"Shut the Campus, Bar the Gate - Today's the Day We Graduate"
Mason Harris
Do you take your natural chutzpah for granted? I'm focused on the intersection of performance and chutzpah, where key success characteristics and attitude meet boundaries that need stretching.
This is the 2024 Commencement Speech you'll never hear.
Welcome students, outside instigators, faculty, and our failed university leadership.
To our graduating class, it's been said repeatedly that "your generation is the key to our future."
Well, that could be a real problem.
Seriously, we're all worried, not only your parents. Don't believe me? Ask most people with real jobs and responsibilities what they think of you.
Not that I'm overly concerned, but it appears a small and very animated minority of you have bought all the megaphones and believe screaming, threatening, and chanting rhyming slogans is the second best way to achieve world dominance, or as your sponsors like to call it, "world peace." Although not a topic for today's commencement celebration, the "best way," in the opinion of this minority group, is horrific violence against people with whom they disagree.
However, let's start with the positive. Many of you have put your studies aside and invested time in protesting on behalf of people who, without provocation, have been terrorized, starved, violently attacked, killed, raped, and kidnapped.
I am, of course, referring to these calamaties:
1)??????? Roughly 600,00 Syrian civilians were killed, primarily by their leader, President Bashar Al-Assad and his forces, and approximately 5 million refugees were forced to flee to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt.
2)??????? The deaths of an estimated 50,000 and the kidnapping of Nigerian women and girls to be used as cooks or sex slaves by members of Boko Haram.
3)??????? The continued persecution and murder of over 2,000,000?Christians, including Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in the Middle East. This has been ongoing for over a century.
4)??????? The ongoing mistreatment of women as property and punishment of LGBTQ members with prison or death.
Wait - I see some hands in the audience. Actually, a lot of red hands – hmm, that's curious. Sure, let's take some questions. We'll start with you, on the right, a few rows back.
"Can we focus on the main problem instead of the issues you mentioned? For example, 'Jews' – I mean Zionists, sorry, I've been told to use that word for some reason, are the cause of the world's problems, even though they have been treated very well by others throughout their history. And I can't blame the 'Jews,' again – my apologies, the Zionists, for killing Syrians, Nigerians, Iraqis, and Christians. So I don't care about THOSE people. But I can blame them for a genocidal war against Hamas. I mean, what gives them the right to fight back and try to rescue the hostages? And more importantly, I like hamas because it's vegetarian and doesn't cause climate change. Finally, I'm not sure what it means exactly, but Israel is a racist "apartheid state" that treats non-Jews, women, gay people, and community college students terribly. Oh, wait...or is it Iran and Hamas that subjugate its people? Well. it makes no difference. The Jews...damn it!...the "Zionists" are to blame. Right?"
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Thank you, your question indicates a lot of thought and a complete waste of your six years of college tuition. Best of luck having your student loans forgiven if the Republicans win. Do you know what I mean?
Hey, I'm joking, of course. Sure, college is very different nowadays, but who am I to judge the quality of your classes, instructors, extra-curricular activities, and the value of your education? By the way, are those crumpled posters of kidnapped hostages falling out of your pocket?
Hmm...it certainly seems louder outside than it was before. Is that a brick that just came through the window?
Perhaps I should skip to the end.
I referred to the loud minority earlier, those with megaphones who have premium camping tents around campus. Well, those "students" are being used by powerful people and organizations, as are you.
Your social media choices can be dangerous, not just because they are designed to be addictive but because they reflect the beliefs and ideologies of others who are autocratic and opposed to Western democracies. This is very important. The lies you are repeatedly exposed to become your truths.
So, ask your teachers and colleagues more challenging questions. Check more unrelated sources as you search for truth. Integrity is NOT a given. Truth, for many, is not the objective.
And finally, what is a graduation ceremony without some inspiring quotes?
"Be the bridge rather than the barrier." It's from a Pakistani Muslim peace activist and former Jihadist, Noor Dahri , whose background and work, along with many others, will improve the world.
"The most dangerous enemy is the one who can easily make friends with his potential victims." Mehmet Murat Ildan
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#standwithus #freethehostages #America #Israel
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6 个月Thank you for saying what a lot of us think but don’t have the courage to say it!