There have been some notable commencement speeches. But usually, they are anodyne and formulaic. The speaker congratulates the seniors on their diplomas/degrees, wishes them well, and offers inspirational words as they move on.
But this is a new, callous America — where some commencement speakers offload political polemics and religious rants on a gobsmacked audience. Take River Valley HS, Marion County, OH. An alumnus, Jim McGuire, a local businessman, decided that making the students the subject of their own graduation was not the point. Instead, he decided to share his opinions on God, calendars, and marriage.
He started his message with an admonishment to fly right by God, his son, and his book,
“We are sending you into places that we cannot go. It is currently some people’s thoughts to be in vogue to diminish or play down biblical principles. It is what established us, it is what continues to establish us through the years. Everyone in every country in [sic] this planet lives by calendar [sic] that was based on 2022 years ago, it was established by Jesus Christ, and we need to remember that. I promise any time you spend learning God‘s word will not be subtracted from your life.”
The man is a moron. To say that every country on this planet lives by the Christian calendar is an example of some Americans’ arrogant ignorance. It is like saying that every country speaks English because English is the international language of science and business.
The Gregorian calendar is international so everyone is on the same page (literally). But domestically, China (pop. 1.4 billion) uses the NongLi (Farming Calendar). Hindus (1.2 billion) use the Panchanga. And Muslims (1.8 billion) use the Hijri. This means the majority of people do not use the Christian calendar in their daily lives.
Then McGuire lectured on marriage.
“Friends and family. Choose a spouse, I suggest. I also strongly suggest to make sure to choose biblical principles, you know a male with a female and female with a male.”
Every American has the right to follow their faith, including none. But no American has the right to lecture a captive audience with the dogma of that faith. At least he did not tell the audience to marry within their own race.
If you are still wondering about the McGuire’s age, politics, and ethnicity, he made it clear by invoking his patron saint
“I want you to be competent and I want to be comfortable in what you do and I want you to make other people feel comfortable. Personally, I like to do like Ronald, President Ronald Reagan did, and he normally used levity and jokes. I personally like to use them in first person and I always start a project meeting or a board meeting off with some type of levity.”
As might be expected from someone who has to explain how he tells jokes, he offered up a dad joke which had no relevance to anything he said. He then told a story of how he terrified three toddlers in the bath by using ketchup to fake a fatal wound. What a putz. (If you want more detail, click here)
Alexis Osipow, a 2018 graduate of the school, who was there for her younger sister, reported on the audience’s mixed reactions.
"When he made the comment that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, my jaw dropped to the floor, and I honestly thought I was hearing it wrong."
"I had to look around and see if other people were having the same reaction that I was, and they were. I felt like crying when I heard some people in the crowd clapping. But I was absolutely outraged and so were my parents and brother. I heard people behind me whispering about how inappropriate the comment was as well."
Marion County voted for Trump by almost 40% over Biden. But even in MAGA country, Maguire’s remarks went too far for the majority of the audience.
The school district ran away from this miserable man, but only after the damage was done, with a lame “it’s not our fault”.
As with all alumni speeches in past ceremonies, the speech was not reviewed by anyone on the RV Administrative team or Board of Education. Any views expressed by the speaker during his commencement speech reflected his personal beliefs. He was not speaking as an official representative of River Valley Local Schools.
I am the last person to suggest censoring speeches, but what about guidelines? If the speaker must drag God in, make the reference generic. It is a public school, not a seminary. Do not offer your opinion on controversial subjects. Keep it general so that anyone in the audience, regardless of their situation, will feel included. And do not tell jokes unless you are good at it.
Most importantly, inspire. If the prospective orator needs an example, let them consider this:
“Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need—not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961