Annapolis, Maryland – Right this moment, the Blue Angels (pictured above) are

thundering over my home as the pilots practice for the U.S. Naval Academy

graduation later this week. Virtually anyone who sees these six wonders of

American genius and technology silhouetted against a clear sky feels an intuitive

sense of patriotism and, yes, hears the sound of freedom.

It's Commissioning Week in Annapolis and the graduation moment for seniors all

over the nation, an ideal time to reflect on deserved achievement and equally

important, on finding the road ahead. One milestone shared by every graduate is the

college commencement address.

During the days and years I’ve been to a fair share of graduations at all scholastic

levels, nine for my three sons, four of my own and dozens for friends and their kids

(but hey, whose counting?!). I‘ve even written several commencement addresses for

the politicians for whom I’ve worked.

From all these experiences, ole unfiltered Nellie has observed that at the college

level, there are essentially two kinds of speakers: Those who have actually achieved

something concrete and impressive in their lives, and those who haven’t.

Alas, my own graduation years ago from – let’s call the institution Faber College -

fits in the latter category. It featured an obscure United Nations’ official as the

Commencement speaker (some mercy is due the poor man – he was a stand in;

Leonard Bernstein was scheduled but fell ill) who was “excited” to tell us all about

his simply fascinating bureaucratic career and his “heroic” fight at the State

Department and the UN against the long march of American imperialism and

capitalism. He was of the academic class – shimmering in his unorthodoxy and

“courage.”

"That fellow seemed rather high on himself,” my mild-mannered father observed

afterwards. Yep, Dad - a successful self-made man who at age 15 worked in a

Union Carbide vanadium mine in the Sierra Mountains and at age 18 took part in

the invasion of Okinawa, later spending four months patrolling the streets of Tokyo

as part of the occupation force, even as the UN was being formed in San Francisco

and Dr. Bureaucrat was patrolling library shelves at Big Bad State. Hey, who

knew?! My laid-back old man - both an imperialist and a capitalist!

This unfortunate tone of blissful self-righteousness had not dissipated when years

later, it was time for my eldest son to graduate from Faber. His commencement

speaker was an immigrant Nigerian poet (no, you cannot make this stuff up) and

just a few moments into her remarks she casually informed the crowd: “If you were

born a straight white male or female, well, congratulations, you hit the jackpot.”

There was a collective, audience-wide cringe.

But our “brave” speaker – because that was what she told us she was, donchaknow

– plowed on in the same fashion “…you need to stand for social justice…empower

the voiceless…remake America…”

Oh dear. You fled the squalid slums of Lagos to arrive in tranquil New England –
with its indoor plumbing - to tell us this? And is it your

“bravery” or total lack of self-awareness, at such a celebratory event, to immediately

insult three-quarters of your audience? Yeah, you know, those sad sack parents and

alums who have collectively contributed to the institution’s national preeminence

and financial security so that full tuition and board are gifted to the, ahem, well, you

know.

By midpoint of her speech, in a scene almost exactly duplicating what had

happened during my graduation decades ago, the bleachers were half empty; the

jackpot winners had gathered elsewhere. And they weren’t voiceless.

As I said, the limited, even incomprehensible speeches come from the mediocrities;

the really good ones come from those who have firmly engaged the world,

performed at the tough jobs, have hit the obstacles, and have succeeded.

Here are three…

An absolute knock-out speech was given by Shonda Rhimes at Dartmouth College

in 2014. Rhimes is a famous American television screenwriter, best known as a

showrunner - creator, head writer, and executive producer of numerous popular

television and movie productions.

She was blunt – she told grads to stop dreaming and start doing. “The world has

plenty of dreamers. And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the

really successful people, the really interesting, engaged, powerful people, are busy

doing. So ditch the dream and be a doer, not a dreamer. Whether or not you know

what your ‘passion’ might be. The truth is, it doesn't matter. You don't have to

know. You just have to keep moving forward. You just have to keep doing

something, seizing the next opportunity, staying open to trying something new."

Bang! Ditch the introspection – get moving!

A second favorite was Admiral William McRaven's University of Texas

commencement address, again in 2014. He spoke about his first days of Navy

SEAL training:

“Every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection, a mundane task. It

seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were

aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle-hardened SEALs, but the wisdom of this

simple act has been proven to me many times over. If you make your bed every

morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a

small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and

another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many

tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life

matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.”

Doing, not dreaming. Getting the small stuff right. Two of the most important

pieces of advice for that road ahead, whether you’re nine-years old or 22.

As I noted, this is Commissioning Week here in Annapolis and it recalls my third

favorite commencement speech, given by President Trump at my middle son’s 2018

graduation from the Naval Academy. Now, whatever your thoughts about the man

and his personality and career, he met the moment in Annapolis and exceeded it.

The audience of parents and relatives and friends sitting in Navy-Marine Corps

Stadium, knew what the graduating Midshipmen had endured for four grueling

years: No-excuse military discipline, barracks life, four straight summers of training

deployments and mandatory softball courses like Electrical Engineering, Calculus

and Thermodynamics.

Twenty percent of the entering class never made it to graduation because unlike
the “safe spaces” of Faber, failure at USNA has

consequences. Seventy-five percent of the class (including my son) were STEM

majors. And funny, unlike Faber, there were no majors in Latinx Gender Studies.

Those Mids, like my son, would soon be in charge of ordnance that could reduce a

thousand voiceless bad guys to ashes in a social justice instant.

Simple and profound, the President brought it in hard and fast to the Midshipmen.

“You have taken the path of hard work and sweat and sacrifice….the word

impossible does not exist for you because the Navy never quits. You are now

leaders in the most powerful and righteous force on the face of the planet!”

Thankfully, no pathetic shots at capitalism from a third-level career bureaucrat

drone; no remaking of America from a fatuous Third World immigrant.

Just pure sound and fury: “You’re among the finest people anywhere in the world,

the smartest, the strongest! You know you will make us proud. You are warriors.

You are fighters! You are champions!”

And then here they were, as in the photo above, blasting the same thunder I’m now

hearing six years later as I heard it then. Practically touching the rim of Navy-

Marine Corps Stadium is the unbelievable winged force of the Blue Angels

streaking over the crowd at 200 mph, symbols of endeavor and accomplishment,

and yes, roaring with the sound of freedom.

####