Drowning in a Sea of Political Correctness
My apologies, especially to Rob who invited me on this cruise. Kept reading the last few days, but not blogging.
I was MIA, attending my niece's graduation at Stanford. I love the place, having spent some graduate school time there and I was so proud of my med school bound niece who had the smarts to rarely enter the Humanities Building, but graduated with distinction from the Bio Department. But boy I almost drowned in the PC. From the ethnicity identifying graduation sashes to commencement speaker, Susan Rice, Ambassador to the U.N., who virtually laid the responsibility for African hunger at the feet of thousands of graduates who will be getting pretty hungry themselves considering the job market they're entering.
She extolled the virtues of going out there and "getting grit in your eyes," while detailing her post-graduate time at Oxford. Or was it Cambridge? Either way, not a lot of grit. It was a long, tedious speech from a woman who represents us to a body where Iran sits on the Committee on the Status of Women. It allowed me time to drift off and imagine her in her under-grad Stanford days, carefully resume building her way through campus and generally being considered a pill. I realize this may be a completely unfair criticism, having not met the woman, but when you've got thousands sitting in a stadium on a 90-plus degree day, I think being boring is possibly the worst offense one can commit.
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May '10
Re: Drowning in a Sea of Political Correctness
Hey, Cambridge is hard turf. That Severus Snape has had it in for me ever since the Hufflepuffs beat Slytherin in the quidditch semifinals, and there's a Blast-Ended Skrewt lurking around every corner. It's where the Reality-Based Community goes to get real. And gritty. And learn defences against the dark arts.
Maybe Ambassador Rice needs to adopt the John Kerry* antidote for boring speeches. Make sure that somebody gets dramatically tased. Or that the entire student body is caught smuggling beer in to get them through the ordeal, as happened last week in MA.
May '10
Re: Drowning in a Sea of Political Correctness
Careful what you say about Cambridge, pardner. I have a stake. I also consider Newton to have been an OK and non-PC guy, and CS Lewis to have been a remarkably decent person for one in the humanities world....
I admit that I didn't like what Mary Beard said about the US after 9-11.
Re: Drowning in a Sea of Political Correctness
Among the sorriest kinds of politics is the politics of landing the 'right' graduation, commencement, etc. speakers. The result is often crushing boredom. Sweltering extended family, parents so proud they will endure anything so long as they can see their child -- often, a speck -- join in the cap-tossing relief at the end...even the students who aren't hung over are indistinguishable by the end from those who are. It pains me to say my graduation speaker, Liddy Dole, left me with no memory of her words or even her feelings. She seemed to be speaking from the deck of a tiny ship moored far out to sea. Add a long recitation, Politburo-style, of PC platitudes -- which are deathly dull even to those who love them -- and you have the recipe for a speech that leaves kids thinking they should have hit snooze and slept straight on 'til 2 pm.
Re: Drowning in a Sea of Political Correctness
Denise, don't think of it as being MIA. With all you had to endure, think of it as a Recon mission. Thanks for the report.
May '10
Re: Drowning in a Sea of Political Correctness
I solved the problem- I haven't "walked a graduation" since high school. I told the schools the mailing address for the diplomas and transcripts.