A speech given to the graduating class of Bright School, May 28, 2009.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Good Morning Cannon.
I was frankly a little shocked when Mr. Morgan asked me to speak to you this morning, as I don't think of myself as serious enough- or old enough-to give this sort of speech. You expect a person giving a commencement address to say something you'll look back on years from now and remember as profound, and I am just not sure I am there yet. Dr. Barks, who was my headmaster at Baylor, gave this address two years ago when my son Jack graduated, and I was thoroughly impressed. In short, I am not sure I can provide that- but I will do my best. Conventional wisdom would have me tell a joke now to warm you up, but most of the jokes I know I cannot tell you. I do know some good lawyer jokes, but a lot of your parents are lawyers, and they would not think they were funny- and the rest of us don't think they're jokes- so I'll just skip that. I do feel strongly about my topic today, so perhaps I will at least manage to entertain you.
I know most of you graduates, having watched you grow up and progress through Bright School with my son Cannon, and let me first say this: Congratulations, you made it! I myself am a graduate of Bright school- and am a current member of the board of Trustees at Bright, as well as a Bright school parent (which ends today, sadly). So needless to say, I believe very deeply in everything Bright School stands for and represents, and you can now say that you have one of the finest educational starts to life that you could ever hope for. Now I know you some of you are probably coming out of your skin to put this place behind you about now- and I understand that- I felt the same way when I was sitting there 30 years ago- but I wanted to take a moment to guarantee you that you will appreciate this place in later life- and your teachers, and shop- and art- and the playgrounds- and even the food in the cafeteria- in ways that you cannot even conceive of now, and you will- believe it or not- appreciate your parents for caring enough about you to send you here. Here's a newsflash: It wasn't free, you know. If you've been here since kindergarten, your parents have spent more to send you here than it costs to get a college diploma at some pretty decent universities, and they did so because they saw tremendous potential in you. You will later look back- as will your parents, hopefully- and realize that it was well worth it, if not a bargain. OK- enough of the guilt trip- and on to my attempt at profundity.
I want to talk to you this morning about diversity. Now before you kids- and you parents- start groaning under your breath and rolling your eyes, relax. I am fully aware that that word has been so overused and misused in sensitivity training and in the name of political correctness that we almost don't hear it for what it represents anymore. It has all sorts of baggage attached to it and all sorts of sing-songy, do-goody connotations that I am not going to burden you with. No, rather, I want to put it in context for you, and explain why I think it IS so important- not for its own sake, but for what it does for us as Americans, and why the discomfort of diversity is well worth enduring. So relax- we won't be singing Kum-ba-ya today.
The fact is that diversity sometimes makes us uncomfortable. We lie to ourselves a lot about this, because we feel guilty about it, but we shouldn't. I personally believe that that there's something buried deep in our brains that would really rather just be around people who look like us, think like us, and eat the same food we like to eat. Unlike a lot of people, I don't think that makes you a bad person, or a reactionary, or some sort of fascist- I just think it's the starting point for the human condition, and is, in fact, how most of the rest of the world operates. I will never forget the first time I travelled abroad- to Germany- as a teenager. Having studied a good bit about German culture, I was sort of amazed and impressed and a little frightened at just how efficient Germans could be- for all the good and bad that entailed, and thought less of American culture for being so much messier. When I got there, it suddenly hit me- and it's never left me- that Germans, and in fact most Europeans, have a much easier time agreeing on things than we Americans do, because they are, for the most part, on the same page of the hymn book, so to speak. There's not a lot of diversity there, frankly. Reaching consensus, on any number of issues- like how the railroads should run, for example- is relatively simple because their culture- relative to American culture, anyway- is pretty homogenous. Lots of sameness, in other words. The same can certainly be said of most cultures whose nations evolved around a specific ethnic group or language: which is almost every other country on the globe. And from sameness of language and culture very often comes sameness of opinion.
