“Generation We” Hears a Challenge
Speakers tell Class of 2009 to strive for more than success
| From BU Today | By Jessica UllianGet the Flash Player to see this media.
In the video above, Congressman Michael Capuano (Hon.’09) addresses the Class of 2009 gathered around Nickerson Field, for the University’s 136th Commencement.
Boston University grew a little smaller for a few hours on Sunday, as the Class of 2009 gathered around Nickerson Field, awaiting the start of the University’s 136th Commencement. Sophomore-year roommates reunited. Freshman-year intramural teammates reminisced. And graduates from all 18 schools and colleges tweaked their tassels, adjusted their mortarboards, and gathered one final time in a ceremony that celebrated the power of the individual.
“It’s nice to be able to see everyone I haven’t seen in years,” said student marshal Amisha Patel (CAS’09). “It’s nice getting all that closure.”
“I’ve taken about 200 pictures this past week alone,” added Von Bryan Suresca (SMG’09), senior class president of the School of Management.
Bellin, a biomedical engineering major, who will pursue a doctorate in electrical engineering at Columbia University next year, commended his classmates for the commitments to service, multiculturalism, and social change that have earned them the nickname “Generation We.” But he also noted how many challenges lie ahead.
“Isn’t it a problem that 11 of the 12 warmest years in history have occurred after 1995?” he asked. “Isn’t it a problem that we still haven’t cured diabetes? That we still haven’t cured heart disease? That we haven’t come close to curing cancer? Isn’t it a problem that somehow, somehow the inhabitants of our planet have yet to find a way to live together in peace? Clearly, we have a lot of work to do. But I know that Generation We is ready and well-prepared to confront these challenges.”
Capuano, who represents the state’s Eighth District (which includes Boston University) in Washington, D.C., expressed similar confidence in the graduates’ abilities, but warned them against the temptation to focus only on personal success and material comfort.
Steven Spielberg (Hon.’09) congratulated by President Robert A. Brown.
Photos by Winslow Martin
“Your life will be very easy if you ignore the rest of the world — you can build a very comfortable life for yourselves,” he said. “But you’ll always know that you didn’t challenge yourself to something bigger, something greater. I call on you to use some of that ability, some of those talents, some of that drive to change the world.”
Capuano — who acknowledged some objections to his selection as Commencement speaker, saying, “If this is the biggest disappointment of your life, you’re the luckiest people in the world” — drew on his family history to illustrate the challenges and triumphs that prior generations have faced. His mother, he said, lived in a cold-water walk-up apartment on nearby Ashford Street, never went to college, and never owned a home. The highlight of her week was attending Boston Braves baseball games on Ladies’ Night at what is now Nickerson Field. But her generation, Capuano said, defeated the Nazis, split the atom, and invented the middle class.
Capuano pointed to rising divorce rates, the Vietnam War, racial and social inequality, and Communism as the trials faced by his contemporaries, and he noted the progress made in environmental awareness, gender equality, gay rights, and humanitarian efforts.
“We met some of those challenges successfully, but others are still here today,” he said. “We built a better world than we found. Now it’s your turn — we’re almost done.”
Larry Bird (Hon.’09).
Photos by Winslow Martin
The country’s economic crisis is the most pressing challenge for this year’s graduates, he said, but he encouraged them to look beyond the present when setting goals.
“The most important question most of us will face is a question you’ll ask yourself every single week: how can you make your own lives matter?” he said. “The answer I can’t give you. But if you seek to improve the things that you can, you will matter to yourself.”
University President Robert A. Brown concluded the ceremony with a charge that echoed the speakers’ themes.
“To the Class of 2009,” he said, “go into the world and make it a better place for all of us.”
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Comments
On 22 May 2009 at 7:06 AM, Elizabeth Ellis (COM'75) wrote:
Howard Dean spoke at the Commencement for the B.U. Law School. I protested as a proper retort to his unpresidential behavior in 2004 as an anti-war Democrat who dropped out due to media pressure and joined Kerry in the duopoly tyranny as if the elections belong to two parties as if a football game of two teams. We are a majority outside the two parties and since when does the incumbents own the debates without the challenge that was on the slate by law and under the U.S. Constitution. Exiting graduates took a photo of my protest sign, which included a url which shows the four challengers summary request for the legitimate debates due the public, before the National Press Club on September 10, 2008. The url to the video is long. Two young men, passerbys did not believe the two party system can be challenged, and protested my long url and suggested I should have the "tiny-url" for the link. So I just did one, and am posting it the tiny url which was a Commencement Prote! st suggested from Commonwealth Avenue on May 17, 2008. The two young men, of course, were saying if they were to believe the contest can happen, people need the tiny-url. So here it is: it works. http://www.tiny-url.org/debates08 Maybe the audience will feel motivated to believe the challenge to the duopoly is overdue. Dean was the fundraiser who ushered in Obama and the public never saw the contest. The media could have done the debate, they did not. We need the REAL DEMOCRACY DEBATES to net the REAL MAJORITY RULE and ballot box usurption of the corruption. http://www.tiny-url.org/debates08
On 22 May 2009 at 5:59 AM, Elizabeth Ellis (COM'75) wrote:
Making this world a better place to live in does not mean going to battle instead of behaving lawfully with honor, just because the country refused democracy and the legal contest on the ballot for the overdue change for peace not war and a budget in the black not red. Students are not supposed to sacrifice for the bad elections of their parents. Truth and justice can be demanded, and the parents and students need to face the present truth of battlefield is what Obama offers and no proper track to support the obvious corruption. Capuano did well in his first term, and then has flunked the test of truth against war, entirely since then.
On 21 May 2009 at 8:16 AM, Judith Dickson (CFA'75) wrote:
My best friend's daughter graduated BU this year and will be an MD. I too graduated in 1975 School of Fine Arts.....It is a very diferent world today, many more challenges....but this is America, full of opportunity and I wish ALL the very best.......May the Class of 2009 make this world a better place to live in.....
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