Best of Rox on Vox: Obama at Wesleyan

Obama at Wesleyan

Click here to see future President Barack Obama's commencement address at my alma mater, Wesleyan University.

Click here to read the text of the speech.

My favorite excerpt:

"Each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come.  And I say “chance” because you won’t have to take it.  There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care.  You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should by.  You can choose to narrow your concerns and live your life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America’s.

But I hope you don’t.  Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation.  Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.

It’s because you have an obligation to yourself.  Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation.  Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition.  Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story."

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That right there, that's why Obama has my vote.  He makes me want to be a better person -- a better American, and a better Citizen of the World.  I have two good hands, a strong heart, and an educated mind, and maybe, just maybe, there's a bigger use for them than I dreamed when I graduated from Wesleyan over a decade ago -- when, admittedly, all I thought about was how I was going to pay the rent.  It's time to do more, because I can, and you can, and the Presidency and our government can...

And this all makes sense to me, because, for years, I've taught my kids that "can't" is a bad word.  They can swear all they want, but they can't say "can't."  Maybe it's time that our government learned that when it comes to health care, education, poverty, etc.  And if anyone can convince both sides of the aisle of that, it is Barack Obama.

Originally posted to Rox and Roll on Vox, May 27, 2008.