I'll give you another good example- I read recently that in China, it takes only 100 surnames to cover 85% of the population. They actually have a name for the huge chunk of population those family names cover- the Laobaixing- which is colloquial Chinese for "the masses". That's pretty amazing when you think about it. Folks, there are probably more than 100 family names represented in this auditorium, and certainly more than 100 enrolled at Bright School. In fact to cover a similar percentage of the US population, you'll need 70,000 last names. And that just the family names. In America, you can also name your children anything you want for first names. Like Cannon, Or Elvis, or Boofie, or Fluff, or Indy IROC Nascar, or Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K (that's all one name, folks, and yes, it's a real name). Or you can have twins and name them Winner and Loser (also real). Winner, by the way, wound up in prison and Loser became a successful police detective, but that's another speech entirely. Now all that's pretty strange, and can be uncomfortable and even embarrassing, but in most other countries, by contrast, there are literally laws against naming your kids whatever you want. You have to name your children "normal" names, and that's because everyone pretty much agrees what normal MEANS, what normal IS. That is not the case in America, thank goodness.
Which brings me to my main point: this is where American culture is different- radically and profoundly different- and I would submit to you today, better, as uncomfortable and confusing as it can sometimes be. Ours is an utterly heterogeneous culture (sorry for the big word, yes I am trying to impress you, this is a commencement speech, remember)- and it is so in every respect; it is a literal patchwork, ethnically, culturally, and ideologically. You've read many times in your textbooks about the "melting pot"- you may have heard it so often that it does not mean anything to you- but what it means is that true diversity- of people and cultures and, therefore of ideas and opinions- is at the very foundation of our culture. And for those of you sometimes tempted to wall this country off from newcomers (like Cannon) it's worth a reminder that the source of most of our diversity comes from immigrants- people who come here from the four corners of the world because they share our desire for freedom and opportunity, just as all of us did. Yes, it's messy, it's inconvenient, it's uncomfortable, it's sometimes amusing, but it's America, and it's actually what makes America great.
You see, America has always been the great Innovator. Americans became Americans by inventing constitutional democracy, and went on to invent the light bulb, the personal computer, the iPod, and, yes, the chia pet. Why is that? Well, from a great melting pot of people comes a great melting pot of cultures, of food, of perspectives, and ideas. We are like an ideological compost pit- a lot of crazy, smelly stuff goes in, but what comes out is very rich soil for growing new ideas. While other nations have tended to specialize in refining existing processes and concepts, what our unique culture of diversity produces is the very best minds for problem solving and innovation, and you guys are the fortunate heirs to that legacy. Innovation is what we as Americans do better than anybody else in the world, and diversity is the soil from which it grows.
Honestly, kids, your future is going to be challenging. Our government is currently borrowing tremendous amounts of money in an effort to pull us out of our current severe financial crisis- a good portion of which we are borrowing from our friends in China the Laobaixing, and which you, unfortunately, will have to repay. The bad news is that it is not going to be easy. But the good new is, you can do it. You will not repay it, however, by simply digging ditches, or flipping burgers, or filing lawsuits, or selling cars- though all those things are important- and you will certainly not repay it by trading asset backed securities and credit default swaps (that's how we got INTO this mess). You can and will repay it, however- and bring this country back to a position of security and stability- by building better mousetraps. And the process of imagining those better mousetraps- by which I mean, of course, things like cures for dreaded diseases, improved business methods, transportation that runs on cheap, plentiful resources, and other as-yet-unimagined things that the world will demand and purchase- will depend on preserving and fostering this unique American culture of diversity.
SO... please remember. As uncomfortable as it may make you, in all its various forms, diversity is essential to who we are as Americans, and it is critical to our future success. Like your homework, or strenuous exercise, just because it makes you uncomfortable does not mean it's bad. ON the contrary, it's very necessary and very good. So, as you go out into the world and into higher education, I would encourage you to simply be who you are- be yourself- but tolerate, and in fact try to embrace- the strangeness of others. Keep your mind open to different ideas and perspectives, and to different people and cultures. When you start school next year, and go to the cafeteria that very first day, try sitting next to someone who DOESN'T look like you, or talk like you, and isn't eating what you're eating- and see what you can learn from them. Our future as Americans depends upon it!
