It's college graduation season, and as always, America's brightest minds are gathering at the nation's top schools to give commencement addresses to the newest college graduates, and they all have one thing in common to say: beware of Trump.
From "Hamilton" writer Lin Manuel-Miranda to Secretary of State John Kerry to President Barack Obama, commencement speakers are lining up at the podium to advise young minds, and the advice is very deliberate. Some make it obvious. Some of the jabs have been more subtle. But the resilient cry has been heard at every corner of the country; the real question is, are the attempts to change the political ground working?
President Barack Obama gave the keynote speech at Rutger's graduation on May 15. Though he never mentioned the candidate by name, his speech was filled with plenty of rhetoric targeting the presumptive republican nominee. He threw out wise quips like, "in politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue" and "The rejection of reason, the rejection of facts; that is the path to decline." Perhaps the most obvious jab was, "It’s not cool to not know what you are talking about. That’s not keeping it real or telling it like it is. That’s not challenging political correctness."
Considering Trump's past record with saying whatever thought comes to his bigoted mind, there's no doubt who President Obama was targeting in this speech. He's cautioning the Rutgers graduates, but he also urged them to hear out people with political differences before making snap decisions. Just don't make snap decisions, essentially. It sounds like he's pretty confident that the more the students will think about it, the less likely they'll be to vote for Trump -- let's hope he's right.
John Kerry took a direct hit at Trump at Northeastern's commencement on May 6, calling this year's most diverse graduating class ever, "Donald Trump's worst nightmare." He also pointed out the impossibility of "hiding behind walls at a time that technology has made that impossible to do." Elizabeth Warren joined Kerry in going the direct route, saying "I never imagined I would get into a Twitter war with Donald Trump." Although this was the only political comment she made during the speech, she told reporters afterward, "Donald Trump is a truly dangerous man."
Senator Jerry Morgan told graduates at Friends University, "You know, there is this call out there to ‘make America great again,’ but I want to tell you that this nation will not be better because we have one more millionaire. It will not be better that we have one more person that’s achieving fame and success."
Lin-Manuel Miranda said at University of Pennsylvania, "In a year when politicians traffic in anti-immigrant rhetoric, there is also a Broadway musical reminding us that a broke, orphan immigrant from the West Indies built our financial system. A story that reminds us that since the beginning of the great, unfinished symphony that is our American experiment, time and time again, immigrants get the job done."
With all of the political insanity, it makes sense to target the young minds in America. Historically, voter turnout for the young has been low, but that needs to change if we want to keep a certain millionaire out of office. Though we won't know for sure until November, the rally of commencement speakers against Donald Trump paves the way for more public figures to take a stand and speak out in preparation for the election. Voices are being heard across the country, and I'm personally hoping it comes to fruition this fall.
