney Frank? Hard to believe, I know.
Then there was Wednesday's speech to the Harvard Business School Class Day by alumnus Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook.
As we've seen during their greed-crazed initial public offering, they've got a lot of nerve at Facebook corporate headquarters, and Ms. Sandberg was no exception, completely ignoring the controversy engulfing her company and instead explaining to the mostly stone-silent graduates that Facebook was all about "openness," "honesty," and my personal favorite: "truth."
For this, she earned the following headline from Reuters: "Facebook exec ducks questions about IPO debacle."
But I won't duck the challenge of offering an alternative to these dud speeches. And I'll make it even sweeter by making it short:
Dear Graduates: You made it. Now don't mess up.
Be a good person. Don't be selfish, greedy or unnecessarily rude.
Did I mention don't mess up? Good.
Now get out of here, but before you do, say thank you again to your parents.
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
