More times than I care to recall, I have to do a story about a college hiring a commencement speaker and then having the grads throw a fit about the speaker.
The story goes that Politician X is coming to University of Y and the students are threatening to walk out because they object to something.
OK. I have an idea.
Let’s get rid of commencement.
Use the money saved on a speaker and donate it to the local homeless shelter. Have the president of the college invite the student and his family to the office, take the picture and go home.
Either do that or get the idea in your head that it is a big world out there and sometimes you are going to see or hear things that are part of life that you are just going to have to accept.
Otherwise, someone makes a decision at the office, students don’t like it and so they threaten not to show up.
Understand that something changed. It used to be the students didn’t call the shots. It was the management. Sometimes, they made decisions that the students liked and sometimes they don’t.
Bulletin: Sometimes in life, you are dealt a hand you don’t like. You don’t quit playing and leave the table. You throw in the hand, watch the hand but continuing playing the game.
“Life like poker has an element of risk. It shouldn’t be avoided. It should be faced.”
The author Edward Norton said that.
The commencement speaker shouldn't be avoided either.
(Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)